CHAPTER SIX
"What?!" Jack exclaimed upon hearing the news.
"He claims that he overpowered Osiris and gained control of the Al'Kesh they were onboard," Hammond explained. "He says that he's in orbit around Earth." He looked at all of them. "I don't think I have to tell you that I cannot trust that he really is Doctor Jackson."
"Yes, sir. I'd like to talk to him."
The general nodded and motioned for the technician to open the channel.
"Daniel? Is that you?" Jack asked.
"Hey, Jack. Yeah, it's me. Did you miss me?"
"You bet we did. So, would you like to explain what happened?"
"Well, it turns out that those dreams I was having weren't my own. Osiris was creating them in an attempt to get the location of the Lost City from me. She's been using Asgard beaming technology to get into my house every night after I'm asleep and then using a memory device to dig into my subconscious. Last night, she showed up again, only I wasn't really asleep. I'd used biofeedback to lower my brainwave pattern to a delta frequency. As soon as she showed up, I was aware of her. She tried to ribbon me, and I, uh, tossed her around a bit. But she managed to activate the control to beam herself out and, um. . . . Okay, I know you're not going to be happy about this next part, Jack, but please try to maintain some semblance of calm. I still have a headache, and the nap I took wasn't nearly enough. I've also been dealing with a very cranky Goa'uld for the past couple of hours. You know, there are some really interesting curse words in Goa'uld. I couldn't even translate some of them."
Jack grinned. That just had to be Daniel. No Goa'uld could be that good at pretending to be him. "All right, Daniel, I won't get mad. What did you do?"
"I grabbed her before she could get away, but I got beamed up to the ship with her."
Jack opened his mouth to let out an exclamation but remembered his promise at the last second. "That wasn't especially bright, Daniel," he said instead, his tone excessively mild.
"Well, looking back on it now, I'd have to agree with you, but I couldn't let her get away, Jack. She knew about me. You know what would have happened if word of me reached Anubis or spread among the other Goa'uld."
Jack admitted to himself that Daniel did have a good point. "Okay, go on."
"We got into a bit of a fight, and I had the upper hand . . . until she zatted me."
Uh oh. "What happened next?"
"I woke up in a cell. Osiris told me that she had decided to take me for a host instead of giving me to Anubis. Fortunately, she didn't do it right then and there. She left me alone again. I broke out of the cell, had a little . . . scuffle with her, and, well, here I am."
"Sounds like quite an adventure."
"Yeah. Now, I just want to go home and sleep for a week."
"Um . . . yeah. That might be a problem."
"Why?"
"Well, you see, there's the question of whether or not you're still you."
There was a moment of silence. "Oh. Yeah, I should have thought of that. You can't be certain that Osiris didn't take me as a host."
"Is there any way that you can prove that you're really you?"
"How? If I'm a Goa'uld, I'd have access to all the memories of the host, so answering some question that only Daniel Jackson would know is useless." There was a pause. "Actually, maybe there is a way. You guys can receive video from me, can't you?"
"Yes, our communications system has been set up to receive both audio and video transmissions from Goa'uld ships," Sam answered.
"Good. Okay, just let me figure out how to send a video transmission. I'll be right back."
A minute or so passed, then the image of Daniel appeared on the screen for incoming video transmissions.
"Um, hi. Can you guys see me?" he asked.
"Yes, Doctor Jackson. We can see you just fine," Hammond replied.
"Okay, hold on a sec."
Daniel walked out of view. Everybody heard a couple of people talking in the distance, then Daniel reappeared.
"All right, I think this should be proof enough that I'm not Osiris." He pulled someone else into view. Everyone looked with relief at the visage of Sarah Gardner.
"Tell them who you are," Daniel ordered her. When she didn't say anything, he gave her a little shake. "Remember. Be nice."
The woman's eyes glowed for a moment. "I am the god Osiris," she said with the voice of a Goa'uld, looking like she was ready to rip someone apart with her bare hands. None of them could ever remember seeing a Goa'uld looking so angry.
Jack grinned broadly. "Great to see ya, Osiris. Enjoying Daniel's company are you?"
"You will all pay for this insolence!" she snarled. "I will take great pleasure in killing you all slowly and destroying your pathetic planet. You will—"
Osiris' voice was cut off when Daniel abruptly gagged her. "Say goodbye now," he said, then marched her out of sight. He came back into view a few moments later. "Now you can see what I've had to put up with. It has not been a pleasant trip. At least she didn't keep saying, 'Are we there yet?' I really think I would have zatted her again."
Jack started laughing. So did Sam, and a few chuckles could be heard from Hammond, not to mention several others in the room.
"Hold on, Daniel." Jack motioned for the audio feed to be cut off, then turned to the general. "So, what do you say? It's obvious that he's not Osiris."
"Yes, but what are the chances that he was implanted with another Goa'uld?" Hammond asked.
"Osiris would not allow another Goa'uld to take Daniel Jackson as a host if it was possible for her to do so herself," Teal'c replied with conviction.
"And I don't think it's possible for Anubis to do so since he's half-ascended," Sam added.
"Come on, General," Jack pleaded. "We can't leave him sitting up there forever, and I sure can't think of a way to get an MRI up to that ship."
General Hammond thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. "Very well. Tell Doctor Jackson that he can come home."
"Thank you, sir." Jack told the technician to reopen the channel. "Hey, Daniel. Come on home."
They all saw him relax, an expression of relief on his face. "Is it okay if I bring the Al'Kesh straight to the mountain? It's cloaked."
"Yes, that would be fine, Doctor Jackson," Hammond replied. "Please land it at the entrance on top. We will remove all of the vehicles there to make room."
"Okay. See you in a few."
The image of Daniel winked off. Hammond turned to an SF and told him to have the vehicles parked on the mountaintop moved. He then told another to send a large armed force up there just in case. He wasn't going to take any chances.
Jack, Sam, Teal'c and the general accompanied the armed men to the top. They'd only been there for a few minutes when the sound of an approaching ship alerted them to the fact that Daniel had arrived. There was a disturbance in the air, and the ship appeared right before them. A moment later, Daniel exited. He was wearing an athletic T-shirt, pajama bottoms . . . and was barefoot, quite an incongruous appearance for someone who had just single-handedly defeated a Goa'uld and captured an Al'Kesh. Speaking of the Goa'uld, she was beside him, her arm firmly in his grasp.
Looking around at all the weapons aimed directly at him, Daniel approached the group. "Hi, guys," he said.
Now that they were getting a better look at him, everyone could see the exhaustion on his face. He also looked pale, and there was a little blood on his shirt, probably from the scratches on his neck. His neck was also sporting some nasty bruises, as if someone had tried to strangle him.
Jack had zero doubt that Daniel was himself, and all he really wanted to do right now was hug the stuffing out of him, but he had to follow protocol. "Hey, Daniel," he greeted.
"Could somebody please take her?" Daniel asked, indicating Osiris. "She started to really get on my nerves about a hundred light-years ago."
Hammond motioned for two SFs to take the Goa'uld to the brig.
"Oh, and I'm probably going to have to remove those, um, cuffs."
Jack looked down and saw that Osiris' arms were bound with a band of gold metal. "What is that?"
"Well, it was a ribbon device. I decided that was a much better use for it."
Jack nodded. "I agree."
As the Goa'uld was taken away, Hammond turned back to Daniel. "I'm sorry, Doctor Jackson, but until we can be absolutely certain that you have not been made a host, I will have to keep an armed guard on you. We will take you directly to the infirmary for an MRI."
Daniel nodded. "I understand, General."
A force of ten armed SFs went with SG-1 and Hammond to the infirmary. The SFs remained guarding Daniel as he was taken by Janet to the room where the MRI unit was. Remaining outside, the general and Daniel's teammates waited. Though it really wasn't all that long, it seemed like forever before Janet came back out. The SFs were with her.
"He's clear," she announced. "No sign of a Goa'uld."
The others visibly relaxed. Hammond dismissed the SFs.
"So, I should imagine that you're going to want to keep him overnight," Jack said.
"Yes, you're right about that," Janet confirmed, "though the first thing I need to do is get him off the MRI table." She smiled. "He fell asleep during the scan."
Sam smiled. "Poor Daniel. He must be so exhausted."
Janet nodded. "And, going by what I managed to drag out of him before he fell asleep, he used his abilities extensively. There is still a residual headache from it. The MRI didn't show any damage, but I will want to do a CT scan later. There are some things you can't see properly with an MRI."
Hammond nodded. "All right, Doctor. Get our boy situated in the infirmary. Let us know when he's awake. I should imagine that he has quite a tale to tell."
Sam dialed the number that she had memorized over the past couple of weeks. Pete's familiar voice answered the call.
"Hi, Pete. It's Sam."
"Sam! I just got back from Denver. Are you calling to say that you can't bear to be out of my presence a moment longer and want me to come over right away?"
"Um, I'm afraid not. I'm going to have to cancel our date tonight."
"How come?"
"Because something came up. I can't really tell you about it."
"More hush-hush stuff?" Pete's tone told Sam that he wasn't happy about the secrecy.
"I'm sorry, Pete. You know that there are things I can't tell you. It's a part of the job. Look, I have to go. I'll call you as soon as I can."
Pete hung up the phone and stared at it. His cop instincts were telling him that Samantha Carter was hiding something, something big.
Making a sudden decision, he dialed a number he knew well.
"Special Agent Farrity, please," he said to the FBI operator who answered.
Daniel could not describe the relief he felt when he woke up to see that he was in the base infirmary. The sight of the person sitting beside him, however, was a hundred times better.
Sam smiled down at him. "Hi. I thought it only fair that I sit at your bedside since you did the same for me not all that long ago."
"I can't think of a better sight to wake up to," Daniel murmured. The slight widening of Sam's eyes caused Daniel to blush, knowing he shouldn't have said that. "Um, how long did I sleep? The last thing I remember was being put in the MRI."
"Believe it or not, Daniel, you just about slept around the clock."
Daniel's eyes grew wide in surprise. "I did?"
"Uh huh. Twenty-two and a half hours, to be exact. You were utterly exhausted. All those nights without getting any deep sleep coupled with having to use your abilities so much pushed your body over the edge. Janet was happy that you were getting so much rest. However, the colonel kept muttering something about a coma."
Daniel smiled. "Well, I definitely feel better." He remembered something. "What about Osiris?"
"She's still in the brig. The Tok'ra will be arriving tomorrow to remove the symbiote. Oh, and we managed to get off those homemade handcuffs of yours, though it wasn't easy."
Daniel's eyes drifted away. "I almost can't believe it. Sarah's going to be free."
Sam laid her hand over his. "Yes, she is, Daniel. You saved her. She'll have a rough time ahead of her, but I'm sure she'll be okay."
"She wanted to die," Daniel murmured.
"What?"
The archeologist met Sam's eyes. "When I zatted Osiris, Sarah surfaced for a few seconds. She said that she'd rather be dead than remain under Osiris' control. God, Sam. What it must have been like for her, and for Skaara and . . . and Sha're. I knew that I couldn't let that happen to me, that I'd have to kill Sarah if Osiris tried to take me. I was even going to blow up the Al'Kesh if I had no other choice."
Sam's grip on Daniel's hand tightened, upset at the thought of Daniel killing himself to avoid being made a host. "Well, it didn't happen. You beat Osiris." She smiled. "You must have really ticked her off. She was nearly foaming at the mouth."
"Well, I think I might have been channeling Jack for a while," Daniel admitted.
Sam nodded knowingly. "Ah, that explains it."
The two friends laughed, which brought Janet over.
"Why, hello, Daniel," she greeted. "How nice of you to finally join us. Are you feeling better?"
"Absolutely. I'm ready to get out of here."
"Sorry, but first I need to make sure you're really okay."
"Oh. Right. Daniel Jackson, July 8th, and I'm in the infirmary of the SGC, in Cheyenne Mountain, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There. That answer all the questions? Or do you have some new ones?"
Janet smiled. "Oh, plenty of them."
Sam stepped away to allow the doctor to examine Daniel. Jack and Teal'c came in and walked up to her.
"So, is he finally awake?" Jack asked her, glancing over at the closed curtains around Daniel's bed.
"Yes, sir. He woke up a few minutes ago. Janet is examining him now."
"It's about time."
"He needed the sleep, Colonel. Janet said that she was surprised Daniel didn't collapse from exhaustion. She's giving him mega doses of vitamins because he has some pretty severe deficiencies. She wants him to take some time off, at least a full week, preferably two."
"I can imagine how he's going to react to that."
Sam nodded. "Which is why she wants at least one of us to do the same. She figures that it'll be easier to get him to take the time off if someone takes it with him, maybe go with him somewhere. I couldn't take two weeks off, but I could probably manage one."
"What about your boyfriend? It seems like you've been going out with him almost every night. What would he think about you going off for a week?"
A startled expression crossed Sam's face. "To be honest, I didn't even think about Pete. I've been too concerned about Daniel. Pete took two weeks off from work to be with me. It wouldn't be fair for me to take off somewhere."
Jack hid the fact that he was pleased that Sam had totally forgotten about her boyfriend because of Daniel. That was a very promising sign.
"Well, I can take a few days off, and I bet that Teal'c here can, too," he said.
"Indeed, O'Neill. There is nothing to prevent me from doing so," Teal'c responded.
"Good! The three of us can go somewhere together. It's too bad that you can't join us, Carter. I know that Daniel would love to have you along."
"Yeah. I'm sorry, too."
"Yeah, well, I'm sure he will understand. You know him. There isn't a selfish bone in his body. He'd want you to do what makes you happy. God knows he's already sacrificed a lot for others."
Sam nodded, her expression pensive and more than a little guilty. Jack pretended to show interest in a piece of equipment, hoping that his attempt at reverse psychology and guilt-tripping worked. It was more important for Sam to go on this vacation with Daniel than anyone else since Jack was hoping that the leisure time together would make her forget about her boyfriend and start looking at Daniel as more than a friend. Jack didn't consider what he was doing as matchmaking. He was just trying to make two friends happy.
Sam was feeling horrible. This vacation for Daniel was a good idea, something he really needed. He had been through so much lately. Making it a vacation for the whole team would be even nicer for him. But, because of her obligation to Pete, she would have to back out. Obligation? Why should she feel an obligation to him? She'd known him for only a few weeks. She had known Daniel for over six and a half years.
Perhaps she could talk to Pete, explain that her friend needed her. If he really was a good guy, he'd understand. If not . . . then he wasn't the right guy for her anyway.
Janet finished with Daniel and told the rest of his team that they could visit with him.
"So, he's all right?" Jack asked the doctor.
"Yes, he's fine," she replied. "His luck is still holding out. Did Sam tell you what I said about Daniel taking some leave?"
"Yes, she did. You can count on us, Doc. We'll make sure he takes the time off."
"Well, good luck. I just told him, and, to say the least, he was not receptive to the idea."
Jack, Sam and Teal'c went over to Daniel.
"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty," the colonel said with a smile. "You going to stay conscious for a while?"
"I'll try," Daniel responded.
"So, I hear that you're going to be taking some time off."
"Not by choice. I have too much work to do to take time off right now."
"The work can wait, Daniel," Sam told him. "Your health is more important."
"I'm fine. As long as I don't get taken by any more Goa'uld, I can take it easy here at the SGC. Doing translations isn't strenuous."
"Except on your brain matter, which is one of the things you need to rest," Jack pointed out. "Come on, Daniel. You, me and Teal'c can all go have fun someplace together."
None of his teammates missed the brief glance that Daniel shot at Sam. That little look made the major feel even worse, like she was abandoning him when he needed her.
"Um . . . I might be able to come, too, sir," Sam said, just a little hesitantly. "I'd have to talk to Pete and see if he wouldn't mind changing his plans."
"I don't want you to cancel any plans you already have, Sam," Daniel immediately told her.
Jack gave her a look that clearly said, "See? What did I tell you?"
"No, it's okay, Daniel," Sam insisted. "We didn't have any real plans. It's just that Pete took two weeks off work so that we could spend some time together. We can probably work something out."
Daniel was getting ready to object again, but Sam didn't let him say anything.
"Just let me talk to him," she insisted.
The archeologist hesitated a moment, then nodded. "All right."
Jack smiled, extremely pleased. "So, does this mean that you're agreeing to take the time off?" he asked Daniel.
Daniel sighed. "Yes, Jack, but only a week. Not a day longer."
"Good enough."
