CHAPTER FOUR
There was a soft knock on the door, and Janet came in. Seeing that Danny was asleep, she smiled.
"How's it going in here?"
"All right," Daniel replied. "He's afraid to leave the room, which I expected." He gazed at his clone. "He's reacting differently in some ways than what I did, though."
"What ways?"
"Clingy, is a good word, I guess. And . . . he just seems younger."
Janet's head shook a bit. "That's very common, Daniel. Children who have suffered this kind of emotional trauma often revert to a younger age in their behavior. Thumb-sucking and bed-wetting are common symptoms."
"Well, he hasn't wet the bed yet, so I can be grateful for that."
"You didn't react this way when it happened to you?"
"I don't think so. I really didn't have anyone to cling to, so that never happened. Looking back on it in later years, I know that I lost a big chunk of my childhood the day Mom and Dad died. Being put in the care of strangers who really didn't know how to deal with me, only to be continually passed on to other strangers, I felt like I couldn't let myself be a little kid."
"And that's why it's different with Danny. He's not having to deal with that. From the moment he woke up, you've been right there for him. He can feel like it's safe to be a child." Janet gave him a smile. "He's going to be fine, Daniel. Don't worry. So, can I get you anything?"
"Some coffee would be great," he glanced at his watch, "but I guess I'd better not. Something to read would be good, or maybe my laptop."
"I suppose that medical journals aren't what you had in mine."
"Not exactly."
"Okay, I'll see what I can come up with. We have a few magazines around here for the patients. Would Reader's Digests and National Geographics be okay?"
"Sure."
After providing Daniel with a small pile of reading material, Janet returned to her duties. About an hour after she left, Jack peeked in the door.
"Ah, I see that the Mini-Daniel is asleep again." He came in the rest of the way, quietly shutting the door. "How's it going?"
"All right. There's been ups and downs."
"Understandable." Jack pulled up the other chair. "Okay, so what's the deal about waffles?"
Daniel stared at him. "What?"
"When I suggested waffles for dinner, you looked pretty startled."
"Oh. Um, after my parents' funeral, Nick took me to a cafe for breakfast. I had waffles."
"I'm sorry, Daniel. I didn't know."
"It's okay."
Jack's tone changed, darkened. "And was that when he told you that he wasn't going to take you in?"
"No. He waited until afterwards. He took me to a park and broke it to me there." Daniel paused. "He was on a plane back to Belize that night."
Jack cursed silently, thinking of a few choice words he'd like to say to Nick Ballard. "I wanted to let you know that Hammond's already talked to several people about this. He doesn't think there will be any big problems with getting permission for you to take Danny. Some people thought it would be a bad idea, that he should be taken in by a family out of the area to avoid all the questions about where this kid who looks so much like you came from."
Daniel looked at him. "The same people who thought that your clone should live out of the area?"
"Yep. And, like then, they were overruled by those who thought otherwise. They agreed that it would be safer to keep Danny nearby, especially with him being only eight years old and more likely to reveal something he shouldn't."
"Well, no matter what they decide, I'm taking Danny," Daniel announced firmly. "If I have to live with him off-world, I will."
"It isn't going to come to that. I promise you." Jack got to his feet. "Get some sleep, Daniel. You're going to need it these next few days."
Jack quietly left the room. Daniel gazed at Danny for several long seconds, silently promising that he'd do anything it took to keep the boy in his care.
The scream woke Daniel up out of a sound sleep. He nearly fell off the cot in his rush to get to the bed. The second he had Danny in his arms, he was talking to him soothingly, trying to chase away the horrifying nightmare images. Danny responded after a moment by grabbing on with a strength that seemed to belie the smallness of his body. He woke up a short while later.
Daniel wiped the wetness from the boy's face. "You okay?" he asked gently.
For a moment, Danny looked as if he was going to nod yes, but, instead, there was a tiny shake of his head. Daniel tightened his hold.
"I know, Danny. You can't really be okay, can you. I wasn't either when this happened to me, when my mom and dad died."
The boy looked up at him questioningly. Daniel wasn't sure what the question was, so he made a guess. "I was the same age as you are. But I didn't have anyone. There was nobody to love me and make things better." He looked down at Danny intently. "But you do. You have me, and you have Jack, and Sam, and Janet, and Teal'c. You haven't met Teal'c yet, but I think you'll like him, though he's pretty big and can be kind of scary-looking. We're all going to be your family. You won't ever be alone. I promise."
Danny laid his head on Daniel's chest with a deep sigh.
"Do you think you can go back to sleep?"
There was a long pause before Danny answered with a small nod. When the archeologist tried to move off the bed, though, the boy clung to him even tighter.
Daniel remembered that, whenever he had a nightmare as a very young child, his mother would sing to him, sometimes in English, other times in Arabic, French or German. He thought back to that time and recalled an Arabic lullaby that he had especially liked.
Feeling a little self-conscious, Daniel began to sing it, remembering the words as he went along. Danny lifted his head and looked at him in surprise, obviously recognizing the song. The archeologist gave him a smile and kept on singing. After a moment, Danny smiled, too, and laid his head back down. It was only a short while later that he fell asleep.
Very carefully, Daniel managed to get off the bed. He brushed a hand through the child's golden locks, then returned to the cot.
All things considered, Danny was doing pretty well, better than Daniel had. He'd only had two nightmares so far, way few than Daniel had the first day and night. He'd woken up screaming so many times that first night that somebody finally gave him a sedative heavy enough to keep him out, not the proper way to treat the problem, but understandable when there were other patients to consider.
Daniel hoped that Danny doing so much better than he did meant that the boy wouldn't stay in his self-imposed silence for long. The archeologist had no illusions that, in the morning, Danny would wake up and be perfectly fine, but he was way further down the road to recovery than Daniel had been at this point. Maybe in a couple of weeks, he'd be well enough to leave the base and go home.
A new realization hit Daniel. His house only had one bedroom. Where was Danny going to sleep? It would be the worst thing in the world for the boy to get used to sharing a bed. He had to learn that being in a room by himself didn't mean that he was being abandoned. Though, on digs, Daniel and his parents all slept in the same tent, he'd had his own room whenever they were back at their house in the U.S. Danny needed to get back to sleeping alone as soon as he was emotionally able to handle it.
'I'll need to move,' Daniel concluded. 'I guess it's a good thing I went with a rental rather than buying a house.'
With that thought in mind, Daniel closed his eyes, but sleep did not return, his mind full of everything that was going to have to be done to prepare for the addition of a child to his life. It was hours later before he finally joined Danny in sleep.
"Good morning, you two!" Sam greeted brightly as she came in.
"Morning, Sam," Daniel said, smiling. "You're just in time. Danny and I were about to go get breakfast." He yawned. "And coffee."
Danny nervously fidgeted with the sleeve of his new shirt. Janet had brought in some clothing first thing this morning, telling Daniel that it had been kind of fun shopping for a little boy. It was very clear that Danny was scared about leaving the room.
"I heard that they've got pancakes this morning," Sam said, "and three different syrups, maple, blueberry and raspberry. Oh, and powered sugar, too." Though the SGC's commissary often served pancakes, the blueberry and raspberry syrups were a special addition Sam bought especially for Danny. The powered sugar came from her kitchen.
"Mmm. Sounds good," Daniel said. "I'm starving." He held out his hand to Danny. "Come on. Let's get something to eat."
Danny took his hand and held on tight as they headed for the door. Once they were out of the room, the boy's eyes began darting about everywhere. He stayed close to Daniel even as he was craning his head around to look at what was behind them.
As they waited for the elevator, Sam stepped a little closer and held her hand out. Danny looked at it, then up at her, searching her eyes. She gave him a smile. After a few seconds, he slipped his hand in hers.
A while later, the three of them entered the commissary hand-in-hand. Getting trays, plates and silverware, they got in line for the food. Daniel let Danny pick whatever he wanted for breakfast, which, not surprisingly, was pancakes. He also got some sausages and a little bowl of peaches with whipped cream on top. After finding a table, Sam went to get the flavored syrups and powered sugar, which she'd hidden in the kitchen, telling the people on duty there that they were to leave them alone on pain of death . . . or, at the very least, dismemberment. Danny nearly drowned his pancakes in the blueberry syrup and sugar.
"Good morning, good morning, kids!" Jack greeted cheerfully as he plopped his tray down at the table.
"Good morning, sir," Sam responded.
Jack looked at Danny's plate. "Wait a minute. Blueberry syrup? Powered sugar? How come I didn't get any of that?"
Danny took the bottle of blueberry syrup and handed it to the colonel.
"Why thank you, Danny," Jack said with a smile.
The boy then gave him the sugar, and Jack thanked him again. He got busy coating his own pancakes with the sweet goodness.
"So, what are you three up to today?" he asked.
"We're going to be taking Danny on a tour of the base," Daniel replied.
"Really? Cool. It's a pretty neat place."
Just then, Teal'c approached. Danny stopped eating, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of the big Jaffa.
"Danny, this is Teal'c, the person I was telling you about," Daniel explained.
Teal'c inclined his head. "It is an honor to meet you, young Daniel Jackson."
The boy's eyes locked on the gold emblem on the Jaffa's forehead.
"It is a religious symbol of my people," Teal'c explained. "It or symbols like it are placed upon the foreheads of both males and females."
Apparently accepting the explanation, Daniel resumed eating.
"Pull up a chair, T," Jack instructed.
The group ate their breakfast, Jack, Sam and Daniel keeping up a steady conversation to make Danny feel at ease. For obvious reasons, they limited it to topics that had nothing to do with work.
"So, Danny. You like hockey?" Jack asked. The boy shook his head, which made Jack look at Daniel. "Should have known that, I guess." He returned his gaze to Danny. "I'll have to do something about changing that. Never managed to with this guy." He jerked a thumb at the archeologist. "No appreciation for the finer things in life."
"Jack, to me, the finer things in life do not include watching a bunch of men with anger management problems skating around on the ice as they shove each other into walls and get into fights."
"Hey. They don't fight that often." Jack paused. "Well, not all the time. Besides, that's part of the thrill of it all."
"Uh huh. Thanks, but no thanks."
After everyone had finished breakfast, Jack and Teal'c went off to work as Sam and Daniel began the tour with Danny. The boy was fascinated with Level 19, the level with the science labs. In her lab, Sam showed him how a few of the devices worked, picking things that weren't too technologically advanced.
After that, they went up to Level 18 and Daniel's office. The moment they entered the room, Danny's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. He was looking everywhere at once, so excited that he let go of Daniel's and Sam's hands without any encouragement to go wandering around the room. Smiling, Daniel pulled a few artifacts off the shelves and put them on the table so that the boy could take a closer look. It was clear to both adults that he desperately wanted to touch them.
Daniel picked one up and held it out to him. Surprised, Danny looked at him. "Go ahead. Just be very careful."
Almost reverently, Danny took the statue. He studied it, eyes skimming across the hieroglyphs. Daniel knew that this clone of himself would have no trouble translating the simple inscription.
"Major Carter, please call Doctor Carver's lab," came a voice over the loudspeaker, startling Danny, who almost dropped the statue. Daniel caught it just in time. Shamefaced, the child stepped back, eyes on the floor as he wrapped his arms around himself in a self-hug that Sam instantly recognized.
"It's okay, Danny," Daniel assured him. "It kind of startled me, too."
"I guess I'd better see what that's about," Sam said. She went to the phone and called Carver. After a brief conversation, she hung up. "I've got to go," she announced with a sigh. "He's having problems with that device from P—" She halted herself just in time. "Peking," she said instead, not being able to think of anything else. She looked at Danny. "I guess you two will have to continue the tour without me."
Disappointment passed over the boy's face but was quickly gone. Sam knelt before him.
"You know, I didn't forget about that conversation we had yesterday about ice cream. How about if I meet you guys back in the commissary sometime after lunch, like around two o'clock?"
"Sounds good to me," Daniel said.
Danny nodded, smiling slightly.
"Good." Not able to help herself, Sam leaned forward and gave Danny a hug. The boy hugged her back.
With a bright smile, Sam said goodbye and left.
"Would you like to look at some books?" Daniel asked. "I've got some great volumes on ancient Egypt." Danny gave him a nod.
The man and boy spent quite a while poring over the books in Daniel's office. While they were at it, the archeologist taught Danny how to read a few words in some languages that he knew the boy hadn't learned yet.
They were deep in a volume about the pharaohs when there was a knock on the doorjamb. They looked up to see an airman standing there.
"Doctor Jackson, SG-5 just came back with a, uh . . . artifact that General Hammond would like you to take a look at. He's waiting for you in the control room. It's rather important, sir."
Daniel glanced at Danny, who was staring at him with an expression of surprise.
"Tell the general that I'll be there as soon as I can," the archeologist said.
"Thank you, sir."
As the airman left, Daniel turned back to Danny. "I guess I should have told you that my last name is Jackson, too. In case you're wondering, no I'm not your dad's brother, but we are, uh, closely related. Um . . . Danny, I need to go see this artifact, and I'm afraid that you can't come with me." Daniel watched fear fill the boy's eyes. "Hey, it's okay. I won't be gone long. I'll take you back to the infirmary, and Janet can watch you till I get back." Danny was now hugging himself again, his little shoulders hunched up. Daniel knelt down and took hold of those shoulder. "Look at me, Danny," he ordered. The boy met his eyes. "I'm not going away like your mom and dad. I have a job here, and I'm just going to go off and do it. I will be back. You understand?"
For a long time, Danny just stared into his eyes, then he gave a tiny nod. Daniel gave his arms a rub.
"Okay, let's go."
Gathering up a few books, he took the boy back to the infirmary, explaining the situation to Janet.
"We'll watch him for you, Daniel," she assured him. "There are only a few patients, and none of them are serious, so I can spare some time."
"Thanks, Janet. Here are some books for him to look at." The archeologist handed them to her. "I'll be back as soon as I'm able." He looked down at Danny, who was still scared, but was now trying to hide it. "Be a good boy while I'm gone, all right?"
The nod this time was almost infinitesimal.
"Oh, before you go, Daniel, I got the results back on the DNA." Janet met his gaze. "It's been confirmed."
Daniel looked down at the little boy he now knew with certainty was him. He returned his eyes to Janet. "Okay. Thanks."
Daniel hurried to the gate room, figuring that the sooner he got there, the sooner he could get back to Danny. He would have to request that his leave start right away so that nobody would bother him, although, until he and Danny were off the base, there was still the chance that somebody would request his help.
"I apologize for calling you, Doctor Jackson," Hammond said when he got to the control room. "I wouldn't have done so if I didn't think it was necessary." He walked over to the window looking down upon the gate room, Daniel following him. The archeologist's eyes widened slightly at the sight below.
A three-foot-tall statue stood a few feet from the base of the ramp. It appeared to be carved from some kind of crystal. Bright lights were dancing within it, putting on a dazzling display.
"The lights brightened substantially after SG-5 first brought it through. We had it scanned, but whatever it's made from blocked the scanner's ability to detect any kind of energy pattern. I was tempted to send it back through the gate, but the statue was given to us as a gift by the people of M1J-990, and, since we want to establish negotiations with them, I was concerned about offending them. There are words inscribed on the statue, and I was hoping you could read them."
Daniel went down to the gate room. He approached the statue with caution, kneeling down to peer at the writing.
"It's some kind of cuneiform, Old Persian, I think," he muttered. "Wish I had my books." His eyes scanned the symbols carved into the statue. "May the gods bring . . . prosperity to those who worship them and death to those who. . . ." Daniel's voice trailed off as he read the next words. He abruptly got to his feet and backed up.
"Dial the gate!" he yelled. "Anywhere that doesn't have people! It's booby-trapped!"
The technician immediately began the dialing sequence as an alarm started blaring through the base. Hammond ordered all the personnel out of the control room, except for those who had to stay. The hallways near the gate room were also cleared, as was the gate room itself, except for Daniel and Major Harper, the leader of SG-5, who volunteer to help throw the statue through the Stargate.
The second the wormhole was established, Daniel and Harper grabbed the statue and ran up the ramp. With all their might, they tossed the thing toward the gate and threw themselves down.
As the statue passed through the wormhole, it exploded, sending razor-sharp shards of crystal everywhere. An agonizing pain in Daniel's left arm told him that he'd been hit.
The gate shut down, and people ran into the room, hurrying up to the two men on the ramp. Daniel sat up with a wince.
"You okay?" he asked Harper, who was bleeding from a cut over his left temple and another on his right calf.
"Yeah. You?"
Daniel held onto his arm. "Definitely been worse." He winced again. "Been better, too."
Jack rushed in, cursing when he saw Daniel.
"What the hell happened?"
"I'd say that the negotiations with M1J-990 are off," the archeologist replied.
Jack looked at the blood on Daniel and Harper and the deadly crystal shards all over the floor. "Ya think?"
"We need to get them to the infirmary, sir," a corpsman said.
Because of the shard in his leg, Harper was put on a gurney, but Daniel insisted on walking. Sam and Teal'c were hurrying off the elevator just as they got to it.
"Daniel!" Sam cried. "What happened?"
"Booby-trapped statue. I'll explain later."
With the gurney in there, there wasn't enough room on the elevator for everyone, so Daniel's teammates would either have to wait for it to come back down or take the stairs. They chose to wait.
When the two injured men got to the infirmary, Janet hurried up to them.
"Janet, where's Danny?" Daniel immediately asked.
"He's in my office. When the alarm went off, it terrified him. I was trying to calm him when we got the call that there were possible injuries in the gate room."
Daniel headed straight toward the office.
"Daniel, stop! You need to be treated. That arm is bleeding pretty badly."
"It'll wait," he declared.
Janet grabbed his good arm, trying to halt his progress. "Daniel, listen to me. What do you think seeing that blood is going to do to Danny?"
The archeologist came to a dead stop. He looked down at himself. Janet was right. The sight of all that blood would probably send the boy into a panic, thinking that Daniel was going to die like his parents.
"You're right. I can't let him see me like this."
He let Janet lead him over to a bed, where she cut the shirt away from his arm. His teammates came hurrying in.
"Sam, you need to go take care of Danny," Daniel said. "He's in Janet's office, and he's scared. Don't tell him I'm hurt."
Sam wasted no time in going to the office. She found Danny huddled in the corner.
"Hey. It's okay," she said, sitting down and setting him on her lap. He grabbed onto her shirt with both hands. "There was just a little accident, that's all. Nobody got seriously hurt."
At the word "accident," Danny's eyes got impossibly huge. He looked up at Sam, his respiration speeding up. He began mouthing something over and over again, and it took a moment for Sam to realize it was the word "Daniel."
'Crap,' she cursed silently. What was she going to say now? "Daniel's okay. He just got a little cut on his arm. He'll be fine."
Danny struggled out of her arms and ran out of the office before Sam could stop him. He hurdled full-speed into the infirmary, then came to a screeching halt as he saw Daniel. Upon seeing the blood, he let out a little wailing sound, which the archeologist heard.
Ignoring the fact that Janet was holding some forceps, which she was about to use to pull out a piece of crystal embedded in his arm, he jumped off the bed and rushed over to the little boy, who was almost hyperventilating. He went to his knees and grabbed Danny in a one-armed hug.
"Danny! I'm okay! I'm okay!" He grasped the back of the boy's head and made him look straight into Daniel's eyes. "Danny, listen to me. Look at me! I'm all right. See? I'm all right."
The panic-filled eyes focused on his, and the awareness that Daniel was okay filtered into them. He hurled himself at the archeologist, wrapping his arms around Daniel's neck in a virtual stranglehold.
Daniel awkwardly picked Danny up with his good arm and went back to the bed, sitting down with the child in his lap.
"Daniel?" Janet said questioningly.
"I'd say that you're going to have to finish with him here, Janet, because I don't think he's going to budge."
The doctor looked at Danny, whose face was pressed into Daniel's chest, eyes tightly closed.
Accepting the presence of the child, Janet resumed treating Daniel. She got the shard out of his arm, then stitched him up and bandaged him.
"There you go. Some Tylenol should be enough for the pain once the local wears off." She got some antibiotics. "And take these. I don't want to take the chance of that getting infected. We don't know what kind of bacteria might have been on that thing. I need to draw some blood so that we can check for any contaminants, and we're also going to examine some of the crystal." They had to be sure that the statue hadn't been coated with some kind of poison.
The blood was quickly drawn, then Janet told him he was all set.
"Thanks." Daniel looked down at Danny, who hadn't budged. "Hey, Danny, I'm all fixed up. Want to take a look?"
The boy lifted his head a little and looked at Daniel's injured arm. He cautiously touched the bandage.
"Like I said, Janet does good work." Daniel met Danny's eyes. "I need to change my shirt and wash up a bit. You want to come with me to the locker room?" He didn't really need to see the nod to know the answer.
Danny had a tight grip on Daniel's hand as they headed to the locker room. The archeologist sat on the bench in front of his locker.
"Could you help me get my shirt off?"
With the boy's help, the torn and bloodied BDU shirt and the T-shirt beneath were removed.
"Well, those are definitely no good anymore. The trash is over there. Could you toss them in for me?" Daniel pointed at the wastebasket, which was a few yards away.
Danny hesitated, obviously not wanting to leave Daniel's side. The archeologist was just about to give him some encouragement, when he apparently decided that it was safe to go that far. He took the clothing over to the basket and tossed it in, then walked back to Daniel, who gave him a smile and thanked him.
They went to a sink in the bathroom, where Daniel let Danny wash the blood off his arm all around the bandage, thinking that it would be good for the boy to see that it was just blood and not something that meant that Daniel was dying.
Once the cleaning up was done, they went back to the locker, where Daniel got a fresh T-shirt, which Danny helped put on. The local anesthetic was beginning to wear off by then, and Daniel winced as they got the shirt on over his head. Danny was looking at him with worried eyes. He gave the boy a little hug.
"I'm okay. It just hurts a bit." Daniel got a bottle of Tylenol from his locker. "But that's what these are for." He met Danny's eyes. "There's a drinking fountain around the corner with little cups. Could you get me some water? It's right over there." He pointed in the right direction. "I'll wait here."
For a while, Daniel didn't think that Danny was going to do it. He was getting ready to say never mind when his clone hesitantly left his side and headed around the corner. He was soon returning with a cup of water, which he gave to Daniel.
"Thank you."
Daniel took some of the pain relievers and the antibiotics, then they went to his office.
When Daniel started to get sleepy, he cursed Janet silently, knowing that the woman had deliberately given him an antibiotic that would make him dopey.
"Remember what I said about Janet being bossy?" Daniel asked. Danny nodded. "Well, she can also be very sneaky. That medicine she gave me is making me sleepy. She must have figured out that I didn't sleep well last night and decided to do something about it. I should teach her a lesson and just get some coffee to keep me awake."
Danny shook his head.
"No? So, you think I should take a nap?"
The boy nodded.
"Well, okay, if you think so. But what about you? Want some books to read? Or perhaps a pencil and paper for drawing?"
Danny pondered on that, then nodded.
Daniel provided the boy with some books, as well as a large sketch pad and a couple of pencils, then he unfolded the cot he kept in his office and laid down on it. It wasn't long before he was fast asleep.
Looking at him, Danny got one of Daniel's spare jackets, which was lying over the back of a chair, and laid it over the sleeping archeologist. For a long time, he watched this man he did not really know, yet to whom he felt a strange connection. Then he returned to the table, picked up the pencil and began to draw, not wanting to think about the possibility that Daniel would go away someday, too.
