CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jack and Danny hurried back to Daniel's house. The boy was unbuckling his seatbelt even as the car came to a stop in front of the house. The two ran up the walkway and into the house.
"Daniel!" Jack yelled, not seeing the archeologist. Danny headed straight to the bedroom. Not questioning the boy's instincts, Jack followed him. They rushed into the bedroom and. . . .
"Crap," Jack cursed. Daniel was sitting on the floor, his back against the bed, blood trickling down the side of his face. He was very pale, and his eyes were closed.
"Daniel!" Danny screamed, lunging forward, Jack only barely managing to stop him.
Daniel's eyes fluttered open, and he looked at the two of them with slightly unfocused eyes. "Danny? Jack?"
The struggling boy broke free of Jack's grasp and was across the distant in an instant. He grabbed Daniel's arm, crying.
"You're hurt. You're hurt," he sobbed.
"Just . . . just a little bit, Danny," Daniel told the distraught boy, though his head was killing him. "Fell out of the bed and clunked my head. I'll be all right."
"I'll call Fraiser," Jack said after getting a cloth for Daniel to press on the wound. He figured that the archeologist was probably right about it not being serious, but you needed to be careful with head injuries. They could be more serious than they first appeared. Besides, the doc would string Jack up by his most tender parts if he didn't call her.
"Are there any indications that it's more than a concussion, Colonel?" the doctor asked after he told her what happened and let her know that Daniel was conscious and lucid.
"Not that I see, but you know I'm no expert."
"All right, if it's just a concussion, you shouldn't have to take him to the hospital. Go ahead and bring him here."
When Jack got off the phone, he saw that Danny had his arms around Daniel's waist, his face pressed into the man's chest. Daniel had an arm loosely draped over the boy's body and was murmuring something in what sounded like Arabic. Jack knew some of the language from his days in the Middle East and caught enough words to know that the archeologist was trying to soothe the boy.
Jack knelt by the two. "Come on, Daniel. We need to get you to the infirmary. Fraiser's all ready for you, needles and all."
"Oh, wonderful," the younger man muttered.
Jack put a hand on Danny's back. "Danny? Come on. We need to get Daniel to Janet so that she can fix him all up."
As soon as Danny let go of Daniel, Jack got the archeologist's shoes on and helped him to his feet. The man swayed and would probably have fallen if Jack hadn't been holding him.
They'd made it out of the bedroom and halfway across the living room when Daniel abruptly went white.
"Oh, God. I'm going to be sick," he groaned.
As quickly as he could, Jack got him to the closest place where he could be sick without making a mess, which turned out to be the kitchen. They'd just barely made it to the sink when Daniel threw up.
Instead of Danny being grossed out by the sight, he got even more scared. He was terrified that Daniel was hurt really badly and was going to die.
Jack was supporting quite a bit of Daniel's weight by the time the archeologist's vomiting had stopped.
"I hate concussions," Daniel mumbled miserably as he tried to spit out the foul taste in his mouth.
"I know exactly what you mean."
Jack managed to pour Daniel some water without letting him go, and the archeologist rinsed out his mouth.
"You ready?" Jack asked.
"Yeah."
They got Daniel in the car and strapped in. Danny wanted to sit beside him, but Jack insisted that he had to sit in back in the booster seat he'd purchased for the boy.
Daniel kept his eyes closed throughout most of the trip, trying not to make any sound as every bump in the road made the pain in his head worse. He was going to be sick again if they didn't get there soon.
At last, they arrived. There was a corpsman with a wheelchair waiting for them. Janet had given orders that Daniel and the others were not to be stopped at the checkpoints, so they breezed straight through.
As soon as they were in the infirmary, Janet was kneeling before Daniel. "Boy, you sure can't stay away from this place, can you," she said gently.
"It's not by choice, Janet, I assure you."
"Okay, let's get you up on the table."
Normally, Janet would have asked Jack to take Danny outside to wait, but when she saw the terror in the boy's eyes, she knew that he needed to stay.
The doctor's initial exam confirmed a diagnosis of a concussion, Grade 2, if Daniel was right about not having lost consciousness at all. She ordered an x-ray so that they could make sure there wasn't a skull fracture.
As Daniel was wheeled off to get the x-ray, Janet walked up to the two people who were waiting.
"So, what's the verdict, Doc?" Jack asked.
"Grade 2 concussion, I'd say. We're getting x-rays to make sure there are no fractures. I'll keep him here overnight for observation. If he's okay in the morning, he can go home."
"H-he's not going to die?" Danny asked.
Janet knelt before him, taking his hands and smiling tenderly. "No, he's not going to die, Danny. He's going to be just fine."
Danny threw his arms around her neck. Janet felt the tremor in his little body and held him close.
The x-rays came back clean, and, once the wound in his scalp was cleaned and stitched, Daniel was put in a private room so that Danny could stay in there with him. When Jack brought the boy in, they found that Daniel was sleeping.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to keep people with concussions awake?" Jack asked Janet.
"Did we ever keep you awake when you had one?"
"Um, no, you didn't."
"That whole thing is just a myth, Colonel. In some cases, doctors do recommend that you wake the person every two hours to make sure that their condition isn't deteriorating, but I see no reason to do that in this case. Besides, we'd probably have to give him an injection of caffeine straight into his veins to wake him up. He's exhausted."
"Yeah, I don't think he's been getting much sleep lately."
"Well, he'll have plenty of time to sleep the rest of today and tonight. He's not going anywhere."
Danny wanted to get on the bed with Daniel, but he didn't want to wake the archeologist, so, instead, he got one of the chairs, put it as close to the bed as he could, and sat in it, gently taking Daniel's lax hand in his. He laid his head on the man's arm.
The gesture of a child's love made both Jack's and Janet's heart ache a little.
"I'd better let Carter and Teal'c know what happened," Jack said. First, he went to the Jaffa's quarters. Teal'c was concerned, but glad to hear that it wasn't anything serious. He said that he'd go visit Daniel later, after the archeologist had awakened.
Jack then called Sam's cell phone.
"Hey, Colonel. What's up?" Sam asked.
"Daniel's had a little accident, I'm afraid."
Sam's voice instantly turned anxious. "What?! What happened? How is he?"
"He fell and hit his head. He's got a concussion, but Fraiser thinks he'll be fine. He's in the infirmary."
"Oh no. What about Danny?"
"He's here, too, watching over Daniel at the moment. The poor kid almost freaked out. He was afraid Daniel was going to die."
"That poor little boy."
"Carter . . . he knew."
"What?"
"Danny and I were miles away when the accident happened, but he knew. He sensed that Daniel had gotten hurt."
"Holy Hannah. You think it was this telepathic link?"
"I'd say so."
"Sir . . . what would happen if Daniel was ever seriously hurt?"
"I don't know, and I really don't want to think about it."
"I'll be there as soon as I can, sir."
"That's not necessary, Carter. Daniel's asleep right now and probably will be for the next few hours. Danny's in the room with him."
"I'm still coming, Colonel."
Jack smiled slightly, not really surprised by her statement. "Okay. They've got Daniel in one of the private rooms."
"I'll see you in a while, sir."
Sam disconnected the call and calmed her nerves. When Jack said that Daniel had an accident, her heart had gone up into her throat. Thank goodness it wasn't anything serious.
The major quickly finished the shopping she had been in the midst of doing and took the groceries home. Once they were put away, she headed to the SGC. Since she was off-duty, she didn't bother changing clothes before going to the infirmary. As she entered the room, her eyes immediately went to Daniel. He was asleep, his face pale, but not terribly so. There was a bandage on the left side of his head. Danny was right at Daniel's side, his small hand resting upon Daniel's large one, his eyes glued to the man's face. Jack was in another chair a few feet away.
"Hey, Carter," Jack greeted.
Danny turned and looked at her. Seeing the expression on the boy's face, Sam quickly walked over to him, knelt down, and pulled him into a tight hug.
"I thought he was going to die," Danny whispered, starting to cry.
"I know, sweetheart. But Daniel's going to be fine. He may have a headache for a while, but I'm sure he'll be all better by morning."
Sam gathered Danny up into her arms and sat on the chair with him in her lap. Her eyes returned to Daniel. It always hurt to see him lying on a bed in the infirmary, but it hurt even more now, even though she knew that his injury wasn't serious this time.
"I'm guessing that you're going to be here a while," Jack said, standing up.
"Yes, sir."
"I'm going to go take care of some things, then. If, by chance, he wakes up, let me know."
"I will, sir."
There was silence in the room for a little while.
"I knew Daniel got hurt even though me and Uncle Jack were far away," Danny told her.
"Yes, that's what the colonel said. Did you feel his pain?" God, she hoped not.
"No. It just came into my head that he was hurt. And I kind of saw a picture of his hand, and it had blood all over it."
The announcement surprised Sam. So, not only had Danny picked up on Daniel's thoughts, he'd also seen through Daniel's eyes. Holy Hannah, what would this mean if the kid ever got a look through Daniel's eyes while they were in a firefight off-world? Of course, it was very possible that this connection wouldn't work over that great a distance. She sure hoped it didn't.
That's when she remembered quite forcefully that Daniel would no longer be going through the gate on missions, at least not those kinds of missions. His only gate travel would be on the occasional archeological and perhaps diplomatic mission. How did he feel about that? She knew that it would hurt her to give it up. Of course, Daniel wasn't a soldier, so he certainly wouldn't miss the fighting, but he would miss the exploration. He would no longer be the one to approach and make first contact with some newly discovered culture, his mind attempting to puzzle out where in Earth's history the inhabitant's ancestors had originated. He would never again be the first to set foot in the ruins of an alien civilization.
Sam thought about the missions they'd gone on since Daniel returned from ascension. His presence had made the different between success and failure more than once. Even with his memory mostly gone, his ability to read the Ancient language had been invaluable in their fight against Anubis. If he hadn't been with them on P3X-289 and found that book among the old records, Pallan wouldn't have been convinced to turn off the mental link between his people and the computer that had been killing them one by one and erasing their existence from the minds of the others. And, most recently, if Daniel had not gone to P3X-403, it was very likely that everyone there would have been killed by the Unas.
And that was only what had happened during these months since his return. Before then, Sam couldn't count how many times the success of a mission had been because of Daniel. And, now, yet again, SG-1 was going to lose him.
"What's wrong?"
The childish voice brought the major out of her thoughts. She looked at Danny. "Hmm?"
"You looked sad," he informed her.
"Oh. I was just thinking about something."
"What?"
"Something that I shouldn't have been thinking about. Adults do that a lot. We worry about stuff and think about bad things."
Danny was silent for a few seconds. "I think about bad things, too."
Sam looked into his eyes. "Like what?"
Danny's gaze dropped from hers to a spot on her shirt. "Like how Mom and Dad died, and . . . and Daniel dying, and . . . being all alone like Daniel was when Mom and Dad really died."
"Hey. Didn't Daniel tell you that you'd never be alone?"
Danny nodded.
"Well, that's the truth. No matter what happens, there will always be someone to love and take care of you. That is a promise."
Sam hugged the boy close. It wasn't right for someone so young to have those kinds of fears. Danny should be a carefree little boy whose only thoughts were on play, and school, and his friends. He shouldn't be thinking about death and being left all alone. What was equally as sad is that the eight-year-old Daniel most likely had these same thoughts about death and being alone, except that, for him, they would have been based on the reality of his life.
"You look sad again," Danny said, frowning.
"I know. I'm sorry. I'll try to think happy thoughts. Maybe we can play a game."
"Like what?"
"Oh, I don't know. How about 'I Spy'? You ever play that?"
"Uh huh. It's really fun in Egypt."
"Well, I'm afraid that this room isn't as exciting as Egypt, but it'll have to do."
They began to play the game, which turned out to be pretty challenging in the room since there was not a whole lot to "spy" that wasn't a piece of equipment Danny wouldn't be able to name.
After about twenty minutes, they were struggling for objects to use.
"I spy something that . . ." Sam looked around, "starts with an 'F'."
"How about a formerly sleeping archeologist?" asked a voice from the bed.
Danny's and Sam's heads spun around to face the person who asked the question.
"Daniel!" they both exclaimed. Danny jumped off Sam's lab and climbed up onto the bed to hug the man. Daniel wrapped his arms around the boy.
"I'm sorry, Daniel," Sam said apologetically. "We didn't mean to wake you."
"That's okay." He looked at her. "What are you doing here? This is supposed to be your day off."
"I'm here because somebody I care about was hurt, and I wanted to be with him," Sam replied.
Daniel's eyes searched hers intently. "Thank you. And thank you for watching Danny."
At that moment, Jack came in. "Well, if that isn't perfect timing. Didn't think you'd be awake yet. How's the head?"
"How do you think?" Daniel replied.
"Gotcha. Concussions aren't any fun. Just be glad you didn't crack that skull of yours. But then, that's really no surprise. It would take more than a bump on the head to penetrate that skull."
Daniel's head hurt too much for him to think up a retort.
"Janet will to want to know that you're awake," Sam said. She pressed the call button, and a nurse came in a moment later. Sam told her to get Janet.
When she arrived, the doctor checked Daniel out, testing a few things and asking the usual round of questions. She was satisfied with the results and got him some Tylenol for the headache. Then she returned to the main ward.
Everyone kept the conversation light – and at a low volume – until the pills had taken effect. Teal'c had been told that Daniel was awake and was now with them.
"By the way, why did you guys come back so early?" Daniel asked Jack. "I thought you were taking Danny skating." He noticed the quick look that passed between Jack and Sam. "What?"
"Maybe you should tell him, Danny," the colonel said.
"We were at the ice skating rink, and, all of a sudden, I knew that you got hurt," Danny told the man in the bed.
Daniel stared at him, stunned. "You did?" An expression of horror filled his face. "Did you feel my pain?"
"No, I just knew you were hurt, and I saw your hand."
"You what?" Daniel and Jack asked simultaneously.
"It was all bloody."
"I think that Danny was actually seeing through Daniel's eyes for a moment," Sam explained.
"Oh, that's just wonderful," Jack responded sarcastically. Now the kid was seeing what Daniel was? There were some people in the upper echelons of the program who would not be happy about this. He could hear them now, talking about a child getting a view of classified documents and mission reports. Crap. What about when they were on missions? They'd better all pray that this telepathic thing didn't work from that far away.
It wasn't long before Daniel started getting tired again. Though Danny wanted to stay with him, the others convinced him that they needed to let Daniel sleep undisturbed.
The other three members of SG-1 decided to take Danny into town. While they were driving around, the boy spotted a miniature golf course, and they all decided to play a round, mostly to get Danny's mind off the fright he'd had. His somewhat subdued manner was a clear indication that Daniel's injury had resurrected the child's fears and his thoughts about his parents' death. It would probably be a long time before Danny recovered quickly from things like this. Until then, anything that illustrated the mortality of someone he cared about would be more traumatic to him than to the average child his age.
After the game, everyone returned to the SGC. They checked on Daniel and found that he was still sleeping.
Jack decided that the best thing to do would be to take Danny home with him for the night, though Danny wanted to stay on the base and close to Daniel. They went to Daniel's place and got a change of clothes for the boy.
For the rest of the day, Jack devoted himself to perking up Danny's mood and had some success. That night, however, as Jack headed for his bedroom, the sound of a terrified scream had him running for the guest room. Danny was crying for his parents and for Daniel. Jack gathered him up into his arms.
"Shh, Danny. It's a bad dream, just a bad dream. Come on, Danny. Wake up."
The boy finally aroused from the nightmare. He started sobbing.
"It fell, and Daniel tried to s-stop it, and it fell on him, too, and he d-died with Mom and Dad, a-a-and there was b-blood all over!" he wailed.
Crap. No wonder the kid was a mess. "That didn't happen, Danny. Daniel is alive. He's okay."
"I want Daniel."
"Okay, Danny. I'll go take you to him."
Jack got the boy dressed, and they drove to the SGC. The guards on duty at the checkpoints were surprised to see them at that time of night, but didn't say anything. Janet, however, did.
"Colonel? What are you two doing here? I was just getting off-duty."
"Danny needs to make sure that Daniel's all right."
"What?"
"I'll explain later."
Jack led the boy to Daniel's room and opened the door so that Danny could look inside. Looking inside wasn't enough for the boy, however, and he slipped through the door, walking up to the bed. Apparently, Daniel had been only dozing because he woke up, blinking a little blearily at the boy.
"What. . . . Danny? What are you doing here?"
Not replying, the child climbed onto the bed and wrapped his arms around Daniel's neck, burying his face into the crook of the man's shoulder. Daniel realized that he was crying.
"Danny, what's wrong?" When the boy didn't answer, he looked at Jack.
"He had a nightmare, Daniel. He dreamt that you tried to save his parents and died with them."
Damn. Daniel held the boy close. "It's okay, Danny. I'm all right." He tried to look at the boy's face. "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?"
Danny nodded, still clinging to him.
"Okay. Let's get your shoes and pants off so that you're more comfortable. You can sleep in your shorts and shirt."
Jack undressed the boy, who then crawled under the covers and snuggled up against Daniel.
"You'll be all right?" Jack asked the archeologist.
"We'll be fine. Thanks."
Back out in the main ward, Jack told Janet more about the dream.
"I guess we shouldn't be surprised that this happened," she said. "Obviously, it was triggered by Daniel's accident. Danny has bonded very closely with him. In many ways, Daniel has become both his mother and father."
"And seeing Daniel hurt like that brought all the stuff about his parents right back fresh into his mind," Jack surmised, "but with a really nasty added twist."
"I'm afraid so. The fear of Daniel dying is going to be very strong in Danny for quite some time."
"Is there anything we can do?" Jack asked.
"Short of getting him counseling with a child psychologist, not really, except to make him feel as safe and secure as possible."
"Janet, if getting Danny counseling is the best thing for him, I'll try to get permission to have a child psychologist given clearance."
"It's possible that it could help, but there are no guarantees. Danny's situation is such a unique case. He knows that the memories he has are something that he didn't actually witness, that they took place decades ago, but another part of his mind is telling him that he did see it, that it happened just a few weeks ago."
Jack nodded. "He keeps referring to things that he really didn't experience as something that he did."
"That's understandable. Being told that the memories you have aren't really yours would be a difficult thing for anyone to fully assimilate, particularly a child. Your mind is going to keep telling you that what's in your memories is something that you really experienced, which, in this case, is really too bad. If Danny could fully accept, both mentally and emotionally, that the death of Claire and Melburn Jackson was not something that happened in his life, it would dramatically accelerate his recovery. That, unfortunately, is something that could take years. It may be that he will never quite get that fully resolved in his mind."
"I'll talk to Hammond in the morning and see about getting somebody with the right qualifications clearance."
"Sir, I don't know if Daniel would agree to it, but I think that the very best approach would be for Danny and Daniel to be counseled together. Daniel has those memories, too, but his perspective is different because, first of all, it really did happen to him and, secondly, it drastically changed his life for the worst. Having Daniel there, talking about his experiences and how he felt about it all, still feels about it all, may be beneficial to Danny. And I think that it might help Daniel, too. I should imagine that this whole thing has really unearthed all those feelings he had during that time. They could support each other through the counseling."
"You're probably right, but, if I know Daniel, he's not going to want to talk to a psychologist about himself. Ever since MacKenzie misdiagnosed him and threw him into that padded room, he hasn't had a lot of trust for the psychiatric profession. He dreads the yearly psych evaluations we all have to have."
Janet didn't reply. She still bore the weight of guilt over the part she played in Daniel's commitment to Mental Health, and she always would.
Jack looked at his watch. "Well, if I don't get going, I'm not going to get enough beauty sleep. I'll talk to Hammond first thing in the morning and see what he says."
