Author's Notes: This is really my first attempt at seriousness. Feedback is very extremely welcome, whether it be good, bad, or ugly.
DISCLAIMER: All characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
Hearing footsteps, I began to type on my computer. I was supposed to be working on typing up Ernest’s notes from Heliopolis, but my mind kept straying. Although we’d been back for two weeks, the sting of what had happened back there still was sharp. The truth Catherine had given... The footsteps grew louder and Jack came in. He had a big question to ask me, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
“Hey Jack,” I said, not bothering to turn around to see him. He wanted to know how I knew it was him. Now for the fortieth time in fourteen days, I had to lie.
“How’d you know it was me?” Jack asked. He was amazed.
“Footsteps,” I lied. I wasn’t used to it. Lying, that is.
“So, uh, I have a question.” No kidding, Jack. You have a big one, but what is it? “It’s about, um...” Oh, it’s about Sam. He knows he likes her, and I know that she likes him. Sigh. Sometimes their games of avoiding each other gets so old. He thinks that his feelings for her compromise me and Teal’c while we’re on missions.
“You want to know if you should talk to Sam.” I finished. At least I could put him out of his agony for trying to say it.
“What?” Jack cried, “How did you-”
“I know you, Jack.” God did I hate lying to him. Jack, my friend. Jack, SG-1’s leader. My closest and best friend ever, and I had to lie to him. Think of what would happen if he knew! I chided myself. You can’t tell anyone! They’d take you off the team!
Catherine had done a good job of hiding what she already knew. When I’d gone to her home and shown her the reel of the 1945 ‘Gate activity, she had done a darn good job of looking surprised. It was after I’d shown her the Chevrons for the planet that she quit the performing act she was doing.
“Daniel,” she’d said, her voice growing rough, “I lied to you. I knew the ‘Gate had been turned on.” I had been so confused, why lie about something so huge yet so trivial? “Daniel, did you ever wonder why I singled you out from all the others? Do you know how many scholars knew exactly what you knew? You were smart, but you weren’t all that different. Didn’t you ever wonder how I got the picture of you and your foster parents? Your life is not and perhaps never will be what it seems.”
“What?” I had said, everything was so strange. Why was she asking me these questions? What was she saying, for that matter? I wondered for a moment if she’d lost it, mentally. A lot could happen over the course of a year or two, I was proof of that.
“Daniel, I know you want to know what’s going on, and I wish I could tell you that now, but I think we should wait. When the time is right, you will find out, about me, about you, about Ernest. But right now I think we should go to your Stargate Command and demand to back to that world.” At the time, it had sounded normal. It wasn’t until I thought over it that I realized she had used the word ‘back’.
“...So what do you think I should do?” Jack was sitting in a chair now, leaning over my desk. For a fraction of a second I felt like a psychiatrist.
“Jack, I can’t tell you what to do. Even if I knew, why listen to me? I don’t know how she’d react.”
“But you seem to be better at this kinda stuff, Daniel. I figured you’d know how Sam thinks more than me.”
“How could I know how she thinks, Jack? How could I? And what do you mean, ‘I’m better at this kinda stuff’? Aren’t you forgetting a certain planet called ‘Argos’?” Jack turned a deep red and coughed. He felt shamed for his actions there. Strange, but I had never thought he could feel shame. He seemed above that, in a way. He was so unsure of what to do, and who was I to determine his future? Because no matter how Sam would react, it would change how our team interacted. “Jack,” I said, “Don’t listen to me. Go talk to... ah... Teal’c.” Jack chortled through his nose. He was sending out really humored vibes that I could sense and pick up on. I also sensed someone coming, but decided not to tell him. I had a feeling that what was coming was going to be really funny.
“Oh yeah, Danny. You know Teal’c. He’s always out with some hot chick! I call him the Love Machine.”
“What is a ‘love machine’?”
“Dammit Teal’c! Must you always sneak up behind me?!”
“I did not ‘sneak up’. I merely approached you. Daniel Jackson?”
“Yeah, Teal’c?” I had a hard time from breaking out laughing. If Jack knew that I had known that Teal’c would overhear him... Well, I’d be roadkill. I turned and looked at Teal’c, realizing in a fraction of a second that I could read him like hieroglyphs on Abydos. If I knew the vowels, I could speak it even. //Captain Carter would like to see you. She is in her office.//
“Daniel Jackson, Captain Carter is in her office. She would like to see you.”
I guess it’s hard to blame Catherine for what she and Ernest did. It was so long ago, it wouldn’t do any good now anyway. I had fought so hard to go to Ernest’s planet, thank God Sam wanted to go too. Every little bit of encouragement helped ease my anxious feeling. If we didn’t go to this planet, would Catherine tell me what was going on? So many unanswered questions. I helped walk her through the ‘Gate, hoping that as soon as we were there, she’d open up and let me in on her secrets. It drove me crazy, I had to wait hours until she got me alone.
“Catherine, what is going on?” I asked. She looked around the room where we were, the elements room.
“Daniel, I have a lot to say, and I’m going to say it slow, so please bear with me.”
“I will, Catherine, but-”
“Let me finish, please! You have your father’s excitability, I see.”
“My fa-?! oh, sorry.”
“Yes. In 1945 Ernest went through the Stargate to this place. That day, my father told me about an explosion in the lab. I was so sad, Daniel. Ernest- I was supposed to marry him. We were supposed to live like a fairy tale. All of a sudden he was gone, due to my father’s silly experiments. I grew angry with my father and ran away. It seemed to be my father’s fault that the explosion had happened. Oh, if only I hadn’t run away! But it won’t do any good looking back. I took with me a change of clothes and my father’s journals. That was it.”
“Why did you take his journals?”
“They seemed more precious to him than me, his own daughter. He spent every evening writing in them, I couldn’t even tell him how I felt about Ernest’s so-called death. I suppose I was looking for a way to punish him when I took his journals. I stayed in a park that night. I can remember that so vividly. There was a full moon, and the owls were hooting so beautifully. In the morning I didn’t know where to go, so I decided to stay put and read the journals. I discovered so many awful things that day, Daniel. It’s as if I was reading Pandora’s Book, reading of evils I had never imagined. I also learned that Ernest was not dead, as we know. He was somewhere else. No one knew where.”
Catherine laughed something that was far less than a laugh, “And I decided to follow him.”
“How?” I asked. Catherine shook her head and I realized that Sam had come in the room.
“Daniel?” she called, “Daniel?”
“Daniel! What’s wrong? Daniel?” I opened my eyes and realized that I had dozed off shortly after Teal’c and Jack left. Sam must have come looking for me when I didn’t show up in her office.
“Oh, Sam,” I said, “I’m sorry. I fell asleep, I-” I cut myself off, realizing that she was worried, and not just about me. “What’s the matter?” I looked at her closely and realized that her eyes seemed wet, almost as though she’d been crying. Before she opened her mouth, I knew what had happened. Jack had done it. He’d talked to me about doing it before, but I never thought he would. And now, if it was official, as Sam considered it...
“General Hammond had me switched teams under Colonel O’Neill’s advisement,” Sam’s voice cracked, “I’m not on SG-1 anymore. I was moved to SG-6. I don’t even know them!” She was pretty depressed, to say the least. In her mind, she was leaving a family. I’d never thought of myself as being a little brother... To anyone, least of all Sam. But that’s how she felt.
“Sam, Sam, it’ll work out,” I said, “Let me go, uh, talk to Jack. You don’t know why he wanted you off.” She looked so frail sitting in that chair. I ran out of the room and down the hall to Jack’s office.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I yelled as I opened the door. Teal’c just stared at me, one of those what-are-you-talking-about stares.
“Thinking about what, Daniel Jackson?” he asked.
“Wrong office,” I muttered and went to the next door. I didn’t bother to knock as I turned the handle. I walked in on a conversation between Jack and Makepeace, and I had a feeling who convinced Jack to get rid of Sam.
“Makepeace, outta here now!” I said, surprising even myself at my commanding tone, “I gotta talk to Jack.” Makepeace gave Jack a sidelong glance and slunk out of the room.
“So, aren’t we just playing military today?” Jack’s voice was icy, I had never heard him use that tone before.
“Jack, what the hell were you thinking kicking Sam off our team? She’s a wreck now! You could have consulted me and Teal’c, you know.”
“I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t necessary, Daniel. Having her on the team compromises you and Teal’c.”
“How so?”
“Daniel, if I were faced with only having to save one person from SG-1 it would be Sam. No question about it. You want that?”
“I don’t care! I want her back on the team within twenty-four hours Jack. Sam is part of our family and I’m not going to let you ruin it.” Shit, I went over the line. Too commanding. Now Jack- //Dammit Daniel! Leave me alone!// “Sorry Jack. I’ll leave you alone.” I left the room with an open-mouthed colonel staring at me.
“In my father’s notebooks was the code he used to dial the place Ernest went. I broke into the lab and dialed.”
“It was that easy?!”
“That was years ago. No one thought they needed guards. In fact, no one even knew I’d gone through the ‘Gate until I came back. It was hard spinning the ring, but I knew I had to do it.”
“So you went through and-?”
“Daniel, can I please tell my story?”
“Of course. Sorry.”
“I went through and met Ernest. We were so happy, we both thought we might never see each other again. It seems that my father sent Ernest there because he didn’t want us to get married. He figured anyone who went through the Gate would die. He didn’t believe Ernest’s idea that it was a destination. We were so happy here, Daniel. It was just a matter of dialing, and the Dial Home Device was here, it was so simple. It was nice knowing that I could go home whenever. But Ernest and I wanted to stay, to raise our family here. It was twenty years or so before we had our first and only child. He was a little boy, and incredibly smart. But I knew he needed Earth vaccines against diseases, so I dialed what I thought was Earth and went through with him. Ernest stayed, just in case someone broke into our home.”
“There were other people here?”
“Quite a few. They all died soon after I left.”
“That’s so sad.”
“That’s so sad, Captain Carter. I’m sorry. I wish I could give the General a piece of my mind, but I was just barely able to get placed here as the head doctor, so I better not push any buttons.”
“Oh, that’s okay, Janet. Daniel’s trying to save our team.” //Not that he’ll succeed.// I stepped into the infirmary where Doctor Fraiser was comforting Sam.
“I will succeed, Sam. Just believe in me.” //So what now, he’s a psychic? Or maybe a psycho.// “Neither, Sam.” //Holy Hannah, he reads my thoughts!//
“Neither what?” Doctor Fraiser asked, not getting it.
“Nothing.” Sam and I replied instantaneously. //What is going on with him?//
“Daniel, what’s wrong?” Sam stared at me, and I bowed my head so she couldn’t see my face. //Why won’t he tell me? We’re family!//
“We are?” I asked. Family. Such a nice word. It was my favorite word until Catherine had changed it, warped it, and ruined it. //Come on, Daniel. Tell me. Please.//
“Well, it’s been great you two, but I have to go check up on Feretti. He accidentally got shot in the arm on their last mission. Bye!”
“Bye, Doctor Fraiser.”
“Bye, Janet.” Sam waited until she was out of earshot and then turned to me. “Daniel, what the hell is going on? You read my thoughts totally. Are you keeping a secret or something?” I turned my head and looked around the room. I was back in Heliopolis.
“So, how did they die?”
“I wish I knew. Probably some virus. Only Ernest lived. Must have been the vaccines he’d had at birth. It’s a good thing the baby and I left, he might have caught it without vaccines. Anyway, I dialed what I thought was home and went through. But I wasn’t on Earth. I was in a dark place, so dark. And I was so scared, because I didn’t know how the baby would have taken the wormhole. We were fine, thank goodness. I walked about, trying to figure out where I was, when a young man came up to me and started talking to me. It was a strange dialect, but after several tries I was able to communicate a little bit.”
“What language? An ancient one from Earth?”
“Yes. Ancient Egyptian. This man took me out of the dark place and into a great desert. All you could see was sand and when I turned around I saw the biggest pyramid ever.”
“That sounds like Abydos!”
“That’s because it was Abydos, Daniel. Daniel?”
“Daniel! Answer my question please.”
“Oh, sorry Sam. Why do you think I have a secret? I don’t have a secret.”
“How could you read my mind then?”
“Read your... Oh please, be serious. You think that I have a magical telepathic ability to read your mind.”
“Yes.”
“Uh-huh. Sure Sam. Why don’t you accompany me to Dr. Fraiser?”
“Very funny. Daniel, I know something is up.”
“So you can read minds too?”
“No, I don’t. But you do.”
“Come on, that’s impossible.”
“Obviously not! In fact, last time I talked to the colonel he mentioned how you were predicting what he was going to say.”
“You guys are my friends. Oh course I can predict you a little, as you can predict me a little.”
“How come you never predicted us before? This all started after our last mission. That’s when Jack started acting hostile to me, that’s when you-”
“He’s only hostile because he doesn’t want to jeopardize your relationship!”
“Oh, and he thinks kicking me off SG-1 will save our friendship.”
“He likes you.”
“Yeah? I like everyone on SG-1, except the colonel at the moment.”
“He likes you a lot.”
“Good for him. So he kicks me off SG-1?”
“In fact, I think he loves you.”
“What?! Daniel, please. Reality check. I’m a captain, he’s a colonel. He does not love me.”
“Oooh I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Why? Has he told you?”
“More or less.”
“Which? More or less?”
“Well, less.”
“Well, there!”
“Well! I’m telling the truth, Sam! He kicked you off SG-1 so he wouldn’t be unfair to me and Teal’c. See, he thinks if he could only save one member of our team, he’d choose you and it would be unfair to me and Teal’c.”
“Oh.”
“But I don’t care! I mean, of course he’d save you! You’re military! Despite what he may think or feel, he should save you first. I talked to him, I’m trying to get you back on. I never knew before that I was a bro- I didn’t know I was like a little- never mind.”
“Like what?”
“Nothing.”
“Yeah right.”
“Yeah right.”
“It was Abydos my father had written in the journals the address to that place, thinking it was Earth’s. I guess he figured the coverstone was Earth’s coordination.”
“But the seventh symbol?”
“It took a few hours to find. I eventually found it. Anyway, On Abydos I walked with him to a huge place. It was like a village. We ate, and Kasuf asked me about my baby.”
“Kasuf?!”
“Yes. I told him that my baby was a newborn and I wanted to take him home but I didn’t know the way. He said he would help me. But before he did so, he showed me a baby of his own, a girl. He pointed to my amulet I was wearing and said that our babies would one day marry. I didn’t want to make him mad, so I agreed.”
“That must have been Sha’re!”
“Mm-hmm. Then Kasuf showed me the symbols to dial to go home, and I did so. I was met on Earth with gunfire. They almost shot me before they realized that I was a Langford. They called the police and my baby was taken away from me, taken to an orphanage.”
“Catherine, what was the baby’s name? You haven’t mentioned it.”
“His name was- and still is- Daniel.”
I walked back to my office. Sam was gone, what a relief. It was so strange being near any of them these days. I looked at all the papers on my desk. Most of them I didn’t need, and the rest... I shoved the piles into the recycle bin under the desk. There. Even if I wasn’t, I could make people think I was organized. Man did I have a headache. I popped a few pills in my mouth to stop the pounding pain. It was like my head had been working overtime for the last two weeks. As soon as I had tumbled through the ‘Gate and landed on the ramp, I felt the difference. It was so subtle, I might not have noticed it if Catherine hadn’t told me what would happen. Within a week I could pick up emotions from other people. For example, one day an airman was feeling really depressed when he walked by my door so I invited him in to talk. God I’d make a good psychiatrist now. The second week I had gotten so many headaches, even a blackout or too. Jack had been freaking out, he thought I was a Goa’uld like Kawalsky had been. Same symptoms I guess. I had been able to get abstract pictures and thoughts from Jack’s mind, Teal’c and Sam’s minds too. They were the only ones at first. Besides that one airman, but he was so depressed I think I would have caught it even if I hadn’t been me.
“Me?”
“The baby’s name was Daniel. As far as I can tell, you and my son have too many things in common to be different people.”
“Wait, wait. This is so much to take in... You’re my mom. Ernest is my dad. Why didn’t Ernest come home when you didn’t return?”
“It was our own fault. I talked to Ernest a few hours ago and we got caught up. Our best friends here, the Bes family, moved in with Ernest after their house got destroyed by fire. We lived right here, in this very room. Ernest slept in here, and gave the Bes’ the Gateroom to sleep in. They were always the clumsy type. They also didn’t value old things. Their youngest boy broke the DHD and all hope was lost for ever seeing me again.”
“So, if you really are my mom, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I had to be sure. I knew your foster parents.”
“Which ones?”
“Your first ones. The Jacksons. Wonderful people. But there was no way to be sure if you were my son or not. I was pretty sure you were the one after you figured out how to work the Stargate again.”
“But... if you’d gone through, you knew how to work it.”
“I knew how. I just didn’t know why it worked that way. I had never figured out the 6 points to outline a course. Or any of that. I hadn’t realized that the symbols were constellations.”
“You know it’s me now?”
“Yes. If you are my son, you were born here. In this room. And this is why you feel such a longing to stay here.”
“How- how did you know?”
“This planet has secrets that are far older and wiser than any human could ever be. One of them is telepathy. Those who live here are blessed with telepathy. Those who are born in this fortress are born with telepathy. The difference is, I am only telepathic when I am in the fortress. You, after knowing these things, will be telepathic from here on out.”
“I will be?”
“Yes. I suspect you have many questions still. Try to ask them in your head, and I will give you answers in my head.”
I sighed and thought.
I sighed and thought. I’d had enough of this junk. Two weeks since I’d known the truth. Now I had to tell Sam. I had to tell the rest of SG-1. Hell, why not? The team was falling apart anyway. Without Sam we’d be dead by now. Our team was a team and without part of that team we’d crumble. Let them kick me off, I decided, I’d rather live without SG-1 than remember what was missing from the team. In making this decision I would give up all hope of seeing Sha’re ever again... That hurt. That pain was so familiar now, it was part of me. I wondered if Catherine had picked up on it when we were on Heliopolis. I knocked on General Hammond’s office door, realizing that I had never done that before. It was always Jack that went in there. Hammond called for me to come in and I did.
“What’s on your mind son?” he asked me. I sat down in a chair.
“I would like permission to leave SG-1 and the SGC.” My voice was so quiet I could barely hear it myself, and I suddenly realized my voice was trembling too. Hammond just stared at me, and I met his gaze.
“Maybe you want to talk about this?” he asked. I shook my head no.
“I’d like to have a meeting with the rest of SG-1 and yourself to explain myself. I need Sam there too.”
“I’ll have them here within ten minutes, Doctor.”
I was ready. I could do this. Quit pacing. All I had to do was explain to my best friends that I was a telepathic alien. Easy, right? They were all there, waiting for me to begin. Sam was sitting next to an empty seat... My seat. Every few moments she glared at Jack and he ignored her. Their thoughts were loud, I had to block them. I couldn’t listen to them, not now.
“Doctor?” General Hammond urged. I gulped and started to talk.
“For, ah, fourteen days I’ve had a really big secret, and you guys are not going to believe this, but I’m actually Catherine and Ernest’s son and I was not born on Earth. I’m from Heliopolis, so I guess it makes me an alien. That’s why I wanted to stay there. And I was betrothed to Sha’re, the amulet I wore was kind of a sign between Catherine and Kasuf. And I can read minds. I am telepathic and I will be for life most likely. I wish I could get rid of it but I can’t. And I was taken away from Catherine when she came home from Abydos and she didn’t tell me she was my mom because she wasn’t sure. That’s why I am leaving SG-1. You guys don’t want some telepathic alien around here. Besides, SG-1 is falling apart. Jack, you need Sam on the team. She needs to be on SG-1.” Whew. I stopped a moment and caught my breath. Everyone looked pretty stunned. Finally Jack broke the silence.
“Yeah right.” He looked up at me and saw that I wasn’t joking. “You’re joking, right?” he asked. I shook my head no.
“Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c said, “How did you acquire such an ability?”
“I was born with it. The fortress on Heliopolis, if you are born in there, it makes you that way. And that’s where I was born.”
“How is that possible?” Sam asked, “In order to ‘pick up’ so-to-speak on brainwaves and thoughts, you’d need something more scientific than I’ve ever even heard of.”
“Doctor Jackson, you didn’t tell us this before?” Hammond looked mad.
“I didn’t want to leave SG-1 then. Now it’s falling apart anyway.” I looked around the table. All their thoughts were questioning... Jack still thought that I was pulling his leg. “So, I am requesting permission to leave this facility.”
“Daniel, what are you going to do? You have no job waiting out there.” Jack had a point. “You gonna be on one of those ‘psychic hotline’ things? I don’t think so. You gotta stay here. I don’t really care that you’re an alien.”
“It’s not the alien thing so much as the telepathy thing,” I pointed out, “I can read your thoughts. You’re all like books to me. Sam, right now you are thinking about once when you called a psychic hotline. Jack, you’re thinking about the first Abydos mission, and when you were trying to describe me to Skaara and the other kids. Teal’c, you are wondering why SG-1 cannot be like it has been in the past. General Hammond, you are wondering how I can leave and never speak a word of the Stargate to anyone.”
“How-?”
“Whoa, Danny!”
“Indeed I was.”
“That’s amazing, son.”
“I’d love to stay. I love SG-1. You guys- Are like a new family. But even with my real family out there under Goa’uld influence, I can’t stay when you guys hate me.”
“Danny! What makes you say that? I don’t hate you!”
“Daniel, just because you possess a power that we don’t, that doesn’t mean we hate you. It might make us a little jealous and nervous at first, but we’ll get over it.”
“Your telepathic powers will not ruin our bond.”
“Son, if you change your mind and want to stay, I can make sure no one else finds out about your ability. It could be a great advantage to have you on a team.” I couldn’t believe it. I was sure everyone would flip out.
“But I’m an alien!”
“So’s Teal’c, Daniel. You just weren’t born on Earth, but you have Earth parents. You grew up on Earth.”
“So I can stay on SG-1? Jack? General Hammond?”
“’Course Daniel. You think a little thing like brainwaves is gonna get you kicked off? You’ll have to try harder next time.”
“What about Sam? I won’t stay on SG-1 unless she can come back.”
“Colonel, I can authorize that if you advise it.” There was a long pause. Come on Jack! I wanted to shout. I could se Sam tense up in her chair. She was a nervous wreck.
“General, I’d advise you to place Captain Carter on SG-1.”
“I can come back?!”
“And I’m still on!” There was a pause. General Hammond left to go to his office and the four of us were left to talk. Yes, I thought, I can get through this. They are my family, and I am home. What’s a little telepathy between friends?