Author's Notes: The medical information that I needed to do this concept justice was to have been supplied by a friend. Still will be, but she has had some real life intrustions and won't be able to give it to me until next week. As I am not sure if I would be allowed to live if I held the story up that long, I am fudging the info contained in this section and part 7 to come. Both will be revised when I know what I am talking about. For the moment, forgive me for faking it.
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.
"Colonel? Take it easy, Sir. Take it slow. Don't try and sit up too fast."
Sam. That was Sam's voice. Whoa, might be her voice, but she didn't have a grip like that! Somebody had quite a hold on him, pulling him up.
* .Why Grandma, what big muscles you have.*
Jack opened his eyes with a start to find himself sitting on the ground quite a distance away from the trail where he had originally fallen. Someone had obviously moved him, and from the activity on the trail itself, the people and equipment trundling past, he could see why they had done so.
Still feeling more than a little dazed and confused (well, moreso than usual anyway), Jack looked to determining the identity of his support system. The muscled arm and the grip of iron belonged to Teal'c. Big surprise. The large black man was kneeling at his side, supporting him in the crook of one huge arm, looking down at him with an expression that would have scared the crap out of Jack the Ripper.
"Wh-oah, Teal'c." Jack heard himself say from very, very far away. "I hope that face means, 'glad to see ya,' and not 'you only have thirty seconds to live.'
He felt bad, he felt wrong. Like he was somehow 'fuzzy' or 'out-of-phase' with himself. He was awake, but he wasn't quite all there.
Sam - Sam was over there talking to one of those medical types. They were both looking at him. They had funny looks on their faces too. What was she saying?
".Well, I'll feel better once Dr Frasier gets a look at him. I'm sure it's just shock, but we can't discount the possibility that that thing affected him in some way. He was in pretty close contact with it, after all."
* Not as close as Daniel.*
* DANIEL!*
* Oh my god the blood what had he done.*
Memory flooded back to him in a panicked rush. He grabbed a hold of Teal'c's shirt with both hands, but doing that made him see them again and what was all over them and he snatched them away as quickly as the shakes hit.
"Daniel!" He cried. "Where is he? Where's Danny? DAANNNYY!"
Sam was beside him, holding onto one arm while Teal'c held down the other. She was in his face, saying something. * Let GO, dammit - I have to finddanny.*
"Colonel! Colonel, relax! Daniel's back at the base, he's being looked after. Right now we're more worried about you."
"I could not carry you both, Colonel O'Neill". That would be Teal'c. " DanielJackson was the one who was most in need of help, so after I placed you in a position where you would not hurt yourself while you had to be alone and unattended, I continued to proceed with DanielJackson until I was able to put him into the hands of the medical team. Captain Carter and I then returned for you. You have been unconscious for almost two hours."
"You let him go?" Jack heard himself say. "You didn't stay with him? You left him alone? You left Danny - alone?"
Sam was talking again. "Something is really wrong here, Teal'c. I have to continue up to the site with the team and get the recovery operation up and running. I really need you up there - you're the only one who can read Goa'uld now that Daniel. Take the Colonel home, first. Make sure that he's all right, and join me as soon as you can."
* takemehome*
Just for one, small fleeting instant, the tiniest of voices, whispering in his mind in a small island of serenity.
Then the bad stuff started happening again, snuffing it brutally out.
He wasn't sure what was going on anymore, it was all so far away. Hands pulling him up onto his feet, a strong arm around him, guiding him as his feet started to move but didn't feel a part of him. He didn't know what he was doing, where he was going. He was just going.
"Haffta. get this stuff off." he heard himself muttering. "Get it off. Just get it off."
Teal'c said nothing as he steered the Colonel down the trail toward the Stargate. He moved as quickly as he dared, motivated by the urgent need to get the stricken man back to some help and aid as soon as possible. The Colonel did not resist him, but during the entire trip he did not cease from muttering barely coherent and disturbing phrases, and from wringing his hands and plucking distractedly at his bloodstained clothes.
The Jaffa warrior was deeply concerned. He had seen this before. Seen the mind of a strong and seemingly unbreakable warrior snap under the weight of some uncountable thing that had finally dipped the weight of the scales of horror too far to the side of madness. The Colonel was a very strong man. However, Teal'c had seen harder men shatter as profoundly.
He had not yet known one to come away from the experience well.
If there was to be a first time for this to change, he hoped this would be the one.
Upon arrival in the Embarkation Room Teal'c resolutely waved away all assistance or attempts from anyone to take the Colonel from him. He did so by wearing a face that promised, as Colonel O'Neill would say 'a world of hurt' to anyone who would think of getting in his way.
Gratifyingly, they did not.
Teal'c knew exactly what he had to do, and wasted no time doing it.
He took the Colonel straight to the showers, peeled his clothes from him and thrust him under the cold spray. He then started to make toward the exit, where Dr Frasier, carrying the items he had been on the way to procure met him.
A towel and a bathrobe.
The Doctor halted just outside the entrance to the showers, looking up with deeply concerned eyes at the Jaffa warrior as she handed him what she had brought for Jack. "They told me you had brought him back. What sort of shape he was in. Good thinking. This is where I would have taken him first, too."
"I did not see any sense in trying to make him easier in his mind as long as what was most troubling him was still all over his person," Teal' replied.
"Damn," Janet Frasier shook her head and frowned with profound frustration. "Psychiatry isn't exactly my field, but I've been seeing signs of this coming for a long time. I had really hoped that I was wrong, but the Colonel's overwhelming sense of responsibility to his subordinates and to Daniel in particular, coupled with Daniel's propensity to more than beat the law of averages when it comes to getting himself hurt."
"You are saying that you were aware there would come a time when the Colonel's heart would damage his mind."
Janet arched an eyebrow and favored Teal'c with an astonished look. "My, what a - poetic way of putting it. But also, very, very accurate. Yes, Teal'c, I believe that is exactly what is happening. Wish I knew what to do about it."
"How is DanielJackson? News that he is better would do much to help Colonel O'Neill."
"Don't I know it," Janet expelled an exasperated sigh and ran a hand through her short brunette hair. "Really wish I had some for him. Daniel's still in a coma. We haven't got a clue what's causing it, any more than we know what the hell that thing is that is - wrapped around him and all the way through him. I've run every imaging test I can think of. After what happened off-world I don't dare try to use any invasive techniques. God only knows what that would do to Daniel.
"I don't know, Teal'c. I just don't know. I can't tell if the thing is animal, mineral, vegetable or a combination of all three. It's alive, but I don't understand how - it doesn't have any internal structures that I recognize as organs except for that fibrous mass in the middle of it and I haven't got a clue what it is or what it does. It has an internal structure that is mostly segmented vacuoles that resemble the structure of a plant, and yet the tendril network reacts to external stimuli as if it was animal nervous tissue. Those - filaments - are all through Daniel's body, wrapped around his internal organs, intertwined with his nervous system - his brain. The comatose state that Daniel is in is definitely artificially induced. His body is being flooded with a hormone - I assume that's what it is - I have never seen anything like it before but it does seem to be having a direct effect upon Daniel's brain. It is almost as if the higher cognitive functions are deliberately being suppressed. And the activity in the hippocampal and pineal areas of the brain.. I've had to put him on full life support. Whatever this thing is, it seems to be feeding on him, sucking the life right out of him.
"I'm going to have to prepare a full report for the general, advising him of Daniel's condition and my opinion as to the level of biohazard the entity represents. I don't know what to tell him. Teal'c, I just don't know. I've never seen anything like this before."
"I do not know if it would be wise to let the Colonel see him if things are as dire as you say," Teal'c replied.
"Do you honestly think you can stop him?"
Teal'c considered this for a moment.
"If it was necessary, it would be done."
"It's risky, I know, but I think it would be worse if we tried to keep him away. See how he is when he comes out, and trust your own judgement. I have to get back now, but if you think it's okay bring him by my office and we'll take him in together."
"I am most grateful for your assistance," the Jaffa intoned deeply and sincerely.
He was barely even aware of the water hitting his body. He felt nothing but the cloth on his skin as he scraped mercilessly away at the epidermal layers of his hands, arms and chest.
* Get it off. have to get it all off.*
The water beat down upon him, he continued to abrade his skin; his mind flickered and flitted between the opposites of sanity and retreat into regions where he would not have to remember.
* So easy just to let go, to run away. No more pain, no more worries. He would never have to know what happened, never have to face the loss, never have to hurt, never have to grieve.*
* .never know if he could have done anything to save Daniel *
* .never know what a difference he could have made, if only he had tried*.
*.never ever be the man Daniel seemed to think he was. *
Jack dropped the cloth and braced his hands against the cubicle wall as he pressed his forehead to the cold tiles.
Damn him! Damn him anyway that pesky, moral, right-seeking, right-knowing, unbelievably honorable pain-in-the-butt who somehow always managed to find a way to get under his skin, around his defenses and completely past all his arguments and excuses and right to the heart and the truth of everything.
Daniel wouldn't be doing this. It wouldn't even have occurred to Daniel for one instant to try and run away. He seldom if ever allowed himself the luxury of self-pity. He sure wouldn't be here - he'd be right out there, by his side, even if there was nothing else he could do but that. The right thing. Daniel would be doing it.
Well, Daniel deserved a much better friend than he was, but he was all he had at the moment. Jack knew he had already wasted enough time; he wasn't going to waste any more beating himself up about this. He was back, things were looking a little clearer and once again, even though he wasn't even here, he had Daniel to thank for it.
He also had come to another rather important realization.
"AAAAAHHHHH! THIS GODDAMM WATER IS FREEZING!"