Feedback?
The splendour around him didn't impress him, nor did the man dressed in ornate robes at the throne in front of him.
"The man who would be king," Jack O'Neill remarked sarcastically, before crying out in pain as one of the pseudo-Jaffa next to him hit him in the back of the knee.
"Hi, Jack," the perky greeting came from the throne as Daniel Jackson jumped off, seemingly oblivious as to what had occurred in front of him. Snapping at the Jaffa, they left leaving the two men alone in the room.
"We're losing the battle down there you know," Jack told him, coughing as he did. "Carter has started having Goa'uld flashbacks. Says if you keep using the sarcophagus, you're going dark side on us... if you haven't already."
"Well don't worry a bit," Daniel said. "We're getting out of here tomorrow."
"What?" Jack asked stunned, hoping that he wasn't hearing things.
"I agreed to marry her," Daniel announced smiling.
"What?" Jack repeated, really thinking that he was hearing things. This wasn't the Daniel he knew. The Daniel he knew was devoted to his missing wife, and also to his yet unborn child. Ever since he had found out the paternity of Janet's child, Jack had noticed how protective Daniel know was of the petite doctor and couldn't believe that he was now staying behind to be with this young alien princess.
"But I said I had to go home and straighten a few things out first," Daniel replied, picking Jack up off the floor. "And you guys are coming with me."
"And she trusts you?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"She... loves me."
General Hammond standing and waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp was a welcome sight for the tired and weary members of SG-1. Daniel couldn't care less where he was; so high was his euphoria.
"We had a nice time, Sir," Jack announced, rubbing his shoulder as he followed his 2IC down the ramp. "Carter picked up some Naquadah, Teal'c made some new friends as usual, Daniel got engaged... and um, I'm gonna hit the showers."
Hammond's mouth dropped open slightly as the three dirty members of SG-1 passed by him. Sam didn't appear to be caring about sharing the showers with the male members she was that dirty and that tired, she just wanted to get everything over and done with. She just wanted to curl up and go to sleep in a bed, preferably without any more of the flashbacks she had suffered while in the mines. Hopefully Janet, or whoever else who was on duty would keep their physicals short, or even just leave them until they had a chance to get some sleep.
Daniel was still in the infirmary by the time she had finished shampooing the dirt out of her blonde hair. Having not suffered in the mines like the others, he hadn't bothered to head to the showers and she had just had to explain to her commanding officer why she wasn't waiting, as their stoic Jaffa friend was not bothered either way. He was sitting on a bed, sulking. A heavily pregnant Janet Fraiser had stopped her on her way into the infirmary and explained what was wrong with their friend.
"This is stupid," he exclaimed as she neared and sat on the bed next to him, waiting for one of the medical personnel to come over.
"Janet says that your systems are all out of whack," Sam replied, leaning back on the hard pillow. She would have to talk to Janet about getting softer pillows in the infirmary, considering the amount of time SG-1 seemed to spend in the base medical facility.
"Well, I feel fine," Daniel announced, slowly as though he was speaking to a child, or to Jack. "God I need to get out of here or I'm gonna go nuts."
Sam watched him warily as she held her arm out for the stand post-mission blood sample that the male nurse was about to extract.
Sam slept in the next morning, sleeping through even SG-4's return at 0800 hours. However, she made it to the lab at about 1030 hours, testing the Naquadah that they had brought back from P3R-636. She had barely been there for a few minutes, before she was first interrupted by Jack who invited her for a late breakfast, and when she declined, immediately ordered that she was to meet him for lunch at 1300 hours. Knowing that she wouldn't get any work done with him there, she had agreed, but as soon as her commanding officer had left, Daniel had arrived, and had since spent the last fifteen minutes or so pacing up and down the floor of her lab.
"You're going to wear a hole in the floor," she told him, not looking up from the mineral in front of her. She didn't just want to tell him to leave her alone, feeling that she would hurt his feelings.
"I can't get her out of my head Sam," he announced. "I think I've made a big mistake."
Sam turned around, disbelief on her face. "You're not serious."
"I am," Daniel insisted.
"You have a wife," Sam reminded him. "And you've got a baby on the way."
"Had. I had a wife," Daniel pointed out. "Be serious here. How long am I supposed to wait? Even if I find Sha're one day, what are the chances she'll ever be the same again?"
"And the baby? Do you not care about the baby you and Janet are having?" she demanded. "Even if we never find Sha're, what about this little boy or girl who's gonna want to know his or her daddy?"
"Jesus, Sam. Just because I slept with some overemotional woman one night, and she's careless I have to suffer the consequences too?" Daniel demanded. "I thought you were clever, Sam. I had sex with the doctor. She was a good lay - it's true about the little one's always being feisty. If I didn't work with her, chances were I'd never have seen her again, and things would be a lot less awkward now. When I go back and marry Shyla, I'll never see her again and everything will be better. I never wanted kids; Janet does so this means she'll be able to have this baby all to herself. So really, she owes me one."
Sam looked at him in shock, hardly believing what he was saying. Finding her voice, she replied "Look, your endorphin level was through the roof when we came back, and now you're coming down off it. The effects of the sarcophagus are like a narcotic Daniel."
"Yeah, that makes you smarter, stronger, you live for hundreds of years, feel great. What the hell is so wrong with it?" Daniel asked.
"I think it's partly what makes the Goa'uld as bad as they are," Sam told him, drawing on her sketchy memories of Jolinar to help her through her explanation.
"How?"
"Who knows? It's Goa'uld technology, Daniel," she protested, trying to make him see reason. "Maybe it's healing affects alter your brain chemistry. Increased adrenaline, the hormones that make you more aggressive and irrational. Pyrus probably used to be a decent man. Look at yourself. It's like you need a fix. You've only used it a few times and already it's changed you."
"We can't just leave it there," Daniel said. "We have to study it."
"We can't go back either."
"Well I'm going," he declared
"She used us to get you addicted," she said, flinching as he slammed his fist down in a rage, knocking over some of the delicate equipment onto the floor.
"You've never really known what love is, have you?" he spat her, turning to leave the lab.
"See, the Daniel I know would never have said that," Sam replied, trying to keep her emotions under control as she watched Daniel destroy more of her equipment before stalking out of the room. As soon as the door slammed behind him, she turned back to her bench and buried her head in her hands. She knew that Daniel wasn't himself, but his words still hurt. He knew of her bad history of relationships; the one with Jonas Hanson especially, and knew exactly what to say to hurt her.
However, she was also thankful that Janet hadn't hurt the cruel words that had come out of his mouth, for at eight and a half months pregnant, Janet was in a very fragile state. The only reason she was coming into work every day was because she had been so bored at home after a week there. An airmen drove her in every morning for about 1000 hours, and took her back home at 1500 hours Mondays through to Thursdays. The only conditions insisted on by General Hammond and Doctor Warner were that she spent most of her day in her office and not to put herself under any unnecessary strain.
Shaking her head, she turned back to her work before pausing and heading out of the door. There had to be something they could do to Daniel; she just couldn't sit here doing nothing.
Daniel had collapsed in General Hammond's office, and was now lying in the infirmary with the rest of SG-1 standing guard over him. With one hand on her swollen stomach, Janet carefully made her way over to them, holding his test results in her other hand.
"I gave him a sedative," she explained. "His test results are all over the place. Liver function, kidney function, endorphins, electrolytes levels indicated muscle deterioration."
Jack looked confused with all the biological science flying around him. "All right, whatever. What's going on with him?"
Janet shook her head, as Sam guided her to the chair next to the bed. "I have no idea," she confessed in a quiet voice. "The most I can do is try to treat the symptoms. But the bottom line is that he seems to be going through some massive physical withdrawal."
Noticing a stirring from the bed, she looked down at the bed where the man was just beginning to wake up. Noticing his surroundings, he struggled to get up.
"I have to go back!" he insisted, trying to pull out his IV, while Teal'c used his larger size to stop him. "You're killing me!"
"Hold him down," Janet called as Sam helped her to her feet and she motioned to one of her nurses to bring her a syringe full of sedative, which she inserted into the vein in his arm. He struggled slightly with Jack and Teal'c before passing out. The two men moved away, and Janet tenderly brushed a stray strand of hair away from his forehead, barely realising she was doing it before returning to her office with his test results. The rest of SG-1 just watched her go as they resumed their silent vigil on their unconscious friend.
It was nearly ten hours later when Jack entered the observation room, and was startled to see Janet there, her feet up on one of the chairs.
"Hey," she smiled sadly up at him, before turning back to the screen where Daniel was strapped to a bed and writhing around.
"Hello," Jack replied in surprise. "Shouldn't you be at home? Or in bed?"
Janet ducked her head in embarrassment. "I had an extended nap this afternoon," she said. "Cassandra's staying with a friend tonight, and I wanted to stay here with Daniel. But I just couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd come up here for a while."
Jack dropped down into the chair next to her. "How's he doing?"
"Well, I can't say for sure but I think... I hope that the worst is over. His blood work is improving, body temperature is coming down, pulse is normal, blood pressure is one twenty over eighty," Janet informed him, reciting off Daniel's stats, her eyes still on the monitor.
"So he's going to be okay?"
"It's too early to tell," Janet said. "His cellular function is starting to take back control, but these next few hours should be able to tell me for sure."
"You're not going to stay up all that time are you?" Jack asked, thinking, as everyone on the base did, of the baby. Even though he was only one of a very select group who knew the paternity of Janet's child, all the SGC personnel had been very helpful and thoughtful as soon as the rumours that she was pregnant was confirmed. Even when she had some of the most unusual cravings, someone had been willing to drive into the city if necessary to bring back whatever the doctor ordered. She had saved most of their asses more than once and they were willing to help her out.
Another smile towards him. "Well, Daniel Junior here doesn't seem to feel like sleeping so I may as well watch his father," she replied. "Although I think it's actually time I gave him another sedative."
"So it's a him then?" Jack called after the small woman as she left the room, a huge grin on his face. Janet had told no one if she was expecting a boy or a girl, and they didn't know if she herself knew. He hadn't dared to tell her about the betting pools that were being run, in fear of her needles.
Janet just shook her head in disbelief as she headed down the corridor to the private room where Daniel was being held. The guard outside nodded at her as he opened the door, allowing her access.
"Okay, Daniel," she began, removing her penlight from her lab coat pocket and shinning it in his eye. Unexpectedly, he grabbed her and despite her extra weight put on during the pregnancy, flipped her over onto the bed.
Janet screamed, loud enough for the guard outside to hear her and rush in.
"Stand down!" he ordered, but to no avail as Daniel launched himself onto the guard, punching him repeatedly. Janet tried to get off the bed to sound the alarm, but instead recoiled with shock as she realised that her waters were breaking and she was going into labour. However, Jack, who had remained in the observation room, had noticed that Daniel had escaped from his bed and that Janet was in his place. When he made it to the room, he realised that Daniel was no longer there, and Janet was having trouble breathing. If what he thought was happening, was happening, it wouldn't be long before she was holding a little baby in her arms.
"I'm okay - go," Janet gasped, and Jack didn't hesitate in running after Daniel, hitting the alarm button first. He followed Daniel down the corridor then into the storage room that he turned into on his right. It was dark, and he grasped frantically for the light switch. Switching it, the small room was flooded with light, and he moved cautiously through the shelving units looking for Daniel. A shot rang out, and the light above his head shattered into glass fragments.
"For crying out loud, Daniel! Are you trying to kill me?" he shouted, crouching close to the ground now that he knew his friend had a gun.
"You're trying to kill me," Daniel cried in the semi-darkness.
"There'll be guards here in thirty seconds," Jack warned him, trying not to move any closer not knowing how jumpy he would be, considering that he was armed and certainly mentally unstable.
"I'm going back," Daniel said, defiance in his voice.
"No you can't," Jack replied. "You're going to be a daddy, Daniel. And you don't have to go back. Janet says you're getting better."
"You're lying!"
"Why would I do that?" Jack asked, before Daniel rushed him and they struggled. Jack knew that the sarcophagus had also enhanced his strength, for the young archaeologist had never been as strong as this previously. Jack tried to reach for the gun that had been dropped, but Daniel grabbed it before him.
"Daniel!" he exclaimed. "God... What are you going to do? Do you want to kill me? Look at yourself. You can get through this, Daniel. You have to get through this, don't you understand?"
"No," Daniel choked, as he broke down, collapsing to his knees. Jack grabbed him, and engulfed him a comforting hug.
"It's going to be okay, Daniel," he said. "Come on - you're going to be a daddy. Janet's gone into labour."
Daniel looked up at his friend with tears in his eyes, hardly believing what he was hearing. "A daddy?"
* * * * *