The Annule Series 2

When The Tie To This World Is Broken, The Soul Moves On

by D. Kelley

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asd/dkelley/annule02.php
Summary: SG-1 has to go back to Annule early for several reasons, and as it turns out, the Kandash is the least of them. But Daniel does find out what it is, much to his dismay

HOME SWEET HOME

Janet was dead meat; Daniel was doing the puppy dog eyes. Jack snorted from the gurney he sat on, where a nurse was just finishing the last of what seemed like his 100th post-mission shot.

"Please, Janet, I know you have to run extra tests, I understand," Jack shook his head, seeing Daniel's lower lip protrude and knowing the doctor didn't stand a chance. "All I'm saying is," the archaeologist wheedled, giving her a hopeful smile and looking up through his lashes, "can't we wait until Monday? I mean, you've given me my physical, and I'm okay, and I--I really just want to go home." Jack bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, as Daniel was pouring on the entire Little Boy Lost look--probably unconsciously, but nonetheless, he didn't know why Janet didn't roll over already. She stood about as much chance as a snowball in Hell.

"I promise to be right back here first thing Monday morning," Daniel told the doctor solemnly. "Please, Janet, it's been nine days, and a whole lot has changed," he said in a hushed voice, his eyes pleading conspiratorially with her. "I just need a couple of days to myself."

Jack pulled up aside the pair just in time to see the doctor fold with a sigh. "All right, Daniel," Frasier's shoulders slumped a little. "But these tests are important, I have to know if anything's changed. Phael was very vague with me." She looked mildly offended by the fact.

Daniel was already grabbing his jacket, nodding to her, though the Furling physician's sparse furnishing of physical details to Daniel's doctor didn't really bother him. "First thing Monday morning," he promised over his shoulder, nearly flying out the door, as if afraid she'd change her mind. Jack had to hustle to keep pace.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Danny," Jack reached out to slow his friend down, "where's the fire? I thought you and I might--"

"Jack," Daniel looked so tightly wound it seemed painful, "I have got to get out of here. I--I need some normalcy for a little while, you know?"

Jack threw an arm over his shoulder and steered him toward the elevators. "That's why you and I and Carter and Teal'c are going out for dinner and drinks, maybe play some pool."

Daniel seemed to breathe a little easier. "Not O'Malley's?"

Jack's eyebrows shot up. "Uh, that would be a no. They still have our pictures up at the bouncers' station."

Daniel grimaced, but relaxed more as Jack pressed the elevator buttons, knowing Jack would take care of everything.

~~~

Shanahan's was a kaleidoscope of color for Daniel, not only the usual color of people and lights and activity, but also the color and motion and all the other factors that made up the life forces of its employees and patrons. Keeping his eyes on Jack's feet in front of him, Daniel made it to their table without being overwhelmed, and once ensconced safely between the wall and Teal'c, with limited visibility, Daniel found it easier to look at those few people he could see.

His teammates were engaged in light conversation and he tried to join in, but they could see what he was doing, and soon they were all quiet. Finally realizing it, Daniel looked up at their expectant faces. Jack raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"I wasn't looking deep," Daniel said defensively.

"No one accused you," Sam smiled, fully aware that her retribution for looking too deeply at her with his Sight had taught Daniel that it was unnerving. She patted his hand.

"You guys don't realize," he shook his head. "I had to look at the floor to get in here."

"I observed this, DanielJackson," Teal'c noted. "For what purpose?"

Daniel looked out at that part of the full bar that he could see. "It--it's just so much," he confessed, looking unsettled. "And some of it--" his voice was small, and he broke off, looking down.

Jack glanced out at the patrons, some businessmen, some secretaries, a few military, several "cowboys" and "cowgirls," and a small group of bikers. He looked back at Daniel. "And some of it's not good," he guessed, remembering the extreme reaction Ahdji, Etienne, and Nalia had had to the sight of Senator Kinsey. Granted, Kinsey was an unusual case, but still, he hadn't considered until this moment that living with the Sight among the masses on Earth might not be so easy for Daniel. Especially for Daniel.

Daniel gave a little nod.

The waitress came over and Jack ordered them all a round of beers, which was quickly delivered, and they ordered their meal, already knowing what they wanted. After Daniel'd taken a few sips of his beer, Jack looked out again. "What do you see?" he asked, curious.

Daniel turned his head to regard the part of the room he could see from his position. "You see that guy in the blue suit?" he asked softly, eyes worried.

Surreptitiously, the other three looked. "The expensive suit?" Sam asked.

"With black hair?" Teal'c inquired.

Daniel nodded. "He doesn't care about anything but money, literally," he whispered. "He'd kill you if you stood in the way of him making money. He'd do it without the slightest hesitation."

"Remind me to stay away from that guy," Jack whispered back.

"And over there?" Daniel pointed at a middle-aged woman in a western skirt and vest combo, attractive, sitting with a group of women who looked like secretaries.

"The cowgirl?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Daniel looked away. "She used to belong to a gang when she was a kid. They would beat up people sometimes, mug them."

"Now how can you know that?" Jack asked, genuinely interested.

Daniel licked his lips pensively. "It's like, anything that's a major part of your life becomes a part of you. Those things I can See. Among other things," he shrugged.

"Okay," Jack considered it. "What about those guys?" he gestured at the bikers' table.

Daniel cast a glance at them, and then smiled. "Nothing," he shrugged. "Nothing bad anyway. A lot of financial connections. Probably accountants, businessmen who think they're out 'rebelling' by driving motorcycles."

Sam looked at him incredulously. "Daniel, they have tattoos."

"As do I, Major Carter," Teal'c reminded her.

"No offense, Teal'c."

Daniel looked again and then back to his teammates, shaking his head. "They're perfectly respectable guys," he grinned. "I think one of them owns a trucking company, and at least one of them is an accountant."

"No way," Jack denied, unwilling to believe. "Do me then."

Daniel cocked his head at Jack, rolling his eyes. "Jack, even if I couldn't See you, I know you."

"Tell me something you don't know."

Daniel sighed. "I'd have to look deep again."

"Yeah, okay, whatever. Do it."

"It's not a parlor trick, Jack."

"Come on, put up or shuddup."

Daniel laughed, and then looked hard at his friend for a long minute. "Okay," he said soberly. "The real reason you gave Cassie a dog is--"

"Okay, that's good," Jack interrupted him. "I'm convinced. No need to say more." He gave Daniel a look promising dire consequences if he did.

"What?" Carter asked, smiling. "What was the reason? Come on, you can't--"

"The reason is exactly what I said at the time," Jack insisted, "every kid should have one. End of that point. Soooo," he signaled for more beer, "anybody want another round?"

Daniel shook his head at his friend, smiling, but silently promising to keep quiet.

~~~

Saturday morning, Daniel took care of long-overdue household items, and then went grocery shopping. He was fine until he reached the deli.

"Daniel!" Marcus, the deli counter man, greeted Daniel warmly as he always did. "Long time no see! So, what can I get you this time?"

Daniel looked up from his list to greet his friend and tell him what he wanted, and abruptly blanched. Blood drained from his extremities, and he fought the light-headedness that came over him.

"Daniel!" The man ran out from behind the counter, and Daniel staggered back, dropping the basket of what he'd picked out so far in the store.

"Somebody get a chair!" Marcus called, customers and employees now beginning to gather, having heard the older man's shout. Marcus reached for Daniel, who jerked away. "Daniel, what is it? Son, what's wrong? Are you going to be sick?"

Daniel tore his eyes away, and it seemed to break some of the effect on his body. He gasped heavily for air, pulling away from other supporting arms as well. "I have to go," he murmured, and turned on his heel. He meant to walk, but before he'd gone five feet he was flat out running. His car was in the lot, but he couldn't make himself stop, and he didn't think he should drive, anyway. He just kept on running.

The life forces of the people he passed, good and bad, the emotions he was trying to escape, and his own emotions, made his running far from steady, and suddenly there was a short quip of a siren as a police car pulled in ahead of him. Daniel ran right into the side of it and bounced back onto the pavement.

"Whoa, there, buddy," he heard, and looked up as a large officer reached down to pull him up. He made a sound of alarm deep in his throat at the life force of the man and tried to pull away, wild-eyed, but another officer came up behind him, and before he knew it, his wrists were cuffed behind his back, he was frisked and his pockets emptied, and he was seated in the back of the police car, which pulled into the next available parking lot. With the curious gathering nearby to gawk, Daniel fought to calm himself.

He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths, hearing the officers going through his wallet. "Probably on something," the first cop, the one whose life force had startled Daniel, was muttering to his partner. He told himself to calm down. Just because a man was prone to violence didn't mean he was violent with every person he met. Besides, there were too many witnesses.

The other cop apparently had his wallet. "Doctor Daniel Jackson," he said, sounding impressed. He turned around to look in the back, handing the wallet off to his partner. "Hey, what you a doctor of?"

Daniel opened his eyes to look at the small Mexican man, and it calmed him a little further. The smaller officer was a fair and honest man. "Archaeology and Linguistics," he huffed, still working on the breathing. "Listen, am I being arrested?"

"Naw, not yet," the man told him, his accent heavy but friendly. "We're just checking things out, you know? We see this guy running down the street, weaving all over the place, then he runs right into the car and acts kinda spacy, well, you know, we gotta wonder about that."

Daniel nodded, seeing his point.

"You work at the Mountain?" the first cop asked stonily, seeing his Cheyenne ID.

"Uh, yeah," Daniel answered. "I'm a consultant with the Air Force."

"Huh," he replied, "how 'bout that?"

The Mexican cop was still facing him. "I'm Officer Gonzales, this is Officer Banes. Now, Dr. Jackson, maybe you should tell us what was going on?"

Daniel took a deep breath. "I--I--was at the grocery store, and I--suddenly didn't feel very well, and--I--I guess I wasn't thinking too straight, because I just wanted to run home--I left my car in the lot. And if I was weaving, that's why. I'm really not feeling too well."

"Drugs," Officer Banes muttered.

Officer Gonzales peered at him. "You don't look like the type to do drugs," he commented mildly. "You get sick like this a lot?"

"No," Daniel shook his head. "This is the first time. I'm sure if I go home and lie down, I'll be fine." He cringed at the pleading tone in his voice.

"Drug tests," Banes muttered, still flipping through Daniel's wallet.

Officer Gonzales rolled his eyes for Daniel's benefit, and smiled. "Listen, we're going to take you downtown, and if you agree to drug tests, and they come back clean, you'll be free to go."

Banes turned in his seat. "But if you don't agree to the tests, or if they come back positive, we're going to book you and throw you in a cell with a bunch of guys who just love pretty boys like you." He smiled sweetly.

"Banes," Gonzales growled. The other officer turned in his seat and faced forward. The Mexican rolled his eyes again at Daniel. "Ignore him. We keep him on a leash most of the time. So, you agree to the tests?"

Daniel sighed. "Yeah, sure, why not?"

~~~

Once Daniel had given specimens, he was taken to a holding cell where he could wait. Officer Banes took great delight in clanging the bars closed, but Gonzales hung around. Daniel started to feel tightness in his chest again, as the room held a number of men whose life forces were not something he wanted to see. It seemed no matter which way he turned, he was visually accosted, and he couldn't think of a better word for it than that. Keeping close to the door, Daniel held on to the bars and kept his eyes down.

"Hey," Officer Gonzales said softly, looking up at him with his head tilted in concern. "You okay, man?"

Daniel gave a tight nod, trying to keep breathing in a regular rhythm. Just keep looking at the floor, he told himself.

Gonzales bent his knees to lower himself even farther, trying to catch Daniel's gaze. "Well, hey, you know, I gotta fill out some paperwork while we wait, so how 'bout I just do it over there?" he pointed to a table a few feet away from the cell.

Daniel glanced up only far enough to see the officer, and was grateful to see the man was trying to look out for him. "Thanks," he said softly.

"Yeah, sure," Gonzales brightened. True to his word, he sat down at the small, rickety table in the hall outside the bars, obviously not intended for officers doing their paperwork, but he got right down to it, keeping one eye on the prisoners in the cell.

One of the officers on duty ambled over. "What's the story, Tony?" he asked in a quiet voice.

The Mexican looked up at one of his closest friends. "Dunno," he shrugged, keeping his voice down. "Banes thinks it's drugs."

The officer folded his arms across his chest. "Asshole always thinks it's drugs," he muttered. "You?"

"Naw," Gonzales glanced over at Daniel, whose gaze was fixed firmly on the floor. "Tell ya the truth, Mikey, he reminds me of my sister."

"Ohhh," his friend breathed, nodding understanding. "Think he's going to be okay in there?" He gestured with his head toward the cell.

"That's why I'm stickin' around," Gonzales explained. "I think I'll just stay till the results come back. Shouldn't be more'n an hour or so. I got plenty of paperwork to catch up on."

"Yeah." The man looked over at Daniel with concern, and then nodded. "Okay, then. See you at lunch?"

"You're buying," Gonzales informed him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," his friend walked away. "In your dreams, maybe."

Gonzales chuckled and went back to his paperwork. After about half an hour, he had the pressing need to use the restroom, and with a quick signal to his friend, he hurried out. One of the prisoners, having noticed the officer's special attention to Daniel, decided to make use of the opportunity.

"Hey! Sit down."

There was no reaction at all from Daniel, though anyone on the other side of the bars might have seen his knuckles tighten around them a little.

"You over there. Take a seat. You're blocking the view," the prisoner added sarcastically.

Daniel abruptly sat down cross-legged on the floor where he was, not taking his hands off the bars, just sliding them down.

"Not there, you dumb ass! Go sit on the bench. Or are you too good to sit with us?"

Daniel ignored him and hoped the guy would give up without encouragement. No such luck. He heard footsteps approach from behind, and then two feet came into view at his side.

"Are you deaf, moron? Get up and go sit on the bench."

Gonzales' friend began to amble down toward the cell.

The prisoner gave Daniel's thigh a hard nudge with the toe of his boot. "Go on! Go sit on the bench. Or maybe you think you're better than the rest of us?"

Daniel let go of the bars and wrapped his hands around his abdomen tightly. He'd been around enough bullies in school; he knew what would be coming sooner or later.

Sooner. The hard nudge became a semi-serious kick. "Get over there, deaf-o!"

The officer, Mikey, as Gonzales called him, approached faster. "Roberts!" he barked. "Get back to your seat."

"You heard the man!" the prisoner cried with glee, kicking Daniel much harder. "We all gotta get to our seats." He reared back to kick a third time, and there was a flash of movement so quick that the men in the cell weren't quite sure what had happened. One moment, Roberts was about to kick the newcomer again, and the next, he was moaning, curled up in a ball on the floor several feet away, one hand clutching his abdomen, the other his eye, which was already turning bright red. Daniel stood over him panting heavily, and as he looked at the prisoner, his face took on an expression that combined disbelief with disgust, and he backed away, eyes wide, until there was nowhere else to go.

Mikey was already opening the cell, gun drawn, and Gonzales was rushing in. "What the Hell happened?" he cried.

"Shit," his friend exclaimed, motioning the other men back. He knelt beside Roberts as Gonzales headed to Daniel. "This idiot was going after your boy, and got what he deserved." He pulled Roberts up to a seated position. "Didn't you, Roberts?" he asked sternly.

"I'm gonna sue," the man said shakily.

"No, you aint," Mikey informed him. "You attacked him, I saw it, and he was just defending himself. You aint got a leg to stand on. If anything, he can sue you."

"You want to press charges?" Officer Gonzales asked Daniel quickly, playing along to get Roberts to drop it. While Mikey was right, there was no reason to get the newcomer involved in anything else. His breathing was so rough, he didn't look like he could handle anything else. He shook his head in the negative right away.

"Okay," Mikey said in a voice that he hoped told Roberts that he disapproved of Daniel's decision. "So he won't press charges, but if you try anything again, I swear, we'll get him to throw the book at you, you hear me, Roberts?"

"I'm bleeding internally," the man whined.

"Pullease," the officer practically lifted him to the bench. "You got sucker-punched--you are a sucker, Roberts--and you got a black eye. Big friggin' deal. Get over it. You deserved it."

The man slumped down. "Whatever," he grumbled. "Can I at least have some ice?" he requested in a voice that suggested he was dying.

"Yeah, whatever," Mikey echoed. "Tony, maybe you ought to take your boy and put him somewhere else. He don't look too good."

Gonzales was doing his best to get Daniel to calm his breathing down; Daniel wanted nothing more than to close his eyes until somehow, magically, he got home. "Come on," Gonzales said, taking Daniel's arm, "there's a few interrog. rooms free. Let's see if we can get one of them." Turning to his friend as they left, he said, "tell Banes to come get us when he's got the results, okay?"

"You got it, baby, you got it."

~~~

Gonzales put a cup of water in front of the pale man, noting the shaking fingers. Daniel calmed his breathing a little more, enough to take a sip. "Thanks," he mumbled, eyes glued to his fingers, wrapped around the cup.

The officer took a seat next to Daniel at the table. "Nobody's gonna come in here," he assured the other man. "I got it signed out for an hour."

Daniel didn't glance up from the water in the clear plastic cup, but he nodded.

"You know," Gonzales said casually, "I got a sister named Annie."

Surprised by the inanity of the timing of the comment, Daniel looked up at him.

"Yeah," the compact Mexican man nodded, looking almost surprised himself. "And Annie and me, when we was kids, we lived with our Grandma."

Daniel nodded slowly, brow furrowed, as if trying to understand where the officer was going.

Gonzales shrugged his shoulders once, his face taking on a resigned look. "But every now and then, our pop would come around--mostly to get money from Grandma. Until he'd go, though--well," he snorted sarcastically, "let's just say things weren't too pleasant, huh?" He nodded knowingly at Daniel. "Especially for Annie."

Daniel's frown intensified.

The Mexican lightened up considerably and waved a hand dismissively. "Ah, but he's long gone, now," he said cheerfully. "Gone and buried. And Annie, she went to a doctor for years to help her and she's good, real good." He smiled. Daniel's expression eased a little.

Gonzales leaned forward onto the table on folded arms. "But you know," he said carefully, looking at Daniel with concern, "she used to have these--times--periods, they called 'panic attacks.' You ever hear of those, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel's gaze didn't falter. "Daniel," he said softly. He bit his lower lip and nodded in response to the question.

The cop nodded too. "Me, I never had one. But I remember my sister's." He kept Daniel's regard steadily. "That drug screen is going to come back negative, isn't it, Daniel?"

The archaeologist gave him another weary nod.

Gonzales rubbed his chin. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "I would feel a whole lot better if there was somebody we could call to come here for you. Is there somebody?"

Daniel gauged him with blue eyes that seemed to see into his very soul, and then the archaeologist reached across the table to where a pad and pencil sat. He quickly wrote a name and phone number, tore off the page, and handed it to the police officer.

Gonzales patted his hand and smiled. "You wait right here. No one will come in." Locking the door behind him as he exited, more for Daniel's protection than to keep him in, since he was sure Daniel suffered from some sort of people-phobia, Gonzales hurried to the nearest semi-private phone and dialed the number on the paper.

"O'Neill."

The officer shifted in the chair. "Jack O'Neill?" he clarified.

"You got him," the sharp voice told him flippantly. "And you are?"

"Mr. O'Neill, I'm Officer Tony Gonzales of Precinct 72 of--"

"Daniel--What's happened?"

"Well, yes, sir--you know our precinct?" Gonzales was surprised.

"I know all the precincts in Cheyenne. Is he okay? What's happened?"

The officer smiled at the heavy concern in the voice. He didn't know why, but he was worried about the young man, and glad Daniel had someone who cared about him. "Yes, sir, he's fine, he's here at the precinct. We don't know exactly what happened, but he's fine, and I thought it might be a good idea if someone came to get him."

"Well, if he's fine, then what's he doing at a police station, for crying out loud?"

Gonzales grinned. "We picked him up running down Nevada Avenue, sir, and there was some concern at the time about his--chemical state. In fact, a drug screen has been run and we're waiting on test results."

"What! Daniel doesn't do drugs!"

The officer started at the shout in his ear. "Sir, I know, sir," he interrupted, as O'Neill went on shouting, "and I'm sure they'll come back negative, but procedure dictated that we run the test. Anyway, sir, Dr. Jackson is somewhat shook up, and--really not having a good day, and he left his car somewhere else in town anyways, and I just thought he might appreciate having a friendly face--"

"He's okay, though, right? You said he's okay? Why's he shook up?"

"That I don't know, Mr. O'Neill."

"Okay," the voice paused for a moment, and then came back extremely authoritative. "First of all, it's Colonel O'Neill, of the United States Air Force. Second, you need to put Daniel in a secure location by himself. Is that clear?"

"Already done, sir."

"Good. This is a matter of national security, Officer--"

"Gonzales, sir."

"Officer Gonzales. You keep him secure. No one but you talks to him, no one sees him, no one touches him, am I making myself clear?"

"Perfectly, sir."

"If this is going to be a problem, I'll talk to whomever I need to there to straighten it out." Gonzales could hear the sounds of a truck starting in the background of the conversation.

"No, sir, I've already assigned him to an interrog. room, and we expect his tox results any minute. Once they're clear, there won't be any further reason to hold him."

"Well, don't you let him go, you hear me? You keep him right where he is. I'm only ten minutes away."

"Yes, sir, I'll take care of him." He paused for a second. "Sir?"

"Gonzales?"

The officer was hesitant. "He--Dr. Jackson--he's pretty important, isn't he?"

There was an even longer pause on the other end of the phone. "You have no idea, Gonzales. You really have no idea."

~~~

Jack O'Neill entered the precinct already threat-assessing. He made a beeline for the one and only Mexican-appearing person in sight. "Officer Gonzales?"

The smallish, medium brown-skinned man looked up and grinned. "Now, how'd you know it was me?" he asked sarcastically, looking around at all his co-workers, who for the most part, were rather WASP-ish. They chuckled quietly.

Jack took off his sunglasses. "Jack O'Neill," he said in greeting, a small smile letting the officer know his humor wasn't unappreciated, but he couldn't relax until he was sure Daniel was okay. "What can you tell me?" He flipped open ID as he spoke.

The police officer perused it, and then came around the desk and gestured him to follow. "We picked him up on Nevada, like I said. The drug screen's negative. He was never officially under arrest, and there aren't any charges; we were just holding him on suspicion, mainly because he seemed so ..." he trailed off, leading Jack down a hallway that grew less populated.

"Seemed so--what?" Jack prompted.

Gonzales stopped and looked up appraisingly at Jack, then nodded to himself. "I'm not a professional shrink or anything, you know, but Dr. Jackson seems to be having a lot of panic attacks today. He as much as admitted that himself."

Jack bit back the urge to snap at the man, telling himself that a panic attack was not the same thing as crazy, and the mention of a shrink didn't mean Gonzales was saying Daniel was mentally ill.

"My sister used to get them," the officer confided softly, seeing the conflict in Jack's face. "I know what they look like." He turned on his heel and continued down the hall, giving Jack the opportunity to avoid having to answer. "Anyway," he went on, "he's free to go whenever he likes. In fact," he pulled up outside a closed door and inserted a key into the lock, "two doors down," he gestured with his head further down the hall, "that's an exit to the side street. "If you want to go out that way, you can avoid all the people in main lobby." He unlocked the door and reached for the knob.

Jack caught his hand. "Hey," he met the officer's eyes with respect, "you keep my number. I got connections," he grinned. "You need a favor, you let me know, okay?"

Gonzales' bushy eyebrows went up in amused surprise. "Well, okay," he chuckled. "I'll do that." He pushed the door open for Jack.

Jack closed the door behind himself and crossed the room to where Daniel sat at the table, head down on his folded arms. He sat down across from him and leaned back in his chair. "Hey," he said conversationally, as if he greeted Daniel in police interrogation rooms every day.

"Hey." Daniel's voice was muffled, as he didn't lift his head.

Jack smiled at the pathetic tone in Daniel's voice. "Hear you're having a bad day," he said, going for a note of sympathy.

"Yeah," Daniel sighed and sat up, sliding back in his seat until he was slouching so far back, Jack wasn't sure what was keeping him upright.

"Want to talk about it?" Jack inquired.

Daniel had his hands wrapped around his chest and seemed intent on studying the ceiling. "You ever watch TV when they've just captured some big serial killer?" he asked conversationally.

Jack's eyebrows shot up; he hadn't been expecting that. "Yeah," he drawled, bemused.

"You know," Daniel let go with one hand to wave it aimlessly for a moment, "turns out the guy's been abducting people left and right, two and three a week, for 20 years, and they're all buried in his basement and back yard, and his freezer's full of human meat, and he's barbecued it a million times, and even had the neighbors over, but the news channels get the neighbors on TV, and they all say," Daniel affected a falsetto, "'he seemed like such a nice fella,'."

Jack snorted and played along, picking up a Southern accent. "Always real quiet and neighborly-like," he twanged. "Paid his neighborhood association dues on time. Never had to be told about keeping his yard presentable, not once, no sir."

Daniel sat up, but laid his elbows on the table and leaned forward, shoulders hunched. His eyes met Jack's, and Jack saw the haunted expression in the blue depths. "Jack," Daniel said, a note of desperation in his voice, "I am those neighbors. I'm the one saying those things now."

Jack leaned forward too. "What happened, Daniel?" he asked soberly.

Daniel leaned his face into his hands and scrubbed at it. "Oh, nothing," he said in a tremulous voice that implied it was something very serious indeed. "Monsters, that's all." He pulled his hands down and met Jack's gaze. "Do you know how many monsters there are among us?"

Jack didn't blink. "Yes, Daniel, I do," he said, voice steady.

Daniel looked momentarily surprised, and then not surprised, but he sighed. "Well, I didn't know," he protested. He looked up quickly. "It's not like this at the base!"

"Yeah," Jack drew out the word, glancing around at the mirrored wall behind him. He didn't believe Gonzales would have anyone in there watching them; he was certain there was no one in there. Still ... "Speaking of which, why don't we continue this conversation there?"

Daniel glanced around him, as if noticing where he was. "Oh," he remarked. "Oh!" Jack could see his muscles tightening. "Jack, I don't think I can--"

"There's an exit two doors down," Jack told him quickly. "You can keep your eyes on the ground till we get to my car."

Jack was touched as he watched Daniel once again, as he'd done so often before, take a deep breath, and put himself in Jack's hands. He nodded, and stood up, ready to go where Jack directed. He kept his eyes on the ground and trusted Jack to get him where he needed to go.

SANCTUARY

On familiar territory, ensconced at the briefing room table, his team and commanding officer around him, and a day and a half's rest in his nice, safe base quarters with his nice, safe translations, had Daniel feeling 100% better. He had explained the situation to Jack, who insisted he was going to have to tell Hammond. Something would have to be done, and Jack didn't know what. Unfortunately, he didn't think Hammond would know either. He was pretty sure it would be the Furlings who would know, not that that was a bad thing, necessarily.

Sam, Teal'c, and Janet were going to have to know about this problem as well. Jack remembered all too well Ahdji's reaction to Senator Kinsey. Even Etienne had been physically repulsed, and Nalia hadn't seemed too steady either, and the three of them had had the Sight their entire lives, instead of just days, like Daniel.

Of course, they didn't have people like Senator Kinsey on Annule, either. In fact, they really didn't have bad people on Annule. Jack sighed to himself. If he wasn't so selfish, he would admit that Daniel really ought to live there. But Daniel didn't want to live anywhere but Earth, and Jack was delighted.

"I do not understand, DanielJackson," Teal'c was saying. "What exactly did you see on your shopping excursion?"

Daniel exhaled quietly. He had been hoping to avoid specifics, but they weren't picking up on his meaning. "I went to the Deli counter," he told the group at the table. "Marcus was there--he's--he's very--friendly," Daniel swallowed hard, and stared down at the surface of the table. "I was sort of friends with him," he admitted. "We would talk for a few minutes whenever I came in. He has five daughters. They're all grown and moved away now, so he doesn't get to see them too much."

Daniel looked up. "He always seemed like such a nice guy," he shrugged. "He took an interest, asked how things were going, always seemed cheerful and outgoing. He even seemed that way Saturday, and even when--it--happened, he was very concerned about me."

"But what happened?" Sam asked.

Daniel stared at the table again. "I--I--Saw him, Sam. I saw the reason why all of his daughters moved away as soon as they were old enough, and why he never gets to see them. I Saw it." He flushed and couldn't meet her eyes. He almost looked as if he might cry.

"Oh, God," Sam breathed, suddenly divining the reason for the misery on his face.

"And then I was trying to get away," Daniel shrugged, trying to sound as if it was no big deal, but his voice was small, "and I kept running into--different kinds of people. Like--this one wishes her husband would just die, and that one thinks it's fun to ruin other companies. And then, this kid likes to go after cats and dogs with a baseball bat, and that old man imagines every woman he sees, naked." He rubbed his forehead.

"Daniel says it's not like that on the base," Jack continued for him, adding in a soft aside, "though I can't vouch for the last one. Joke," he added in a louder voice for the two scowling women at the table. "Basically, by the time people've gone through all the screening and experience and education they need to get to this point, we've usually had the really bad ones weeded out. Usually."

"Colonel Maybourne made it," Sam reminded him.

"And Colonel Simmons," Teal'c added.

"And Makepeace and company," Daniel agreed, "but for the most part, we've got really good people here on the base." He got no disagreement. "So between Annule and the base, I guess--" he laughed nervously as the words came to him, "I guess I wasn't prepared for the real world."

"Which is part of the purpose for this meeting," Jack turned to face the General. "The Furlings may know how to help Daniel deal a little better."

"I don't want to have to live on base," Daniel told the General. "I really don't want to live underground." Though Teal'c had been doing it of necessity for years, no one could blame Daniel for not wanting to. "And there's another reason for this meeting--" he broke off, biting his lip.

Everyone looked at Daniel as he frowned anxiously, and then lifted his chin. "I want to exhume my parents and take their bodies home," he said quickly. Their home, went unsaid. Now that those present knew where his parents had come from.

Hammond considered it. "That could possibly be accomplished," he said slowly. "Exhuming them is not a problem, of course, but we need a cover story to get them through the gate to Annule."

"Uh," Sam cleared her throat, "maybe we could say the Furlings want to study human skeletal remains, male and female? And Daniel uh, volunteered--his parents? I mean, it's no secret that Daniel is the Furlings' favorite--even if we're the only ones who know why--and since they're already taken with him, maybe it would make sense that he'd offer?"

"When it comes to Daniel, the Powers That Be will buy anything," Jack declared.

"Gee thanks, Jack," Daniel muttered.

"It can probably be arranged," Hammond ignored them. "So a trip to Annule will need to be put into the works." That fit in well with his visitation arrangement with Nalia.

"Yes," Jack agreed. "But I would like to request all of SG-1 go again. I still think they're a little slippery. They didn't tell us everything last time until they were darn good and ready. I'm still not sure they told us everything."

"They didn't."

Every head turned down to the firm, unhappy voice of Dr. Frasier. Daniel's eyes grew wide. "Uh, excuse me?"

Janet gave him a sympathetic look. "Would you like me to tell you, your commanding officer, and General Hammond now, and then you can decide whether or not to tell the rest of your teammates, Daniel, or would you like me to tell everyone at once?"

Daniel lowered his head to folded arms on the table. "Tell us," he invited, his tone saying he knew it wasn't going to be good news.

Janet shuffled through the chart she had with her. "I did CTs, MRIs, and various other imaging scans on Daniel this morning, along with a whole battery of other tests."

"Yup," Daniel agreed, voice muffled by his folded arms.

Janet reached for a remote she'd set by earlier, and turned on the large computer screen. "This is the site of Daniel's appendectomy a few weeks after the surgery," she told the group. "You can see the appendix has been removed here at the truncation."

She clicked the remote, and another shot filled the screen. "This is that same site this morning. Here you see the same truncation, but there's something behind it." Daniel lifted his head to look.

Janet clicked the remote again for another view. "This is that site from the opposite angle. Here you see there is a large mass in the place where the appendix used to be. It's actually larger than the appendix, but quite flexible, so it accommodates the abdominal cavity and doesn't protrude."

They were all gaping. "What is it, doctor?" General Hammond asked.

"Well, at first I thought maybe it was a tumor of some kind," Janet continued, not noticing Daniel's eyes bugging out. She pulled up a different sort of image, and used the cursor to outline a shape. "But here we can see the composition and structure of the mass." She clicked quickly through several different views, pausing once. "And here we see that's it's linked, very delicately, to the sigmoid." She went through the remainder of the views and shut off the computer. She looked back at the assembled, gaping group.

"It's an internal organ," the doctor summarized, knowing they didn't want the medical details leading to her conclusion.

"What???"

Janet shrugged. "I have no idea what it does or is supposed to do, but it is an internal organ, and it wasn't there before Daniel went to Annule. Phael explained and demonstrated his scanning equipment to me, and I know he scanned Daniel from head to toe shortly before we came home, so I'm positive he would have known about the development of this organ. In fact, I'm positive there is no way he could have not known about it. But, as Colonel O'Neill said, they did not tell us everything. They certainly told us nothing about this."

Daniel closed his eyes and slumped even further, if that were possible. "I'll just be banging my head on the table now."

"Are there any other changes?" the general inquired, his tone peeved. Janet knew it was not directed at her.

"Yes, sir," she answered, and ignored the soft moan from Daniel. "Various hormone and chemical levels in the body have altered a bit. None of them are harmful, but what they mean, I don't know."

Daniel sat back up, leaning way back in his chair. "I'm becoming more alien by the minute," he lamented to Jack.

"I'll let you know when the antenna sprout," his friend retorted unsympathetically, wringing a reluctant smile from Daniel.

"Doctor, are we going to have to start--uh, 'doctoring' Dr. Jackson's records to accommodate this new information?" Hammond asked, knowing it was a given they would have to hide the fact that Daniel now had a new, alien organ. If the NID found out, Daniel would never see the light of day again.

"The organ information has been refiled as something completely unrelated, and only I and Dr. Warner know what it's been disguised as, just in case," the doctor told him, smiling. "It's completely innocuous and even if someone knew exactly what they were looking for, I doubt they'd see it. I feel we're safe there. The blood levels can probably stay in his file. They are changes, but none of them are overly dramatic, and there's no information anywhere as to what they could mean. However, I'd feel better about it if I got the full explanation from Phael."

"I just don't understand," Daniel was shaking his head. "Why wouldn't they tell me? Why let me find out this way?"

Jack couldn't stand that Daniel sounded hurt, and wondered how he'd feel if he suddenly had some new organ in his body that was doing God knew what. "It was old Eddy," he blurted out.

Daniel looked up. "What?"

"Eddy," Jack insisted. "Etienne or whatever," he waved a hand dismissively. "He's the one, I'm sure of it. He didn't want you to know."

"But why?" Carter asked. "And what about Phael? He would have had to have been in on it, too."

"I spent many hours with Phael," Teal'c reminded them. "He did not strike me as a devious individual in any way."

"No," Jack agreed, remembering how bad the man had been at trying to be surreptitious when he wanted to show Jack the image of Danyer. "But I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts old Eddy told him not to say anything."

"Why would he do that, Jack?" Daniel asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Because he wanted to give his girlfriend a present," Jack nodded self-righteously.

"What?" Daniel asked, flabbergasted. "Jack, what are you talking about?"

"Think about it, Daniel," Jack chided. "If you don't know about the organ, then you're going to have to go back to Annule to find out. If you don't know anything about it, you're going to want to know as soon as possible. In other words, if old Eddy could get you to leave Annule without knowing anything about that organ, he'd get you back on Annule a lot quicker."

Daniel squinted in him in amazement. "And just how is that a present to anybody?"

Jack groaned and rolled his eyes. Carter smirked and looked at Dr. Frasier, who smiled her isn't he cute? smile, and Teal'c raised an eyebrow in Daniel's direction. Hammond pursed his lips patiently.

Jack put his hands on the table and leaned toward his friend. "Daniel," he said carefully. "Na--li--a."

"Yeah? What about her?"

Jack snapped his neck from side to side, hearing it crack. "Old Eddy told Phael not to say anything as a present to Nalia."

Daniel's eyes became mere slits, then widened. "Jack, Nalia is not Etienne's girlfriend."

Jack sighed noisily. "Oh, Daniel, yes, she is."

Daniel looked affronted. "No, she isn't."

"She so is."

Daniel looked around the room. "We have no way of knowing that." He noticed the looks. "Right?"

Teal'c's other eyebrow went up, and Sam refused to meet his gaze. Frasier smiled apologetically. "They did seem awfully close, Daniel."

He huffed and turned toward General Hammond, who quickly cleared his throat. "Let's get back on track, people." He happily looked away from Daniel to his second-in-command. "Colonel, as soon as we can bring Dr. Jackson's parents to the gate, SG-1, plus Dr. Frasier, is going back to Annule."

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

They emerged from the gate rather somberly, unaccustomed to being accompanied by a FRED that carried two brand new coffins. Daniel had insisted that his parents' bones were not going to travel in body bags, and of course, they couldn't travel in the original coffins, so he purchased new ones.

The Powers That Be bought the skeletal research story, or more likely, didn't care, as long as the Furlings were kept happy. Now that Earth was facing a future relatively safe from the Goa'uld, the Pentagon was much more focused on the patents that Furling inventions could bring. As the Furlings were willing to keep up relations--through Daniel and SG-1--the SGC was enjoying an unprecedented amount of benevolence from Washington.

Within moments of emerging from the gate, as happened the last time they came to Annule, Ahdji and another man emerged from the ruins after a flash of light. "Daniel!" he called happily, jogging over.

"Nice to see you, too, Ah--gee," Jack said sarcastically.

The Furling smiled as he and the other man came to a halt before them. "Colonel, Teal'c, Major Carter, Dr. Frasier," he nodded to each quickly, then turned back to Daniel. "You have returned, Daniel!" he grinned. "Nalia will be so happy!"

"Uh, yeah," Daniel said thoughtfully, unable to forget the coffins behind him. "Uh, Ahdji?"

"And when--yes?" The young man seemed to notice for the first time that Daniel didn't share his enthusiasm. "Is something wrong, Daniel?" He looked closely and saw the anxiety shrouding the archaeologist.

Daniel glanced back at the coffins and Ahdji followed his gaze. "Yes?"

Daniel turned back to him. "Uh, Ahdji, I--uh, I've brought the uh--the bodies of--my parents." He stared at the ground.

Ahdji's mouth dropped open and his eyes grew round, and he gaped at the two boxes, and then to Daniel, and then back at the boxes. He reached out to put a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "You are a good son, Daniel," he said softly.

The blue eyes came up to his gratefully, and Ahdji knew he'd said the right thing. He gestured to the other Furling. "Isen. Please call for special transport," he instructed.

The smaller Furling nodded soberly and turned to Daniel. "I will take good care of them for you, Daniel," he said with sympathy.

Daniel nodded back. Ahdji gave Daniel a small tug toward the ruins. "Come, Daniel. Everyone will be so happy to see you," he said, in a more sedate tone, but clearly trying to lift the other man's mood. "Nalia has been like a young girl these past few days, everyone has said so. It is good to see her so happy. And now that you are here ..."

Jack stood for a moment with the others, watching them go. "Nice to be wanted, isn't it?" he asked.

The others pushed by him in response, and Jack grinned and followed.

Upon transporting to Sallia, the larger of the two Furling cities, something caught Jack's eye, and he stabbed his finger in the air. "You!" he bellowed, jumping off the platform. He strode over to the old Steward of Annule, Etienne, who was grimacing but look resigned to Jack's wrath.

Jack pulled up short in front of him. "You were responsible, weren't you?" he demanded. "You told Phael not to tell us, didn't you?"

The old man bowed his head as the others approached behind Jack, and turned slightly toward Daniel. "I offer my humblest apologies," he said, in a voice unlike the overly confident one he'd used on their last visit. "I knew the development was a good thing, not bad, and erroneously made the decision that a small surprise on your part was worth Nalia seeing her grandson again more quickly." He glanced up at Daniel for one second only. "I beg your forgiveness. Nalia, as ayarro, sees things more clearly than I. She made me realize that you had no such information, and that the surprise could easily be a very unpleasant shock. It was never my intention to cause you any pain, Daniel. I apologize to you and to all of your friends." He bowed deeply. "I hope you can forgive me."

"She didn't know?" Jack asked grudgingly.

Etienne straightened. "No, of course not," he hurried to reassure them. "I knew that Nalia would never agree to it. And I must tell you also that Phael did not want to go along with it either. I had to convince him."

"I knew it!" Jack stabbed the air again with his fingers. "I knew there was something--"

"Jack," Daniel interrupted hastily. He turned to the Steward. "Where is Nalia?"

Etienne looked down at the ground. "She said she would give Phael and I time to apologize first, Daniel."

The younger man nodded, face carefully bland. "Where is Phael?"

"He is checking on your suite," Etienne informed him, glancing up. Daniel's life force was new to him and difficult to read. He couldn't tell whether Daniel was angry or not.

"I would like to talk to both of you at the same time," Daniel said softly.

"Of course," the old man bowed his head once and gestured toward the short Palace road. "I will show you to your suite, and you and your friends can make yourselves more comfortable. It is a pleasure to see you all again," he added as an afterthought, looking back at the rest of SG-1 and Dr. Frasier, who trailed he and Daniel.

The bemused smiles on Sam's and Janet's faces indicated clearly what they thought of how far up the Furling ladder of importance they ranked. "You too," Sam replied with sarcastic good nature, seeing that Etienne was already focused again on Daniel.

"Like I said, nice to be wanted," Jack muttered, passing them to catch up to Daniel, and not so surreptitiously inserting himself between Daniel and the old man.

Teal'c walked with the two women, watching the Furlings they passed all beam at Daniel, many calling out his name happily and waving to him. Daniel would give a little, uncertain wave back, but it didn't phase the Furlings--the other Furlings, Teal'c corrected himself; they were delighted if Daniel so much as looked in their direction.

Dr. Frasier seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Do you suppose it's the novelty of the situation?" she asked, as more and more people seemed to be appearing along their route.

"What, you mean because they've only just found Daniel again?" Sam questioned.

"The Furlings did not find DanielJackson," Teal'c pointed out. "SG-1, and thus, DanielJackson, found the Furlings."

"Well, yes," Sam agreed, "but it amounts to the same thing. To them, he's the long-lost son."

"Grandson," Teal'c corrected.

"It's a figure of speech, Teal'c," Janet murmured, admiring the Palace as they passed through its busy courtyard. It was a place of life and energy, and she couldn't see any class distinction at all, just like the last time she'd been here.

"The ayarros must be really, really special to them," Sam murmured as well, awed by the obvious adoration for Daniel the Furling people seemed to have.

"Extremely!" a voice at her back said enthusiastically. The three of them whirled, to find a group of Furlings cheerfully following at their heels.

One of them shook his head sadly. "You don't have ayarros on Earth," he commented.

Another nudged him. "They had Daniel," he said pointedly.

The other one brightened up. "True," he smiled. "But you cannot See him, yes? You did not truly know who you had amongst you?"

Sam glanced at Janet and back. "Well, we don't have the Sight, if that's what you mean."

"How is it you all speak English?" Janet asked. "There weren't this many people speaking English a week ago."

They beamed at her proudly. "It is the language of Daniel's adopted planet," a particularly tall Furling replied. "We were happy to learn it."

Janet and Sam exchanged glances. Janet shook her head in awe. "I knew you had that device to help you learn languages quickly, but I didn't imagine so many people would want to learn it."

Some of the group in the back brought forward chairs and began setting them up, right there in the courtyard. "Please sit, sit," the women and Teal'c were encouraged.

"Carter?"

Sam turned toward the particular entrance Etienne had led Daniel and Jack to. "Sir--"

Janet laid a hand on her wrist to stop her. "I'll talk to the Colonel. I have to be there to speak with Phael anyway. Why don't you and Teal'c stay here and--uh--" she smiled at the group, "I'm sure a little friendly conversation could help us understand ayarros and Furlings a lot better."

"And humans," one of the Furlings pointed out.

"Yes," Janet nodded. She turned back to Teal'c and Sam. "I'll tell the Colonel. You go on and stay here and talk, okay?" She hurried off to the edge of the courtyard where Jack was waiting.

"What's up with that?" he gestured as soon as she jogged up.

"That's an impromptu exchange of information, sir," Janet informed him. "They were following our little entourage and are feeling pretty chatty, it seems. They're willing to answer questions, and I thought--"

"Good idea," Jack agreed, and ushered her up the steps and into the palace. "Daniel said they'd wait."

Etienne was standing in the doorway, and stepped aside as they approached. "They are within," he said quietly.

"Duh," Jack muttered under his breath as he passed the Steward. He was still ticked at the old man for keeping information from them.

Etienne smiled behind his back and stepped inside so that the door would close. Daniel was in the corner with Phael, who was speaking in a hushed, strained tone. "I betrayed your trust," Phael was saying, looking about to cry. "I have had several days to think this through. That was the problem--I didn't think at the time. Nalia pointed out that what seemed common knowledge to me, a basic fact of life, would be completely unknown to you. I never meant to frighten you, Daniel, and I accept that I cannot be your physician now--when you are on Annule, that is, of course. I have betrayed your trust."

"You're getting ahead of yourself here," Daniel told him. He looked up at the others. "Come in, sit down." He waited until they had, and until Etienne was situated beside Phael, before speaking.

"You know, eight days ago, I had my whole life--my whole universe turned upside down, turned inside out," Daniel smiled wryly. "It took some getting used to. Everything changed on me. And every time I thought I had a handle on it, something new came up. And when I went home, I thought it was over, that at last I had time to get used to things finally."

Daniel crossed his arms. "But I got a couple of unpleasant surprises pretty soon after getting home," he quickly held up a finger at their worried looks, "one of which was not your fault. We'll talk about that later. The other one--I find out I've suddenly grown a new organ, one that's doing who knows what to me, and worse, I realize that the people who can tell me what it is and what it does, my new friends, knew I had this and didn't tell me, just left me to find out for myself. So the first thing I want to know is why you didn't tell me."

"Because I was stupid," Phael chastised himself, hanging his head.

"That isn't what Daniel wants to know, Phael," Etienne said, a little of the confidence coming back into his voice. He met Daniel's gaze squarely. "I will tell you why, Daniel."

He got up and went to a blank space of wall, and depressing a portion, an open cabinet unfolded outward. Etienne took something small off the shelf, and palmed the wall back in. He returned to his seat. The object he'd taken was a small silver square. He looked at the white, marble-like table before them all and began manipulating the square. Images began to appear and flash at a tremendous rate of speed.

Finally, he stopped on one and started its motion in normal time. "This is part of our historical record," he told the three humans. It was shot after shot of Sallia, in small three-dimensional miniature, but the city was draped in a deep burgundy color. Everyone in all the short films wore burgundy tunics, trousers, and other garb. Unlike the people of Sallia that they knew, no one was smiling, and everyone moved slowly and sluggishly. Some wept.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"This was the time after the death of Danyer," Etienne told them.

"He was very beloved," Phael agreed sorrowfully. "An ayarro is always popular, that is true, but Danyer was even more special. To know him was to love him. And he loved everyone."

Etienne nodded. "I was Steward for him, too," he went on. "Danyer had a personal relationship with everyone he met. And everyone he met knew it. Everyone loved him, literally." He waved at the mourning city. "And everyone mourned his passing with severe grief."

He manipulated the small square again. "But then," the pictures changed, "a few months later, a miraculous event lifted the city up in joy again." What was clearly a news broadcast appeared before them, like the city, in three dimensional clarity. Unlike Earth anchor people, the two women and man doing the show could not contain their happiness at what they were reporting. Daniel's mouth dropped open.

"What are they saying?" Jack asked. Janet looked at Daniel eagerly too.

He snapped his mouth shut and turned slowly. "They're announcing my--my--"

"Conception," Etienne supplied.

Phael pointed at the image. "That is Daniel. I took the images myself."

Janet couldn't help going to her knees before the table to peer more closely. The broadcast was showing what Daniel had described to them, the images Nalia had shown him when he'd been here on Annule the first time, images taken of him in the womb. It was one thing to hear about it second-hand, but it was another thing entirely to see the startling clarity.

"God," Jack gasped.

Janet shook her head. "This can't be just after conception."

"No, no," Phael agreed. "The news story merely spoke of Daniel's conception. You see, Daniel was conceived within an hour of Danyer's passing."

All three SGC members jerked their heads to look at him.

"You--you can't possibly know that--can you?" Janet asked.

Phael inclined his head. "Once pregnancy is discovered, we have technology to determine the actual moment of conception."

"Get--out--of--town!" Jack erupted.

After a moment of shocked silence, Daniel shook his head. "Uh, he means--it's only a figure of spee--just ignore Jack, okay? You--you really can tell the moment of conception?"

"Yes," Phael nodded, as if he did it everyday, which for all Daniel knew, he did. "And the news stories focused on the fact that Arrin became pregnant within an hour of Danyer's passing, when prior to that, she had tried for years and not been able to."

Janet held up a hand. "Wait, so you think they're connected somehow?"

"Danyer's death and Arrin's pregnancy?" Jack asked.

"Miracles happen," Etienne stated, almost smugly. "I believe Daniel experienced one his last visit here."

Phael nodded immediately. "Annule," he breathed.

Jack had Oh, for crying out loud! burning on his tongue, but he swallowed it down. Something had happened with Daniel last time. And according to Daniel, he'd seen the tomb of Annule, which no Furling had seen since it was originally occupied.

"So you think Daniel's conception was a miracle?" Janet asked.

"Aren't all conceptions miracles?" Phael asked her pointedly. "They are for Furlings. Especially for Furlings, because it is difficult for us to procreate. Arrin and Mikel had tried to have a child for years. It was what they wanted more than anything. Danyer knew that, and he would have given Mikel anything, anything within his power. Then, within the hour of his passing into another plane of existence, Arrin conceives. Perhaps Danyer helped. Perhaps it was only a happy coincidence. We shall never know. But it doesn't make it any less a miracle. For Furlings, every child is a miracle."

Jack realized that was one thing he hadn't seen many of, children. There were some, of course, of all ages, but not many. Adults, however, there were quite a number of. "How is that?" he asked.

"Okay, okay," Daniel interrupted, "we're getting off topic. Yes, I want to know the answer to that too, but let's get back to how these," he gestured at the images, which Etienne shut off, "justify your not telling me about the organ."

"Nothing justifies it, Daniel," Etienne replied humbly. "But you didn't ask us to justify it. You asked us why we did it. And I showed you those images to demonstrate. This planet," he threw out an arm to encompass the space around him, "these people, even Nalia, it is all new to you. You're only just learning about us, connecting to us. But we--we have known you since before you were born." He leaned forward. "We eagerly awaited your birth. We loved you before you were even born. You have just learned of us. But we have known you for 35 years, longer than you've been alive. We have loved you for 35 years. Nalia has loved you. Just because you weren't here didn't mean we stopped loving you or wanting you here with us."

"And we just got you back," Phael said in what was nearly a whisper. "And we would never try to keep you here against your will, but--" he dropped his gaze, "we just got you back." He shrugged lamely.

"Nalia had her whole family taken from her," Etienne went on. "Her grandson ripped from her before she could ever hold him even once. And finally, we got you back, and it was too quickly time for you to leave. And so I came up with the very stupid idea of not telling you about the organ, in order to hasten your return. I knew how much it would mean to the people, to myself, and to Nalia. And I didn't stop to think what not knowing about the organ would mean to you, and for that, I am truly sorry, Daniel."

"And I went along with it because--I was stupid as well," Phael smiled wryly. "And I hope you can forgive me some day, Daniel."

Daniel leaned back in his chair. After a moment, he exhaled slowly. "Last time I was here, you were Nalia's physician, not mine."

"No, I--"

"Nalia's physician," Daniel repeated firmly. "She may have had you look after me, but you were Nalia's physician. I didn't know you. Now, you want to be my physician when I'm here on Annule?"

"I know I cannot," Phael said sadly. "I betrayed your trust."

"Answer the question," Jack barked. "Yes or no? Do you want to be his doctor here or not?"

The Furling looked confused. "Well, yes, of course, but--"

"Fine," Daniel cut him off. "But if you're now my physician as well, that means that you can't withhold any information from me ever again. Right, Janet?"

"Right," she nodded.

"I will not," Phael promised, looking hopeful.

"I mean, it's one thing when you weren't my physician," Daniel held up a finger in warning, "but now, as my physician, I have to know that I can trust you completely, right?" Daniel prompted.

"Yes, yes, I swear it," Phael vowed.

"Fine." Daniel turned to Etienne. "And you?"

"I am Nalia's Steward," Etienne told him, chin lifted. "As I was the last time you were here. But you are Daniel, son of Mikel, grandson of Nalia and Danyer. You are ayarro, and favored of Annule. And if you will allow me, I will be your Steward, too. And as your Steward, I vow my complete loyalty to you. You will have no cause to doubt me." He looked at Daniel questioningly.

The young man bit his lower lip. "I'm not a prince or anything," he shook his head warily. "You're the one in charge of everything."

"So Nalia tells me," Etienne agreed, recognizing that this was one of those times when it served no purpose to remind an ayarro that it was their lead the people followed, and that the Steward only governed in their name.

Daniel nodded reluctantly. "Then on those conditions," he negotiated, "and with the understanding that no information is going to be withheld from me ever again," he nodded again, biting his lip once more, "okay." He exhaled, and visibly released some of the tension that had been clouding his face.

"Thank you, Daniel," Phael said quietly, clasping his hand, and smiling beatifically. Etienne smiled paternally at Daniel, and then smirked at Jack, who couldn't help baring his teeth.

"Now, I want to hear all about this organ," Daniel moved on. "Jack, maybe you and Etienne could check on Teal'c and Sam?" he looked up pleadingly.

The old man got up right away, but Jack's brow furrowed thunderously. "What? You--you don't want me to stay, Daniel?"

The archaeologist winced at him. "It's medical, Jack," he said softly.

Looking around at the others, and seeing that all three, Janet, Phael, and Etienne, clearly expected him to leave, Jack huffed. "Oh, fine," he said, lurching to his feet, "good, sure, okay." He headed for the door. "Like I wanted to hear medical gobbledy-gook anyway. I got better things to do with my time ..." They heard him continue grumbling as he headed out and down the hall, Etienne behind him, and Daniel exchanged smiles with Janet.

~~~

"Whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute," Sam held up her palm. "Sexual maturity? But that's in your teens, not your 30s."

The Furlings all smiled at her as if they thought she was so cute. "That is sexual activity, Major Carter," the one who'd identified herself as Binna told her gently. "Not sexual maturity."

Sam shook her head as if to clear it. "Okay. I'm not sure I get the distinction, but go on."

Tomas, who had begun the answer to her original vague question about any internal organs the Furlings acquired later in life that they weren't born with, resumed his explanation. He slapped his knees as the others listened. "When a Furling reaches sexual maturity, the Pendash communicates its need for removal."

Sam interrupted again. "Okay, 'communicates'?"

"Yes," a young man who'd introduced himself as Sayner bobbed his head enthusiastically. He'd already revealed that he had recently had his Pendash removed. "First, you begin to feel ill. Then there are small pains. Here," he pointed to a spot on his abdomen.

"Ah," Sam nodded. "All right, so what you call the Pendash, we call the appendix. And two years ago, when he was 32, Daniel--I--guess--reached--sexual uh, maturity, and the result was appendicitis."

The Furlings looked at her in confusion. "What is appendicitis, Major Carter?" Tomas inquired.

She exchanged a glance with Teal'c. "Well, like you said, first illness, an inflammation of the organ, and then pain that can get very bad, and finally, the organ ruptures."

All the Furlings gasped as one, startling Sam. She and Teal'c exchanged another glance.

"That is not the Pendash communicating the need for removal," an elderly Furling matron in the back said sternly. "That is what happens when one does not listen to the Pendash."

Sam tilted her head, considering it, and nodded at Teal'c. "Dr. Frasier did yell at Daniel for waiting for hours and hours before telling her he was in pain," she remarked.

"Indeed," the Jaffa rumbled disapprovingly. They had all been very exasperated with Daniel when they had learned that he'd been experiencing symptoms for the better part of a day and ignoring them.

"Is that what happened to Daniel?" Sayner asked in a hushed voice, leaning forward.

"Well," Sam winced, "yes, but--"

"But Daniel did not know any better," Tomas deduced quickly, and several murmured their agreement. "He has been raised by humans," he added. "How would he know?"

"Well, he should have known to tell his doctor if he's feeling pain," Sam said lightly, but shrugged, since they all seemed so eager to give Daniel an out. "But it's true that he wasn't expecting it, as I'm sure you all are when you hit 30."

"Yes," Tomas nodded. "We are taught the warning signs so it can be caught immediately."

"Okay," Sam crossed her legs, then uncrossed them, thinking it looked odd in boots. "So what happens then, after the Pendash is removed?"

"After the Pendash is removed, the Kandash grows in over the next few months," Tomas informed her. "Sayner's is growing now."

"The Kandash," Teal'c murmured. "That must be the name of the organ DanielJackson has now."

"I have heard a rumor," one of the men said softly, and all the Furlings leaned closer. "I heard that Daniel's Kandash was given to him overnight, by Annule himself. I heard that Daniel saw the Tomb of Annule."

"Oh!" Like one, they turned to Sam and Teal'c for confirmation, eyes impossibly wide.

Sam squirmed under their intense scrutiny. "Well," she said uncomfortably, "he didn't have a--Kandash before coming here," she admitted. "And Daniel does believe that Annule showed him his tomb."

"DanielJackson is rarely wrong in such matters," Teal'c informed them, a note of pride in his voice.

There was a great deal of delighted murmuring, and to Sam's surprise, it was clear that Teal'c's reassurance was unnecessary. Once they'd heard from a friend of Daniel that Daniel believed it, that made it fact to them, and they were in awe. Sam was flabbergasted.

"Wait, you mean--" She shook her head. "I--I mean, I guess I believe Daniel probably saw what he said he saw, because--well, it was--weird, and Daniel's--Daniel's usually right about that stuff," she admitted grudgingly, "but you guys, you don't even know him. Why do you believe him, just like that? I mean, I heard that no Furling has seen Annule's tomb since Annule was laid in it. How is it you believe Daniel, with no proof?"

They seemed surprised at first, and then a few of them took on looks of sympathy as they regarded her. "You must always have proof to believe, Major Carter," Binna said in a kind tone. "You find it difficult to believe things that break the rules of science as you know it, even when you see it before your very eyes."

Sam fought not to scowl; Daniel had in the past accused her of the very same thing.

"We believe," Binna told her, "because Daniel is an ayarro. It is that simple."

"Do the ayarro never lie?" Teal'c asked.

There was a titter of laughter among them, and the mood lightened. "When they try, they are even less successful at it than other Furlings," Tomas grinned. "The ayarro make terrible liars. When they attempt it, which really only happens in jest, it shows blaringly in their life forces."

Teal'c turned to Carter. "Do you remember the last Earth card game O'Neill taught me? Pricker?"

Sam laughed and sighed at the same time. "Poker, Teal'c. Yes, I remember."

"O'Neill was telling me that we should have a game with DanielJackson as soon as possible," Teal'c went on innocently. "He assured me we could win large amounts of money thus, since DanielJackson was a terrible blocker."

"Bluffer," Sam supplied. "And he's right, Daniel's terrible at bluffing."

Teal'c cocked his head at her. "Is not 'bluffing'--lying?"

Sam nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose it is, Teal'c," she agreed.

"The Colonel would take advantage of Daniel?" a horrified voice intruded.

Sam turned to several stony Furling faces. "No, no," she hurried to assure them. "He's mostly just teasing. He might win the money from Daniel, but he'd see that Daniel got it back. He usually uses it to buy Daniel something he likes - like this one wine Daniel likes--it's expensive, or once it was tickets to a show Daniel wanted to see, you know. He doesn't really keep the money."

They relaxed, and Sam pressed back on topic. "So, the Kandash," she prompted.

Tomas smiled. "Once it has grown in, the Kandash begins its many functions, one of which is emitting of hormones that make the Furling capable of giving life."

Sam's eyebrows shot up, and turning to Teal'c, she saw one of his was up, too. She turned back to the group before her. "Um, what does that mean, exactly?"

Tomas thought it over. "Prior to the Kandash growing in, one cannot give life to a child," he explained.

"So," Sam's eyes narrowed and she had a sinking feeling, "prior to our last visit, Daniel was--you're saying Daniel was--"

"Unable to give life to a child."

"Sterile?" Teal'c clarified.

"Yes," Tomas nodded. "While one still has the Pendash, one is not sexually mature. Without the Kandash, however, one is not whole. One cannot give life to a child."

"Oh, gee," Sam breathed. "Daniel and Sha'uri tried to have a child for that whole year," she whispered to Teal'c, who nodded back.

"But now, DanielJackson can father a child?" Teal'c asked the Furlings.

"Yes," Tomas smiled, and all of the other Furlings seemed equally delighted for Daniel. "The Kandash now allows him to give life to a child in all ways."

Sam's breath caught. "Um--could you clarify that a little further?"

Tomas seemed confused, and glancing around at the other Furlings, he got no help. They all seemed confused. "I have not reviewed the complete historical records of humans," he confessed. "They are in great demand at present, and everyone's time with them is limited. I know only a little of human biology. Forgive me if I state the obvious, but with humans, is it true, a man gives a woman a child? That is, in terms of carrying it within her body?"

"Yes," Sam nodded, relieved. There was some misunderstanding.

"And can a woman give a woman a child?" Tomas went on, dashing her relief against the rocks.

Sam rubbed her forehead. "No," she answered.

"I have seen two women with children," Teal'c corrected. "On Jerry Springer, two women who lived together--"

"No, Teal'c," Sam said hastily, "they may have had the baby, but the one woman didn't give the baby to the other." She looked across at the Furlings. "No."

Tomas looked concerned. "Can a woman give a man a child?"

Sam's hand went next to rub her temple. "No."

The Furlings were all looking unnerved. "Can a man give a man a child?"

"No." Sam's sigh was very audible.

"How do you sustain your numbers?" a curious voice at the back asked.

"They have no problem with that," Teal'c responded. "They are the most prolific race I have ever encountered."

Tomas shook his head, confused. "What is your population?" he inquired.

"Oh, about six billion," Sam waved a hand dismissively in front of her eyes and went back to rubbing her temple. Daniel was in for some more shocking news.

"Six billion!" The Furlings were clearly shocked, and Sam lowered her hand.

Binna looked stunned. "We are not quite a million and a quarter strong. It is difficult for Furlings to have children."

"And why is that?" Teal'c inquired.

"Well, for one thing, they have to wait until they're in their 30s," Sam told him sardonically.

"Yes," Tomas nodded soberly, her dark humor going over his head. "And there are many other factors involved. So many conditions must be just right."

"Such as?" Teal'c pressed.

The Furlings all seemed to blush as one, and Sam thought that was something else they had in common with Daniel. "Everything needs to be right," Tomas repeated, as if it were obvious. "There must be deep feelings involved. The mood must be right. The physical setting. The circumstances. Many, many things. Any of them can make it difficult for a Furling to--procreate."

Which explains Daniel's lack of a social life, Sam thought. He practically had to be under the influence of something for anything to occur.

"Which is why the Kandash evolved, no doubt," Binna said.

"Yes," Tomas agreed. "Through the Kandash, the Furlings do not have to limit themselves to a man giving a woman a child. On Annule, anyone can give anyone a child."

"I do not understand," Teal'c stated. "How can a woman give another a child?"

Tomas looked appealingly at Binna, who took up the explanation. "In a woman," she said softly, "the Kandash can, at times, extend outside the--"

"Okay!" Sam interrupted, a nervous laugh erupting. "We've got that picture."

Teal'c looked at her stonily. "I did not."

"Well, trust me, I did," Sam told him. "I'll explain it later."

Teal'c looked stubbornly at Tomas. "And how does a man give another man a child?"

Tomas smiled. "Well, in the same way as with a woman, only he puts his external organ into--"

"Whoa!" Sam shook her hands in front of him. "We got that part, too. Skip ahead, okay?" She looked at him pleadingly.

His smile became a grin, even if it was accompanied by a blush. "During the sexual act between two men, the Kandash draws the--" he grinned at Sam, "material into itself. There, it combines with special tissue inside the Kandash, and becomes a child. It is similar when a woman gives a woman a child." He clasped his hands in front of him and looked at Sam for approval.

She sighed. "So a--male--carries the child in the Kandash?"

He nodded.

Sam shook her head disbelievingly. "That's gotta hurt."

"What does?" Tomas asked.

Sam raked her fingers through her hair. "Uh, for a male to give birth. I mean, Dr. Frasier showed us the connecting tube--"

"Oh, no," Tomas assured her. "When the child is ready to be born, it communicates this to the parent. The parent tells the doctor, and the doctor removes the child."

"Cesarean?" Sam asked, frowning.

"What is Cesarean?" Binna questioned.

"Uh," Sam gestured, "the doctor cuts--" She made a slashing gesture in the general area, and was interrupted by gasps of horror.

"No, no," Tomas imitated her own gesture unconsciously, shaking his hands in front of her to stop her explanation. "The doctor removes the child." He looked around at the others for clarification.

"Transports the child," someone supplied.

"Holy Hannah!" Sam exclaimed. "They just--transport the child out of the parent?"

"Yes," Tomas nodded, grateful that she understood. "Everything. Then the patient is treated, and within the hour, all is back to normal, muscle, skin, everything."

"Whoa," Sam breathed.

Teal'c had both eyebrows up. "The Tau'ri have stigma attached to sexual pairings that deviate from male-female," he stated. "Is that not the case here?"

The group looked intrigued. "Stigma? Social stigma?" one asked.

"Why would anyone mind who someone else loved?" Tomas asked, troubled innocence on his face.

"Well, I guess that answers the question," Sam observed wryly to her teammate. She jumped as a hand descended on her shoulder, its twin on Teal'c's. Looking up, she sighed at her commanding officer. "Sir."

"Carter, Teal'c," Jack nodded, and nodded to the gathering of Furlings, "Kids," he greeted, though no one present fit that description. The Furlings chuckled. "Whatcha talking about?"

His tone told Sam that he'd heard the last part of the conversation at least and was intrigued. "Sir," she said quietly, seeing the planet's Steward behind Jack, "I think we need to talk."

"Indeed," Teal'c rumbled, already getting to his feet.

~~~

Daniel wished the doors didn't slide shut quietly; he would have liked to have slammed a few as he walked through the palace. He made his way toward the abandoned wing he'd found on his first visit to the planet, wanting to be alone. His head was spinning, and he felt both furious and numb at the same time. He knew the fury would wear off. It was the feelings under the numbness that he would be stuck with, and he didn't know what to think at all. In fact, it was difficult to think, period, what with the panic rising up from his stomach.

He turned the corner to the patio he'd visited the last time, the one from which Annule had beckoned him into the wilderness, and stopped short. Nalia stood at the railing, and turned as he came into sight. "Daniel!" She broke into a welcoming smile, but her eyes were sympathetic, aware that he'd been getting information from Phael since he'd arrived on the planet.

Daniel sighed, and some of the anger slipped away. The sight of the old woman did comfort him for some reason, though he still found that odd; he barely knew her and yet, he felt comfortable with her. "Aman," he sighed again, stepping out onto the patio.

Nalia thrilled to hear him call her grandmother in the Furling tongue, which had been another gift given to him by Annule himself. Her grandson was favored by Annule, and this made her proud. She held out her hands, and he crossed to her to take them. Not letting go, Nalia drew him into a hug, and Daniel found himself relaxing into it, something that rarely happened when people touched him. "Aman," he whispered.

When she pulled back, Nalia touched his face and looked at him with concerned eyes. "Are you all right?"

Daniel knew she didn't mean physically. He sighed again and slumped against the railing, back to the view. She leaned against it sideways next to him. When he didn't speak, Nalia patted his hand on the railing. "It must be very foreign to you," she commiserated.

Daniel nodded minutely. After a minute, he looked at her. "Until a short while ago, I thought this kind of thing only happened in science fiction."

"Science fiction?" Nalia asked. "Then you have heard of it before?"

Daniel turned abruptly to look out over the wilderness, where the sun was lowering in the sky. "What, that a man could have a baby?" he snorted. "Oh, yeah, usually it's some mad scientist doctor figuring out a way to make some guy able to carry a baby. Thing is," he glanced at her sideways, "on my planet--on Earth," he flushed, "it's a joke. Or else it's sci-fi, or both. It's not reality." He looked away.

Nalia scooted closer until they were shoulder to shoulder--or as close as their heights would allow. "Is that what it is to you? Bringing life into being?"

"Nooo," Daniel protested. "Of course not. It's just that I never imagined that I might be the one carrying that life."

"You said you were married," Nalia smiled. "To Sha'uri, a human woman, yes?"

"Well, sort of," Daniel agreed.

Nalia patted his hand. "Did the thought of Sha'uri carrying a child of yours make you think less of her?"

Daniel looked over slowly. "No," he conceded in disbelief at her question. "If anything, more. When we trying to have a baby--" he looked away, swallowing hard, "God, we wanted that so much. And the thought of her pregnant--I couldn't wait." He slumped down onto his elbows at the railing. "And it turns out it was all my fault that she never got pregnant."

Nalia put her arms over his back at the sound of the anguish in his voice. "It was not your fault, Daniel," she comforted. "It was simply a fact of nature. You were not physically mature yet. Now you are. And someday, there may be another woman you will love, and to that woman you may give a child."

He straightened a little and looked at her, eyes moist. "And what about the other way?"

She cupped his face. "No one says you have to do anything you don't want to, Daniel," she assured him. "But we Furlings look at people as individuals, and not as genders, and I believe you are fully Furling in that." Her conviction caused him to straighten up the rest of the way.

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked, back stiffening.

Nalia patted his arms as she let her hands fall. "Just keep your mind open, Daniel. Don't close your heart to love because your mind tells you to. Love is rare and precious, and when you find it, you must hold on to it for as long as you can, and enjoy it for as long as it lasts."

She kissed his cheek and patted it. "Now, I am going back in before Etienne comes looking for me." She started across the patio.

"Aman?"

Nalia turned back. "Yes?"

Daniel looked uncomfortable, and had his arms wrapped around himself. "Did Etienne--uh--Jack thinks--that is--" he looked up. "Did Etienne not want Phael to tell me--as a gift to you? So I would come back sooner?"

Nalia winced. "I'm afraid he did, and I'm sorry, Daniel. He did it without consulting me. He was supposed to have apologized by now."

"He did," Daniel reassured her. "But um--" he bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at the patio tiles, "well, uh, some people thought he wanted to give you that gift because he--uh, because he has feelings for you." He looked up at her.

Nalia gave him a crooked grin and put her hands on her hips. "And should he not?" she asked imperially.

"Uh--"

Nalia chuckled at his Trapped Prey expression, and turned on her heel. "I will see you at dinner, Daniel."

She was still grinning at Daniel's curiosity, thrilled that he actually had interest in her personal life, when she emerged into the used portions of the palace, and saw Jack O'Neill checking rooms indiscriminately up and down the hall she was in. She shook her head, grinning wider, and waited until she caught his eye. He trotted over, but before he could reach her, Nalia pointed down the way she'd come and left.

Jack watched her go, and then hurried down the unused hallway.

~~~

Daniel was seated on the tiles of a fairly vacant patio pretty close to the overgrowth of foliage behind the Palace. He had his back to the railing, head back, eyes closed. "Jack," he stated, not opening his eyes.

Jack snorted and plopped down beside him against the railing. "How'd'ya know it was me?" he grinned.

"Who else would it be?" Daniel asked, his tone resigned.

Jack peered at his friend, who had yet to move a muscle, including opening his eyes. "You okay?"

"No, no, I am not okay," Daniel told him, still not moving. "Did you come here for the scoop, or did you weasel it out of somebody else?"

"Daniel, I'm hurt," Jack patted his chest over his heart. "Maybe I'm just here to lend support."

Daniel opened one eye and tilted his head slightly toward Jack. "Who told you?" he asked, his voice a flat monotone.

"I didn't weasel it out of anybody," Jack protested. He shrugged, smiling. "Carter just reported what the Furlings in the courtyard told her."

"Oh, great," Daniel banged his head back against the railing, reclosing the eye. "Everybody knows."

"Daniel," Jack said patiently, "when you threw me out, I was possibly the only person on the planet who didn't know."

"Wonderful."

"Daniel!" He gave his friend's arm a shake, prompting the archaeologist to open his eyes again. "Everybody on the planet knows because everybody on the planet's got one," he pointed out. When he saw the 'oh, yeah' look register in Daniel's eyes, Jack pressed on. "Except for me, Carter, Teal'c, and Frasier, of course."

Daniel's gaze turned wary, but he didn't turn away from Jack's regard. "Daniel, it's okay. It's not a big deal. Everything's going to be okay."

"You keep saying that!" Daniel erupted quietly. "Not a big deal? That's easy for you to say, isn't it, Jack?"

"Okay," Jack bobbed his head, "you're right, it's easy for me to say. But it isn't a bad thing, Daniel. Nothing has to change, you know."

"Right," Daniel snorted, "only now I just have to make sure I don't go getting myself knocked up, right, Jack? But business as usual, other than that!"

Jack's eyes widened and his mouth dropped opened.

Daniel froze. "What?" he asked defensively after a minute. "You said you knew, Jack."

Jack's jaw snapped shot. "Yeah! Yeah. I--I--I knew. I--I knew you--could--get--"

After a minute, Daniel scowled. "Pregnant, Jack."

"Right," Jack's head nodded so fast he thought he was going to get a headache. "Right, right, yeah. It's just--it's--it's--it's--it's just--it's just I--I--"

"You WHAT?" Daniel asked in exasperation, punctuating his frustration with his hands.

"I--" Jack took a deep breath, eyes still bugging, "I never thought you could--get pregnant," he confessed.

Daniel gaped in turn, and shook his head to clear it. "What? That makes no sense, Jack."

"I--I--" Jack held up his hands for Daniel to wait, and visibly reigned in his emotions. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. When he looked back at Daniel, he seemed much calmer, and to Daniel's dismay, somewhat amused. "Okay. Okay, let me try this again. I knew you had this organ that meant that physically you could pregnant," Jack nodded. "But I didn't think that you would ever engage in the kind of activity that would lead to you getting pregnant."

"Oh." Daniel's face drained of color, and he leaned back against the wall. Jack leaned back too.

"Well, now you know," Daniel said softly.

"Now I know," Jack agreed.

They sat there for a moment, and Jack felt compelled to say something. "It's okay, you know," he said, bumping his shoulder against Daniel's.

"Yeah?" Daniel sounded encouraged as he bumped Jack back.

"Yeah," Jack smiled at him, and Daniel smiled back.

"Still friends?" Daniel asked.

Jack bumped him much harder. "Of course, you numbskull."

"Numbskull?" Daniel bumped him back just as hard. "Actually," he said thoughtfully, "that's kind of appropriate right now."

Jack snorted. "Soooo, uh, how long have you ...?"

Daniel had a line between his eyebrows as he looked over. "How long have I what?"

"You know," Jack smiled, elbowing him. "How long?"

"Oh," Daniel got it. "Um, I don't know, a few years."

"Really? Less than 10 or more than 10?"

"Jack."

"Come on, Daniel. Who else you got to talk about it?"

After about a minute of silence, Daniel poked his elbow into Jack unexpectedly, grinning at the exclamation of pain. "Less than 10," he announced.

"Yeah?" Jack sounded surprised. "Less than 5?"

"Yeah."

"Really?" Jack turned to look at Daniel. "During the time I've known you?"

Daniel shrugged.

Jack leaned back. After another minute of silence, he kicked Daniel's foot. "Anybody I know, or just men in general?"

"Just one," Daniel kicked Jack's foot, only harder, "and I'm not telling."

Jack scooted his legs out of easy reach, and Daniel did the same. "Why not?"

"Why should I?"

Jack grabbed his arm. "I could check him out," he offered. "You know, just make sure he's on the up and up."

Daniel snorted, overcome suddenly with giggles. "You mean you'd hunt him down and threaten him six ways to Kingdom Come if he doesn't treat me right."

"Well, yeah, same thing."

Daniel laughed again, and Jack smiled at the sound. "No, Jack," his friend shook his head. "I can't tell you and I won't, and anyway, it wouldn't do you any good even if I did tell you, because he doesn't know a thing about it, and I don't want him to know."

Jack grabbed his arm again. "Wait a minute. There's been one guy, and he doesn't even know about it?"

Daniel looked surprised at Jack's mood change. "Yeah?"

Jack dropped his arm and groaned, rolling his eyes. "You've just been thinking about it?"

Daniel frowned. "Yeah, so?"

Jack shook his head. "Sheesh. And here I was thinking you knew what you were doing."

"Oh, like you know more about it than I do," Daniel snapped.

Jack tilted his head at Daniel, pursed his lips, and smiled wryly.

The anger drained out of Daniel's expression and was replaced with confusion. "Jack?"

"Daniel?"

"Jack."

"Daniel." Jack smiled a little wider.

Daniel shook his head, suddenly smiling. "Nuh-uh, you're messing with me. Very funny."

Jack crossed his arms and waited.

Daniel lost the certainty. "Jack?"

"Daniel?"

The archaeologist studied him carefully, and then reached out and hit his shoulder with the back of his hand. "Have you thought about it?"

"Yup."

Daniel blinked at the quick answer, and the smile that delivered it. He hit Jack's shoulder again with the back of his hand, a tiny bit harder--but not hard. "Have you ever--done--anything?"

"Yup."

A multitude of emotions warred in Daniel's eyes. "You're lying," he said warily, a tiny smile on his lips as if pretending to go along with the joke.

"Nope."

Daniel surveyed Jack where he sat against the railing, legs straight out and crossed at the ankles, arms crossed on his chest, chin up, eyes clear, and a very self-satisfied smile on his face.

"What?"

Jack's eyebrows went up. "What?" he asked pleasantly.

"No," Daniel shook his head. "If you've done something, then what have you done?"

Jack chuckled. "What, you want a list? Trust me, Daniel, if you want to know if I'm experienced, I am."

"When?"

Jack paused. "Well, before Sara, and then for a while after we got divorced."

Daniel's eyes narrowed. "After you got divorced."

"Yeah."

"When you got back from Abydos."

"Right."

"You said for a while - when did you stop?"

"What is this, the Inquisition?" Jack laughed.

"You started it," Daniel accused. "When did you stop?"

"I did not," Jack lied, "And I stopped when SG-1 formed. Too busy then."

Daniel chewed on his lip. "That's when I came back," he said quietly.

"That's what I said," Jack shrugged. "When SG-1 formed."

Daniel retook his position against the wall. "Soooo," he said after a minute, "anybody I know, or just men in general?"

Jack jumped up with a nimbleness that belied the bum knees he was always complaining of, and jerked Daniel up too. "For crying out loud," he exploded good-naturedly. "I've created a monster. Next you'll be wanting details and diagrams."

"Well," Daniel grinned, "that would--"

"Aht," Jack held up a finger to stop him. "You know I told you because I trust you," he said soberly, eyes soft.

Daniel smiled. "And I trust you, Jack."

Jack held his smile a little bit longer before it grew into a sarcastic grin. "Riiiight," he drawled, patting Daniel's cheeks. "Let's go, rock-boy. I'm starving."

~~~

They entered the room where dinner would be served only to find chaos. A group of distressed-looking Furlings had gathered, but only fruit and beverages were on the table. Nalia was seated on a couch, weeping, with Etienne's arms around her, and Phael hovering over them. Teal'c stood at attention near the door, Carter and Frasier beside him, both with their backs to the entrance.

"This is going to kill Daniel," Sam said as they crossed the threshold.

Daniel took one look at the room, and heard that one sentence, and did an about-face back into the hall. Jack ran after him. "Daniel!"

"No!" he shouted, as his CO caught up and grabbed him by the sleeve. "No, Jack, I can't take one thing more, I can't! Certainly not anything that begins with 'this is going to kill Daniel'!" His eyes were frightened, and Jack realized again the amount of stress his friend had been under lately. In addition to the normal stress and pressure of his job--a not inconsiderable amount, he'd contracted an alien illness, discovered that his parents had been aliens who'd been kidnapped from their home and had had their memories erased, that his grandfather was also an alien--and a criminal, and that he himself, was in fact, also an alien. He'd gained the 'Sight,' which allowed him to see the life forces of all living beings, but it also subjected him to the horrific ugliness that lurks in men's souls. He now had the added stress of keeping all this information secret from the NID and everyone else on Earth, or he'd likely end his days a government lab rat. Then he'd discovered he'd grown a new internal organ, could carry a baby if he chose, and oh, yes, been outed to his best friend. It wasn't surprising he was balking at taking on that one last straw.

"I know, I know, Daniel," Jack soothed, and seeing the panic not decreasing, he steered Daniel down to their suite and once inside, enclosed his friend in a bear hug. He could feel Daniel shaking.

"I can't, Jack," Daniel said, his voice muffled at Jack's neck. "I just can't. I can't."

"It's okay, Daniel," Jack agreed. "It's been a big day. You don't need any more today. Come on, let's just go sit down, okay?" Though he said sit down, he quickly had Daniel laying down on the couch, and he knelt beside it, throwing a blanket over his friend. He was worried at how pliant Daniel was. It reminded him of how quickly he'd collapsed after learning that the snake he'd thought he'd seen go into Jack's neck was just a figment of his mind, thanks to Machello's Goa'uld-fighting inventions. Daniel curled up on his side under the blanket, and Jack put a pillow under his head, taking Daniel's glasses.

"It's okay, Daniel," he repeated, and smoothed the light brown hair. "I'll take care of everything. You just rest a while, okay?"

"I just can't, Jack," Daniel repeated in a small voice. "Not right now. I can't, I can't."

"I know," Jack leaned down and hugged him as best he could with Daniel laying down. "It's okay. I'll take care of it. You just rest, will you do that for me? Will you rest for me, Danny?"

Daniel's eyes slid shut. "Okay," he mumbled.

Jack waited until he was sure Daniel was asleep, and then he headed out of the suite. On opening the doors, he nearly ran into Teal'c. The warrior turned around. After Jack closed the door behind him, Teal'c spoke quietly. "We heard you leave, and I followed. I thought it best that DanielJackson not be disturbed."

"Good idea," Jack clapped him on the arm. "T, I need you to stay here and keep everybody out, okay?"

The Jaffa inclined his head and took up his 'Ready' stance at the door. Though there was no one to fight on Annule, he was certainly going to let no one disturb the scholar. Jack hurried back down to where everyone had congregated. The unrelated Furlings were gone, he was glad to see, and Nalia had pulled herself together. Carter jumped up from a chair and looked at him with guilt all over her face. "Sir, I'm so sorry; I didn't know--"

"Save it, Carter," he snapped. "It's not your fault, let it go, and let's move on." He pulled up a chair and turned it around; sitting on it backwards, he leaned on the back and looked at Phael, Etienne, and Nalia, all seated on the couch. Ahdji had joined the party, and sat in the chair next to Carter's. "So what happened?"

Nalia looked away, and Etienne tightened his shoulder around her, looking fiercely protective. Phael examined his hands. "Ahdji had the coffins you brought taken to the place where we prepare our dead for funeral rites," he said softly.

Jack cast a sideways glance at Carter, who nodded sadly. He looked back at Phael, who still hadn't looked up.

"Arrin has been prepared," the physician announced in a voice so soft Jack had to strain to hear him.

When nothing more came, Jack narrowed his eyes at the group. "And Mikel?"

Phael lifted his eyes. "The body in the other coffin, Colonel--it is not Mikel."

Etienne lifted Nalia to her feet. "I shall take Nalia to her suite," he declared, and without another word, swept her out of the dining room.

Jack turned back to the physician. "What do you mean, it's not Mikel?"

"The body in the other coffin," Phael said sorrowfully, "is a human male."

Jack shook his head, confused. "So--what are you saying? Daniel's half-human?"

Phael's eyes blazed for a moment, but then he exhaled, and the anger seemed to flow out with his breath. "Daniel's father is Mikel, Colonel, there is no doubt about that. What I'm saying is that the body in the second coffin is not the body of Mikel."

Jack scrubbed his face with his hands. "Okay, that can't be. Daniel and I stood there and watched the graves being exhumed. Our own people were with us and took possession of the coffins. They transferred the bodies into new coffins--and no, I didn't let Daniel watch that, but I trust the men who did it, and we were only a few feet away. Then we drove straight to the airport, and flew straight to Colorado, and then drove straight to the Mountain. That body came out of Daniel's father's grave. How can it not be Mikel?"

"Colonel." Jack turned to Carter. She winced. "I think--we have to consider the possibility that somebody else was buried in the place of Daniel's father."

"Why?" Jack asked. "Maybe it's just a mix-up. Maybe the tombstones got switched. Maybe the wrong coffin got put in."

"Sir." Carter inclined her head toward Dr. Frasier.

"I took a look myself, Colonel," Janet said softly from the chair she'd taken on the other side of the couch. "The evidence on the bones is highly suspicious. Now, it wouldn't have been terribly obvious while the body still had flesh, but in its present state, it isn't difficult to see the type of fractures that the victim died of. It wasn't seen during the transfer of coffins because for a simple transfer, we only needed lay technicians. And no lay technician is going to look all that closely at the remains if they don't have to." Not to mention the fact that there was a full bird Colonel a few feet away tensely willing them to hurry, for Daniel's sake, hung in the air unsaid.

Jack curled his hands into fists. "Shit," he cursed. "So what did the guy die of?"

"He did die of a lot of bone fractures and internal injuries," Frasier conceded, "but they aren't compression fractures. They aren't at all what a medical examiner would expect with that type of accident."

"We compared the bones to Arrin's as well," Ahdji put in softly. "The breaks are not of the same type."

Phael agreed. "Whoever killed that man," he informed Jack, "did it by beating him to death. And he was strong."

"Strong enough to fracture skull," Janet added.

~~~

Daniel stretched, his muscles stiff, and realized why; he'd slept the whole night on the couch. Wondering why, the events came back to him, and he opened his eyes quickly. Sam sat in a chair nearby, staring into a small hand-held device with rapt attention.

"Sam?"

"Daniel!" She set the box aside and smiled. "How are you feeling?"

He sat up and finger-combed his hair. "Okay." Glancing around the empty room, he peered at her suspiciously. "What, did you pull babysitting duty?"

She scowled at him. "Ha ha. I was reading." She indicated the device she'd been holding, and then turned back to him excitedly. "Ahdji converted some of their projection data into English for me and gave me this to read it on. He said I could keep it, and he'll keep converting things for me, whatever he's allowed to, I guess."

Daniel cocked his head at her in disgust. "Oh, just what you need, to learn more about their image projection technology."

Sam laughed in delight, remembering the revenge she'd gotten on Daniel on their last visit. "Yeah, well, you just mind your Ps and Qs, little boy, and you'll be fine."

Daniel stood up and towered over her where she sat. "Who are you calling little?" he asked challengingly.

Sam grinned and pinched his thigh quickly, startling Daniel enough that he backed up a foot, which was enough to give her leeway to jump up and knock him over onto the couch. She followed onto him, both knees on his abdomen, and pinned his arms under his own weight before he knew what she was doing. Taking advantage of the short amount of time before he got his wits back, she began tickling him under the arms, his most ticklish spot.

Daniel reacted just as she'd hoped; that was the one spot that made him helpless, and he gave up the fight before it even started, crying out through his laughter for her to stop. A door banged open, and both of them glanced up at Teal'c, in his bedroom doorway.

"Samantha Carter!"

Sam looked at Daniel, who was trying to catch his breath, and back to Teal'c. "Yeah, Teal'c?"

"I thought you were going to guard DanielJackson?"

Sam looked again at Daniel, and then back again to Teal'c, face all innocence. "I am guarding him, Teal'c. See? Nobody's going to get to him while I'm here."

"You trying to Kel-no-reem, Teal'c?" Daniel asked breathlessly?

With what looked suspiciously like irritated disgust on his face, the Jaffa turned his back and closed his door sharply. Daniel threw Sam off him and was on his feet, warily holding out his hands before him in readiness in case she tried anything else. "Guarding?" he inquired coldly.

Sam shrugged, going back to her chair. "Well, you know. He stayed up all night. I had to tell him something to get him to turn in."

Seeing her settled in, Daniel took the seat on the couch furthest from her, and perched on the edge, so he could flee if she was just trying to trick him.

Sam giggled. "Quit being such a baby," she laughed. "I'm not going to jump you."

"Again, you mean?"

She smiled archly. "I only have to prove my superiority once a day," she told him haughtily.

"Yeah, right," Daniel relaxed a little, muttering. "Superiority, that's it. We called it something else in the old days."

"Really?" Sam asked, again all innocence and big eyes. "And what might that be, oh ancient one?"

"Hey, I am the one Nem thought was 'oldest,' and the one the Nox thought the least young, if you'll recall," Daniel pointed out with mock arrogance, "and in the old days, we just called a bully a bully. But if you want to call it superiority," he waved a hand dismissively, "no skin off my nose."

Sam laughed. "Big sisters are supposed to be bossy," she told him.

"Says who?" Daniel demanded.

"Says Mark," Sam shot back. "My brother'll tell you, it's my job to bully you around." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, yeah?" Daniel asked. "But Mark is your brother."

Sam jumped up again and Daniel only had time to flinch before he was cornered on the sofa, but this time Sam just threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. She rested her forehead on his. "You're my littlest brother," she told him softly.

Daniel felt a lump in his throat, and he brought his arms up around her as well. Sam settled into his grip, and they sat together for a few minutes. Finally, Daniel decided to bring up the subject he'd been avoiding. "So," he cleared his throat, "uh, last night?"

"Yeah," Sam sighed, having known he'd ask sooner or later. She pulled back a little and met his gaze. "There is a problem, okay? But the Colonel said to ask you to let him handle it for a couple of days. He's going to check on a few things."

Daniel was already shaking his head. "I couldn't handle it last night, Sam. But I can't have Jack fighting my battles for me."

"He's not, Daniel," Sam protested. "He's just gone to see if he can find out some more information."

"Gone?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "He and Janet went back to Earth early this morning. They're just going to do a little fact-finding. They're not fighting any battles."

"Right," Daniel said sarcastically. "If I know Jack, he'd take on a whole army if it'd keep me out of it." He extricated himself from her embrace and stood up. "I'm going to go get washed up and change," he told her. "Then I want you to tell me what happened, Sam."

She looked up at him unhappily. "Daniel--"

"No, Sam," he interrupted. "I want you to tell me what happened. Last night it was just too much. Today, I need to know." With a meaningful, warning look, he went into his room.

UNEARTHING THE PAST

"The DNA's running now, sirs," Janet reported to General Hammond and Colonel O'Neill, after she closed the general's office door.

"You were able to get it from the teeth?" Jack asked.

She nodded. "I've also got a request in for Daniel's parents' medical records for that incident, including his father's autopsy. They should be faxed within the hour."

"Good," Hammond nodded, satisfied that things were moving along. "Colonel, do we have any idea why Dr. Jackson's father wasn't in that coffin?"

Jack shook his head. "I sure don't, sir. All we know for sure is the poor guy who was in the coffin was murdered."

"I'm having our lab guys see if they can't use the skull to produce a composite of the facial appearance of the man," Janet added. "The DNA will only help us if the man ever had his DNA typed. A composite might be of more use, particularly if he was ever reported missing."

"I see," Hammond said thoughtfully. "Jack, would a trip to New York City General be of any help, do you think?"

Jack considered it. It was possible that the hospital that Daniel's parents had been taken to might have records of--or maybe even someone who remembered--the event, even though it was long ago. "It might," he shrugged.

"Let's see what the autopsy says," Hammond nodded. "Based on what we find out, I may send you there, Jack."

"Whatever you think will help, sir," Jack agreed. There had to be some way to figure this out.

~~~

"Daniel!" Sam didn't think she'd ever seen him move quite so fast, and she was having trouble getting her own things together fast enough, and keep up. "Damn it, Daniel, slow down!"

"I have to do this, Sam!" he shouted over his shoulder, making his way through the courtyard. Once he'd gotten the truth out of her, Daniel was insistent on what he had to do, and while Sam didn't see the connection, Daniel apparently did. He'd grabbed his things and taken off without a word to Nalia, Etienne, Phael, anyone.

"DanielJackson!" The roar stopped them both in their tracks, right before the exit of the palace. They turned to see Etienne and Teal'c hurrying after them.

"Teal'c, I don't have time for this," Daniel snapped.

"I demand to know where you are going," the Jaffa stated.

Daniel drew himself up stiffly. "I'm going to P4J37X, if you must know. And nobody's stopping me."

"P4J37X?" Etienne asked.

"I don't have time for this!" Daniel huffed, with a small stamp of his foot on the ground.

Teal'c inclined his head to Etienne. "That is the planet where last we saw Nicholas Ballard," he explained. He looked up again at Daniel. "For what purpose do you seek that man?"

Daniel's mouth set into a grim line. "Because he knows what happened," he stated with absolute certainty.

Sam laid a hand on his arm. "What makes you think that, Daniel?" she asked gently.

He looked at her, nearly undone by the soft kindness in her voice. "I just know," he whispered.

"Then it is true," a quiet voice announced grimly, and they all turned to Etienne. The old man was pale and looked shocked. "If Daniel believes Nicolae knows what happened to Mikel, you may rest assured, Nicolae knows."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you say this because DanielJackson is an ayarro?" he inquired.

Etienne nodded soberly.

"But--" Sam shook her head.

"God, Sam," Daniel moaned, "can't you ever believe me? Just once?"

Sam teared up at the begging tone in his voice, and she nodded. "All right, Daniel," she agreed. "Let's say Nick knows. But you're not going alone. You're not doing this alone."

"I cannot go with you," Teal'c stated sorrowfully.

"I know," Daniel nodded. The crystal skull would not work for Jaffa. "Besides, I only want to go get him. We can question him when we get him off the planet."

"Not there?" Sam asked.

Daniel gave a bitter snort. "Did you see how high up that place was? Do you remember how narrow that walkway was? No way am I going to try to cover that with him thinking anything's up."

"That is wise," Teal'c commented.

"I'll bring him to the SGC," Daniel told Teal'c, and turned to Etienne. "Please apologize to everyone. I have to do this. If I can, I'll bring him here next, to face justice here."

Etienne nodded, and wordlessly hugged Daniel. "Be careful," he warned, and looking at Sam, once Daniel had turned away, he mouthed, "Take care of him."

She nodded, and hurried after Daniel.

~~~

"Okay," Janet consulted the faxes she'd been sent. "Daniel's mother was pronounced dead on the scene. Daniel's father, however, was still alive when they loaded him into the ambulance, and," she flipped a page, "his vital signs were very promising. A paramedic named Joseph Mohan recorded these. They indicate that Daniel's father was very much alive. Every entry after that, however, including one en route by the other paramedic, indicates that Daniel's father was, to all intents and purposes, dead. He was pronounced dead two hours after arrival at the hospital."

"What was the difference," General Hammond asked her, "between the entry on the scene and the next entry, in the ambulance?"

"Well, sir," Janet nodded, tapping the records, "when Mr. Mohan arrived on the scene, Daniel's father had a blood pressure of 110/60. His pulse was 65. EKG was normal. Pupil response was equal, and responsive to light. He was unconscious, though."

She turned another page. "However, the next entry, taken supposedly only 15 minutes later, states that the blood pressure was 60/40, pulse 40, EKG wildly erratic, and pupils fixed and dilated. And they just deteriorate from there, until later at the hospital, when his heart stops and his respirations fail." She looked up, confused.

"What does that mean?" Jack prompted.

"Well," Janet considered it, "given what we know so far, it could mean we're dealing with two different men here. Either that, or it means that Daniel's father suddenly went from viable to non-viable right in the ambulance. It happens, of course, but that's a big jump. And the most worrisome point is the blown pupils. If they weren't blown on the scene, why did they fixate in the ambulance? Mr. Mohan recorded only a slight head injury."

"What was the name of the other paramedic?" the General asked.

Janet consulted the chart. "A Saul Clendon. I did a search on both men," Janet went on. She pulled out a small note. "Joseph Mohan moved back to St. Louis, Missouri and entered medical school. He's now a physician. Saul Clendon, however," she paused and looked up, "was reported missing--in 1902."

"What?"

"Yes, sir," Janet confirmed for both men, bobbing her head surely. "He was 37 years old in 1902, reported missing by his family, never heard from again--until he showed up as the paramedic on this case." She lifted and plopped the pages down on the table. "Then he disappears again. And that's not all."

"What else?" Jack winced, preparing himself.

"The ambulance agency has no record of a Saul Clendon."

"Oy," Jack held his head, propped up on his elbows.

"And there's one more thing," Janet said carefully, pulling out one more paper.

"Here it comes," Jack muttered.

"Colonel," the General admonished.

Janet took a breath. "I distinctly recall Daniel telling us that Nick couldn't be located for more than six months after his parents died."

"That's right," Jack nodded. "Social Services looked everywhere for him."

"Right," Janet agreed, "and I verified that with a friend of mine who works for Social Services. She was able to find out. So," she slid the paper across to General Hammond, "why is it that the person who IDed the bodies at the morgue was identified as Nicholas Ballard?"

"That son of a bitch!" Jack exploded, slapping at the table. He came out of his chair and began to pace. "That slimy son of a bitch!"

General Hammond looked completely nonplussed. It was beyond him that a grandfather--even a fake one--could do that to a child. "I--I--" he shook his head.

"Unscheduled Offworld Activation! Unscheduled Offworld Activation!"

As Hammond and O'Neill came down the steps, Davis turned to tell them, "It's SG-1's code, sirs."

"Open the iris," Hammond ordered.

Blue watery light filled the gate room, and a moment later, Teal'c came through the wormhole. He looked up at the observation window.

"Ah, shit," Jack cursed, seeing Teal'c's somber expression. "I knew I should have ordered them not to tell him." He grabbed the mike. "What's he done now, Teal'c?"

~~~

Daniel and Sam made their way carefully across the narrow bridge that led to the platform on which the crystal skull rested. Approaching it warily, they exchanged glances. "Ready?" Daniel asked.

"As I'll ever be," Sam shrugged.

"Okay," Daniel nodded, and leaned forward to peer at the skull. Sam followed his lead, and within a moment, small beads of light began flying through the air, emanating from the crystal skull on the podium before them. When it reached a crescendo of light, all of the tiny beads flew back into the skull in an instant. Daniel and Sam straightened and turned around.

"And now we wait," Daniel said. "Last time, Quetzlcoatl came--"

A white cloud swirled up at the edge of the platform and formed itself into the giant white alien they had seen before. "o inimigo de meu inimigo e' meu amigo," the deep voice grated out so thickly as to be nearly unrecognizable.

"We are enemies of the Goa'uld," Daniel responded immediately.

"Welcome," the giant replied, a huge white arm floating over to point at them. "You have been here before."

"Yes," Sam shouted up. "I'm Sam and this is Daniel."

"I am Quetzlcoatl," the alien told them, as he had the last time they'd come. "You have come for the old one?"

"Yes," Daniel nodded. "You--you still have him, yes?"

"His motives were not pure," the thick voice informed them with hurt innocence. "He attempted to steal our power for selfish means. He was locked away until such time as you returned for him."

Daniel rubbed his temple, closing his eyes and sighing. He felt Sam rubbing his arm. "Okay," he called up. "We have our own reasons for bringing him to justice. But please don't tell him. We're going to have a hard enough time getting him home," he gestured at the narrow walkway, "without him fighting us every step of the way."

"Better he think you rescue him," the alien rumbled.

"Yes," Daniel agreed.

"Wait here," they were instructed, and the misty alien swirled away.

"You ready?" Sam murmured, worried as to how Daniel was going to take being reunited with his 'grandfather,' the man he now knew as his parents' kidnappers.

"No," Daniel admitted, "but I'll never be ready." The mist started rising around them again. "Show time," he whispered in warning to Sam.

The alien formed above them again, this time holding a cage which looked small in his hand. He set it down carefully on the platform. In it, holding on to the bars, was Nick. "Daniel!" he cried out, delight on his face. "I knew you would come. I knew you would save me."

Daniel nodded, pasting a smile on his face. "Hi, Nick," he answered. "What uh," he looked at the cage, "what have you been up to?"

The giant white alien reached in and depressed the mechanism that released the door, a mechanism that four humans could not have released. Nick wasted no time getting out. "Oh, it was all a big mistake," he smiled. "I was admiring something, and forgot I had it with me, and went for a walk."

The giant finger pointed at Nick before withdrawing. "You are not welcome here again," the alien said loudly in response to Nick's defense. His gaze softened when he looked at Daniel and Sam though. "But you may return if you like."

"Can we send others?" Sam asked. "We have people who would love to study your culture, and exchange ideas with you."

"A true exchange with the people of your world?" the giant nodded. "This is acceptable. You may send them." With that, he dissolved away.

Daniel turned back to Nick. "Have you been inside this box for long?" he asked. It was barely bigger than a phone booth.

"Oh, no," the old man assured him, letting Daniel take his arm and lead him toward the walkway back to the outside of the pyramid. "I was in a larger room. Still, it was a cell, Daniel. And all over a simple misunderstanding," he clucked his tongue.

"That's a shame," Daniel agreed mildly. "Let's get you home and you can tell me all about it."

~~~

"Ah, Saint Looie," Jack exhaled, grinning wickedly as their taxi crossed the Missouri River on the 255, taking them out of Illinois into St. Louis, Missouri.

"That is not how it is pronounced, O'Neill."

"I know that," Jack said in exasperation, "but it used to be said that way, a long time ago."

Teal'c turned from regarding the burgeoning suburbs around him to face the human. "Why?"

"Well, it was French," Jack explained. "And they said Looie."

"Technically, it sounded like San Looie," the cabbie informed them.

Jack stared at the back of his head. "Thanks," he grimaced.

"But it is not pronounced that way now," Teal'c told O'Neill, ignoring the cab driver.

"I know that, T--Murray," Jack corrected. "I was just thinking of the song, that's all." At Teal'c's blank look, he added quickly, with a hurry-up hand gesture, "It goes, 'Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, meet me at the Fair'."

"Thank you for not singing, O'Neill," Teal'c said flatly.

"Yeah," the cabbie chimed in.

Jack leaned forward. "Are we there yet?" he asked the cab driver.

"What is this Fair?" Teal'c asked.

"The 1904 World's Fair," Jack elaborated. "It was pretty cool, from what I read."

"But you were not there?" Teal'c asked, with dead-pan, innocent curiosity. The cab driver snickered.

Jack glared at Teal'c's raised eyebrow, and leaned forward again. "Are we there yet?" he asked.

"Almost, almost, keep your shirt on," the man replied. He pulled off the next exit ramp and turned on to a wide street. About a block up the road on the right, an enormous building proclaiming itself to be St. Anthony's Hospital came into view. The cab pulled in at the main entrance.

"Here," Jack peeled off some bills, including a tip. "Thanks so much." He and Teal'c wasted no time entering the hospital.

The main information desk was staffed by three ladies in pink coats. Jack went to the first one available to get information on their quarry's office in the hospital, and they consulted the map. It was fairly easy to find.

Dr. Joseph Mohan was expecting them after their phone call and had cleared his afternoon, so it was no time at all before Jack and Teal'c found themselves sitting across the desk from a very nervous 50-year-old man. "Like I told you over the phone, I'm not sure what help I can give you. I was just a paramedic back then. I reviewed the records you sent me. I did do the initial triage on the scene, but nothing after that. Other than those notes, as I told you over the phone, I don't think I can help you."

Jack felt a slight rhythm in the room, and looked down to what he could see under the panel of the front of the doctor's desk, and saw that one of the man's feet was bouncing at a fast pace. The man's leg was bouncing. "I realize that, Dr. Mohan," he said pleasantly. "We just have a few questions that might jog your memory a little."

The man shook his head. "I really don't remember anything."

"Try," Teal'c advised him, and the doctor looked at him soberly.

"There was another paramedic, a Saul Clendon," Jack said, looking at the file, a faxed copy of which he could see on the doctor's desk. He looked up. "Did you know him?"

"No," Mohan shook his head again. "No one did. He--that was his first day of work."

"Did you talk to him at all?" Jack asked.

Mohan hand came up to press his knuckles against his lips. "Not really, no."

Jack smiled; the doctor's body language was screaming that he wanted to talk but was holding back. He pulled out a piece of paper that had not been faxed; it had only come in just as he and Teal'c had been leaving. He slid it over to Mohan. "Do you recognize this man, doctor?"

With shaking fingers, the doctor picked up the composite drawing made from the skull in Daniel's father's coffin. It was preliminary, but it would do for a start. "Oh, God," the doctor exhaled heavily. He looked up. "It looks a lot like him," he admitted.

"Clendon? Or the patient?" Jack questioned.

Mohan carefully placed the drawing as far away on the desk as he could, as close to Jack as possible. "Clendon," he said, a touch of resentfulness in his tone. He picked up a pen and began twirling it in his fingers.

Jack kept his face sympathetic and his voice warm. "Will you tell us what happened?"

The doctor continued to play with the pen, but he looked up after a minute. "I did the triage," he repeated. "The patient was going to live," he stated with fearful certainty. "He had a mild concussion, a number of broken bones and compression fractures, some muscle damage, but his internal organs were all okay. That big rock that fell on he and his wife, it was blocked a bit by other rocks at an angle over him. He didn't get the full weight. He was going to live."

"And then what?" Jack prompted.

Mohan turned his chair half away from them and looked out the window. "I've wondered about that for years. Did it really happen? Did I just--I don't know, go crazy for a minute? And if it did happen, what the hell did it mean? And more importantly," he looked over at the men with sorrowful guilt all over his face, "did it cause--someone's--death?" He looked away again. "Clendon told me to drive. I heard a noise from the back, and he came up front for a minute and asked me to pull over, but he told me everything was fine and to stay at the wheel. After what seemed like a minute or two, he called out that we could go again."

He bit on his knuckles. "Look, it was a long time ago. I don't even--"

"Dr. Mohan," Jack said sympathetically, "I promise you, no one is going to know you told us a thing."

The doctor thought it over. "When we arrived at the hospital," he said unhappily, "and we took the patient out, I--I--" He laughed. "No, I can't tell you this," he mocked himself, turning to them with troubled eyes. "Let's just suffice it to say my memory of that day isn't clear. The patient was worse off than I thought, and he died after all. I left the hospital right after delivering him, and moved back home the next day citing family emergency. I went into medical school the next semester. I finished here and never left again." He patted the arms of his chair.

Jack and Teal'c exchanged glances. "Your explanation does not give sufficient reason to explain your move home the next day," Teal'c remarked.

"That's all I can give you," Mohan shrugged.

"Okay," Jack scooted forward in his seat and held up a hand. "Let's say that Murray and I are used to hearing all kinds of 'out there' stuff. Let's say that there is nothing you could say that would surprise us. And let's say that once we walk out that door, nobody is ever going to know what you told us. Dr. Mohan, the part you're not telling us is the exact part we need to hear."

The doctor looked almost ready to cry. "I've never told anyone," he whispered. "I--I--" He looked down at the floor.

Teal'c cleared his throat. "Dr. Mohan, before you now are two individuals who not only wish to hear what you have to say, but who will believe you, and will never betray you. You are in no danger, but we need to know what became of the other paramedic and your patient."

"Wow," Jack breathed, staring at Teal'c. "Feeling chatty?"

The Jaffa raised an eyebrow. "Indeed."

The doctor across from them watched their interplay, and it, along with Teal'c's words, helped him relax a little bit, enough to speak, anyway, though he still was tense recalling. "Okay," he said, voice stronger. "When the gurney came out of the ambulance, it was Clendon strapped to it. And the patient--it was the patient pretending to be Clendon--wearing his clothes," he shook his head, not understanding. "I--I was stunned for a minute, and they took him into the ER without me. My radio went off, and my supervisor was on it, asking where the hell I was." He rubbed his chin. "I'd lost four hours," he confessed. "That trip from the museum to the hospital--it took four hours."

He bit his lip nervously. "Then he came back. He told me to drive, and I--I said I wanted to know what the hell was going on, and he--he--looked at me and--and then," the doctor shook his head helplessly, "then the next thing I knew, I was alone in the ambulance, driving. And I couldn't remember what he said, but my head was killing me, and I--" he gave them a self-deprecating shrug, "I was scared to death. That's why I left."

~~~

A fast jet out of Scott Air Force Base, and Teal'c and Jack were back at Cheyenne in no time. They found Daniel and Sam with Janet Frasier and General Hammond in the briefing room.

"Colonel!"

"You!" Jack jabbed at Daniel, "--are in so much trouble!"

"Colonel, have a seat," the General said patiently. "I've already had a talk with Dr. Jackson about going off on side-trips without permission," he gave Daniel a meaningful glare.

"And you!" Jack slid into his seat and jabbed at Carter across the table, "--it's your job to stop him!"

"I tried, sir, but--"

"That's already been covered, too, Colonel," Hammond informed him. "And your return is timely; we were just about to pool our information."

"We have discovered quite a lot," Teal'c informed him.

"Yeah," Jack muttered, suddenly slumping. "Uh, anybody else want to go first?"

"We got Nick," Daniel offered. "He's sleeping in one of the VIP rooms."

"Not a cell?" Jack asked.

Daniel bit down on his lower lip. "I thought I'd wait for us all to be together before attempting to uh, confront him." Sam patted his hand. "Besides, he doesn't know we're on to him."

"Nick was in trouble with the aliens, too," Sam told them. "They caught him trying to steal technology."

"Big surprise," Jack mumbled.

"Jack," Daniel said plaintively.

"No, Daniel," Jack retorted. "The guy's a low-life. I know you still want to see some good in him, but damn it, Daniel, look what that got your mother." Daniel looked down at the table. "The guy played us all but good," Jack went on. "Ever wonder about Nick and that crystal skull? A piece of really alien technology, on Earth, leading to unbelievably powerful, benevolent aliens, and Nick just happens to be the one to find it? And you said he tried for years to recreate the experience under controlled conditions in a lab. He's no quaint little old man. The guy knows what he's doing. The minute we started talking about the crystal skull, he knew we had another. He played us. Told us Daniel said he had to go back to the planet with us. And finally got his goal - access to some powerful technology."

"For what purpose?" Teal'c asked.

"Yeah," Daniel took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That doesn't fit what the Furlings told us about why he wanted my mother in the first place. He didn't kidnap her for power."

"Who knows, Daniel?" Sam asked quietly. "He may have changed over the years since her death."

"Okay, people, what else do we know?" Hammond questioned, getting them back on track.

Janet cleared her throat. "Well, we did a rundown on direct descendants of Clendon and his siblings, since siblings have the closest DNA match of anyone, and then did a cross-search of names in penal records, and found that in 1995, now let me see if I can get this right, the great-great-great-great-nephew of Clendon was picked up on suspicion of rape. He'd had a string of other violent offenses. He voluntarily submitted to a DNA test and was cleared. Now, this is by no means an exact match, because there's been an awful lot of extra DNA blended in during all those 'greats.' However, comparing the DNA of the body to the DNA taken in 1995 from the descendant of Clendon, I can tell you that I cannot rule out that the body is Clendon's. In fact, I'd say--with reservation--it looks likely it is him."

"It is," Jack agreed flatly. "I can't prove it to you, but it is."

"I concur," Teal'c backed him up.

"How do you know this, Colonel?" Hammond asked.

Jack nodded once and looked over at his best friend. "Dr. Mohan was a paramedic at the time of the accident, Daniel, and he did the initial triage on your father. He says your dad was very much alive. Then there's four missing hours en route to the hospital, and when they get there, the patient and the other paramedic, Clendon, have been switched. Dr. Mohan was then scared nearly to death by--your dad, somehow." Jack spoke quickly and apologetically, "He ended up with a horrible headache and a loss of memory. Dr. Mohan got out of Dodge the next morning."

Daniel stared back at him emotionlessly, not responding, and Jack had the sinking feeling that Daniel was not surprised by the news; that Daniel was in fact, a few steps ahead of him. His friend looked around the table and his gaze stopped at their doctor. "There's still something missing," Daniel shook his head, eyes narrowed. He looked at Janet suspiciously. "Something you're not telling me."

Janet looked at him with wide eyes. "Daniel?"

He didn't look angry, but he was very focused. "Someone from the museum would have had to have identified the bodies," he thought aloud. "And they would have known it wasn't my father." He narrowed his focus further on Janet inquisitively, who now knew what she had forgotten to tell him. "What aren't you telling me?"

Janet sighed. "I wasn't withholding any information, Daniel, I just hadn't gotten to it yet." She gave him a deeply apologetic look. "Daniel, Nick identified the bodies as your parents."

Daniel's mouth fell slightly open and his head tilted back slowly. He gradually closed his mouth, working his jaw, and then his head fell forward to stare at the table top. He tapped it a few times, as if thinking of nothing important. "I'm going to go for a walk," he said softly, and then rose from the table. "Excuse me, General Hammond." He left without waiting for permission.

"Daniel?" Sam looked at Jack, who held up his hand to the others at the table. He got a nod from the General.

"I'll go," he told them, as if there had been any doubt.

~~~

Jack followed Daniel at a distance to the elevators, and hung back to let Daniel go up alone. He took the next car up, and then took off in the direction the SFs pointed. He spotted Daniel about a half mile up from the entrance to the facility, sitting on a large boulder, scratching in the dirt with a long stick.

"You might as well join me, Jack," he called out, though he hadn't looked up to see his friend. Jack grinned; his surveillance skills were rubbing off on the kid. He took a seat next to Daniel, looking down at the scored lines the linguist was making in the bare spot of ground.

"You just can't stop, can you?" he teased. "If you're not finding chicken scratches, you're leaving them for others to find."

Daniel gave him a look out of the corner of his eye, and then went back to scoring the ground. When he finished, he sat up straight. "That's how you spell my name in Furling," he informed Jack.

Jack nodded, looking down at it. "Sweet," he commented, straight-faced. He tilted his head. "Kind of looks like the skyline of Manhattan to me."

"Jack." There was a note of unwilling humor in the word.

"Except there," Jack pointed. "That looks like two chickens dancing." He snorted. "Kind of appropriate, don't you think, chicken-man?"

Daniel turned baleful eyes on his friend, but one corner of his mouth twitched. "You said you wouldn't call me that any more."

"Moi? Never," Jack protested. "I would never say that."

"You said you understood my feelings on the matter," Daniel reminded him.

"Oh, yeah," Jack agreed quickly, nodding. He clapped Daniel on the back. "And I do, Danny-boy."

Daniel groaned in disgust. "You're hopeless, Jack."

"And you wouldn't have me any other way," Jack said cheerfully, squeezing his shoulders.

Daniel leaned into him for a second, then pulled away, unconsciously signaling to Jack that he was ready to talk. The archaeologist dropped the stick and used his foot to smooth out the dirt before him. The mountain seemed very quiet.

"It isn't like I didn't know he had something to do with it," Daniel said quietly.

"Yeah, Teal'c told us," Jack answered. "All we have is Nick identifying the bodies, and you had even less than that. Why were you so sure?"

Daniel shrugged. "Knowing what I had learned about Nick last time we were on Annule, as soon as Sam told me--told me the--the body wasn't my father's," he paused for a steadying breath, "the first thing I thought was--" Daniel grimaced ruefully, face red. "Well, it's kind of melodramatic, but the first thing I thought was that there had to have been some kind of 'foul play'," he wiggled his eyebrows a few times for emphasis. "I mean, as far as I knew, he went straight to the hospital, then to their morgue, and then to the funeral home. Either you believe that somewhere along the line there was some pretty amazing, gross incompetence, or else somebody did something they weren't supposed to do."

He shrugged again. "And when you think about it," he lifted one hand, palm up, "which is more plausible? Gross incompetence on the part of professionals who did that work every day for a living? Or," he lifted the other hand, also palm up, "Nick doing something he shouldn't. Nick, who really hated my father." He pretended to weigh the two, and the Nick palm far outweighed the other. "And then there's the fact that this is my life that's involved, and that pretty much rules out any innocent coincidences." The 'foul play' hand fell as far down as his arm would reach.

Daniel looked frankly at Jack. "I didn't need anyone to tell me about Nick's interactions with Mikel for me to know that Nick hated my father--I already knew that. I'd always known that." He gave Jack a half-wry, half-apologetic smile. "And to be honest, it was pretty mutual."

"Your dad didn't like Nick?" Jack asked.

"Hated him," Daniel confessed. "When they didn't know I was listening, I heard my parents talk about him lots of times, usually right before or after he'd stop by. My father would say these things about Nick, and my mother would agree. She didn't love him, and I knew that too. But she tried. And the discussion always ended the same--she would say, 'He's my father, Mel, what am I supposed to do?'" Daniel shook his head. "I remember how tense it would be whenever he came by. He and my father would start out trying to be civil, and my mother would be trying to be a good daughter and a good wife, and I'd just do my best to be invisible. But things would deteriorate; Nick and Dad would start snapping at each other, Mom would drive herself crazy trying to hold back World War III, and I'd usually end up--" Daniel bit his lip.

Jack touched his arm. "What?" he asked gently.

Daniel gave him a small smile. "I usually ended up crying," he admitted. "Nick wasn't a great grandfather. Heaven help me if I called him Grandpa--do you know, when we left him on P4J37X, that was the first time in forever that I called him that? Nothing I ever did was right with him. He used to tell me a lot, 'You have too much of your father in you'." Daniel did a Dutch accent, and shrugged. "I never thought that was a bad thing. Other than Nick, everybody loved my father. And everything I've heard about him since he died has all been good. Occasionally I've run into people who knew him and mom, and they all loved him. The only person who didn't was Nick."

He pulled a foot up onto the rock and balanced his chin on his knee, wrapping his arm around his leg. "That's why when I first thought 'foul play,' my second thought was Nick."

~~~

Seeing Nick was done with his breakfast, Daniel awkwardly began clearing the table onto the tray that had been brought to Nick's room. Also at a loss for what to do, Jack helped.

"I wish you could have joined me," Nick commented from the dresser, adjusting his tie. "But I know you are a busy man, Daniel." He turned and smiled.

"Yeah," Daniel bit his lip. "Nick, why don't we sit down and talk?" He gestured at the table, clear now that Jack was moving the tray to the desk.

The old man nodded eagerly and came to sit at the guest room table, and Daniel and Jack took two of the other four chairs around it. "I suppose," Nick started, with a look on his face that said he knew exactly what they wanted to discuss, "you want to know what happened with the Mayans. Did you know, Daniel, the giant aliens called themselves the Mayans? And also the Aztecs as well," he said excitedly.

"That's--very interesting," Daniel nodded, "but actually, that's not really why we need to talk."

Nick's eyes narrowed. "We need to talk?" he repeated. "Daniel, how did you know to come rescue me? Did the Mayans contact you? Or were you just coming to visit?"

"No, Nick," Daniel sighed, "no to both questions. I came because we need to talk."

The old man's eyes narrowed further, but he nodded soberly and laced his hands together in front of him on the table. "Very well," he agreed, curious. "Has something happened?"

Daniel bit his lip again, and was finding it hard to keep his eyes on Nick's face. He forced himself to look up. "Well--uh--" he latched onto a thought, "remember that you said you wanted to know about the places I've gone and the things I've seen?"

"Oh, yes!" Nick breathed eagerly, leaning forward. "You must have met very many powerful aliens yourself, Daniel, yes? You have surely seen many technological miracles. You must tell me everything, yes."

"Yeah, that's what you said," Daniel nodded minutely, remembering. "You wanted me to tell you 'everything'."

"Why don't you tell him about our last mission?" Jack suggested helpfully.

"Right," Daniel bobbed his head. He took a deep breath and regarded the old man across from him, looking at him very closely. He couldn't help it, his gaze slowly fell as he realized what he was seeing. "Well," he mumbled at first, "we uh, we met some very important aliens on our last mission, Jack's right."

"Yes?" Nick nodded happily, hanging on his every word.

"Yeah," Daniel answered, running his fingers over the grain in the fake wood top of the table. "But you know, shortly after coming through the gate, I got sick. I was sick for six days, and I had to stay on the planet for even longer than that."

"But you are fine now," Nick said unsympathetically. "You recovered. And what did you learn from these new aliens?"

Jack's lips had tightened at the lack of concern, but Daniel didn't seem surprised. "Well, I learned a lot," he replied. "But before I did--Nick, the uh--the illness--it changed me."

Nick tilted his head. "Oh? How? You look the same to me?"

Daniel lifted his eyes. "Yes," he agreed. "But--you don't."

Nick shook his head in confusion. "Daniel?"

Daniel bit the bullet and refused to let himself look away from Nick's eyes. "The planet we went to, Nick, we called it--well, it doesn't matter what we called it. But the natives of the planet? They called it Annule. They were the Furlings, Nick."

To his credit, the old man kept his face bland. "Yes?" he asked, a little too quietly. "Tell me about them, Daniel."

"I don't think he has to," Jack commented.

Nick looked warily at Jack and then seemed confused. "Excuse me, Colonel O'Neill?"

"Come off it, Nick," Jack advised. "We know all about you."

Nick looked back and forth between Daniel's weary face and Jack's disgruntled one. "I don't know what you're talking about, Colonel. Daniel, what is--"

"I have the Sight now, Nick," Daniel interrupted.

The old man cut off his words and his gaze became a bit more weary, but he forced a smile. "Daniel," he said reasonably, "you have always been able to see. I think maybe you need to go visit your Dr. Fra--"

"Knock it off, Nick!" Jack shouted, startling both Daniel and the old man. Without looking over, Daniel put a hand out to Jack's arm, quieting him.

He stared at the man he'd always thought was his grandfather. "Why'd you do it, Nick?" he asked in a flat tone.

"Daniel--" The smile and tone made it plain another protest was coming.

Daniel cut him off. "You're not leaving this mountain except through the Stargate, and you're not going anywhere but back to Annule to face justice. We know who you are, and I can See what you are, Nick, and there's no reason to keep pretending," he said sorrowfully. He shook his head, a tiny smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "You never wanted me," he stated, mocking himself. "Do you how many years I wasted thinking this might be the year I was finally old enough, finally good enough that you would want me? But you never did want me, and you still don't. You just want what I can give you."

Nick's expression grew hard. "Don't put words in my mouth, Daniel," he advised. "You have no idea what I wanted."

"Oh, I think I do," Daniel contradicted. "Only problem is, what you wanted? It wasn't yours."

If they were expecting him to fall apart, or reveal terrible insanity that had been driving him, they were surprised. Apparently, Nick's madness was far more subtle, more calculating. He sat back in his chair. "It should have been," he stated, with all the confidence in the world.

"How'd you figure?" Jack asked, allowing his incredulity to show.

Nick crossed his arms. "She belonged with me," he declared. "She and I were meant to be together, father and daughter."

"Problem," Daniel put in, interrupting anything further he might have said. He held up a finger, eyes wide. "She wasn't your daughter."

He shrugged. "She should have been."

Daniel just stared at him with an open mouth. Jack ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay, let me get this straight. Daniel's mom--Arrin--she's not your daughter, but you think she should have been, so you just--took her?"

"Yes." There was no remorse at all.

"And my father?"

Nick scowled. "He was not supposed to come." It was clear Nick had not been happy with that turn of events.

"Then why take him?" Jack threw out his hands.

Nick huffed and narrowed his eyes at the Colonel, favoring him with a glare that implied he thought Jack was an imbecile. "It was all arranged," he explained. "I paid the mercenary, and everything depended on exact timing. I was wearing a transmitter; when I came through the Stargate, he would transport me and anyone in my vicinity--Arrin--up to the ship. Immediately after transport, he would engage the hyperdrive."

"But my father jumped through," Daniel said slowly, realizing. "He got transported with you and my mother--"

"And by the time I subdued them up on the ship, and made my way to the bridge, we were thousands of light years away." Nick looked as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. "I was not their only--client. They were not going to turn back for me--no matter what I paid them. So I changed my plan."

"Which was?" Jack prompted.

Nick shrugged as if admitting it could do him no further harm to admit the truth now. "I had chosen Earth carefully, and arranged passage. I had hired memory specialists. I simply paid them to do two instead of one while we were en route. I very, very foolishly," he looked disgusted, "thought that with his memory erased, and false memories planted, Mikel's personality could be managed. I was very wrong."

"Why didn't you just leave him somewhere?" Jack asked. Or kill him? which he did not ask, for Daniel's sake.

Nick understood nevertheless. "Leave him? Where? The Furlings would have been able to reverse the memory erasure. They would have been able to track me, simply because he had been conscious aboard the ship for a moment before I stunned him. No, I would have had to kill him. And Daniel," he stated carefully, "I am not a killer."

"No, you take lives," Jack muttered under his breath, "but you don't take lives, eh, Nick?"

"For all the good it did me," Nick grumbled. "Do you think he would be grateful? But no, when he wakes up on Earth, even with his old life gone, even with the new memories, the implanted memory that I was his wife's father, he still hated me."

"You took away his memory," Daniel whispered in accord, and lifted his head. "But you couldn't take away his Sight." He breathed a short puff of laughter and rolled his eyes. "God, Nick, he hated you because he could still See you. He knew you were dangerous. He knew there was something seriously wrong with you. He knew there was something wrong with your relationship with the three of us. And his personality wasn't as sympathetic when it came to you as my mother was."

"He was insufferable," Nick agreed. "Nothing was as it should have been. I found myself marooned here on Earth with a family I could not be a part of--all because of him. Even when you came, Daniel, he managed to turn you against me."

"Daniel," Daniel breathed his own name, and then laughed, surprised. "Daniel," he repeated. "Oh, God, Nick, how that must have just killed you. He couldn't even remember his father, and yet he named his son after that grandfather, and not after the supposed living grandfather right before him."

Nick grimaced and turned away in his seat. "He ruined everything," he fumed. "It was supposed to be a simple life, me and my daughter and my grandson, a family, but instead, I was marooned alone on this planet, without my family, and every time I came around, he would make it so unpleasant that I would have to leave again."

"If I recall, you started it every time," Daniel stuck up for his father.

"You see?" Nick gestured at Daniel, speaking to Jack. "Even the boy he turned against me."

"I think you did that yourself," Jack retorted.

"What did you do, Nick?" Daniel asked, sober once more.

"Do? What could I do?" Nick threw out. "Since my plans for my life on Earth had not worked out, I knew I had to leave. Perhaps I could find the means by which to make another new life with Arrin. I knew aliens had come to Earth in the past. I had brought no technology with me--I had thought I was going to live a simple life--the rest of my life--here on Earth. So I had to build a device that would detect alien energy signatures. That was how I finally narrowed down the location of the skull. It was a crude device and it took me years, but I found it."

"Then why didn't you go with them then?" Daniel asked, frustrated. "And don't give me that line about being afraid, because I know you weren't."

"I had to come back and get Arrin," Nick informed him, eyes steady.

"Aww, geez," Jack rolled his head and then shook it.

"And then the temple collapsed around you," Daniel nodded. "You must have been very disappointed you couldn't get the skull to work again. I remember you tried for years."

"Were you really crazy?" Jack asked, remembering that Nick had committed himself.

"Crazy is a relative term," Nick said cagily.

"Look who I'm asking," Jack said in disgust.

"He's ill," Daniel stated flatly.

"I could not find any other signatures," Nick explained, ignoring the comment. "I could not make the skull work again. Then Arrin was--Arrin was gone." For a moment, he looked genuinely sad, but it passed. "And then some years later, you went and ruined your career." He looked up angrily. "How could you go on digs if no one would hire you?" he demanded.

"Ah," Daniel nodded. "In other words, how could I ever possibly find alien technology for you if I wasn't on digs?"

Nick didn't deny it.

"Of course, you didn't know we had a Stargate," Jack commented.

"I didn't know there was one on Earth at all," Nick said sourly.

Jack smiled. "Apparently your little device couldn't pick up on that big signature."

"Apparently not," Nick snapped. "So, was I crazy? I--I was tired, Colonel. I wanted to stop thinking about things for a while. I wanted someone to convince me that my life had just been a silly dream. I wanted to believe I was just an old man who'd lived exactly the life I'd said I'd had, except for that one hallucination about aliens. I wanted to believe I belonged. And I had been medicated, and counseled, and treated into believing it--until you showed up, talking about another crystal skull. Until Daniel was there, and I knew I was the only one who could see him. And I knew then, that was my chance to escape." He looked away.

"Aww," Jack said softly. "And then you blew it."

Nick looked up into totally unsympathetic, amused eyes. "Is it so wrong, Colonel, to want a family?"

"Nope," Jack said brightly. "But it is wrong to steal somebody else's family. And then when you had a family--even though it was stolen--" he gestured at Daniel, "look how you treated him."

"Jack," Daniel warned.

"But that was his fault," Nick protested. "It was Mikel, always. He hated me. He turned Daniel against me from the very beginning. It was why he gave the boy that name. And he would never allow me to stay with them for very long--he would drive me away. He treated me very poorly, Colonel."

"Somehow, I think you deserved it," Jack shot back.

"It was Mikel's fault," Nick insisted, eyes cold. "He ruined everything. Nothing was as it should have been. And it was all his fault."

"What did you do, Nick?"

Both men turned at the dangerously soft question Daniel had phrased. Blue eyes bored into Nick's. "What did you do?"

The old man began to look wary again. "I did nothing," he said quickly. "Why do you ask me, Daniel?"

Daniel opened his mouth, but it took a moment before he spoke. "The accident, Nick," he began. "What did you do?"

Nick was shaking his head immediately. "I wasn't even there, Daniel. You know this. I was in South America. It took them months to find me--"

"Funny that," Jack pulled a copy of a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and unfolded it, laying it on the table between them. "Since you identified the bodies. On the day of the accident." He looked for an explanation.

Nick made no move to take the paper, nor to answer the question. Finally, he turned back to Daniel, and with great effort, met Daniel's eyes. "I was not there, Daniel," he told the young man.

"At the morgue?" Daniel asked.

Nick closed his eyes for a moment, then re-opened them. "At the museum that afternoon," he clarified.

"But you were at the morgue," Jack put in.

"I was," Nick admitted in a whisper.

"But you weren't at Social Services," Jack added.

Nick didn't answer.

"For months and months and months after--"

"Jack," Daniel chided.

Daniel and Nick had their eyes locked on each other. "Tell me," Daniel commanded, nearly inaudibly. "What did you do?"

After a long minute, Nick broke eye contact and his gaze fell to the table, where it remained. "I was in Villaidama in South America," he told them. "A few weeks before the accident. I was using my device, and it caught the eye of a man down there. I never feared showing the device to curious humans--they always believed whatever I told them about it. So this man was examining it, and we were talking, and he realized from the construction of the device what it was truly meant to do, and what it said about me. At that moment, for just a second, his eyes flashed, and I realized he was a Goa'uld."

Nick laced his fingers together tightly. "He knew I'd seen, and he had his men bring me to his villa. I was no soldier, Daniel, no warrior. I was not trained in fighting. I had no defenses. All I could do when brought before him again at his villa was beg for my life. He was going to kill me, Daniel. I knew what he was. He was telling people he was a God, and even that was meant to be a secret kept only between the people he specifically selected. He couldn't allow me to live with the knowledge I had. He was going to kill me, Daniel, me," Nick said pleadingly, as if hoping Daniel would be as offended by the idea as Nick had been.

Daniel put an elbow on the table and rested his forehead in his hand. "How did you get out of it, Nick?" he asked unemotionally, staring at the table.

"I could see he was aging," Nick explained, clearly proud of his cleverness. "I deduced he had no sarcophagus. So I told him I could offer him a new host. And that was how I got out of it, Daniel. I gave him a new host and he let me go."

Daniel closed his eyes and said nothing.

"A new host?" Jack asked, incredulous. "You gave him a new host? And where exactly did you get a new host for him?"

"It doesn't matter," Nick shrugged it off, leaning back in his chair. "All that matters is I got away from him."

"Think about it, Jack," Daniel said in a sick voice, eyes still closed. "Nick's in there, pleading for his life. The only thing he can offer is a new host--but the Goa'uld can get himself a new host any time he likes. So what kind of host can Nick offer that the Goa'uld can't get for himself?"

Jack's brow furrowed. Daniel sat up and slumped back in his chair. He turned to Jack. "How about information on a host that would enable the Goa'uld to almost always know when someone is lying to him? That would allow him to see when a spy tries to infiltrate his ranks? A host that would allow him to see into the hearts of men and allow him to play against their strongest fears, dreams, loves, hates? How about a host with the Sight, Jack? You think a Goa'uld would jump at an offer like that?"

Jack scowled at the old man across the table. "You son of a bitch."

"She wasn't supposed to be there," Nick protested, now that he could see Daniel knew who he had offered the Goa'uld as a host. "Neither of you were to be there." He sounded genuinely upset, and got up and began to pace in a careful shuffle back and force across the room. "She told me she was taking you to a meeting with the principal so you could go to school in New York in the Fall, Daniel," he complained bitterly. "She promised me she would not forget the meeting. She promised you and she would not be there, you would be at the meeting."

"God," a soft, half-sob, half-laugh broke free from Daniel. "I forgot all about that until this minute." He paused. "And I guess so did she," Daniel added. "She forgot about the meeting," he reiterated.

"You weren't supposed to be there," Nick stressed to the room at large as he paced. "She promised she would not forget the meeting."

"Well, guess what, Nick," Daniel shouted, "she did! And in offering my--my father to a Goa'uld," he spat, "you killed my mother!"

"No!" Nick spun around, nearly lost his balance, but caught himself on the wall. "I am not a killer, Daniel. It was the Goa'uld! He is the one to blame!"

"You told him about my father," Daniel countered, voice rising. Jack put a hand on his back. "You told him what he could do, and you sacrificed him to save yourself! You told him where and when he could find my father!" Daniel's eyes grew even more horrified. "Oh, God!" he shouted, jumping up and backing away until he hit the wall.

Jack was at his side. "Daniel!" He had never seen his friend so upset, short of sarcophagus withdrawal, and that was even cutting it close, as tears were beginning to spill out of filling blue eyes.

"God," Daniel moaned, wrapping his arms around his abdomen and hunching over slightly. He straightened enough to look at Nick. "The Goa'uld arrived in the ambulance," he cried, having trouble unclenching his teeth. "You rigged the crane!"

For a strange moment in time, it seemed to Jack that there was absolutely no movement in the room--Daniel seemed almost not breathing as he stared at Nick through flooded eyes, he himself had not moved after he had whipped his eyes to Nick following Daniel's pronouncement, and Nick stood stock-still in the middle of the room, all cool indifference gone, uncertainty pausing his thought processes. Then the moment ended with a shrill old voice insanely protesting innocence.

"She wasn't supposed to be there! You weren't supposed to be there! No one was going to be killed! I am not a killer, Daniel!"

With a strangled cry, Daniel ripped free of Jack and was out of the room, and Jack took just enough time to give the old man a look he hoped would kill, and secure the room with a guard outside, before rushing after his friend.

~~~

Jack caught up with Daniel outside the armory, just in time to see him tell Ferretti, having been outfitted for a mission, that he needed his zat, pluck it from the man before he knew what happened, and take off again. Ferretti looked stupidly at Jack as the Colonel ran up. "Jack? Was the Doc just--uh--cr--"

"Yeah," Jack cut him off, glancing at the rest of Ferretti's team, who had missed the quick exchange while they were being issued their weapons. "Keep it quiet. I'll take responsibility. Get the zat signed out to me and get yourself another one," he rushed off again.

Coming around the corner of the hall, he found Daniel a lot sooner than he thought he would; his friend was waiting at the end of the corridor for the elevator. Jack saw he had plenty of time, and walked down at a normal pace. Daniel didn't lift the weapon, which was a good sign, he supposed. He was still crying, though it was slowing a bit. Daniel wiped at his face with his sleeve.

The elevator was nearly there. "You know, three hits and he's gone," Jack said casually. "But then again, what's the fun in that?"

Daniel looked up at him. "What?"

The elevator opened and Daniel got on, so Jack followed. Daniel pushed a button, and Jack gestured at the zat. "Three hits, and he's gone. But it's kind of quick and painless, and it seems like too good a way for him to go, you know what I mean?"

Daniel looked at the zat in his hand like it was the first he'd seen of it. "Oh," he remarked slowly. "This isn't for Nick," he said in a small, shaky voice.

"No?" Jack was surprised. "Sooo, what's it for, then?"

They arrived at their floor, and Daniel indicated with his head that Jack should follow. "Come on," he shuddered, "I'll show you."

Eventually Jack realized their destination was the VIP Storeroom, and he watched Daniel head for the Sergeant on duty with extreme curiosity. "Dr. Jackson," the Sergeant nodded respectfully, coming to his feet. He turned and saluted sharply. "Colonel O'Neill, sir."

"Open the door," Daniel commanded.

The Sergeant turned back to Daniel, confused by the unusual lack of pleasantries. He took in the reddened eyes, moist face, and the zat gun hanging in Daniel's hand. His own hand started creeping up toward his weapon.

"Don't even," Daniel growled, lifting the zat. He leaned in close, his face menacing. "I'm having one of the worst days of my life, Sergeant, and considering that I've seen my parents crushed to death, endured 14 foster homes and three different orphanages, seen my career go down the toilet, had my wife kidnapped, been kidnapped myself, been captured by the enemy, been beaten, drugged, tortured, and interrogated too many times to count, and even killed in the past--more than once, the fact that I say this is one of the worst days of my life of my life ought to clue you in on what kind of mood I'm in at the moment. Open. The. Door." By the time he reached the end of his speech, his words were coming in a near continuous low growl, and even Jack was feeling a little nervous. The Sergeant simply reached down and pressed the button that opened the door to the Storeroom.

"Thank you," Daniel over-enunciated, and swept into the room.

Jack looked at the Sergeant before going in. "I'll take responsibility," he sighed. "Don't call anyone, and don't lock us in," he warned. "Got it?"

"Yes, sir," the Sergeant answered promptly, and retook his seat. He shook his head. Though he himself rarely saw them, from the stories he'd heard, this didn't seem all that strange for members of the famous SG-1. And the Colonel was taking responsibility ... he shrugged to himself. It was going to make a good story to tell in the break room later.

Jack went into the room, looking for Daniel. He found him in the very back, raiding the huge refrigerator. He had found an empty box, and was now loading it up with several chilled bottles of extremely expensive champagne. Jack looked in the box and also discovered caviar and crackers, napkins and champagne glasses. "O--kay," he announced, eyebrows rising. "So," he looked over as Daniel finished filling the box, "that's what the zat was for?"

"Partly," Daniel shrugged, and gestured at the box with the zat. "You carry the box, Jack."

Jack smiled, eyebrow rising. "The zat is to make me carry the box?"

Daniel's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Do you want any of this stuff?"

Jack obligingly picked up the box. "Where to, boss?"

Daniel didn't answer, simply led the way back out. He ignored the Sergeant completely, and the Sergeant made no attempt to log the items being removed. He was not about to risk making Daniel catalogue and sign for the items. The two men headed back to the elevator, and when it came, Daniel took them to one of the floors with VIP suites--but a different floor than the one that housed Nick, Jack noted.

He led Jack straight to one of the suites, one of the few equipped with a small refrigerator, and took the box from Jack. He set it on the floor beside the fridge, and then grabbed a towel from the bathroom. Standing on a chair, he covered the security camera. Climbing back down, he sat on the floor next to the refrigerator, and began transferring the contents. "You want to call Teal'c and Sam here?" he asked.

"Do I?" Jack asked.

"Do it. And call Security and tell them not to come running."

"Okay, but only 'cause you've got a zat," Jack grinned, and got the rest of SG-1 on their way. The refrigerator door closed as he hung up the phone from his third call, his call to Security having involved an extra message for the General, and he turned to see Daniel popping the cork off of one of the champagne bottles. "Do you have any idea how much those bottles cost?" he teased. "They keep them for people like, oh, the President, you know."

"Tough. They can bill me." Daniel started pouring champagne, and he handed off a glass to Jack, who didn't take it. Daniel looked up.

"I'm on duty, Daniel," Jack reminded him.

Daniel grabbed the phone off the nightstand behind him and dialed a number. From the length of time he was listening, it seemed he had been transferred into voice mail. He took advantage of the time to drain the glass and pour another. Then he got the beep. "General, this is Daniel Jackson," he said, and Jack winced, worried about what was coming. "Nick's in his room and if I know Jack, he's got a guard on him by now." Jack nodded, and Daniel nodded back. "Yeah, Jack's got a guard posted. Nick knows we're on to him now, so he's a threat at present. We--uh--I--found out--more than I wanted to, and--uh--General, I need the rest of the day off, and--so does Jack, and maybe Sam and Teal, I don't know for sure, and we'll stay on base, but we're taking off, I--I really need them to, I'm sorry, okay, so, uh--bye." Daniel hung up quickly.

"Smooth," Jack complimented.

Daniel poured another glass of champagne and handed it to Jack, this time with a look daring him not to drink from it. He downed his own second glass the same way as the first, all at once. Jack was impressed, and watched Daniel immediately pour another.

Jack set the glass aside gratefully to answer the door when Sam and Teal'c arrived, and Daniel got to his feet, clutching his third glass. He set it down carefully to come over to his friends. "We're taking off," he informed them, the alcohol beginning to set in. "Okay?" It was clearly a rhetorical question, and he moved a step closer to Teal'c. "Teal'c, do you think you could move that armoire over there in front of the door?" He pointed several feet away.

The Jaffa regarded the big piece of furniture and then looked back to his young friend, who was clearly in the process of trying to become inebriated. "For what purpose, DanielJackson?"

Daniel looked at him with patience that thinly overlay steely determination. "Because I need it there," he answered.

Teal'c's eyebrow went up, and he looked to O'Neill, who gave him a shrug. "Very well," he agreed, and went to the furniture. Daniel, on the other hand, went to the door, locked it, coded it for the utmost security, and then zatted it twice.

"Daniel!" Sam was shocked. "You know you just fused the lock?"

"Yup," Daniel nodded, and went back to the refrigerator and his drink. He downed the third one and waved Sam, who still stood open-mouthed, over. He poured her a drink from the huge bottle. "Drink," he commanded. "You're off duty," he forestalled. "I called General Hammond and told him."

Sam's eyes were wide and she looked over to Jack, who was helping Teal'c get the armoire in place in front of the door. He nodded and gave her a crooked grin.

"Daniel," she tried again, "what's going on? They're going to have to cut us out of here. Are we trying to keep something out?"

Daniel laid a hand on her arm. "We've still got work to do in here," he decided, either ignoring her question or no longer listening. He eyed the corner of the room. "Come on," he said unsteadily. "Help me, Sam."

Jack and Teal'c finished their chore and came over to help Daniel and Sam. Jack indicated silently to Sam and Teal'c that they should indulge their young friend, and all would be explained later. Daniel was possessed with converting the room in some way, and they pushed the bed, dresser, and night-stand across the room. Then they pulled the king-sized mattress off the bed, and dragged it into the empty corner. He directed that they take all the pillows from the bed and the cushions off the sofa, and also spread them around the mattress. Then they laid down all the bedding available to them.

While overseeing and participating in all of this, Daniel continued to imbibe, although at a slightly less desperate pace than before, but he was growing steadily more intoxicated. When he had them remove shoes and jackets and anything else they felt was uncomfortable, and pile into the bed, Sam gave in to the ridiculousness of the situation, and seeing Jack partaking of the alcohol, also started tentatively sipping the champagne. Jack broke out the caviar and crackers, plus water for Teal'c, and another bottle of champagne, although like Sam, he drank in a far more reserved fashion than Daniel.

Jack saw what Daniel had done; he had created a nest, and barred out the rest of the world. He wanted Jack and Sam and Teal'c with him and no one else. The four of them were wrapped in blankets in the corner of the room, overhead lights off, only one lamp on. Teal'c sat across from Daniel, no doubt making him feel secure, Jack beside him, grinning and cracking jokes, and Sam was right next to him, playing along, and so close to Daniel that they were actually leaning on each other. In fact, Jack suspected Sam was holding Daniel up.

Daniel started when the phone in the room suddenly rang, interrupting their quiet tones with its comparatively shrill noise. Teal'c was within arm's reach of where the phone now sat on the floor along the wall, and as he picked up the phone, Daniel gestured that he should hand it over. "Give it to me, Teal'c."

The Jaffa raised an eyebrow. The young man was beginning to slur his words and he'd noted that the scholar's usual inhibitions seemed greatly lowered. "Is that wise, DanielJackson?" Teal'c inquired.

Daniel lunged forward with a speed Teal'c had not expected, and since the cord wouldn't stretch enough to pull back to where Daniel had been sitting, the young man flopped down on his back between Sam and Teal'c and put the phone to his ear. "Hullo?"

Jack shrugged at Teal'c. "You tried," he whispered.

Daniel nodded to whomever was speaking. "Yep, yes, yes, thass right, Genrell. I called you and I need to be off the rest of day. And I need Jack too. And I need Sam too. And Teal'c, I need Teal'c too." He looked around to see if he'd forgotten anyone. "And Jack, I need Jack with me too," he informed Hammond on the phone.

Jack smiled at him, and Daniel beamed back. Then he concentrated on what was being said on the phone. "Yep, they're all here, but we don't wanna talk, Genneller--Gennerrell. We--we--we're talking to each other."

He listened again. "No," he said petulantly. "I can tell you whatever you want to know, Gennel."

There was a long pause, and then Daniel nodded. "Uh-huh, how did you know where we are?"

"Oh," Daniel seemed surprised, and looked in the direction of the armoire. "Burned the outside wall?" He looked thoughtfully up at Sam, directly above him. "Sam can fix it," he smiled. "Sam can fix anything."

Another pause, and Daniel frowned. "But you can't get us out," he informed the General. "Even if you get the doors open. I blocked the doors. But we won't stay in long, I pomise--I promise."

Daniel's eyes misted up at whatever the General said next, and when his lip trembled, Jack was tempted to snatch the phone away. "Because I don't wanna see anybody else," he intoned carefully. "I don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want to See anybody, Gennel," he sniffed, tears escaping. "Jack and Sam and Teal'c can help make it better."

Jack did take the phone then, and Daniel let him, curling up on his side. Sam scooted down to hug him, and pull him into her embrace. Jack spoke softly into the phone and quickly reassured the General. He handed the receiver back to Teal'c to hang up.

The sniffles were already stopping, and Daniel was already sitting up and reaching for the caviar. He passed it for another round, and giggling, told them of the one and only attempt the 'cool set' in college had made to include him--a fraternity had invited him his freshman year to a pledge party, having done their pre-pledge scouting and learned that there was a major geek genius, unaffiliated with any of the frats, just ripe for the plucking for the house wise enough to grab him and use him to bring up their house academic point standards--not to mention the fact that geeks could usually be coerced into doing others' homework and papers. His appearance was eagerly awaited at their Champagne and Caviar theme party--until they realized that their prized hopeful was a 16-year-old minor who would get the house in major trouble every time they threw a party--which was all the time. The cops gave them a hard time over 18 and 19-year-olds. They would never survive having a 16-year-old in the house.

Their reaction was rather funny--right up until they tossed Daniel out into the bushes, the branches cracking two ribs and slicing his skin in several places. Nevertheless, Daniel seemed to find the story amusing, that their plans had been thwarted, and Jack knew he was grateful to have something to think about for a minute besides Nick. Jack looked around the 'nest' and shook his head unbelievingly. It might not be approved by Uncle Sam, but Daniel was certainly more relaxed. Jack snorted. By the third bottle, Daniel was feeling no pain, and he himself and Sam were pleasantly buzzed. Even Teal'c seemed amused by osmosis.

"Whasso funny?"

Jack saw Daniel peering myopically at him. He had put his glasses aside some time ago, claiming they were making him see triple. Without them, he said, he was only seeing double.

"Oh, I'm just wondering how much trouble we're going to be in," Jack shrugged.

Sam cast a nervous glance at him, knowing he had spoken with the General, albeit briefly. "I thought it was cleared, sir?"

"This?" Jack spread his arms around the 'nest,' indicating the champagne, caviar, crackers in the bedding, and the four of them in various stages of undress, lounging around and exchanging anecdotes and philosophy--some of it drunken.

"Iss cleared," Daniel insisted, bobbing his head up and down. "I tol' Gennel Hammon. I had to do it, y'know? And you hadta do it with me."

"We did, DanielJackson?" Teal'c inquired, legs stretched out straight in front of him, arms straight behind him, propping himself up. It was probably the closest he came to lounging.

"Yup," Daniel nodded vigorously, causing Sam's body to jerk as well. He scooped up some caviar with his finger and ate it. "You hadta 'cause of Nick," he confided.

Sam's arms tightened around him at that, and at the encouraging look on Jack's face. "What did Nick say, Daniel?" she asked softly.

"Oh, riiiggghhhttt," Daniel breathed. "I forgot you weren't there!" His eyes teared up and he pulled back a little so he could look at her face. "Nick did it, Sam," he said in the voice of a very small child. "He rigged the crane."

"Oh, God," Sam hugged him hard, kissing the side of his head. "Why would Nick do that?"

"It was only supposed to be Daniel's father under there," Jack filled in quietly. "And he wasn't supposed to be killed. The Goa'uld probably had one of his people there to throw a block in at the last second to make sure Daniel's father wasn't hurt too badly. He wanted a body the world thought was dead, someone nobody would ever be looking for. Somebody who could disappear at a moment's notice because legally, he didn't exist."

"Wait, wait, wait," Sam shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. "Did you say Goa'uld?" Teal'c looked concerned too.

"Nick sold him out to a Goa'uld," Daniel mumbled against her neck. "Imagine a Goa'uld who knows when someone's lying to him. Who can spot a traitor, or an infil--infull--infil--tator. A Goa'uld who can manipulate people 'cause he knows the most basic elements of their hearts--their deepest fears, loves, dreams, goals--"

"A Furling," Teal'c interrupted, seeing the advantage. "A Goa'uld with the Sight could even more easily convince people that he was a God."

"He would have access to information no human being could have," Sam said with dawning disgust. "Nick sold him?"

"Sold him out," Daniel mumbled. "Traded my father's life for his own. Rigged the crane. Only my mother forgot the meeting and we were both still there. And now mama's dead." There was a soft sob, and Sam wrapped her blanket more firmly around the both of them, pulling him closer. Jack rubbed Daniel's back.

"Well, now, maybe there's a good side to all of this," Sam clutched desperately at straws. "I mean, your father didn't die in that accident. Maybe we can find him. Maybe we'll be able to get him back, like we did with Skaara."

"Nuh-uh," came the broken sob at her neck. "He's dead," was the mournful amendment.

"You don't know that," Sam consoled. "And we know that 'something of the host survives.' We might be able to get your father back, Daniel."

Daniel pulled back from her, crying much harder, but trying to stop. Jack wrapped an arm around his shoulder, but Daniel shook his head at Sam. "You don't understand," he whispered at her.

She shook her head as well. "What, Daniel?"

Daniel's head tilted and he looked at her with an equal mixture of sympathy and pain. "He's dead," he choked out softly but confidently. "You killed him, Sam."

First denial, then disbelief, then horror, and then undeserved guilt flew across her face in the space of a few seconds, and then Sam began to cry as well.

"Seth."

~~~

Daniel regarded his steepled fingers. "I really don't know why I didn't think of it sooner," he said, ignoring the silence in the briefing room. "Shortly after the mission with Seth, I had a--a nightmare involving him. Pretty silly, actually," he smiled a self-deprecating smile, "I dreamed that I was still in the compound and Seth was about to implant me with a Goa'uld. He said he was doing it so that we could be father and son again."

Daniel clasped his fingers together, but still did not look up. "I wondered at the time why I would have had that dream. I took another look at the photos, and I realized, well, he's the same height and build as my dad, and kind of the same bone structure, and there's some vague resemblance, I guess, so maybe that's why I had the dream. But you know, it'd been a long time, and let's face it," he smiled fondly, "my father was a 'geek' like me, and he didn't have his hair styled, and he wore geek glasses, and he didn't wear classy clothes, and he didn't have any facial hair, and he certainly didn't behave in the same manner as Seth, so it's not that surprising I didn't see just how closely they did resemble each other. Plus, we were under the influence for a good portion of that mission, and everything was happening pretty fast when we weren't, and--I don't know, maybe I'm just making excuses for why my conscious mind didn't know what my subconscious mind did."

"I saw your dad, Daniel," Sam pointed out. "And I sure saw Seth. And I didn't recognize him, either."

Daniel looked up briefly and smiled at her, and then looked back down at his hands again. "Anyway," he shrugged, "I guess that ends the idea of taking my father's body back to Annule. They took--Seth's--body to Area 51, and they'll never give it to us, even though I'm sure they took the Goa'uld out."

"Common procedure," Janet confirmed. "They do a very thorough autopsy, I'm afraid, and they do remove the Goa'uld and autopsy it as well. They also do hold on to the human bodies. And I've pulled up the autopsy on Seth's--on your father, Daniel. They don't know about the extra internal organ. His internal organs were too damaged to distinguish between them. They make no mention of anything unusual."

"They will never give the body up to us," Daniel muttered. "Even if we could come up with a decent excuse."

"Well, we'll think on that some more," General Hammond promised. "Maybe we can come up with something. In the meantime, have we decided what to do with our guest?"

"We're ready to take him back any time you're ready to send us, sir," Jack reported.

"What's going to happen to him there, Colonel?" Hammond inquired.

"Don't know," Jack shrugged. "Don't particularly care, so long as he never comes within 100 light years of Daniel again. I know what I'd like to see happen."

"Jack," Daniel sighed.

"Daniel," Jack said warningly.

"All right, SG-1," Hammond nodded, "you have a go for tomorrow morning at 0900 hours."

~~~

"The manacles are not necessary," Nick complained, as Jack snapped on the handcuffs in the Gateroom. "Where would I go? To somewhere else in this base? Or somewhere else on that planet?" He gestured at the blue wormhole.

Jack scrunched his face up in a fleeting, fake smile. "Humor me."

Nick shrugged, and without waiting for someone to tell him to go, followed Sam up the ramp and into the wormhole.

On the other side, Jack walked with the rest of his party up to the ruins. By the time they arrived, a security detail had flashed onto the site, and immediately took Nick into custody. Ahdji went right to Daniel, looking tremendously pleased. "Daniel, you did it, you brought him back to answer for his crimes. This is a great day."

Daniel nodded, his face looking strained. "I'd like to see Nalia," he said softly.

"Certainly," Ahdji led the way.

~~~

Nalia stood for a moment longer before the display image of Nick, pacing a guarded room. Her face was blank, but her eyes were troubled, and her hand came up very slowly to turn off the image that she could not otherwise tear her eyes away from. Once it was gone, she found she could turn, and tread softly across the room to the balcony, where Daniel stood looking out over Sallia, his arms wrapped around himself.

Nalia came up behind him, and gingerly placed her right hand on his right shoulder. When he made no move, she leaned her forehead against his left shoulder, and laid her left arm over his left arm. "My child," she murmured.

His muscles were strung so tightly she knew they had to ache; but still he did not move. "What will become of him?" he asked.

She sighed against his back and patted his left hand. "Representatives of his planet are already here. There will be a presentation of his guilt. Normally, he would then give a presentation of his innocence, but when innocence does not exist, we simply allow the accused to speak. Then judgment is made and sentence is rendered."

Daniel turned and they clasped each other's arms. "Who makes the judgment?" he asked. "And who decides the sentence?"

Nalia smiled wistfully. "Normally, the ayarro. But in this case, you and I are too closely involved." Daniel nodded. "I have called our allies to come decide the judgment and sentence."

Daniel looked confused. "The representatives of his planet?"

"No," that thought amused her. "They are not our allies; we simply trade with them. No, our allies of old," she nodded.

Daniel's eyes widened. "The Nox? The Asgard? The--the Ancients?"

"The Ancients will not come," Nalia informed him. "They have their own motivations, and only their own. They no longer speak the universal language, Daniel."

He shook his head, more confused. "I don't understand."

She put her hand over his heart. "Very few of them understand the basic elements of life any more," she said sadly. "Love, spirit, soul. They are trapped in prisons of their own minds' making, and they call it 'enlightenment.' But in fact, it does not allow them to grow, or feel, or touch, or interact with life around them. Very few of them ever break free, and those that do are often punished by the others."

"Can't anything be done to help them?" Daniel asked.

Nalia turned and went to sit on a bench at the edge of the balcony. Daniel joined her. "If there is, I haven't been able to think of it," she confessed. "And many an ayarro before me has pondered the question. Though few in number, their power is great. If they actively fought the Goa'uld, not holding back as they did before they ascended, I believe even the Furlings and the Nox could be coaxed back into the war--with the right battle plan. It has been a long-held dream--but only a dream, for the Ascended are a frightened people who seem incapable of any more change."

"Some do it," Daniel reminded her. "You said a few do."

"Yes," she nodded, "and are watched closely, and punished the instant they go too far. Every time the Ancients get burned, their fear of fire exponentially multiplies until it is all-paralyzing."

"May we join you?" They both turned at the sweet voice intruding hesitantly, and smiles broke out on both's faces. "Lya!" Nalia gave her friend a hug, and bowed to Thor. "It is an honor to meet you in person at last, Supreme High Commander," she said.

"Thor," he chided gently. "And you look well, Daniel Jackson," he greeted the archaeologist, and Daniel wondered if his eyes were bigger than usual. "I must admit, I was at first surprised to hear the news that you are, in fact, a Furling."

"I was not," Lya said gently, caressing Daniel's face and making him blush. Though her touch was entirely maternal, the affection on the beautiful young woman's face was embarrassing.

"After I thought about it for a moment, however, I realized that it made perfect sense," Thor continued.

Daniel blinked at him. "It did?"

Thor blinked back. "Yes."

Daniel bit his lip, wondering what that meant. "Okay."

"Thor, old buddy!" They all looked down below the balcony, to see Jack O'Neill waving up at them. The Asgard commander manipulated his transportation remote, and Jack disappeared in a flash of light, only to reappear a second later on the balcony.

"God, I love you guys," Jack gushed, beaming down at the alien. He smiled charmingly at Lya and Nalia. "Ladies," he greeted. "Daniel. I hope you all won't think I'm terribly rude, but I really, really need to borrow Thor for a minute." They looked amused. "Thor, can we talk for a--" Jack looked around at Thor's ship. "--Minute," he finished.

"How may I be of assistance, O'Neill?" the Asgard inquired.

Jack gave him a slow grin. "Thor, Nalia and Daniel need something really bad, and you and I are the only ones that can give it to them. Me 'cause I have the intell, and you 'cause--well, 'cause you've got everything."

~~~

Daniel trailed his feet through the clear water, smiling at the small, blue fish that mouthed his toes curiously. "They don't bite, do they?"

"No," Nalia laughed, joining him on the dock after pulling off her sandals. He held her steady as she scooted to the edge and close to him, and dangled her legs over the side so that her feet splashed in the water of the small lake. "They tickle a little, though."

Daniel smiled wistfully. "Yeah." They avoided the topic that had left them virtually deserted at the usually popular lake; everyone was at Nick's 'trial,' though Daniel wondered when it would be over. The sun was high in the sky and if it weren't for the trial, he might have been hungry for lunch. The proceedings had started early in the morning.

"I've been coming here since I was a small child," Nalia mused, gesturing out over the lake. "And I brought your father here when he was a baby--and your mama's mother would come with me, with Arrin."

Daniel looked at her shyly, hoping she would continue. "You mentioned that, I think. Mom grew up in the palace too?"

Nalia nodded, looking out over the sparkling water. "Yes, Annule provides. When an ayarro couple has a child, shortly thereafter, another child will be born amongst the people who is also an ayarro. When that happens, the entire family moves to the palace."

"That's amazing," Daniel murmured.

"Why?" Nalia inquired, tilting her head at him. Her blue eyes sparkled inquisitively.

"Well, I've noticed everything's pretty relaxed in terms of caste structure, but the fact that the ayarro's new family can be welcomed so easily into the palace--"

Nalia shook her head at him. "Not just the new family, Daniel," she corrected. "Anyone can live in the palace. All they need do is work here."

Daniel puzzled that over. "They get a job here, they can move here?"

"No," Nalia stirred the water with her feet. The little blue fish gave chase. "If someone wishes to live in the palace, they simply come and ask Etienne for a room. He knows they will work."

Daniel realized this was true; all of the Furlings he had seen so far, even out and about on the streets, were all decent, good souls. They had amazed him with their affection and gentleness. Everywhere he went, he was met with honest delight and acceptance, and with the Sight, he could not doubt what he was seeing. Even more, what he was feeling. It was still a strange sensation, but not unpleasant, and Daniel was embarrassed to admit he liked it.

"The new ayarro's family moves to the palace so that the new ayarro can grow up with the other ayarro child," Nalia went on. "They will be drawn to each other anyway. They are fated for each other."

"Fated?" Daniel couldn't keep a slight note of skepticism from his voice.

Nalia smiled at him from the corner of her eye. "Perhaps you spend a little too much time with the Colonel," she teased. "Yes, fated. It was discovered over the eons that certain ayarro are drawn to each other. Only rarely has an ayarro mated with a non-ayarro."

"So the two children are brought together with the intention that they'll be married," Daniel stated flatly.

Nalia turned to him. "They are not forced together. In fact, you cannot keep them apart. In the days when there were more ayarro, and it was not known which were meant to be together, they were often mis-matched. The children were quite inventive in finding ways to be with the one they were fated to be with."

Daniel's eyes narrowed.

Nalia smiled. "Trust me, Daniel, you cannot keep them apart. Over the history of our planet, we have gone through many eras of civilization. It has been proven time and time again. When an ayarro child is born, Annule will create a mate for him or her. And there is no keeping them apart. You may as well bring them together, because they will find each other no matter what you do."

Daniel cocked his head at her. "Annule creates the mate?" he questioned.

"Yes," Nalia nodded. "As best we are able to tell, when the ayarro child is born, Annule searches amongst all pregnant Furlings for the one that meets the criteria only he knows. Furlings receive extensive prenatal care, and none of these children are ayarro in the early stages of the pregnancy--this we know for a fact. But shortly after the ayarro child is born in the palace, the child in one of the pregnant Furlings becomes an ayarro. No one knows how. We have set up monitoring equipment in the past. There is a bright light which overwhelms the monitoring devices. And when all is restored, new scans of the unborn child reveal that it has become an ayarro."

Daniel gaped. "I--I don't know what to say." He smiled.

Nalia smiled back and slipped an arm around his back. "Miracles are only things we cannot do. That does not mean they cannot be done."

Daniel laughed. "Tell Sam that, please."

The old woman chuckled.

"Aman," Daniel's voice was suddenly sober. "Was--was no ayarro child born--among the people--after my parents were taken?" For me?

She didn't answer for a moment, but her hand rubbed his back. "No," she said at length, her voice unhappy. "But that may have been because you were simply not here," she offered, wanting to believe it herself. "After all, Annule has given you your Kandash. He must have a reason for doing so. You must trust in him."

Daniel blushed. "Sometimes," he hesitated, "sometimes you--you all talk about Annule as if--as if you think he's a God," he finished quickly.

"No," Nalia chuckled. "Not a God." She looked up at him. "But he is one of us, Daniel. A Furling. And one of us. An ayarro. The one from whom all ayarro came. He is the father of all ayarro." She looked back out over the water at the beautiful lake and the clearing beyond it, tall, graceful trees lining its edges on one side.

"And he is a savior, Daniel," she pointed out. "He gave his life to protect us, and is protecting us and caring for us all to this very day. No, not a God, but someone very special, and worthy of respect and trust." She glanced up at him. "You must know how much he loves his people, all of them, from the very first all the way down to you--you know this, first-hand. He has powers we do not understand, is that not true?" she asked gently, smiling. "And so, we must trust in his power, his love, his benevolence, all of which have been demonstrated over the millennia." She shrugged. "What else can we do?"

"But not a God," Daniel repeated softly.

Nalia smiled broadly and kissed his cheek. "Not a God," she assured him. "That is an issue for you, is it? No, Annule believed in the Creator, as do we. The teachings are quite clear on this point."

Daniel nodded, satisfied.

A throat cleared politely in the distance, and a "Hullo, kids!" rang out. They both turned to see Jack waving them down. "Come on back up to the house!" he called.

Nalia laughed, eyeing the palace, and muttered, "house," as Daniel helped her to her feet.

~~~

"We found him guilty," Omoc said gruffly. Daniel had been surprised to see the Tollans Omoc and Narim, and even more surprised to learn that Omoc had volunteered for the panel. He only understood a little better when the somewhat arrogant Tollan surrendered the spotlight, so to speak, and came to stand next to Daniel, winking at him and saying, sotto voce, "I knew there was an explanation for you." Omoc was notorious for his disdain of humans, and Daniel had been really the only one he'd liked.

Lya was standing, clasping her hands together and bowing her head respectfully. "I'm afraid there was no other conclusion," she said, voice filled with sorrow. "The evidence was clear-cut." She turned to Thor.

The small Asgard blinked myopically up at Nalia and Daniel. "The representatives of Hollann have requested that Mr. Balla be remanded into their custody for sentencing. As a citizen of their planet, we are inclined to agree. He will be taken to Hollann tomorrow morning and his sentence will be declared and carried out there."

"Wha--what will his sentence be?" Daniel asked, afraid of the answer.

A robust, round-faced man stood and bowed sharply to the waist. "He will be sentenced to death," he said crisply in an accent that Daniel had all his life thought was Dutch. It was, indeed, very Dutch-sounding. He thought inanely what a strange coincidence that was.

"Death?" Sam asked.

Nalia sat down, and Etienne was immediately beside her, and Daniel tore his shocked mind from the diversionary pondering of whether or not the people of Hollann had ever been to Earth. He forced himself to focus on the present whether he wanted to or not. "Death?" he repeated. "Does it have to be death?"

The Hollann ambassador's reddish face grew redder. "Balla has long besmirched the honor of our planet with the good peoples of the universe. He has blackened our name by his foul treatment of our Furling neighbors, and has jeopardized our very livelihood as a planet. He--"

"Your honor?" Daniel cried. "Your name? Your livelihood?" His eyes became angry slits. "He kidnapped three people, altered their lives forever, killed one, and cause another to become a Goa'uld, and you're worried about your trade status?"

Nalia stood up beside him, blue eyes flashing just as hot. "Never did we hold against Hollann the acts of one individual. Never did Hollann suffer in any way because of the acts of Balla."

The round face grew beet red and he looked about ready to explode. "I don't understand!" he protested. "My lady, Nalia, we are offering to execute him. Surely that will make you happy?"

She turned away in disgust.

Daniel looked at Thor. "Nick lived on Earth for the last 34--almost 35 years. That makes him a citizen of Earth, doesn't it?"

The gray head tilted to one side. "Technically, one could--"

"Then Earth requests he be remanded to our custody," Daniel insisted.

"Danny?" Jack was at his elbow.

"What about our honor?" the Hollann representative spat. "We have waited to punish this traitor for years."

Daniel looked at the judging panel. "I think I have the greater claim," he said calmly.

Lya nodded. "It is so."

"I agree," Omoc said shortly, but one corner of his mouth curved up as he looked at Daniel proudly.

Thor bobbed his head forehead once. "It is unanimous. Custody of the prisoner is remanded to the representatives of Earth, and they shall decide sentencing."

With a shout of pure fury, the Hollann representative knocked over a small table, and stormed out of the room, nearly pushing Lya over in his lack of care. Omoc steadied her. "Boor," he muttered. Lya smiled at him, amused.

"Uh, Daniel?" Jack asked, his tone asking what the Hell do you think you're doing?

Daniel winced and turned around. "We can't let him be executed, Jack," he said quickly, forestalling any argument. "I've never believed in capital punishment, and don't ask me what we're going to do now, because I don't know; all I do know is, I don't want to willingly be the cause of somebody's death if there's some other way."

Jack sighed. "That is so--Daniel," he grimaced.

"Well, Daniel," Sam hated to be the bad guy, "you do have to think about what we're going to do now, because I don't think the Colorado Penal Code is going to cover this."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "As on Hollann, on Chulak, Nicholas Ballard would have been executed. I understand it is so even in places on Earth, DanielJackson," he chided.

"Yes," Daniel winced. "But you read the Bible, Teal'c. Remember? Don't repay evil with evil."

"Hey," Jack protested. "I believe the Bible says 'An eye for an eye'."

Daniel whirled and nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, Jack, it does. And what does the New Testament say? You're a good Irish-Catholic boy," he teased Jack with his own words. "What did they teach you that the New Testament says about that?"

Jack scowled sullenly. "Not an eye for an eye, not a tooth for a tooth," he muttered.

"That's right," Daniel nodded. "One of Earth's saviors," he informed Nalia. "Whether you believe in Jesus being the Son of God or not, doesn't change the fact that the things he taught humankind were very important. He was saying, don't repay evil with evil. Let the violence end with you. If you have to kill a man who kills a man, then someone has to kill you for killing him, and someone'll have to kill that person too, and so on. God, how many wars has Earth seen for that very reason? Even gang wars, to this very day?"

"You made your point," Jack mumbled, staring at the ground. "Capital punishment bad. Got it."

"This Jesus was human?" Omoc asked, sounding surprised. Lya looked pleased.

Daniel gave him a proud grin. "Not only human, but a human who lived 2,000 years ago, Omoc." The alien's eyebrows went up further, and he exchanged amazed looks with Narim.

"But what are we going to do with him, Daniel?" Sam insisted on knowing.

"Perhaps the Nox can be of assistance," Lya said quietly in her musical voice. Everyone turned in her direction. She seemed surprised at the attention.

Nalia took her hand. "Lya?"

The nymph-like creature turned sweet eyes to her friend. "Nalia. The prisoner is old, and dying," she said gently.

"What?"

Lya nodded at Daniel. "Yes," she affirmed. "He has no more than six or seven full moons left. The Nox can take him in," she nodded once more. "He will live on the planet floor."

Jack waved a finger at her. "No, no, no," he disagreed. "You guys'll heal him," he accused. "I know you will."

She looked at him with disappointment. "He is beyond our healing," she informed him in a soft voice. "He has reached the end of his time." She looked up at Daniel. "We will give him a hut. He will have no access to technology. We will keep the Stargate hidden from him."

Daniel was still blinking from the revelation that Nick was dying. He let out a long breath. "What about the city?" he asked.

She shook her head. "He will never see the city," she informed him. "It will not be allowed. He will never know of its existence."

"No," Nalia turned away, and let Etienne solicitously reseat her. "I cannot allow you, Lya. He is a vile creature. If he hurts one of the Nox, I will never forgive myself."

Lya smiled in amusement, as close as she came to a laugh. "He cannot harm us," she assured her friend. "We will be perfectly safe. And Nalia, there are few choices available to you. Let the Nox do this for you. We owe you so much."

"Nothing," Etienne insisted. "You owe us nothing." Nalia nodded, and the three smiled at each other.

Omoc clapped his hands. "It's decided then," he announced, clearly tiring of the conversation. "Narim?" he called his traveling companion. "A word before dinner." He pulled the younger man from the room.

Thor made good his escape. "O'Neill, we still have business," he declared, and the two of them were gone in a flash of light.

Seeing as the rats were deserting, Sam thought it was an excellent time for her too. "Daniel, Teal'c and I are going to go hunt down Ahdji. He promised he'd show me more stuff."

"Oh, joy," Daniel said warily.

Teal'c stared at her. "We are?"

"You're a tracker," Sam said shortly, but with a glint in her eye, "so track him!" She pointed at the hallway.

Teal'c arched an eyebrow and slowly followed the line of her arm to where she pointed, then slowly followed it back to her face. He glanced sideways at Daniel, who was trying not to grin, and then he raised the other eyebrow. "Very well," he replied, and turned on his heel.

Sam ignored Daniel's snort as she hurried after the Jaffa.

~~~

Etienne got to his feet and a servant hit a small gong, calling for quiet in the room. All down the long dinner table, the guests fell quiet. When everyone was silent, he helped Nalia to stand, and retook his seat.

She looked down the table, fondly resting her eyes on everyone present. On one side sat Etienne, of course, and at her other side, Daniel. She took his hand. Next to him sat his friends, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c, and beside him, Phael. Across the table from them were Lya, Thor, Omoc, and Narim. The representatives of Hollann were conspicuously absent, but the rest of the table was filled with Furlings who were thrilled to have been invited to a dinner not only with Nalia's long-lost grandson and his extended Earth family, but with famous representatives of their allies. It was an auspicious, if somewhat subdued, occasion.

Nalia smiled and cleared her throat. "I hope you all have enjoyed our meal," she said, to definite affirmatives. "The cooks will be pleased; they worked very hard to be worthy of you all." Again, there were many pleased murmurs.

Nalia raised her glass, and looked around the table again. "I have been apprised of an Earth custom, and it is similar to one we have here on Annule. They call it a 'toast,' and when finished, tap their glasses together lightly before drinking," she smiled. "We call it a 'request,' as it is something we ask of Annule, and when finished, we nod to each other before drinking.

"So," she held her glass higher, smiling more broadly, "I propose we do this request/toast, nod, and tap our glasses, and then drink. Agreed?"

There was a chorus of happy 'agreeds' around the table, and Nalia nodded. When all was quiet again, she took a breath. "A lifetime ago," she said slowly and quietly, "Annule suffered a devastating loss." Everyone's faces sobered very quickly. "I suffered a devastating loss at the same time. But today," her voice lifted, and she looked to Daniel, who was starting to look wary, "we have my grandson back with us on Annule," she looked up proudly, "and justice, and--" she paused and looked again at Daniel, just as proudly, "and mercy, have been restored to our lives. So," she said brightly, starting to laugh as she looked away from Daniel, "I propose that we drink whatever we are drinking," she nodded to Teal'c, "to seal our toast/request to Annule that he give my grandson, Daniel, who, I am sure, is blushing a charming shade of red at this very moment," she didn't look, but there were many chuckles, "long life, good health, great wisdom, and the happiness that those pure of heart deserve."

She nodded, and they all followed suit, and then she enthusiastically clinked her glass with an extremely embarrassed and glaring Daniel, whom she simply laughed at and patted on the cheek, and after clinking her glass with those closest to her, she whispered to the non-Furlings around her, "Now you drink down your glass, and shout 'Annule!' when everyone else does."

Sure enough, everyone at the table downed their drinks, plopped down their glasses, and shouted, "Annule!" Some put their hands in the air, so Jack pumped his fist as he called out the name. He beamed at Daniel and Nalia. "Hey, I like this!"

"Well, I don't," Daniel said pointedly, both to Jack and making sure Nalia caught his glare. She laughed at him again.

"Don't expect me to apologize, child," she told him. "I'll be wishing you that for the rest of your life."

Daniel put his hands in his head. "Oh, nooo," he moaned. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was?"

Jack laughed unsympathetically, and Sam tried not to giggle as she leaned forward, catching Nalia's eye. "Why do we yell out 'Annule'?" she asked.

"I was wondering that, too," Narim stated, smiling at Sam.

Etienne refilled glasses within reach, gesturing for servants to fill the others. "It's illogical, really. We do it to make sure Annule is listening," he laughed.

"Would it not make more sense then to shout his name before making the request?" Teal'c inquired.

"Yes, it would," Etienne nodded, grinning. "But it's tradition, and since it doesn't really mean anything anyway ..."

Teal'c bowed his head, sensing the explanation was at an end, though he found it unsatisfactory.

"I knew there was an explanation for you," Omoc laughed, looking at Daniel.

"Oh, right," Jack said sarcastically. "Because no human could be a decent hu--a decent person."

"That is not what I meant," Omoc informed him.

"You know," Jack went on, "Daniel wasn't the only one in that Gateroom. Teal'c was there, too. And there were a number of us helping them behind the scenes, so to speak."

"Well, to be fair, Colonel," Narim said softly, smiling, hoping to diffuse the situation, "Omoc really didn't mean it the way it sounded. You see, I had told him that I felt there was something different about Daniel; something older than human. I told him he didn't seem human to me."

"WHAT?"

Everyone was startled, but Omoc, as usual with Daniel, seemed slightly--and fondly--amused. "Yes," he said mildly. "You look human," he paused, looking at Daniel.

"Oh, and you don't?" Jack sneered.

Omoc ignored him. "But your mind does not work in the same way as a human's."

"Oh, that's bullshit," Jack retorted. "There are lots of humans that are every bit as smart as Daniel. Look at Carter."

Omoc turned to him languidly, looking bored. "No offense to the Major, but intelligence capacity is not the same thing as how one uses one's mind. I'm sure Major Carter has a fine mind--"

"Gee, thanks," she muttered.

"But the fact remains that Dr. Jackson uses his mind in a different way than humans do."

"Oh, so you can see the gears inside his head, now, can you?" Jack demanded.

Omoc and Narim exchanged glances. "In a manner of speaking, yes," Omoc answered.

"What?"

Omoc turned back to Daniel. "Just as Furlings have the Sight, some Tollans have abilities as well. It is how Narim knew that you were different than those around you. He did not know you were a Furling--only that you were not quite human."

Daniel stared at the two Tollans. "And you couldn't have told me this?"

Omoc looked almost ready to break into a smile. "Tell you? Tell you what? Tell you how?"

"He's got a point," Sam told Daniel. Daniel scowled at her. Sam looked over at Narim questioningly, wondering if he had ever seen anything special in her. As if he knew what she was thinking, he wasn't meeting her gaze. She sighed. A fine mind. Just a bit too human. Shame about that bad blood.

Jack reached across the table toward Lya. "What about you?" he asked. "Did the Nox notice anything different about Daniel?"

She smiled. "We noticed he was the most reasonable of you all. The most advanced. And Ohper told us that despite his young years, he was oldest."

"You said Nem told you that too, Daniel," Sam pointed out. Daniel rubbed his forehead, nodding.

Jack turned to Thor. "Thor?" he asked warningly. "Tell me you didn't know."

The emotionless face blinked innocently at him. "I did not know Daniel Jackson was a Furling, O'Neill, if that is what you are inquiring about."

"Good," Jack nodded, happy that Earth hadn't been the only ones to have missed it.

"However," Thor continued, and Jack slapped his forehead and ran his hands through his hair, "I did scan interesting anomalies in Dr. Jackson's blood. I had hoped to have the chance at a later interval to do further testing--with your permission of course," he added, turning to Daniel. "The right occasion never seemed to come up."

"When did you get a sample of my blood?" Daniel asked, unable to recall a single occasion.

"I did not," Thor replied. "I merely scanned all of your blood when I first came across you on Cimmeria."

"But Janet's had actual samples of my blood and done every possible test to it and she's never found any anomalies," Daniel pointed out. He looked at Thor's expressionless face, and the carefully expressionless, waiting faces of the other aliens. "Right," he nodded, unable to keep from rolling his eyes, "Earth technology."

"You scanned our blood from the ship?" Sam asked, fascinated.

"Yes," Thor nodded. "If we were to be friends, I would need information that would enable me to locate you on a planet at a moment's notice."

"Friends?" Jack brightened.

Thor regarded him. "I have always considered SG-1 my friend, O'Neill. You admitted you destroyed the hammer to save your friend, a Jaffa fighting on your side, a feat in itself. You did not abandon the Cimmerians, but used your superior intellect to contact me, something they could not have done, so that I could come to save them."

Jack was gaping at the little alien. "You just said we had superior intellect," he breathed.

Thor's large head tilted. "In comparison to the Cimmerians," he said flatly.

Jack turned to glare when Nalia chuckled, but she forestalled any comment he had. "You see, Colonel, I told you. You and Thor have the same sense of humor."

"Yes," Lya said, smiling.

Thor blinked at Nalia, and then looked at Jack. "O'Neill has a sense of humor?" he asked innocently.

A door slid open to the room, which wouldn't have garnered any attention, except that running feet followed it. Ahdji rushed up to Etienne and whispered in his ear, and the old man's face went pale. He straightened to wait for orders.

"What is it, Etienne?" Nalia asked tensely.

The Steward's lips were tightly pressed together, and his brow was now deeply lined. "The Hollann ambassador apparently attempted to either free or--kill Nicolae Balla. He--he was unsuccessful." Etienne had to force himself to relax his jaw to get the rest of the words out. "You are needed, Phael. And the prisoner has escaped." He stood up and hurried out, Ahdji at his side.

~~~

Etienne was nearly beside himself as they left the cell. "How--how can this happen? Ahdji, I know we do not need vigilant security, but in this case, surely--"

"They knew," the younger man assured him as they hurried down the corridor. "But they could not anticipate the effects of two harmless chemicals in conjunction with each other. Their Amka was delivered, and they could not taste the sperytylle that had been added. Then all he had to do was throw some liquid mnerione on the floor. The unseen vapors would combine with the chemicals already in their system and knock them out for hours, leaving the cell unguarded."

They entered the Monitoring Room, and a young woman immediately stood to report. "Sirs, we've recalled all blue tags," she told them, referring to those with permission to be out in the wilderness. "We've sent emergency transport to gather them up. We've also pulled up all monitors. However, we haven't seen anything yet."

"Get more viewers in here," Ahdji ordered, taking a seat at one of the stations. Etienne sat beside him at another, until more workers arrived. "He's out there somewhere. The Stargate has not been activated. The transportation platform was not used, either."

"Did you send the Colonel green tags?" Etienne inquired of the young woman. She looked up momentarily from her calls to workers to give him an affirmative. Jack was organizing searchers, who would be issued green tags to identify them on the monitors. More workers began to arrive in the room.

Ahdji looked at Etienne hopefully. "Etienne, couldn't Commander Thor help?" he asked. "Doesn't he have any new scanners?"

Etienne shook his head. "He's working on it, but you know very well that normal scanners do not penetrate our atmosphere. It took the Asgard centuries just to make their transporters work here. I wouldn't hold out much hope of Thor getting the scanners to work in the next few hours. He may be brilliant, but Annule protects itself very well indeed." He sighed. "No, the monitors and our searchers are our best chances of finding him."

"Balla has to be here somewhere," Ahdji said in frustration, scanning dim views as quickly as was safe. "Annule surely wouldn't be hiding him as he did Daniel."

"No," Etienne agreed vehemently. "We just need to get more viewers in here. We haven't begun to search all the grids, and the light isn't good. We also don't know how much of a lead he got. We will find him. The Stargate is locked. He has nowhere to go."

~~~

"Damn it, Jack, I'm going!"

"If it were up to me, Daniel, I'd say, what the Hell are you waiting for? But it's not up to me," Jack scowled. He gestured at Nalia and the hundreds of Furlings standing behind her. "It seems to be up to them. And they don't want you going."

"Daniel," Sam pulled at his sleeve, "be reasonable. Who can search more ground, you? Or all of them?"

Daniel nearly flapped his arms in sputtering anger and stamped a foot. "This isn't right!" he complained. "It's just not right! I should be out there with you guys looking!"

"You are an ayarro, Daniel," Nalia insisted, not budging on the point. The other Furlings had also made it clear. Daniel was to stay at the Palace with Nalia. End of story.

Daniel whirled to face the group with fury plain on his face. "You know, I do way more dangerous things every day than chase down one old man on a protected planet!" he shouted, and then stomped off toward the Palace. Satisfied, Nalia followed, and unhappily, SG-1 directed the massive group of Furlings in various directions into the wooded areas.

Nalia hurried after Daniel, but he closed himself in his suite, and when she knocked, he yelled through the door, "I'm going to bed!" in a very petulant tone. Sighing, Nalia went to the Monitoring Room.

Daniel went to the suite's balcony and looked in the direction of the wild area several hundred yards down the road. He leaned over the edge and looked down; it was quite a drop. He pulled back quickly. "Damn," he muttered. Going back into the suite, he raided their packs for rope and harnesses, and rigged up a pulley on the balcony, hoping the stone railing was as sturdy as it looked. Then he leaned over the railing again, as close as he could in the direction of the wildlife.

Feeling a little awkward, Daniel closed his eyes, not sure exactly how to go about what he wanted to do. "Uh, Annule?" he said softly. "This is Daniel. I--uh--I don't know if you can hear me or not, or if you care or not, but uh, I really need to get out there," he pointed, peeking momentarily to make sure he was pointing in the right direction. He closed his eyes again.

"Well, I know they're monitoring everything because they're trying to find Nick--we need to talk about him--but first, I need to get out there to you, and if you know of some way to disable the monitors along here so they won't see me, I'd really appreciate it."

Daniel opened his eyes and looked down one more time. He gulped, and closed his eyes. "Okay, here goes," he said, and climbed over the railing to begin lowering himself over the side.

~~~

"Nooo!!!"

The cry came from so many and was so disbelieving that it could be heard several doors away. Nalia and Etienne had left the Monitoring Room as it quickly filled up, but they turned back at the sound. The door was thrown open, and Ahdji rushed out. "The power?" he asked, voice panicked.

"Ahdji?"

"The monitors," he explained breathlessly. "They've lost all power."

"That's impossible," Etienne exclaimed, rushing to the room. "The Palace still has power. You have power for lighting."

"Then the cameras are off," Ahdji said, thinking furiously.

"They don't turn off!" Nalia pointed out.

"Then the relays have been interrupted," Etienne deduced. "But who? How?"

"There's a main terminal box buried in the lowest level," Ahdji snapped his fingers. "It's where all the receptors' input relays are kept."

"Go," Etienne ordered. "See that they're there and intact."

Ahdji pulled two men with him, and they hurtled down an emergency elevator to the lowest and oldest level of the Palace. This level was so old, in fact, that the floors were plain dirt, and only machinery was kept down there any more. Grabbing tools, they began to transport dirt from one area to another, looking for the terminal box that housed the planet's camera relays. When the metal box came into view, the two men with Ahdji grabbed tongs and wiggled the magnetic box lid back and forth until it finally came off.

Ahdji groaned at the sight that met them. It was impossible--and yet, there it was. He touched his communicator. "Etienne."

The old man answered promptly. "Ahdji, yes?"

Ahdji tilted his head unhappily at the mess before him. "We found the box. It's flooded."

There was a pause. "Did you say the box was flooded?"

"Yes, sir. With water. I think."

Nalia's voice came over the communicator. "Ahdji? Flooded? How could liquid get in there?"

"I have no idea," Ahdji sighed. "But it's going to take several hours to fix. We can get the fluid out and the box fixed with no problem, but the receptors are going to have to dry. Of course, we can make new ones, but that'd take longer than just letting these dry."

"How long?" Etienne demanded.

"With low pressure air, the only thing they can withstand," Ahdji guessed, "a minimum of three hours."

"Get started, Ahdji."

"Yes, sir."

~~~

Daniel made it to the forested area without incident, and slipping into the trees, he saw no one behind him, no one looking, no one noticing his departure. He switched on his flashlight and moved further in. "Well," he said aloud, feeling both exhilarated, and slightly foolish at the same time, "if you were responsible for my successful break-out, Annule, uh, thanks a lot." He picked his way through, noticing the vines and branches beginning to move back for him.

"Oh, you are here," he said with surprise. Even though he'd witnessed it twice before, it still was odd to watch. "Good. We need to talk." He paused, mid-step, with a surprised exhalation of laughter, and then sped up, as the vines were pulling back more quickly. "You know, if someone had told me a couple of months ago that I'd be out here talking to a planet--a planet that's actually listening--I'd have thought they needed serious help." He shook his head. "But this doesn't even seem weird to me," he waved his hands at the foliage parting around him. "And shouldn't that seem odd--that I've accepted all this so easily?

"Maybe there really is something to all that 'ayarro mind' business," Daniel mumbled, embarrassed to utter it even to himself. "Well, anyway, if you're still listening to me, uh, Annule? We've got a problem. You see, there's uh--Nick--Nicholas Ballard--or Nicolae Balla, depending on who you talk to--he's out here somewhere. I don't know if you know that. Maybe you do. Or maybe you do but you didn't know that he's really not a nice guy."

Daniel continued to follow where the bending vines and branches took him, talking all the while, though it was getting difficult. The path opening for him was falling open quickly, and closing up just as quickly, as if rushing him along. "And there's a lot of other people out here looking for him, and I really don't want to see any of them get hurt, you know? I mean, it's kind of my fault he's loose. I got the guy from his planet really mad, you see. And so he--well, that doesn't matter. Suffice it to say, Nick's out here, and so are a bunch of other people, and I wouldn't put it past him to try to hurt somebody if he thought it would serve his purposes--of course, not that that would work," he puzzled, "but--well, I just have a bad feeling about this."

Daniel picked up the pace, moving into a trot as the opening of the passage continued to accelerate. "So," he breathed through his mouth as he jogged, "I would really appreciate it if you could kind of--you know, corner Nick, and make it easy for us to capture him. That way nobody gets hurt, you know? From everything I've heard, that's the kind of solution that would appeal to you, so uh--" the path was literally shooting open in front of him and he ran faster, "you think you could help us out?" He stopped talking as he felt the overwhelming need to run, the critical feeling that time was running out, and he had too much left to do before that happened. The path opening swiftly before him was straightforward and smooth, not winding or twisting like the last time, and he hoped he'd get wherever he was going very quickly. It was getting hard to breathe at this pace.

He burst into a clearing before he knew it was even coming, and was half way across and tripping on something before he could stop. He fell onto the item that had tripped him, and Daniel struggled to catch his breath, pulling himself up into a crouch. The center of the clearing was a mound of earth covered in grasses and flowers, and looking around, it all seemed suspiciously familiar. He jumped up and backed off the mound.

As soon as he did, the grass and flowers peeled back, as they had before for him, and the tomb began to rise from the ground once more. The noise and trembling in the ground was much more pronounced than the last time, though, as if the terrain was being moved from far below. The metal frame Daniel had seen before pushed up, but it continued beyond the mere foot he'd already seen; it continued to rise until the entire tomb rested flush before him. Once everything was finally still and quiet again, Daniel took a tentative step forward, not putting his weight down, but the ground was quite solid. The soil and bedrock apparently had been moved from deep below this time, in order to allow the entire tomb to be seen.

The bright white light was once again present, making itself small across the top of the tomb, still enough to illuminate the entire clearing. Daniel examined the find with curiosity overflowing. Shaking his head, Daniel circled it in awe. "This tomb," he breathed, "is hundreds of thousands of years old. I didn't know that last time, but I know it now. Maybe as much as a million years old--even the historians don't know when you lived, just that it was the early days of civilization on Annule." As he always did when he worked, he talked quietly to himself, and to the artifact, and in this particular situation, to the being he knew was listening.

The building was about eight feet when measured in any direction, and Daniel reached up to brush the dirt off the foot of metal at the top that was all he'd seen the last time. "Here rests Annule. May the force of his soul live forever," he read, as the letters were revealed. Working his way around the tomb, he quickly discovered that the top strip of the tomb contained those words on all four sides. At the bottom of the tomb was another strip of metal, and Daniel could see the indents of more words. He eagerly cleared those too, dropping down onto his knees.

He sat back on his heels when finished and surveyed what was written. "For his people he lives, and so protects. May his ties to this world sleep undisturbed for all time." Daniel's brow furrowed and he looked up at the rest of the darkened tomb. "Ties to this world. Your body? And sleep--sleep? You died, didn't you?" He stood up and took a step back.

At the top and bottom of the tomb, the metal strips flared into beveled edges. It was a common archaeological feature. But Daniel's eyes were drawn to the dark surface between the two 12-inch metal strips at the top and bottom of the tomb. He had brushed the dirt from the middle sections of the tomb as well, but it had remained dark, and almost--reflective. Daniel narrowed his eyes in thought. Biting his lip, he grabbed a handful of vines and scrubbed at the surface. It cleaned the area, and made it more reflective, but no less opaque.

"Okay," Daniel muttered, circling the tomb. "You're missing something. You're here for a reason. He wants you to see something. What is there to see?" He searched the tomb as he circled. "What?" he asked, growing frustrated with himself. "What am I missing?"

A vine reached out at that moment to cross his ankle, and Daniel went down flat on his face, but the grass and flowers plumped themselves up for him, and he was unhurt. He looked down at his feet to see what he'd tripped over, and huffed indignantly at the vine slowly uncurling from his boot. "I guess that means look here, huh?" He turned his head to that part of the tomb, and right where his face met the lowest section of the metal strip, he saw a small indentation, practically invisible unless you were right on top of it.

"What have we here?" Daniel pondered. The indentation was roughly the size of his thumbprint. It was at an awkward angle for pressing his thumb into at present, but if he sat up on the ground--sitting cross-legged before the dark section of the tomb, his arm was the perfect length, at the perfect angle, to comfortably press his thumb against the indentation. The instant he did, the surface before him became transparent.

"Whoa!" Daniel startled, jumping back and to his feet, and took a minute to calm his racing heart. As soon as he hade lifted his thumb, the surface had gone dark again. "Okay. Okay, that was stupid," Daniel told himself. "You knew what was in the tomb." Still, he had not known the surface would become see-through--though the thought had crossed his mind as a possibility--and he certainly hadn't reminded himself about any dead bodies, though he'd only seen what was inside for a fraction of a second.

Daniel reseated himself, and took a deep breath, and repositioned his thumb. He pressed lightly on the indentation, and the wall again went clear.

Inside the tomb, three of the walls were still opaque. Only this one was clear. The other three had intricate artwork on it. But it was not the ancient garden scenes that held Daniel mesmerized. A stone pedestal built into the other side of the tomb held a body. It lay on a satin-looking cushion of bright red, and Daniel was amazed at the obvious perfection of the seal of the tomb, that the fabric had not deteriorated nor faded in any way.

Like the cushion, the body had similarly not decomposed. "You are dead, though," Daniel murmured with regret. "But, wow," he shook his head. "You are huge."

The male laid out to rest had to have stood at over seven feet tall. He was finely muscled, though not overly, not in the way Daniel would have expected a primitive man to have been. But then, from all accounts, Annule had been far from primitive. Still, Daniel wouldn't have wanted to face him in a wrestling match. The young man had long black hair that had been laid beneath his head to emerge on the side facing Daniel; when alive, he estimated it probably hit the man at the waist.

There was no mistaking the pallor of death upon the man, no matter how one might want to interpret the words on the tomb. The skin had a rubbery grayish/blue tone, and lividity pooling in the lower sections of those body parts not covered by his tunic was clearly visible. The back of the neck was dark, the lower portions of the arms, the backs of the legs--all said in no uncertain terms, the man was dead. But for Daniel, the truly amazing thing was that he looked only a day or two dead--not well on his way to a million years dead. The technology of the tomb was tremendous. Annule must have designed and built his own tomb before he implemented his plan. Normal Furling civilization at the time could not have created such a structure.

The young man was dressed simply in a sleeveless tunic, and his feet were bare. Though death had a way of stealing one's appearance, Daniel could still see that this was a man who'd been very attractive when alive. He wondered if his size had been normal, and the Furlings were evolving continually into smaller and smaller creatures. Since no mention had ever been made of Annule's tremendous size, he supposed that ancient Furlings had indeed been larger than modern-day Furlings. He smiled at the thought of shorter and shorter generations of Furlings to come.

The features of the man were noble and patrician, and would have looked right at home in some Greek display of beauty, more than one might think of an early evolution of a planet's sentient species. Daniel wondered what color his eyes had been. Despite the blue/gray tint to his skin, he gave the impression of very fair complexion, and Daniel thought all in all, he seemed to favor the traditional Irish look of Earth. Musing whimsically, he wondered if the Furlings had ever visited Earth in the past, and left behind dark-haired, light-skinned, light-eyed beauties in what would become Ireland.

He grinned and shook his head, dismissing his frivolous thoughts. "Okay," he announced. "I'm here. I came looking for Nick, but obviously, you have something else in mind. I'm here, give me a clue."

It was frightening to him that at that moment, there was a noise on the other side of the tomb, and his heart sped up again. Even though Daniel knew Annule was an actual being, a life force active in the protection of his people, he couldn't prevent the jolt of adrenaline that hit him every time he got proof, even circumstantial, of the reality of the 'myth' of Annule. He jumped up, the wall going dark again as soon as his thumb left the indentation, and he hurried around the tomb to see what was happening there.

He expected Annule to show him something else, but instead caught Nick standing still, mouth open, staring at the tomb, for a split-second, and then the old man's hand came up with a strange-looking weapon in it, and it was pointed straight at Daniel. It took Daniel a moment to remember he was in no danger. "Nick," he greeted the old man cautiously.

"Daniel," the man smiled mechanically. He gestured at the tomb with his free hand. "Have you looked at this? Is it really--could it really be the Tomb of Annule?" He spoke with the same wonder and delight as he used to about his experiences with the crystal skull and the 'giant aliens,' and for a moment, Daniel remembered fonder feelings.

He clamped down on it. "Maybe," he said noncommittally, uneasy with the thought of Nick being aware of Annule's presence in the tomb.

"No maybes about it," the old man gave him a crooked grin, his gun arm steady, "that writing," he pointed to the top strip of metal, "identifies the tomb as Annule's."

"Or someone who claims to be him," Daniel replied coolly.

Nick laughed. "A Furling? Lie on something as important as their tomb? Not likely, Daniel, not likely at all. No," he breathed, "this is the Tomb of Annule."

Daniel wrapped his arms around his abdomen. "Nick, what are you hoping to accomplish out here? The Stargate's locked; you can't leave the planet, and everybody's looking for you."

"I'm not going back," Nick declared brashly. "The Furlings have sentenced me to be executed."

"No!" Daniel risked a step forward. "No, Nick, that's not going to happen. That's why your planet's ambassador was so angry. You've been remanded to Earth's custody. We had it worked out. You were going to go live with the Nox. You still can, Nick."

"You're lying," the old man shook his head, smiling sarcastically, "I heard the sentence. And Eberhard told me. He was going to take me back to be executed."

"Against orders," Daniel insisted. "Didn't you wonder why he came in the night, alone? Without his men, his entourage? We told him he couldn't have you. He decided to just take you instead." He couldn't help it, he had to say it. "Kind of like you decided to take my mother."

"And now you will see me dead for it," Nick spat. "You are so like your father, Daniel."

Daniel threw out his arms. "Are you listening to me at all, Nick? You're not going to be executed!"

"I don't believe you," Nick declared.

Daniel forced his emotions down, trying to find a way to reason with the old man. "Nick," he began, "you do know what will happen if you actually try to shoot me with that, don't you?" He gestured at the gun.

"Of course," Nick said with disdain. "Even not having been here in 35 years, I remembered. That idiot ambassador has been here many times, and still let anger make him forget. It seems politicians on my planet are no smarter than the ones on Earth."

Remembering Kinsey, Daniel murmured, "You may be right."

"Then again," Nick considered it, "It's one thing to hear something all your life. It's another thing entirely to finally see it. I must admit, when I goaded him, and he got so angry that he pulled the weapon and fired, I was frightened for a second."

"And then you saw that what you've heard all your life about Annule is true," Daniel nodded. "So you know that holding that," he nodded once at the weapon, "isn't really any kind of a threat."

Nick kept the weapon steady on Daniel, and smiled. "Oh, I think that it is, Daniel. Have you ever seen one of these work before? No, of course you haven't," he said condescendingly. He gave the weapon a little wave before settling it back in line at Daniel. "You see, Daniel, my planet makes many things to trade, not all of which the Furlings know about. One of those things, naturally, that we keep secret, are the weapons we make. The Furlings would never trade with us if they knew that we were responsible for the perversion of Synerium. They trade it throughout the universe, for many benevolent uses. We buy more of it than we are allowed, via the black market, so we can produce Syn'm-Destroyers, of varying sizes, like this one." He waved the gun again for a moment. He smiled patronizingly. "And because whoever is producing them is receiving more Synerium than Hollann is, we do not fall under suspicion." He shrugged, looking quite smug.

"But all of that is neither here nor there," Nick smiled, lifting his eyebrows haughtily. "This weapon, Daniel, powered by only the tiniest amount of Synerium, does not only kill, but destroys--hence, the name. It emits a wide blast that rips its target and everything in its vicinity to pieces. Then acid sets the pieces on fire rather spectacularly. It does a great deal of damage, Daniel," he chuckled, "and I don't think you want to see me die that way."

"I don't want to see you die at all, Nick," Daniel stated. "I argued on your behalf. I convinced them we shouldn't execute you. God, Nick, you can go live with the Nox. They're very, very advanced, I would think that would appeal to you."

"Nice try," the old man shot back, "but I am no fool. You have too much of your father in you. I am sure you want to see me dead, and you cannot convince me otherwise."

"Nick, you're the guy I thought was my grandfather for nearly 35 years!" Daniel protested.

"And you know now that I am not," Nick countered. "You know that I have no familial feelings for you. And you are too like your father. I know you want--"

"You have no feelings for me," Daniel retorted. "But for nearly 35 years, I've done my best to convince myself that I have feelings for you. And since you weren't around most of the time, I succeeded in convincing myself, most of the time, that you did care about me in return. And just because I've learned that all of that was a lie, it doesn't mean that those feelings disappear overnight! I don't believe in capital punishment for anyone, Nick," his voice lowered, "and certainly not for somebody I--thought--was--family."

"But I am not family," Nick pointed out again.

"I know," Daniel nodded. "And I'm not saying I love you, or that I want a relationship with you, because I don't, Nick. But I don't want you to die, either. Nick, come back with me. You can go live with the Nox. I'll personally guarantee your safety. I'll even take you there myself."

The old man cocked his head at Daniel and stared for a long, long time. Finally, he huffed in surprise. "Perhaps there is a little of Arrin in you, after all." He drew himself up straight, and his face hardened. "But I am dying already, Daniel. I am far beyond the help of even the universe's most advanced medicine. And why? Because I spent 35 years on a backwater planet named Earth. On my own planet, the early stages would have been caught as a matter of routine, and eliminated. Now, there is nothing to be done."

He pursed his lips bitterly. "I've lost my daughter, and the one who should have been my daughter. I've had two lives, and the Furlings have ruined them both. I have lived in pain and misery for so long now I know nothing else. This I cannot forgive."

"What?" Daniel backed up a step. "You ruined your life, Nick, both on your own planet through your actions here, and on Earth through your actions there. You did it, Nick, all by yourself."

The old man gave him a nasty smile. "And now surfaces Mikel. Speaking just as I would expect a Furling like Mikel to speak. Congratulations, Daniel." He backed away, stopped when his back hit the tomb.

"Nick--"

The wild eyes looked at him for the last time. "Goodbye, Daniel," he smiled, and the old man lifted the weapon a little higher to aim at Daniel's chest. The weapon was no more than three feet away, and as Daniel was contemplating trying to grab it, Nick squeezed the firing mechanism.

"No!"

A magenta flash of light occurred at the same time that Daniel leaped sideways, throwing himself to the ground, and it was all that saved him from the backlash of power. The force of the weapon hit Nick, disintegrating his chest in an instant, and tearing the rest of him down to his shins into pieces. Blood soaked the ground. The energy blast was broad and powerful, as Nick had promised, and it flowed around and through him, and far to the sides of him, encompassing most of the center of the tomb. The center section, the dark, reflective portion, shattered into pieces and blew the top of the tomb across the clearing. The inside of the tomb was pelted and slashed, including the body lying on the pedestal, having been only slightly protected by Nick and the wall behind him. Parts of the corpse that were more easily accessible were torn apart as Nick had been, and the more protected parts, particularly those that had been propelled off the pedestal, remained somewhat intact, though pieces of the wall were embedded deeply in the torso, and deep slashes rent the flesh. No blood escaped; it had long since congealed into a thick pudding.

Just as Daniel was shaking his head to clear it from the discharge, and sitting up in the grass, the chaotic mess greeting his eyes suddenly burst into a thousand small flames. Daniel scrambled back. The flames joined with each other wherever near, and burned brightly. Daniel could see the pieces of debris beginning to melt at the edges, and could feel the heat rising. He suddenly caught sight of Nick's feet, still in their last position, and the smell of cooking flesh came to him. He turned away and vomited, then started to move further away from the rising heat.

Daniel!

Daniel started and jerked his head back to the fire. He'd heard the voice only in his mind, he knew, but he'd also heard a direction it was coming from at the same time, and that was the fire. He peered through the individual flames and saw the remains of Annule's body, the upper torso having landed behind the stone pedestal and slightly to the side. Daniel edged around the clearing, until he was closest to the remains.

The head, shoulders, arms and chest were intact, though horribly damaged. Daniel felt tears coming to his eyes, and didn't know if it was the damage to the ancient corpse or the heat of the fires. Then the head, which had been balanced at an angle, fell all the way to the side, and Daniel gasped, a sharp stab of fear going through him.

Annule's eyes were open.

They were covered with the milky film of the dead, but they were open, and they had been blue, and worst of all, Daniel was certain they were aware, and looking at him. "It's just a reflex, just a reflex," he told himself out loud, his voice sounding panicky to his own ears.

Daniel. May his ties to this world sleep undisturbed for all time.

Daniel blinked, knowing it was just the way the body had landed, but getting the feeling that the outstretched arm laying on the ground--the one the dead eyes seemed to sight along, straight to him--was not simply laying there, but reaching for him. He froze.

Daniel. When the tie to this world is broken, the soul moves on. I need an anchor to our home.

"Tie?" Daniel gasped. "Tie to this world? Your body? Your body was what kept your soul here?" He took a breath, trying to calm his heart. "The tomb was designed to keep you from decomposing--" he looked up, "--so your soul wouldn't move on to the next plane of existence?"

The Creator needs me here more. Take my hand, Daniel. Give me your trust.

"Oh, God!" Daniel stared in horror. The corpse lay on the outer edges of the fire, but still well within the blaring heat, and was in fact, burning itself. He was supposed to take the hand of a burning corpse in the middle of a heat-blasted clearing--and for what? What was going to happen?

Time is short, Daniel. Take my hand. I will never harm you. But together, we can save many.

Trust, it came down to trust. Trust that Annule really would keep him from harm, and that they really could save people from some unknown danger. And deep down, Daniel knew he did trust Annule. Knowing Jack would kill him when he learned the full story--if he ever did--Daniel crawled into the intense heat as far as he could and stretched out his hand. Tears pouring from his eyes from the near-blinding heat of the fires, he groped in the direction he thought was right until he encountered flesh--very hot, painful flesh, and steeling himself, grasped the dead hand in his own. Fire burned his hand and up his arm, and he tried to pull back, but it was as if the corpse's hand had his in an iron grip--though the tiny part of his brain that wasn't panicking thought that perhaps he was growing too overcome by heat and pain to pull free. Then a searing fire of another kind raced through his mind, and Daniel suddenly felt no pain at all.

Darkness descended and wrapped itself around him, and Daniel dreamed of being held and loved, and carefully tucked into a place of quiet and security. Cool water washed away the last of his pain and fear, then grew warm and lulled him into sleep.

~~~

Now alone in the clearing, Daniel Jackson rolled away from the heat with the last of his energy, and at the edge of the clearing, laying on his stomach, turned his face away from the remains of the tomb. His eyes filled with tears, but he reminded himself that they were both alive, and the people still had a chance. With that last thought, he passed out.

The End

Next: Another Nine Days