Disclaimer: Any and all character identifiable as coming from the Stargate omniverse are the property of those that lawfully own them, and I promise that I will give them back when I am done. I'm not making any money off of this, and I'm currently working fast food, so I don't have much. Any attempt to sue would cost more than it's worth.
Author Note: So here it is, the promised sequel. To those of you who have read the original version, you may want to go back and reread the last couple of chapters. Things changed a bit with the rewrite. Funny, for all that things changed, they still ended up in a similar place. Now, here it is. Enjoy.
Silhouettes:
Chapter One: Coma
"What sort of relationship did we have?" The words echoed over and over in Dr. Daniel Jackson's mind as he stared listlessly at his reflection in the elevator doors. He wasn't really seeing himself though, he saw Leigh's confusion, how flustered she was instead. Janet had assured him that her mental state had had nothing to do with the apparent stroke that had sent her into a coma. It wasn't his fault that she had been transferred into the ICU at the military hospital as soon as it was safe to move her.
Janet hadn't wanted to chance her recent claustrophobia complicating things if she woke up again. 'If" hadn't been the word that she'd used, but Daniel was finding it hard to be optimistic at the moment. Especially when he'd just gotten a call from General Hammond informing him that Leigh's family was "too busy to be bothered by one of Leigh's shenanigans," a direct quote according to his CO. How closed off she was had suddenly made a lot more sense given her family's response to her being hospitalized. It would be enough to mess anyone up. At least while he'd had his parents they'd been there. He found it hard to believe that Leigh had gotten the same treatment as a child.
Unconsciously, he toyed with the little get well bear he'd purchased in the gift shop. It didn't seem like enough given everything. The elevator dinged to a stop at his floor, and he got out with a sigh. It was time to face the music.
Janet was waiting for him when he reached the doors to the ICU. She looked tired, but that was to be expected. She'd had a full twelve hour shift at SGC before coming her with her patient. How many days she'd spent here in the last couple of days, Daniel had no way of knowing. Only that visitation had only just been approved, so here he was.
Worry for Leigh, and his friend battled each other as Janet used her badge to grant them access to the ICU. Worry for her won out. "You look exhausted, have you been getting any rest at all?" He asked softly as they entered into the sterile smelling area.
"A little here and there," Janet returned with a faint smile. "Thank you for asking. Did you bring that music I asked you too?"
"Right here," Daniel confirmed, patting his coat pocket. "Will she come out of this?" He asked as they stopped at an open door that turned out to be hers. The sight of Leigh attached to all sorts of machines, and tubes wasn't reassuring.
"All of the damage seems to have contained itself within her Temporal Lobes," She explained ushering him into the room ahead of her. "Not only should she come out of it, there are no obvious reasons for her to be so unresponsive." Daniel got his first look at the real Leigh McAllister then, and Janet's voice was drowned out for several seconds as he looked her over. If they took away all the tubes she would have looked like she was sleeping. Strawberry lashes rested softly on freckled cheekbones. Her skin tone was different, a few things that looked like maybe they were shaped differently. Still, the changes were small, and beyond coloration, he would have been hard pressed to tell the two apart. Well, without the freckles anyway. "... May never be quite the same again." Janet finished.
"What?" Daniel asked, turning to Janet with a frown. He'd missed something important. He was quite sure of that now.
"The Temporal Lobes are where the majority of memory storage is thought to happen. They're also linked to personality and reasoning. Now amazingly enough, most of the cells seem to be regenerating, but until she wakes up, we have not way of knowing what has and hasn't been effected. The workings of the brain are still a bit of a mystery. It's possible that she'll wake up different, and never be the same again. It's also possible that she'll wake up and it will be almost as if this never happened, only time will tell. What I can say for certain is that despite having some of the hallmarks of a stroke, I really don't think that that's what happened. The damage is wrong, to specific, almost like it was picked and chosen. Like someone or something is trying to reprogram her. Ordinarily that wouldn't be possible, but given all those nanites she has swimming around in her body, I have no way of knowing if that is the case with her."
Daniel frowned. "You think someone knew about her nanites, was able to hack them, and is using them against her?" For all that it seemed far fetched, stranger things had happened.
"It's just a theory, I'm not even sure that it's possible," Janet sighed as she checked over Leigh's chart, and took her vitals. "I'll leave you two alone now. I know it may seem odd, but talk to her, it could help you both." Then Janet left.
Feeling a little odd about being here now that it was only the two of them, Daniel move across the small room to her bedside. Laying the bear in the crook of his arm, he took a closer look at the woman who had plagued his existence for that past weeks. She looked so young and small there in that bed, so innocent. She still bore marks from the cave-in, and he touched one bruised eye gently. "What happened to you?" He asked with a sigh. Now that he'd started talking to her didn't seem so odd. "Who did this? Janet thinks it wasn't a natural occurrence, that someone did this to you. Who would do that? Are there really that many people out there gunning for you?" He took a seat by her bed, and looked at her face for several moments, memorizing every feature. He'd asked her once, to show him what she looked like. He never would have thought that she looked so much like her sister, the two were nearly identical.
"Why couldn't you have trusted me?" The question was out before he realized that he was going to ask it. "Trusted us? I doubt that you would be here now if you had. You'd probably be home by now, wherever that is. Then again maybe not," He sighed again as he remembered her family's response to her hospitalization. "Growing yo like that couldn't have been easy. Not having anyone at all to care about you." Gently he squeezed her hand. "But someone cares about you now, several someones, and we want you to get better. Whatever is wrong with you, why ever it's there, I want you to be you and get better. I never would have thought that I would, but I mess you giving me a hard time. It kept me on my toes. Please, come back to me. I need someone to keep my ego in check, ask anyone." He rose then, clearing his throat. "I was asked to play this for you." He continued, pulling out the small MP3 player he'd gotten to copy the music from her computer onto. Very carefully, he put the earbuds into her ears. "Your favorites I would assume. Get well Leigh, please." Then he pushed the play button, and turned to go. A rustle of blankets stopped him, and he turned in time to see her arm slid back onto the bed from her chest, hand relaxing out of a fist. She'd moved, when that music had come on, she'd moved.
"Leigh?" He asked softly, giving her a very light shake. "Leigh can you hear me?" He eyelids fluttered just a little, but there was no other response. Still, she'd moved, more than once in response to outside stimuli. Leaving the music playing, he went in search of a doctor. This was good news he was sure. Good news indeed.
