Daniel Jackson cradled his arm close to his body, dripping blood on the ramp leading down from the Stargate located underneath Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. Most of his concentration was on the cut on his arm, trying to keep it from healing until he could get to Dr. Janet Frasier and the infirmary. So intent was he on this task that he didn't see the petite woman until she spoke.
"What did you do to yourself now?" she scolded. Shaking her head, she glanced at the rest of SG-1 to see if anyone else needed medical attention.
"SG-1 report to the infirmary for post-mission check-up. De-briefing in 1 hour." General Hammond's voice came over the speakers in the gate room. SG-1 turned and headed down the hall.
Dr. Fraiser managed to walk next to Dr. Jackson and spoke quietly to him. "Why is it still bleeding? Are you really okay? Do you need me to do anything?" She fired the questions softly but rapidly.
Daniel chuckled quietly. "It's okay LW. I've mastered the art of NOT healing."
Janet gasped. "You can do that?! Wow!" she marveled.
"Yep. It only took a couple hundred years, too," he replied smugly.
Janet let out a little giggle. "You old guys… geez…"
By this time, the group had reached the infirmary and Dr. Frasier switched into what Daniel called her "General Patton, M.D." persona and started firing orders at her nurses. "Patty, you got Colonel O'Neill, Jen, you take Teal'c, and Natalie, take Major Carter. I've got Dr. Jackson." There were three barely audible sighs of regret at this, but they knew better than to say anything and went to work.
"Do they just not like you giving orders?" Daniel asked, a little confused.
"Hmmm?" Janet looked up from Daniel's chart.
"The nurses – every time we come back from a mission and you hand out who they're checking out, they all look a little, um, depressed. What's up with them?"
Janet laughed out loud at that one. "Oh god, Daniel, I needed that." She tried to get herself back under control, but every time she looked up at Daniel's perplexed, and slightly annoyed expression, she started over again.
Finally, she got herself under control enough to answer him.
"You have no idea, do you? Every single one of my nurses has a crush on you."
"All of them?" Daniel asked, shocked. "Even Evans?" noting the only male nurse on the base.
"Yep – even Evans." Janet grinned mischievously.
"They look so 'depressed' because I never let them do your pre- or post-mission checkups. I always do those."
"Oh great." Daniel sat and thought for a minute. "All of them, huh?" and glanced across the room at the three nurses working on his teammates.
"Oh no you don't!" Janet warned him.
"What?" Daniel asked as innocently as he could. "I'm not going to do anything… much." He smiled a slow, wicked grin.
"No – besides, you're too old for them." She grinned cheekily at him.
"Alright, alright, I'll leave your nurses alone. Boy LW, you never let me have any fun." Daniel pouted a little.
Just then, Jen walked over. "Dr. Frasier, Teal'c checked out okay. Are you ready to sign him out?" She handed Janet the Jaffa's medical chart and Dr. Frasier walked over to verify he was ready to leave.
Jen scooted a little closer to Daniel. "If Dr. Frasier won't let you have any fun, I will." She leaned toward him, her intent obvious.
Daniel, despite his teasing comments to Janet, wasn't really interested in the nurses on the base. "I'm sure you would. But," Before he could find an excuse to turn down the aggressive nurse, Janet returned.
"Jen, don't you have some charts to fill out for me? And I think the cabinets need to be restocked." Janet told her sternly.
"Yes, doctor" With a last seductive look at Daniel, she sauntered away.
Daniel and Janet both shook their heads at the nurse, and catching each other's eyes, grinned and laughed quietly.
"I guess I'll just have to watch my back around here more, huh?" Daniel's eye's twinkled with thought of some of the mischief he could cause his favorite doctor with this new information. "I bet…" suddenly, he broke off as he jumped up and headed for the door, an alert look on his face.
"Oh no, not here?" Janet whispered, realizing what was going on.
"Yes, and an old one, too, that I haven't met in a LONG time…" he trailed off as a tall, grey haired man in an SGC uniform stepped into the infirmary.
"Daniel Jackson, you are going to pay for what you have done! I am the last student of Walter Night and I will have my revenge!" the man spat out this declaration, the menace plain in the soft spoken words.
"Oh, I doubt you'll have much of anything, actually, unless ol' Walt's taught you better than he did everyone else," Daniel said casually, the sarcasm evident. "He obviously wasn't that good to begin with, after all, I beat him didn't I? Besides it would be sacrilege to do anything about it here."
The man did not miss the meaning and emphasis Daniel had placed into that statement, the frustration evident in his tense features.
"Another time then. Your head WILL be mine." He did an about face and strode abruptly from the room and down the hall.
"Bye Marcus!" Daniel called cheerfully to his retreating back.
After seeing that the man had gone, Janet glared at her nurses to get back to work and whirled on Daniel.
"Did you have to bait him like that?! He'll probably be waiting for you when you leave the mountain." She said worriedly.
"Janet," Daniel sighed. "I am not worried about him. Marcus has been trying to kill me for years. He hasn't succeed yet – not completely anyway." He grinned wickedly.
Dr. Fraise let out a reluctant chuckle.
"I know, but…"
"Don't worry about – "
"What the hell was that all about? That guy is trying to kill you?!" Jack O'Neill asked, incredulous.
"Well, yeah" Daniel shrugged. "No big deal. Like I told Janet, he hasn't done it yet, and he's not going to either. And don't go getting all mother-hennish on me either, Jack. I've been dealing with this – and him – for quite a while now." Daniel smiled a little secret smile at his friend.
"But Daniel, if someone's trying to kill you, you should have told us about it. We can help" Samantha Carter put in, a little worried and scared that she'll lose one of her best friends – again.
"I agree DanielJackson. We are more than willing to help rid you of this threat." Teal'c added with a slight inclination of his head.
Daniel pushed up his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Look guys, I appreciate-" He stopped as his cell phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey Dan! Are you coming down here tonight? We're having a kind of mini-reunion. Mac, Mathos, Rickie, and the gang are coming to town to visit."
Daniel's three friends saw his eyes light up and a big smile spread across his face. "Yes! I'll definitely be there. I haven't seen Mac or Adam in years. What time?"
"Probably around 8:00. And bring Jan, I haven't seen her in a while either."
"Hold on – " Daniel held the phone away from his ear a bit. "Janet?" Janet had walked past SG-1 on her way back to her office, since all post-mission checkups had been completed.
"Hmmm?" she replied, distracted as she double-checked on the charts.
"You want to go to Joe's tonight around 8:00? Apparently most of the gang's going to be there and Joe says he REALLY misses you." Daniel leered comically at Janet.
Janet laughed at his antics and lightly slapped his arm. "Yes, I'll be there, just to try to keep you in line. But I might be a little late – Cassie's school has a PTA meeting tonight at 7:00, so I'll be there as soon as I can." She looked excited at the thought of seeing her old friends again.
Daniel spoke into the phone again "Joe, she'll be there. You better treat my girl right, now." He mock-threatened his friend.
The others could hear a bark of laughter from the phone, "No worries old man! I always treat people who have needles with the utmost respect. Watch your neck!"
Daniel grinned as he disconnected his call.
"Okay, Daniel, enough planning your social life. Why is that guy trying to kill you?"
Daniel immediately sobered. He should have known Jack wouldn't be distracted.
"Look, I appreciate your concern. I'm touched, really, but I like I said, I've been dealing with this guy and his threats for longer than you know, and I obviously have been doing a good job, right?" He smiled a little at the trio of his best friends. "I'm not planning on letting him kill me. Can't you trust me on this?" He pleaded, using what Janet calls his "lost puppy dog" look.
General Hammond chose that moment to come into the infirmary. "Who is trying to kill you, Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Why me? Why now?" he muttered under his breath.
He looked up and said "General, it's… personal." He looked hopefully at him, hoping the subject would get dropped.
"Some guy came in here swearing eternal vengeance against Danny-Boy here and he keeps acting like it's not a big deal," Jack filled the General in.
"It's not!" Daniel exclaimed. "Look," he turned to the General again. "This guy has been making threats and following me around for YEARS! He finds me, makes his threats, maybe attempts to kill me, but he fails – every time!" He gestured around near the end of his tirade, then under his breath, "I should have ended all this when I had the chance, but nooooo, I had to give him another shot to turn his life around."
Janet shot him a sympathetic glace, Daniel grinned a little sheepishly in response.
"I guess I'm really just an old softie, huh?"
"Old is right," Janet joked.
Daniel chuckled.
"What is going on here?" the General asked, confused at the by-play between the two doctors. "Nevermind. How did this man get on the base?"
"He looked like a major – although I'd never seen him here before." Sam said thoughtfully. "We had some new teams come to the SGC – we can get those records and see who he is…"
Daniel interrupted her exicted babble. "No." He said quietly and forcefully.
"Whaddya mean, 'no'? This guy wants to KILL you!" Jack responded angrily.
"I mean, I don't want you guys trying to find out about him, I don't want you anywhere near him, actually, but if he's assigned here, I can't do anything about it."
"But I can," General Hammond said. "He'll be gone in a few hours."
"No, please, General," Daniel asked. "Just let him be. I know him – he won't do anything here on base, and he won't do anything to me off base, either, if I have anything to say about it." Daniel grinned again.
"Are you sure Dr. Jackson?" General Hammond asked, searching his face.
"Yes, please, leave this alone."
"Okay, for now. But, if he starts issuing threats again, or causing problems, he's gone."
"I understand, and thank you." Hammond nodded.
"Dr. Fraiser, is SG-1 cleared to de-brief?
"Yes, sir. They're all fine."
"Okay people, de-brief in 10 minutes." With that, the General left the infirmary.
Daniel watched the General leave, then turned a pleading gaze on his friends.
"Alright already. Just quit looking at me like that." Jack rolled his eyes at his friend. "But, get this – if I find that this guy has done ANYTHING, I'm going after him myself and you can't stop me."
"I figured as much, Jack. I know how you are. Just… let it alone for a while, okay?"
"Alright. So, who's Joe?" Jack slung a companiable arm around his shoulders as they left to go to the de-brief.
"Just an old friend of mine. He's got a place downtown that I go to every once in a while. Sometimes they have a decent band and usually some of my old friends, too." He smirked a bit at the hidden meaning there as he answered Jack absently.
"Janet knows them too?"
"Hmmm? Yeah, she and Joe go way back…"
"Good. Good. Let's go tell the General about all the fun we had on the mission, shall we?" He patted Daniel on the shoulder before entering the briefing room, wondering if he can find Joe's place.