Daniel was late for check in. Samantha Carter glanced at her watch and looked over at the temple where they'd left him. Now that, in itself, was not surprising and she did have to say it'd gotten more and more common since the General left the SGC. She and Daniel had always had an easy relationship, even when she had been nominally in charge of SG1. Okay, maybe he didn't do everything exactly the way she had preferred, but he had done basically what she had told him to do. He just had a tendency to add a few Jacksonian flourishes.

Now that Mitchell was the team leader, well, Daniel had started adding a lot of flourishes…and curlicues, and well, sometimes he just did what he wanted to. If he had been a different sort of person, she might have thought that he took advantage of the Mitchell's inexperience and hero worship. Daniel had started doing his own thing. If there was an unusual writing or a new temple, he could easily talk their new 'leader' into staying that extra few hours or even a day or two. She and Teal'c didn't mind really. It gave them more time to do their own investigations. Nonetheless, she had a feeling that sooner or later it would bite them, or him, in the proverbial ass.

She also knew that Colonel, O'Neill would never have stood for it. He always just seemed to know when Daniel was pushing the envelope and how to successfully rein him in, but not Mitchell. Cam had yet to develop a sense of impending doom when it came to their archaeologist whereas O'Neill had it in spades.

Sam had to admit it was a beautiful day on a nice planet. She was doing the ever-popular soil samples and Teal'c was checking out the area for defensive possibilities. Then her radio crackled to life.

"Sam?" It was definitely Daniel's voice, but it sounded odd.

"Daniel, what's wrong?"

"Sam, can you come here please?"

"Daniel, are you okay?"

"No," his voice had an odd quaver in it and it sounded wrong to her ears.

"Daniel, are you injured?"

"No." His voice was definitely off. And it sounded like a sob at the end.

"Where are you?" Teal'c came up beside her and she could see Cameron striding towards them.

"In the temple."

"What's up?" Cam asked breathlessly as he stopped beside them.

"I don't know, but there's something wrong with Daniel." She answered as they took off together at a jog, headed towards the temple and their missing teammate.

They reached the temple and took their P-90s in hand. There was never an easy way to tell what they were going to discover once they got in there and it was a lot easier to drop guns than find them while dodging weapons fire. As they entered the dim interior of the ancient stone building the temperature began to cool. The dirt and dust of the ages was on the floor and the ceiling was festooned with spider webs. They had to go back several hundred feet to get to the area where Daniel had last been working.

As they approached the altar area, they saw where he'd been working. His tools were still laid out in his precise manner, and there were marks in the dust where he'd been kneeling, but there was no sign of Daniel. Carter reached to her shoulder and clicked the radio on. "Daniel. We're in the temple. Where are you?"

"I don't know." There's an odd waiver to his voice now, and it definitely sounded unusual.

Cam activated his mike. "Jackson, can you describe your surroundings?"

"I'm still inside the temple, but I'm in a back room behind the altar area." He paused. "I'm cold."

Cam shot his two team mates a questioning look. Teal'c only shrugged and took point as they entered the opening that led to the rear area of the building.

"Does anything here look familiar to you Teal'c?" Cam asked.

"Indeed, it looks a great deal like many other centers of religious worship that Danieljackson has investigated."

Mitchell gave the Jaffa a frustrated look behind his back. "No, I mean, does this look like a temple to a Goa'uld or something."

"Or something." Teal'c deadpanned.

Mitchell looked at Carter and she shook her head and whispered back, "Give it up, you won't win. He was taught by the best."

"Jackson?"

"O'Neill."

Teal'c turned and looked at them with a smirk. "Braytac."

They rounded a corner and found the temple opened up into yet another huge room. But this one had something of interest. In front of a second smaller altar, there lying on the floor, were Daniel's boots, fatigue jacket and his trousers.

The three of them hurried forward and looked around the room. Mitchell bent down and picked up the pants. He looked back to the other two members of his team. "Jackson! Can you hear us?" He shouted. "Jackson!"

Teal'c stood still for a moment then began to walk towards a darkened area behind the stone table. "Danieljackson, I hear you. Can you come out?"

"No," the strange little voice replied. "I'm afraid." The voice was low, tremulous and…young.

Teal'c knelt down on the cold stone. "Are you afraid of me, Danieljackson?"

"N.," came the soft reply. "Not of you…"

"Then come out," Teal'c coaxed, "so that we may help you."

Then, slowly, a small figure came out from behind the altar, a small boy with longish blond hair and wearing a pair of too large wire framed glasses. An overlong tan tee shirt hung down to his knees as he shuffled out of the darkness. The child walked slowly out of the shadows, scuffing his bare feet across the flagstone floor. His feet and legs were bare to the cold. Teal'c opened his arms and the boy went straight into them.

"I'm cold," he whispered. "Teal'c, I'm cold."

The big man only nodded and rose to his feet, carrying the small child with him. "You are indeed chilled, Danieljackson. How long have you been like this?"

"I don't know," the plaintive little voice answered him. "I was working at the altar, transcribing some script, when a bright light flashed. I must have lost consciousness then."

Mitchell looked dumbfounded at his miniature teammate, and he shifted his gaze to Teal'c. "How did you know it was him?"

The big man glanced down at Daniel who was resting confidently in Teal'c's arms before he answered him. "His identity is quite evident and this is not without precedent."

"You mean he's done this before?"

"No, it was O'Neill that was apparently…downsized," Teal'c answered carefully, using a word that was obviously one he'd picked up on Earth.

"He was?"

"Well, we thought he was," Carter began to explain "But it was actually a clone that the Asgard scientist Loki had created…"

"Oh, yeah, right." Cam nodded eagerly. "I remember reading the report now." He looked suspiciously at the munchkin in Teal'c's arms. "Which brings me back to my point. How can we be sure that this," he indicated the child, "is OUR Jackson?"

"He has a valid concern." Carter nodded at Teal'c. "He could be a plant."

Teal'c frowned at Carter then at the boy. "He does not appear to be a plant."

"No, Teal'c," Mitchell tried to explain, "Not a plant plant. A fake, a red herring."

"Ah, something that draws attention away from the central issue, such as a fish dragged across a scent trail." Teal'c looked at his team chief. "No, I do not believe so. What I do believe is that this is Danieljackson and he has been subjected to the influence of an alien device." He glanced at the small child cuddling in his arms. "It has happened before."

Mitchell looked to Carter for support. She could only shrug. "It has happened before."

"THIS?"

"Well, no…not this exactly," she admitted. "But other things have." She looked at the small boy firmly ensconced in the strong arms of his protector. Sam turned to Cam. "We need to get him back to the SGC."

"Why?" Mitchell looked at his team in amazement. "It happened here. The cure is here."

"We don't know what happened," she said firmly. "All we know is that Daniel is…small. We need to find out what caused it and all those venues are at the SGC."

Cam stared first at Sam, then at Daniel in Teal'c's arms. Finally he then threw up his hands as if asking some omnipotent being. "WHY?"

"BECAUSE!" She was growing frustrated with the whole situation. Daniel was shrunk, Teal'c was glaring and Cam was being an ass. Carter took a deep breath before resuming. "We need to get back to the SGC so we can find out why…now."

Daniel started to cry. He looked as shocked over the whole idea that he was crying as everyone else obviously felt. Teal'c just cuddled him closer and murmured softly in his ear. "Do not fear, Danieljackson. I will protect you."

The child tucked his head under Teal'c's chin and stuck a finger in his mouth. "I know. But…"

"But what?" Teal'c asked him softly.

"I don't want to be like this," the baby voice replied. "I wanna be big again."

The big man nodded. "I can well understand that, my friend. We must return home with you to insure your safety.

"Will you make me big again?"

"Indeed, Danieljackson, we shall try."

SG1 came out of the wormhole and down the ramp into the gate room. General Landry entered through the blast doors. When he saw Teal'c carrying his small burden he stopped in confusion. "Who is this and where's Doctor Jackson?"

Daniel looked at him from his safe haven. "I'm Doctor Jackson."

Landry looked from the boy to the Jaffa and then to his two Lieutenant Colonels. "What?"

Carter nodded at his amazed expression. Mitchell shrugged. "Evidently, sir, that IS Doctor Jackson. We found him in the temple on the planet wearing Jackson's tee shirt and glasses."

Sam spoke up. "He was in a back room behind the main temple complex. Perhaps he interacted with some sort of alien technology

"Are you sure he's Doctor Jackson?" The General looked confused.

"That was my question, sir," Mitchell frowned. "But everyone else seems to think so."

"Harrumph, well…" he looked again at the small child in Teal'c's arms. He did know that the warrior was difficult to fool and he wasn't about to disbelieve anything that happened in this room. Landry looked up at Harriman. "Call Medical and…" Doctor Lam entered the gate room with med kit in hand. The general waved at his chief. "Never mind."

The young doctor approached the small knot of people standing in the center of the room. "What's going on?" And who's this?" then asked with a smile directed at the small child.

"I'm Daniel, Doctor Lam," the small child piped up. "Do you know how to make me big again?"

"Oh, oh, uh…" the petite doctor looked taken aback. She glanced at Teal'c, "Is that…true?" He nodded.

"As far as we can tell Doctor, it is," Carter spoke up. "We found him like this in the precincts of a temple on P24X10. Daniel had been working in the altar room and he failed to check in. Then he called in over the radio and we found him like this."

"It is not without precedent, Doctorlam," Teal'c intoned softly. "We have had several different occurrences that resemble this one. It is quite possible that this child is Danieljackson."

Carolyn looked at the small boy and nodded. "That's true. Let's get him to the infirmary so that I can check him out."

"But I'm not sick!" the boy objected as they headed towards the clinic. "I'm just shrunk!"

She turned to her patient. "That's very true; however, you know that we always check you over when you get back…just to make sure that you're all right."

He sighed and leaned back against the broad chest for support. "Oh, okay." He blinked tiredly at her. "But I'm not sick."

Teal'c nodded at her and headed out of the gate room trailed by Mitchell and Carter. Carolyn looked back at the General. "First, try to determine if he IS Doctor Jackson," he instructed. "Then see what you can do about, er, resizing him."

She looked at him in amazement. "Resizing him?"

"Yeah, let's see if that expensive medical school I paid for did any good."

She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks."

Several hours later, Carolyn Lam was stumped. All her tests showed that this small boy was indeed the inestimable Doctor Daniel Jackson of the multiple PhDs and the man who opened the Stargate. This said, the small boy was sleeping the sleep of the exhausted innocent that he appeared to be.

She'd run off all the cooing nurses and concerned teammates she could manage. Only Teal'c remained stationed at his bedside, immovable in his manner. Carolyn wasn't exactly scared of the Jaffa warrior, but then she didn't want to fly into the face of such overwhelming loyalty either. And obviously the boy needed the steadying presence of his friend. All she could do at this point was leave them alone for now and report her findings to the general.

Carolyn entered the general's office by tapping on the doorframe. Landry looked up from his desk. "Well?"

She came over to the desk and leaned over it. "It's him," she said bluntly. "It's Daniel. His DNA, everything checks out."

"But how can it be?" Landry leaned back and threw his pen down on the papers spread across his work area. "How can a forty year old man be reduced to a child in a matter of minutes?"

"Well," she said with a smile, "I'd say it took more like an hour from all reports." She hitched her hip up onto the corner of his desk. "So what do we do with him now? I really have no medical reason to keep a six year old little boy prisoner in my clinic."

Her father looked at her and sighed. "Well, I guess the next step is to call his next of kin." He looked at her curiously. "He does have one, right? Who is his next of kin anyway?"

Carolyn smiled at him humorlessly. "Oh yeah, he's got one all right. Major General Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill. He's stationed in Washington DC. Do you want to make the call, or should I?"

Hank Landry buried his head in his hands. "Crap!"