A/N: Dream sequences are set off by / . This is my first fic in the Stargate fandom. Be gentle with me :). Set in mid-Season 7.
Dr. Jackson sat hunched over his desk, his chin resting on his fists, gazing out at nothing in particular. His stomach was twisted up in knots. He knew there was no way out of taking the scan, but that didn't mean he was particularly happy about it. There was a knock at his door and Daniel peered over the rim of his glasses to see Dr. Fraiser enter his office with a sheepish duck of her head.
"Dr. Jackson—mind if I come in for a minute?" she asked. Daniel stared blankly at her and said nothing. She came in anyway, closing the door behind her. "Listen, Daniel, for what it's worth, I'm sorry. But under the circumstances I felt I had no choice. Even if General Hammond hadn't made it a direct order I would have told him you'd been having nightmares. Countless lives are at stake here—I hoped you'd understand."
Daniel slumped back in his chair and rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh. "I know I overreacted back there, and I know that my precious privacy doesn't come anywhere close to comparing with all the lives that are at stake, but…I really don't like the idea of everyone watching my dreams like it's the Superbowl or something." His blue eyes screwed up at her as if he were trying to will her to understand.
Janet gave him a warm, reassuring smile. "None of us are thrilled at the prospect of having our thoughts probed while we sleep, which is why I've suggested to General Hammond that only two observers be allowed in the room during the scans, one Tok'ra and one member of the SGC."
Daniel thought about it for a moment. "If I have to do this…I'd like you to be the one in there with me. You are my doctor, after all—there's not much of me you haven't seen already anyways."
Janet saw the pleading look on Daniel's face and the mother in her melted. "Of course I'll be there, if that's what you want," she said.
"Thank-you," Daniel said quietly, and waited for her to leave so he could gather his thoughts. But she didn't leave. Instead, she shifted from one foot to the other and looked at him apologetically. "What? Now? I have to do this now? I can't! I'm not even sleepy. Can't they start with someone else? Maybe they'll find the bomb before it's my turn."
Janet shook her head. "You're the most likely suspect—you know that, Daniel."
"I don't remember dreaming about bombs. My nightmares have nothing to do with bombs, I promise you," he said, sounding like an eight year old begging to stay up late on a school night.
"Daniel…" said Fraiser, lifting her eyebrow in a way she'd found effective in dealing with Cassandra when she got stubborn.
Daniel dropped his chin to his chest and took a few seconds to build up his resolve before pushing up off his chair. He passed Fraiser, giving her a sidelong glance, and opened the door. Two stalwart airmen with P-90's stepped in sync to block his exit.
"It's okay, he's coming with me," said Fraiser.
Daniel fell into step next to her and looked at her askance. "You thought I was gonna make a run for it?" he asked incredulously.
Janet raised her large brown eyes at him and gave him a wry smile. "You can never be too sure in this place."
Jacob Carter and Dr. Fraiser sat in the observation lounge waiting with growing impatience. It had been two and a half hours so far. With the lights turned off and the flickering glow of candles illuminating the isolation room, all that was lacking was a sleeping archaeologist.
Tossing restlessly on the cot they'd set up for him, Daniel fingered the memory device at his temple and glanced at the one-way mirror. He couldn't see Fraiser and Jacob, but he knew they were there and that was enough to make falling asleep virtually impossible. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't relax. He even tried to kelnorim, but it was useless—his mind was in turmoil and no amount of candlelight and meditation could switch it off.
Finally Daniel gave up and raised himself up onto his elbows to look directly into the mirror. "It's no good," he said. "I feel like I just drank six cups of coffee."
Janet leaned over and whispered to Jacob, as if Daniel might hear her is she spoke any louder. "Would a sedative throw off the memory device?"
"It shouldn't," Jacob replied. "And if you don't knock him out, I have a feeling we'll be sitting here all night waiting."
Janet's lips thinned. She didn't like the idea of resorting to drugs to get Daniel to sleep, but they didn't have the luxury of time. Reluctantly, she took her leave of Jacob and entered the adjoining isolation room.
Daniel sat up as she approached. "I don't suppose you've come here to tell me I can go home now."
"I'm just going to give you something to help you sleep." With her best bedside demeanour, Fraiser set to work preparing a hypodermic needle.
Daniel sat quietly, watching her work. He flinched a little as the needle unloaded its stinging lump of venom under the skin of his left arm. As he lay back down, he grabbed hold of Fraiser's hand and she turned her startled brown eyes on him.
"Tell me everything will be alright," he said, already starting to feel the effects of the sedative. He blinked groggily up at her, fighting it all the way. "Tell me I haven't ruined everything." His eyelids had become too heavy to keep open despite his efforts, and he finally gave in and let them close.
Janet watched him battle against the drug, his brow deeply trenched in a frown even after the rest of his body had gone limp. She had no idea what he meant by what he'd just said, but she felt compelled to answer him, nonetheless. "Everything will be just fine, Daniel. Now relax and go to sleep."
Daniel's brow slowly unfurled and his mouth went slack. He was out. Dr. Fraiser gently set his hand back down at his side and gave his hair a gentle pat. She'd known the nightmares he'd been having were bad enough to make him come to her for help, but his recent behaviour had her worried. Either the dreams were being unnaturally induced by the bomb, or they were being naturally produced by his subconscious mind—and they were clearly having a profound psychological effect on him. In any case, she had a bad feeling Daniel was in trouble.
Jacob Carter had just finished calibrating the holographic projector when Fraiser returned to the observation lounge. The projector was displaying very little—just the odd spark of light or the ghostly shapes of faces and bodies in a swirling blackness.
"Are you sure that thing's working?" asked Janet, trying to make sense of the dark, garbled images.
"It's working fine," Jacob assured her. "The drugs you gave him pushed him into a deep sleep—deeper than he would have gone had he fallen asleep on his own. Give it a little time, the dreams will come."
Janet took a seat, settling in for the long haul. "Any word on how General Hammond is doing?" she asked.
"I just checked in with Sam," he answered. "She said he's been out like a light for the last two hours. No bomb sightings as yet." Hammond had taken it upon himself, as a gesture of good faith towards Dr. Jackson, to volunteer to undergo the scan at the same time. He was in the VIP suite at that very moment with Shaneeth and Sam monitoring his dreams.
It was another forty minutes before anything of interest showed up on the projector. Jacob prodded Fraiser, who'd started nodding off, letting her know it was time.
"Looks like we've got REM," he said.
/Not surprisingly, perhaps, the first images that appeared were of a great pyramid and a vast landscape of blowing sand. Three pale moons hung in the sky overhead, and apart from the pyramid itself, they were the only thing of interest to be seen. Soon Colonel O'Neill appeared in the dream, dressed in desert fatigues, his short hair ruffled and dusty from the wind.
"You can get us home, can't you Jackson?" he asked. He looked severely pissed.
"No," said Daniel. "At least, not until I find out what the seventh symbol is."
"That's not good enough. My men here are counting on you. You said—no, you guaranteed—that you could get us home. That's the only reason we came through the gate in the first place."
The sand behind O'Neill swirled up into twin twisters which then transformed into Skaara and Kawalski—O'Neill's men—who looked equally irate at Daniel's ineptitude. Their eyes flashed a cold white and Skaara spoke, his voice the deep, resonant bass of a Goa'uld. "Bring us home, Dan-yel."
"You know I can't do that," said Daniel. "It's too late for you—I'm sorry."
"Tell him," said Goa'uld-Kawalski, his glowing eyes turning to look at the back of Jack's head menacingly.
"No," said Daniel. "I won't."
Suddenly the desert sand disappeared and became a forest, and Daniel was flying through it. He was floating near the treetops, following the movements of an SG team on the ground below him. The team entered a clearing, moving cautiously, watching each other's backs, and Daniel swooped down to join them. It was SG-1—O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c and Jonas—and they were being ambushed. Daniel stood there watching as the team was completely surrounded by Jaffa. Staff blasts exploded all around, and the clearing was filled with the deafening stutter of P-90 rounds.
"I have to warn him," said Daniel as a bullet whistled past his ear.
Oma Desala floated down from her lofty vantage point and stood before him, glowing a pure, shimmering white, and looked at him with a kindly but stern expression. "You cannot tell him," she said.
"I can't just stand by and watch him get hurt," Daniel argued vehemently, watching as O'Neill's gun ran out of ammo.
"If you tell him, you'll ruin everything," Oma warned and floated up and away from him.
Daniel stood facing Jack, knowing what was going to happen but completely helpless to prevent it. As Jack loaded another magazine into his P-90 a staff blast caught him in the shoulder, spinning him around in a sickening pirouette before dropping him to the ground. Carter rushed over to him and turned him over, and he flopped lifelessly onto his back, pitchy blood and scorched cloth making a mess of his left shoulder. He was clearly unconscious, and yet he opened his eyes and stared directly up at Daniel.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, more confused than angry.
Sitting watching in the observation lounge, Dr. Fraiser turned to Jacob, rubbing at her grainy eyes. They'd been watching for hours, and seemed to be getting nowhere. "Are all dreams this complicated?" she asked.
Jacob smiled at her. "Actually, of all the dreams I've watched, Dr. Jackson's are probably the most comprehensible."
"Actually, it's kind of fascinating," said Janet. "Half his dreams aren't even in English. Some of them were in Goa'uld, weren't they?"
Jacob nodded. "Fluent Goa'uld—with an unusual accent—but otherwise flawless."
"Fascinating," she reiterated.
"Fascinating, maybe, but not what we're looking for. I'm starting to think we may have a long search ahead of us."
There was a knock at the door and Colonel O'Neill popped his head in. "Hey, Doc. Sorry to barge in like this, but you're needed in the infirmary. Silas and his crew were working on the FRED, and apparently it collapsed on a couple of them. It's complete chaos—you better get down there."
Fraiser's eyes went wide—the FRED was a heavy piece of equipment, and if it fell on someone they'd be lucky to walk away from it in one piece. She looked at Jacob then through the window at Daniel.
"I promised him I'd be here," she said. "He specifically asked me to be here."
"Go on," said O'Neill. "I'll cover you." When she looked at him uncertainly, he added: "C'mon Doc, this is Daniel we're talking about. We're so close, when he sneezes, I wipe my nose."
Fraiser smiled gratefully at him and hurried from the room. As soon as she was gone, O'Neill sat down in her still-warm chair and looked up at the holographic projection. Then he fished around in his pockets and dug out a bag of trail mix.
"What did I miss?" he asked Jacob.
Jacob raised an eyebrow at him. "You brought snacks?"
"A man's gotta eat," he argued and began munching away at his late-night snack.
"Did you bring enough for the rest of the class?" asked Jacob.
O'Neill grinned and passed him the bag. "So…any bomb sightings?" he asked.
Jacob sighed and shook his head. "Nothing so far. But I gotta tell ya, I'm not surprised Daniel had a hard time falling asleep. If I had as many nightmares as he has, I'd probably never want to sleep again."
"Comes with the territory, I guess," said Jack casually. He tried to fool himself, but in the pit of his stomach he had to admit the comment really bothered him. Sure, the kid had been through a hell of a lot, but Jack had had no idea it was affecting him so badly. He was his CO. He should have known about the nightmares.
Jack sat for a while watching Daniel sleep, instead of the projected images he was supposed to be watching. Daniel was stretched out on his back, his hands tucked under his head, his legs splayed and twisted around the blankets. The pose reminded Jack of a golden retriever he'd had when he was a kid. Her name was Kit, and she was the most affectionate and loyal creature he'd ever known. She would lie like that, too—her belly exposed and vulnerable, letting him pet her—trusting him unconditionally. Jack found it amazing that after all he'd been through, and even now, in the grip of his nightmares, Daniel still managed to remain so trusting and vulnerable.
Jack cleared his throat and marshalled his straying thoughts. He was here to look for a bomb, not to eyeball Daniel's exposed belly. He wrenched his eyes away from his friend and tried to concentrate on the shifting images of the hologram. "What, exactly, are we looking at here?" he asked.
"All his dreams seem to have a common theme—they all involve you and your team."
"Not surprising," Jack replied. "We spend more time together than we spend apart." He sat quietly eating trail mix for a moment until a thought occurred to him. "Hang on—you said he was having nightmares…does that mean his nightmares are about us?"
"Shh…" said Jacob and pointed at the projection, which was shifting again.
Jack gave him a petulant glare, but dutifully returned his attention to the holographic dreams. "Hey! I recognize this place," said Jack. "Those cliffs, that beach…that was PX9-something-or-other. We went there a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful planet—sea caverns filled with ruins—Daniel was in Heaven."
"Shh!"
"Sorry."
/The tide had come in while they were busy exploring the caverns that contained the ancient relics Daniel was so excited about. Luckily they were well above sea level and didn't have to worry about getting flooded, but their passage out of the caverns now lay under several feet of churning ocean. They were essentially trapped until low tide.
Still, it could be worse—at least they had a pretty view from the cavern's mouth. Teal'c and Sam were setting up camp, getting a fire started and preparing to make dinner. Daniel was leaning against the cavern's entrance watching in awe as the setting sun filled the alien sky with a truly stunning palette of colours. Out of the corner of his eye he saw O'Neill coming up to stand beside him.
"Have you ever seen anything so beautiful," asked Daniel.
"Can't say I have," Jack answered, and as Daniel turned to look at him, he could have sworn he caught Jack quickly looking away, as if he'd been watching him and not the sunset when he'd answered the question.
Of course Daniel knew that was absurd…just wishful thinking on his part. And yet he couldn't help wondering if just maybe…
"Daniel…?" asked Jack. "What'cha thinking?"
Daniel shook the delusions out of his head when he realised he'd been staring at Jack. "What? Nothing," he answered quickly.
"You should tell him, Daniel Jackson," said Teal'c from his spot near the fire.
"What?" Daniel asked in disbelief. "No!"
"Teal'c's right, Daniel," Carter added as she coaxed the flames of the fire a little higher. "Tell him, or bit by bit, this thing's gonna kill you."
Daniel's tongue darted out to wet his lips. Jack was now watching him curiously.
"Tell me what, Daniel?" asked Jack.
"It's nothing," Daniel replied and glared at Carter, who smiled sweetly back at him.
"If you've got something to say to me, say it," said Jack. "You know how much I hate secrets."
"Of course—why else would you join a top-secret military organisation?" Daniel quipped facetiously.
"Tell me."
"I don't think so."
"Fine," said Jack. "We'll have to do this the hard way, then." Jack stepped in closer and brought his hand up to cup Daniel's cheek. "Does it have anything to do with this, perhaps?" asked Jack, stroking Daniel's cheek with his thumb.
Daniel's breath hitched in his throat and he couldn't help leaning into the touch. He nuzzled his face against the palm of Jack's hand, closing his eyes to fully savour the moment. When he opened them again, Jack was only inches away, his skin tinted warm ochre by the setting sun, his rich brown eyes burning right through him.
"Or maybe it's more about…" Jack said softly, leaning in as he spoke until his lips were on Daniel's, effectively finishing the sentence.
Pressed up against the cavern wall, Daniel let out a strangled whimper before giving in and returning the kiss. It soon became heated, and as Jack kissed scorching trails along his jaw and down his neck, Daniel arched into him with a mewling moan, guiding Jack's advances with trembling hands.
Daniel's eyes cracked open and he noticed Sam and Teal'c observing them in an oddly detached way as they ate their dinner rations. It was enough to distract Daniel from the attentions Jack was paying him, and Jack pulled back, annoyed.
"Don't look at them, look at me," said Jack. "That is, unless you'd rather be over there with them. Go ahead if you want, but I can guarantee you'll have more fun here with me."
Jack's hand took a sudden detour and ended up firmly entrenched between Daniel's legs. The move caught Daniel by surprise and his head flew back hard enough to knock against the stone wall painfully. Daniel hardly noticed, distracted as he was by the unexpected massage Jack was giving him. In no time at all he was achingly erect, his hips rocking against Jacks' hand, desperately trying to increase the friction. Jack obliged, at first, rubbing him harder, getting him close to release…and then he stopped. Without warning, Jack stepped back, leaving Daniel panting and pleading for more.
"Jack…" he begged.
"Tell me," said Jack.
"Jack…no," said Daniel with a near-sob.
"Okay…tell me, please," Jack said reasonably.
"You don't understand. It'll ruin everything."
Jack stepped in again, so close his body heat seeped into Daniel, but not close enough to actually touch him. Daniel wanted more than anything to close the gap between them, to feel Jack's body against his again, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move. Jack toyed with him, his hands hovering over him, almost but not quite touching. The frustration and the throbbing ache in his groin quickly had Daniel shaking from head to foot.
"Please, Jack!" he cried out.
"Not until you say it," Jack insisted.
Daniel's chest heaved with the effort of resisting him, his blue eyes so dark with need they were almost entirely black. "Please," he begged once more.
"Tell me, Daniel," Jack whispered in his ear, his breath stirring up goose flesh all over Daniel's body.
It was more than Daniel could bear. His throat was so tight with emotion the words nearly didn't come out at all. "I love you, Jack. Oh, God, I love you so much!"
The tender kisses he expected to follow never came. Instead, Jack shoved him forcefully against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. Jack slowly withdrew a few feet and was joined by Teal'c and Carter. Daniel slid down the wall, his knees buckling beneath him as he looked up at Jack in confusion.
"Jack…?"
O'Neill cocked his head at him, his eyes cold and distant. "You're pathetic. Did you really think it would be any different this time?"
Carter and Teal'c took their place on either side of O'Neill, and as Daniel watched, they transformed into Shau'ri and Sarah, both exhibiting the glowing white eyes of the Goa'uld residing within them. To his horror, Jack's eyes glowed white as well, and the three of them advanced on him.
"No," Daniel whimpered and he tried to back further away. The cold stone wall of the cavern blocked his retreat, and there was nowhere left to go, except… Daniel edged closer to the lip of the cavern's mouth. He peered over the edge at the fifty foot drop to the rocky tide below and licked his parched lips. All the while, O'Neill, Shau'ri and Sarah slowly gained on him, taking their time, knowing there was nowhere for him to go.
Daniel turned to watch the trio descend upon him, Jack in the lead, pulling on a ribbon device with a sadistic smirk on his face.
"Jack, if there's any part of you still in there, I'm begging you…" Searing white pain exploded behind Daniel's eyes as Jack activated the ribbon device. His body spasmed, and then curled up in a tight ball on the sandy floor of the cave as he slowly succumbed to the torture device. A spray of foamy spittle erupted from his mouth as he fought to breathe. The pain was so intense it made him yearn for death. But somehow Daniel somehow managed to grab hold of Jack's arm and with the little strength he had left in him he heaved the other man over the lip of the cavern.
Daniel's shoulder was wrenched out of its socket as Jack dangled over the edge of the cavern's opening, tenaciously gripping Daniel's wrist. Weakened and emotionally devastated, Daniel looked down at Jack and said; "I'm sorry."
"No. But you will be," said the Goa'uld in Jack, and with a mighty yank, he pulled Daniel over the edge with him and the two of them plummeted to the roaring sea below.
O'Neill watched the nightmare unfold with open-mouthed shock. The trail mix sat forgotten in his hands as Daniel's subconscious spilled forth and revealed his friend's deepest secrets and fears. He knew he should have looked away, but he couldn't. He was completely mesmerized, his attention torn between the projected images of the dream and Daniel, who was tossing and struggling on the cot in the other room.
When Daniel jerked awake with a terrified gasp, Jack was suddenly jerked back to reality with him. He had to get out of there—Daniel couldn't know he'd been there, watching. He looked at Jacob, his mouth still hanging open and blinked at him mutely.
Jacob knew what was going through his mind. "Go on, get out of here. I promise I won't tell him."
O'Neill nodded at him gratefully and bolted from the room, anxious to be anywhere but there.