Reversal of Fortune: Part 3
The next morning came sooner than they thought, as there were only three of them, and not four, to stand watch. Daniel had won the luck of the draw, and was now standing last watch. Usually Jack would have taken slot, but the current circumstances dictated otherwise. Teal'c was deep in Kel'no'rem over on one side of their fire, with Sam opposite him, curled up in Daniel's sleeping bag, Jack snuggled up to her warmth.
A smile touched his mouth for a moment as he looked at them. That was one way to sleep with your commanding officer. Then he shook his head, grinning ruefully. Jack had definitely rubbed off on him over these past few years. He reached out, gently shaking Sam's foot. "Sam, it's time."
Sam awoke instantly, without moving a muscle. A habit she had developed when they were on alien worlds. There had been more than one occasion where they had to go from deep sleep to instant alert, or they would have gone to sleep from which they would not have awakened. The colonel and Teal'c had been well versed in that skill and she had learned it quickly.
This time, though alert, she didn't move. She tipped her head down to look at the small body cuddled against her. The colonel… no… Jack was lying with his head pillowed on her breasts, the rest of his body curled up in a ball pressed against her stomach. His third and ring finger were in his mouth. She tilted her head down to slightly nuzzle the soft dark hair. He seemed to have a unique little boy smell that made her tuck him closer to her for a moment, eliciting a contented sigh from him. Then she glanced up at Daniel, who was smiling faintly at her. She felt a small blush come over her face.
"Who would have believed he could be so adorable as a child?" Daniel said quietly.
"It would perhaps explain why O'Neill was able to reach adulthood," Teal'c said coming out of meditation with little transition.
That got a chuckle from both Sam and Daniel. Teal'c's dry wit had first come as a shock. It was normal now to her and Daniel, although it always seemed to catch Jack by surprise, especially when he was the brunt of it.
Daniel had already built up the fire back up, and was heating water for the instant coffee and MREs. Sam gently shook Jack awake before climbing out of the sleeping bag. Young Jack protested the waking with poor grace, particularly protesting the loss of Sam's body heat. The cup of instant hot chocolate Daniel provided served as an adequate detraction. While Daniel coaxed him to eat one of the MREs, Sam and Teal'c packed up their gear in preparation to leaving.
They left Jack wrapped in the sleeping bag for warmth, as they really didn't have anything else that came close to fitting him. Daniel didn't look forward to the trip back to the gate while carrying Jack, wrapped up as he was. It wasn't that he didn't want to carry him, but he knew that the child would gain 10 pounds for every mile they walked. Teal'c however, resolved the problem before anyone could protest by scooping up Jack, sleeping back and all, in his arms. Daniel and Sam exchanged looks and then shrugged, dividing the rest of the equipment between them.
The two and half hours it took them to return to the stargate was cold and damp. The morning was not only chilly, but a light drizzle had begun, settled cold and wet over everything. Teal'c kept Jack's head covered. Or at least he tried to. Jack kept poking his head out curiously to see what was going on around him. He didn't chatter like many human children, but he periodically would ask a question. Teal'c, who had learned the ancients' language the same time Jack had, answered carefully. As he rarely had cause to use it lately, his Latin was rusty at best. Jack didn't seem to mind.
They reached the stargate with a sense of relief, Sam moving immediately to dial home. The trademark 'ker-woosh' of the gate's event horizon made Jack hide his face against Teal'c's chest with a whimper of fear, but brought a grin from the rest of them. They knew that noise meant that they could go home. Teal'c rumbled soothingly at him for a moment. It wasn't long before he would look out again. He twisted in the former jaffa's arms to reach out toward Daniel.
With faint surprise, Daniel took him, feeling small arms wrapping around his neck as Jack tried to tuck his head under Daniel's chin. He could feel the small body trembling against him. They had to get Jack warm and checked out. The three of them quickly approached the liquid-like surface and stepped through. Daniel felt the arms tighten into a strangle hold as they passed through the event horizon.
General George Hammond stood in the gate room watching the flickering surface of the wormhole. The iris had been opened once SG-1 GDO signal had been received and confirmed. They were back early, which could have meant one of two things. There had been nothing worth seeing, or there was something wrong. From his experience the latter was the more likely of the two scenarios.
Hammond watched as first Sam, then Teal'c, stepped through and onto the ramp. Then Daniel stepped through the gate holding on to a large bundle. A moment later the gate wisped out of existence. Frowning in concern he leaned forward to tip the microphone toward him.
"Major Carter, where is Colonel O'Neill?" he asked. The response was unexpected, a small head popped out of the bundle that Daniel was carrying. Was that a child Daniel was carrying?
"Right there, General," Sam replied, looking over at Daniel as she walked down the ramp, to be quickly followed by Teal'c and Daniel.
Sometimes the general didn't like being right. "Report to the infirmary," he said before snapping off the microphone. There was silence in the control room. Then he turned on his heel to meet the team in the infirmary and find out exactly was going on. A downsized Colonel was not good news by any stretch of the imagination. How it was possible defied his imagination.
Thirty minutes later Daniel was sitting on a gurney with Jack sitting on his lap while Janet examined him. Jack refused to be separated from him even though he could identify who Janet was. He even knew he was in the infirmary.
Teal'c and Sam had completed their post mission exams and had moved over to one side of the infirmary, talking to the general about the situation. Hammond glanced at the archaeologist and the child while the other two continued to debrief him. With their history, it would have seemed more likely that Daniel would be the one something strange happened to. Jack was simply prone to injuries.
Jack pushed Janet's hand away when she tried to check his eyes with her penlight. She found herself smiling faintly. "Obviously there are some things that haven't changed," she said glanced up at Daniel. Jack always complained about having his eyes checked. "Has he spoken much?" she asked.
Daniel shook his head. "He's actually said very little, which I find strange," he replied. "He asked a few questions on the way here, all in Latin. They were fairly intelligent questions, too. Not what I'd expect from a child of his apparent age."
Other than the incident with the penlight, Jack remained silent, seated on Daniel's lap. He didn't even protest when Janet took blood samples for testing. But once the band-aid was in place, he twisted on Daniel's lap, tucking his head down as he sucked on his two fingers.
The General strode over to the gurney where Daniel and Jack were, followed closely by Sam and Teal'c.
"Well, doctor?" Hammond asked, looking down at the child, who raised his brown eyes to stare back at him.
"It certainly seems to be Colonel O'Neill as a child," Janet said. "But I can't confirm it's really him until we get the DNA tests back. That will take a couple of days. Other than that, I would say he's a perfectly healthy five-year-old child. However, I would like to keep him here in the infirmary overnight for observation."
When Daniel tried to set Jack down on the bed and step back, the quiet and compliant child vanished instantly. He cried out for Daniel, reaching for him. He would have jumped from the bed if an orderly hadn't restrained him and that only made the situation worse, as Jack's howls of fear rose in volume.
It took all three members of SG-1 to calm him. It was clear that he would not stay calm unless at least one of them was with him. Daniel was apparently on the top of the list, as he was back in Daniel's lap, hugging him for all he was worth.
"I'll stay with him," Daniel said finally.
"We can take shifts," Sam added as Teal'c nodded in agreement.
It was an hour later when Hammond met with Sam and Daniel along with Doctor Frazier for a debriefing in his office. Teal'c remained with Jack, Daniel having successfully traded off the young man once he had fallen asleep in Daniel's arms.
"Daniel was caught in the light over a minute before the colonel was able to push him out of it," Sam was saying. She gestured to the video monitor next to the table and hit the play button on the remote. Sam had been video taping the walls when the colonel shouted. She had spun in place and the camera had captured the site of Daniel caught in the light, frozen. A moment later they saw the colonel leap forward, knocking Daniel out of the light and being caught himself. The video became jumpy, and then shut off.
"Daniel's exam shows no effect of youthening at all," Janet said. "For it to have affected Colonel O'Neill so quickly it should have had some affect on Dr. Jackson. Since it didn't I'm considering Major Carter's theory about the ATA gene."
Hammond frowned slightly. He had seen Jack go through a lot but this was the strangest so far. "So how long will this 'youthening' last?"
Janet shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I don't know," she said. "There are no nanobots or any other foreign substance in his blood work. From everything we can test here, it's Jack, just as a five year old. It's not like Argos where he was able to return to normal after couple weeks."
"Are you saying this could be permanent?" Hammond asked the shock showing clearly on his face.
"Unless his DNA results come back with a very weird story, then yes sir," Janet said. "Colonel O'Neill may have to grow up all over again."
There was silence around the table for long moments. Sam and Daniel exchanged looks on what this could mean for Jack, but also what it would mean for their team and stargate command. Jack had been second in command. A position he could no long fulfill in his current state.
"Thank you," Hammond said. "Dismissed." He rose from his seat and headed into his office. There was a phone call he was going to have to make.
To Be Continued.