The Next Stage

By Gemsong

Genre: Angst/Drama/Kidfic

Summary: After so many years with the Stargate program things were bound to catch up with Jack in some fashion.

Spoilers: Everything up to New Order but before Jack gets promoted to General and Janet didn't die in Heroes.

Warning: Exposition. Don't you love exposition? Cue the music.

Disclaimer: Not mine. I stole them without permission and not likely to give them back. Don't expect them to be in same the condition I found them. Where's the fun in that?

Author's Note: Worshiping homage to my muse and beta. Any leftover mistakes are mine and mine alone. For those who are howling, calling me evil and mean, thank you. For those of you sitting on the edge of your seats, consider this a shove in the wrong direction.

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This time, for Daniel, waiting was the hardest thing he ever had to do. Normally he was patient, a prerequisite for his chosen profession but waiting for news on the status of Jack and Janet was proving that for this kind of waiting he wasn't any good at it. He slouched in his office chair.

He had often thought of Jack as restless and impatient. He was always in constant motion in some manner. He would fiddle with pens, pick up random objects in Daniel or Sam's labs or pace around the room. But that was a physical restlessness. Jack was a man of action. But the more Daniel thought about it the more he realized that Jack was also a man of incredible patience. He showed that time and time again when Daniel was excited over a new find or the hours he would spend on Jack's couch after a bottle of beer and start babbling about anything and everything that came to mind. Jack listened. Jack always listened to him. Whether he was making sense or not, Jack would sit and listen for as long as it took.

Daniel looked up at the knock on his door as Sam poked her blond head in. "Hey," she said. "What are you doing?"

A wry smile touched his mouth. "Wallowing in self pity," he said. "Want to join me?"

Sam chuckled and came into the room. She snagged a stool and sat down. "I am so used to him popping into my lab," she said. "It makes me crazy, but I miss it. Is that weird or what?"

"How about when he calls my artifacts - rocks?" Daniel replied. "Or when he starts juggling them?" He looked over at a shelf. "I wish he was here."

"O'Neill is not dead," Teal'c's voice intoned from the doorway. Daniel and Sam looked to see the former Jaffa entering the room.

Sam smiled. "We're having a pity party, Teal'c," she said. "Want to join us?"

"For whom are we feeling pity?" he asked, an eyebrow pausing to visit his hairline.

Daniel waved a hand in the air. "Ourselves," he replied. "We're thinking of all the things that Jack does that make us nuts, and realizing we miss him not being here driving us nuts."

"Then you must discontinue this activity," Teal'c declared. "It has been more than 24 hours since the Asgard took O'Neill and Dr. Fraiser to the ship. Long past the time Dr. Warner gave them. If they were dead, Thor would have notified us."

"So, what do we talk about?" Daniel asked.

Sam sighed, resting her arms on the countertop. "What I want to know is what happened?" she said. "What caused this?"

Daniel shrugged. "I haven't a clue."

"Perhaps things were not as the Asgard presented them," Teal'c said. Both Sam and Daniel looked at him with a question in their eyes. He looked away from them for a moment. "Thor claimed that they removed the Ancient library from O'Neill's brain. But truly, how well do they know the human mind?"

Daniel furrowed his brow in thought. "They could have pushed it into his subconscious with a command not to return to it. Almost like a post hypnotic suggestion," he offered. "But why did it break out?"

"The Asgard computers," Sam said. "You said his mind was interfaced with it." Daniel and Teal'c both nodded. "The human mind is capable of a lot of things. A lot of them require power. The Asgard computers are powerful. The Ancient knowledge gave him the skill since both races were contemporaries." She shivered slightly at the memory of the time when her mind was housed in a cobbled together computer database an alien entity had created.

Before they could theorize further, the phone in Daniel's office rang. He got up and answered it. "Jackson."

He listened for a moment and then replaced the receiver. "Dr. Warner is back," he said. "He and General Hammond want to see us in the conference room."

A few minutes later the three members of SG-1 entered the conference room. Hammond was seated at the table looking strained. Warner was seated beside him looking worn and strained. Daniel noticed he didn't look upset which was a hopeful sign. Either that or the doctor had a very good poker face.

The team quickly took a seat. "Well?" Daniel asked impatiently.

Warner smiled tiredly. "Remind me to pack a lunch the next time I spend any time with the Asgard."

"The yellow ones are Thor's favorites," Sam said with a smirk.

"Yes… It was an… interesting experience," Warner said with a slightly pained expression.

"Dr. Warner, if you please," Hammond said. His impatience obvious but better contained than Daniel's.

Warner nodded. "Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Fraiser are alive," he said. "Thor will be bringing them back shortly. They needed some time to adjust."

"Adjust to what?" Daniel asked. "Was Thor able to save them?"

Before the exhausted doctor could respond there was a brilliant flash of light. For just an instant Daniel thought that three Asgard had beamed into the conference room. Then he blinked, unbelieving what he was seeing.

On either side of the small grey alien were two human children. Both were holding one of Thor's hands as they looked about the room with wide wary eyes.

"What is this?" Hammond asked, clearly confused.

Thor nodded to the boy. "This is Colonel O'Neill," he said and then nodded to the girl. "And this is Dr. Fraiser."

"But…" Sam began in disbelieving protest.

"It was the only way to save them," Warner said quickly. He turned his chair and gestured to the children. "Jack, Janet, come here."

Reluctantly the two children released Thor's hands and moved quickly to Dr. Warner who put a protective arm around each of them. Daniel couldn't help but stare in shocked recognition. They couldn't be more than four or five years old. Both were dark haired with brown eyes, and dressed in tunics and trousers of a silvery like material. As much as he wanted to deny it, his gut told him that this indeed was Jack and Janet. When Jack lifted his eyes and looked straight at Daniel it was like a punch in the stomach. He knew those eyes.

"Does anyone care to explain?" Hammond asked, dragging his gaze from the children to Thor.

To say the Asgard looked uncomfortable was an understatement. Thor's normally expressionless face revealed more emotion any of them had ever seen before..

"I will try to explain, General Hammond," Thor said as he moved closer to the table. Because of his size, he didn't attempt to sit down.

All eyes turned to focus on Thor. with the exception of Daniel who's gaze remained firmly fixed on Jack. The look in those dark eyes seemed to say 'I know you and I remember everything'. It sent a shiver down his spine. Reluctantly, he then forced his attention to Thor's explanation.

"After we beamed Colonel O'Neill's body to my ship and into a stasis pod, I interfaced his mind with my ship's computers," Thor said as he folded his hands in front of him. "It was my hope that with the help of the computers, Colonel O'Neill could find information in the database that would help us against the replicators. In that aspect, he was successful. I removed the database from his mind as I did before. His body returned to normal."

"So, what went wrong?" Sam asked as a diversion from her own memories of the time she was a prisoner of Fifth.

"I did not take into account that the Ancient Database and my ships computers are two different systems," Thor said. "I also did not take into account that Colonel O'Neill would have had to mesh both of the databases to determine a solution. The speed of thought required, along with the augmentation of our computer matrix, heightened his innate abilities. Instead of removing the information it was pushed into his subconscious, allowing his body to return to normal health. It is also why the results of your medical exams were unremarkable when he returned."

"So, what does that mean?" Sam asked.

"It means that while O'Neill was interfaced with the Asgard computer,, his mind or mental software upgraded itself to handle the job," Warner said.

The explanation made sense to Sam. "Following that analogy, his brain was still configured for the previous version of software."

Warner nodded in agreement. "His brain wasn't designed to handle that much information," he stated simply. "We learned that the hard way. Unfortunately, the new mental 'software' was acting like virus on his 'hardware'.

Daniel watched as Thor looked back and forth between Sam and Warner as they tried to understand the situation in more primitive terms. He found his eyes drawn to the children. They were both staring at him. Daniel frowned slightly. It was almost as if they wanted to be with him and were wondering if he would want them. Unconsciously, he straightened in his chair. Of course he wanted them. They were his friends, his family. If they had to grow up all over again then he would make sure they would be happy and loved.

Without a word Jack and Janet slipped from Warner's embrace and quickly moved around the table to Daniel's chair. Smiling, he helped them up to sit in his lap, and they leaned back against the warmth of his chest. His smiled his amusement as they both stuck thumbs in their mouths.

"That doesn't explain why they are now children," Hammond said before Sam could begin a technobble ramble over the theory.

This time Thor answered. "Our doctors tried everything we could think of," he said. "They attempted to remove the excess data from Colonel O'Neill's and Dr. Fraiser's minds but the information was so firmly fixed we failed. We then attempted to reconfigure the pathways in their brains to handle the data. However, once a human has developed past their puberty stage it is not possible to do this without causing additional damage. When Dr. Warner commented that the human brain was highly adaptive in your young, we realized we had one last option. Therefore, we chose to regress their physical forms to an age that would adapt and utilize the information."

Teal'c spoke for the first time in the discussion. "If I comprehend correctly," he said slowly. "These children have the complete knowledge of not only the Ancients, but the information contained in your computers?"

Thor nodded. "In addition to the memories of their lives to this point," he said.

All eyes turned to the children who were now firmly ensconced in Daniel's lap. Jack and Janet curled up against the archeologist chest as his arms came around them more protectively.

"At least they are alive and healthy," Daniel said into the silence.

To be continued