Chapter Thirteen

"Dr. Jackson?"

Hammond waited outside Daniel's closed office door for a moment. The General had woken up with a headache and deep sense of guilt gnawing at his stomach. He remembered his every word to Daniel, but in the light of a brand new day he didn't know what had caused his rash and callous decision. He felt that at the time he'd had a reason, but he couldn't think of it now.

"Dr. Jackson?" Hammond knocked again. "It's General Hammond, I need to talk to you."

After another minute of stony silence Hammond decided to just invite himself inside. The door was unlocked, as always. Opening the door he stepped into the organized chaos of Daniel's office. There was an amazing amount of stuff in the small office, but there was one thing missing: Daniel.

Not overly concerned Hammond went looking for the wayward archeologist. He knew that he could simply ask Daniel to his office over the PA system. However, since he was seeking Daniel out to give an apology he felt it best to hunt him down on his own. On his way through the halls he came across Teal'c who was talking with a young woman who the General knew to be Captain Turner.

"You make me laugh, Teal'c." Captain Turner said with a touch of flush. "Are you allowed off Base for things like…dinner?"

"Indeed."

"Seven then?"

"It would be an honour."

Teal'c smiled brighter than Hammond could ever remember seeing. He wasn't even fully confident that he had ever actually seen Teal'c smile. It was one of those things that he could imagine either way. Kind of like when you can't remember if locked the front door or not, you can easily remember it either way without knowing which one is the truth.

"Teal'c." Hammond greeted. "Captain."

"General, Sir." The young Captain jolted. "I was…uh…just getting back to work, Sir."

"At ease, Captain." Hammond chuckled.

Captain Turner giggled as well and after one last look at Teal'c she scurried off down the hall. Teal'c watched her leave, the smile still on his lips, before turning back to Hammond. The General was pleased to see the Jaffa in a good mood for once. Not that Teal'c was often in a bad mood, he just more often seemed to be in no discernable mood whatsoever.

"General Hammond," Teal'c said with a slight bow "I would like to speak to you on the behalf of Daniel Jackson."

"I was just about to ask you if you've seen him."

"I have not."

"If you see him, can you tell him I'm looking for him?"

"Yes. Is your intention to return him to the team?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact it is."

"Then I will endeavor to find him for you."

"Thank you, Teal'c." Hammond smiled and then found himself chuckling.

"May I ask what is laughable?"

"Nothing. If you see Colonel O'Neill or Major Carter send them my way as well."

Teal'c nodded and continued down a different hall. Feeling in a better mood than before Hammond continued his way through the SGC. He checked all of the places that Daniel tended to haunt. Not only did he fail to find Daniel, but he was surprised that Jack hadn't appeared either. He knew that Jack wasn't going to give up so easily on getting Daniel back on the team and he was surprised that Jack wasn't on his case by now.

Hammond was about to give in and just go back to his office and call for Daniel when the off world activation alarms went off. Making his way directly to the control room he was just in time to see an injured SG-7 limp their way through the Gate. Colonel Knudson was being supported by two of his teammates as they made their way down the ramp.

There was a medical team already in the Gateroom and quickly met Knudson with a gurney. Hammond waited long enough to see the Gate close before heading down to the infirmary. The Colonel growled in pain as they transferred him onto one of the cold metal tables. He had a large number of minor scrapes and bruises. At the root of his pain was a compound fracture to his lower leg. One of the bones could be seen poking through his torn pant leg.

"Colonel, what happened?"

"I slipped and fell off a ledge, Sir." Knudson replied. "My own fault, General, sorry."

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad it wasn't enemy action. We'll do a briefing later."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Sir?" One of the nurses called.

"Yes?"

"Dr. Frasier did not report to the infirmary today."

"Really? Can you handle Colonel Knudson's leg?"

"Yes, Sir. Dr. Brighton can see him." The nurse replied. "However, it isn't like Dr. Frasier to be late."

"Noted. I will look into it."

"Thank you, Sir."

Feeling increasingly unease Hammond made his way up to his office. The little red light that let him know he had messages was blinking madly. Sitting down he took a deep breath before going to check the message, having a bad feeling about it. When things went wrong around the SGC things tended to snowball into an avalanche very quickly. Before he had a change to get to the message the phone rang.

"General Hammond."

"Thank Christ." A tired voice swore on the other end of the line.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry, General, I have been trying to get a hold of you all night."

"Who is this? This is my private line, not the emergency one."

"Well this is an emergency. I'm Sergeant Harris, and I've got one of your boys down here and he is a serious trouble maker. Now normally I'd keep him here for the bar fight and officer assault charges, but clearly he's mentally unstable and since I have a high level of respect for the Armed Forces I'm going to release him into your custody."

"Thank you Sergeant." Hammond said gratefully. "Tell Colonel O'Neill I'll be there in five minutes."

"O'Neill? No, Jackson."

"What?"

"Daniel Jackson."

Hammond was rendered momentarily speechless. The thought of Daniel being held on bar fighting and assault charges was so far from the reality that Hammond was used to that it was almost impossible to even imagine.

"General? Is Jackson one of your boys?"

"Yes." Hammond replied instantly. "I'm on my way."

"Okay, thanks."

"Thank you."

"Oh, one more thing, he told me to tell you that he thought there was a Campfire situation or something like that."

"Campfire?"

"No, that's not right…uh…Wild, that's it Wildfire."

"Wildfire… Sergeant, listen to me very carefully, I need you to close down the station until I get there." Hammond said as he got to his feet.

"Close it down?"

"No one in or out, and no one is to have contact with Dr. Jackson."

"No one wants contact with him, he's crazy."

"Just keep your distance, we're on our way."

"Wait…General, what's going on? Are my men safe?"

"Wildfire is a code word for a possible spreadable containment, during a Wildfire directive isolation is absolute."

"Nothing in, nothing out. Got it."

Hammond hung up the phone and dialed down to his containment team. Within minutes they were in the briefing room waiting for orders. Hammond dialed down to Sam's lab but got no response. General Hammond dialed into the PA system instead.

"Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, and Teal'c to the briefing room immediately."

Hammond had just hung up the phone when the intercom buzzed.

"Hammond."

"Sir, this is the front gate, I just heard your PA. Colonel O'Neill, and Major Carter have not signed in today."

"Thank you, Airman."

Before jumping to any conclusions Hammond dialed Jack's home, but no one picked up, not even the answering machine. Hanging up the phone with a heavy sigh Hammond walked out into the briefing room. Everyone was there and ready to go. Hammond gave them a quick rundown on the fact that they might have a contamination threat. The team assured the General they were ready to handle any issue and went into action.

"Teal'c, the rest of SG-1 didn't mention anything about going on strike today did they?"

"They did not."

"Okay, one problem at a time. Would you like to come with us to get Dr. Jackson?"

"Yes."

"Grab a hat and let's go."

The scene at the police station was one of organized chaos. Any officer that hadn't been into the station yet was now standing in the parking lot keeping the days catch in line. The contamination team offered General Hammond hazmat gear, but he declined. Teal'c followed close on his heels as he went into the station.

"General Hammond, I'm glad you're here." Sergeant Harris greeted. "I've got Jackson in solitary, but he's not doing well."

"What exactly is wrong with him?"

"For lack of a better word he's in a rage."

"A rage?"

"You'll see."

The Sergeant lead Hammond and Teal'c back towards the hall that held the solitary cells. As they came to the door Hammond noticed that the small window had blood spattered across it. He looked in through the window and saw Daniel pacing back and forth like a tiger in a cage. His hands were still cuffed behind his back and blood ran down his face from his temple and lip. When he turned around he revealed that he'd also pulled on the metal cuffs hard enough to cut into the skin and blood dripped from his wrists. He was grinding his teeth together and growling to himself.

"Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel turned and his eyes narrowed into slits. Barring his teeth he charged the door. Slamming into the door he splashed more blood across the window. Hammond took a step back in surprise. He felt his own temper rising once again and looked to Sergeant Harris who was staring at Daniel with murderous intent. The Sergeant had picked up a long handled Tazer that had been laying by the door.

"Have you opened this door since putting him in here, Sergeant?"

"When he started screaming and beating himself bloody we had to do something."

"What happened?"

Sergeant Harris didn't answer immediately. He turned his eyes to the floor in what looked like embarrassment.

"Sergeant, what happened?" Hammond repeated in a tone that was not to be ignored.

"One of my men…um…almost killed him with a Tazer." Harris admitted. "It's how he got the cut in his temple, the Tazer will only fire so many times in a row in quick succession, so he hit him with it. They were like two pitbulls in a ring. We couldn't get Louis off him, had to turn the hose on them again."

"Again?"

"Jackson started a fight with three cellmates and it was the only way to get them apart. I have to admit, after a dousing Jackson seemed to calm down. Honestly I don't know what is going on…it's like he brings out the dark side of anyone who touches him."

"Maybe that's exactly what's happening." Hammond nodded thoughtfully before turning to the window again. "Dr. Jackson?"

"Hammond, get me the &*%$ out of here!!" Daniel snarled. "I…I'm sorry, I can't…I'm so angry…"

"It's alright, Dr. Jackson, we're going to get you out of here."

"No!" Daniel cried. "No! Open that door and I will kill you! Or you will kill me, stay back!"

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said softly "we are your friends, we have no desire to harm you."

"I have every intention of harming you." Daniel hissed. "I don't know why…"

"Dr. Jackson, clearly you are ill." Hammond said. "We are going to help you."

"You can't help me! You don't even know what's wrong with me!"

"He has a point, General." The Sergeant said.

"You said he calmed down when doused?"

"Yes, Sir."

"That's a place to start, let's get him wet."