Chapter Twenty-Eight: Troubled Boy

Daniel left his room reluctantly, knowing Jack was going to be just fine especially with Taylor in there with them but he didn't like leaving Zada's side. He wanted to be there with her but he needed to know what kind of success the annoying Zeque was having and maybe if Sam was having any luck. Mostly he just needed to be helpful, Jack knew his place was with their sick daughter and the others but Daniel had been able to pull the collective asses of his friends and family out of the fire more than once in the past and it bothered him that it hadn't been the case so far now.

He walked across the hall, which had become a lab for the healers and Sam to work out of, it was a sterile environment so he walked inside the first door and shivered into the cold cleansing blast of air. He was checked for the virus in his system and allowed through to put on a surgical gown and gloves that were provided. Sam looked up as he walked in and she gave him a tired smile and he knew she felt the desperate need to hug him just as much as he wished to hug her but she was separated into another room, glass between them.

"Hey, how's it going?" Daniel asked her.

"Knowing the virus in this case doesn't seem to easily translate into knowing the cure. I can't even seem to find the original cause in Akina, she was with you guys when it started, do you remember anything specific about that day?"

Daniel shrugged having gone through this with so many others that it was easily pulled from memory but he also knew how unhelpful memory was at some point. It was just a personal inaccurate retelling of the same story that Akina would undoubtedly remember differently, even Jack or Zale would describe the day differently than he would.

"Something small that maybe you didn't think mattered at the time."

"All I know was that Johnny got scared of Greer, ran out back to his brother and then we ended up fighting in the kitchen. Akina went from calm and rational to yelling at Jack for being his obnoxious self but it was subtle. Something reached inside of her and yanked on Zara's leash and made the Magis fight back and Akina reacted badly."

"Did anyone touch her?" Sam asked, interested in this story that he'd been retelling for a week.

Daniel shrugged, "William before and after the event but not during. This is a land of magic, who's to say it happened through touch?"

Sam frowned, "Of course Daniel, we hadn't been focusing on the magical aspect of the change. I think we need to see who was in the room with her but isn't sick. Even to camouflage their guilt, no one would ever make themselves this weak in a magical world."

"I think that would be Zale and Erica," Daniel said though he couldn't imagine his little boy attacking the woman he respected just after his fathers and Adrian.

"Bring them," Sam commanded and turned away from Daniel to focus on scribbling some notes on the book in front of her and conferring with her flunkies. They were nodding in assent and completely ignoring Daniel so he turned and walked back out of the room. Jack and he had been with Akina, so had Johnny. Maybe he should send for someone to stay with the twins and Zada but at the same time, Daniel knew that Jack and he could not be responsible for a magical injury such as this; they had no power to speak of.

So he walked out and walked down further to where Akina and William's room was at and knocked. Erica opened the door; "Sam wants to talk to you about he day that Akina got sick."

She nodded and turned back to talk to someone, undoubtedly Alec and Zeque but Daniel headed back to his room and opened the door. He found a sight that made him smile despite the fear they were all under such fear and stress. Jack was running around the room, Zada draped across his shoulders and making sounds like an airplane. The twins racing around behind him. Zale was sitting at the table and Johnny was giggling on the couch. Jack noticed Daniel who was smiling at them lovingly and slowed to a stop, "That was quick."

"Sam wants to see Johnny and Zale."

Jack nodded then without too much of a pause to nod to the boys before he started racing around again. Johnny clambered down off the couch and rushed across the room while Zale was dragging his feet. Daniel's little boy finally got to their side as Daniel held one of Johnny's hands and the youngest O'Neill-Jackson was swinging back and forth happily.

"Let's go then," Daniel said and led them out the door. It was a few seconds in the cold room before they were once more within Sam's clean room. She stepped into her observation room and started with Zale as Johnny watched avidly, still standing next to Daddy.

Sam took scans and blood before she told Johnny she was going to do the same to him. Zale's calmness about the whole thing allowed Johnny to get through the poking and prodding without much in the way of tears. He whimpered a little at the small stab for blood then it was over and he got a cookie to nibble on after the fact. Daniel sat both boys down in the outer room and stood over the cobbled computer in front of Sam while she searched the screen for whatever was going to give them the answers they might be needing.

"Daniel?"

"Yeah?" Daniel asked, choosing to ignore the fact that he was hovering and she was getting annoyed. Sam even after all these years was still to much of a sweetie to just kick people out of her space and Daniel was using it to his benefit at the moment.

"I promise, you will be the first to know about the boys."

"Yeah because I am going to wait right here until you tell me they are okay?"

Sam snorted while her partner in science snickered as well. She waved him away from her station so Daniel moved back to sit next to the boys. He didn't really know if he was patient enough to sit through all the tests that she was going to do on that screen in front of her but he needed to be here instead of in their room doing nothing.

Sam made noises of discovery or confusion depending on whatever she was working through and each time Daniel would sit up a little straighter and hope she would speak to them.

"Daddy, I want to go back to the room."

Daniel looked down at Zale who was focused on his shoes and the hands folded in his lap. He frowned at the little boy, "What's going on Zale?"

"I don't feel good, not like Zada but I don't feel good."

"How?" Daniel asked, needing to know if his son was now getting as sick as Zada was already. It would destroy them all if any of the children didn't make it through this, Jack especially but the possibility of losing Zale sucked the light from Daniel's heart and filled it with darkness.

"I don't know Daddy," Zale said again miserably. "Xylander isn't speaking at all, I can usually hear an echo at least but now there is nothing."

Daniel frowned. That didn't sound good at all but with everything else he had no idea what to do for his sweet little boy. So he wrapped his arm around Zale's shoulder and hugged him close. "When Zada is on the mend, we will contact Xylander and see what's going on. Okay?"

Zale nodded but he didn't look comforted in the least so Daniel kept rubbing a gentle hand up and down his arm.

"Daniel," Sam finally, after some kind of sick eternity, called out. Daniel kissed Zale's head and walked over to Sam, crossing his arms so he wouldn't fidget.

"Give it to me?"

"I don't know how to tell you this but Zale's body holds the virus and the antibodies which can only mean…"

"He somehow transmitted it in the first place?" Daniel whispered back to Sam who nodded.

"I don't think he knows what he's done and I think with some various fluids, we can recreate the antibodies and save everyone from whatever this is."

"You think Xylander did this?" Daniel asked, rubbing a hand through his long hair before pushing it back from his face.

"I don't know anything about his powers and the Magis he carries, I do know that something inside him reached out and infected Akina, then William."

"And Zada?" Daniel asked before slapping a hand over his mouth and trying to contain the sadness that started leaking out onto his lashes and down his cheek.

Sam nodded sadly, "He needs to stay here and we need to take some spinal fluid as well as some more blood."

"I won't leave him alone for that, I read more than my fair share of medical journals, those kinds of withdrawals hurt and he doesn't even know what he's done. He didn't do this, I know it!"

"I understand Daniel but your other son doesn't need to be here for this and Jack needs to know what has to happen here."

Daniel nodded and turned back to the boys, "Zale can you stay here with Auntie Sam? I will be right back."

He nodded but said nothing; Daniel leaned down and kissed his little boy gently on the forehead. Then he gently took Johnny's hand and tugged him out of the clean room and walked back to their temporary quarters. Johnny, feeling Daniel's stress and sadness as well as the confusion leaned close to hug Daniel's leg before he took off. Daniel watched as Johnny jumped around the room and got Jack's attention who was still running around though Zada was now laying quietly on the couch with a tired smile on her lips. Daniel walked over to hug her gently and kiss her and then suddenly Jack was close. He pulled Daniel gently away from Zada and turned Daniel to gain eye contact, which made the pain reach out to grab Daniel around the throat, and he gasped before slipping into Jack's arms.

"Zale?" Jack demanded.

"He did this somehow, Xylander maybe…" the words were whispered into Jack's neck, sobbed out between breaths. Daniel felt Jack stiffen at the news and waited for the emotional and vocal fallout the news would inevitably bring from Jack.