Memories of the Heart by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. A mission goes horribly wrong while Sam's life is changed forever. Spoilers: All seasons, including 10 to the end.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.
Memories of the Heart
Chapter 29
A. N. Okay, he is back. Thank you for the patience. Let me know if you are enjoying it!
When they all returned to the table, Teal'c summarized what he had read. "DanielJackson's plans for escaping the prison-farm failed because he was unaware that they were held on an island. The location had been selected because of the high cliffs and deep seas. All the prisoners involved in the failed escape were transported to a different facility, where they were subjected to diverse brain-washing techniques in order to eliminate their desire to escape."
There was a general sign of disgust. Teal'c continued.
"According to the side notes, most prisoners related sensory-deprivation experiences to DanielJackson, but he underwent dissimilar treatments. His captors were afraid that he would improve the abilities he had shown in the previous solitary confinement, so they kept him in a continuously lighted room, with constant noise. They were intent on preventing him from achieving any level of concentration. Neither the lack of sleep nor the brain-washing attempts seemed to be as successful in his case as they expected, though he was kept in that location for six months. DanielJackson remembered that period as a time of constant pain and desperation."
"Oh, come on…" Jack interrupted. "Does he ever get a break?"
"Because he had lost complete track of time, he believed he had stayed there for longer than he did," Teal'c added without looking at Jack. "At the end of the six months, he was scheduled to be sent to another laboratory to go through a different kind of experiment."
"Yeah, that's my part," Paul Davis said. "He was sent to a place where they studied the effects of torture in prisoners of war. He spent forty-five days in the first lab, dedicated to physical torture, and forty-five in the second, mostly about psychological torture. The results of the experiments are very detailed, but I believe that whoever wants to know about this, should read them independently, at his or her own pace. They were very hard to go through," he added.
Vala stood up and walked toward the gateroom window, in need of a break.
Sam grabbed a glass of water and tried to hide the tears that were filling her eyes. Hormones, she thought. She would have to tell her friends about her new pregnancy soon, without waiting to the end of the first trimester like the time before. Jack, Teal'c, and Jennifer knew about it, but twins were going to make her state very visible and the hormones were affecting her badly.
"Anything else?" Jack asked Paul, giving Sam her own break.
"After they were done studying this, they took him back to the original prison, but this time they did not send him to battle. His physical condition had gravely deteriorated and his mental state was not up for surviving combat. They put him in the cleaning detail, a group of men in charge of clearing the battle fields after a fight. They took care of burning the bodies and transporting the injured men to where they would be executed. They also had to get the battlefield itself cleaned of as much of the signs of the previous battle as possible."
"Agh…" Vala said, voicing the general repulsion going around the table.
"He was there for at least four months. He started regaining his physical health. However, he did not want to talk about this period with the Furlings and they did not pressure him."
"After that he went to another facility," Sam took over. "He had been chosen. They had selected him, among a few others, as possible invincible army material. They fed the soldiers well and they gave them a rigorous physical training. They also experimented on them with different muscle-enhancing medicines, especially anabolic steroids, and routinely drugged them with other substances to study their effects. During the training Daniel was often severely injured, but he started using his healing ability to help himself. He had ideas of escaping again and he needed to be strong. He had gathered information that indicated that they would search for more fighters like him here, among us. He wasn't going to let it happen without giving us some kind of warning."
"Of course he wouldn't," Jack said, half-mad, half-proud.
Sam looked at him with a small smile and continued. "During this time, he had a chance to meditate and his deep concentration ended up in his ability to communicate within the plain of the Furlings. Once he realized who he was in contact with, he tried to explain the situation and he talked about Lya and her people, Oma, Orlin, Morgan Le Fay, Merlin, and Thor and all the Asgard."
"Did they believe him that he knew all those people?" Cameron asked.
"Yes… You know Daniel. He can be pretty convincing. He put emphasis on the urgency of the matter and the Furlings started trying to locate him. He had been in that complex for five months when they finally found him. First, the Furlings tried to negotiate with the Odjods, in an effort to respect their rights, but after almost two months of coming and going and no results, they took a more drastic approach and they liberated all the prisoners. Then, they took care of the Odjods by depriving them of all the technological advances they had achieved and relocating their whole population in a very primitive and uninviting planet."
"You won't hear me complaining," Jack said with a sarcastic smile.
"The Furlings are constantly monitoring them; they won't let them enslave anyone else."
"So, that's it?" Vala asked Sam.
"There's another document. It looks like while the Furlings were negotiating, the Odjods identified Daniel as the one who had made them aware of the situation and they put him back in a cell. They also beat him up daily to teach him a lesson. That's why he's so hurt."
"Okay… I think we've heard enough for a day," Jack said.
"I agree. Sergeant Harriman here has posted a whole copy of the report on our secure net and all of you can access it whenever you feel like completing the reading. Any other member of the S.G.C. with the right clearance will also have access to it," Sam explained and then she asked all the present to stay for a few more minutes. She took that time to give the official news of her new pregnancy and then dismissed the meeting.
On the day of the third anniversary of Daniel's disappearance, Lya and her people came through the gate bringing Daniel. He was lying unconscious on a stretcher two Nox were carrying. All the welcome committee became suddenly silent.
"The Furlings considered it best to sedate him for the trip. He is still not fully recovered, but I had a chance to speak to him before he was medicated and he was in good spirits," Lya explained.
Jennifer ordered that he was taken to the Infirmary and, when she finally came out with her initial diagnosis, Jack, Sam, and SG-1 were waiting for her.
"Okay, in general, he's doing fine. I don't know how much longer he'll sleep ─they gave him a pretty strong sedative─ but he'll still need some pain medication after that. The most surprising finding was that his skin is in perfect condition. With the exception of what seems to be the scar of an appendectomy, there are no other injuries or scars anywhere in his body."
"Would that be consistent with his ability to heal his small wounds as they described it in the documents?" Sam asked.
"I'd say that's possible, because there are injuries in the underlying tissues. Some of them are quite severe, but they're all in the process of healing. There are also several fractures, healing, too; the ones in his ribs seem the most recent. I'll have a complete report on your desk soon, Sam, but I'll say that he'll be able to leave the Infirmary in a couple of days. He'll still need care, but I'm sure he'll appreciate the freedom. What we haven't checked up yet is his mental state, but we'll see about that when he wakes up. The Furlings seemed confident that the memory block had helped him with the recurring nightmares and the psychological trauma caused by the whole experience."
"Okay… Can we go in now?" Jack asked.
"Well, you can see him for a minute, but I can call you when he wakes up," Jennifer answered.
"We need to stay," Jack insisted.
"I will take the first three hours," Teal'c said.
"But you don't have to-" Jennifer tried.
"We need to hold his hand," Sam finally dared explain.
"I'll go second," Jack said.
"You need to hold his hand?" Jennifer asked with a smile.
"Yeah… We've been doing it since the beginning. You know, with his family history and all the times we've lost him… We don't want him to wake up alone," Sam said.
"All right. Go ahead," Jennifer conceded. "Just let me know as soon as he's awake." She smiled and led them into his room.
