Day 7

"I hear you've been having some bad dreams."

Emma nodded, not looking at Dr. Lam.

Carolyn put her hands on Emma's knees. "I know you don't want to talk about what you dream about and that's okay. You don't have to tell me. Is it alright if I ask you one question though?"

Emma hesitantly glanced up at her.

"Do you remember the dreams? Because if you don't and that's why you haven't told us, that's okay, too."

Emma shook her head.

"No, you don't remember the dreams?"

Twisting her foot, Emma voiced quietly, "No, I 'member them."

"Okay. Wait right here. I'm gonna go get your mom and dad."

Carolyn walked into her office. Jack helped Sam to stand up as she tried to get out of her seat.

They both looked exhausted.

"Well?," Jack asked.

"From what you've told me and talking to Emma, it sounds like she's having night terrors."

"Night terrors?," Sam repeated.

Carolyn nodded. "The amount of fear invoked and her behavior upon waking from these dreams lead me to believe that, yes. Even the time from when Emma falls asleep until she wakes up correlates more with night terrors than just a bad dream. The difference between the two is that nightmares occur during REM sleep while terrors begin in Stage 4. Emma's age is also around the time that most affected begin having night terrors."

"Wait," Jack cut her off. "Are we talking Freddy Krueger?"

"Nothing quite so dramatic. Most people with night terrors do not remember their dreams, just the lingering sense of fear. While Emma didn't tell me what she dreams about, she did say that she remembers them."

Sam rubbed her protruding stomach. "So what can we do?"

"Typically, night terrors are simply something children outgrow, though that's not always the case. Physically, there's nothing wrong with Emma. Most people don't experience them every night either. Emma probably has simply because she's been overly tired - which has been known to be a trigger for night terrors, along with eating a heavy meal before bed or stress."

"She's slept with us two nights this week and been fine."

"Like I said, most people don't have them every night. I recommend giving her an earlier bedtime, at least until she can get caught up on her sleep. Also, keep sharp or fragile objects out of her reach where she sleeps and you might consider getting a child's gate for her door or the top of your stairs. Emma's not doing it now, but people with night terrors have been known to thrash about or walk around in their sleep. If she's not already taking a bath before bed, it might be a good idea to start - something to calm her down and relax her before bedtime. If the problem persists, look for a pattern. People with night terrors typically have them at the same marker point past when they have fallen asleep. You can wake Emma up to prevent her from having it."

Taking a moment to soak all that in, Jack frowned. "So that's it? There's no way to cure it?"

"No. It's not currently known what exactly causes night terrors. The mind is supposed to be practically void during the deeper stages of sleep. Medication is rarely used to treat night terrors. If necessary, however, short-term use of benzodiazepines may help reduce them. If Emma's performance in school or other daily activities becomes affected, an antidepressant may help."

"I don't want my kid on antidepressants," Jack stated firmly.

"I didn't think you would, that's why I didn't recommend it."

Sam, having been quiet through their back and forth, asked, "What if this is somehow related to the Ancient download?"

Carolyn pursed her lips. "We could do a sleep study to find out."

"And if it is?," Jack asked.

"If it is...well, to be honest, I don't know. I can't control what happens in regards to that. So far, Emma hasn't shown any other signs of the download having an effect on her other than language."

Jack glowered darkly. So far.


Day 9

"I don't wanna sleep in here. I want to sleep with you."

Emma was close to tears, the new environment only escalating her fear.

Jack sat on the edge of the bed. He didn't like her being here either. The bland concrete walls of the SGC VIP room weren't the least bit inviting or comforting. Emma sat covered in wires, all connected to take various readings of her reactions during sleep.

Lightly pushing her down in bed, Jack placed his hand on the side of her face. "I can't sleep with you tonight, munchkin."

"I don't like this room, Daddy. And I don't like these wires, eider."

"I know."

"Where's Mommy?"

"She's at home with Nate and Dorothy."

"I want to go home."

"This is just for tonight, baby. I promise." Jack looked at the chair off to the corner. "How 'bout if I stay here while you sleep? I'll go sit in that chair."

Emma's eyes searched his face. "All night?"

"All night."

"Okay," she agreed.

"Good. Now it's passed your bedtime, young lady." Tucking her in, Jack kissed Emma's forehead. "Close your eyes and get some sleep. I'll be right here."

Emma obeyed, closing her eyes on a breath. "Love you, Daddy."

"Love you back, squirt."

Giving her shoulder a small squeeze, Jack got up and took his seat in the corner. He spared a glance up to the camera on the other side of the room and then settled in for his long vigil.

Jack's wait was not as long as he thought. A little less than an hour later, Emma's face tightened. A small moan escaped and it took everything Jack had not to get up and stop the inevitable conclusion. He'd never actually witnessed Emma have a 'night terror' before. Her body twitched and then jerked a little more violently as her restlessness continued. Emma's breathing quickened, becoming faster and shorter. Jack feared she was going to hyperventilate. Then, so suddenly it made him start, Emma shot straight up in bed and screamed.

Jack shot out of the chair. From past experience, he knew Emma wasn't actually awake yet. Gripping her shoulders, Jack shook them enough to wake her. That in itself was becoming less effective; it was getting harder to wake her with mere touch. Emma stopped screaming, blinking in the dim light the lamp on the nightstand provided. Her lip trembled before breaking down into anguished tears of someone forced to see too much.

Jack tore the wires off of her, pulling Emma's defeated form into his arms and rocking her.

"It's okay, baby. I've got you. It's okay."


Day 10

Sam gripped Jack's hand tightly in her own. He was exhausted in every sense of the word - mentally, physically, emotionally - after another night with Emma. She didn't know how either of them had survived working today, waiting for Carolyn to finish her findings from the sleep study.

The door opened to Dr. Lam's office and the woman herself stepped in. Going around to the other side of her desk, Carolyn laid an open file flat on the hard oak surface. She seemed to steel herself for the conversation ahead before picking up two sheets of paper from the file. Carolyn handed one to Jack and the other to Sam. Pictures of brain scans were on the pages; no doubt telling them something important.

Carolyn stuck her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat. Nodding her head in Jack's direction, she said, "That is a scan during REM sleep when a person was dreaming. As you can see, the heightened area of the brain is toward the back portion."

Carolyn shifted her gaze to the paper Sam held. "That is the findings from Emma's sleep study. The engaged area of her brain during her night terror was more central - in the hippocampus, medial temporal lobe, along with the prefrontal cortex."

Sam met Carolyn's gaze with full understanding. "Those are memory centers."

Carolyn nodded. "That's correct."

Jack looked between the two women. "What does that mean?"

"She's remembering something."

Shaking his head fervently, Jack disagreed. "That's impossible. Emma's never had anything happen that could cause a-a flashback like that."

"It's possible if it is not her actual memory."

"Come again, Doc?"

Carolyn and Sam shared a look. "If it is the Ancient download as Sam suspected, then it could feasibly activate those sections of her brain when retrieving information."

Jack's jaw tightened and he felt Sam's hand grip his more strongly.

"I never imagined this," Sam whispered quietly. "I-I always thought of the download like a computer, a database full of technical information. Why would it give her nightmares?"

"It's their legacy, right?" Jack felt Sam's eyes on him and faced her. "That's what Daniel said."

Her continued gaze beckoned him to continue.

Scrubbing his free hand over his face and through his hair, Jack expounded, "Every history has its horrors."


So kind of a short chapter this time around. Maybe I'm just getting better at finding reasonable stopping points. My sister's coming from out of town today and will be here til Tuesday so I can't promise I'll get another chapter out before then.

Hope you enjoyed the twist. There's more to come!