3.
DISPLACEMENT
Summary: Daniel Jackson is Human again, but things have changed since he ascended. Will five be a crowd? Does Daniel still have a place in SG-1? What about Jonas?
Displacement
Daniel: "Is that my stuff?"
Jonas: "You weren't using it anymore."
– 'Full Circle'.
Dr Daniel Jackson limped along the corridors of Stargate Command deep below ground level. His sore ribs were bothering him as he grew tired. The bruised muscles around the newly healed bones pulled with each step.
He didn't need this, damn it! He didn't need problems late at night. Who the hell did this Jonas think he was?
Stepping over the threshold into the office that was once solely his, but he now had to share with Jonas Quinn, he was pounced upon by the excited man, waving a sheet of A4 paper at him.
"I've found this photocopy of an ancient parchment. It appears to refer to the city of the Ancients," Jonas told Daniel. "Can you translate it?"
"Probably." He took the paper from Jonas.
"The lost city," Daniel read, "holds the many treasures of those who left the earth and rose to the heavens…etc, etc." He sighed. "We know all of this already."
"Sorry…I…" Jonas mumbled, crest-fallen. "Thanks for your help, Dr Jackson."
"Anyway, shouldn't you be in bed?" Daniel asked, frowning. "I thought SG-1 were going off world in the morning."
"Yeah, we are," Jonas confirmed. "But it's only… Oh, shoot! Is that the time?" He stared at his watch in horror. "Thanks, Dr Jackson, thanks again."
"No problem," Daniel said, as the other man hurriedly made a lousy attempt to tidy up the books he had been using. Under his breath he added, "It's not as if I have anything better to do."
Daniel walked into the briefing room to find the members of SG-1 playing poker at the table.
Sam looked up and her eyes widened in surprise.
"Daniel!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? We thought you'd gone."
"I-I came back," Daniel stammered, noticing that Teal'c was wearing a sky-blue baseball cap with "Go Away!" printed in large red letters across the front.
"Well, pull up a chair then, Spacemonkey," Jack said with a sweeping arm motion.
Daniel looked around for a seat, but there were only four around the table and he couldn't see any more.
"I don't see one," he said, going to the door and looking out into the corridor.
"Guys, I…" His voice trailed off as he turned back to find the room empty.
"Lord Daniel," a mocking voice called from behind him.
He turned again and found Jonas staring straight into his face. Daniel had met enough Goa'uld in his time to know the look of evil when he saw it. What he saw in Jonas's expression unnerved him.
Daniel gulped. "Jonas, I'm sorry if I –"
"I was just starting to fit in," Jonas said, cutting Daniel off and pushing him in the chest, "and then you turned up."
"I…I…" Daniel became distracted by a bright white light that appeared behind Jonas.
The other man laughed cruelly and shoved him into the light.
Daniel found himself surrounded by darkness with a small flickering candle at his feet offering the only illumination. Voices floated through the thick shadows, echoing and merging together.
"He's dangerous!"
"A loose cannon!"
"A rebel!"
"Cast him out!"
Terrified, Daniel spun around, his eyes trying to pierce the unyielding dark.
"No!" he cried. "No! Help me!"
"You must be punished!" a forceful voice told him.
"Nooo!" Daniel wailed. "Don't do this!"
Daniel found himself in a corridor back at Stargate Command. SG-1, Hammond, Dr Fraiser, Major Davis, Sergeant Davis and an assortment of other airmen that he knew only by sight advanced menacingly towards him. They each swung a copy of the Eye of Ra necklace in front of them as if to hypnotise him.
Jonas was leading the group.
"Didn't they want you?" he taunted.
Daniel backed away from them. His back touched the door to the gateroom and it slid open. He stumbled in backwards.
"Well, that's funny 'cause we don't want you either."
Behind Daniel the stargate span and one by one the chevrons engaged.
"Chevron seven locked!" Sergeant Davis's voice announced.
But there wasn't the usual formation of the wormhole with its unstable kawoosh before it settled into a shimmering blue pool. Daniel stared, afraid, into the empty ring as the earth began to shake. Dust fell from the ceiling, people shouted in alarm.
Fixed to the spot, Daniel could only raise his arms to pointlessly shield his head and scream as the 'gate fell crashing down on top of him.
Daniel Jackson sat up with a start, his sheets sticking to his sweat-soaked skin. Breathing heavily, he snapped on the bedside lamp and ran a shaking hand through his hair.
*
After watching SG-1 go through the stargate to explore the alien planet that lay in wait at the other end of the wormhole, Daniel miserably reported to the infirmary for a check-up.
Topless, Daniel sat waiting impatiently for Dr Fraiser to finish.
"Can I return to active duty yet?" Daniel asked, gruffly, as she noted down his heart rate and blood pressure on his chart.
"Do you feel physically fit enough?" the doctor asked in response, knowing full well that he didn't.
Daniel winced as Janet began strapping up his ribs again with thick support bandages.
She took his silence and obvious discomfort as an answer.
"I didn't think so."
*
"Where's my Old English dictionary?" Daniel asked, annoyed, lost in a heap of books. He looked up and frowned. "Wasn't that bookcase over there before?"
"Uh, yeah. I moved it," Jonas told him, a hint of guilt in his expression.
"I can't find anything!" Daniel cried, exasperated. "Why did you change it all around? My system worked fine."
"You had a system?" Jonas asked, in disbelief.
"Yes, I had a system," Daniel replied, indignantly.
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah!" Fuming, Daniel turned away and stormed towards the exit.
Twisting at the open doorway, Daniel suddenly grunted in pain and his hand shot out to grip the doorframe. He hunched over, grabbing at his wrenched ribs.
"Hey, are you ok?" Jonas asked, concerned. He approached the archaeologist. "Daniel?"
The pain slowly eased and Daniel straightened up.
"I'm fine," Daniel said, brusquely. He glared at Jonas to stay back and left the room.
"Dr Jackson!" the SGC librarian cried in shock. "I heard you were dead!"
"Well…I'm not." Feeling a conflicting mixture of embarrassment, annoyance and amusement, Daniel pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Do you have a copy of the Oxford Old English Dictionary?"
"I think so," the Air Force-trained lieutenant said, forcing herself to stop gaping. "I'll go look."
"Thank you."
The young woman with her long brown hair pulled back and clipped neatly to her head, got up from behind her desk and disappeared down the aisles of books.
"No, I can't see it…" she said, a few minutes later, returning from her search. The slight frown cleared from her pretty forehead. "Oh! I remember now. Jonas Quinn checked it out earlier this week. He couldn't find his own copy." She laughed. "He keeps meaning to organise his office."
"Does he now?" Daniel's eyebrows rose and a slight grin pulled at the corner of his mouth.
Daniel regarded coffee as a godsend – the caffeine kept him awake. But unfortunately its powers didn't stretch as far as to stop major headaches, like the throbbing one he had then.
It was a little after midnight and Daniel was in the office he shared with Jonas Quinn. Scrolling down the text on the computer screen in front of him, he obstinately trying to ignore the worsening ache at his temples. Without taking his eyes from the screen, Daniel reached to his left and picked up a well-used book, recognising it by touch. He flipped it open with one hand and turned his gaze towards it. He hurriedly found the dog-eared page he wanted and scanned down the small print with the aid of a forefinger. His finger came to a stop and tapped the page twice, then Daniel's attention focused on the computer again. His left hand placed the book back on the desk, and blindly reached for another.
When his hand failed to locate the desired text, Daniel was forced to divert his eyes from the screen. Frowning, he searched through the muddle around the computer. Coming up bookless, Daniel sighed heavily and twisted around to survey the rest of the room.
He spotted 'Lost Cities' to his right on the table behind him. Shifting his body into a better angle in his chair, Daniel stretched out an arm towards it. A sharp pain stabbed through his side causing his arm to pause. However, refusing to allow himself to do more than wince, Daniel firmly grasped the book.
Unbeknown to Daniel, Jonas had looked up from his own research to glance at his colleague. What he saw made his forehead crease with concern.
"Dr Jackson, are you alright?"
"Fine," Daniel mumbled, turning to face the computer screen again. The archaeologist denied his head the acknowledgement that the ache at each temple had steadily grown until meeting in the middle of his forehead.
Daniel cross-referenced the relevant passage in the book with the text on the computer screen. Plonking the book down over the computer mouse, he pulled a ballpoint pen out from under the irregular pile of books that half covered it. He scrawled a few lines on the ruled notepad in front of the keyboard, unconsciously rubbing his forehead with his left hand as he did so.
"Daniel, are you sure you're alright?" Jonas asked, still keeping an eye on him.
"Yeah," he replied, absently.
However, when the pen came to a halt, Daniel realised that his other hand was massaging his temples and sighed wearily. He tossed the pen down and pressed both hands against his head for a moment.
Dropping his hands, he looked back at the computer screen. The text on the screen swan in front of his exhausted eyes. Daniel took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, then replaced them again. The words were now still, but remained blurred. He picked up the mug beside him and a groan escaped his lips upon finding it to be empty.
Daniel used the desk to push himself to his feet and headed for the coffeemaker on top of the metal cabinet near the door.
He moved too sharply and quickly. His ribs screamed in complaint, burning furiously. The room spun wildly and his head whirled even faster. The mug slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor. He fell against the table, clutching his side.
Daniel was dizzily aware of Jonas at his side and easing him back into the chair. With trembling fingers he removed his glasses, and then with his elbow bent and resting on the desk, he pressed his forehead into his palm. All colour had drained from his face and beads of sweat dampened his hairline.
"Ouch," Daniel muttered with understating sarcasm, as his head cleared.
"Maybe you should take it easy," Jonas suggested, gently.
"Yeah," Daniel agreed, wearily. "I'm gonna turn in and get some sleep."
He gave Jonas a wan smile of thanks and stood up, with more care this time.
It should have been me, Jonas thought not for the first time, as he watched Daniel's departing back.
He didn't know if he'd ever be able to fully get over his guilt. The nightmares had started up again now that Dr Jackson was back. Almost every night, he woke up sweating and screaming, having relived the Naquadria accident yet again.
Jonas let out a troubled sigh, rubbed his eyes and turned back to his books.
*
"Off world activation," the technician on duty shouted over the top of the alarm. "Receiving a code…it's SG-4, Sir."
"Open the iris," General Hammond instructed.
The metal slats slid back, revealing the wormhole contained within the huge metal ring of the stargate. Shortly afterwards, the four members of the expected SG team stepped out of the shimmering pool onto the ramp.
Suddenly another form burst through the 'gate. The creature had the appearance similar to that of a jellyfish and emitted a high-pitched squeal as it flew at high speed around the room and then shot out of the open door.
"What the devil is that?" Hammond demanded into the microphone linked to the gateroom.
"It's from the planet, Sir," SG-4's commanding officer said, activating the other end of the communication line. "It isn't hostile or sentient, but its skin secretes an acidic fluid."
"A frightened, wild animal is a dangerous thing," General Hammond mused, unhappily, and reached for the telephone fitted on the wall.
Shifting the load in his arms, Jonas knocked on the grey door of Daniel's SGC quarters.
"Come," called a distracted voice from within.
Jonas opened the door and found Daniel sat cross-legged on the bed, his back against the wall. His laptop computer was open in front of him, books and papers were scattered across the bed and a notebook rested on his knee.
"I found the texts you wanted," Jonas spoke up.
"Thanks. Put them over there." Without looking up from his work, Daniel gestured towards the crowded desk with his pen.
"Let me know if you need anything else."
"Hmm."
Jonas bit his lip, looking down into his tormented thoughts. Taking a deep breath, his expression cleared into resolution and his gaze shifted back up to Daniel.
"Look, Dr Jackson, I – "
Suddenly an alarm blared all around the lower levels of Cheyenne Mountain Complex.
General Hammond's tense voice came through the intercom. "There has been a security breach. This is not a drill. An alien life form is loose within the base. All personnel, take shelter in a room and shut any doors. Do not try to apprehend the alien. I repeat, take shelter, do not approach the creature."
"I guess you're stuck here for a while then," Daniel said to Jonas. He motioned towards the haphazard heap on his desk. "There's some coffee in the pot."
"Thanks," Jonas said, rummaging around until he found the coffee and a cup. His eyebrows raised in surprised approval at finding the beverage still relatively warm.
Sipping the drink, he straddled the desk chair.
"Dr Jackson."
"Yes?" The archaeologist looked up, detecting seriousness in Jonas's tone.
"I'm sorry," Jonas said. Quickly, he rushed on, "I'm sorry about the Naquadria incident, I'm sorry about taking your place in SG-1 and using your office and your stuff, and –"
"Stop," Daniel said, holding up a hand. "There's no need to apologise." He pushed the laptop out of the way and slid to the edge of the bed. "I know what you've done and what you've been willing to sacrifice for Earth, for SG-1. You're a good man, Jonas." He smiled, wanly. "I'm just having a little trouble readjusting, that's all."
"I understand," Jonas told him. "I'm finding it hard too…knowing what you did sacrifice for Kelowna, people you didn't even know. You did what I didn't have the strength to do."
"You've more than proved yourself since then," Daniel insisted.
They were silent for a moment, allowing the foundations of a bridge to form between them.
"Coffee?" Jonas asked, finally. "It's still warm."
"Please," Daniel said, getting up to bring his empty mug over.
That night, for the first time in over three weeks, both Daniel and Jonas slept peacefully.
~ End ~