"Has he woken up at all since yesterday?" Sam asked quietly.
"Only long enough for Doc Baker to shine that stupid light in his eyes," Colonel O'Neill said, shooting a glare at the doctor in question. "No wonder he's been out ever since. It probably shocked him back into a coma."
"He's not in a coma, Colonel," Janet said almost automatically from her seat by Daniel's side. "He's just asleep."
"Then why don't we just wake him up?"
Janet shot him a glare that could melt ice. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, Sir."
"Just asking," he muttered.
Janet sighed. She was exhausted, her head was still thumping from the day before, and she had just gotten off the phone with her frantic teenaged daughter. She really wasn't in the mood for this. "I apologize, Colonel. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. What I mean to say is, his body has been through an awful lot these past two days, and he's going to need a lot of time to recover. That means a lot of sleep and, dare I say it, peace and quiet." She gave the other members of SG-1 a pointed glare that communicated the rest of her statement - go away.
"Hey, I was quiet as a mouse until Carter walked in asking questions."
"You could have just given a yes or no answer, Sir," Sam countered in indignation.
"Well, next time I will!"
Janet couldn't hold back her smile at their banter. Everything really did seem to be getting back to normal.
She looked down at Daniel and stroked his cheek, something that had become a sort of reflex action for her every time she'd seen his sweet, peaceful face over the past few hours. She noted with joy that he was getting some healthy colour back in his face, and his breathing was deep and even. Yes, things were definitely looking up. If only Daniel was awake and free of hallucinations, she felt she could finally put this nightmare behind her.
"Dr. Fraiser is right," Dr. Baker said, interrupting Colonel O'Neill and Sam's continued bickering. "I think it's time you all leave. Dr. Jackson needs his rest."
Janet stifled a laugh at the dumbstruck look that came over the colonel's face.
"We'll be quiet. We promise," Sam said, giving Dr. Baker her most winning smile.
"I'm sorry, Major," he said. "You had your chance. It's time for you to leave."
She and Colonel O'Neill both grumbled and complained as they were ushered to the door, but Dr. Baker didn't give in. Even Teal'c, who had been standing off to the side of the room in complete silence, wasn't allowed to stay.
"You're ruthless," Janet teased as Dr. Baker came back over to Daniel's bed.
He rolled his eyes. "I hate to say this, but it's me that needed the peace and quiet. Colonel O'Neill means well, but he gets mouthy when he's concerned about someone."
Janet smiled and nodded. "You won't make them stay away for long, though, will you?"
"Are you kidding? Any more than an hour, and they'll be breaking down the door."
Janet laughed and watched as Baker moved back to the other side of the room to gather up the paperwork he'd been working on. "Are you leaving, too?" she asked.
"Yeah, I've got just a couple things I need to do then I'll be back. Shouldn't take me more than half an hour." He held up the files in his hand. "Gotta love paperwork."
"Tell me about it," Janet said.
"You know what to do if there's any change," he said as he walked to the door.
"Of course," Janet replied. "See you later."
He waved over his shoulder to her as he left the room.
Janet sighed and turned her attention back to Daniel. It felt good to smile and laugh again, but she was still very much concerned about him. Without even thinking about it, she started stroking his face again. She smiled when she realized what she was doing, and a feeling of warmth spread through her entire body when Daniel sighed at the gentle touch.
As much as she wanted to continue touching him, she didn't want to disturb his sleep. She reluctantly withdrew her hand and sat back in her chair, contenting herself with simply watching him.
She thought about her conversation with Cassie as she did so, and what she had told the girl to ease her mind...
"He's been pretty sick, Cass, but I think he's out of the woods now."
"So, he's gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, I don't see why not. After all, you know Daniel. He's nothing if not resilient. Besides that, he promised me he'd hang in there, and you know Daniel's never one to break a promise."
She had said it half in jest, just a passing comment to lighten the mood, but they were words she fully believed. Once Daniel made a promise, he'd move heaven and Earth to keep it. She knew he was going to pull through. It was just the way he was.
After ten minutes or so of being lost in thought, Janet snapped to attention at a slight move from Daniel. She leaned forward and watched him closely as he slowly rolled over onto his side to face her. His eyes remained closed, but she could see that he was slowly waking up.
"Daniel?" she said, smoothing his hair back from his forehead.
He stiffened at the sound of her voice and turned his head slightly to bury his face in his pillow.
"It's okay, Daniel. You're safe," she said. She laid a hand on his shoulder and with the other took hold of his chin. "Don't be frightened," she soothed as she tried to coax his face out of hiding.
He allowed her to move his head a little, until one eye peeked out at her from the pillow.
Janet smiled at him. "Hey, there," she said. "Welcome back."
"What?"
Janet's heart soared at this one small, slurred word. It was the first coherent thing he'd said since before they'd brought him home. This was major progress.
"Do you know your name?" she asked, though part of her was afraid to say it in case he didn't understand.
She held her breath as Daniel slowly brought his whole face into view, blinking up at her with wide, confused eyes. She thought for a moment that he wasn't going to answer, that he hadn't understood, but then...
"Daniel Jackson."
She had never been so happy to hear that name spoken in her entire life.
He seemed a little nervous at the grin that spread across her face at his answer, so she forced herself to tone it down to a gentle smile again. "That's good," she said, giving his shoulder an encouraging squeeze. "And where are you now?"
Daniel glanced at the hand that rested on his shoulder and looked back up at Janet warily.
Janet was a little concerned by this, and she drew her hand back as fast as if she'd touched a hot potato.
Daniel swallowed nervously and licked his lips. His eyes squinted in concentration as his gaze darted around the room. "Infirmary," he finally said in answer to her question.
Janet inwardly did a dance of joy. He remembered the infirmary! That was more than she'd dared to hope for, at least at first. "Good!" she enthused. "You're doing great, Daniel. Now who am I?"
He studied her for a moment before he replied, "Dr. Fraiser."
Janet felt like she'd taken a fist to the stomach. 'Dr. Fraiser?' He hadn't called her that since... well, since the early days of the Stargate program. She'd told him over and over again to call her Janet, just as he had at first insisted she call him Daniel, but it had taken him over a year to finally see her as more than just his doctor - to see her as his friend. Since then, he had only used her salutation in formal situations or, more recently, as a pet name in some of their more intimate moments.
Something told her he wasn't using it as a pet name this time.
"Wha's going on?" he drawled, the fear in his eyes increasing at her sudden silence.
"Daniel... what year is it?"
He looked off into space for a long moment, obviously thinking hard about this. His breathing quickened until it bordered on hyperventilation as he struggled to find the answer. "I... I don't know," he said in a shaky voice. "Nine... nineteen... ninety-seven? No... ninety... what? I can't 'member. Wha's happening?"
Janet pressed the call button by his bed as he began to work himself up into a full-blown panic attack. "Shhh, Daniel, just calm down, okay?" she said, shoving her own inner pain aside as she tried to reassure him. "Everything's going to be fine. You've been ill, that's all. Your memory's a little foggy."
"Foggy?" he repeated, his eyes rolling back and forth as though he were dizzy. "Wha's happening to me?"
Dr. Baker rushed in at that moment, slowing down when he saw that Daniel was awake. Daniel's attention was upon the man the moment he entered the room, and the sight of him seemed to make his panic escalate. He grabbed Janet's arm and clung to her like a frightened child as he gasped for air.
"Daniel, settle down," Janet said, but he didn't even seem to hear her. She got up from her chair and sat on the edge of his bed so he wouldn't be pulling so much on her arm. As soon as she did so, Daniel let out a sob and buried his face in her lap, his fists clutching at her pant legs and accidentally - she assumed - catching flesh.
Janet bit back a yelp at the pain this caused, and tried to focus on calming him down. She stroked his back with one hand, massaged the back of his neck with the other, and murmured soft, soothing words to him, but still he sobbed and trembled and fought to breathe. She looked up at Dr. Baker piteously and nodded when he mimed his question of whether or not she wanted him sedated. She had really been hoping he would be past this by the time he woke up, but at least this time the sedative would give him some relief now that the organisms were clearing out of his system.
Baker quickly readied a syringe with the drug and tentatively approached the sobbing man, but he made a hopeless motion with his hands and pointed at the IV line. Janet knew immediately what he was trying to tell her - Daniel was lying on his IV, and they had no idea whether it had been pulled out of him or not.
"Daniel?" Janet said, cupping her hand under his chin and trying to pull him up out of her lap. "We need to give you some medicine, okay? It'll help you relax."
"No!" Daniel cried, though he didn't move a muscle. "Hurts!"
"What hurts?"
Daniel gulped in a few breaths of air before he spoke. "Everything!"
It finally dawned on Janet when she felt how tense his back muscles were under her hand. His sudden movement must have set off a chain reaction of muscle spasms again.
"Okay, Daniel, it's alright," she murmured as she took up stroking his back again and running her fingers through his hair. "It's just muscle spasms. It'll pass. Just try to relax."
"Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" he cried in agony.
Janet raised her hands in the air, his cries sending pain straight through her heart. She made a beckoning motion to Dr. Baker and indicated for him to inject the sedative directly into Daniel's arm.
He took a few steps closer, but Daniel seemed to realize what they were trying to do. He suddenly sat up and pushed Janet away from him so hard that she almost fell to the floor. Thankfully, she got her legs under her in time to break her fall.
"Daniel, calm down!" she ordered, but Daniel was already swinging his arms at Dr. Baker to hold him off.
"Stay away from me!" he shouted, his eyes wild with fright. "Somebody help! He's trying to kill me!!"
Once Janet had regained her balance, she held out a hand to Baker and he took a few steps back, still holding the needle. "Daniel," she said, taking his face in her hands and turning it so he was looking at her. "No one is trying to kill you. We're trying to help you."
"YOU!"
Janet drew back from him with a start when she saw the anger and hatred that burned in his eyes. The only time she could remember him looking that dangerous and out of control was the moment he had broken out of his restraints and thrown her over his infirmary bed during his sarcophagus withdrawal. It made her blood freeze in her veins with fear. "Daniel? It's just me... Dr. Fraiser. Don't be afraid."
"You did this to me." His voice had adopted the low tone that Janet knew meant trouble.
"Did... did what? You've been sick..."
"You've killed me!" he cried, the sudden increase in volume making both doctors jump. He yanked out his IV and all the other wires that he could find attached to him, and with another cry of pain, he flipped over onto his stomach and tucked his legs and arms underneath him until he was curled up into a ball.
Janet didn't waste a moment in taking the needle from Baker and injecting its contents into Daniel's shoulder.
He flinched as the needle pierced his skin, but otherwise remained still. Janet breathed a sigh of relief once the drug was in him, and kept her eyes trained upon his back until she saw him begin to relax and his breathing become more even. Then she turned to Dr. Baker, who was standing in the same spot he had been when she had taken the needle from him, his eyes wide as he looked down at Daniel.
"What was that all about?" he asked breathlessly.
Janet folded her arms around her body as though to comfort herself. "He's still having the hallucinations," she said, keeping her voice quiet in case Daniel wasn't completely asleep yet. "I'm not sure yet how much of his memory has been lost, but he did recognize me and the infirmary. That's more than we could have hoped for before Jacob used the healing device on him."
Dr. Baker nodded and took a deep breath. "Will we need to restrain him again?"
Janet winced. "I'd rather not just yet," she said, trying to make herself believe it wasn't just her emotions talking. "The sedative is working in him now that he no longer has the mind fever. I'd like to think they wouldn't be necessary."
Baker gave her a wary look for a moment, but he didn't argue the point. Instead he wordlessly went over to Daniel and tried to reattach the wires and tubing Daniel had pulled loose.
Once he was finished, Janet sank back down into her chair to take up vigil at Daniel's side yet again. The sight of him huddled up in a protective position brought tears to her eyes and made her ache to hold him. She had to settle for covering him with a blanket and placing a gentle kiss on the back of his head.
"I'm with you every step of the way, Daniel," she said as she leaned her elbows on his bed
and stroked his hair. "Just keep hanging in there."
To be continued...