Daniel's mind seemed to shut down for a moment after he looked into those eyes. He couldn't compute the information he was receiving - Janet couldn't have become a child overnight. It was impossible... wasn't it?
The thought of what had happened to Linea during another lab accident a few years earlier only crossed his mind after he'd summoned help and was trying to figure out what to do next. The drug she had tried to create had turned an entire planet full of middle-aged people into young adults. So... not impossible. Bizarre and terrifying as hell, but not impossible. Somehow that didn't make him feel any better.
The child was still curled up in a tight ball on the bed, crying and shaking and obviously scared out of her mind. Daniel could tell from this that Janet obviously had no idea where she was, who he was, or what had happened to her. Whether she had lost her memory entirely like Linea had or had just lost her memories of being an adult, he couldn't yet tell.
"It's okay, sweetie," he said, trying to inch a little closer to her without frightening her even more. "No one's going to hurt you, okay? I know you're scared, but you can trust me. It's okay."
She peeked out at him over her arms, but then she ducked her head back under when she saw him looking right at her. "Where's Mommy?" she whimpered.
Daniel's heart broke. So she did have memory of being a child. In some ways that was good, but in others...
He looked up as he heard someone entering the room.
"Oh my God," Sam whispered as she took in the scene before her. "What... who..."
"It's Janet."
Sam just stared at him in shock. Daniel knew the feeling.
"I want Mommy!" the child suddenly cried. She seemed to be heading into a full-scale panic.
Before he could think twice, Daniel sat down on the bed and gathered the frightened child into his arms. She tried to get away from him, but he held onto her tight until she finally went limp and sobbed into his shirt. "It's okay," he murmured into her hair. "Mommy's not far away, okay? She asked us to look after you for a little while. Shhh, it's okay."
"Daniel, what the hell happened?" Sam asked when her voice finally returned.
"I don't know," Daniel snapped, though he kept his voice low so that he wouldn't startle the young Janet. "I was hoping you could tell me. How can someone go to sleep a full grown adult and wake up a child?"
Sam shook her head in disbelief as she continued to stare at the child in Daniel's arms. "I... I have no idea. The drug she was working with didn't seem to have any of the same properties as Dargol, but it looks like this was an even more potent version of it... or something." She seemed at a total loss as to what to do or say.
Jack and Dr. Brightman arrived then, and they had pretty much the same reaction as Sam and Daniel had. "Oh my God!" they exclaimed in unison.
Daniel had had about enough of it by that point. "Could you all stop gaping and tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do, please?" he asked through gritted teeth. He felt the little girl tense at his tone, so he stroked her back and rocked her gently in his lap to calm her down again.
"I... I don't understand how this could have happened..." Dr. Brightman spluttered.
Jack rolled his eyes. "You're new, so I'll cut you some slack," he said, "but trust me... this kind of thing happens to us all the time. You just have to get used to it."
"How can you be so flippant about this?" Daniel asked in indignation. "Can't you see how serious this is?"
Jack looked like he had been slapped in the face by that remark. "Yes, I can, Daniel. I'm just saying that this was alien stuff she was playing around with yesterday. This shouldn't come as such a surprise."
Daniel was livid, and hugged the girl tighter against his chest. "It was my own damn fault, Jack," he said, his voice breaking almost imperceptibly on the words. "None of this would have happened if I'd paid closer attention."
"I wasn't blaming anyone..."
"Okay, I think everyone just needs to calm down," Dr. Brightman said, finally regaining her composure and approaching Daniel and the little girl on the bed. "However this happened, it has happened. Now we need to figure out a way to reverse it."
Daniel winced and laid his hand on the back of the little girl's head, leaning down to place a kiss on her hair almost automatically. He could feel the heat of her skin as he did so, and it worried him. "Doctor, she feels warm to me," he said. "That can't be good."
Dr. Brightman sat down on the edge of the bed beside them. "It might just be from the way she's been crying," she said quietly. "Janet?" she said to the girl, laying a hand softly on her back.
Janet squirmed at the touch and buried her face deeper into Daniel's open shirt, clutching at his t-shirt with her fists.
Brightman exchanged a look with Daniel, and then tried again. "Janet, I'm not going to hurt you," she said. "I'm a doctor. I just need to look at you to see if you're alright."
When there was no response, Daniel decided he might as well give it a try. "Janet?" he said, trying to pull the girl away from him. "These people are my friends, okay? If you trust me, you can trust them, too."
Thankfully, she allowed him to pry her hands off of his shirt, and he turned her around to face Dr. Brightman. She leaned her head back against his chest and took a few shuddery breaths, but at least she didn't seem to be on the verge of hysterics anymore.
"That'a girl," Dr. Brightman said with a smile. "I've just got to check you over, okay? It'll only take a second."
Daniel kept his arms securely around Janet's waist to prevent her from getting away while Brightman checked her temperature and pulse, but to his surprise, the girl didn't even move.
When Brightman was finished her brief examination, she sat back and sighed. "We need to get her to the infirmary and run more extensive tests," she said. "You're right, Dr. Jackson, she's burning up."
"Okay." Daniel was about to stand up when Janet turned and pressed her face against his chest again.
"I don't want to go!" she cried. "I want to stay here!"
"You don't really have a choice, sweetie," Daniel said, embarrassed at how she was clinging to him. "If you're sick, you have to go there to get better."
"But I want to stay with you!"
Daniel almost cried himself at the fear and sadness in her voice. "You will," he said, hugging her tight. "I'm going, too. I won't leave you alone, I promise."
"Do you think you can carry her?" Brightman asked as she stood up.
"Yeah, no problem." Daniel kept his hold on the girl as he scooted over to the edge of the bed, and when he stood up, she wrapped her legs around his waist and clamped her arms around his neck so hard that he felt he would suffocate. "Um... Janet?" he croaked. "Not so tight, sweetie." He pulled at her arms until she eased her grip a little, and then he shot a sheepish look over at Jack and Sam.
"The doc really seems to like you, Daniel," Jack said.
"Shut up, Jack," Daniel said, inwardly cursing the man for seeming to get so much enjoyment out of the whole thing.
Janet clung to him all the way to the infirmary, and even once they got there it took a lot of strength to pry her arms from around his neck. General Hammond and Teal'c joined them there, and once again, Daniel had to put up with more open-mouthed stares and unanswerable questions. He was feeling more and more guilty every second.
Dr. Brightman put the poor kid through every test imaginable, leaving the girl a quivering, sobbing wreck by the time she was finally done. Daniel wasn't feeling much better, so it helped to calm him down as much as it did her when he could hold her again and whisper soothing words into her ear.
"So, what's the verdict, Doctor?" General Hammond asked.
Dr. Brightman shook her head. "I really don't know what to say, General," she said. "When I checked her out yesterday, everything seemed fine. She didn't seem to have anything but a trace amount of the chemical in her system. Since then the concentration of it in her blood has multiplied a dozen times over."
"Is it still multiplying now?" Daniel asked fearfully.
"Not from what I can tell, no," Brightman said. "I'm hoping that means she won't get any younger than she is right now, which I'm guessing is the equivalent of around five or six years of age."
"What about her fever?" Daniel asked.
"It's not serious at the moment," she replied, "but we need to keep a close eye on it. It's probably due to the stress her body has been under the last few hours. I'm hoping it will clear up now that the transformation has ceased, but I'll give her something for it anyway."
Daniel shot her a wary glance. "You're not trying to tell me this is permanent, are you?"
Brightman looked down at the floor and didn't answer.
"Come on!" Daniel said, holding Janet protectively against him. "This can't be irreversible! If there's a way to cause it, there's got to be a way to fix it... right?"
"We'll do everything we can, Dr. Jackson," Brightman assured. "It just may take some time."
"What are we supposed to do with her in the meantime?" Sam asked, taking the words right out of Daniel's mouth.
"Well..." Brightman said thoughtfully, "she's a normal five year old in every way, from what I can see. I'd suggest you find ways to keep her entertained, as you would for any other child. And Dr. Jackson..." She gave Daniel a meaningful look and gestured to the child that was still clinging to him. "It looks like she's chosen you for chief babysitter."
Daniel rolled his eyes and tried not to notice that everyone was trying to hide their smiles. "Yeah," he said. In a way, he was grateful for that, he realized as he slowly paced the length of the infirmary and stroked the little girl's hair as he waited for her to calm down. He'd have felt worse about the whole situation if he hadn't been able to do anything to help her.
"It's gonna be okay, Janet," he said, leaning his cheek on the top of her head. "I'll make sure of that."
"What would you like to eat?" Daniel asked as he approached the commissary's food counter with Janet perched on his hip. "You must be hungry by now, huh?"
She nodded, but didn't lift her head from his shoulder. Her fever seemed to be coming down, but Daniel was worried about how limp and spiritless she was, her legs dangling loosely now that they had released their hold around his waist, and her hands linked together on his shoulder to hold them in place. She hadn't spoken a word since crying for her mommy in the infirmary almost an hour earlier. Even when Dr. Brightman had taken her away from him to get her dressed in clothes more her size, she hadn't even squawked a protest. He had never known Janet to be anything less than energetic and in control in all the time he'd known her. He knew something must be terribly wrong for her to be so... subdued.
"Do you see anything you want?" Daniel asked.
Janet didn't reply.
He had just pressed the back of his hand to her forehead again to check her temperature when Sgt. Siler came up beside him.
"Who's your little friend, Dr. Jackson?" he asked, waving and smiling at the little girl.
"Best not to ask," Daniel muttered as Janet hid her face from the stranger by nuzzling it against his neck. If word got out around the base that Dr. Fraiser was cuddling up to him like this all the time, he would never live it down.
"It's Doc Fraiser, believe it or not," a loud voice behind Daniel suddenly announced.
Daniel groaned. So much for top-secret information. "Jack..."
"Relax, Daniel, I've come to help," Jack said, patting him on the back.
"Oh joy."
"Dr. Fraiser?" Siler asked in surprise.
"Yes, it is," Daniel said. "Thanks to the wonders of alien substances." He put a banana, a plate of waffles, and a bottle of orange juice on his tray, hoping to make a quick getaway, but before he could manage to pick it up with his one free hand, Jack swept in and took it from him.
"I'll carry it," he said. "You've got your arms full already."
For some annoying reason, this comment made Daniel's face heat up with embarrassment. It felt like every eye in the commissary was on him as the three of them made their way over to an empty table, and it made him wish the ground would just open up and swallow him whole.
He knew better by then to try to get Janet to sit in her own seat, so he swung her around in front of him, sat down, and arranged her comfortably in his lap.
"You sure you want to give her all this food when she's not feeling so good?" Jack asked, looking at the plate of waffles doubtfully.
"The waffles are for me, Jack," Daniel said. "If you really want to make yourself useful, why don't you go get me a cup of coffee and her a piece of toast, huh?"
"Whatever you say," Jack conceded.
Daniel sighed in relief as Jack walked away, though he knew his reprieve was short lived. He grabbed the banana from the tray and started to peel it. "Would you like this?" he asked. He recalled seeing Janet with a banana every day at lunchtime, so he figured she must have liked them as a child, too.
Janet took it when he offered it to her, and she took a few tentative nibbles. She didn't seem to dislike it, but her lack of enthusiasm was really starting to scare Daniel.
"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, again checking her temperature with a hand to her forehead. "You don't feel as warm now. Is something else wrong?"
She lowered the banana, and her lower lip trembled like she was going to cry again.
Daniel tightened his arm around her waist in a brief hug. "You don't have to be scared, Janet," he said quietly, trying to make eye contact with her so she could see that he was being honest. "We're going to take care of you, I promise. If you're hurting or feeling sick, though, I need you to tell me, okay?"
Janet sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Have I been bad?" she asked in a small voice.
"No, of course you haven't been bad," Daniel assured her. "Why would you think that?"
"Everybody's mad," she whispered. "And Mommy and Daddy are gone."
Daniel's heart shattered into a million pieces. He cupped her face in his hand so that she would look at him and said, "Oh, honey, no... no one's mad at you. Some... some bad things have happened to you, that's all, but we're trying to fix them. We all care about you very much. And Mommy and Daddy aren't gone, they're... they just... they told me to take care of you while they couldn't be here. They didn't abandon you, if that's what you think."
She seemed to relax a little at his words, but then she leaned her head against his chest and said, "I want to go home."
Daniel hugged her to himself and rocked from side to side in his chair. "I know you do. I'm sorry, but you've got to stay here for a little while... just until you're all better."
"Are you staying?"
Daniel smiled, this timid little question warming his heart. "Yeah, I'm staying," he said. "I'm not going anywhere."
She pushed him away a little and sat up straighter to look around. "Where are we?" she asked.
'That's more like it,' Daniel thought. 'But what the hell do I tell her?' "We're... in a sort of hospital," he said. He tried to think of something better, but that was all that came to mind.
Thankfully, she seemed to buy it, and took a bite of her banana as her eyes scanned the room curiously. "My daddy works in a hospital," she said.
Daniel raised his eyebrows at this tidbit of information. So, Janet had followed in her father's footsteps in becoming a doctor? This was news. "Um... not this one, though. Sorry."
"Are you a doctor?"
"Uh... sort of..." Before he could think of anything more to say, Jack returned with the requested items.
"Here we are," Jack said, doing an impression of a snooty waiter. "One coffee for the gentleman, and toast for the little lady." He set the tray down on the table and gestured to the plate of toast. "Chef cut it into hearts just for you. Isn't that special?"
Janet beamed. "Thank you, Mr. Jack," she said, reaching out for one of the toasted hearts.
Daniel couldn't help but laugh at that. Not only was he overjoyed to see her relaxed and smiling, but Jack's playful antics had brought just the light air they all needed after the past few hours. It felt good to laugh again.
"Mr. Jack?" Jack repeated. "You can just call me Jack, okay?" He chuckled and tousled the girl's hair.
Janet looked up at Daniel for a moment, aiming her smile at him. Then she snuggled up against him again and started eating more earnestly.
Jack caught Daniel's eye and raised his eyebrows.
Daniel knew what that meant. "She's just a kid, Jack," he mouthed. No way was he going to put up with any more teasing about Janet's attachment to him.
Jack shrugged and walked away with his nose in the air and his hands in his pockets.
Daniel sighed. This was going to be a long day.