"What do you mean, they won't stop? Are they really that stupid, to continue on with this when lives are at stake?" Daniel paused for a moment and let out an ironic laugh. "No wait, don't answer that. Of course they are."
"I explained the danger quite clearly," General Hammond said, "but they deemed it worth the risk."
"Yes, and that's exactly what Ambrocio said his government did. Who knows how many people died because of it?"
"You're preaching to the choir, Dr. Jackson," Hammond said. "This is out of my hands. I've already been ordered to send the notebooks down to Area 51. They should be arriving there shortly."
"So that's it?" Daniel demanded in indignation. "They're just going to go ahead and implement a drug that could kill half the people they give it to? And what about Janet? Are they just going to let her die, too, so they can continue their precious research?"
"Dr. Fraiser is not going to die," Hammond said firmly. "The drug you brought back will be sent along to Area 51 immediately."
"It's a root," Daniel corrected, "and no one's sending it anywhere. I'm taking it there myself."
To prove his statement, he marched right out of Hammond's office and down the hall to the elevator, ignoring his name as the general tried to call him back. There was no way in hell that he was just going to sit around and do nothing while the NID still had Janet. They had no right to perform any more experiments on her now that they not only had a way to cure her but had also found out that the drug was harmful anyway. Yet he knew that's exactly what they were going to do.
He went straight to the infirmary, where the folleris root had been taken for analysis. 'Screw the analysis,' he thought. 'Janet needs that stuff now.'
Dr. Brightman was in the medical bay when he got there, so he more or less cornered her and asked where the medicine was. She didn't hesitate to hand it over to him, as she, too, wanted Janet back safe and sound as quickly as possible.
Daniel thanked her and was about to walk away when she called him back.
"Dr. Jackson?" she said. "When you see her, could you give her this?"
Daniel's mouth fell open when she brought Mush out of one of the medicine cabinets. His eyes teared up as she handed it to him. "I didn't know she'd left this behind," he said sorrowfully. "God, she's really been all alone."
"All the more reason to bring her back ASAP," Brightman said.
Daniel met her gaze for a second and nodded. Then he turned and quickly left the room.
Upon reaching Level 27 again, he found Hammond in a much calmer mood than he'd left him in. It seemed that Jack had had a talk with the general, and had volunteered himself and the rest of SG-1 to accompany Daniel on his little mission.
"Just bring her back, Dr. Jackson," Hammond told him. "And if something should... accidentally happen to those notebooks..." He didn't finish his sentence, but Daniel understood his message loud and clear - 'Keep dangerous materials out of enemy hands.'
That was one unspoken command that Daniel intended to obey.
Janet didn't know how much time had passed since she had been brought to this awful place, but it felt like it had been days. After she had tried to take the sticky circles off, she had been tied down to the bed so she couldn't do it again. No matter how many times she'd said she was sorry, and no matter how hard she'd cried, nobody had taken pity on her and set her free. Now she didn't feel like she could even cry anymore.
She was woken up from a light sleep by her door opening yet again and the man and the lady coming into the room. She had really started to hate those two. She didn't think they really wanted to make her better at all. They kept on giving her needles that made her feel funny, not medicine that made her feel better. And they never, ever smiled.
They weren't alone this time, though. Another, bigger man entered the room after them. He looked scary, and Janet didn't like him one bit.
"Alright, unhook her from the monitor and then untie her and turn her onto her side," the man said. "Make sure you hold her arms and legs securely. We have to be sure she won't thrash about during the procedure."
The big man nodded and started to take the circles off of her and untie her hands.
"What are you doing now?" Janet asked fearfully.
"We just need to get a sample of your spinal fluid," the man said. "Don't be afraid. It will hurt a little, but it will soon be over."
"I don't want to!" Janet cried. The man turned her over onto her side despite Janet's attempts to break free, and held her arms tight against the bed while the lady grabbed her legs. "No!" she screamed. "Mommy! Daddy! Danny! Help me!"
"Janet, I'm going to have to insist that you calm yourself before we begin," the man said. "Do you hear me? Settle down."
She heard him, but she was no longer interested in being a good girl and doing what she was told. She wanted out, and she wanted out now. She thrashed about as much as she could while being held down by such strong arms, determined to keep them from coming near her long enough that they'd give up and go away.
Unfortunately, her strength soon ran out, and before long she could only lay there panting for breath and shaking with fear. Whatever they were about to do to her, she had no way of stopping it. She couldn't remember ever being so scared in her whole life.
When the first man started poking around on her bare back, panic finally set in. She found she couldn't move, even if no one had been holding her down. All she could do was sob and scream the same name over and over and over.
"Danny!"
Daniel couldn't seem to keep still during the flight to Nevada. He jigged his legs so much that Jack finally yelled at him to cut it out, and then he took to drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. He felt as though he were flying in the slowest airplane ever created.
The car ride to Area 51 wasn't much better. If he'd been driving, he would have pushed the car to go as fast as it possibly could, rather than the snail's pace Jack was going. "Can't you go any faster?" became his new favourite phrase.
"For crying out loud, Daniel, I'm already speeding as it is," Jack said in exasperation after the fifth time Daniel said it.
"They could be doing anything to her, Jack."
"You think I don't know that? Relax."
Daniel glared at Jack and then turned to look out of his window. How could he possibly relax when Janet was being held by people who would rather find answers to their unanswerable questions than save a life?
The process of getting into Area 51 went agonizingly slow, and Daniel was tempted to just charge in there, clearance or no clearance. Thankfully, Jack and Teal'c held him back while Sam did all the talking. They couldn't afford to mess this up now.
Once they were finally inside, they were told how to get to the lab where Janet was being "studied," and the four of them made their way there as quickly as they could without seeming overly eager. Daniel's chest tightened more and more with every step, until he could barely even breathe. He could almost feel her - could sense that they were getting closer to her.
He could also sense that something was terribly wrong.
As they approached the lab, a muffled sound reached his ear that he had no trouble recognizing the second he heard it. Before anyone could stop him, he broke into a run.
"Daniel!" he heard Jack call after him.
He didn't answer. The sound grew louder as he ran, and he wasn't about to waste another second when Janet was screaming his name like that.
As he drew closer, he started looking through the windows in every door, desperately trying to find her. Room after room appeared empty, until he finally came to a door with no window at all. The sound of Janet's frightened cries was undoubtedly coming from inside.
He tried the handle, but it seemed to be locked. "Dammit!" he cried. He slapped the palm of his hand on the metal door and yelled, "Hey! Open this door!"
Jack, Sam, and Teal'c ran up behind him as he started to pound on it with one hand and rattle the door handle with the other. They seemed just as distressed as he was by the child's screams.
Angered by the lack of response from inside the room, Daniel started to throw his full weight against the door. It didn't budge.
"Step aside, Daniel," Jack told him, patting his shoulder to get his attention.
Daniel did as he was asked, but Jack indicated that he stay close to the door.
"On three," Jack said.
Daniel nodded and braced himself.
"One... two... three!"
The two men both kicked at the door with all of their strength, and it flew open.
"What the hell is this?" cried a masked man who was holding a rather menacing looking needle. He had obviously been about to stick it in Janet's back, as the child was lying on the bed with her back exposed, her arms and legs held firmly in place by a rather cold looking man and woman.
"Get away from her!" Daniel shouted, lunging for the man and shoving him across the room.
"Don't you lay a hand on me!" the man shouted angrily. "I'll call security!"
"You do that," Jack said as he and Teal'c rushed in to deal with the other two. "Just make sure you tell them what you've been doing in here to a poor, defenceless kid."
"I am well within my rights to..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jack cut him off, shoving him out the door.
Once Teal'c wrestled the big man away from Janet and was "escorting" him and the woman towards the door, Daniel scooped the sobbing child up into his arms. "Did they do anything to her, Sam?" he asked anxiously.
Sam looked closely at Janet's lower back and shook her head. "No puncture marks," she said. "Looks like we got here just in time."
"Thank God." Daniel closed the back of Janet's gown and held her tight. "The bastards were really going to give her a spinal tap," he said with quiet anger in his voice. "What kind of monsters would do that to a kid when it isn't absolutely necessary?"
"I guess they thought it was necessary," Sam said.
Daniel snorted, but soon Janet had his full attention. She was still shaking and sobbing, and hadn't really acknowledged that he was holding her. "Janet?" he said. "Daniel's got you, okay? No one's going to hurt you now. You don't have to be scared anymore."
"I tried to be a good girl," she said between sobs.
Daniel felt yet another stab of guilt at this mournful statement. "I know you did, sweetheart," he said, stroking her hair. "I'm so sorry."
"Carter," he heard Jack's voice call. "Notebooks."
"Yes, Sir," Sam called back. "I'll be right back," she told Daniel, and then she hurried out of the room.
Daniel sat down on the edge of the bed, cradling Janet in his lap. "Did they hurt you?" he asked, relieved to note that she was starting to calm down a little.
She sniffled and nodded.
"Where?"
Janet held out her arm without saying a word, so Daniel pulled up her sleeve. The puncture marks in her skin made him nauseous. He also didn't fail to notice the marks on her wrists that must have been caused by restraints.
"God, I'm so sorry, Janet," he whispered, cuddling her close to himself and rocking her back and forth. "It's all over now, okay? We're gonna make you all better."
Janet went quiet and still then, though her breath still came in shuddery gulps and a shiver passed through her tiny frame every few seconds.
Daniel sat patiently waiting for her to calm down while he listened to the havoc going on outside the room.
"We're taking her back whether you like it or not. You've had plenty of time to run your little experiments."
"I'll be taking this up with your superiors, Colonel O'Neill."
"I'm sure you will. Carter?"
"I found the notebooks, Sir."
"Those are no longer your property, Major Carter. Give them to me."
"Okay, if you insist."
Daniel winced at the crash and clatter he heard as Sam obviously knocked something over.
"Oh God, I'm sorry! Was that some kind of acid?"
"What the hell did you do?"
"Sorry, Sir, it doesn't look like they'll be of much use now."
"Oh, you're definitely paying for that one, O'Neill."
"Yeah, probably."
Daniel couldn't help but smile. He knew his friends would take care of everything.
His smile soon vanished, however, when Janet suddenly went limp in his arms. He tilted her back to look at her face, and saw that she was out cold. "Janet?" Her face was bright red, and he could tell without even touching her skin that her fever had returned in full force. "Jack?!" he called, lifting her up and rising to his feet.
Jack, Sam, and Teal'c hurried into the room at the sound of his voice, and it only took them one look at Janet to understand what was going on. "Let's get her out of here," Jack said.
Daniel wasn't about to argue, but there was one thing he needed to do first. "Here, can you take her for a second?" he asked. He passed the girl over to Jack and quickly shrugged off his jacket. "I don't want to waste time looking for her clothes," he explained as he wrapped it around her and took her back.
"Good idea," Jack said with a nod. "Let's go."
The trip back to Colorado was even more agonizing than the trip to Nevada had been, though Daniel had thought that couldn't be possible. He gave Janet medicine to bring down her fever, but he didn't want to give her the folleris root until they were safely back at the SGC. He just hoped that by doing so, he wasn't leaving it until it was too late. She didn't even wake up once between Area 51 and the SGC. Daniel wasn't a doctor, but even he could tell that she wasn't just sleeping this time.
His suspicions were confirmed when they finally arrived at the SGC infirmary. "She's in a coma," Dr. Brightman announced.
"But... she can still have the medicine, right?" Daniel asked desperately.
Brightman nodded. "I'm sure I can give it to her intravenously," she said.
Daniel sagged in relief. "She's gonna be okay," he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. "She's gonna be okay."
He sat by the little girl's side as the folleris root was administered, and then settled in for a long wait.