Part Four-

Dodging the swinging man size shoes being propelled by an upset ten year old boy became tiring. Janet settled for standing beside Danny as he sat atop a bed in the infirmary. As she regarded the pair of glasses dangling in her hand, she stole a glance at him as he tightly hugged a pillow burying his face.

"It's all right, Danny." Fraiser said in a soothing tone. "Colonel O'Neill didn't mean to frighten you."

"He hates me." The muffled words were made harder to decipher as they hitched between sobs.

"No," Janet sighed reaching her free hand out to rub Danny's back. "He was upset, not angry. And he doesn't hate you."

"Does too."

"No, I don't."

The doctor looked up and saw the colonel standing in the doorway. She looked back at Danny and saw the tension in his shoulders as his feet came to a dead stop.

"Colonel?" The doctor's questioning tone was to seek whether it was a good idea to approach Danny so soon.

"We'll be fine, Doc." Jack half smiled. "Please?"

"Danny," Fraiser leaned close to his ear. "I'm going to be right outside, but I know you won't need me. I think in your heart you know the colonel is a good man."

Danny felt the woman's hand squeeze his knee briefly then heard her heeled shoes click clack away. He began to swing his feet again hoping to keep Jack at a distance.

Jack had accepted Danny's glasses from Fraiser as she past. He then approached cautiously from the side and leaned on the bed about a foot from Danny's thigh.

"I wasn't going to and would not ever strike you, Danny." Jack said. "I was trying to take the picture away from you."

"You slapped it!" Danny's voice cracked. "You didn't try to take it."

Patience in relation to Daniel was never a constant. In fact, it was almost non-existent. Jack was realizing that Danny, being only a child, would take his never-ending quest for control to a new height.

"You're right." Jack conceded. "I guess I reacted without thinking because I was afraid you would get hurt."

Danny slowly lifted his head from the pillow and squinted at the colonel in confusion. "From a picture?"

Jack offered Danny his glasses which the other took rubbing his face vigorously in the pillow.

"Yes," Jack replied. "But not physically hurt, Danny. Just trust me on this. Can you do that?"

Adjusting the spectacles on his nose, Danny stopped swinging his feet. "Yes." Danny nodded. "I can do that, Jack."

Jack had to take a deep breath to ground himself in the moment. It sounded so much like the adult Daniel that Jack almost thought this had all been a cruel practical joke.

"Thank you." Jack nodded back. "And I am very sorry I scared you like that."

"Okay." Danny extended his right hand to Jack.

It was eerie how the child was so accepting and trusting. With the adult Daniel it was frustrating at times to have Jackson exhibit those traits. But with the child, it was a wonder those had not been quashed by people like Scott.

Nevertheless, he was glad Danny was not afraid of him. He could never live with that. So, with a grin as wide as General Hammond's home state of Texas Jack took the hand of his best friend and felt a firm handshake of finality.

"Now," Jack said. "Major Carter and Teal'c will be back soon from their mission. I thought that since we're here we could stick around and see them. And while we're waiting, Dr. Fraiser wanted to look you over a bit."

Jack had casually tossed his hand aside and shrugged his shoulders so as not to make a big deal to Danny. But as smart as a whip as Danny Jackson was, he saw through it.

"Why?" Danny asked. "Am I sick or something?"

"No, no." Jack reassured. "Doc just wants to make sure you're okay. You know you hit your head."

"When I passed out?" Danny asked.

The colonel felt bad lying to the boy, but this whole scenario was one big lie. How much damage could one smaller one made to protect Danny hurt?

"Yeah." Jack smiled. "So, what do you say we let her peek in your ears and flash her penlight in your eyes?"

Danny scrunched up his nose and then nodded. "As long as it won't hurt."

"I promise, kiddo."

That was all Danny needed to hear from the colonel. He trusted Jack more than he had ever trusted anyone other than his parents. He could not even explain why it was so, but it was. He knew even in the moment after Jack had raised his hand to him in that other Dr. Jackson's office that Colonel O'Neill wasn't going to hurt him. Now all he had to do was smother the scaredy-cat inside and not make Jack mad enough to send him away. He knew the man said he wouldn't, but then so had the Connors'. It was best to be agreeable, even if he was a little scared sometimes.

"Okay." Danny half smiled.

"Great." Jack reached over and patted Danny's knee. "Be right back."

"Jack?" Danny called out. When the colonel turned back he hesitated to make a request. "Can we go home after we say hi to the major and the tattooed guy?"

O'Neill held back a smile as he sensed the weariness behind the question. "Sure thing."

---

"General, they don't even know how to help their own man," Sam Carter was saying as Dr. Fraiser entered. Janet took her seat next the major across from Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill.

"Doctor?" Hammond sounded hopeful.

"Sir," Janet sighed. "There is still no physical evidence to explain why Dr. Jackson believes he is a ten year old boy. It could be like amnesia in that his memories past age ten are being suppressed."

"Possibly due to the shock from the exchange?" Teal'c wondered.

"Attempted exchange." Carter corrected then turned her attention toward the others. "The monks told us that the sharing of self, or one's self, entails them touching foreheads. They search the defining memory that in essence molded who that person became. They then take the memories from that point forward and transfer there own self into the recipient. But Daniel passed out from his extraction and the monk was unable to transfer into his mind."

"Their man is now traumatized." Teal'c noted.

"That could explain why he dreamed of Oma Desala." Janet surmised.

"Oma?" Carter's blue eyes widened.

O'Neill leaned forward in his seat and clasped his hands together on the table.

"Last night." The colonel nodded. "Scared the daylights out of him."

"What was it about?" The major pressed.

"She just stood there and then spouted her mantra of release your burden." Jack shook his head, taking one hand and cupping the nape of his neck. "He was so freaked by 'the lady with the floating head' that he made me stay with him until dawn." He massaged the taut muscle near his left shoulder.

"What if Oma Desala is indeed trying to communicate with DanielJackson?" Teal'c offered.

"You think she's trying to help him cope?" Carter asked.

"Perhaps she is trying to awaken his full memory." Teal'c answered.

"It's possible." Janet agreed. "She must know we're at a loss to help him."

"Their man is a virtual head case." The major shook her head. "They've never experienced anything like this. He's like a split personality."

"Well," The general spoke up. "Doctor, is there anything you can do for their man?"

"I really don't know." Fraiser's lips drooped in thought. "I suppose we could try medication as we would with one of our own patients with this type of condition. I could contact Dr. Mackenzie…"

"No way!" The colonel waved his hands in finality. "Not a good idea. He'd be all over Danny like flies to…"

"Colonel, please." Hammond broke in. "We understand the problem. But no one, and I mean no one, is going to take Danny away from you. Got that?"

O'Neill straightened his shoulders and pursed his lips in humility. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Now," Hammond turned back toward Carter. "Major, do you think it possible that the monks would allow their man to be brought to the SGC?"

Teal'c raised his brows and cocked his head toward Carter. She saw a slight nod she took that he believed it a possibility.

"We can certainly try, sir." Sam said. "Janet, if you can get him to be in control enough to reverse this…"

"Do it." Jack barked. "Go get him."

Hammond nodded. "Be ready to go in one hour. Dismissed."

---

"Danny!"

Jack kicked aside the pile of books that he had just tripped over. He knew this was Danny's room, but it was still his house and few as they may be he had rules.

The thunderous pounding down the hall of man size feet came to an abrupt halt at the bedroom door. Jack looked up to see Danny standing with his mouth open and eyes wide.

"Sorry, Jack." Danny mumbled. "I was going to put them away, but then you called me for dinner and I didn't want to be late and then I helped you clear the dishes until you told me I could watch t.v. and there's this real neat special on the History channel, "The Mysteries of King Tut", about the ancient curse that's believed to protect the boy king's spirit …"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Jack interrupted. "Just put them back on the shelf where you found them. Please?"

"Yes, sir." Danny dove for the books and gathered them up. He quickly placed them on the shelf as he was told, even placing the bookends tightly against the stack. He slowly turned around to face the colonel but his eyes were fixed on his socks. "Guess I should go to bed, huh?"

"Why?" Jack asked. "Are you tired?"

"No." Danny shook his head while curling his toes. "I made you mad."

Realization was quick to take the colonel as he closed his eyes and sighed. "Danny, I was annoyed profusely but not mad. And every time you annoy me or even make me mad doesn't mean you have to be punished. You're a kid. Kids screw up all the time and annoy adults. It's what they do. Just part of being a kid and why we adults have to guide you in the right direction."

"If I were your real kid." Danny mumbled lifting his head slightly and raising his eyebrows to get a better look at Jack.

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked as he wrinkled his forehead in confusion.

"That guiding and teaching stuff adults do is for their real kids." Danny answered. "Not f-kids. We have to really watch ourselves and be as good as we can most of the time. If we're not we just get punished or worse."

O'Neill was sure that every realization as to just what Daniel had gone through as an orphan was shedding another year off of his life. The uncertainty of where the kid would live, with whom and for how long. It was no way to live for anyone let alone a child. There was no security for Danny after his parents died. "The worse" he spoke of was why Daniel as an adult found it hard to share his emotional pain or let anyone know just how hurt he was physically. He had kept any discomfort within himself most of his life so he wouldn't have to face "the worse" consequence.

"Sent away." Jack answered out loud.

"Yeah." Danny nodded.

"Not gonna happen, Danny." Jack assured his friend. "I guarantee you that you will leave me one day, but I will never send you away."

Danny smiled and raised his head high. As he pushed his glasses up his nose he bolted forward and rushed Jack. Not expecting the impact of a full-grown man with the energy of an excited child, Jack staggered backwards and into the dresser.

"Whoa," Jack grabbed Danny's shoulders. But his friend wrapped his arms tightly around the colonel's waist and buried his head in the side of his neck.

Danny had always been capable of being a quiet child even prior to his parents' deaths. He was not one for too many words when he was in the company of strangers or new people. Once he had observed them he became a virtual chatterbox. He would listen and learn new languages and then talk the ear off of the poor person who had taught him the foreign tongue. But sometimes words escaped him in any language. Especially when it came to conveying emotions he had lately learned to suppress. So, without a word he quickly extracted himself from his new foster father and ran out of the room.

"Geez," Jack grabbed the sides of his head. "This is one wacky situation."

End Part Four