Sitting restlessly beside the bed in the SGC isolation room, Daniel tried to piece together the puzzle of events that had transpired over the past forty-eight hours. He had come up with a number of theories, but no solutions.
Sam had been in and out of consciousness several times, but each time she awoke, she had little or no memory of their conversations. Also, it seemed that every time he or Teal'c would mention Jack's name, she would zone out or fall asleep.
"Hey." Sam's sleepy voice interrupted his musings.
"Hey yourself."
Daniel stood up to hand her a cup of water, then waited for her to finish drinking before asking, "Feeling better?"
"I feel fine. Why, what happened?"
She glanced down at the soft cast on her left arm and then back at Daniel.
"What did I do?"
"You don't remember?"
He knew he couldn't let the opportunity pass and without Teal'c in the room, he hoped things would go more smoothly.
"Well, where should I begin? It all seemed to start when we put Jack into stasis and you refused to leave. Since then, you haven't quite been yourself. Teal'c thinks that Jack managed to download his consciousness into you, which doesn't explain why you're having trouble with your hand. The doctors found nothing wrong with it."
"He's in my hand?"
The befuddled look on her caused Daniel to smirk before answering.
"No, we think that somehow when you held your hand on the ice that it transferred then. Again, this is all speculation, we really have no proof."
Sam shook her head and stared at the bound hand. "And exactly WHY do you think he's in me?"
"You've been very Jack-like the past two days."
At her inquisitive glare, he added, "Talking like him, gestures, even a bit of temper. Very much Jack O'Neill, I didn't believe it at first but when you called me Danny, it clicked. You've never called me that."
Sighing in resignation, she mumbled, "No, I haven't. So now what?"
Daniel sat on the bed beside her and smiled, "Well, I was going to ask Jack that. Would you let me try? Teal'c hasn't had much success and we need to get some answers."
"Fine. How do you get him to talk?"
"Usually by baiting you, but that just tends to tick him off, too. I thought I'd try a faster way. He won't let us touch your hand. Will you let me?"
With a shake of her head, Sam murmured, "I can't. I don't know why, but I can't."
"Then I'm sorry in advance."
o0o
Daniel reached over and grabbed her bandaged wrist. He barely managed to duck the right hook that was aimed at his face.
"Hey, Jack. Welcome back."
"Not funny, Danny. Now let go."
The terse voice obviously belonged to their missing friend.
"Sorry, but we need to talk. I know you're trying to protect her, but we need to figure something out here. She doesn't remember anything and for this to work, we need you to cooperate. You have got to tell us what's going on. Is Sam okay? Are you okay?"
"We're fine. We just need to be left alone. This back and forth stuff isn't healthy for either of us. Just get the Asgard to thaw me out and I'll go back to where I belong."
Jack's tone coming from Sam's face was enough to convince anyone that this was real.
"Okay." Daniel nodded slowly. "We've tried to contact Thor, but no one's responded. Until they do, we need you to help us. Sam is the one suffering here and it's not fair to put her in this position. Not only does she think she has lost you, but that she might be losing her mind as well. Is there any way you can communicate with her, let her know she's not insane?"
"That's not a good idea. It could make things worse. I don't know how this happened and I'm not entirely sure how the Asgard are going to put me back. What I do know is that the longer I'm here, the more danger Sam's in. I've been trying to lay low, but you guys don't seem to be cooperating."
With a slight huff of exasperation, 'Jack' folded Sam's arms across her chest.
Glancing downward, 'he' grimaced when realizing exactly where his hands were. "Ah, man."
"Not exactly." Daniel chimed, not able to control the smirk of amusement at his friends' expense. Then with a cough, he added, "Sorry. So, no way for you to tell Sam, but how am I supposed to convince her if she doesn't remember anything?"
"I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise anything. Hopefully, it'll be enough to leave a lingering memory. I don't wanna risk confusing her."
"She's handled worse, Jack. She'll be fine." The reassuring tone did little to comfort either of them.
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure I can say the same. This is truly the most screwed up situation I've ever been in. Literally."
Sam's voice reflected the Jack O'Neill persona so perfectly that if Daniel closed his eyes, he could 'see' the man sitting before him.
"Sam would definitely agree with you on that. See what you can do for her, I'm going to try and contact Thor again."
He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder before standing up and stepping away from the bed.
"Get some rest, I have the feeling you are both going to need it."
Yawning loudly, 'Jack' replied tiredly, "Thanks Daniel, for taking care of us. I was worried we'd be in the psych ward by now."
"Never happen."
With that, Daniel left the room and let his friends get some much needed sleep.
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