Sam watched in muted silence through the glass into the room below her. She didn't know how much longer she could just sit here and do nothing knowing that Daniel was slowly becoming something else, or had become something else, without a clue on how to stop it or reverse it. But then, she couldn't just abandon Daniel either.
In reality, none of them were sure how to proceed. This situation was different than what had happened to Teal'c, but yet eerily similar.
What would happen to Daniel? Would his physical appearance change? Would his mental capabilities deteriorate or would they come into sharper focus?
Daniel had appeared to be improving. He was regaining so many of his skills. That was until they stuck him in here.
He was frightened. Sam watched on sorrowfully as Daniel huddled in his corner, his knees to his chest, his head bowed, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed. He was alone, and he knew it. She couldn't imagine the betrayal he must be feeling right now.
"Major."
Sam jerked, shifting in her seat as she gazed upward. Colonel O'Neill gazed back at her warmly, his soft smile barely hiding the sadness and uncertainty she was sure he was feeling. He squeezed her shoulder gently before urging her to move.
"Why don't you go and help out Fraiser. I know that's what you want to be doing."
"But, Sir—"
He shook his head. "Nah, go on. I'll watch him." He cleared his throat. "Just go. Go help try and fix this."
Sam gazed downward, refusing to take another glance in Daniel's direction. "Yes, Sir." When she finally looked up, she noticed her commanding officer had already settled into the nearest chair, his shoulders hunched as he leaned forward while he stared dimly at Daniel.
Realizing she couldn't take this anymore, Sam turned and left the room, heading to the medical labs to talk to Janet.
She'd gone over the test results several times, hoping that the answer was somehow hidden in there, or that she could have possibly been wrong all this time.
But she wasn't. There was no way to disguise the facts.
Janet sighed once before burying her head into her hands.
"Janet?"
Janet bolted upright, nearly falling out of her chair as she heard Sam's voice. Gathering her wits, she forced a smile.
"Sam, I didn't hear you come in."
Sam said nothing at first, though Janet felt the scrutiny of her gaze. Suddenly, she felt like she was some lab rat.
Probably the way Daniel felt right now.
"Maybe you should take a break," Sam said gently. "Timothy Harlow is coming down and he can take it from here."
While part of her—that guilt-ridden, hidden aspect of herself—wanted to rest, to get away from the figures and testing that had eaten every minute of her time since SG-1 returned to the base, she knew she wouldn't. She knew she couldn't. Even the strongest temptation would never transplant her from the side of her patients. In fact, it wasn't even a serious consideration. Just a selfish impulse to remove herself.
She seldom ever felt that urge. She hardly felt the conflict to run while at the same time fight until she was bled dry.
These strange, unsettling moments only happened under certain conditions.
Janet swallowed hard.
"I can't, Sam." Janet turned her chair so she was facing the other woman. "You know that. It's bad enough we've locked him away like some rabid animal."
Sam knocked her fist against her thigh and nodded. "I know. But we know you're doing the best that you can."
"It's not good enough," she admitted soberly. "Sam, I promised myself that this wouldn't happen again." Her voice dropped. "I promised him that."
The incident with Ma'chello's contraptions still haunted her. She had placed all her support behind Doctor MacKenzie's diagnosis, and basically had given the green light for the military to lock up Daniel in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. A critical error, on her part. She had told herself many times over that her decision was the right one; there was no way she could have known Daniel was experiencing something so alien and so foreign. There was not enough evidence to support it. But yet, she had been wrong. As a doctor, she couldn't afford to make mistakes. She was playing with people's lives here.
Janet sighed as she felt Sam's hand on her shoulder. "Janet, you're doing what you can," she said, squeezing gently. "You know that Daniel would never blame you, even if he could understand what was happening."
If he could understand, she mused ruefully.
Daniel was barely a shell of himself, grasping only the most basic of abilities. He couldn't comprehend what he'd lost, or what he was missing. The Daniel they knew was gone, and if they couldn't figure out to reverse the process, who knew what could happen to him.
Janet inhaled sharply. "I have to get back to work." She turned to her desk, littered with dozens of read-outs. "If you want to help, you can start by running through some of these right here." She patted part of her desk. "Or, you can check with one of specialists in Lab C for any new data they might have compiled."
Sam nodded. "Okay, sure. I'll see how their resea—"
Janet broke from her concentration as she heard Sam's voice halt. Frowning, she stood, eyeing Doctor Wyman carefully.
"Alan?" she questioned.
He gasped for breath, pushing out a handful of documents to Sam. "Fresh from the lab. I thought you'd like to take a look."
Sam eyed them closely, frowned, before handing them to Janet. Janet accepted them eagerly.
That couldn't be right.
"Are you sure these are the latest results?" Janet asked.
"Yes, I was there myself." He shook his head. "I don't know what to say."
Sam searched her cautiously. "Janet?"
For the first time that day, Janet felt hopeful. "I need to review this immediately. Sam, this could be the breakthrough we've been hoping for."
