"Zombies? He really said that?"
Colonel O'Neill shrugged his shoulders and ran a hand through his hair. "Trust me, Doc, no one was more surprised to hear it than I was. I thought for a second I was stuck in some kind of cheesy horror movie."
Janet wrapped her arms around her waist in an attempt to stop the involuntary shudder that was passing through her body. "Are you sure he was awake?" she asked. "He could have been dreaming or hallucinating or..."
"He was awake," Colonel O'Neill said. "I had the closest thing to a conversation with him that anyone's had since he came back. I asked him to describe who took him, and he said zombies."
"So, maybe they were aliens who looked like zombies," Sam suggested. "If that's the simplest word he could find to describe them..."
"We've seen some pretty weird things out there over the past five years," Colonel O'Neill said. "Is it really so hard to believe that they might have been actual zombies?"
There was silence for a moment as Janet and Sam exchanged longsuffering looks.
Colonel O'Neill huffed when he realized that he wasn't being taken seriously. "Look, if the man said he was taken by zombies..."
"Then in an effort to deal with the trauma, his brain has associated the unknown aliens who took him with something it could already understand," said a voice from the doorway.
Janet felt a wave of dread wash over her when she saw Mackenzie standing there. She knew right away that this wasn't going to be fun. Outwardly, though, she forced a smile and greeted him warmly. "Dr. Mackenzie. What can I do for you?"
"I just came to see how Daniel was doing," he said. He was about to continue when Colonel O'Neill cut him off.
"Came to see how he's doing, or came to see if you can find an excuse to drug him or lock him up?"
Janet's jaw dropped at this statement, though she knew she shouldn't actually be surprised. Everyone knew Colonel O'Neill had a huge problem with the psychiatric profession, Dr. Mackenzie most of all, and that he wasn't afraid to show it. "Colonel..."
"I'm not the enemy here, Colonel," Mackenzie said as calmly as he ever said anything. "I simply wish to keep an eye on his progress over the next few days, just to see how he deals with the trauma. If he seems to be having problems adjusting back to his normal life, there are various treatments we can try to help him along, but no one's suggesting we lock him up."
"Not yet," Colonel O'Neill muttered to himself.
Janet wasn't sure whether Mackenzie had heard him, as he was still standing on the other side of the room, but if he did, he gave no sign. He turned to Janet and asked, "Where is Dr. Warner? I'd like to have a word with him, if it's possible."
"He's in his office," Janet replied, with a gesture in the office's general direction.
Dr. Mackenzie quickly excused himself and left the room before Colonel O'Neill had a chance to say anything more.
As soon as he was gone, Janet turned to Colonel O'Neill and automatically settled into her battle stance. "There was no need for that, Colonel," she said. "He's only trying to do his job."
Colonel O'Neill rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I know," he said. "It just happens to be a job I despise. I know Daniel isn't too keen on Mackenzie, either, and the last thing we need right now is for memories of his rubber room to come flooding into his mind. He needs to be surrounded by people he trusts, not... Mackenzie."
"You have a point," Janet conceded. "But if you'd care to notice, Sir, Dr. Mackenzie didn't go anywhere near Daniel. I would imagine he knows just as well as you do what Daniel needs."
Colonel O'Neill didn't say anything more after that. Janet wasn't sure why she had been so quick to jump to Mackenzie's defense, but after spending the night tossing and turning in her bed at home wondering what Daniel was going through back here on the base, she was feeling rather tired and cranky this morning.
Thankfully, a welcome diversion soon presented itself. Teal'c appeared at the door of the room and said, "Dr. Fraiser, Daniel Jackson is awake and has requested your presence."
"Thank you, Teal'c," she said. She didn't waste any time in crossing the hall to Daniel's room and stepping inside.
Daniel was sitting up in his bed, looking wide awake and almost... normal. He had already begun to gain weight from his IV and the few nourishing meals they'd been able to get into him, he'd allowed Janet to help him shave the day before, and his pajamas hid the worst of his scars from view. The only thing that was blatantly different about him now was the look of pain and barely restrained fear that always lingered in his eyes.
Still, as soon as he saw her, some of that pain and fear melted away, and he forced a smile. That was definitely the Daniel she knew.
"Hey, Daniel," she said as she approached his bed. "How are you feeling today?"
"Better," he replied. "Where were you?"
"I went home for the night," Janet said apologetically. "Cassie needed me." She wasn't sure how he would react to the news that she'd left him overnight, so she breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't even bat an eye.
"Can you sit?" he said.
Janet smiled and sat down on the edge of his bed. "So, did Colonel O'Neill behave himself?" she asked.
Daniel smiled for real this time. "He was a very good babysitter," he said. "Though he did snore for a while."
Janet's heart soared as these words came out of his mouth. He was smiling, joking, and talking in complete sentences - so far removed from the way he'd been just twenty-four hours earlier. It was like watching a miracle unfold before her eyes. For a moment, she was afraid to speak in case she said the wrong thing and ruined it.
"Janet?"
She felt terrible when she realized she'd been sitting there staring at him for half a minute without saying a word. Daniel looked concerned about her, which in some ways filled her with joy, but in others made her feel guilty. "Sorry," she said. "You're just doing so well, I..." She stopped and gave her head a quick shake as she remembered what she'd planned to do as soon as she saw him. "I have something for you," she said as she reached into her pocket to retrieve the object. "It took me a little while to find it, but..."
"My ring," Daniel murmured as Janet held it out on the palm of her hand.
"That's right." Janet gently lifted his left hand from where it rested on his stomach and slipped the ring onto his finger. Then she bent down to press a kiss against his knuckles. "Back where it belongs," she said.
Daniel looked thoughtful as he stared down at their entwined hands. "I... I left it in your jewellery box," he said. "Cassie... I was taking Cassie to school... I ran upstairs to put it away."
Janet gave his hand an encouraging squeeze when he looked up to meet her gaze. She was surprised and a little concerned that he was relating the events leading up to his disappearance, but she didn't want to force him to stop if it was something he wanted to do.
"I couldn't take it off-world," he said. "I would have lost it." He looked back down for a long moment before he glanced up at her again and continued in a voice thick with emotion, "They couldn't take it. They took everything else. They... they took me... but not you."
Janet blinked hard against the tears that were filling her eyes and reached out her free hand to touch his face. It nearly broke her heart when Daniel closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. "Who, Daniel?" she asked. She knew it was probably a mistake to question him further, but she also knew that she might never have another chance to find out what happened to him while he was actually willing to open up. "Who took you? What did they do to you?"
Daniel whimpered and clutched her hand tighter. "They did... things to me. Pain. That's all I remember." He squirmed and seemed to be fighting against panic. "Too much... it's too much," he moaned as he rolled his head from side to side. "Please... I don't want to..."
"Okay," Janet assured him, stroking his neck with one hand and squeezing his hand again with the other. "It's okay. You don't have to talk about it right now."
Daniel sucked in a deep breath and nodded.
Janet's heart ached for him as she watched him try to pull himself back together. He was right - it was all just too much.
"I'm sorry," he said a few moments later.
"You have no reason to be sorry, Daniel," Janet said. "None of this was your fault."
Daniel shook his head. "Sorry I... I pushed you away."
Janet was confused for a second as she tried to think what he could be talking about. Then she remembered. "Yesterday?" she asked. "You don't have to apologize for that, sweetheart. If something makes you uncomfortable, you need to let us know."
"Okay." He took another deep breath and let it out slowly. "Can we try again?" he asked.
"Try what again?"
The corners of Daniel's mouth twitched upwards as he lifted his arms and held them out to her.
Now she understood. "Are you sure I won't hurt you?" she said hesitantly.
Daniel nodded.
That was good enough for her. Before she had time for second thoughts, Janet climbed up onto the bed next to him and lay down with her head on his chest and her arm draped across his stomach.
Once Daniel's arms were wrapped securely around her, if she closed her eyes and tuned out the sounds and smells of the infirmary, she could almost imagine that they were safe at home in their very own bed. It was enough to make her want to weep for joy.
"I missed you," Daniel whispered into her hair after a few moments passed in silence.
Janet lifted her head a little to look at his face. Those blue eyes... God, how she'd missed them. "I missed you, too," she said with a tearful smile. "I love you so much, Daniel." She kissed his cheek and then nestled her forehead in the crook of his neck.
So much had changed in such a short time, and the last two days had seemed like a whirlwind. The contrast between the previous day's stress and worry and the peacefulness of lying there in Daniel's arms, listening to his heartbeat and feeling his hand stroking her hair, was almost incomprehensible. Whatever Daniel had been through over the past month, and whatever trials they had yet to face, Janet knew she would cherish those few moments of contentment for the rest of her life.