Title: John Doe

Chapter:

Three Summary: The process of getting back Jack's memories begins, with little success.

Spoilers: Beneath the Surface, Singularity, and slight spoilers for Affinity.

The Stargate swirled and a rush of blue water burst forward, then as quickly as it had appeared it was gone. Sam, her father, and Teal'c walked up the ramp and into the shimmering blue water. Daniel stayed behind to help Jack if need be. Anise was waiting on the other side and after a brief explanation about what they needed and why they retrieved a memory recall device. Within only half an hour of their arriving they returned back to earth.

Sam half expected him to be waiting for them on the other side of the gate, that now familiar expression dancing in his eyes, the one that said "I wish I could be out there with you guys." It was ironic, really, the situation. One of the few opportunities he had to go off world and something of this magnitude would happen.

Instead Daniel waited in the 'gate room, his hair messy and his eyes showing a significant lack of sleep. In his right hand he nurtured a plain white cup of steaming coffee. He seemed to perk up when he saw the device, but Sam knew that Daniel was doubtful it would work, much like her father was. Not that she blamed them, she wasn't very hopeful either.

Sam went straight from the 'gate room to the infirmary, not bothering to change. He was awake; playing a card came with Siler, who had sprained his wrist, again. He looked up from the cards when she entered and smiled slightly.

"Sam...right?"

Oh, dear, how was she going to explain this? "Uh, sir. You're supposed to address me using either my rank or last name. Most of the time it's Carter."

"Oh...Carter then. I got it."

"Um, sir, we might have a way to get back your memory. A tok'ra device that can recall memories and play them on a sort of screen. We're not sure if it's going to work or not, but it's worth a try. Are you up to it? I mean, it is your decision, of course."

"Ok, where to?"

"The device is in a storage room, I'll show you where it is."

He nodded and got out of the bed. She led him to the room that her father had brought the device to, Teal'c, Daniel, and her father were already waiting for them. He sat down in the chair that was in front of the table the device lay on and Jacob attached the memory recalling device just below his right temple. He winced a bit from the uncomfortable way the small circular device held onto his skin, but said nothing of the brief pain Sam knew it caused.

"Ok, Jack," Jacob started, "all I want you to do is think, it doesn't matter what you think about, or who you think about. Anything or anybody will do."

An image of Daniel popped up, though only a few hours old. Daniel was rattling on, explaining to Jack the difference between a Goa'uld and a Tok'ra.

"Let's try something before today."

He nodded and shut his eyes so tightly it seemed that he was straining himself. Pictures passed on the screen, so quickly that it was hard to make them out, but the images finally slowed and became recognizable. They finally slowed so much so that it was one memory on the screen, one point in time. General O'Neill's first memory was of Skarra, struggling to learn their language. But, as quickly as the image appeared, it was gone. Jack's eyes flew open.

"I know that boy...his name...it's right there, right at the tip of my tongue." He sighed in frustration, "just out of reach. God, this is so damn annoying!"

"It's ok, Sir," Sam said trying to reassure him, "it'll come to you, just give it some time. Maybe the Tok'ra wasn't the best way. Dad's probably right, we should do it the old-fashioned way."

"Old-fashioned way?" He inquired.

"Take you around the things you knew before, your home, your old office, and even your new office. Daniel, Teal'c and I can talk of some of the missions we went on when you were a part of SG-1. Just, anything to jog your memory."

"Great, when do we leave?"

Sam pulled up in front of the house with a frown on her face, of course Daniel and Teal'c would already have a mission scheduled...leaving her alone with the General. Not that it was a bad thing, but it was just so frustrating for her to see him like he was, confused and upset. She wanted to help him; she just didn't have a clue how. She took the keys out of the ignition and looked over at him, he was sitting in the passenger's seat staring down at his hands, as if studying them.

She tried to remove the frown from her face, she wasn't sure if it had worked or not. "Are you ready?"

He looked up at her, then his gaze shifted from her face to just past it, at the house that stood in the background. "As I'll ever one. I've got a key." She got out of the car and waited for him to do the same. As he did he slid on a pair of glasses; it was hard to imagine that this man who appeared to be the regular General O'Neill had no memory of his life at all. He still behaved the same; his quirky sense of humor still had a way of making her smile when she didn't want to, or even when a smile wasn't required. For all intensive purposes he was Jack O'Neill, but at the same time he wasn't. It was like there was a whole other robot parading around.

The whole ordeal brought her back to the memory stamp experience, when they hadn't been CO and 2IC, instead they were Jonah and Therra, two workers. In a way she missed being Therra, Therra hadn't had to worry about her feelings for Jonah, there were no rules, no regulations to hold her back. They could be together with no consequences. As Colonel Carter she had to forget about how she felt for her commanding officer, they weren't allowed.

She shook the thoughts out of her head, she shouldn't be thinking like that at a crucial time like this, she should be thinking of ways to bring back his memory. She turned the key in the lock on the front door of his house and pushed the door open. A small gush of warm air hit her face, pushing her hair back slightly. She dropped her keys on the table by the door and turned on the air.

"It's a bit stuffy in here, huh?"

"Well, you haven't been home in about a week. The air has been off, so, yeah. Stuffy."

She led him into the living room and he slowly began to look around, flipping through the books in the bookcase, glancing at the magazines, studying the photos on the mantle. He picked up one in particular and stared intensely at it, tracing the outline of the two smiling faces featured in it. He then handed it to Sam. "When was this taken?"

She studied the photo herself, it wasn't old, actually it had only been taken weeks before. At Teal'c's apartment warming party. It was of them. "Only about a month ago, at Teal'c's apartment."

"Teal'c has an apartment? He told me he lived on base."

"Well, he does now...and he did for a long time before. He didn't live there long, a lot happened. The girl who lived next doors boyfriend tried to attack her, she killed him in self-defense. Some people who thought that it wasn't a smart idea for an alien to live among civilians made it seem like he did it. In the end it was all resolved. Which, I don't really know why they made such a fuss about him living in the city anyway, there have been other aliens to live here, with no problems."

He picked up another photo, "Cassie?" He handed the photo to her.

He was right, it was a picture of Cassie. "Right...this is Cassie."

He thought something over for a moment. "She's an alien."

"Yeah. She's an alien; she's in college now. You gave her a dog, said that it was Tauri tradition, every child was supposed to have a dog."

He shook his head, disappointed. "I don't remember."

"It's a good sign that you remember Cassie. Just...don't strain yourself, any pace is better than no pace. Come on, let's go look around the rest of the house."

He nodded solemnly and followed her into the kitchen.
A/n: Ok, so I'm thinking Pete's gonna come in on the next chapter. Anyway, thank you for reading! Review please!