A/N: Thanks so much for you kind and supportive reviews! They are deeply valued. Chapter two explains a bit more what's happened to Daniel and the ramifications. FYI: I took a few artistic liberties with Daniel's background. Please don't be cross about it. And please review; I'd be extremely grateful. –your humble author.
Chapter two: History Not Learned…
Although Jack's jaw had hit the floor, Dr. Frasier seemed calm and apparently unconcerned about the situation. "You're gonna be fine, Daniel. I'll send a nurse with something for your pain and speak to you again shortly. Colonel, would you come with me, please?"
"What is that?" Jack demanded once they were in Janet's office.
"I'm not sure, but we'll know in a minute. Let me take a look at Daniel's records and I'll tell you," she assured him while staring at her computer screen.
A few minutes went by and Janet sat back in her chair. "I have some good news and some bad news, Colonel. The good news is that Daniel knows who he is and can remember much of his past. The bad news is, if I'm correct, he can only remember up to the age of 23; he's forgotten the last seven years."
"How?"
"When he hit his head it must have disrupted that part of his memory. It's extremely rare but possible." When Jack continued to give her a blank look, Janet explained further. "Seven years ago, Daniel Jackson was a graduate assistant working at the Egyptian Institute for Archeology. He collapsed one day in class and was taken to the local hospital where they diagnosed a concussion and held him over night. He was released the next day with no ill effects except a headache. Our Daniel woke up thinking it's seven years ago. It's the only thing that makes sense."
"How do we get him to talk about P3X-772? Is he gonna be able to tell me what he knows?"
Janet took a deep breath. "Daniel may recover his memory in a very short time. It's possible he'll remember everything when we go out there. But until he does, he's not going to know anything about P3X-772. He's not even going to know who Sam or Teal'C are, let alone you, the SGC, or even the Stargate."
"When will he remember?"
"I don't know. The brain is probably the most complex and least understood organ of the body. Amnesia is not a well-researched disorder, especially one like his. The odds are in Daniel's favor; it is most likely his memory will return. But I don't know when or how. It may come all at once or in little bits at a time. I'm sorry, Jack, I wish I could give you more."
The Colonel fell back in his seat, rubbing his eyes. The day was getting longer and longer. It might never end. "All right, I'll go tell the General that Daniel can't remember and find out what to do. Is there anything we can do?"
"It helps sometimes to take the patient around familiar things. It may jog his memory."
"Okay. I'll come back soon. Let me know if he suddenly gets back his senses. This day sucks," he muttered as he left the office.
Janet walked back out to Daniel's bed. She couldn't lie to him, and there was little she could think of to ease his shock, so she determined to give him the truth and help him work through it. After all, there is little else as disconcerting as amnesia, but Daniel knew who he was and total strangers were going to tell him otherwise. Sure, he was still Daniel Jackson, but with seven years of life changing experiences forgotten.
"I'd like to speak with you."
Daniel looked up in wide-eyed innocence. "Okay."
Crap, Janet thought to herself, this is gonna be so difficult. "I want to speak with you about the consequences of your fall. Now, you're healthy and all the tests came out normal," she added when he grew concerned. "I'd like you to tell me about what happened. Be as specific as possible."
"I've been doing a lot of work lately; between teaching, research, digs, and writing my dissertation, there hasn't been a lot of time for sleeping and eating. I pulled an all-nighter last night and my last meal was…uh…it was…well, I'm not quite sure. Then I was standing in class when I saw this little black dot on one of my student's faces. It got bigger until it covered his whole head, and it just kept growing until it took up the entire class. Then I passed out. I'm pretty sure I hit my head against the chalk holder because I heard my head crack against something as I fell. It's my own fault; I just get so caught up with whatever I'm doing that everything else passes by me."
Janet nodded slowly. "That did happen; your medical file has a record of that accident. However, that was not the accident that caused you to be here."
"What do you mean?"
"Based on your medical history and what you've told me so far, I believe you have forgotten the past seven years. You have a form of amnesia."
He looked skeptical, then broke out in a grin. "Did Yeslam put you up to this? That guy is awful when it comes to practical jokes. He once convinced his own class he had died."
"I don't know a Yeslam. I do know that you are Dr. Daniel Jackson with the Stargate program in Colorado. And that the year is 1998."
"No it isn't."
Janet came prepared and pulled out the day's newspaper. "The Denver Free Press. February 3, 1998. You're not in Egypt, Daniel. You're not a student. You are a civilian working for a secret military program."
Daniel said nothing at first, just stared at the newspaper. "That isn't my life," he said finally. "That's a movie plot. It's something Sylvester Stallone would star in."
Janet sighed. It was not going to be easy to convince Daniel—who felt fine save for a headache—that he had left his mind in the past. Fortunately, Jack chose that minute to return. He gave her an inquisitive look and she shook her head. No, he didn't remember anything. Momentarily leaving a stunned Daniel, Janet went to find out what the General said.
"We're waiting eight hours. If Danny hasn't remembered by then, I'll go alone. Without proof they're dead or alive, he doesn't want to risk a lot of people and I have surprise on my side. First, we're supposed to try and help Danny remember. How's that coming?"
"It isn't. He won't believe me when I tell him he has amnesia. I don't know what can convince him. I thought you might have better luck. You're friends and you can show him around; prove it's 1998 and get his memory back."
Jack wasn't sure he could do a better job than the doctor, but he was willing to try it if it would help Danny, Sam, and Teal'C. He started towards Daniel when Dr. Frasier stopped him.
"Colonel—Jack—you can't force him to remember. You're going to have to be patient with him. He's scared."
"Geez, I'm not gonna hit him, Doc!"
"I know that. Just keep in mind that he has no control over remembering. We need to encourage him. Gently." She left for her office and hours of research on amnesia patients.
He nodded and walked over to his friend. Or whatever Daniel was. "Hi."
Daniel eyed him nervously. "Hello."
"You might not believe this, but we're friends. Pretty good friends—best friends, even. So I'm gonna help you remember, y'know, what you've forgotten." Oh, this is going swell, Jack thought to himself. I sound more confused than he looks. "Look, why don't I just show you some stuff to convince you it's 1998? We'll go look around the base, I'll show you your office, and tell you all about yourself."
"Who are you?"
Jack paused, surprised (and just a little hurt). "I'm Jack O'Neill. We work together. Look, Danny, it's a real long story and we have much time to go over. So let's get going and I'll tell it on the way. You have a lot to remember and not a lot of time. But I promise—we are friends. And you care a lot about this place and the people who are here. And the people who aren't here."
"That was the medical bay," Jack explained as they walked down the corridor. "You're there a lot. We're going to your office now. You wouldn't happen to know how to get there on your own, would you?"
"No."
The Colonel nodded. "Didn't think so."
They got onto the elevator in silence and rode up to his office. It was a mess by anyone's standards except Daniel, who knew exactly where everything was. At least, SG1's Daniel knew where everything was. The graduate student didn't have a clue; he stood in the doorway and watched Jack step over irreplaceable artifacts. Jack grinned. "I'll bet your dorm room was just as messy."
"Yeah, but I didn't have anything priceless to step on. This is my office?"
"Yep. Your desk, your books, your papers, your weird stuff you keep taking from other planets. One of these days you're gonna piss somebody off…actually, I think you might have. We've been on so many missions, it's hard to remember."
"Missions?"
Jack's brow furrowed. Of course Daniel didn't know what he was talking about. But exactly how was he supposed to explain "missions?" Oh, sure, we go off the planet on a regular basis. Hell of a rush, going through the Stargate. Bit cold. "Maybe I'm showing you the wrong thing first," he reasoned out loud. "What do you care about an office—even if it is bigger than mine? Let's go see the Stargate; that ought to convince you."
As they were about to leave the room, a young sergeant ran through the door, panting. "I'm so sorry to be late with this, sir," he addressed Jackson. "I had no idea what a Hagia Sophia was—I mean, I thought you meant a person. Here are those papers you asked for. If you could just tell me next time that you mean a church, I'd be real grateful. Colonel," he said, saluting.
Daniel didn't even notice he was taking the numerous texts. He could only stare at the sergeant, dumbfounded. "Hagia Sophia…that's ancient Byzantium," he finally mumbled. "What are these…?"
"Sergeant, now is not a good time," Jack stated gruffly. "Dr. Jackson is not feeling well."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Colonel. It's just that he asked me to get these to him as quickly as possible and I thought that—"
"You thought wrong. You're dismissed."
"Yes, sir."
Once the young man had left, Jack escorted Daniel down the hall and towards the embarkation room. "Sorry about that," he muttered. "You're a popular guy. I wish my subordinates were as quick to please as yours are."
"I have subordinates?"
"You have a lot of stuff here that you probably didn't have in college. Got a nice apartment, too. You sure like it better than living with me."
Daniel stopped. "I lived with you? We aren't, y'know…"
"Absolutely not!" Jack replied indignantly. He was a colonel in the United States Air Force and every woman's dream (although, he thought, Daniel shouldn't have sounded so upset; Jack would have made a good catch for the young man). "No, when you got back to Earth, you didn't have anywhere to live. You stayed with me for a few months before you got settled."
"Wait a minute—'got back to earth'?"
"Um…look, I think this is going to prove I'm telling the truth and explain things better than I appear to be doing," Jack said as they stepped into the embarkation room. The Colonel pointed to the Stargate. "That is your little masterpiece. The Stargate."
Daniel walked slowly up the ramp, admiring the Gate as he did. A huge circle with the most peculiar looking pictures on the outer ring; they were similar to hieroglyphics, only different. He had no clue what it did, how it worked, or what part he had played in creating it. Still, it looked impressive. "What does it do?"
"Well, if I understand what you and Carter said, it's like a telephone; you punch in your number with those pictures," he said, pointing to the outer ring, "and it connects with another gate on a different planet. Then you jump through and land billions of miles away. That's what we do, Daniel. We dial different Gates and go explore."
"Well…that's nice. Do we do that often?"
Jack ground his teeth. "Listen, Danny, you're the one that figured this whole thing out. It's because of you that we even got it working. And it's a good thing we did, because you'd have been one pathetic excuse of an archeologist without it."
"What does that mean?" Daniel asked crossly.
"It means you were a laughing stock before the Stargate; you went around with your nutty ideas about aliens building pyramids and nobody believed you. I mean, aliens built the pyramids? You had to be crazy. Until you came here. And you proved it. With that," he explained, pointing to the Gate.
Daniel had blanched considerably during Jack's rant. He grabbed the railing for support. "Oh, wow," he whispered. "It can't be…it's all true."
"Daniel? Are you okay? What's the matter?" What did I do this time?
"I really did lose seven years of my life."
"Okay, Danny, you're gonna have to tell me what's going on. Unlike some people we've met, I can't read minds."
The young archeologist slid slowly to the floor. "I've been on so many digs and things just weren't adding up, especially the dates. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't explain it. Then I started to wonder—what if we hadn't built the pyramids? What if somebody else had? What if everything we supposed was wrong. But I didn't tell anyone. I've just been compiling data and keeping a journal on it, but it's secret. I'd get laughed out of the Institute if I told anybody. But you know. You know. And it's true. And it's here." Daniel looked up at Jack. "I really have lost seven years of my life, haven't I?"
"I'm afraid so."
There was a long pause while Daniel digested the information. "I'm gonna be ill."
PLEASE REVIEW