Phew! Finished another chapter at last. I'm sorry for the delay, things have been pretty hectic around here of late, and I haven't had much time to concentrate on this. The good news is that we may have actually discovered what is wrong with my daughter at last. Now we wait for tests to confirm it.

Censure.

By LetitiaRichards

Previously:-

"Go son, and God speed!" Hammond said, dismissing him to turn back and take another look at Jack before he too left the room with an order to contact him if there was any change in the Colonel's condition.

Chapter 8

Sam stayed by Jack's side, not wanting to leave him. Janet nodded her approval; she could see how much Jack's condition had worried her friend. She knew how much they meant to each other, and had sworn to keep the knowledge a secret. She and Sam were best friends, and she wanted nothing more for her, than to find the happiness she craved, even if it meant being with O'Neill against the regulations.

Janet patted Sam's shoulder, the only token of comfort she could offer her friend at this time. There was nothing else she could do for the Colonel and it was taking a heavy toll on them all.

Once Janet had shut the door, Sam pushed her hand through the safety rail and took hold of Jack's hand, feeling the warm fingers against her chilled palm. She was cold. Not that the room was cold; if anything the room was warm, it was just that she couldn't seem to shake the chill of shock from her mind and body.

"Jack!" she whispered; her voice barely making it past the lump in her throat. "God, Jack. Please hang in there; do it for me Jack! I don't want to lose you. Remember that I love you Jack. Remember our promises? That one day we could be together? I'm gonna hold you to that, so don't leave me...please Jack, come back to me!"

She squeezed the limp hand in hers and brushed away the tears with her free hand. She waited for a few moments before gathering her courage to speak again.

"Daniel thinks he knows what happened back in that room, but we don't know why as yet. He's trying to find the answers for you. He's looking for something that will help you get better Jack. He's trying his best, I know he is, but it's hard and..." she sniffed back fresh tears, blinking rapidly before continuing, "there's no guarantee that he'll find anything that will reverse this." In the end her voice failed her completely, so she sat there rubbing small soothing circles on the back of his hand with her fingers, just to let him know she was there for him.

OoOoOoOoO

Daniel swallowed the last drop of coffee, tipping the mug almost upside down in order to drain the last dregs. He smacked his lips absently and looked round to see if there was any more available. He sighed when he noticed the pot was empty. He slid off his stool and refilled the pot, flicking the switch on before he sat back down at the bench to continue the search.

He'd made a little progress, but as yet he wasn't sure if it would be of any help to Jack. He'd written pages of notes and made several print outs of his findings ready for the briefing that General Hammond had called for in a few hours time, needing an update on his progress.

He was buried under a pile of papers, all with various scribbled notes on when Teal'c entered the room.

"Have you progressed in your research at all Daniel Jackson?"

Daniel almost fell off the stool when the Jaffa's deep voice startled him from his thoughts.

"Teal'c! Didn't Jack ever tell you about sneaking up on people and giving them a heart attack? And I guess I've made some progress, but, as yet nothing that we can use to help Jack, I don't think," he sighed.

"Do you need assistance in carrying your notes to the briefing?" Teal'c asked with a slight dip of his head, after eyeing the pile of paperwork his friend had stacked on the desk.

Daniel looked up at him blankly.

"Briefing?" he gasped, looking shocked. He twisted his wrist and glared at his watch in disbelief. "That time already?"

"Indeed!" responded Teal'c with a raised eyebrow and a slight twitch of his lips. "General Hammond sent me to accompany you."

"In that case, do you think you could carry those files for me?" Daniel sighed, grabbing a pile of folders and handing them to the Jaffa.

Teal'c stood by patiently as Daniel loaded himself down with loose paperwork and a CD Rom of pictures taken from the discs he'd been studying.

"Right, okay, let's go Teal'c."

They both proceeded towards the elevator that would take them down to the briefing room; Daniel managing only once to drop some of the papers on the way.

When they entered the room, he saw that General Hammond was already seated there, along with Sam and Janet.

"Glad you could make it Doctor Jackson," General Hammond said with a wry grin, despite the archaeologist keeping everyone waiting.

"I'm sorry I'm late General. I didn't realise what the time was," he puffed after hurrying to his seat before spilling the load of paperwork, pens and discs onto the surface of the table.

General Hammond eyed the pile with surprised speculation.

"Does this mean you've found something Dr. Jackson?" he asked waving a hand at the untidy heap.

"Ah...yes, and no, General," Daniel replied cryptically, pulling his notes out from the bottom of the pile. He then proceeded to hand out a folder to each of those present.

"These are my preliminary findings sir. As you can see there isn't much to go on yet, but I believe that I have made a significant step in understanding what happened to Jack."

General Hammond browsed through the printed sheets, picking up on the essential points of information he needed.

"As I suspected," Daniel began, totally focused on his brief; and if Jack had been there, he would have recognised a full blown lecture coming. "the building where we found Jack was what we would call a Prison, but the former inhabitants, whom I believe were the Ancients, had a more eloquent turn of phrase and called it a 'House of Correction'. As you can see here…" he flipped on the remote after loading the disc and they observed a busy scene on the TV screen. "This is what the building looked like before whatever disaster befell them, happened. That's another part of the puzzle I intend to find out too,that's where wefound Jack in the basement there." He pinpointed the lower, ground levelwindows out to everyone.

"But why did this happen to Colonel O'Neill?" Hammond asked, clearly confused.

"He hadn't done anything wrong Daniel!" Sam complained.

Daniel held up a hand to fob off their questions.

"Please...bear with me a while longer, I'll get to that in a minute. Apparently when a criminal was brought to justice, they sentence him or her to undergo corrective treatment." Again Daniel flicked on to another scene where a criminal was undergoing the treatment. "This involves placing a small device into their brains, just as Jack has at the moment. It works on the principle that when the prisoner shows signs of aggression, the device 'reacts' accordingly; it grows bigger to compensate and administers a small shock if you like, in order to stop them from acting on their feelings. So the more aggressive they become the bigger the device grows, and the worse the shocks. I can only assume that it's a form of correcting their behaviour before it gets out of hand, and that the more aggressive the prisoner, the more they suffer. Not saying that Jack is a bad example, just that he reacts differently to those people."

Daniel stopped togulp downsome coffee, savouring the taste, before continuing with his findings and to expound on his theory about Jack's problem.

"We all know that several times now, Jack has reacted badly to this device. And I believe in each case it's because he became agitated making the device react and grow to accommodate his temper. But, it's my belief his reactions are worse than those of a normal subject purely becausehe ishuman and not one of the Ancients, therefore our brain functions are different. I don't think it was meant to cause any permanent damage and I can't find any instances where the subject had become comatose. We all know that when Jack stuck his head into that Ancient's repository a while back, it was too much for Jack's mental abilityto handle, and luckily for him and us, the Asgard saved him. I'm thinking perhaps this might be the same sort of technology and that Thor could remedy the situation once again."

Hammond nodded and ordered Sam to go and contact the Asgard right away. He could only hope that Jack's little grey 'friend' could help, and reach him in time before it was too late.

"As to why Jack was implanted if that's what you want to call it," Daniel continued, "Well, we know Jack slipped and jarred his bad knee and I am sure you can imagine the aggravation that he must have felt and shown at that time, and that the...em...colourful language that followed, must have activated the device, thus aiming to correct the error of his ways," Daniel said, giving a wry grin at the right idea but tested on the wrong person, namely, Jack. He just hoped it wasn't going to prove fatal.

Hammond knew only too well what Daniel was driving at, and gave a slight snort of amusement at the image that had conjured up. He could sure use something similar to keep the Colonel in line sometimes; but, that was neither here nor there right now and all he wanted was for someone, somehow to remove the device before it killed his best officer.

"So the answer is not to let the Colonel lose his temper," Hammond stated with a sigh. He had a better chance of growing hair than keeping the often, exasperating officer from voicing his displeasure. Jack was never one to keep quiet in a bad situation as his team could very well testify. His mouth had gotten them in trouble countless times. Now it had well and truly bitten him in the ass.

"When he wakes sir," Janet reminded him that Jack was well and truly out of it right now.

Hammond nodded but stayed silent, his thoughts once more turning back to the problem at hand.

"What we'd all like to know is, is there any way of reversing the process Doctor Jackson?"

"I'm not sure General. I haven't had a chance to go through every disc as yet. I'm hoping for Jack's sake that there will be. What I need is to get back to my lab to check for that possibility."

"Okay people, keep me informed of the Colonel's condition Doctor Fraiser, and, Dr. Jackson anything you need, it's yours."

"Yes sir, thank you sir. Right now I could use a little help with the translations."

"Take all the personnel you need Doctor. Dismissed."

TBC