John watched the monitor blip the rhythm of his friend's heart and tried to justify his condition with the man he'd seen only hours earlier.
"It doesn't make sense." He said staring at the placid face partially obscured by scratches and deep shadows under his eyes. "A night in the woods just does not do that to a person."
"You're right, Colonel it doesn't make sense." Janet Frasier picked up the chart at the end of the bed. "These readings indicate extreme exhaustion brought on by days of physical and emotional stress, but he hasn't been off world in three weeks and I know he's been sleeping okay." Jack squeezed her hand, "I just wish I knew what all this meant, he's lost his ring." She said pointing out Daniel's hand. "And what's more there's not even a tan line, John he never takes that thing off it's been over a year."
"We're dealing with an alien planet here, Jan we don't know what could have been done to him."
"I know but these things don't make sense, I mean look." She drew back the covers to reveal a small scar on Daniel's abdomen.
"What's that?"
"If I had to guess I'd say it's an appendix scar, but Daniel hasn't had his out."
"But that looks kind of old."
"Yeah, at least a few years, but as of Monday morning when you left he didn't have a scar there."
Daniel was floating, it was the familiar floating above his body in the infirmary feeling, and yet he knew when opened his eyes he'd be back on the lumpy mattress looking up into the worried faces of Jack and possibly Sam.
"Ow." He said, cringing at the bright lights.
"Danny? You awake?" Daniel raised his hand to his head to shield his eyes, but was surprised to find it covered in a bandage, he looked at it confused.
"You had a hairline fracture in your arm," said Janet easing his hand back to his side. "Can you open your eyes, sweetie? I need to check for a head injury." Daniel's eyes flew opened and he stared in shock at the doctor by his side.
"Janet?"
"I'm here, honey can you tell me what happened?"
"This isn't right,"
"What isn't right, Danny?" asked John a little concerned about his friend's reaction to his wife. "What happened in the woods?" Daniel glanced over the familiar face.
"Jack?" he asked, but the man before him frowned.
"No Danny, I'm John, John O'Neill. He was calling me that on the planet too." He said to a very worried looking Janet.
"John?" asked Daniel confused. "Not Jack?" then it clicked he remembered what had happened and he really didn't want these people involved in whatever he had to do.
"Who is Jack?" asked Janet as she pulled out her penlight. Oh Janet, why did she have to be here? It was hard enough to lose such a good friend to begin with let alone seeing her again here in this other place, alive and well. He cringed at the light in his eyes.
"Must you?" he asked irritable and scared.
"What happened to your arm Danny?" asked John.
"Touched." He said his mouth dry as he realized he'd have to convince these people he didn't belong here.
"What did you touch, Danny?"
"Nothing, it was a touched me." He frowned around the sentence, cringing at the thoughts of what he'd had to do to survive. "You know me?" he asked suddenly realizing something.
"Of course we know you, what kind of a question is that?"
"More appropriate than you know." He muttered, "Can I get a drink?" he asked and John handed him a beaker. "Thank you." he passed it back. "What happened?" he asked after a moment. John and Janet exchanged concerned looks.
"You don't know?"
"Some of it, but I need to know what you think happened."
"You were talking rituals with the head of the council and then you and the council were gone."
"Gone?"
"Puff, gone except the council came back talking gibberish about you being taken and them following and seeing you with your brother who is a dark reflection of your soul."
"That makes sense." said Daniel.
"Well, I wish you'd explain it to me."
"Did you find the quantum mirror here?" he asked, John raised his eyebrows.
"You know we did Daniel, one of Carter's doubles came through asking for asylum, but she died cos Carter's here."
"Entropic cascade failure."
"Yeah that."
"Okay, so I'm from an alternate universe."
"You are?"
"Yes,"
"So, how do you come to be here?" asked Janet sitting on the edge of his bed.
"One of my doppelgangers isn't a very nice guy. He kidnapped me and a lot of other versions of me to study."
"So why are you here, and where's our Danny?"
"You believe me?" John shrugged,
"You're story fits with what we've seen already, our Daniel never had his appendix out."
"So he went with you to fight the Replicators?"
"What are Replicators?" asked Janet.
"If you don't know, then you're better off." said Daniel with a shudder.
"Okay so how do we get you home kick your evil twin's ass and rescue our Daniel?"
"I don't know." Daniel paused. "Your Daniel, he was happy? Well adjusted?"
"Pretty much, why?"
"Major Dan collects the freaks of our collective genome."
"Freaks how?"
"I'm not sure how much of this has happened here, there was one who had gone crazy because of Machello's slimy bugs. Did you have those?"
"Yeah, but we figured it had to have something to do with the Linviris, because Danny's the most stable person I know."
"How did you get it out?"
"Teal'c gave him a hug and I saw something come out of Daniel and go into Teal'c. Eventually we figured out how to save him with the protein marker."
"Lucky him, I spent 72 hours in a padded room drugged to the nines before you guys visited and I finally made contact with Teal'c and it wasn't a hug." Janet patted his hand. "The guy Dan has was the same as me, except he didn't convince Mackenzie to call his O'Neill and when Teal'c died, his Jack stopped visiting and he really did go nuts."
"That sucks."
"I know."
"So who else does this Major Dan have?"
"You ever deal with the touched?"
"The land of the light, Tuplo?"
"Yeah, did you bring the virus back here?"
"Yeah, that was not a fun week, but the Doc here managed to figure it out in the end, with Danny's help of course he and Teal'c went back to the planet and got blood samples that helped find the cure."
"So he wasn't infected?"
"He had the allergy meds working for him. Didn't you?"
"For the first day or so, but I kind of went off them after they caught me on the way to the land of the light."
"You were alone out there?
"Until the cavalry came; it was not a fun time. I met the Touched me who wasn't cured that's who gave me this." He raised his arm. "He had this huge club and kept hitting me with it."
"How did you get away?"
"There was no getting away, just me and him in a room with little lighting. He had the club and I had a knife that I found on the floor."
"Since you're here I presume you won?"
"I killed him," he said flatly, "but I don't consider that winning." Tears pricked his eyes, and he was very surprised when Janet gathered him up in a huge hug.
"I'm sorry, you look so much like my Daniel and I couldn't bear to see you like that." She wiped the tears from his face, with a thumb and held it there. "It wasn't your fault it was this Major Asshole." Daniel laughed, and took her hand in his.
"I miss your sense of humor," he said.
"What are you talking about?"
"You died last year," he said quietly, "you and Cassie were part of my family with Jack, Sam and Teal'c. I miss you so much." Janet was crying now.
"Oh god, you don't even know do you?"
"Know what?"
"Danny and I have been married for a little over a year now." Daniel looked down at his hands still holding Janet's.
"I think I know why Major Dan sent me here."
"Why's that?"
"Because your Daniel Jackson has the perfect life." John coughed at that.
"I don't know about perfect, he's been through a hell of a lot; his family, his first wife."
"He still lost his parents?"
"Yeah, when he was twelve they were working a museum and the display collapsed on them."
"Did he see it?"
"No, he was at school at the time."
"I saw it happen, watched the chain snap before the cover-stone fell."
"Why weren't you at school?"
"I was eight; we'd only been in country a few weeks they would have gotten to it eventually."
"Damn, eight? But still…"
"But still he had four more years and no nightmares about falling cover-stones." Daniel blinked the tears away. "I spent eight years bouncing around the New York children's system before I went to a college prep program to start my career as a double PhD washout with no prospects." He laughed bitterly.
"God, Danny's not nearly so cynical."
"He has no reason to be. What happened to Sha're?"
"Sha're? She died seven years ago at the hands of Apophis." John was getting a little miffed at Daniel for depreciating the ordeals his friend had gone through in his life.
"She wasn't made host to Amonet?"
"No the snake preferred blondes, took the woman that pophie grabbed from the base, she's still out there."
"Amonet took Sha're and I spent three years searching for her. She died at Teal'c's hand as he saved me from being killed by Amonet's hand device."
"So you had hope, for longer than Danny did."
"Yes, I had hoped that I would get her back but I also had to live with the knowledge that she was living in a nightmare, trapped in her own body and being violated by Apophis and his queen." Jack shuddered.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, that's just the way it is. Your Daniel is a very lucky man it seems like he's dodged all the major angst in my life so far or at least got hit to a lesser extent."
"I guess this is just a lesson in perspective, I always thought that Danny's luck kind of sucked, but I guess he's better off than I thought."
"That's it!" cried Daniel, "the bastard!"
"Excuse me?" asked Janet.
"Major Dan, that's why he put me here he wants me to resent the life this Daniel Jackson has like he does me. He wants me to be like him." Daniel closed his eyes to the reality in which he was trapped. "Your Daniel is probably already dead." He said dully, "I'm sorry." He looked at Janet, who clamped a hand over her mouth and ran away to her office. He turned to John, who had paled slightly looking at the wall across the room. "I'm sorry, I wish there was someway I could get him back, but I don't even know how I got here."