A/N: I had to get back to what's happening with Jack and co. I hope it's not hard to follow.
"It's not a bomb." Said Sam finally as she pulled a knob on the front of the box.
"Carter," warned Jack a little wary of the goa'uld device sat on the desk, courtesy of Daniel's Alternate.
"It's okay, sir watch," she released the knob and the box sprang open.
"What is it then?"
"It is a storage device O'Neill, quite harmless." Teal'c still dressed in his Chulak robes entered the room.
"Teal'c!" called Jack, "where've you been?"
"I was a few days walk from the Stargate when I received your message that Daniel Jackson was missing. What has transpired?"
"Well, Daniels been missing nearly two days, we finally met one of Daniel's alternate reality doubles and he's an asshole and Carter's just spent the last two hours trying to disarm a box. How's it going with you?"
"My son grows strong O'Neill and Bra'tac sends his regards."
"Well that's nice. Carter what's in the box?" Sam reached inside the container and pulled out another video disc.
The monitor lit up with snow for a few seconds and then the image of Major Dan came into view.
"Hello all; how are we today?" he waved, "A very warm welcome to a late comer in the game, Teal'c how are you? You look a damn sight better than my Teal'c, but that's not much of a contest seeing as he's dead and you have hair." There was silence for a second and Dan continued, "So, you may have guessed not really a test I just wanted to buy time until Teal'c got here. I know sentimental that I am Daniel has some very nice things to say about you T, so I thought it was only fair you get the chance to play for your friend's life."
"So why couldn't you have just contacted us later?" asked Jack, Sam started to tell him it was a recorded message, when the Jackson on screen answered.
"Where's the fun in that? I wanted to keep you on your toes, and judging by your Daniel's file. Yes, I peeked when I visited you earlier Sammie, it seems the dear Doctor has had quite an adventurous life. We're going to play win, lose or die it's my own invention." He buffed in his nails on his shirt.
"Just get on with it!" growled Jack.
"Now, now don't get testy, wasn't talking about you dying Jack, or any of you you're all safe. But Daniel isn't; none of them are. So here are the rules, I ask you questions on a theme, some will be to all of you some to just one of you. You have the choice to answer or not. If you answer and get it right, you get to see how the good doctor fairs on his journey, if you get it wrong things get worse for him."
"What happens if we choose not to answer?"
"Daniel will die."
"What the hell kind of choice is that?" bellowed O'Neill.
"Calm down, refusing to answer will not mean the death of your Daniel, but the demise of one of the others."
"Others?" asked Sam.
"The other Daniel's I have here. I've collected quite a few, all of varying sizes, shapes and mental faculties." His smile was cold. "It's really quite fascinating, to study all the different possible forms of myself, it really lends credence to the Nature vs. Nurture debate. Hey, Jack do you know how many of you actually had the guts to off yourself after Charlie?" Jack's face paled. "It was actually, way more than went the Abydos route. I was surprised to be honest, my Jack is such a wuss he didn't even consider the gun, was going for the drinking himself to death route before the Air Force came knocking. You know what the biggest shock of all is?" he paused for dramatic effect the pleasure he was taking in this torment evident on his familiar features. "It was Charlie himself, there was a less than 10 probability that he would walk away without picking up that gun. Those are pretty steep odds for a nine year old. You can't argue with destiny and through my research it was Charlie's destiny to pick up that gun and fire it. Course it's in question about what he'd hit. For some it was just the wall, others it was another body part a few of those survived too. There was this one I'll never forget where Charlie shot you, well not you, but the you that was there that you. That was screwed up kid. Like father like son huh Jack?" Jack had paled, and then slowly began to go red; his fists clenched tight trying desperately not to rise to the blatant goading.
"Major Jackson, you have veered off the subject entirely." Teal'c's low voice broke the tension in the room and Jack blinked himself back from the edge of his rage. "I believe I speak for those present when I say we do not wish to see any Daniel Jackson injured, nor killed, however continuing to provoke O'Neill will likely lead to the destruction of this communication device and we will be unable to play your game." The Daniel on screen smiled.
"You know Teal'c it's at times like these I'm almost sorry I killed you." Teal'c glowered, "but as you say time is wasting and we should get this show on the road. Here's your first question this is a group one so you can confer, and just so you know, if you refuse to answer this is the Daniel Jackson who will die." Dan pulled another familiar form into view. "Say hello to your only hope." Danny Jackson, worse for wear, waved his hand wedding band and all at the assembled group.
"John, if you can hear me, don't give him anything he's crazy he'll kill me anyway. Tell Janet I love her." Danny screamed in pain and fell out of view.
"This isn't a telethon," he said meanly glowering downward, he kicked out and there was a grunt from off screen. The people in the briefing room froze in horror. Dan turned back to the monitor. "Well, now you've seen what you're playing for let me give you your question. When this Daniel Jackson was infected by the Machello bug, his friends helped him through the dementia and 'schizophrenia'" he said complete with air quotes, "by sitting with him and talking to him and researching every possible explanation for the sudden 'psychological break' and ensuing hallucinations. Teal'c took the night shift got sick and the rest is history. The whole thing was wrapped up in, a day?" he asked looking down. Dan smiled from the monitor, "that was a yes." Jack sat stock still. "How long did it take for you to figure out that Daniel wasn't crazy and get that bug out of him?" Sam looked like she was about to answer, but Jack beat her to it.
"We didn't." said Jack.
"Excuse me?" asked Dan.
"We didn't figure it out, he saved himself. Teal'c got infected when we visited him in Mental Health and he fought through the drugs and confusion and figured it out himself." Dan smiled broadly.
"Correct. Yours is one of a handful of realities where Daniel was sent to the loony bin because of these things but one of only a few that made it out. Don't you feel proud?" he asked condescendingly. Jack just glared.
"He got it right," said Sam, "show us Daniel."
"Okay, that was an easy one, so just for a moment." The monitor flickered and focused on what looked like a clearing in a wood. Daniel lay on the ground in the middle then the picture went to snow.
"Hey," cried Jack, Sam looked stricken and Teal'c looked pensive. "What the hell did you do to him?" but Jack's question fell on deaf ears and text typed itself across the screen.
Task two: Daniel was fostered by eight different families in the nine years he was a ward of the state. Name them all and tell me which one was he withwhen he gotinto the worst trouble of his life to that point.
Maj. Jackson.
PS you have 12 hours or Danny goes splat.
Daniel eased socks over his bound feet and decided to wait a second for the blood to stop pulsing before he tried the boots sitting beside him on the infirmary bed.
"What do you think you're doing?" Daniel looked up there stood at the head of his bed was a very annoyed looking Janet Frasier.
"Getting dressed?" he said trying to sound innocent.
"Not you your life buster, get back in that bed."
"Buster?" he asked in disbelief.
"Don't change the subject; you've got head trauma bruised ribs a broken forearm..."
"Fractured," he muttered under his breath.
"…Dehydration, undernourishment and physical exhaustion. You're not going anywhere, end of story."
"Janet, I'm sorry I feel better and I need to be helping solve this, I need to get him back for you." It was a low blow and he knew it, he also knew that this world's Daniel Jackson stood very little chance of surviving Major Jackson's trials. Janet sighed and threw her hands up in defeat. Daniel raised up a foot to start putting his boots on, he was suddenly assailed by a memory of Jack telling him to put his shoes on in the temple at Kheb he smiled almost sadly those holes just kept filling bit by bit even years after his initial return to human form. Daniel tied his laces and stood up gingerly on his injured feet. He couldn't help but notice Janet stood across the room surreptitiously keeping an eye on him as he move slowly across the room. John appeared at the door as he was about to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked regarding the man wearing his friend's face imperiously.
"I thought I could help." said Daniel taking a step back.
"What is it you think you can do?"
"I don't know I was coming to ask what was being done."
"I came to see if you'd sit in on a debriefing Carter wants to know about the differences of your world and about this Major Dan character."
"I'll tell you what I can." John smiled.
"Let's get started."
Daniel sat at the briefing room table his eyes traveling over the faces of his teammates, who were not really his friends.
"From that sounds of it, everything we've been through with the exception of the Replicators and Kheb you've done too, only it seems you guys have better luck with the fall out. You stayed with Danny on Apophis' ship?" He asked John.
"Yeah, he told me about the sarcophagus and I told the others to go on ahead." John shrugged. "Why, what did your 'Jack' do?"
"He left me behind." Sam paled at the thought, and John closed his eyes with a shudder. "There was no other choice, I didn't think about the sarcophagus until later. I told him to leave because I thought he'd die anyway on the other ship when they succeeded in sabotaging it." He shrugged a little uncomfortable, "it worked out in the end though I got myself to the sarcophagus and gated home via the alpha site." John stared.
"If you were even half as hurt as Danny was…" he paused as his eyes traveled over Daniel's face. "You must be one stubborn sonofabitch." Daniel ducked his head.
"I was ready to die when I told Jack to leave, but when I realized there was a chance however remote, I figured it was better to die trying than to just lay down and give up." John nodded in acknowledgement and respect of the sentiment.
"What have you got Carter?" asked Jack as he walked into Sam's lab.
"Not too good sir." She turned to her monitor. "Daniel's background-check; while thorough in its search for possible security risks did not isolate any of the families that fostered him before he was sixteen. I've been trying to access the records of social services in New York but I'm not sure if they keep those records this long after a child has aged out of the system."
"Keep on it if there are any strings you want me to pull just let me know."
"Well, sir there is one thing, I managed to hack my way into some of the lower security files they're medical records and such but one of Daniel's entries has been deleted."
"Could it be a clerical error?"
"I don't think so, if that was it, it would have been changed to the correct information but this it's like there's a space in the file, it might be hidden or encrypted but it's just strange to me."
"Why's that?"
"Well it reeks of a cover up to me."
"Why would someone want to cover up one of Daniel medical records?"
"I don't know sir, but judging by the placement of the gap, something happened when Daniel was fifteen that someone doesn't want anyone to know about." Jack scratched a few notes on a post-it and pulled it off the pad.
"I'll see what I can do, meanwhile you get those names." Jack returned to his office and sat for a moment staring at a picture of SG-1 sat on his desk; it was taken at Daniel's welcome back party once he'd got his memory back. In the background a banner read 'Welcome back from the dead, don't ever do that again.' The photo was a candid shot Sam was whispering in Daniel's ear and he had a huge smile on his face. Teal'c sat on the floor at Daniel's feet cross legged and looking very serene. Jack came up behind the two scientists and at the moment his arms went around their shoulders the picture was snapped. Jack didn't even know who took it; it'd just been left on his desk a few days later with a ribbon tied around it.
"O'Neill." The low voice of the jaffa snapped Jack out of his haze.
"Oh, hey T."
"Is there someway I can assist in the search for Daniel Jackson?"
"Not unless you know something that happened to Daniel when he was fifteen." Jack slammed the post-it down on the table and then looked up at Teal'c. He stood there impassive, but Jack had known the man for nearly a decade and the slight twitch in his eyebrow alerted him to a sever conflict in one of his closest friends. "T?" The Jaffa bowed his head. "Do you know something that happened to Daniel when he was fifteen?"
"I do not wish to break Daniel Jackson's confidence." said Teal'c gravely, "However I feel that I must tell you of a memory Daniel Jackson has entrusted with me."
"Sit down." Said Jack, a little put out. Daniel had told Teal'c and not him. That hurt and he felt a pang of jealousy for the relationship they must have for Daniel to share something like this. Shaking himself out of his revere, Jack turned to Teal'c who sat uncomfortably in the chair opposite his desk. "Please go on," said Jack trying to sound like he wasn't boiling with envy.
"O'Neill, please understand, Daniel Jackson came to me with the memory because it was returned to him out of context, he wasn't sure what to make of such an event. Do not take this as a slight to your friendship; Daniel Jackson did not keep this from you. He has since told me he had never told anyone else of the events that transpired because he felt it would influence their perception of him and in the intervening years he simply learned to forget it." Jack gave Teal'c a wry smile for reading his mind.
"I guess you got me. Just gimme the bare facts of the event." Teal'c nodded.
"When he was fifteen Daniel Jackson was attacked by a group of older boys he used the term 'gay bashing' though I was not familiar with the term of the time, Daniel Jackson explained it to me and the erroneous assumptions that he himself was a homosexual." Jack was beginning to understand why Daniel kept this a secret, in a place like this even a suspicion of anything queer was jumped on both literally and figuratively.
"But what does a gay bashing as distasteful and awful as it is have to do with sealed files in social services?"
"Daniel Jackson fought his attackers," said Teal'c gravely, "when they began to remove his clothes." Jack closed his eyes. "He wounded one in his genitalia by kicking him; another was knocked out as Daniel Jackson threw his school bag on to his head." Jack looked confused. "He has told me the bag was filled with several large textbooks at the time." Jack nodded. "The other two miscreants ran away." Teal'c said this with distaste and loathing. "Daniel Jackson then hailed a passing car and got medical attention for his two attackers." That gave Jack pause, until he realized that was just so typical of Daniel. "One of the boys was a senator's son."
"Ah," Jack nodded with understanding. "So the senator covered the whole thing up. How badly was Daniel hurt?"
"I am unsure, but he was required to stay in the hospital for some period of time. The senator's son suffered a minor concussion and was sent to military school. Daniel Jackson was given an additional scholarship to the college he was attending in the fall and forced to sign non-disclosure papers."
"You don't happen to know the name of this Senator, do you?" Teal'c shook his head.
"I do not." Jack sighed.
"Shame."
"Indeed."
Reviews please...D