Title: Renaissance Part 3: Broca Divide & Conquer
Author: Cryptic Quill
Spoilers: AU, First Season, Jack/Janet relationship
Status: On-Going
Rating: T (Just in case)
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG-1 or any of the scripted characters, they're the property of someone else. They're just mine to toy with.
Author's Note: I debated for quite a while on how to address the this portion of the story. For those of us who enjoy Jack/Janet stories, the Broca Divide includes one of the few moments of the series that we can point to and say "that one's ours". I considered merely referencing the episode or going into more detail with it but either way I knew it had to be addressed. I hope for you the reader, I've made a good choice.
Again, my thanks for spending some time in this AU that I've created.
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"Well that went well" Jack exclaimed sarcastically as he was favoring his right leg and being helped down the ramp by Teal'c,.
Daniel came through the Stargate just in time to hear Jack's comment and responded with a sheepish expression on his face. Captain Carter came last as fist sized stone bounced twice and finally rolled down the ramp. The Stargate dissolved from a shimmering pool to an empty metal ring.
General Hammond, watching from the control room grabbed the microphone.
"What happened, SG-1? You weren't due back until tomorrow?"
"Ran into a bit of a snag, sir" Jack growled and glared at Daniel and adjusted his weight being supported by Teal'c.
In the officer's mess, Janet was enjoying a quiet moment, if not the coffee. Jack was right, she thought, the coffee here is terrible. Or maybe it's the lack of company.
She and Jack had gone out for coffee to the café in town three times in as many days. He was off-world today but was due back tomorrow and she found herself missing his presence.. Janet was very much enjoying the rekindled friendship with Jack O'Neill. Maybe this was all he was able to give right now and if so, that was enough, she mused.
An announcement interrupted her thoughts.
"OFFWORLD ACTIVATION. INCOMING TRAVELER. ALL DEFENSE TEAMS STAND BY."
Janet froze. She knew what teams were off world at the moment but it was the thought of one in particular that made her cringe with worry. SG-1 and they weren't due back until tomorrow. Although technically she was off duty and the infirmary was left to the care of her assistant Dr. Wadley. She put her cup down and quickly raced to the elevator to help.
Janet ran to the elevator and repeatedly pushed the recall button but the numbers above the doors were changing too slowly. With an exasperated growl she gave up and simply took the stairs down five more levels.
Out of breath, she found the team in the infirmary being looked at by two nurses and Dr. Wadley with General Hammond looking on. Jack was laying on a bed with his right pants leg cut open, holding an ice pack on his knee. He was waving off the nurses with his free hand and Janet could tell her staff was getting frustrated.
"I've got it, Dr." Janet commented and waved off Dr. Wadley, taking command of the situation.
"But you're off shift?" He asked, his feelings somewhat hurt.
"It's ok." She affirmed and began examining the team starting with Samantha Carter, since Jack was already being attended to. It didn't stop her from tentative glances at his direction however.
General Hammond was trying to get answers about the away mission. "Your report stated that you were going to dine with the Prefect of the village, Colonel.'
"Well that was before he decided we were actually going to be part of the dinner, sir"
"I thought you said they were peaceful people?" Hammond asked incredulously
"I do not believe they are typically violent. It would appear that they merely meant to cook DanielJackson as punishment rather than for sustenance." Teal'c noted.
"Merely?" Daniel responded, somewhat hurt by his teammate's lake of concern.
General Hammond was growing frustrated. "I don't understand."
"It was going fine until Daniel apparently tried to steal their souls." Jack explained in surly voice, his gaze locked onto Daniel.
"I was taking a video of the obelisk we found the day before. I couldn't reach the top of it to make any etchings and uhm, one of the villagers walked into the picture. He saw his image in the playback." Daniel plaintively answered.
"That's when all Hell broke lose and they picked up the rocks."
"Well yes, Jack but they didn't actually start throwing them until you referred to Prefect Bilden as Bilbo."
"Oh like they knew what that meant!" Jack began He turned to General Hammond. "You gotta understand General, this guy had a real bad attitude problem. He was smaller than the rest of them so it was probably a case of short -" but stopped suddenly when he turned his eyes to Janet. She was watching him closely as she tended to a cut on Daniel's forehead.
Go on Jack, say 'short man syndrome'. I dare you. She thought accusingly as he eyes narrowed.
Jack witnessed her reaction. At 5'2" he knew Janet had always been sensitive about her height.
"Fuse, sir." Jack said triumphantly, proud of deflecting a potential powder keg. "Seen it a million times with leaders like this. On alien worlds. Yanno with slinging rocks and pitchforks and.. things." He trailed, nervously.
Janet raised her eyebrow in suspicion and helped Captain Carter up from her bed.
"The preliminary reports checked out, they aren't very advanced and the obelisk had only a minimal residual EM signature." Carter said.
General Hammond nodded. "I'm assuming there was no relevant technology then?"
Jack winced as he moved his leg a little.
"Not unless we're looking to acquire new techniques in haberdashery, sir." He replied.
Daniel looked at him strangely.
"What?" Jack asked, offended that no one understood his sense of humor.
Daniel felt the need to defend his situation. "As far as I can tell the village placed a great deal of emphasis on weaving and textiles."
"Ow!" Jack cried out as the nurse examined his kneecap.
"Sorry, Colonel." She apologized.
Janet moved over and took the place of the nurse and gingerly felt his kneecap with her delicate fingers.
"I'll need to x-ray this, I don't think there's a fracture, most likely just a bruise but I want to be sure." She announced. "Ok, I'm done with the rest of the team, sir. Just minor cuts and bruises" She said to General Hammond. "Except for Colonel O'Neill."
"Then I want all of you to come to the briefing room." General Hammond ordered. "And Colonel O'Neill, you'll join us when Dr. Frasier gives you the ok"
The team followed the general and Daniel still trying to make his case, explained as he walked.
Janet turned her attention back to Colonel O'Neill and raised his leg.
As much as Jack became troublesome during pre and post mission checkups, it wasn't the needles or even the poking and prodding that he objected to. It was Janet. While taking his blood pressure, giving an injection or even using her penlight of doom, as Jack called it, it was the nearness of her that made him uncomfortable. The light touches, the closeness of her lips to his and the aroma of her shampoo assaulted his senses. Even the drawing of blood could be an intimate experience as she would shine her large brown eyes into his own making sure he wasn't in pain.
He loved and hated it both at the same time.
"So, short…" Janet paused for effect. "Fuse, huh?" She said with a wry grin.
"Well he wasn't as even tempered as I am." Jack squirmed.
"Oh right, because you're always Mr. Levelheaded." She laughed as she tightened the blood pressure chaff around his arm and began squeezing the bulb.
Jack watched her as she was involved in her task. She had a lock of hair that had come loose and was dangling about her temple. He had to resist the urge to smooth it back into place.
"You know we've had coffee quite a bit lately." He commented.
Janet looked up from the blood pressure dial. She hoped her eyes weren't showing concern; she'd very much enjoyed those few moments with Jack and would be disappointed if he suddenly stopped wanting them. They were precious to her.
"Yes, yes we have."
"I've been thinking about having it with dinner. Would you care to join me tonight?"
Janet thought a moment. Dare she try this again? It really had been wonderful these past few days, recanting old stories and jokes, spending time together as friends. His subtle smile buoyed her resolve.
"Well you're not going anywhere but home tonight." She said. "I want that knee elevated. But tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow, then." Jack grinned.
"Yah sure, ya betcha" She laughingly answered with her own radiant smile, mocking one of his expressions. As she left him to the care of one of her nurses, her heart was pounding.
She was halfway down the hall before she realized she was humming.
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They had planned the dinner days ago but on the day of, SG-4 returned from off world with cases of blistering sunburn, forcing Janet to stay at the base and missing her dinner with Jack. Two days later, the computer finished analyzing some of the data Carter and Dr. Jackson had fed it from the Abydos cartouche. Janet had watched in disappointment as the SG-1 team went through the Stargate. Their dinner would be put on hold for time being.
And the time being just got longer.
Less than four hours after their return, the entire base was locked down from being infested with an alien disease that Dr. Jackson was referring to as part of the Broca Divide theory.
Janet didn't understand what forces were keeping her and Jack apart but that was hardly her paramount worry. Jack had been infected by the disease, along with half of the SGC and nothing she could do was even remotely halting its progress.
Jack was pacing back and forth in his cell like an animal, occasionally growling in frustration until his rage pent up to a boiling point inside him and he would hurl himself at the metal door.
Janet flinched every time he did that. She wasn't tall enough to open the small window to peer inside without raising to her tiptoes but she had since stopped looking. She knew the damage he had done to the cell and to himself the last time she had been inside. When he sensed her presence, he would stop and snort and press himself against the wall until she would come inside.
Another crash and Janet couldn't stand it anymore. She would have to give him another sedative or he might cause himself permanent harm. This dose would send him over the edge of the safety limits but she had to try and keep him calm. She couldn't believe he was still agitated. At this level, Jack shouldn't even be conscious, much less violent.
Janet summoned two armed corpsmen to escort her before going in.
"You are going inside, Dr. Frasier?"
"Yes, Mr. Teal'c." She knew he wanted to come inside with her as she tended to Jack but this virus had him as baffled as everyone else. Teal'c had been standing watch outside of Jack's door since the quarantine as if he could fend off any further harm to his friend. It made Janet feel better that Jack had someone to watch over him like that. As it was, she felt so helpless.
"You are very concerned about O'Neill." Teal'c noted.
"Uh" Janet stammered. "Yes, well he's my patient, Mr. Teal'c."
"You have a good many people with the disease under your care" Teal'c noted.
"Yes." Janet agreed. "But Colonel O'Neill is the only one who has retained enough of his original persona while under the influence." She quickly added.
"Indeed. He seems" Teal'c paused. "Calmer in your presence."
"I'm sure it's just the sedative"
Teal'c wasn't so sure.
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Jack knew he was losing ground in this fight. And his humanity.
Jack tried everything he could to concentrate on the one thing that was simple and came to mind easily. Small woman, pretty eyes, his mind droned. Part of him screamed inside, a part of his brain seemingly trapped inside a prison just as his body was.
Janet, he fought back. Her name is Janet. She's a doctor. Loves bad chick flick movies. Hates them being called that. Smile is beautiful. Poetry. Sarah McLachlan. Casablanca. May 10th.
Jack jerked his head up when he heard the door rattle. He tried to shift his thoughts to his surroundings. Some moments were completely gone to him, lost to this rage inside but in others he could regain a semblance of cognizance.
When the door opened, the light hurt and he flinched.
Two airmen brought in General Hammond who had also been infected by the disease. The general was unconscious and in a straight jacket. His brow was becoming thicker and his eyebrows had grown bushy. The airmen lowered Hammond down to the lower bed of the double bunks as gently as they could. His head still lolled to the left, obviously sedated.
Strange man. Head like egg. Him…Homer? Jack looked at the General. Hammond, his mind raged. General Hammnd, he's your boss, you dumb bastard he accused himself.
Janet followed Hammond in quickly to make sure Jack didn't hurt him. It was a gamble, she knew. The general had to be placed somewhere secure for his own sake as well as others but space dictated doubling up. She hoped Jack would recognize him in someway and not be violent towards the general.
"Sorry Colonel O'Neill, but your private room just became semi-private. We're running out of places to put the victims." She explained. Janet didn't know why but she felt the need to talk to him when he clearly didn't understand but simply trying made her feel better.
"We've used the brigs, we've used the temp quarters, some of the storage rooms." She saw no point in continuing, Jack wasn't listening and it was painful to see him like this.
She took one more moment to watch and sighed, turning to leave.
Jack used reserves of strength to wage a war against the primal mind inside of him. He gained the upper hand but just barely.
"Jan..uh..d.." Jack whispered hoarsely.
She stopped cold, hearing him try to speak. None of her other patients had even been coherent at this stage of the illness. The sedative alone should have rendered him incapacitated. Matching his gaze, she still wasn't sure he was truly speaking. Perhaps it was just the hopeful side of her, but she could have sworn he'd said her name.
"Did you say something?" She needed to know.
Jack was in torment, his mouth didn't work as it should. His tongue felt thick and his thoughts were hazy. He felt like he was swimming in glue and the insanity was that he could only function this well when he given a sedative.
"Give muhr…" He pleaded.
"What?" She tried to understand. Did he ask more?
"Give more what?" Janet leaned in to make eye contact, finally crouching beside him, praying he could find the words he looked as if he were struggling so hard to form. She could hardly recognize him now with his brow protruding and his mouth growing thicker.
"Mm..more" Jack held out his arm to make her understand.
"An injection? You mean you want more sedative?" It was almost some demented form of charades as she was merely guessing at this point.
Jack nodded quickly in satisfaction. Please Janet, his mind cried out from a tiny place. Help me.
"You've already had more than the maximum safe dosage, twice as much as anyone else because you've been more violent." Janet explained.
She couldn't do this anymore, she needed to leave. This hurt too much, refusing Jack the only thing he asked for while he was suffering. The only thing she couldn't give. She'd already gone against her instincts with as much sedative as she'd given him. Doctors aren't supposed to have an attachment to their patients and boy had she crossed that line.
As she rose to leave, Jack motioned his arm at her, begging for more sedative. His eyes had grown glassy at the frustration.
"Give."
"No. It's not safe." She admonished tiredly.
"Give!" He sobbed and motioned his arm again to make her understand.
Janet gritted her teeth. Are you wanting the sedative because you're still in pain or do you just want to sleep this horror away, she silently asked him. She couldn't blame him if that was the case although she'd never known Jack to run away from anything except his own feelings. She herself wanted to crawl into a hole and wait this disease out but there were people depending on her.
"Why are you so insistent?" She was the one pleading this time. Pleading for him to stop asking her to do what she could no longer do.
Jack simply gazed at her. Something in his eyes that Janet couldn't quite put her finger on. He wasn't frightened as the other patients were and he was only violent when she wasn't around. He was able to communicate far more than any of the others and something in his eyes ate away at her. It was as if the primal man had stolen his identity and was wearing Jack's skin. There was a light in there somewhere, some deep down place, she knew it, she could feel it. She just didn't know how to reach it.
She sighed in frustration and motioned to her orderly for another hypodermic filled with sedative. Although Janet brought it in to possibly calm Jack down if he was violent, she had no idea that she would willingly use it for no genuine reason.
Just before she inserted the needle, Jack met her gaze and their eyes danced together. Was it gratitude in his eyes or something more? She couldn't be sure.
He took the shot well, anxious for its effects. Janet lingered her fingers on his arm for a second, not realizing until now that she hadn't worn gloves. She didn't care. If she was going to catch this disease, she would have already been showing symptoms. For now, she just enjoyed touching him for a brief moment.
His head swiveled as the drug took effect and Janet paused. Biting back a sob from inside, she began realizing that there were others in the room and regained her composure.
"Must have been in a lot of pain." She said absently, as if trying to reassure herself she had done the right thing. She rose from him to leave him to sleep and wondered how she ever got in this deep. She didn't know how to fight this thing.
"Doc" Jack grunted. Janet was too hard a word to form, he knew his time was limited but he needed to be able to converse as a man, not an animal.
"Colonel O'Neill?" She said with suspicion. Was that really Jack talking or the primitive man inside him taking over completely with the assistance of the sedative? She drew closer to look into his eyes.
Oh my God, Janet realized. Jack was definitely in there. In a twisted form, yes but those eyes she had seen for a hundred nights in her arms and for a hundred more in her dreams. She knew him, it was Jack.
Jack could still read her even in this state. He wanted to tell her what he was going through, to confirm that his was the dominant mind for as long as the sedative lasted but the words wouldn't come out. He could only mouth them in twitching movements.
"M-me…me." He affirmed hoarsely. It was the best he could do. His strength was returning as well as mind.
Janet smiled broadly. Oh thank you, whoever is up there watching.
"So you are still in there somewhere." She marveled and a bright smile formed on her face.
"Dream? Dream?" He pleaded. Please let this be one long nightmare, he thought. Let me wake up and be somewhere else, anywhere else.
"I'm afraid not Colonel. It's very real." She said sadly, her smile turning serious. "This is interesting; enough sedative must knock back the primitive mind."
She touched his arm to console him not even daring to imagine what he must be going through.
"Colonel, listen to me. I am not going to be able to keep you at this level for very long; it is too dangerous. It could cause permanent brain damage." She warned.
"What. What is it?"
"It's a parasitic virus. All we can tell is that is seems to mess with body chemicals, all of them. Testosterone levels sky rocket thus the aggressive behavior. It's histaminolytic which means it breaks down histamine. What we-"
Jack interrupted her, he had enough details but couldn't afford to waste anymore time. Janet was a medical doctor and she was the smartest person he knew aside from Carter. Maybe he didn't understand enough about this virus but he knew she would.
"Experiment… on me…me." He wheezed. Use me, do whatever you need to do, he pleaded. Too many people counting on us to fail. Please Janet.
"Experiment on you?" She was appalled at the thought of using Jack as a guinea pig.
"No Colonel." To hell with rank and titles "Jack, I can't do that."
Jack reached out his hand and touched her face. Janet was shocked at the tenderness, had she known he was going to do that she could have braced herself. Leave it to Jack to tear down all of her defenses in a single gesture.
"Jan-uh… use me."
She brought her hand up to meet his. How many hundreds of times had he touched her like this before? It was tearing her up inside, the thought of losing him to this virus. She briefly nuzzled her cheek against his hand. God I still love you Jack, she thought. I wish I didn't, but I do. Even enough to do this.
She nodded in agreement.