-1Ch 2

"Whoa, what the hell!" Jack asked, poking his fingers in his ears and turning to Carter automatically for an explanation.

"I have no idea, sir," Carter said, going over to the little boy, who was really scarcely more than a baby.

He was 'wearing' a standard black tee-shirt, but it was barely staying on his tiny shoulders and she knew if he stood up, it would be much longer than he was. His face was bright red and he was screaming, obviously terrified. Carter had a pretty good idea what had scared him: the man standing next to her with his fingers in his ears. She supposed it was confusing and scary enough to wake up on a cold metal table in the middle of a cluttered lab all alone, much less with a stranger yelling obscenities.

"It's okay," she tried awkwardly, not quite sure what to do. She had been around Cassie tons of times, but this child was so very small, and she only saw her niece and nephew, who were older now as well, in the company of one or both of their parents.

"Ohfercryinoutloud," Jack muttered, moving to pick the kid up himself. The boy screamed even louder and launched himself into Carter, who caught him awkwardly, surprised. He buried his face in her chest, his sobs muffled by her shirt, which she could already feel getting damp with what she hoped were mostly tears rather than snot.

"I must have scared him," Jack said quietly, feeling guilty. He rubbed the little boy's back while Carter rocked him slightly, not knowing what else to do.

"It's okay... let's just look around and try to figure out where you came from, okay?"

"Well, Carter, when a mom and dad really love each other and want to be close..." Jack started sarcastically.

Carter shot him a look and he swallowed. "Right. Maybe now's not the time," Jack agreed, looking around. For the first time, they noticed an adult-sized pair of BDU trousers pooled at the foot of the stool next to the table, as well as a pair of boxers, socks, and boots.

"Okay, does this mean that wherever Daniel is he's running around naked?" Jack asked.

The little boy's sobbing calmed down, but he still cuddled into Carter, wrapping his little arms as far around her as they would go.

She looked down at him and stroked his hair, which was quite long and thick for a boy. Light brown with tons of golden highlights, it looked like this kid played in the sun a lot.

Finally, the kid lifted his head and looked up, blinking slowly at Carter. "Oh my God," Sam said in disbelief as she looked down into his face. With his eyes open and his face not scrunched up in tears... Getting more than a little panicked, she called, "Sir!"

The alarm in her voice made Jack move very fast, quickly manoeuvring behind her so he could see the kid. "Whoa, he looks kinda like..." Jack started.

"Daniel," she agreed.

Hearing his name, the little boy smiled and poked himself in the chest. "Danny," he said proudly.

"Oh my God," Sam repeated.

"Danny," he repeated, poking himself again. He poked Carter carefully and said, "Name."

"S-Sam."

"Sam," he repeated carefully, with a scarily familiar look of concentration on his face as he made his tiny mouth form the word.

"Yes. Um, how old are you, Danny?"

"Two," he said, showing her two fingers, wet from crying. He turned his attention to Jack and said, "Who dat?"

"That's ah... that's Jack," Sam said.

"Dack scaaa-wy," Danny said, his huge blue eyes going impossibly wider.

Sam had to laugh. He was so cute. Jack groaned and said, "Carter, is this... possible?"

"Apparently. I don't know, we need to get him to Dr. Fraiser, but... he certainly looks a lot like..."

Both froze as the little boy sneezed loudly, all over the front of Carter's shirt.

"It's him," they both said, as Sam looked down at the front of her shirt, now covered with tears and sneezes, and made a sickened face. Babies were so messy.

Jack grabbed some Kleenex and tried to wipe up the kid a little bit, but he apparently wanted no part of that or of Jack. Squirming in Carter's arms, he said, "No, no, no, no!" until Jack finally gave up and went over to the phone to call General Hammond, tell him the meeting was cancelled, and ask him to meet them in the infirmary.

"Dack scawy," Danny repeated to Sam as they both watched the Colonel on the phone.

"He's not really scary, he didn't know you were in here," Sam tried to explain, shifting him awkwardly in her arms.

"Sam."

"What?"

"Sam."

"What?" she asked a bit more impatiently, trying to figure out what he wanted.

"He just likes you, Carter," Jack called, still on the phone. He hung up and said, "Doc wants to see him right away, of course. And Hammond wants us to lock up Daniel's lab until we can get a protected team in here to try and figure out what caused this... but I'm guessing it has something to do with that damn trunk."

"Okay, come on, Danny, we're going to go see Dr. Fraiser," Sam told him.

His eyes widened and he said, "No! Doctor hurts Danny!"

"Hey, maybe I'll get along better with him like this," Jack commented.

Sam sighed and said, "Maybe you'd like to carry him then, sir... I could get out of this shirt..."

"Carter, please, not in front of the child!" Jack exclaimed. She glared and he could tell she wasn't exactly in a joking mood. Actually, she looked like she was about a second away from panicking about this whole thing. He quickly said, "Sure, I'll take the little guy. But when he's big again don't tell him I carried him around. Come here, little buddy."

He reached for the kid, but apparently Danny was much more comfortable with Sam, at least for the moment. He buried his face in her chest, refusing to look at Jack, and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

"Sorry, Carter, he looks like he's made up his mind. Can't say I blame him. Come on, you can get cleaned up while the doc does her thing."

They exited Daniel's lab and Jack swiped his key card and entered the code to lock it down for the time being.

"I don'like doc-tors," Danny said in a very small voice as they headed down the corridor to the elevator.

"Oh, you'll like this one," Jack commented.

"She's really nice, and she'll be very gentle with you," Sam tried.

"Sam stay?"

"Sure, I'll stay with you," Sam promised, rubbing his little back through the shirt that was functioning more like a blanket.

"Dack too?" he asked, looking over at Jack.

Jack and Sam looked at each other in surprise. "Uh, sure, I'll stay with you," Jack said.

"Dack be scawy to da doctor," Danny suggested. "She will leave me 'lone."

Sam laughed. Jack grumbled something about being made fun of by a two-year old. "This HAS to be him, Carter, no two year old thinks and talks like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Well, I don't know, you probably did. But most NORMAL kids... no."