Chapter Four
"Now, Colonel, please...stop being difficult." Dr. Frasier clucked.
"I am not being difficult!" Jack snapped.
"Yes, you are." Daniel noted.
"Daniel." Jack growled.
"Yes?"
"Keep your thoughts to yourself."
Sam chuckled, which for some reason caught Janet's attention. She turned away from Jack, who was sitting on one of the infirmary beds tearing off a blood pressure cuff. Although he wasn't cursing out loud Jack had all sorts of colourful, or rather off-colour, thoughts at the moment. One in particular made Sam laugh again.
"Sam?" Dr. Frasier asked in an overly concerned tone.
"Sorry, Janet, I know I shouldn't encourage them like that."
Dr. Frasier knit her brow in thought. She waited a moment and turned her attention back to Jack. Tongue depressor in hand she advanced on him.
"Enough of that!" Jack snarled as he pulled away from her. "Doc, I don't have strep throat, looking at my tonsils again is not going to fix this!"
"I'm sorry, Colonel...I...I don't know how to help you." Janet admitted. "I don't even know what's wrong."
"Great."
Janet furrowed her brow once more. She looked like she was about to say something else, but was distracted as General Hammond stepped into the infirmary.
"General, thank God." Jack greeted with obvious relief.
"What's going on with my team, Doctor?"
"Well, I'm not really sure. Teal'c is recovering, but far more slowly than usual, he's still deep in Kel'no'reem. As for the rest of SG1 they have either lost their voices or they've decided to give me the silent treatment."
"Silent?!" Jack exclaimed. "I've been yapping at you for twenty minutes...you're the one who keeps stuffing stuff down my throat to stop me!"
"Oh no..." Daniel and Sam breathed in unison.
Jack didn't know what they were 'oh noing' about, but he suddenly had that creepy icy feeling on his skin that he got whenever he had an unpleasant realization. He looked at Hammond and Frasier as they stared back.
"Well, Colonel?" Hammond asked.
"So far the only noise I've gotten out of any of them is Major Carter laughed."
"They can't hear us." Jack sighed as he caught up with Sam and Daniel's thought.
"We might not even be speaking out loud." Sam mused. "This could all be in our heads."
"You two look like you're talking." Jack pointed out.
"That could be a trick of our minds as well...since it's what we expect to see." Daniel explained. He pressed his hand up against his throat. "Hello? Yeah, I don't feel a vibration...I don't think we're talking."
Daniel got up and walked over to Dr. Frasier. He held up his hand and waved it in front of her.
"Yes, Daniel, I see you." Janet said with a sad smile.
"Well that's a start."
"This was what I was talking about General." Janet sighed in frustration. "Dr. Jackson clearly wants to interact with me, but it's like he doesn't know how."
"I don't...I guess." Daniel agreed. "Not verbally anyway. But I think I can fix that. Can I have your pen?"
"Daniel," Jack interrupted "she can't hear you."
"I wasn't really asking her, Jack, it's just my line of thought that you're picking up on."
Daniel chuckled at Jack's unspoken response. He suddenly wondered how Jack managed not to swear out loud more often considering how foul his inner thoughts seemed to be.
"Extreme self control." Jack explained irritably. "The same thing that keeps me from wringing your neck."
"You didn't even try to hide that last thought."
"Nope."
"Guys," Sam broke into the converstaion "you're making Janet nervous."
"Oh, right, sorry." Daniel apologized needlessly.
He reached out to take Janet's pen away from her. She gave it to him without a fight and even turned over the paper on her clip board so that he'd have a blank sheet to work with. Daniel smiled at her as he took the board and she gave him a nervous smile in return.
"At least facial expressions seem to work." Sam noted.
"Great, we can get jobs as mimes." Jack muttered darkly.
"Mimes..." Daniel repeated in thought. "Weren't we just somewhere that had silent natives?"
"I think so..." Sam started.
"Never mind that," Jack interrupted "just let the Doc know what's going on."
"Right."
Daniel put the tip of the pen against the paper, but he didn't write anything. Sam watched him stare blankly at the page with growing concern. She was deliberately trying to avoid reading any thoughts that he didn't broadcast, but she couldn't keep the sense of fear from seeping into her blood.
"Daniel?"
"Sam...I...I..."
"...don't remember how to write." Jack finished.
"We are rapidly losing our ability to communicate with anyone other than each other." Daniel said in alarm as he handed the clip board back to Dr. Frasier. "How is anyone going to help us if we can't even tell them what's wrong?"
"Ares mekl narist?"
Sam, Jack, and Daniel all froze and started a Janet. She stared right back at them. Daniel turned around slowly to face Jack and Sam.
"Ares mekl narist?" Janet repeated.
"Did...um...any of you catch that?" Daniel asked.
"You already know that we didn't." Sam replied.
"Are you trying to tell me that you know twenty-four languages and you don't know what she just said?!" Jack asked irately.
"Twenty-six...and 'no'."
"Guys, Janet wouldn't use another language." Sam said confidently. "That was English...we just didn't understand it."
"For crying out loud."
"If only we could..."