Hi folks, thanks once again for all your wonderful comments. I hope this chapter will give you a little insight into what is going on. A little more angst to come for everyone.

Have A Nice Day, Jack!

by Lingren.

Previously:-

"Good! Let me know how you get on."

"Roger that Sir!"

Chapter 4 – "What the Hell?"

General Hammond quickly dismissed SG-7 and turned his attention back to Sam and Teal'c, asking them to join him in the briefing room. Once there and seated round the table again, he had to ask them if there was anything going on between Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Jackson that he should know about. Anything that might explain the sudden animosity that appeared to have come between the two men.

"No sir, nothing that I know of. I just don't get it. I know Daniel was put out because the Colonel said we didn't have time to study the rocks that he'd found at that point in the mission. The Colonel wanted to push on and explore a bit more of the planet before we stayed in one place too long. He said he needed to check out the area first to make sure we were alone out there. But, I can't see that that was any different than any of the other times we've been anywhere off-world. I just can't explain sir. "

"I have to agree with Major Carter, General Hammond. Daniel Jackson was extremely upset at not being able to remain there, but I do not believe his actions were intentional. It is not in his human nature. He looks upon O'Neill as one would an older brother or perhaps as his mentor."

"That maybe so Teal'c, but there's more going on here than meets the eye and I don't like it at all. Perhaps I had better have a word with Dr. Jackson. Teal'c would you escort him to my office in 30 minutes please. Dismissed."

OoOoOoOoO

Some time later after he'd been allowed to escape the infirmary, Jack, now sporting a sling with a bandaged elbow added to the growing list of injuries for the day, found his way back to Daniel's lab.

When he rounded the corner of the doorway he could see Daniel was in there, but he was packing some artefacts carefully into a crate. He stood there watching for a while, his anger now no longer burned inside, and if anything, it had left just a nagging weariness, concern and confusion in its place. It was some minutes before he spoke, trying to inject a little normality into his voice, hoping that it conveyed - despite what Daniel had put him through that day - that they were still friends.

"What'cha doin'?" he asked brightly, bur hesitated when he noticed Daniel looked so forlorn it stirred his fatherly anxiety for the younger man.

"What do you think I'm doing, Jack?" Daniel snapped not wanting to look up and meet his former friend eye to eye. It would be okay if Jack wanted to forgive him, that was up to the man himself, but he would never be able to face him without feeling the weight of his guilt at causing so much pain however unintentional it had been.

"Looks to me suspiciously like you're packing." Jack picked up one of the artefacts that remained on the desk waiting its turn to be packed, and started to turn it over in his hands.

"I just don't think it's a good idea for me to stay around here right now," Daniel grumbled as he snatched away the treasure before Jack could drop it.

"Ya know, running away from things never solves anything Danny-boy. It may take you away from whatever the dilemma is, yeah, but it never solves it. So, just what is the problem here Danny? What is going on?"

"Jack," Daniel sighed, bringing his hands up to rub at his eyes by pushing his glasses higher up his face. "You must know I never meant to hurt you, don't you? I mean, you're like my family, Jack. Sam and Teal'c are too, even General Hammond...he's been like a father to me." The artefacts now lay abandoned when instinctively his arms wrapped themselves around his chest when he saw that Jack was wearing a sling now because of yet another injury he'd caused. "I would never do that sort of thing on purpose. Especially to you Jack."

"Yeah, I knew that Danny, but there were a couple of times it felt exactly like you intended to do those things to me. Like, buck on P...whatever, when you were miffed because I wouldn't let you play with your rocks."

"I don't play with them! And they're artefacts!"

"Whatever." Even Jack didn't feel like continuing the usual back and forth argument they had made them famous among those working in the SGC. He just didn't have the spirit for bantering, and he doubted Daniel did either.

"Yeah, well I admit I was pretty mad at you at the time. So mad I just didn't think about what I was doing. Sorry."

"So you did do the branch thing on purpose then?"

"No!"

"No?"

"No! Yes! No!..." Daniel threw his hands in the air and spun away in frustration.

"Daniel!" Jack cried, hoping to get through to his stubborn friend.

"It wasn't like that Jack." Daniel swung back abruptly, stepping closer to Jack until they were almost nose to nose and Jack jerked back a step out of instinct, but Daniel had noticed movement and calmed down, wondering if perhaps Jack was now leery of his actions. The outcome was even more guilt now weighed heavily on his shoulders. "I just wanted to show you I was upset. I was angry. It was only meant... Well, it went a bit wrong. I didn't intend to hurt you like that though. It didn't help any when Sam howled with laughter. It made me all the madder because it wasn't meant to be funny. It was an accident."

"Okay. So...what about the incident in the hallway outside the briefing room? Or the stairs thing? Did you do those things on purpose too?"

"No Jack! No! Never! Look, I know I'm clumsy sometimes, you know that. I'm just a damn klutz, but I really did trip on something on those stairs. I don't know what it was, I never saw anything, and I'm really sorry you got hurt yet again."

"Okay. Apology accepted. So, can we can we just forget it and move on?"

"No." Daniel yelled, his anger rising again. Jack just didn't get it. He couldn't stay on the team or here because he was afraid he might get Jack or Sam, or perhaps Teal'c killed through his ineptitude, and that was unacceptable.

"Daniel, look, there's no need to pack all that stuff away. You can just empty the damn crate again. You don't have to go because of this Daniel."

"Yes I do." Daniel shook off Jack's hand as the older man had tried to stop him.

"Why! Because you had a bad day?" Jack yelled, getting riled too because Daniel wasn't listening to him. "Well, dammit Daniel, so have I!"

"Yes, you have, and it's all my fault. So therefore, I'm leaving." Daniel yelled back in frustration, giving Jack a shove which made Jack stagger backwards. Couldn't Jack understand what he was saying? "Just leave me the hell alone Jack."

"No dammit Daniel, I won't. I'm not going to let you walk out of here. Not like this!" Jack tossed back at him.

"I'm going whether you like it or not Jack, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Jack sighed, he really didn't think arguing with the man was going to make him stay.

"Come on Daniel, It's not that bad, fer cryin' out loud!" He threw the good hands up in the air in frustration but got tangled in the sling so he tore it off and threw it aside. "You got any coffee in that pot of yours?" Jack asked, trying to lighten the tension between them. Daniel didn't answer, so he turned towards the coffee maker on the bench behind him. Daniel was exasperating him yet again. What would it take to convince him?

There were times when Daniel just wished Jack wouldn't treat him like a damn kid. He sighed wearily and turned away angry again. Sometimes Jack could be a right pain in the ass. The way he was feeling right now he would love to knock Jack's teeth out, damn the man!

Feeling a twinge of guilt for having thought like that he stepped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him to leave Jack talking to himself. When he had gone about twenty yards down the darkened hallway, he stopped to lean against the wall, his emotions all in a turmoil. Not many people came this way at this time of the evening, and it looked like the maintenance crew still hadn't fixed the cameras or lighting. Not that it worried him; at least he could be alone out here with his thoughts, and if Jack meant anything he'd said, then surely he would come looking for him. After several moments though with no sign of Jack, the tears threatened to spill over as he felt suddenly alone, feeling perturbed and angry with Jack and everyone else. Without conscious thought to what he was doing, he balled his fists and turned punching rapidly at the wall several times, taking out his frustrations on the solid concrete.

It was only when he had let his rage finally find it's release that the pain of what he'd actually done set in. He looked down at his now battered and bloodied knuckles. 'Stupid...real stupid, Jackson,' he muttered to himself.

Gingerly taking some tissues from the handy-pack he always carried in his pocket, he dabbed gently at the bloodied mess on his hands. He noticed the bloody marks he had left on the wall too and quickly wiped them off as well. Folding his arms across his chest and tucking his throbbing hands under his armpits, he went to the locker-room to clean up. He really didn't want to see anybody right now. All he wanted to do was get the hell away from the SGC so that he could think straight, and make that all important decision concerning his near future.

OoOoOoOoO

Back in the room, Jack splashed water around the inside of the pot, muttering to himself about making coffee properly by having a clean pot to begin with, which was inevitably harder to do when one had a bruised elbow making movement difficult. He was about to reach for the coffee tin, when he felt a sudden agonising pain in his shoulder. Almost as if something had smacked into him, and it pushed him across the bench making him lose his hold on the coffee pot which rolled away before it came to rest against a thick tome. He groaned and bit back a curse, spinning round quickly to find out why the hell Daniel had hit him like that. His fist thoughts were perhaps his friend had been compromised back on the planet from where the animosity seemed to stem from.

"Daniel! What the...? Huh?" Nothing Jack saw nobody. "Daniel?" he called but there was no answer to his call. It was then when another agonising pain screamed through his unprotected abdomen, making him double over and fall to his knees, gasping for breath and fighting against the need to puke. Looking up he could still see nothing? As far as he could see there wasn't anyone there. Daniel must have been playing on his weakness right now. He was obviously hiding. Or, perhaps he had run off now he'd actually hit him?

Once his breathing was nearer normal, Jack climbed painfully to his feet only to feel another excruciating blow to his ribs, only this time he heard an audible snap as at least one of them broke from the impact. 'Shit!' he thought. 'I'm in real trouble now.' His head was swimming, his breathing growing harder, and he found himself back on his knees once again. What the hell was happening? This couldn't be real' it had to be a bad dream...a nightmare even! What the hell was going on? This time there was a sharp jab to one of his kidneys which sent him sprawling back onto the floor wracked ion pain, and that's when the full realization hit him. He was under attack from an unseen enemy. He knew there was no way to fight off an enemy like this. You couldn't hit back at something you couldn't see, just like you couldn't expect to escape.

He knew the one thing he had to do was to sound that alarm and warn the General. He didn't have the faintest idea of who or what it was attacking him, and he didn't know how many of these invisible 'people' were on the base. He had to warn Hammond.

He scrambled to his feet and staggered in pain, but another blow hit him squarely on the shoulder and he couldn't help choking out a cry of agony. He tried hard to dodge the blows as they came, but he just didn't know where they were coming from or when to expect them.

With sheer determination he gritted his teeth against the pain and the punishment of his body, if only to stop himself from crying out. He managed to stagger to his feet, ready to make a run for the alarm button, but a sweeping blow to both his knees took him straight down again, knocking the wind from him when he landed hard onto his already bruised arm. He felt the world tilt on its axis as blackness hovered waiting to claim his consciousness.

TBC