Saturday, May 8
Reality G298

Daniel felt very bizarre. His mind seemed to be floating, but his body was like a lead anchor, holding it down to the ground. The muffled beeping of monitors sounded in the background, so he knew he was someplace with medical equipment, which probably explained the odd floaty but heavy feeling. He was drugged. That alarmed him on some level, but he didn't know why.

"Daniel, are you with us?" said a voice that made him want to weep for joy, though he still didn't really understand his reactions.

"J'nt?" he managed to force out through uncooperative lips. "Zat you?"

"Yes, Daniel, it's Janet. How do you feel?"

"Fuzzy," he said. The more he talked, the more easily his lips shaped the words. "Why do I fee' fuzzy?"

"You're still recovering, Daniel. You were dead, so –"

He tried to sit up and only managed a pathetic sort of bounce. "Bomb!" he exclaimed. "Hammond. S'mantha!"

"You're okay, Daniel," Janet said. "You're fine. Everything's fine. You're home and we're all very glad to have you back."

"Glad t'be back," he said, relaxing. "Jack?"

"Sleeping. I'll wake him and bring him here."

He caught her arm. "No. Let'm sleep."

"If I do that, he'll kill me," she said. "Don't worry."

"Janet!" he called as she moved away. A few moments later, a very large and agitated Jack showed up. He was pretty sure it was Jack. His vision wasn't great. He wondered how they'd managed to bring him back from the dead. Pureed heart wasn't that easy to fix.

"Daniel!" Jack gave him a very gentle hug, then sat down on the chair beside the bed. "I can't tell you how glad I am to have you back."

"Glad to be back," Daniel said, smiling. "Um . . . I think I'm going to fall asleep now."

"You do that," Jack said. "I'll be right here the whole time. Don't worry. I won't leave your side. I'll make them bring a cot in here so I can sleep next to –"

"Jack," Daniel said.

"Yes."

"You're keeping me awake."

"Right."

Aware of the warm, worried presence at his side, Daniel dropped off to sleep again

Sunday, May 9

When Daniel next awoke, he felt a great deal more normal. He sat up and noticed that his left arm felt completely normal. The cast was gone, and it felt as if it had never been broken. He looked to the side and saw that Jack was dozing in the chair. Apparently he'd kept the ludicrous promises he'd made about staying beside him the whole time he slept.

However, right now Daniel had to pee, and he wasn't interested in company, so he slipped out of the bed on the other side and went quietly into the bathroom. He felt a little shaky, but not too bad. He was home. That made a lot of things okay. As soon as the door shut, though, he could hear Jack waking up.

"Daniel?" he said. "Daniel!?"

"I'm in here," Daniel called. "Give me a minute."

Jack's voice got a lot closer to the door. "You're in here?" he asked.

"Yes, Jack," he said, feeling close to hysterical laughter at how familiar this all was. "I'm in here."

"I'll tell Fraiser you're up."

Daniel finished up his business and washed his hands. Home, where he could decide where he went and when he did things, at least to a large extent. He wanted to go to his apartment and close the door on the world.

He lifted the hospital gown he was wearing to peer at his body. He saw no signs of the bruises that had covered him the day . . . how long ago was that? How long had he been out? How had they brought him back to life? He remembered the sickening thump in his chest when the bomb had exploded. Shuddering, he forced his mind away from that memory.

How were Samantha and Jack in the other reality? What had Hammond done, and was he going to find himself another Daniel to torment? He let the gown fall and opened the door. Jack hadn't returned with Fraiser yet, so he had a clean shot to the bed. His legs were feeling pretty unsteady.

He climbed into bed and pulled the covers up, very glad not to be encumbered with sixty different medical devices. Putting a hand to his chest, he felt the reassuring, steady beat of his heart, very grateful to be alive. He expected to get a lot of teasing, once Jack had gotten over his alarm, about the many lives of Daniel Jackson.

Janet bustled in and started doing doctor things. He lay back and let her take his pulse, his temperature, his blood pressure. Finally, she said, "You're in good shape, Daniel. I'll want to keep you here for another day at least for observation, but after that, you should be free to go home."

"I'm glad to hear that," he said. "I'm really looking forward to being able to go outside without six guards and a chaperone."

"Yes, I'd imagine the last thing you'd want right now is a chaperone," Janet said, patting his foot. Daniel knit his eyebrows perplexedly, but she just smiled and said, "I'll leave you two alone."

Jack was staring at him, and Daniel shifted uncomfortably. Finally he said, "I know. I did it again. I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Jack said.

"I died."

Jack blanched. "Yeah, well, you're not allowed to do that anymore, okay?"

Daniel blinked at him. His voice sounded shaky and strange. "Jack? You all right?"

"Hell no, I'm not all right!" the colonel yelled and Daniel flinched. "You were dead. Again!" Daniel opened his mouth, but Jack wasn't done. "You were gone, and then you were dead. Again."

"I'm okay now, Jack," he said. "Janet told me everything was going to be fine. Did she forget to tell you?"

"Daniel, you . . . you make me crazy!"

"And that's news?" Daniel asked, giving him a grin. "Come on, Jack, snap out of it. How's the guy who was left here in my place?"

"We sent him home weeks ago," Jack said. "Carter found a way to figure out where he was from, and we got him home."

"Good," Daniel said. "Good." He leaned back in the bed. "I'm so glad to be home, Jack, I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am that I'm away from there."

"I know. I'm surprised you can even stand to be in the same room with me after what that bastard did to you."

Daniel shook his head. "No, it wasn't the Jack that did those things to me. It was Hammond." He shuddered. "That was a creepy bastard. Cold as ice and vindictive as all hell."

Jack shrugged. "I'm just glad we finally found you. I've missed you."

"I've missed you. And Sam. And Teal'c . . . that was the weirdest thing. I saw Teal'c there, and he was a prisoner."

"Damn those people. They're all screwed up."

"It's all Hammond's fault," Daniel said. He sighed, thinking about Samantha. "How is everything here?" he asked.

"It's been dreadful without you," Jack replied. He leaned closer. "You know how I am when you're missing. Carter and Teal'c will tell you. I've been a basket case."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Jack, that's –"

He broke off as Jack put a hand behind his head and leaned even closer. Daniel was frozen. He didn't know what to make of what Jack was doing, leaning closer and closer to him. When their lips touched, he was utterly stunned. Then Jack's tongue entered his open mouth, and the colonel began to kiss him. Passionately. Very passionately.

Daniel gathered his strength and shoved against Jack's shoulders. The other man stumbled backward, and Daniel scrambled off the bed, staring at him in total astonishment and no little alarm. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.

"Daniel?" Jack asked, sounding startled and hurt. "Danny, what's –"

"Don't call me that!" Daniel growled. "The other Jack, he called me that when he was confused. Don't ever call me Danny."

"Did he . . . did he molest you?" Jack asked, starting towards the other end of the bed. "Sexually, I mean?"

"Why don't you just stay over there," Daniel said, his voice shaking. Jack looked even more pathetic, but he stopped coming towards him. "No, this is the first sexual come on I've had so far." Jack's eyes widened further, and he looked somehow devastated. "Would you stop looking like I kicked you? Stop doing the puppy thing. You say I do the puppy thing, but you've got me beat!"

"Daniel, I don't understand," Jack said, sounding confused and worried. "Do you have amnesia?"

"I don't think so," Daniel said. "I'm feeling perfectly normal, except that you just kissed me!"

"Of course I kissed you!"

Daniel felt his eyes open widely. "Of course you kissed me?"

"Yes! What part of 'of course' don't you understand?" Jack asked in exasperation. "Of. Course."

Daniel stared at him, a horrible realization dawning. "Oh my God," he said. "You're not my Jack."

"Daniel, don't say that!" Jack exclaimed. "I –"

Daniel shook his head. "No, you're not getting it. You're not my Jack. You rescued the wrong Daniel."

"What?!" Jack's jaw dropped. "Are you kidding?"

"No." Daniel shook his head. "Have you been in contact with the Maybourne from the reality I was just in?"

"No, why would I be?"

His knees feeling suddenly weak, Daniel thumped down into the chair that was next to him. "Oh hell. That Maybourne has been in contact with my SGC. I got a letter from my Teal'c through him."

"Why would their Maybourne contact your people?"

"Because he was trying to get me home," Daniel said. To his own ears his voice sounded a little shrill.

"Oh, that makes sense, I guess."

"It does?!"

"Yeah," Jack said, seeming puzzled by his reaction. "Maybourne's a good guy."

Daniel stared at him. "Okay, now I know I'm in the wrong reality. My Jack would never say that, no more than he would ever kiss me like that."

"But – I – Dan – God!" He sank into the chair on the other side of the bed. "Then where's my Daniel?"

"I have no idea," Daniel said. He abruptly realized just how worried and frightened this Jack was. "I'm sorry."

There was the sound of a throat clearing just out of sight, and a moment later Hammond came in. Daniel froze solid at the sight of him despite the fact that he knew this wasn't the man who'd been torturing him over the last month. And it wasn't even his Hammond. It was another stranger in Hammond's body.

He clenched his fists in his lap and tried not to let on how utterly freaked he was.

"What's . . . what's wrong?" Hammond asked.

"He's not our Daniel, sir," Jack said, sounding numb.

Hammond looked perplexed. "Jack, I'm sure he –"

Jack looked up, eyes intent. "He's. Not. Our. Daniel!" His face crumpled. "He's not my Daniel."

Daniel crossed his arms slowly, wrapping them around his chest and shaking his head. "Decidedly not," he said. He looked up, then, and stared at Jack. "Wait, you and your Daniel are . . . oh!" He shook his head. "I'm beginning to agree with Jack . . . my Jack! People aren't meant to know about alternate realities."

"God, Jack, I'm sorry," Hammond said, putting his hand on the other man's shoulder. "And Daniel, of course. We genuinely thought you were our man. You don't . . . you don't belong in that other reality, do you?"

"No!" Daniel said. Then, realizing that he sounded a little hysterical, he calmed his voice. "No, I was grabbed out of my own SGC a little over a month ago. Or . . . how long have I been out?"

"It's Sunday," Hammond said. "We got you on Thursday."

"And I was . . . and I was dead." Daniel stared up at Hammond. "How . . . what . . ." He looked over at Jack. "Did you guys say anything about bringing me back?" he asked urgently. "Anything that might lead them to believe you'd be able to resurrect me?"

"I don't . . ." Jack shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Then they've already gone back to my reality and told them that I'm dead, and since they know how, they won't have any . . . they won't think I can be brought back."

"Why not?" Hammond asked.

"My heart was exploded by a bomb," Daniel said. "Didn't you even x-ray me?"

"No, we just put you straight into the sarcophagus," Jack said. "You were dead. We didn't dare wait."

"Sarcophagus?!" Daniel exclaimed, feeling slightly sick. "But . . . what about withdrawals?"

"That's why you were sedated, son," the general said. "You've been under medical sedation since about ten a.m. on Thursday. Dr. Fraiser has developed a treatment that shortens the duration considerably." Hammond shook his head and blinked. "Wait, a bomb? Did you say you were killed by a bomb?"

Daniel nodded miserably. "Hammond wanted a way to control me. He put a remote control bomb in my chest so he could kill me even if I escaped while off world." Hammond looked utterly appalled. Jack . . . Daniel looked away from Jack as he finished the description. If he was anything like the other Jacks Daniel knew, he'd decide that he'd killed Daniel, and Daniel wasn't sure he could cope with that. "He could just open up the gate, press a button, and I'd fall over dead." He grimaced. "I was very closely monitored, all the time. As soon as Hammond knew that an alternate reality SG-1 was with me, he must have pressed that button."

Jack stared at him with wide eyes. "Does that . . . is that . . . did they do that to my – to our Daniel?"

Daniel bit his lip and shrugged, misery washing over him. This wasn't home. He wasn't home. He was in yet another alien reality. "I don't know for certain, but I think I was the only one so favored." Hammond was shaking his head, clearly horrified, but Jack seemed totally devastated.

"What happened over there?" he asked, sounding desperate. "What else did they do to you? What did they do . . ." He stopped talking, but Daniel could guess the rest of the question. 'What did they do to him, with him being this Jack's Daniel.

"I don't know how typical my experience was, truthfully," Daniel said. "In fact, they told me it was very different. I – I behaved differently than the others, or so I was told."

Dr. Fraiser came in speaking. "Are you two tiring out my – what are you doing out of bed?" Daniel looked up at her for a second, then buried his face in his hands. He'd been so glad to hear her voice when he woke up, but despite the similarities, this wasn't home. Janet was beside him in an instant, just like his would have been. "Daniel, what's wrong?"

He just shook his head, unable to formulate a response. What was he going to do? Could these people get him home? Where was their Daniel?

In broken tones, Jack told her what had happened, and she put an arm around Daniel's shoulders. "And I told you that you were home," she said apologetically.

"It's not your fault," Daniel said. "I thought I was home."

"But what's happened to our Daniel, then?" Hammond asked.

Daniel sighed. "I don't know. The guy before me is recovering from his injuries in my SGC, but I don't know if he's yours or one that followed yours. I don't even know how long they held him for."

Hammond tilted his head. "Just how do you know what's going on at your own SGC?" he asked. His tone was neutral, but Daniel could feel his gut clenching up as the general spoke. He sounded so much like the other Hammond in his dangerous moods.

Some part of his internal reaction must have shown up in his physical response, because Janet squeezed and stood up. "That's enough questions for now," she said. "He needs some rest."

Daniel shook his head. "I'm fine. I'm being stupid."

"No, Daniel, you're not fine," she contradicted. "You need to get back in bed. You're shivering." He let her chivvy him back into bed, but he noticed that neither Hammond nor Jack made any move to leave the room. She looked up irritably. "Was I in some way unclear? No more questions."

"No, Janet, I can answer questions," Daniel said. "Can I have some coffee, though?"

"Daniel, you're in shock," Janet said. "Colonel get a blanket out of that cupboard."

"I'm not in shock." He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to still the shivering Janet had noticed. "I'm fine." Jack brought the blanket over and spread it over the top of the covers.

"I guess I'd better be going," Hammond said, but Daniel could tell he still wanted the answer to his question.

"No, sir, please." Hammond paused, looking irresolute. "Janet, hot coffee will warm me up, and I don't want to be alone with nothing to do, either. I can talk about it. It would be nice, actually, to be able to talk freely. I've had to be so careful what I said over the last month that it was beginning to make me a little crazy." The doctor looked at him dubiously, but he didn't know what else to say. "Please?" he asked.

She let out a deep sigh of resignation. "Fine, but only on condition that you stop, all of you," she added, looking around at the whole group of them, "if I tell you to." She pursed her lips. "Better yet, let him tell his story without interrupting him." She squeezed Daniel's shoulder. "I'll be back in a minute with the coffee."

Daniel smiled at her as she left, then took in a deep breath. "Maybe you'd better find a chair, sir," he said. "This isn't short."

Hammond settled down near the end of the bed and said, "Go ahead, Dr. Jackson."

"I was grabbed from my office by Jack and Major Kowalski . . . is he . . . here, I mean is he . . ." He didn't quite know how to phrase the question.

"He died just after our first real offworld mission after Abydos," Jack said.

"In my reality, too," Daniel said, remembering Kowalski's death. "Well, in that reality he's still alive, but he's not remotely the same man. They're all screwed up. Hammond's a greedy tyrant, Jack's insane, driven there by drugs, pressure from Hammond and guilt over his own mistakes. Samantha's a lieutenant and doesn't like being called Sam." Janet came back in with a carafe and a cup of coffee and a plate of lightly buttered toast.

"You need something in your stomach other than caffeine," she said firmly.

He nodded. "Thank you." He took a gulp of coffee and started on the toast. "I only saw one doctor there, and that was Warner, and he's the one who put the bomb in my chest. I got the feeling later that he did it under some kind of duress, but it still made me feel pretty uncomfortable around him."

"I can imagine," Hammond said.

"I was grabbed on the fifth of April. They have some sort of phase shifting technology, something that makes them more or less invisible. I spent the first three weeks or so locked in a room that I think is a storeroom in my SGC. It made a spacious office, but very cramped living quarters. I had a bathroom, a bed, a desk and a lot of bookshelves." He grimaced. "Oh, and the desk had a massive bloodstain on it. I have no idea what that came from." They were all silent and Daniel blinked, realizing what they might be thinking. "I don't think they killed any of them," he said hastily. "Samantha would have been . . . I don't know . . . different, I think, if they had. More freaked."

"You can bleed an awful lot without dying," Jack said bleakly, and Daniel grimaced.

"I know," he said. "Um . . . anyway . . . I gather I started acting differently than the others on the first night. My best guess is that I share something in my past with the Daniel from that reality that the other Daniels didn't, something that made me react to Jack's behavior differently than they did."

"How so?" Hammond asked. "From what the Daniel who was left here said, he was very hostile and violent most of the time."

"He wasn't with me," Daniel said. He shook his head. "Let me give you a little background . . . to help you understand." He explained what Samantha had told him about Jack's relationship with Danny, and how Danny had died. They listened silently, all of them looking thunderstruck. "It's pretty bizarre, I know," Daniel said. "But if you're used to the idea that love can come with bruising punishment, it's easy to accept it, regardless of how unhealthy things are. And the drugs just exacerbated the situation, I'd guess."

"Drugs? You mentioned that before. What drugs?"

"The Hammond there is a control freak of the first order. He was giving most of the staff drugs of varying kinds to enhance or dampen various personality traits, all without telling them."

"Good lord!" Hammond breathed. "You can't be serious!"

"I can. The stuff he was giving to Jack made him more aggressive, and the stuff he gave to Daniel made him more passive, which only made things worse."

Jack was shaking his head, looking cynical. "He killed his 'little brother'?" he said sarcastically. "I think you may be giving the man too much credit."

Daniel shook his head. "You don't understand how abusive relationships work. It was an accident. You should have seen him when I refused to translate something. He begged me to do it, because he didn't want me to die . . . again." Jack looked dubious, but Daniel persevered. "I believe it really was an accident," he said. "He had all the classic signs of that sort of abuser." Remembering the desperation that Jack had shown the day he'd refused to translate that one text. Daniel bit his lip. "After the first day, the only time he got violent with me was when he wanted me to go along with something Hammond wanted me to do because he was afraid that Hammond would kill me."

Jack didn't look remotely convinced, and the general said, "That doesn't tally with what the Daniel who was left here told us." He shook his head. "Why would things have been so different for you?"

Daniel took a long sip of coffee to give himself a little more time and to cover his dry-mouthed reaction to Hammond. Swallowing, he said, "I think it's because I know, deep down, how to respond to that sort of abuser. Jack was looking for a replacement for his own Daniel, but the others didn't react the right way and he got angry. Put that together with the drugs and the pressure Hammond was putting on him to get results, and you've got an explosive combination."

Jack leaned closer, eyes intent and very worried. "You know how to react? Then . . . does your Jack O'Neill abuse you?"

"God, no!" Daniel exclaimed, thinking of his Jack's reaction to that question. "Well . . . unless you count his pretending to stupidity until I'm ready to yank my hair out. And his."

The Hammond sitting at the end of the bed gave Jack a sidelong look, and Fraiser snorted. "What?" Jack said, noticing their attention.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "No, the . . . knowledge . . . comes from something that happened when I was little, and it really doesn't matter. The point is, that Jack made a lot of mistakes and did a lot of terrible things, but he's not entirely responsible for his actions."

"That doesn't make his actions any less harmful to the people he hurt," Jack said, his voice harsh. "How'd you wind up with a broken arm?"

"That was actually what happened when I wouldn't do what Hammond wanted me to," Daniel started, but Jack cut him off.

"So that O'Neill broke your arm because you wouldn't cooperate? That doesn't seem –"

"No," Daniel said. "He didn't." Nobody said anything for a minute. The memory had Daniel frozen. He found it difficult to articulate, and none of the others seemed to know what to say.

Finally Hammond said, "What did happen?"

Daniel shuddered. "Does it matter? It wasn't Jack."

"Who was it?" Jack asked.

Daniel pushed away his emotions and snorted, trying for nonchalance. "Do you mean morally or physically?"

"You're evading the question," Hammond observed. "Why?"

Daniel was having trouble dealing with this Hammond asking him questions. It probably wasn't fair to the man, but comparisons were inevitable, and he really didn't know much about him. Tension filled him, and he felt as if he was trying to make himself smaller.

"Okay, interview over," Janet said, standing up.

"No," Daniel protested. "I just . . . I need to talk about it."

"You need some rest," she said.

Jack shook his head and said, "Daniel, what's wrong? What's making you freeze up?"

Daniel shrugged. "It's . . . Hammond was a freaky bastard in that other reality. He . . ." Daniel gulped. "He scared the hell out of me."

Both Janet and Jack looked at the general, and Daniel grimaced. The man looked shocked and stricken. "Oh. I . . . I'm sorry. Would it be better if I left? I can get a report from Colonel O'Neill later."

"I don't know," Daniel said. "It's . . . Hammond wanted me to do something I couldn't in good conscience do. I refused and he gave me a choice. I could do the work or he'd have Major Coburn break my arm." Daniel licked his lips and took a deep breath. "He sat there and watched while Coburn did it. And then he just left me alone in a locked room, sitting in a chair with my arm hanging."

"God," Jack murmured.

"No medical treatment?" Janet asked.

"What little I got that first day is what Samantha and Jack could manage without raising a fuss. Ice and a splint jury-rigged from a t-shirt and a couple of rulers. Oh, and a sling made from another t-shirt. And Hammond told me I could take the day off from work, but that I should try to get something done if I could."

"So that Jack helped you rather than hurting you?" Fraiser asked.

"He's insane," Daniel said, trying to make them understand. "He's been driven out of his mind by drugs and guilt and unendurable pressure."

"That's an awfully convenient excuse," Jack said.

"He never claimed it," Daniel replied. "Even Samantha never claimed it. These are my own observations." He fell silent for a moment. "He is insane, but he's growing slowly less so, or he seemed to be when I saw him yesterday. He's gone in and out of delusion for the past couple of weeks, though. He kept mistaking me for his own Daniel. I mean, he meant it when he said he didn't want me to die again. I knew when he called me Danny he was off in fantasy land, and when he called me Daniel he was remembering what was really going on. Lately, though, he'd started asking questions, talking about what he'd done. Reaching out for help."

"But you were his prisoner!" Jack protested. "He was turning to you for help?"

Daniel shrugged. "He was a Jack O'Neill turning to a Daniel Jackson to help him understand his emotions. It seemed pretty normal to me at the time. And by then he was . . . Hammond was using me to control him."

"I don't understand," Janet said. "What do you mean?"

"Hammond didn't like the influence their Daniel had on him. He was like me, culturally open, if you know what I mean." They nodded. "Hammond told me flat out that killing people was the second most optimum way to get the technology they wanted. The first was obviously persuading the people to just give it to them. Theft came a distant third, but was still on the table. Danny didn't fit too well into that structure. And neither did any of the other Daniels they kidnapped."

"No, I'd guess not," Jack said. "Ours sure wouldn't."

"So I guess Jack started changing again when he started spending time with me, and it annoyed Hammond. I don't know much of what went on outside my little room, but Jack was really angry about the bomb. He got into it with Hammond one time in my cell, and Hammond sent for Coburn because he wanted to remind Jack of my vulnerability." Daniel shut his eyes. "See, I didn't legally exist. Daniel Jackson was dead and buried. I was a non-entity, a non-person, and Hammond liked it that way."

"I can see why you might find me a little alarming," the general said. "I assure you, I'd never behave like that."

"I believe you," Daniel said. "Unfortunately, that doesn't help much." He shook his head. "I have no idea how I'm going to react to my Hammond when I get back home." He looked around at them. "Can you get me back home?"

"That's Carter's department," Jack said. "We'll get her to work on it right away." He glanced at the general, who nodded.

"I'll see you later, Dr. Jackson," he said. "Don't –"

Realization struck like a blow between the eyes. "God, wait, I have to go back!" Daniel said. "You have to take me back!"

"Go back?!" Jack exclaimed loudly. Daniel flinched and he saw Janet glowering at the colonel. She didn't intervene, however. "For crying out loud! Are you a complete wacko? After everything you just said, you're telling us you want to go back?"

Daniel crossed his arms, leaning back into the pillow behind him. "'Want' is the wrong word," he said.

"Then what the hell are you thinking?!"

Janet shook her head. "That's enough," she said firmly. "My patient needs his rest."

Hammond took Jack's arm and Fraiser began to chivvy them out. Daniel sat forward. "You don't understand!" he called after them. Jack turned, pulling the group of them to a halt. "They'll take another one if they don't have me. Even if Jack refuses, Hammond will find a way! I have to go back. I know how to handle the situation."

Hammond walked over and sat down, making a clear effort not to be intimidating. "Son, I am not sending you back into that. The man killed you, for God's sake. I could never square it with my conscience."

"Can you square it with your conscience that they will be grabbing a man like me . . . like your Daniel, one who doesn't know what he's getting into? At least I know how to handle myself. Hammond killed me on purpose. What's he going to do to the next one?"

"What will he do to you if he gets his hands on you again?" This general was gazing at him with concern. Daniel felt himself go white at the thought of Hammond's possible reaction to his escape and return. The man beside him, a man much more like Daniel's own Hammond if appearances could be believed, leaned forward and took his hand. "You see, son. There's nothing you could say that would persuade me to send you back under these circumstances."

Jack walked past Janet and leaned on the end of the bed. "And if he agreed, I'd have the doc here commit him. You're not going back."

"But –" Daniel couldn't think of anything to say. He had to go back. Why couldn't they see that?

"Get some rest, son," Hammond said. "We'll be back later to look in on you."

Daniel watched them leave, unsure what to do or say. He leaned back against the pillows, completely lost.