Hi everyone, thanks again for your wonderful comments.

I'm upping the angst a little here, but if you've read any of my fics before you know how it will turn out. There's a lot more to come yet, so enjoy it while you can.

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE?

By LetitiaRichards

Previously:

Hammond found himself laughing softly as he climbed back up the stairs to the control room. Walter Davis was grinning widely too, but the General knew that he would reveal nothing about this to a living soul. He would trust the Sergeant with his life. In fact they all did; and on a daily basis too.

Chapter 6 – Infirmary Blues

It was official. Daniel was getting a headache.

Jack had asked endless questions during the ride up to the infirmary, leaving Daniel's head in a spin. Though, miraculously, the constant stream of 'whys' stopped the moment they entered the hallowed domain of Dr. Janet Fraiser.

Jack pushed himself against the back of Daniel's legs, trying to hide from the inevitable. He found himself peering up at a diminutive red-headed woman in a white coat; the ubiquitous stethoscope slung casually round her neck, and she was smiling down at him with an amused expression.

"So," she began, squatting down to his level. "you must be Jack?"

Jack nodded, venturing out from his hiding place a little bit to get a closer look at her.

"I'm Doctor Fraiser, but you can call me Janet, okay?"

Jack nodded. He found himself quite liking the Doctor. She seemed nice; her face was kind and her eyes twinkled with laughter. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Janet held out her hand as she stood, and Jack tentatively placed his into it, still looking up at her face to see if she would suddenly change into a dragon. The last Doctor he'd seen hurt him enough to make him cry, something for which he'd been ridiculed about by his daddy.

"You gotta be tough in this world son. Don't let them see they've hurt you. It's a sign of weakness. I won't have no son of mine branded a sissy because he cried!"

Jack recalled those words so clearly now, as if they were spoken to him yesterday, but then, maybe that was only yesterday; he just couldn't remember. How did he get lost anyway? Did he run away? Where was he when Daniel found him? Why was he there? Who were these people really? What was this place?

"Jack? Are you okay sweetie?"

Janet was leaning over him, feeling his forehead.

He wanted to say he wasn't, but he couldn't bring himself to give in to it.

"I'm fine!" he snapped tersely, taking everyone by surprise at the vehemence of his words.

Janet straightened, startled by his sudden shift in attitude.

"Jack?" Daniel came closer and grabbing Jack's shoulder swung him gently round to face him, a puzzled frown marring his face. "What was that all about?"

Jack couldn't look him in the eye; his gaze dropped to the floor and he sniffed unhappily. By the look on Daniel's face, Jack felt like he'd just disappointed him; like he tended to do so often with his daddy. He didn't mean to sound so rude because he did like these people, but he wasn't feeling so good now. Jack bit his bottom lip to stop it from trembling. He was so hot and his head felt funny and he wanted his mommy.

"Jack?" Daniel suddenly paled when he realised what was happening. "Oh god. Janet, what's wrong with him?"

Daniel was sent into a panic as soon as he saw Jack sway. He caught the boy quickly before he could hit the floor. Jack was out for the count, lying limp in his arms.

Janet leapt into action, taking his vitals while ordering Daniel to lay Jack onto the bed. Another nurse came along and waved them out of the room so that Janet could conduct her exam without an audience, but Daniel refused to leave. Jack trusted him, and he didn't want him to wake up confused only to find that he was left all alone with virtual strangers. He just couldn't leave him.

"Let him stay!" Janet yelled over her shoulder as she whipped off the clothes covering Jack so that she could check him over properly.

Daniel stood at the bottom of the bed and quietly watched as Janet reeled off a list of tests to be carried out. Blood samples to be taken and CAT and MRI scans to be arranged.

After what seemed an eternity, Janet finally covered Jack with the bed-clothes, running a hand gently over Jack's brow, soothing his restiveness.

"Janet?"

The Doctor gasped at the softly spoken sound of her name. She'd completely forgotten Daniel was still there, waiting for news.

"Is he okay?"

She smiled down at the small child once more and moved away, confident he was in no danger.

"As far as I can tell he'll be okay. We'll have to wait for the results of the scans when they're done, but most of his vitals seem to be returning to normal..."

"Doc?"

Daniel and Janet spun round in surprise to see Jack's eyes open as he fought to regain consciousness. Both rushed over to his side.

"Colonel?"

"Hot! Wha...hap'nd?" Jack gasped, looking up at Janet. He was so hot and thirsty.

"You have a slight fever Colonel," Janet explained.

"Jack?"

"Thirsty!" World-weary dark brown eyes looked up at his friends and Daniel could once again see his old friend gazing back at him.

Janet offered Jack some ice chips which he relished, then mopped his furrowed and overheated brow with a cloth rinsed in cool water.

"Carter? Teal'c?" he asked, only seeing Daniel whole and hearty leaning over him. Where were the rest of his team?

"Uh...they're fine Jack."

"Colonel, what's the last thing you remember?" Janet asked, realising that though locked into a child's body the adult Jack was back in his right mind.

"PX5...something. I... oh god. Daniel...you touched something." He could remember it now. "I must have been knocked out or whatever because I had some really weird, whacky kind of dream, and I could have sworn I was a kid!" He struggled to look down the bed and lifted the covers. After seeing only a very short version of himself and tiny hands holding the bed-clothes, he let his head fall back onto the pillow once more and dropped the sheets covering him. "Okay...I'm guessing that wasn't a dream, right? So what happened and how'd I get here? And when the hell are you gonna get me...the real me back again?"

Daniel was lost for words. How could he explain to Jack that he'd actually become that child, let alone what he'd said and done as one? It all sounded so... Damn, he just didn't know what to say.

"Daniel? Shouldn't you be working on this problem?" Jack growled in irritation, making the monitors attached to him begin to squeal in alarm.

"Sir, you need to rest. I'm sure that given time Daniel will be able to discover what went wrong and get you back into your proper body again soon," Janet soothed.

"I am the real me, just not...me...apparently." He frowned at his own words. "Did that make any sense?" he queried.

"I think so sir. Now. Rest." With that Janet injected something into his IV line and Jack found himself unable to fight off the sleepiness.

"Damnit Doc!" he muttered before his eyelids closed and the pull of sleep overtook him.

"I'm still staying!" Daniel's every pore oozed resistance to anything Janet could say to him. He just wasn't going to budge from Jack's side.

"Daniel – he'll be out for hours. He won't know you're there," she cried in exasperation. Daniel needed to rest too. He looked drawn and haggard, and she was certain that in his own way it was because he somehow felt responsible for the Colonel's predicament.

"I know you want to stay with him Daniel, but what he really needs is for you to go through all those tapes and notes that you brought back and try to sort out this mess. You can't do that unless you're rested. You're not helping him by staying here and making yourself ill through exhaustion."

Daniel wanted to stay so much but what Janet had said made a whole lot more sense. However he was saved by the appearance of Teal'c and Sam at that moment. They had obviously overheard what had been said because Sam jumped right in there.

"You go and rest Daniel. Teal'c and I will stay with him..."

"You...you know he's back again?" Daniel asked pointedly. "Colonel O'Neill is back inside his head?"

"He is?" Sam appeared shocked. They still hadn't been made aware of what had been happening whilst they had been waiting outside for news. It was only a few moments ago when one of the nurses commented that the boy had been awake.

"Yes, but he doesn't remember much about what happened to him. He thought it was all a dream."

"He has a slight fever too, so I've given him something to combat it, but until Daniel goes through all the information I'm still not sure what I'm dealing with here," Janet cast another annoyed look at the archaeologist before continuing, "He really needs to get some food into him and then rest for at least several hours."

Daniel pouted and looked stubborn, folding his arms across his chest. He sure wasn't a little kid, he was a full grown man and knew exactly what he wanted; and right now Jack needed him.

"O'Neill is resting DanielJackson. You should take full advantage of this opportunity to fulfil your own body's needs. Rest assured that should O'Neill awake you will be duly summoned."

Daniel looked back at his friend lying asleep on the bed; a bed which looked enormous in comparison with the child sized Jack. He really didn't want to go, but reluctantly nodded his head.

"I'll go, but you have to promise to wake me the moment he does."

"We will indeed DanielJackson."

Daniel looked up at Teal'c, seeing the truth and honesty in his dark eyes and knew the giant of a man would keep his word. Entrusting Jack's care to the rest of his team-mates, he left the infirmary, turning once more to look back at Jack before hurrying off towards his lab. A good strong cup of coffee and one of the chocolate bars from his secret hoard and maybe he would take a look at the video while he digested it before lying down for a little while.

TBC