Intending to hold Jack to his promise, Daniel worked hard at getting better. He had good days when he felt himself getting stronger. He knew that someday soon he would be returning to his team and join them in their exploration on the other side of the gate.
Then there were the days he didn't want to leave his bed. He turned his face to the wall, refusing to see anyone. On those days it was hard to understand why he kept trying. Sha're was gone; taken from him. There was nothing he could do to help her. He had been stupid to think he could.
Somehow Jack always knew his moods. He would appear at the door of Daniel's room, merciless in his cheerfulness.
"Alright, Danny, up and at 'em."
Daniel turned over, pulling the cover over his head, shutting out the world and most especially Jack O'Neill.
"No, you don't, Daniel," Jack snagged the cover and pulled it off him. "Now, you have two choices, you can get out of the bed on your own steam, or I'll get Teal'c to pick you up and carry you out. Which is it?"
"Why, Jack? Why should I?" Daniel shouted at him. It was all so futile. He wanted nothing more than to be left alone.
"Why? God. Daniel, there's so much for you to live for."
"Such as?" Daniel regarded him intently, daring Jack to tell him what it was he had to live for.
"Well, not counting SG-1, the SGC and Earth, there's Sha're."
"Jeez, Jack, there's nothing I can do for Sha're. There's never been anything I could really do for her. I was just fooling myself that I could rescue her." Daniel pulled himself into a ball, shivering without the cover. "She would have been better off if she had never known me."
Jack relented, throwing the cover back over him. Sitting beside Daniel on the bed, he asked quietly, "Better to have left her in slavery to Ra? Better to never let her know that there was more to her world than the mines? Better that she never learn to read?"
"Well, no," Daniel answered stiffly, "but if I hadn't uncovered the gate, she and I would still be happy on Abydos. I dream sometimes that we're there and we have kids..." his voice trailed off as he clutched the cover to him.
Jack stroked his friend's hair, he used to do that to Charlie when he was ill, "I dream that for you too, sometimes. But, dammit, Daniel, you have no way of knowing that you would have been safe on Abydos. We know now that the Goa'uld have big honking ships. Apophis could have come on one of those."
Daniel stirred and shifted from under his hand. He pulled the cover up over his head, shutting out the words, shutting out Jack. "I know, I just wish..."
"Me too, buddy, me too. And if wishes were horses..."
"Yeah, yeah, beggars would ride." His voice was muffled from under the cover. "It hurts, Jack. I just get so tired."
"Well then, let's take a break. I'll get Fraiser to let you off the physical therapy today. We'll go topside and have a picnic, the whole team."
"Really?" That got him to pop his head up out from beneath the covers.
"Sure." Jack promised. He didn't tell Daniel, but it was a done deal. He had secured the necessary permission from the Doctor before he even came to Daniel's room.
His friend had been moody for days. The colonel had decided he needed a break. "It's a beautiful spring day. The sun is shining, Carter has the picnic basket, Teal'c has the coffee. All we have to do is get you showered and dressed. Think you're up to it, or do I need to call for help?"
Sitting up in the bed, hair still tousled from sleep, Daniel looked exactly twelve years old, "There's coffee? Janet hasn't let me have coffee."
Jack smiled at the longing in his friend's voice. He hadn't told the doctor about the coffee, some things she just didn't need to know. "You'd better hustle, 'cause it's getting cold."
Daniel still couldn't move fast, but with the Colonel's help he was ready in record time. They met Carter and Teal'c in Daniel's office and made their way to the elevator that would take them to the surface.
Along the way they encountered Lt. Michaels.
"Sir." He stood stiffly at attention, saluting the colonel; but his eyes were fastened on the man in the wheelchair. "Dr. Jackson," he greeted him coldly.
"Lieutenant," Daniel acknowledged the greeting, but his attention was wandering; the smell of the coffee Teal'c was carrying was about to drive him wild.
"Michaels, relax," Jack told him with a frown; the kid was always so officious, it made him nervous. "Was there something I can do for you?"
"No, sir. I just thought we should go over the briefing notes for tomorrow's mission."
"Later, Michaels, we're going to take Daniel topside for a while. He needs to get some sun and put some color back in his cheeks. I'll... uh... call you when we get back and we can meet then."
"That will be fine, sir." Michaels watched them as they passed him without so much as a glance or a thought that he might want to come. Not that he did. Not if they had Jackson with them. They entered the elevator and the door slid shut, leaving him alone.
Jonathon bided his time watching as Daniel regained his strength day by day. As Daniel grew stronger, Jonathon's jealousy grew also. It was inconceivable to him that the rest of SG-1 - the military-minded O'Neill, the warrior Jaffa and the by-the-book scientist could abide the sloppy ways of the civilian. He couldn't believe that the man hadn't died at the hands of one of his own teammates.
But it seemed that no matter what he said or did, Daniel Jackson could do no wrong in the facility under the mountain. If he said that the structure on PY2-443 was a temple, it didn't matter what anyone else said, then it was a temple.
Even Hammond, whom Michaels judged to be as military as they came, had a blind spot when it came to Daniel Jackson. He couldn't believe how the man had every person on the base wrapped around his little finger, ready to answer to his every beck and call.
He didn't know why he was surprised. He'd seen it happen before. This wasn't the first time that Jonathan Michaels had met Daniel Jackson.
Jonathon had been known as Johnny then, he'd been 8 when a 17 year-old Daniel Jackson had fostered at their home. It was his last summer before he was supposed to enter college. Daniel had been quiet and studious keeping to himself. In the beginning he hadn't really been interested in being a part of their family, just occupying the space until it was time for him to move on.
Johnny had watched him avidly, shadowing his footsteps. His father was a colonel in the Air Force and didn't have time for his young son. Daniel had taken pity on the lonely little boy, perhaps remembering another child who had longed for someone to care for him.
He'd taken the young Johnny to a couple of museums - introduced him to archaeology and his love for it. Then he had left, never knowing what an impact he had made on the impressionable kid. And maybe, if it hadn't been for his father, Johnny would have chosen to follow in Daniel's path.
Jonathon had never felt that he lived up to his father's expectations before. After Daniel had come into their lives, his father had pushed and bullied him even more, using Daniel Jackson as an example of what his own son would never be. Somehow, Johnny could never be as brilliant or successful as Daniel. Even though he never contacted them, somehow Johnny's father always knew where Daniel was and what he was doing.
Jonathon's next years were miserable listening to the stories of Daniel's successes and hearing that he would never be the son his father wanted. He had felt a great deal of satisfaction when he heard of Daniel's spectacular failure when trying to prove his outlandish theories. Jonathon had felt that he finally had a chance of surpassing the legacy of Dr. Daniel Jackson in his father's mind.
He had been excited beyond measure to be assigned to the super-secret Stargate project. His father, now a general, had been particularly smug when informing him of the assignment. Jonathon realized why when reading through the mission reports to find that one Dr. Daniel Jackson figured in most of them.
He was determined that this time Daniel Jackson wouldn't win. He would not be allowed to again take the respect and love that was by all rights owed to Jonathon Michaels.