Chapter 3

Carter stared in shock for a moment, before she realized that her mouth was hanging open. Gracefully, she turned the gesture into a question, tearing her eyes away from Daniel to look around at the gathered faces, familiar or not. "What happened?" she asked, getting to the point faster than anyone else.

A young man with startling green eyes (John, she thought disjointedly) spoke up in answer to her question in a quiet but authoritative voice. "We don't really know, actually. He seems to understand what we're saying, but we can't be sure because everything that comes out of his mouth is...well...gibberish."

Daniel rolled his eyes slightly, still frustrated by the fact that they weren't yet letting him back on his feet. "D'Jaffa ri'ich mas, por favor."

"You can see what I mean," John commented with barely contained curiosity. "It would be one thing if he was simply switching the words in another language for the same word in English, but he seems to be scrambling things up entirely. My hunch is that some of the things he's saying aren't even part of a known language."

Carter absorbed all this information in silence, and then turned her sharp, intelligent eyes upon the young man. "So what you're saying is that Dr. Jackson has...lost his ability to communicate? He can't put together coherent sentences?"

John seemed reluctant to reply, but finally nodded to confirm her diagnosis. "That is what it seems. However, I'm sure that Doctor Fraiser will be able to tell you more than I can," he finished, and then turned away to continue coordinating the evacuation of both Daniel and the search teams. Anything to get away from that look he was getting from the major.

As Carter met Daniel's eyes, she decided that he must indeed understand what they were saying. The personality behind those glasses was still the Daniel she knew, even if he couldn't tell her so. "Don't worry, Daniel," she assured him, quietly. "We'll figure out what caused this."

Hours later, having been poked, prodded, quarantined, and finally released, SG-1 finally had a chance to sit down and talk to Doctor Fraiser about Daniel's condition.

"This kind of reaction is simply not caused by disease," the doctor explained to the team in the debriefing room. "I advise rest and relaxation for the SG-1 team. However, I would like Dr. Jackson to remain in the infirmary for observation. I have a few ideas of what might have caused this, but I'll need him with me to test these theories."

The team didn't budge, and Fraiser shifted awkwardly, with a tight-lipped smile. "Look, I want Daniel to feel loved as much as any of you. But right now, what he needs most is rest. I'll give each of you a chance to visit with him, but first I need to run my tests, and then, you are all going to get some sleep."

When they simply sat there, each one with their own uniquely stubborn look, the doctor's brow furrowed. "I can always tranquilize you all. Would that help you sleep?"

Reluctantly, the team began to disperse, O'Neill murmuring his intention to return while Teal'c paced away in stoic silence. Carter, however, hung back to continue the discussion with Doctor Fraiser.

"Janet, can you tell me what any of these...theories of yours might be?" Carter asked, as Janet sat behind her computer and the major settled into a spare chair.

"Samantha, I don't want to worry you..." The doctor stopped speaking at the sharp look that she got from Sam. "But... This kind of disorder is not entirely unheard of on Earth. That's why I don't believe it's caused by any sort of disease. Usually, these kinds of troubles with language are caused by a stroke of some sort. It's possible that it could have been caused by a head injury, but a preliminary examination showed no sign of contusion."

Carter stared at her friend for a moment, and then shook her head. "So, you think Daniel had a stroke?" she asked.

Doctor Fraiser held up a hand, fending off her friend's worry. "No, Samantha. Honestly? I don't think that it's very likely. But I'm going to do some tests to be sure."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries and being reassured that Daniel would be fine in Dr. Fraiser's care, Major Carter left the infirmary, though she doubted that she would be able to relax entirely.

Days later, Doctor Fraiser had made some progress in determining the cause of Daniel's illness, and was attempting to explain what was wrong with Daniel to his team members, with admittedly limited success. "Daniel has what we call expressive dysphasia... I'll spare you the medical jargon, but suffice it to say that Dr. Jackson can hear and understand us perfectly. However, when his brain tries to perform the function associated with putting words together into sentences, his meaning becomes jumbled."

Teal'c sat back in his chair, listening attentively and looking thoughtful. Major Carter leaned forward against the table, listening to her every word and offering the occasional quiet, but intelligent question. Colonel O'Neill, on the other hand, was making a nuisance of himself, as usual.

"You mean his brains have been scrambled?" The colonel said, obviously outraged. "What the hell kind of thing could do that to him?"

Fraiser gave him a stiff smile that suggested she was nearing the end of her patience, and it managed to cool his anger, marginally. "I'm getting to that, sir. As I was saying, Daniel has learned to communicate using a rudimentary system of gestures. While it is not ideal, it has given me some insight into what he is experiencing." She could hear grumbling coming from the direction of O'Neill, but simply spoke louder to avoid admitting she had heard him. "After running some basic tests, I've come to the conclusion that while Daniel has not suffered any obvious physical damage, there must be some brain damage."

This time, Major Carter spoke up, her eyes wide with horror that she tried to suppress. "I don't understand...how could that be? There wasn't a scratch on him when we found him..."

The doctor was much more inclined to address Carter's polite questions, and so looked at her with a slight, professional smile. "I don't know that for sure. What I do know is that he seems to have some sort of...lesions on his brain. It is very specific in scope, as only his ability to speak has been affected. I know that it's not cancer of any type, and it was not caused by a blow to the head. My professional opinion is that it was done on purpose. What I can't tell you is how this could have been achieved without major surgery, which would have left some sort of obvious external evidence."

Colonel O'Neill stared at the doctor for a few moments, to make certain that she was finished, and then looked around at his team. "Well, it seems that someone or...something has been messing around in Daniel's head. Now, we have two choices. Either we all go back there and look for whatever..." he caught himself before he used some rather inappropriate language, and adjusted his words. "For whatever entities did this, or I go back alone."

Immediately, Major Carter nodded her head. "Sir, if you're going, I'm going, too."

Teal'c, however, was slightly more reticent. "If General Hammond allows it, it is my duty to help find anyone who might heal Daniel Jackson's injuries."

"I would like to join you, sir." Unexpectedly, Doctor Fraiser had spoken. "Just between us, I think it highly likely that we will find some sort of...device, left behind by the ancients. If we do, I may be able to examine it, and use that information to fix the damage done."

Colonel O'Neill quietly let out a breath, hoping that none of his team noticed his nerves acting up. "Request accepted, Doctor. With General Hammond's consent, we'll be back on that planet as quickly as possible." He just hoped that he didn't regret this decision.