Chapter 14

Solid

"We are going to New York, Daniel," his mom told him, smiling with excitement. Daniel listened to her solemnly from her arms.

"No you aren't," he answered, his young voice holding all the authority he could muster, "I rode a bubble to get here and stop you."

"Listen to your mother," his father admonished from where he crouched over his latest find. It looked strangely like a DHD, though Daniel was vaguely certain that hadn't been at the dig the first time around.

"No, really," Daniel said, "I'm from the future. We stay here and you don't die and the giant and the doctor won't hurt me."

"But if we're here, how will your friends find you?" his mother asked reasonably, her fingers stroking his hair gently. Daniel furrowed his brow, trying to figure that one out.

"Okay," he said at last, "We can go to New York. But you must not stand under the cover stone."

"If that is what you want," his mother agreed, just as solemnly, and standing up she set him down, not upon desert sands but upon a tiled floor. Now his father was watching as someone hooked the DHD up near a stargate as part of the exhibit. It was next to where the cover stone was being raised, and he turned towards it.

"No!" Daniel screamed, and surprisingly his parents listened. His father and mother stood with him and now it was his father's hand stroking his hair. It felt nice, safe.

"See, Sam, we can change the past!" Daniel exclaimed happily as he began to lead his parents away from the room. Suddenly, a looming presence blocked their path.

"This isn't how it happens, boy!" the giant growled.

"No!" Daniel screamed again, but now the doctor was holding him, making him watch helplessly as the giant dragged his parents back towards their death. He shoved them into place where they stood peacefully waiting while Daniel screamed and screamed.

"Daniel!" someone shouted in his ear, and his eyes flew open, searching wildly for the giant or the doctor or maybe even his parents alive and well.

"It's okay," a voice soothed him, too youthful for the people of his dream, "Everything is all right." The arms around him weren't the doctor's anymore. Slowly, as his panic faded, Daniel realized that he was sobbing, his throat hoarse from begging for the giant to stop, to be let go, for his parents to run away and be safe. The mind numbing fear and panic turned over into a horrible, ugly sadness with the realization that it was already too late. His parents were dead. They couldn't be saved.

With that realization he stopped struggling against the arms that held him and instead leaned into them, accepting their comfort and the soothing words, giving over to grief and pain that filled his eight-year-old body beyond comprehension. The words of comfort washed over him with a homesick familiarity that he clung to, and slowly he let go of fear and sorrow, stilling within the strong, protective arms.

"Daddy," he murmured, half asleep and knowing it wasn't really his father, yet not knowing. For once he didn't struggle against the child emotions but allowed himself to relax until he was soothed back into lighter dreams.

The others in the room watched him drifting back into sleep in solemn silence. His sudden screams had been alarming to say the least. Jack had had to climb half into the bed with him to sooth him, careful of his arm and legs while he spoke to him in a low, almost hypnotic sounding voice. Everyone else watched silently, with the exception of Hammond who had already left to be with his wife and daughter. He hadn't come to any real decisions yet, but at least he hadn't gone straight for the authorities to turn them in. A nurse did pop her head in in response to the screams, but after a quick check over she left Daniel in Jack's capable hands.

"Sir?" Sam whispered, when it looked like Daniel had finally fallen asleep again, his body twisted in an almost painful looking position so that his head could burrow into Jack while his legs remained straight.

"I ain't never heard nobody scream like that," Mark whispered in turn, his voice part in awe, part horrified.

"What language was that you were speaking?" Sam asked, before Jack could begin to correct Mark's grammar.

"Arabic," Jack answered shortly, his voice soft, "He was dreaming about his parents, I think."

"It's too bad we didn't go back just one more year," Sam said, "He'd get to see them again. But then they'd be dead again. And he'd have to leave them to find us and get back home." She was beginning to feel like sobbing herself, for Daniel, for her own mom, for herself and for the entire impossible situation. It was worse than the gamekeeper because this was much more real. Would it really be so bad to just live this life as it was? Her adult self was horrified at the way tears began to fill her eyes, but at that moment she wasn't certain even her adult self would have been able to stop them. She was surprised when large, strong arms encircled her.

"It is not wrong, to honor the dead with your tears," a deep voice whispered, vibrating within a strong, solid chest.

"It's all right, Sammy," her brother said, awkwardly leaning over to pat her back, not even knowing why she was so upset, and she smiled in spite of herself, even as she let the tears fall.

"I didn't know you spoke Arabic," she said, hiccuping slightly through her tears. Just this once, she leaned back into Teal'c's arms. If they stayed in the past, he would be stuck here too. He'd never see his son again. Sometimes, it was better to let the past alone. Besides, she didn't think the bubble would allow them to just go on in this alternate live indefinitely. In fact, she had some rather dark predictions that she was hesitant to share, about what would happen if they didn't undo the bubble soon. There was no point in scaring everyone when she could be wrong.

"Yeah," Jack answered, his own face not entirely dry, "Not as dumb as I look."

"Do you believe Lieutenant Hammond will aid us, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, not letting go of Sam.

"If it doesn't hurt his family," Jack answered, "I think he might. He probably has a soft spot for kids. Especially sad looking, hurt kids. If it was just you and me, we might have a hard time of it."

"If it was just you and me, we would likely not be in need of assistance."

"I still don't understand what is going on," Mark insisted, looking uncertain and young. It is a strange disadvantage to be one of the oldest children there, yet to have the youngest mind of all of them. It didn't help that his younger sister was also his older, adult sister. Despite their explanation to Hammond, he couldn't quite grasp it.

"We're in a time bubble," Sam answered from Teal'c's arms, "It's like if you have a piece of string. One end is our time, the other end is your time. We all exist at both ends, but at different ages. So the string wraps around on itself so the ends are touching. Now time runs in a loop, and once it gets to the end of the string, it starts over again and we are back in time again. But the machine seperated us out because we were running it. So our minds don't do the loop with our bodies. Our minds keep on going in a straight line. So our minds are from the end of the string, but they're trapped with our bodies running in a loop. We have to pop the bubble to fix things and undo the loop.

"Wow," Mark said, "I think I actually understood that. Still think you're crazy, though." Despite his words, he still looked desperately confused.

"Carter," Jack said in amazement, "An explanation that doesn't involve five syllable words! I think this time bubble is good for you."

Sam stuck her tongue out towards him before she could stop herself, then decided he deserved it anyway.

"Samantha Carter," Teal'c rumbled from around her, "Does this mean if we do not correct this time bubble, we will return once more to this time?"

"Yeah, I think so," Sam answered, trying to picture time in her head. This was hard because it held a few more dimensions than the mind's eye was generally comfortable with. "In about thirty years," she added, "At the same time it sent us back the first time."

"Well hey," Jack said, "So if we screw up this time, we get a second chance." Then he frowned, looking down at Daniel. This was not an experience he wanted to relive.

"Maybe," Sam answered, "But I don't know how this is effecting real time, outside the bubble. If it goes on too long, it might break apart our connection to the rest of the galaxy still in real time, causing our own reality to either become a mini universe in itself, no longer connected to the rest of the universe, which would probably be unstable and lead to our ultimate destruction, or it might..."

"Right," Jack interrupted, "Delay is bad. So we get it right the first time." Sam was silent, but her youthful mind relentlessly created scenario after scenario and she leaned back into Teal'c's arms again, reaching for someone who was solid, and alive, and real.