Chapter 6
Daniel and Jack took Claire and Melburn back to the base with them, and during the drive Jack asked them just how they had left the base without being seen and how they had made it to Daniel's apartment.
"Oh, we just walked out," Claire said, smiling. "How else would we leave?"
"But you've got security checkpoints and all of those to go through," Jack reminded them. "Surely someone would have spotted you."
"I guess no one noticed us," Melburn said. "And her name is Claire, not Shirley."
Daniel groaned at his 'father's' joke. "Oh, that is so old. Come on!"
"I try," Melburn said, reaching over the headrest on Daniel's seat to ruffle his hair. "I just love to embarrass you, scout."
"It's working," Daniel said, taking a sip of coffee from his travel mug. "That still doesn't answer how you got into town and found my apartment."
"Well, you told us last night how to get there when we asked where it was," Claire told him. "Don't you remember?"
Daniel and Jack exchanged looks. "I guess I don't," Daniel said quietly. He really didn't, and he knew that he hadn't told them! "Okay, you knew where my apartment was, but how did you get to town? I don't remember you two coming with a car."
Claire and Melburn exchanged looks much as Jack and Daniel had, but they didn't answer. Both men decided to let the question drop for the time being.
When they arrived at the base, an SF met them at the entrance, informing Dr. Jackson that General Hammond wished to see him and his parents in his office as soon as possible. Sighing, Daniel led the way while Melburn asked what the general wanted to see them for.
"Well, he probably wants to know how you two left the base without being seen," Daniel told them. "We've got very tight security here, and any way out that we don't know about could spell trouble for us later."
"But we told you how we got out," Melburn protested.
"You'll have to tell General Hammond, too," Daniel said as they reached the office.
"Good morning," General Hammond said, looking very unhappy with the two elder Doctors Jackson. "Dr. Jackson, Dr. Frasier asked me to send you down to the infirmary as soon as you reported to me. I'll send your parents down to meet you there as soon as we're done."
Daniel nodded and left, leaving the three of them alone. Hammond turned to the two and regarded them grimly. "How did you two make it out of this base without being spotted by a single member of security?"
Melburn gave a very Daniel-like shrug. "We just walked out and took the elevator up to the surface. The two men at the final security checkpoint didn't even look at us. Were we supposed to…sign-out or something?"
"You were not to leave this base at all," General Hammond told him. "Doing so opened this whole facility to a national security risk."
"I don't see how," Melburn commented. "We were just going to see our son."
"How did you get to town and find out where Dr. Jackson lived?" General Hammond persisted.
"Well, Daniel did tell us where his apartment was," Claire explained.
"And how did you get to town? The distance is greater than what can be walked in a night."
"Unscheduled off-world activation," the alarm system said as sirens began to blare. "Unscheduled off-world activation."
General Hammond stopped himself from swearing and called in two airmen. "Stay in this room with those two," he ordered. "They're not to go anywhere. I'll be back in a moment."
Fifteen minutes later, after learning that the computer had had a glitch and activated the alarms on its own (and telling Walter to figure out how it happened and report his findings as soon as he did) General Hammond returned to his office to find two airmen standing guard over two empty chairs.
"Airman!" the general barked in surprise. "Where are they?"
Both young men stared at him with just as much surprise. "They're right there, sir."
"Look again," General Hammond told him. "Carefully."
Both men did, and at the same time their mouths dropped open. "How…? How—where did they go? We were standing right here the whole time! How did they do that?"
"I'd dearly love to know," the general said, picking up his phone and dialing the infirmary.
Space
"Well, there's a little more of the drug in your system," Dr. Frasier said, checking Daniel's eyes with a penlight. "How do you feel?"
"I felt okay when I woke up this morning, but now I feel kind of out of it. You know, like I haven't had enough sleep or not enough coffee or I need a nap. That kind of feeling."
"Hmm," Janet said, jotting Daniel's comment down on her clipboard as Melburn and Claire walked in.
"Hey, scout," Melburn said, putting an arm around Daniel while Claire gave her 'son' a kiss on the cheek. "How is he, doc?"
"He's a little run down," Dr. Frasier said guardedly, watching the two parents carefully. "I think he needs to stay here and rest a bit more rather than going up to his office like he was planning."
"I'll get bored," Daniel complained, flopping back on the gurney. "Just like I always do. Do I have to wear scrubs?"
"No, you don't, and you know very well you can read something," Janet said firmly. "I would prefer you to be here where we can keep an eye on you."
"If it was absolutely necessary for Daniel to go to his office, we could watch him," Claire offered.
"But it's not necessary," Dr. Frasier said, sounding every inch the Determined Doctor. "So he's staying here."
"Can't argue with that, can we?" Melburn said, settling into a chair by Daniel's bed. "We'll sit with him."
"Actually, I've noticed that patients tend to rest better without guests around," Dr. Frasier said, taking note of their reactions as her words sunk in.
"You mean we can't even sit with our own son?" Melburn demanded.
"We wouldn't bother him, and he would get plenty of rest," Claire pleaded.
"I'll be fine," Daniel said, fighting a very sleepy feeling. "I'm about asleep."
Janet hurried to check him, and just as quickly she took another blood sample. Daniel muttered something about medical officers and vampires as he fell asleep. Dr. Frasier handed the blood sample to an orderly with orders to get it analyzed stat, and then she turned to Melburn and Claire.
"Since you're both here, I'd like to ask you a few questions anyway," she said, leading them into her office.
"Questions?" Claire said, sinking into a proffered chair beside her husband.
"About Daniel's medical history. I know about the allergies and a few other things, but how was his health when he was very young? His medical records from that time are very scant on information." Actually, according to standard medical file practice, his medical history was as complete as it could be, but she wanted to learn how much they knew about Daniel as a little kid. She was thinking about Sam's hypothesis that they were telepathic beings, and they would be unable to pick Daniel's brains while he was unconscious in the next room.
"Well, we were often out of the country with Daniel," Melburn said. "Any illnesses he had during that time would only be entered as a sideline in the file, wouldn't they?"
"Not necessarily," Janet said, leaning her hands on her desk. "He had all of the usual childhood illnesses, correct? Mumps, measles, rubella, chicken pox?"
Both of them nodded, and Janet knew she had them. Daniel had had the chicken pox, measles, and rubella (which was also called "German measles"), but he'd never had the mumps. His parents would have known that. Most parents tended to remember the childhood illnesses clearly since they made children so miserable and often left parents very worried.
"Wait, Melburn," Claire said suddenly. "I don't think Daniel ever had the mumps."
Kicking herself mentally, Janet realized that they were not able to pick Daniel's brain, but they were perfectly capable of picking hers instead. Before she could say or do anything, two things happened simultaneously: her phone rang and the orderly appeared with Daniel's bloodwork. She blessed the young man's speed (and wondered if he'd set a new record) as she picked up the phone. "Dr. Frasier."
"Dr. Frasier, this is General Hammond. Are Dr. Jackson's parents in the infirmary?"
"They're right here, sir," she said, glancing at the readout. "We were discussing Daniel's medical history."
"Keep them there," the general said. "Don't let them leave. I'm sending down security. They managed to leave my office without being seen and with two guards in the room."
"I think that would be a good idea, sir," she said in response, blinking in surprise at what she heard. "Oh, I have Daniel's latest results, too."
"Good. I'd like to see them once I get there."
Daniel slept through the arrival of the SFs, General Hammond's arrival, and his statement that the two "parents" were going to be put in lockdown until their little "disappearing acts" were unraveled. Both of them protested, saying that they had done nothing, but they went with security once General Hammond made it clear that they did not have a choice. Once they were gone, Janet showed the general Daniel's results.
"This readout is from when he first came down this morning," she explained. "And this readout shows his results from a blood sample taken after his parents arrived. I think close proximity to Daniel is enough to give him the drug, although Melburn put an arm around him, and Claire gave him a kiss. This time, the dose he was given was larger than at previous times."
Hammond glanced at Daniel's sleeping form and felt a pang of pity for the young man. He'd been through a great deal of sorrow in his life, and now this had happened to him. Some issues in one's life should just remain buried. "I think it's time to confront these two with what we know and learn who they really are, as well as what their intentions are. Once Dr. Jackson is awake, have him report to the debriefing room, and I'll get the rest of SG-1 together. It's time we put an end to this, if just for his sake. Poor man looks half-dead from stress."
"I would suggest a little leave," Dr. Frasier told him. "Both as CMO, and as his friend. Something with plenty of distraction for him. Perhaps a trip to an off-world library?"
General Hammond smiled. "I'll take that under advisement, Doctor. And thank you." He left the infirmary then, heading back to his office. A slight commotion at the elevators kept him occupied ("I don't care whose fault it is; just clean it up! And next time you want to act like idiots instead of members of the US Air Force, don't do it in the corridors! You're lucky I'm not going to suspend you all for this!") for a short time, but when he arrived at his office he found his phone ringing. Irritated, he grabbed the handset and snapped, "Hammond," into the phone.
"General Hammond, sir," the SF on the other end began. "I don't know how to explain it, but I think we better lock down the base…They just disappeared, and we all passed out, and a med team got to us, but they weren't anywhere in sight…"
"You're babbling, airman," Hammond snapped. "Do you mean to tell me that the prisoners are gone?"
"Yes, sir, they are," the SF said after taking a deep breath. "Permission to go back to sleep, sir?"
Hammond hung up the phone, dialed for further security, and put the base on DEFCON 2. Then, he called the infirmary to let Dr. Frasier know that the "parents" were loose, their location was unknown, and it was likely that they might show up in the infirmary. Daniel was not to be out of anyone's sight.
"Don't worry, sir, I've got two orderlies with him," Dr. Frasier said. "And I've got him in restraints so they can't run in and grab him or hypnotize him and make him walk out. At this point, I'm not going to put anything past them."
"Good work," General Hammond told her. "Very good work."
Janet was about to reply when an orderly came rushing in. "Dr. Frasier! Dr. Jackson's gone! We didn't take our eyes off him, but he just disappeared!"
General Hammond heard what was said over the phone, hung up, and barked an order for security to get to the Gate room on the double.
"Unscheduled Gate activation," said the security system while the sirens began to wail.
"Damn! Too late, too late!" General Hammond didn't even bother to hang up the phone but shot out of his office toward the control room. Inside it, Walter and the rest of the staff were frantically trying to raise the blast shield and to turn off the Gate.
"Who dialed?" the general demanded.
"Haven't a clue, sir," Walter said as the rest of SG-1 came running in. "The computer started running all by itself and not even shutting the system down stopped the Gate from dialing."
"What?" O'Neill said in disbelief. "Where's Daniel? Dr. Frasier told us that he was gone. Called Carter up and said that he'd disappeared, and we'd better find you quick."
The Gate shut down, the blast door rose, and the iris closed. The room was empty, but doors A and C both opened, allowing SFs to flood the room.
"We've got access again, and the systems are responding, thank God," Walter said, tapping computer keys. "Systems report that three individuals went through the Gate, heading for—"
"554," Jack finished. "I knew it. General, do we have go for a search and rescue mission?"
"Most definitely, and you're leaving in ten minutes, so don't waste time."
No one did, but as SG-1 stood ready for departure, all of the SGC got a surprise: The Gate would not finish dialing to 554.
"Aw, hell!" Jack swore, sounding ready to kill something. "We should have known!"
"Well, how else are we going to get there?" Carter asked.
"Perhaps the Tok'ra or the Asgard could be of some assistance," Teal'c suggested.
"Or perhaps," General Hammond said over the intercom, "we could get the Prometheus ready."
Jack stopped and looked up at the control room window. "I could live with that. Could we have it ready, say, by yesterday, sir?"
"I think that's doable, Colonel."
Space
Daniel had never felt so tired in his life, and he did not know why he had to leave his very nice and warm bed and get up and go with his parents somewhere. In some part of his mind he was screaming at himself not to go anywhere with them, that they were not to be trusted, and were not really his parents, but the rest of his mind was controlling his body, making him get up and walk. It felt as if some other presence—an altogether strange and alien one—was in his head with him, making him walk along quietly. His father stood on right, his mother on his left, and they each held onto his hands and led him through the base and to the Gate room. No one noticed them, and no one stopped them. No one even looked at them, and that was just creepy beyond belief.
They began to lead him up the ramp, and finally his mind broke free and he was able to stop. "No," he said, trying to pull his hands out of theirs. "No, I'm not going with you. You're not my parents. Let me go. I don't want to go with you."
"Danny," Claire said soothingly, putting an arm around him. "It's all right."
"That's right, scout," Melburn said, doing the same. "Just a short walk and it'll be over and you can rest. We promise."
Daniel shook his head, still trying to pull away but lacking the strength to break their grip. "No. You're not my parents. I shouldn't go with you."
"Of course you should," Claire said as Daniel's knees gave and Melburn caught him. "We care about you, Danny. We love you, and we're going to take care of you."
A kiss on his forehead clouded his mind further, and Daniel felt himself slip into sleep just as he was carried across the event horizon.