The Price of Knowledge

 

Story Notes:

See Chapter One

Chapter Eight

Another Briefing

 

             It had been a long day.  Way too long.  Examined, questioned, and stared at most of the day, Daniel had finally snapped.  He kicked one of Janet’s nurses, dumped over a tray of medical equipment, and ended up in Jack’s arms wailing that he wanted to go home.  Jack was frankly surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.  He retreated to his office with Daniel clinging to him like a limpet and sobbing inconsolably.  When Daniel had eventually fallen asleep, Jack had dozed off as well.

             The knock woke him.  He blinked the blurriness out of his eyes in time to see Carter open his door and poke her head inside the office.

             “Sir?  The briefing?  Everyone’s waiting for you.”

             He checked his watch.  Two hours had passed since he’d holed up in the office.  He peeked down at Daniel, nestled in his lap.  The kid was still sleeping, face and body totally relaxed, the shirt at Jack’s chest bunched loosely in one hand.

             “Teal’c offered to skip the briefing and watch Daniel.”

             Jack shook his head.  Two hours was a record, but he was willing to try for three.  Daniel had fought to stay awake most of the night, and even when exhaustion won, he had slept fitfully, never more than an hour before nightmares drove him awake and the whole cycle started again.

             “Let him sleep.”  He stood and rearranged Daniel in his arms.  Daniel’s fingers tensed around the shirt, but otherwise, he didn’t stir, accepting the change in position like a puppet.  “If he wakes up, Teal’c can take him out.”

             Carter nodded.  She rested a hand on Daniel’s back for a moment, then spun on her heel, and led the way to the briefing.  Jack pretended not to notice when she wiped surreptitiously at her eyes.  The discovery that Daniel remembered absolutely nothing related to math or science had upset her quite a bit.  Jack decided his 2IC needed to get good and drunk.  Hell, he needed to get drunk.  Carter, however, was obsessing over the damage done to Daniel, and she really needed to stop thinking for a while.  Since Jack couldn’t manage that one himself, he intended to sic Janet on her.

             The murmur of conversation ceased the moment Jack entered the briefing room.  He was glad everyone here had already viewed Daniel’s transformation because the shocked stares they’d been getting all day had grown old.  He settled into the chair next to Hammond and adjusted Daniel in his lap.  Both Janet and Allyssa gave him the “oh, how cute!” look, something else they’d been enduring all day.  If either doctor actually said the words, Jack was certain he’d have to shoot her, just on general principles.

             Teal’c brought coffee to Jack and Carter, refilled the cups in front of Hammond and Allyssa, and poured more water for himself and Janet.  Jack took a sip and lifted an eyebrow.  Someone had replaced the regular coffee with one of the richer, more eclectic blends that Daniel had favored.  It was pretty good.  Too bad Daniel wasn’t getting any.

             “I’ve informed Doctor Michaels of the particulars of Daniel’s situation,” Hammond said.  “Doctor Frasier, let’s start with your report.  How is Daniel?  I heard there was some difficulty this afternoon.”

             Janet blushed.  “Yes, sir.  I wasn’t watching carefully enough.  I should have noticed that Daniel was tired.”  She glanced apologetically at Jack.  “I thought he’d complain, but he never said anything before he blew up at us.  I didn’t realize he would act so much like Daniel.”

             “He is Daniel,” Jack responded testily.

             “In a six-year-old body,” Allyssa said.  “I understand what Doctor Frasier is saying.  Sometimes I see a little boy, and sometimes I see Daniel.  It’s hard to see both.”

             Janet nodded.  “Most of the personnel who’ve had any contact with Daniel today are having the same problem.  They see the child and forget it’s Daniel, or they treat him as they would treat an adult Daniel and forget he’s a child.  Frankly, Colonel, from what I’ve noticed, you, Sam, and Teal’c are the only ones who manage to see both Daniel and the child.  You’re dealing with it extremely well.”

             “And how is Daniel dealing with it?” Hammond asked, reiterating his original question.

             Janet sighed.  “As well as can be expected.  He’s been traumatized, so he tends to seek out people and places that make him feel protected.  Right now, that’s Colonel O’Neill, and to a lesser extent, Major Carter and Teal’c.  When they’re nearby, Daniel seems to be a well-adjusted, happy, inquisitive child.  Whenever they leave or something else threatens his feeling of safety, he becomes sullen, uncooperative, and often terrified.  Until Daniel is able to reestablish his sense of security, SG-1’s continued presence will be essential.”

             Hammond frowned.  “How long, Doctor?”

             “It’s impossible to say.  A lot depends on Daniel.”

             When Hammond continued to frown, probably considering the effect of dropping SG-1 from the rotation, Jack said tightly, “I’ll retire if I have to, General.  There’s no way I’m letting Daniel go through this alone.”

             “I know that, Jack,” Hammond said with a fond glance toward Daniel.  Jack knew Hammond himself had a soft spot for Daniel and would do everything possible to facilitate Daniel’s recovery; it was the pressure from “upstairs” that worried Jack.  Hammond turned his attention back to Janet.  “What’s the situation with Daniel’s memories, Doctor?”

             Janet sighed again and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.  She looked tired.  “We began by operating under the assumption that Daniel’s memories were all intact within his subconscious and that he would eventually recover them.  According to Daniel, he remembers more after he’s slept for a time.  Since the subconscious tends to surface during sleep, that seemed to confirm our assumptions.”

             “I’m sensing a ‘but’ in here,” Jack said.

             “But,” Janet offered with a nod toward Jack, “it’s more complicated than that.  We’ve done a session of hypnoregression with Daniel, and it seems that many of his memories, especially from his childhood and the time before he joined the Stargate program, are gone.”

             “Gone?”  Hammond’s brow wrinkled with confusion.

             “Yes, sir.  He still retains the emotional impact of certain events, but in his mind, the events themselves no longer exist.  Daniel can’t remember some things because the memories simply aren’t there anymore.”

             “You can’t fix it?” Jack asked.  If there was a way to fix it, he was pretty sure Janet would have mentioned it already, but he needed to hear her actually say it.

             Janet blew out a frustrated huff.  “I’m not even sure how the damage was done.  Even if the conscious memory is lost, Daniel should still be able to access it through the subconscious.  A technique like hypnoregression should work, no matter how deeply the memory is buried.  How Daniel can tell us what he felt when his parents died but have no memory of the actual event…”  She shrugged.

             “So bottom line this for me.  If, by some chance, Daniel got turned back into an adult—”

             Janet shook her head.  “I’m sorry, Colonel.  As far as I can tell, this memory loss is permanent.  I don’t see any way of recovering the memories, regardless of his age or size.  Once Daniel manages to access whatever’s in his subconscious right now, that’s it.”

             Jack winced.  Listening to Daniel flip from language to language with Allyssa and then watching him translate the Ancient language, he’d had the wild hope that Daniel would be restored to them as he once was.

             “I don’t mean to say that Daniel’s mental aptitude is impaired in any way,” Janet hastened to assure them.  “He’s forgotten some skills.  He can’t write, he doesn’t recognize numbers, and his knowledge of history is sketchy, but his IQ is exceptionally high.  He reads well beyond his age level.  I don’t doubt he’ll learn as quickly as he did when he was a child the first time.”

             “In other words, he’s still a genius,” Jack said.

             “And still smarter than you,” Carter added with a grin.  “Just wait till he’s a teenager.”

             Jack had a mental image of a teenaged Daniel explaining in pedantic tones why he should be allowed to stay out later than his curfew and groaned.  “Oy.”

             Hammond smiled and looked to Allyssa.  “Doctor Michaels, what can you add?”

             “From what I’ve been able to test, Daniel’s retained all of his languages.  In fact, he speaks them better than English.  He doesn’t forget the words or grammar the way he tends to when he’s speaking English.”

             “All of them, Doctor?”

             Jack couldn’t blame Hammond for sounding skeptical.  Twenty-three plus some was a lot of languages, and if Jack hadn’t actually seen Daniel babbling to Allyssa and three other linguists in her department, smoothly following their language shifts, he might not have believed it either.

“I’d have to pull in a few more people to cover what we missed, but it appears so.  At our count, Daniel spoke and translated nineteen languages comfortably.”

             “With just the one problem,” Jack said.

             Allyssa nodded and explained Daniel’s difficulty in initiating a conversation in another language.  “There’s one more thing.  Do you remember that tablet SG-1 brought back from Abydos a month ago?  Daniel translated some of it.  Plus a couple other things we’ve identified as Ancient.  Apparently, while Daniel was wherever he’s been—”  Allyssa flapped a hand in the air.  Jack had tried to explain the whole ascension/descension thing to her, but for being a linguist, she’d had the hardest time understanding the concept.   “It seems he picked up the Ancients’ language.  So, whatever else happens, I’d like to see Daniel helping out in linguistics, if possible.  I’ve got a whole stack of Ancient writings no one’s been able to make heads or tails of.”

             “We’ll see, Doctor,” Hammond said.  Jack figured Hammond had kept his answer noncommittal because he was having the same problem as everyone else.  He saw the kid instead of Daniel.  A kid had no place in the SGC.  Jack grinned to himself.  He doubted it would take long before Daniel reminded Hammond otherwise.  Kid or not, Daniel belonged here.

 

 

 

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Back to Little Danny Home 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  The Stargate characters all belong to Gekko Film Company, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions, MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Showtime, Sci Fi Channel, and Stargate SG-1 Prod. Ltd. Partnership.  This fanfic is not intended to infringe on any of those rights and is meant solely for the purpose of entertainment.  All other characters, the story idea, and the story itself are the sole property of the author.