Disclaimer - I do not own or operate any of the characters or events portrayed in Stargate SG1.

Chapter 11 - Healing

There was shouting and it was too loud. His head hurt and he just wanted the shouting to stop. He tried to make his vocal chords work and tell whoever it was that was screaming so near him to shut the hell up but it wouldn't work. He tried opening his eyes to see who was doing all the yelling but he was just so damn tired that it felt like his eyelids had huge weights attached to them. It took him a little while but he finally recognised who was doing all the yelling.

It was Jack.

The shouting was shifting from being annoying and painful, to reassuring but he couldn't fathom why he should be glad of such a racket. Something, some small space in his mind was insisting that all the noise was a good thing, a great thing even. He just couldn't put his finger on why. He tried to bring the words into focus to work out why there was a tiny little spark inside him doing a happy dance at the sound and they slowly became understandable, like he was emerging from water.

"...and he could've damn well died! I don't know what those people were playing at but they used a friend of mine as bait and now they want us to help them!"

In his mind, he said something about Jack shutting up and why the hell was he here anyway when he was on an alien ship and a Goa'uld had just killed him but when the breath pushed passed his vocal chords, made its way up his throat and finally emerged from between his lips, only one word survived the journey.

"Jack." Daniel sighed, his eyes finally ungluing. He was only able to open them a crack because the light seemed to be blinding where he was. He was disorientated, thirsty and his head felt like someone had rammed a railroad spike through it but all he wanted to do was work out how Jack had come to be close enough to him to be heard when the last thing he remembered was a particularly resilient Goa'uld hitting him with a ribbon device while he was hurtling through space on an alien ship. His eyes opened a little wider and he was able to take in the fact that he was also in what looked like the SGC infirmary. Without his glasses, he was only able to see Jack when the Colonel came close to his beside and leaned down, a gentle smile on his face. "Hey Danny. Goodmornin'."

"Jack...what...?"

"Easy big guy. We're not too sure how much of the ol' bean you have left. How many times have you been brain fried by a Goa'uld anyway?" Jack was grinning so Daniel knew it wasn't a serious question but he furrowed his brow anyway. "Too tired to count." He grumbled. Daniel moved to roll onto his back and discovered anew that he couldn't. He tensed his shoulder muscles and could feel the wings move. "Ah crap." He sighed. He was hoping that his presence in the infirmary meant something had been done about his current predicament but it seemed not. He curled into a ball and dropped one of his wings over his head in a vain attempt to block out the world. He felt Jack insistently tugging the wing away from him. "No more sleeping." Jack said, his voice thick with command. Daniel knew that tone of voice worked a treat on Sam when she was being stubborn but it only made Daniel more obstinate. "Go away." He grumped and flexed the wing Jack was pulling, knocking the older man backward. Daniel smiled to himself.

Jack came around behind him and started pushing Daniel out of bed. Daniel's protests were heard by Frasier who came at the run. "Colonel, leave my patient alone!" She snapped, moving herself bodily between Jack and Daniel. Daniel had come out from underneath the wing and had been wrestling with Jack and gripping the bed to stop himself from being pulled off in turns. They were both breathing heavily and giggling like little girls by the time Frasier had arrived to separate them. "He's fine Doc." Jack said, reaching around her to tug one of Daniel's ears. Daniel was sitting up and scowled sideways at Jack as he was putting his bed back to rights.

"I was going to confine him to bed rest for a little longer." Janet sighed but knew her efforts to restrain Daniel would come to naught now that Jack had managed to snap him out of the funk he was in. Daniel was in the process of pushing away from the bed onto his feet as she said that and pulled the blanket from the bed to wrap around his bare chest. "You can do that later." Daniel smiled, dropping a light kiss on Janet's brow. Jack blinked as Janet flushed a brilliant scarlet.

"So, I heard you yelling." Daniel prompted as Janet beat a hasty retreat. Jack was still looking from Daniel to the retreating form of Frasier and back again, rubbing his head. He looked at Daniel. "What?"

"I heard you yelling about something and to someone. What was it about?"

"Ah, well, we were outside your room and I wasn't yelling. I was projecting." Jack said and Daniel grinned. He crossed the room and retrieved Daniel's modified shirt who accepted it gratefully and cast aside the blanket. "We have a few delegates from the Sha'e here in our fair mountain at the moment and-"

"Hang on." Daniel held up a hand. Jack's shenanigans and good humour had pushed something very important out of Daniel's head for a few moments. He looked around himself and then back at Jack. "How on earth did I get here?" He asked. His memory of what had happened was fuzzy but slowly coming back to him. He remembered an alien ship and one very hardy Goa'uld who had apparently been killed at the hands of Teal'c, a Goa'uld that Daniel had been very glad was dead. He realised he had again been stuck in a room alone with her and felt his skin grow cold at the thought. Jack's infectious upbeat attitude left him and he saw Jack's brow crease in worry, probably concerned from the range of emotion that played across Daniel's face.

"The Sha'e suspected one of theirs had been infected with a Goa'uld but apparently couldn't know for sure. They suspected the girl - "

"Arie."

"Yeah, her. They suspected her when she started claiming we'd kidnapped one of their guys. The Goa'uld didn't know that all the Sha'e had been present and accounted for. They'd found bodies with wings hacked off... suffice it to say it was a mess, but they were able to get a full headcount. They weren't sure why the girl would be so insistent but needed to find out why and also who she may have contacted. They thought you might have been a Gou'ald aswell and she was just trying to liberate you."

"When all along it was good old fashioned Goa'uld hurt pride that made her not want me to escape with my life." Daniel nodded slowly.

"Anyway, they put you in a room by yourself and then let her think she'd slipped away to visit you alone. They'd kept her busy for a couple of days so she wouldn't know she was made. They wanted to make damn sure you weren't a snakehead either. When she tipped her hand - "

"Tried to kill me."

"That too, they nailed her. Unfortunately they had to come through a locked door to get to you and she'd managed to zap you pretty good before they broke through. They then let the Prometheus alongside to board and let them take you. We thought we'd never see them again but we got a communication through this morning." Daniel glanced about himself and smiled to see his glasses on the side table of the hospital bed. He snagged them with his fingers and put them on, the world snapping back into focus. They were his spare pair so he assumed someone must have gone to his apartment to get them. The tiny consideration made his head hurt just a little less.

"What did they want?" He asked.

"They apparently snagged the surgeon when they raided the slaver's place. Some of the Sha'e had their wings removed but are still alive and wing donors are in short supply apparently." Jack explained, touching a hand to Daniel's wing. Daniel thought it the strangest thing that he could actually feel Jack's hand. He kept thinking the wing something separate from himself, but the way it had been attached had made it as much a part of his body as anything. He was getting strangely attached to them but knew any chance at a normal life would mean he would have to get them removed somehow, and the surgeon was his best chance.

"What's the problem? I thought we wanted me back to boring old wingless Daniel." He said but Jack didn't return his smile.

"There's a risk of spinal injury, or worse. Apparently they'd tried to attach wings to slaves before. You were the first one to survive. It seems the removal process is more dangerous still."

"Ah." Daniel sighed heavily. "Ofcourse it is."

xxxxxxxx

"Its apparently the reason the Goa'uld only paid a deposit before the surgery." Sam said, standing in front of the interrogation room's two-way mirror. The current occupant of the room couldn't see her or General Hammond but he kept glancing at the mirror as if he could. It was unnerving Sam. The man was whip-thin and mean looking with a drawn-in mouth and cold blue eyes. It angered Sam just to think of him even touching Daniel, let alone cutting into him. He'd patiently and without protest agreed to perform the surgeries they'd ask for, and then in the same tone had explained the risks and passed deaths it had caused. The Airman that had been documenting that man's account had had to leave the room when the surgeon became graphic and enthused about the damage he had caused. He'd been alone ever since.

"I won't put someone at unnecessary risk, but I think this is Doctor Jackson's choice and he'd better make it soon. The Sha'e are demanding to have the surgeon returned to their custody if Doctor Jackson refuses." Hammond explained.

Sam nodded her understanding. They seemed to be between a rock and a hard place, but then she wondered, when were they not? Especially where Daniel was concerned. Nothing ever seemed to come easy and it was tiring. They'd thought it an unusually lucky circumstance that the surgeon was brought to them by the Sha'e but it seemed that luck was never on Daniel's side and the quick procedure they were praying for turned out to not exist. While the attaching of the wings could be done scar free, the surgeon had explained that he had not perfected the removal process to such a degree and even if the subject were to survive, he would be in for a painful recovery process and rehabilitation with the muscle and ligament damage the removal would cause. Jack had drawn the duty of explaining everything to Daniel. He'd grumbled but hadn't refused. They all knew that Sam would make it sound too clinical and Teal'c would state only bare facts. Only Jack possessed the ability to deliver unfortunate news without destroying someone's hope entirely.

"It is my choice and I'm going to do it." Daniel's voice issued from the viewing room doorway. He stood with Jack at his shoulder, looking grim. Sam could sense that the two men had been arguing, tension thrummed the air. Obviously Jack didn't want Daniel to take the risk and had been trying to talk him out of it. With Daniel and Jack, it managed to always escalate into yelling with neither backing down. When they worked together Sam envied the easy bond between the two, but when they butted heads she was glad she was on the outside.

"Are you sure son?" Hammond asked, looking equally concerned.

"Its either that or become some kind of science project or have to live my life off world. This is the only chance I have at a normal life again... as normal as it gets for me anyway. The way I am now, I can't even go home." Daniel sounded just plain tired and Sam felt guilty for thinking that the many and varied trials he had been through had been exhausting for her. She couldn't imagine what it would feel like on the inside. Daniel had every right to be asking the Universe 'why me?'. It seemed the more good he did, the more spanners fate through at his works.

"General -" Jack began to protest, but Daniel turned to him and put a hand to his chest.

"Jack, please. I need your support here. I'm going to need it afterward too from all accounts." Jack sighed heavily, but nodded his agreement. Sam could see from the tenseness in him that he wanted to argue further. One of the many factors that made SG1 so close was Teal'c, Sam and Jack's passion to keep Daniel safe. He would probably never realise just how much they cared for him and how much it hurt the times they had failed to do so. Sam looked at Daniel and saw something else cross his face. She realised Daniel would be getting the removal done not just for himself, but for them aswell. To have such a physical reminder of how he had been hurt while under their care would eat Jack alive, and probably her and Teal'c too.

Sam stepped forward and placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder. He turned and smiled at her. "I'll be fine." He said and she smiled back bravely.

Sam had heard those very words from Daniel before but it hadn't always been true.

xxxxxxx

3 months later

Janet Frasier relished the few minutes every morning when she could take her coffee out onto her balcony and watch the world drift by, putting all cares out of her mind. She sat on a deckchair; her feet propped on the railing and sighed. She would have to have a shower and get ready soon but for now, she was content to just sit. She reached one foot out and touched the cane that was propped against the railing. It was a thing of beauty, dark wood with a bone handle. What made it more beautiful to Janet was that it had been rendered useless. It was sitting out on the balcony because the user hadn't needed it for a few days now. She pushed it with her foot and it tipped sideways to the balcony decking with a clatter. A smile touched her face.

The smile grew wider when she felt warm hands drop onto her shoulders. One hand snaked down and tried to snag the coffee cup from her hands but she pulled it out of reach with a giggle. "Hey, get your own bucko." She laughed. She heard a sigh from behind her and then Daniel dropped into the deckchair next to hers. He'd winced when he'd sat but Janet knew that it was only a dull ache that troubled him now and that would soon be gone too. "Hated that thing as much as me huh?" Daniel said, gesturing at the fallen walking stick. Janet nodded, handing over the coffee cup. Daniel grinned at her gratefully and accepted it, taking a long draft and slumping further into the chair before passing it back. "How - " Janet began but Daniel cut her off.

"No being the Doc today. It's your day off. Just assume I'll tell you if anything's bothering me." Daniel admonished, knowing Janet was going to prod him about how he was feeling. "Ah, I got a call this morning. The Sha'e delegation is coming through today. We both have to go in." Janet said and Daniel groaned. He reached across and Janet thought he was reaching for her coffee and made to pass it back but he waved her off and instead his hand circled her forearm, thumb brushing the soft skin. "How long have we got?" He asked, his eyebrows rising.

"Not long enough if we both want a shower." Janet said, laughing.

Daniel mock-scowled. "Party pooper." He said. He stood, stretching and Janet heard a faint crack. He looked back at her and grinned sheepishly. "I'm starting to sound like Jack in the mornings." He said, rubbing a hand through his hair. Daniel leant down and retrieved the walking stick. He wasn't wearing a shirt and Janet saw the two faint scars under his shoulder blades. Apart from a few twinges and some lingering stiffness, they were the only evidence that Daniel Jackson had once had wings. He turned back to her. The phone shrilled into life in Janet's bedroom and Daniel crossed back inside to retrieve it. Janet turned back to the outside world as she heard the murmur of Daniel's voice. "Yeah...half an hour...no, I swear...Honestly, half an hour...well...yep...that would be good. See you soon Jack." Daniel came back out onto the balcony. "Jack's picking us up." He said. Janet had placed her coffee cup on the deck chair arm and Daniel grabbed it and drained it.

"Hey!" Janet protested, knowing that she should've guessed her coffee wouldn't be safe.

"I'll buy you one on the way." Daniel grinned. Janet let Daniel pull her to her feet. He pulled her into a hug and she returned it, squeezing him tightly to herself, her fingers tracing the faint raised skin of his scars. He lifted her off her feet and she laughed. Janet had enjoyed the time Daniel had been restricted from going off world, but she knew that time was coming to an end and she would have to start worrying about him again.

For now though, she was content to let Daniel carry her inside, both of them forgetting about the shower.

Jack was right.

They were going to be late.