Written in the Stars

by Audrey Lynne

Caveat: The author's notes explain the background of this story; if you happen to not read them and get lost, you've been warned. J --Thank you, Management

Notes: This story was supposed to follow my in-progress novella, "Standing Outside the Fire," in which Janet Fraiser returns, and the gang discovers she ascended shortly after her death. Unfortunately, the muse, fickle creature that she is, decided this story should be written first. Therefore, it is completely unnecessary (and, as it's not done yet, impossible) to read Standing Outside the Fire first. (I swear, as soon as I get this story out of my system, I'll get back on it. J) Just know and accept that Janet was ascended and she's back. Dr. Lam, for those who care, transferred back to the Air Force Academy hospital. Season-wise, Janet returned shortly after the beginning of Season 9 and the fic universe became its own little world from there. This story begins a couple months later.

Technical stuff: This is a story written by for the fans, by a fan, and not for profit. Stargate: SG-1 and its associated characters are owned by MGM. There is nothing to be gained from suing me, as I'm 23, I live with my parents and own little of value.

I've removed the song lyrics, as they refuse to format right, they look MUCH prettier in the Word document, but oh, well. If I ever zine this story, I'll put em back in.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lieutenant General George Hammond, Retired, sighed as his phone rang and he looked at the Caller ID. NORAD. If NORAD was calling him at home, he knew it had to be someone from Stargate Command, because all SGC phones were programmed to give Caller IDs a generic NORAD number. Getting calls from the SGC used to be a daily occurrence for him, but since his retirement, he only visited the Cheyenne Mountain complex on a social basis. He hoped someone from the SGC was calling to invite him to dinner or somesuch, something that wouldn't require him to be a general again, but deep down, something told him he wouldn't be so lucky. He picked up the phone, answering with a businesslike, "Hammond."

"General!" George recognized the voice instantly--Walter Harriman. Definitely not a social call, then. "I'm glad we caught you."

That was never a good sign, and not something George wanted to hear less than a minute into the conversation. "What's going on, Walter?"

Walter paused, as if taking in the fact that the general knew him by the sound of his voice. Hell, nearly everyone who'd worked in the SGC for any length of time did. "General Landry's asked to see you, sir, as soon as possible."

Hank Landry didn't make such requests lightly, which told George the situation was serious. "I'll be there as soon as I can." It was a good thing his granddaughters weren't scheduled to come over that afternoon. He'd have hated to have to cancel something on them because of duty again.

------------

Hank Landry had been having an interesting day, to say the least. Running the SGC was work enough, but when complications arose, that was when his skills were put to the test. He'd heard all kinds of wild stories about the time before his tenure at the SGC began, read many of the old mission reports himself, but it seemed none of the other generals who had ever headed up the Stargate project had faced a situation quite like this. The closest he and Jack O'Neill could come up with was the time Daniel had un-ascended--again--and ended up naked in Jack's office, but even that was different. Daniel had been in possession of his memory that time...and, plus, he'd been Daniel. This situation had its own unique twist to it.

There he had been, minding his own business along with the base's, when he'd gotten a phone call from Jack. That wasn't necessarily an uncommon state of affairs, as Jack was heading up Homeworld Security at the Pentagon and, technically, oversaw the Stargate Project along with everything else. What was uncommon was Jack's request and the story that went along with it. He was in Washington, DC, with some of the military's best hospitals a stone's throw away, but he wanted to transfer a woman to the SGC's infirmary. And not just any woman, but one who had managed to somehow breach Pentagon security to end up in Jack's office. Unconscious. And not a stitch of clothing on her.

Understandably, Jack thought it odd that no one would have noticed her, and security cameras showed no one who even remotely looked like the woman coming or going anywhere else in the Pentagon. She'd come around in Jack's office before the paramedics arrived, but she'd seemed confused, and even when she started talking to medical personnel, she claimed to have no idea who she was or where she was from. At that point, Jack had picked up the phone and called Landry, wanting Janet Fraiser to have a look at the woman. He didn't know if she would find anything of note, but Janet had plenty of experience with weird situations and if anything could pick up on anything, Janet was the one.

Jane Doe, as they were calling her--this was the military, after all, and they were big on tradition--had arrived, along with Jack, not long ago. Landry was awaiting Janet's report, but until then, he and Jack had to try to figure out what was going on and how to deal with their unexpected visitor. When the two of them failed to come up a plan that seemed workable, they knew they had to call in the only man who knew more about this sort of thing than they did--George Hammond. He was on his way, and as grateful as Landry was for that, it did not escape him that considering that there were three generals on the case with seven stars among them, this one woman was creating quite a ruckus.

The complete absurdity of the situation had not escaped Landry, but he was getting used to that sort of thing. Their Jane Doe was friendly, if not exactly helpful, and Landry supposed that was something to be grateful for. After all, there was nothing worse than a belligerent amnesiac--not that Landry had dealt with any personally, but he assumed it would not be a pleasant experience. Janet had allowed Landry and Jack in to talk to Jane while she awaited the results of her tests, hoping one of their questions might trigger an automatic response, memories she possessed but couldn't consciously recall. Wherever she'd come from, she understood English, so that was a start. "Ma'am," Landry asked, "I know you said you don't remember anything about yourself, but do you at least remember how you got into General O'Neill's office?" The question had been asked before, phrased a little differently, but it was worth repeating.

Jane shook her head. "I wish I did." She gave a little scoff of laughter. "I can't recall any of it, but I'm sure in whatever life I've led, I'm not the sort of woman who often finds herself unconscious in generals' offices."

"Unconscious and naked," Jack reminded her.

She shot him a look. "Yes, General, I've been made abundantly aware of that fact." She tugged on the shoulders of the standard-issue hospital gown she'd been wearing when she arrived. Stamped upon it were the words "Property, Walter Reed Army Medical Center," as if they were concerned patients might want to take the gowns home as souvenirs. "Are you sure you didn't happen to find my clothing in your office? This gown is comfortable enough, but it's open in the back!"

As if on cue, Janet approached, holding a second gown, and draped it over Jane's shoulders for the moment. "Here, once you get up and around, you can put this on backwards to cover the gaps. I'll try to round up a clean pair of scrubs for you to wear soon."

Jane smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Doctor." The look she turned on Jack was significant. "See, a woman understands."

Jack held up his hands innocently. "Hey, I never said I didn't understand. I only said I don't know where your clothes are."

"And suggested I ought to contact the individuals who might have been hosting a 'wild party' in your office."

Landry shook his head, doing his best to hide his amusement. It definitely sounded like something Jack would have said, but they were getting away from the point of their interview. "Now, ma'am, I don't mean to make it sound like we don't believe you, but you have to understand, it's pretty preposterous that a lone woman with no credentials we know of could make it into one of the United States military's most secure facilities unnoticed. When you factor in that you were in the office of a man who oversees some highly classified projects, I hope you can see why we're so insistent upon finding out exactly what circumstances brought you there."

Jane nodded. "And, no doubt, you do want to know why I would have been unconscious in the general's office without so much as a sock in sight."

That one caught Jack off-guard, though he quickly bit off his burst of laughter. "Ah...yeah, that about covers it."

Jane shrugged. "I'm sorry. I want answers as much as you do, but I'm in the dark, too, more so than either of you. At least you still know who you are and where you're from. I don't even have that."

She had a point. It occurred to Landry that the poor woman probably hadn't been left alone for a moment since she'd awakened. "Yes, of course." He glanced at Jack. "Should we move to the conference room?" It would give Jane some time to herself, as well as allow Jack and Landry to speak freely. Besides, General Hammond would be arriving soon, and he'd need to be briefed.

"Good idea," Jack agreed. He offered Jane his best appeasing smile. "Don't worry--we are going to get to the bottom of this. It might take time, but we'll get those answers."

It was obvious that, whoever she was, Jane was not a woman who needed a great deal of pacification. "I understand, General. Thank you." As she settled back against the pillow behind her, Landry could have sworn he heard her mutter something about the whole ordeal being a "pain in the mikta."

Jack heard it, too, judging from the shock in his expression. Landry could figure out what the word meant, but he wasn't sure where it came from--perhaps Jane's native language? Jack, however, appeared to be familiar with the term. "Hank, I think we're going to have to bring a few more people in on this one."

Landry nodded and continued to walk beside Jack as they headed out of the infirmary. "Who do you need?"

"SG-1, for sure," Jack said. "I don't know who else yet. If they're off-world, don't recall them yet, but Daniel or Teal'c definitely needs to talk to this lady. Both of them would be better."

"I assume it has to do with that word she was using?"

"Yeah," Jack confirmed. "From context, you can probably guess what it means, but the thing is, it's one of exactly three Goa'uld words I know. Goa'uld. Now, since she's not doing the over-the-top evil overlord bit, I'm guessing she hasn't got a snake in her head, but we've seen Trojan horses here before. The bastards could be laying low."

They reached the elevator at the end of the hall and Landry hit the button. "I agree. We need to know more." More than ever, he was glad they'd called Hammond in. "The Goa'uld haven't been a real problem lately--it's been others knocking at our door--but I don't want to take the chance that they've lulled us into a false sense of security. Ba'al's been known to pop his head in now and again. We need to consider all the possibilities." There were so many potential explanations for Jane's presence, but so few with any positive implications. That part, at least, was business as usual. Nothing was ever easy around the SGC, but challenge made the reward that much sweeter. All the same, there were days Landry wished, just once, he could get through a day where the biggest crisis he had to deal with was that the cafeteria's dishwasher had broken and they were going to have to use disposable utensils for the rest of the week.

)------------

They'd called her Jane. Jane Doe. Dr. Fraiser had explained that it was a name commonly given to females whose identities were unknown. Apparently, unidentified males were known as John Doe. It didn't make a lot of sense to Jane, but nothing did anymore. She had no idea who she was or how she'd come to be in General O'Neill's office and that terrified her, because she was the sort of person who relished having control of a situation. At least she thought she was. The description felt right, especially with as unnerved as she was by being out of control, but Jane didn't know where it had come from. Hopefully, other things would come in time. Like her name. Jane was a fine name, but it wasn't hers, and it was awfully close to Janet, Dr. Fraiser's first name. Of course, it would be rather ironic if it turned out her name was Jane after all, but she didn't think it was. And her second name had certainly not been "Doe," of that she was sure.

Jane had been confused when she'd first awakened; for some reason, being in her own body felt odd somehow. No wonder, as she was lying on a nicely carpeted floor with a man standing over her, asking if she was all right. It seemed like a stupid question. If she'd been all right, would she have been lying on the floor? And why wasn't she wearing any clothes? Jane wanted the answer to that question more than any of the others, only because a lack of clothing seemed to be a taboo in this culture. This culture? Then it wasn't her own? It was impossible to tell. From what she'd been able to gather, Jane thought sexuality and nudity were highly linked in this culture. True, the sexual act often required nudity, but some cultures viewed nudity as natural, nothing to be ashamed of. The body was beautiful, they felt, and there was no reason to hide it. Could she have been from one of those cultures, brazenly bringing her values with her to a world that did not celebrate nakedness? Whatever she'd been doing, Jane hoped she'd had fun. She certainly wasn't having any now.

First, she'd been spirited away to a hospital, where they'd drilled her with questions she didn't have answers for. Then General O'Neill had taken her out of the hospital with him and they'd boarded an airplane. After a few hours, the airplane had landed and Jane had been whisked off to this place, then asked more questions. They wouldn't give her many details about where she was, save that it was "the infirmary," which told her nothing, really. She could have figured that out on her own.

When she tried to remember where she was from, only a vague image of a fountain drifted across her mind, but even that was fleeting. Jane couldn't recall anything about the fountain, only that she was sure it existed somewhere, and that place was probably where she'd called home. Names would have been much more helpful, but at least it gave her faith that she did have a home somewhere, even if she didn't know where that was. Hopefully, it would be waiting for her when she remembered enough to be able to return.

------------

Jack O'Neill's day hadn't started out as anything special, but it had quickly escalated from there. He'd spent the first two hours of his morning stuck in a boring budgetary meeting, after which he returned to his office to work on some equally boring paperwork. The movies always made life at the Pentagon look so exciting, but not every office could be the war room. After a while, Jack had decided he needed another cup of coffee if he was going to make it through the morning, and so he had left his office again while he paid a visit to the break room down the hall. He was gone all of two minutes. It couldn't have been any longer than that. There was no way anyone could have gotten a stripper down the hall, naked, and into his office in that time, as the only way into his office was from down the same corridor that led him to the break room. Not to mention, no one would have been stupid enough to try a prank like that in the Pentagon, one of the highest security buildings in the nation, if not the world. Furthermore, the poor woman had been unconscious when Jack had stumbled into his office to find her, which did not lend any support to the idea that the whole incident was a joke taken too far. So where the hell had "Jane Doe" come from?

The doctors at Walter Reed had pronounced Jane to be in good health, with no discernable reason for her having lost consciousness. Once he'd heard that, Jack had known he had to contact the SGC. If anyone on the planet could explain how an unclothed, unconscious woman had come to be in his office, they could. Jack only hoped she hadn't been some well-intentioned but misguided gift from Thor, as that was the only possible way he could fathom that she had appeared in his office out of nowhere. But even that didn't solve the question of how the woman was apparently familiar enough with Goa'uld slang to use it in a sentence. Jack only hoped that was the only Goa'uld she knew. He supposed they'd find out for sure once SG-1 arrived.

Thanks to an MRI, Janet had been able to determine that Jane was not a Goa'uld host, but that didn't necessarily mean she had never been one. Janet was testing the woman's blood to determine if Jane carried traces of naquadah or even the protein marker Jolinar had left in Sam Carter's blood, anything to suggest Jane might have once carried a symbiote. While it wouldn't tell them how she'd made it into the Pentagon undetected, it might have gone a long way toward explaining why she had lapsed into an ancient Egyptian dialect to express her opinion that their circumstances were a pain in the ass. Jack agreed, but that was hardly the point.

Jack technically could have returned to Washington once Jane was safely in the SGC's custody, but he didn't want to have to follow the situation via telephone. He'd already called back to the Pentagon and let them know he would be in Colorado for at least a few more days. Nice, being able to do that, without anyone to tell him he couldn't, save the President. However, even the President wanted to know how Jane had come to be in Jack's office and why, so Jack figured he'd have a fair amount of leeway on this one.

Jack was sitting in the briefing room, just outside the general's office, waiting for General Hammond to arrive, when Janet came into the room. As timing would have had it, Hank Landry was coming out of his office at the same time. The sheets of paper in Janet's hands suggested there was news, and though her expression gave nothing away, Jack was willing to bet things were about to get more complicated, if that was possible. Landry came over to stand beside the two of them, his eyes flickering to the papers Janet held.

"Doctor?" Landry asked.

Janet inclined her head at both of them. "Generals. The additional labs you requested on Jane are back."

"And?" Jack prompted.

"She's definitely got naquadah in her bloodstream," Janet reported. "I did another full-body scan just to be sure, and there's nothing in her body that shouldn't be there, so I think it's safe to assume at this point that she's been a host."

"What about the protein marker?" Landry asked.

Janet shook her head. "I found no traces of it, but near as I can tell, that only means the symbiote didn't die while it was still in her. Sam's the only one I know of who carries the marker, but she's also the only one I know of who's survived the death of a symbiote while it was in her body." She set the papers down on the table and raised her hands in mock defense. "Now, this is uncharted territory, at least to our medical science. I could be wrong. But that's what my prior experience is telling me."

Given that, of all the doctors on Earth, Janet probably had the most experience with medicine as it pertained to the additional complications of carrying around snakelike alien creatures in one's body, Jack was inclined to trust her. "Okay, so let's say she was a host. She's got the naquadah thing; she knows some Goa'uld; it makes sense. But if she's no longer a host, why would they have sent her to us?"

"Is it possible she was a Tok'ra host?" Landry suggested. "We know they try to avoid taking unwilling hosts, even with their numbers as diminished as they are these days. They have the technology to remove a symbiote from the host."

"But why the Pentagon?" Jack asked. "And why naked? That's what's not working for me, here! The Tok'ra have de-Goa'uld folks for us before and they always brought them right back to the infirmary, clothes and all."

"Plus, they didn't have amnesia," Janet pointed out.

"Right," Jack agreed. "Now, the naked and no memory thing, that sounds a lot like Daniel's story, and the falling from the sky would fit, but--why? Even if she got kicked out of the Glowing Light People Fan Club, why wouldn't she go back to wherever she came from? Daniel did!"

"Not the first time," Janet reminded him. "He was on a planet you were due to visit. You found him there."

Jack ran his hands over his face. "Right, right. And you were in DC."

"Where I was needed," Janet said.

"Trust me, Doc; I didn't need this lady in my office," Jack told her. "Besides, didn't you come back with clothes, too?"

Janet sighed and took a seat at the table. "I can only assume it was by special request. It might have been hard to explain why I was standing in the middle of a northern Virginia intersection without any clothes on--and forget getting any credibility at the accident scene."

Jack had to grant her that. "But you chose to come back, so you could help us." He had been seriously injured in a car accident, and that had been the last straw for Janet as far as her adherence to the Ascended's noninterference policy was concerned. Jack knew he owed his life to that decision, and he was grateful, but her case had been different. Janet's memory loss had only gone back twelve or so years; she knew exactly who she was and what to do when she arrived on the scene. And, while it was looking more and more like their new friend Jane was formerly ascended, questions remained. Why would she have naquadah in her blood? Had it been there before she ascended? "Do you think the difference is in the choice?"

"It's possible there's some correlation," Janet replied. "When Daniel came back the second time, he had his memory intact."

"But not his clothes," Jack couldn't resist adding. Boy, had that been a shock, to walk into his office--at the SGC that time--and find Daniel, who'd been missing, alive and well and in the buff. "Except he didn't get all the way in that time, at least from what he remembers." Daniel was fuzzy on the exact details, except that he'd been biding his time in "some diner."

"Without his having had access to the knowledge the Ascended possess, there might have been no need for a memory wipe." Janet sighed. "We could be way off base here. But I think there are too many similarities to completely overlook the possibility."

"I agree," Landry said. "Let's assume for a moment our visitor was ascended. She's left them, either because she chose to or because they made her. I don't think it's important which. What we need to find out is who she is and why she was put in our path. If the Ascended are involved, I think we can assume her being found where she was wasn't an accident."

"Why my office and not here, then?" Jack asked. "Would've been a lot more convenient."

"Could she be someone you worked with once?" Landry asked.

"I've never seen her in my life!" Jack protested. He was pretty good at remembering people, and he was sure Jane was a stranger to him. "I have no idea who she is. And are we sure she's even from Earth? How would a Goa'uld have gotten a hold of her to make her a host in the first place? I know it happened with Osiris, sure, but we tracked down the other Goa'ulds that were still hanging out on Earth, right?"

Landry nodded. "Of the group of missing system lords that the Tok'ra had been tracking, yes."

Jack groaned as he realized what that meant. "But there might have been little people who didn't make the Tok'ra's Top Ten Wanted list. Right. Shit." He didn't want to think about how many Goa'uld might really be on Earth, still, but at least they had quieted down after the Replicators and the rebel Jaffa had seriously kicked their asses and somehow, Anubis had been taken care of. Jack had no idea how that had happened, but Daniel was sure Oma Desala had something to do with it, though if he didn't remember precisely what, and Jack was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. "So, the truth is, we've got no idea where 'Jane' comes from. Maybe Earth, maybe not. She might have been a host. Was it before she ascended? When she ascended and the snake didn't make the cut? We're not even sure she did ascend, but it makes more sense than anything else at this point, so what the hell?"

Landry's laugh was more of a snort. "I've asked myself that question more times since taking this job than I think I did in all my previous assignments combined."

Jack threw him a shit-eating grin. "Fun, ain't it?"

"That's not the word I'd use."

"So what word would you use?" Jack asked. He felt like being contrary, and with an old friend, he could get away with it.

Landry motioned toward Janet. "There's a lady present."

Jack was formulating his comeback when the base's klaxons began to blare.

Walter Harriman's voice came over the loudspeakers. "Unscheduled off-world activation. Repeat, unscheduled off-world activation."

Janet, Jack, and Landry all exchanged worried glances and headed immediately for the Stargate's control room. Unscheduled activations could mean anything, from a team returning early--or late--to unexpected and sometimes unwanted visitors.

"Receiving IDC," Walter reported, then looked up at Landry. "It's SG-1, sir."

Jack frowned. "I thought you said they weren't due back for another day."

"They're not," Landry confirmed, his frown mirroring Jack's. To Walter, he said, "Open the iris."

Jack tried to temper his concern. If SG-1 was returning early, without their having been recalled, it usually meant someone was injured. When three of his dearest friends were on that team...

Janet watched as the iris opened to reveal the active wormhole, concern evident on her features. A medical team had already assembled in the gate room, as was customary for all unscheduled activations. The soldiers in the gate room had lowered their weapons once it had been confirmed that the IDC code was valid, but they still stood at the ready in case they were needed.

A moment later, the four members of SG-1 walked through the gate, all under their own power. There were no obvious bloodstains on their clothing or gaping wounds that Jack could see, and he breathed a small sigh of relief. Beside him, Landry did the same, then the two of them exchanged puzzled glances. If no one was hurt, why was the team returning early? The two generals headed down to the gate room, Janet trailing them. As chief medical officer, it was her prerogative, and she exercised it often.

Jack wasn't sure who was surprised more--everyone else in the gate room, that SG-1 was back early and uninjured, or SG-1, as soon as they saw him.

Landry greeted them before anyone had a chance to get too distracted. "SG-1. What brings you back so early?"

Daniel looked sheepish, and it occurred to Jack that the archeologist was guarding his left arm somewhat. "It's nothing, really. I slipped on some wet rocks and landed on my arm."

"Might be broken," Cameron Mitchell reported. "We'd finished up most of our recon, so we thought we should head on back, let Jackson get that arm checked out."

"I could have splinted it," Daniel insisted.

"Nonsense," Janet insisted as her medical team moved in. "Why take chances?"

Landry nodded. "Fair enough. Dr. Jackson, you go on ahead to the infirmary and let them take care of you. We'll debrief at 0900 tomorrow." With a standard reconnaissance mission like the one SG-1 had been on, there was no need for any immediate reports.

Daniel didn't look thrilled, but he nodded his agreement. Then, with the formalities out of the way, he broke into a grin as he exclaimed, "Jack! What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story," Jack explained.

Sam smiled at that. "Sir?"

"We had an unexpected visitor at the Pentagon," Jack said. "We're trying to figure out where she came from, and everyone agrees this is the best place to do that." He fell into step beside them as they began to head out of the gate room, presumably setting off for the infirmary. "I'll tell you all about it later. General Hammond's on his way, too." He saw the pleasure in their expressions, laced with a healthy dose of curiosity. "Like I said, I'll explain everything soon enough, but I can tell you right now, we're gonna need all the help on this one we can get. It's a doozy."

------------

X-rays confirmed that Daniel had, in fact, broken his wrist when he'd fallen, but fortunately, it was only a hairline fracture. After it had been properly splinted--no casting required, always a bonus--Daniel immediately delved into Jane Doe's case. It was late, but he was running on gate time, as it had been mid-afternoon on PX5-319 when they left it, so Daniel didn't mind. Plus, he was fascinated by what they had learned about her, despite the fact that it wasn't much. Though there was no litmus test to prove that anyone had descended, the facts fit that assessment, and so Daniel was joining everyone else in assuming that "Jane" had been ascended at some point in time. Given that she was as confused by the whole thing as Daniel had been his first time back, Daniel was fairly confident she wasn't one of the Ancients, but a human who had managed to ascend, whether it had been on her own or with Oma's help. Daniel tended to believe the latter, as he hadn't heard of any cases of humans who had achieved ascension on their own returning. It could happen, he was sure, but it wasn't as likely.

Daniel cautiously approached Jane's bedside, not wanting to disturb her if she was asleep. She wasn't, and she sat up as he came up next to her. "Hello." Daniel paused after the greeting, trying to avoid overwhelming the poor woman with too much information at once. He knew exactly how she must have felt. "My name is Daniel Jackson."

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "I don't remember what my name is, but they're calling me Jane. You might as well go with that."

There was something naggingly familiar about Jane, and it only strengthened Daniel's belief that Jane had been ascended at one time. Daniel was sure he had never met her, but he felt like he had...sometime, somewhere. "Works for me."

Jane's eyes trailed to the splint on Daniel's wrist. "What happened to your arm?"

"Got into an argument with some rocks I fell on," Daniel explained. "The rocks won. But don't worry; it's not bad. I'm fine. It's you I'm concerned with."

Her pseudo-smile widened. "It's so nice to be the center of attention."

Daniel took her relaxed posture as a good sign. "I get the impression you'd be just as happy if you weren't." Of course, considering that Jane had been through myriad tests, along with a lot of questioning, he didn't blame her.

"I'd like to know who I am, is all," Jane confessed, hugging her pillow to her chest. She looked so forlorn for a minute that Daniel would have pulled her into his arms if they hadn't just met. "Where I'm from would be nice, too, but I figure, my identity is a better start. Everyone seems to think I should be from this planet, since I showed up here."

"You never know," Daniel told her. "I ended up on a planet where no one had ever met me or even heard of Earth, except in ancient legends. Next thing you know, my team was showing up, and they did know who I was. I might not have been John Doe, but for awhile, I was Arrom."

"That's a nice name," Jane said.

Daniel chuckled. "It means 'naked one.'" He laughed again at her surprised expression. "See, I really do know what you're going through right now. Mostly, anyway. I didn't have the whole issue of ending up in a high-security building to contend with, but being alone in unfamiliar surroundings is never fun under the best of circumstances. When you've got the amnesia complicating things, it's worse. But I got my memory back, and so did Janet, though her memory loss wasn't quite as extensive, so there's every reason to believe you will, too."

"That's reassuring, but it doesn't help me now." Jane shifted position, setting the pillow back in its traditional position at the head of the bed and reclining against it. She chewed on her lower lip for a second. "Your friend was here earlier, a Mr. Teal'c? He wanted to see what I remembered of another language."

"Goa'uld, right," Daniel agreed. "How'd that go?" He'd wanted to be present for that, but Janet had insisted he have his arm properly treated first.

"I can't tell you how, but I know exactly what he said," Jane told him. "It must be a language as familiar to me as this one."

If she'd been a host, that made perfect sense, as the memory of the language could have been one of the things passed on to her. Daniel had always thought it unfortunate that Sam hadn't been granted a full knowledge of the language through Jolinar's memories, only occasional words. "That's not surprising, given some of the things we've discovered about you."

"You mean the mineral in my blood? I heard them talking about it earlier."

Daniel nodded. "Yes. Most humans don't have that in their blood naturally, which probably means you've had an encounter of some sort with one of the groups we've met out there." He made a vague gesture around the room. Details about what was involved with being a host were best left for later; Jane was sure to remember it on her own in time. In his case, Daniel had found that the memories with the strongest emotional attachments had been the first to return, and being a host did nothing if not stir up a lot of emotions.

Jane ran her hands over her face. "There's one phrase that keeps running through my mind. I didn't mention it before, because it hadn't occurred to me that it might be impotant."

"What is it?" Daniel asked.

Jane frowned a little, as if debating with herself. "I've met so many people today that everything's running together. I think that other general, the one they called Hammond, said you spoke several languages--you do, right?"

"Not in English, huh?" Daniel guessed. When she nodded, he said, "Not a problem. I speak about twenty-three different languages, not counting some variant dialects. Try me."

Jane nodded again and closed her eyes, as if willing it to come to her. "Arik tree, ac te kek."

Daniel blinked in surprise. "We do not surrender, even in death."

Jane gave him a look. "I know what it means. Why is it running through my head?"

That was a good question. After a few seconds, it occurred to him that perhaps it was related to her ascension. "I can't say for sure, but if you did come back from another plane of existence, like we're thinking, it would make a certain amount of sense. You didn't surrender to death. It couldn't win."

Jane scoffed. "I suppose, but do you have any idea how disconcerting it is to think in two separate languages?"

Daniel laughed. "I find myself doing it on a regular basis. You may discover you know even more languages than that, but I'd venture to say Goa'uld and English are your primary two. With as familiar as you obviously are with Goa'uld, you might even be from someplace where it was the primary spoken language." It had been on Abydos and several of the other Goa'uld-occupied worlds Daniel had visited.

"Tel kol," Jane said with a sigh, and while she seemed to be mostly talking to herself, Daniel sympathized. Its closest English translation was "we have a problem," and Daniel could definitely get behind that assessment. The woman looked back up at Daniel. "See, I'm doing it again."

Daniel risked putting a hand on her shoulder. She was so achingly familiar, but Daniel couldn't place her. "Don't worry about it. Your mind is all mixed up right now. You'll sort things out eventually."

"I'm glad you're so confident." Jane's tone underscored the doubt in her words.

"You will," Daniel assured her, squeezing her shoulder supportively. "I'm sure of it. You need time, is all. Rome wasn't built in a day."

If Jane didn't understand the expression, she gave no sign. "I get the impression that I was never the sort of person who liked to wait around when something was important."

Daniel gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "That's okay. Neither am I. With an attitude like that, you'll fit right in around here." The real question was, what were they going to do with her until she remembered whatever life she'd left behind?

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Things had gotten progressively stranger since George had arrived at the SGC, but he really shouldn't have been surprised. That sort of thing was just par for the course. What wasn't par for the course was Jane Doe's story. Even by SGC standards, it was a little bizarre. The general consensus was that she'd ascended and now come back, for whatever reasons she might have had, but no one at the base who'd met her knew her. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, and general facial structure, George thought she bore a passing resemblance to Anna Carter, but though she'd died twenty-five years ago, George would have known Anna in an instant. Besides, they'd been lucky--beyond lucky--that Oma Desala had taken a liking to them and had offered ascension to Daniel and, later, Janet. It would have been handy to have Oma around sooner, for all those times George and his friends had lost someone they loved, but sometimes, death really did mean leaving this life behind. George could admit that perhaps he was overanalyzing things, but Oma's help had opened up a lot of new doors--and given them some very dear friends back. It wasn't something that could ever be taken for granted, but it was greatly appreciated nonetheless.

Thinking of Anna naturally got George around to thinking of Jacob. God, he missed Jake. It had been awhile since Jacob Carter and Selmak had died, but there were times it seemed like only yesterday. George had been stuck at the Pentagon, unable to make it back to Colorado in time to say goodbye, and that was what really bugged him. At least he'd made it in time for the funeral. It had been a lovely service, but George hoped it was the last funeral he'd attend for a very long time. He'd been to too damned many in his life.

George shook his melancholy thoughts aside and returned his focus to the problem at hand. It was late, and they were all going to call it a night soon, but until then, George wanted to get some work done. The more they got done, the easier the answers they needed would be to find.

Three of the four members of SG-1 were in the briefing room, along with George, Jack, Janet, and General Landry. Daniel was down in the infirmary, talking to Jane, and George hoped Daniel would be able to get something useful out of her. Daniel had a way with people and a special perspective on the ascended life as well; if anyone was going to be able to get past Jane's memory block and help her remember who she was, it would be him. He'd been the one to help Janet when she returned, and though they didn't have a clue who Jane was, George wanted the opportunity to find out.

Daniel entered the briefing room a few minutes later and took a seat at the table. The other seven faces in the room turned to him expectantly, awaiting news.

"How's the wrist?" Mitchell asked, gesturing vaguely at his own arm.

Daniel shrugged. "It's there."

Jack jumped on the follow-up question. "How's Jane?"

"Good," Daniel replied. "All things considered, she's in a fairly good mood. If it weren't for the fact that she's as clueless about her identity as we are, I wouldn't know anything was wrong with her."

It was nothing they didn't already know, but at least Daniel had gotten the same impression as the rest of them and they were all on the same page. "Did you learn anything new about her?" George asked.

"Ah," Daniel hedged, "not really. We did have an interesting conversation, though. I definitely think she has to have been ascended. As Teal'c determined earlier, she's fluent in Goa'uld, and one of the sentences she used translates to 'we do not surrender, even in death.' She says it keeps coming to her. If you ask me, ascension's just about the ultimate refusal to surrender to death." He brought his hands together, steepling the index fingers. "Here's the interesting thing. The words she used are Goa'uld, but the quote is commonly used at Tok'ra funerals. In fact, as far as I know, those exact words, with that intonation, are rarely spoken anyplace else."

Sam frowned slightly, in the way she did when she was trying to follow someone else's logic. "Do you think she was a Tok'ra host, then?"

Daniel spread his hands in front of him. "I don't know. I don't think we can assume anything about who she was a host to at this point. There's something else about her too, something I can't put my finger on. I feel like I should know her. I don't, but I feel like we've met before. Anyone else get that impression?" Heads shook all around the table. "Okay, then. Guess it's just me." He smiled at Janet, who was sitting across from him. "I was kind of hoping you would have, but I suppose it would be too easy if it was tied into the ascension thing, huh?"

"Since when are things ever that easy around here?" Jack asked.

George had to agree. While Daniel's conversation with Jane had at least yielded some results and given them a few more things to consider, there were still more questions than they had answers.

When it became apparent they weren't going to reach any solutions that night, Landry dismissed the meeting and everyone began to disperse, whether they were going home or to their quarters or elsewhere. Landry caught George as they were both headed out the door. "General, I know I said this before, but thank you for coming."

George waved a dismissive hand. "Don't mention it." It was nice to know his expertise was valued, even after his retirement. If this sort of thing got to be a habit, then he was going to have to say something, but one case wasn't so bad, despite his initial misgivings. "Did you want me to join you again tomorrow?" George wasn't looking for an out so much as trying to make sure Landry didn't feel as if George intended to come in and take over.

Landry appeared to understand. "We'd love to have you, if you're willing."

The truth was, now that he was involved with the case, George wanted to see it through, if only to solve the mystery that surrounded Ms. Jane Doe. His latest painting project could safely be postponed a little while longer. While not nearly as relaxing, this had its merits, too, and it definitely won as far as the improbability factor was concerned. It would make a great story to tell later, too...provided whoever was in the audience had the proper security clearance.

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Daniel had learned many forms of meditation over the years, but his favorite was the Jaffa kel'no'reem--a necessity for Jaffa who carried immature symbiotes, but also doable for humans. It was a deep, peaceful sort of meditation, and Daniel had embraced it ever since Teal'c had taught it to him. Even now that Teal'c's symbiote had been replaced by tretonin, Teal'c still practiced kel'no'reem himself as a form of relaxation.

Daniel had also found the deep retreat into his own mind that kel'no'reem made possible helped him to be able to retrieve memories from his subconscious that he might have otherwise thought lost. And, so, after spending a restless night trying to pinpoint why Jane felt so familiar to him, Daniel decided a little meditation was in order.

It was a little after five am when Daniel awoke yet again, and though he had gotten some sleep, he knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep this time. The lost look in Jane's eyes stuck with him and Daniel felt like he was the one who might have the key needed to unlock her hidden memories. Daniel knew they were there underneath; they had to be. If Jane's mind had been wiped completely, her personality would have been gone with it, and that was obviously intact.

Daniel crawled out of bed, grateful he'd decided to spend the night in his quarters on base. He had most of his meditation aids there. After setting up the candles, he settled down in the middle of the circle he'd made and began to light them. Daniel was experienced enough with kel'no'reem that he was able to slip into a meditative trance very easily, and from there he let his mind wander, steadying himself by the sound of his heartbeat. The rhythm was steady, the sound of life, blood rushing through his veins, nourishing his body, the perfect focal point...

The image of Jane's face filled Daniel's mind and he latched onto it. Her eyes had struck him almost immediately as they'd met, crystal-clear blue eyes with a depth that spoke of one who had seen many lifetimes. As a host, she probably had. Daniel had seen those eyes before. He knew it. But where?

A diner, somewhere out there. Tom's Diner. Nick took him there when he was eight. Then Oma took him back. Daniel remembered that much, that he'd been biding his time between worlds in a diner when Oma had offered him a second chance at ascension. Daniel followed the path of that memory as far as it would take him. No one paid any attention to him after Oma left. Why did she leave? It wasn't important. But Jane was there. Daniel remembered her now. She'd sipped at her tea, those blue eyes of hers filled with a profound sadness Daniel wished he could soothe away. They'd talked. About what, Daniel still couldn't remember, even in this state, but it had regarded her decision over whether or not to ascend. To be with someone. Someone she loved. The table was all that separated her from Daniel, but it felt miles wide now as he struggled to regain that memory. That honey-blonde hair, those blue eyes. Folding into Daniel's arms as she sobbed, finally letting go of the burden she carried in her heart. He had met her, she had ascended. But who was she? Was that why she had ended up in Jack's office, because eventually, it would lead her to Daniel again?

The memory gelled, at least part of it.

"We've worked together before," she said casually.

Great, he was supposed to know her--except Daniel was confident he'd never seen the woman in his life. "You sure about that?"

She nodded. "Trust me. I was there. You never saw me like this, is all. Actually, no one's ever seen me like this, but I needed an avatar on this plane and this body is apparently what the Great Ascended Ones feel my mental image of myself is. How I'd look if I were human."

"So you're not human?" Now Daniel didn't feel so bad about not remembering her.

"Nope." She shook her head. "I've got to admit, a human body has its advantages, even if it's only on this plane."

Not human, then. Not a host. Then what about the naquadah in her blood? Daniel struggled to remember more. Tok'ra. Mentally, Daniel jumped. That was it! She'd been Tok'ra. A symbiote. And she'd died, along with her host. Her host had ascended. She was debating it. In her heart, she'd already decided, but she needed help to move on.

Holy crap. Suddenly, Daniel knew exactly who she was, and the realization jolted him out of kel'no'reem. He hurriedly blew out the candles, then jumped up threw on some clothes as quickly as possible, given his splinted wrist. That accomplished, Daniel bolted out the door in search of someone to share his revelation with.

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It was a little after 0700 when George came into the SGC, as he'd wanted to get an early start on the day, and if he knew Daniel Jackson half as well as he thought he did, Daniel would have spent a good portion of the night working on their problem, if only mentally. After seven years at the base, George still knew its layout intimately, and after clearing security, he began to wander down to Daniel's office, wondering if he might find the archeologist there.

He didn't even need to go that far. As George rounded the corner of the hallway that would take him to Daniel's office, Daniel himself came flying down the hall in his typical Jacksonian overexcited run. Either the continued existence of life on Earth was at stake or he'd found something, George surmised, so he stopped and waited for Daniel to catch up with him.

Daniel grabbed George by the shoulders, then seemed to take stock of what he was doing and jumped back. "Ah...sorry, General."

"No harm done," George assured him, trying to hide his amusement. "Now what's got you in such an all-fire hurry, son? Did you find something."

Daniel nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! I know who Jane is now! I just couldn't remember, because I met her in that diner!"

George had no idea what diner the younger man was talking about, but he was only going to deal with the issue at hand. "Who is she?"

"Selmak!" Daniel exclaimed.

George frowned. "Selmak's dead."

"I know!" Daniel said, then waited, as if the implication should have been obvious.

A second later, George got it. They'd been operating under the assumption that Jane had once been ascended. "Then you're telling me that...?"

"She ascended, yes," Daniel supplied. "So did Jacob. He had the Ancient gene; that's how he was able to operate the device on Dakara. It was his ticket in. Oma helped Selmak out, too, so they wouldn't have to be apart. I'm fuzzy on the details, still, but I met Selmak in a diner between here and there when she was making her choice. She took on the form of a human woman as her avatar. They must have returned her like that so she could function independently if she needed to."

The words were coming out of Daniel's mouth at a mile a minute, and George was hard-pressed to follow them all. He did remember hearing the story--and reading the report--of Daniel's second chance to ascend; the timing would have been right. That didn't explain everything, however. "Let me see if I follow you. You're saying they both ascended. She took human form when she was there, so that's how she came back."

"Yeah, what's to stop her?" Daniel asked. "When you're there, you're made of energy, no real body anyway. You can choose how you look to people. That's probably the mental image she had of herself, if she'd been human."

"Right." George could accept that. He even understood Selmak ascending to be with Jacob, as the two had been friends on the most intimate level. Soulmates, of a sort. "Presumably, if she ascended so that they could stay together, she wouldn't come back without him." At Daniel's nod, George asked, "Then where's Jacob?"

Daniel's eyes widened. "Oh, my God. I have no idea." He took a small step backwards, as if the implications were just beginning to hit him. "Selmak might, but even if she had the knowledge, she doesn't remember it."

Nothing around the SGC could ever be simple, George thought with a mental sigh. It would have been too easy for Jacob to have returned in the same place as Selmak. Hope warred with caution in George's mind. The possibility existed that his best friend was alive, but the catch was, he could have been anywhere in the universe. And it was a big universe to have to search.

"Someone's going to need to tell Sam," Daniel said after a moment, his expression suggesting he knew how she was likely to react. Jacob's death had affected her deeply, even if she tried to play the tough soldier and didn't always let it show. George couldn't help but think that whenever Sam pulled that routine, she only proved exactly how much like her father she really was.

"I'll do it," George volunteered. He'd known Sam since she was a little girl, and though he'd had to maintain his professional distance when he was her commander, retirement imposed no such restrictions upon him. He could be "Uncle George" again. "It's going to be a lot for her to handle, but she's had experience with ascension before, and if anyone can handle the improbable, it's Sam. The bottom line is, even if we're not sure of his location, there's a strong possibility that her father is alive out there somewhere." He knew she'd latch onto that in a heartbeat. It was almost too unbelievable to be true, but if life had taught George anything, it was that nothing was impossible.

Daniel threw him a grateful look. "Thanks." He fell into a contemplative pause, then met George's eyes again. "We've got that briefing at 0900, but it shouldn't take too long. There were some great ruins on PX5-319, but nothing particularly earth-shattering. After that, I think we definitely need to talk to Jane--Selmak--again. Maybe it'll stimulate her memory, having a few details to go on. I know it did with me. If anyone's going to be able to help us find Jacob, it's her." He made a random gesture in the air with his good hand, but George was used to that. If Daniel wasn't talking with his hands, there was usually something wrong. "I'll go talk to General Landry," Daniel said, "if you'll catch Sam. I think someone ought to tell her beforehand, it being her dad and all."

"Right," George agreed. It would have been in poor taste to surprise Sam with that kind of news in the middle of a briefing. George checked his watch. Sam was likely to be awake, though he didn't know if she'd gone home or if she'd spent the night on-base. "Do you know if she went home or not?"

Daniel frowned. "I think she did, actually. I heard her saying something about wanting to sleep in her own bed. I don't blame her." He angled his head so that he could glance at George's watch. "She probably left her house a few minutes ago, but she doesn't live far."

George resolved to catch up with Sam as soon as she got to the base. In the meantime, he thought it couldn't hurt to wander by the infirmary and check in on Selmak while Daniel went to explain the situation to Landry. If Selmak had remembered anything, that would be great--and if she hadn't, they weren't any worse off than they'd been before. In fact, they were better, because they knew who she was. It never hurt to try to put a positive spin on things. Sometimes, that was the only way to preserve one's sanity.

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