Jack led the team through the stargate without glancing back. He had his dark sunglasses and cap on even though it seemed like perfect weather outside. The small ferns, that grew up between the cobblestones like weeds in the cracks of the sidewalk, crunched under his boots and did not stand again. Aside from the wind, making a slight whisper through the trees, it was very quiet out. Along the path to the stargate, shielding the group from entering into the forest itself, was a line of cut stone forming a very formidable corral.

“Looks like someone didn't want people wandering into the woods,” Jack said, squinting up at the sky.

“Vicious wildlife, maybe?”

Jack shrugged. Whatever it was, it was a bit strange.

“Dead end.”

“Sir, why would someone go to all this trouble to build a path, and these walls only to have it lead nowhere? It doesn't make sense.”

“Think we can scale the wall?” Jack asked.

“It looks pretty smooth. I can't see anything for a decent foothold, and it's way too tall to jump,” Daniel said grimacing at the thought of trying and falling on his butt several times.

“Oh come on, Daniel. It's not that high.” Jack turned his hat backward on his head and made an attempt to scrape up the wall. He slid down the few feet he had managed to climb, and landed on his feet. He tried a few more times, without success. He took a moment to catch his breath and looked at his team. “Well? Any bright ideas?”

“Well, Jack, I don't see any symbols to indicate that there is a way to get out of here once you're inside.”

“Daniel, there has to be a way. I don't see any dead bodies lying around here, do you?”

“Well,” Daniel glanced around himself to be sure that he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. “No, but that isn't the point. Maybe this is a primitive version of our iris. Keep the enemy where they can't do any harm.”

It was awhile later when they finally decided to turn back home. If there was a way out of the coral without scaling it, they weren't going to find it without some help. Perhaps it was best to just give up for the moment and make their report at the SGC.

Sam dialed the gate and stepped through the wormhole, followed by both Teal'c and Daniel. Jack stepped through the event horizon and felt his feet touch ground on the other side for a fraction of a second before a current of energy surged through his body. He stepped forward and frowned. “Well, that was weird. Anyone else feel that?”

He peeled off his sunglasses because the room was too dark for him to see clearly with them on. He blinked when all he was greeted with was darkness. “What the hell?”

This was not the gate room. Jack could sense that even without being able to see. He was stuck in a small room, and he was alone. All he felt around him was smooth walls. He reached into his vest pocket for his flashlight and flicked it on. He swore aloud when it didn't light up. He had checked the batteries before he had left too!

He paced the perimeter of his small room and after awhile he settled for squatting in a corner. In the distance he could hear a strange humming noise. Like someone singing random things without using actual words. After a few minutes the sounds were irritating, and Jack had to concentrate to tune the noise out.

The noise had played nonstop, and Jack was sick of it. He was squatting in the corner with his hands over his ears in an attempt to dampen the humming, but it seemed to penetrate his efforts with ease. He gritted his teeth and breathed out from between them. Jack's stomach growled loudly, but he didn't take his hands from his ears to attempt to rub the grumbling away. That wouldn't have worked anyway.

Jack whined in his throat when the volume seemed to increase very quickly. It was practically vibrating the sounds inside his skull. He screwed his eyes shut and curled into a ball. He wasn't listening, but that didn't stop his body from hearing.

It had been hours of nothing but the aggravating sounds bouncing around his cell and in his head. Jack hoped the others weren't listening to the same channel that he was if they had been taken here as well. The humming sound suddenly stopped. Jack heard it inside his head for several more seconds, but then it was quiet.

“Oh, thank god.”

Jack blinked in surprise when the room lit up suddenly. It wasn't an especially blinding bright light, but over the course of the past few hours he had become almost accustomed to his darkened little cell. When his eyesight had adjusted he realized that he was no longer alone in the room. A boy around the age of thirteen and a man in his twenties stood there watching him. Neither of the strangers said anything to him.

“Hi,” Jack said, giving them a sarcastic little wave as he pulled himself to his feet.

The hum came back. Two separate and equally unnerving pitches, and Jack couldn't help but wince. A deep one and a higher pitched one. After a few seconds it stopped. The older of the pair approached Jack and grabbed him by the shoulder, squeezing almost to the point where it hurt. There was a strange prickling sensation, almost like a weakened version of the energy that he had felt when he had stepped through the stargate and then the room changed.

He stumbled as the man shoved him forward. “Hey, no need to get nasty big guy.” He looked ahead and realized where he was being herded. The room they were in now was huge. The floor was a dark stone slate, huge panes of glass showed a view to the outside world that seemed to be swallowed up by a huge forest of dark green trees. Had he been in a different setting he might have mistaken the room for a rich yuppie's version of a cabin. However, this was not a luxury home. The metal slab a few feet away was a dead giveaway of that.

Auditory torture must not have been amusing enough anymore. Jack gripped his weapon tightly and abruptly turned on the man who was herding him toward the table. The guy stopped and stared at Jack. “Back up fella. This thing isn't just a noisemaker.” The hum came again. This time in a soft tone. Jack grit his teeth and glared straight ahead; his weapon pointed right at the man. “Stop that!”

Jack couldn't stand that noise. Maybe the alien needed to suffer a little too. He lowered his weapon, so that when he fired it would hit the guy in the thigh. He squeezed the trigger as he had done a million times before and was met with a dull click. “What the hell?”

The man stepped forward and grabbed the weapon that Jack was holding. Jack refused to let it go. A deep hum forced him to shut his eyes and let loose of his grip. God, that noise sucked. The man relieved Jack of his gun and put it over his own shoulder as he moved to shove Jack forward once more.

Jack found himself on his back with a grunt, staring up at the ceiling. He felt his face gripped in the vice of strong fingers and turned his head so that his left ear was facing upward. He was able to stare out at the forest as he struggled to get loose. Someone folded his ear towards his ear canal, almost covering the canal completely. Something cold and hard was pressed to the skin behind his ear and there was a sharp burst of pain. Jack yelped and felt the hands press him a little harder so that he wouldn't be able to get up.

The hum was back, louder and shriller than ever. It seemed to pierce right to the center of his brain and Jack couldn't even think coherently enough to yell out words of protest. He felt a little pressure behind his ear, someone was messing with the thing they had just stuck behind his ear. The pitch of the noise changed. It went from a shrill painful sound to a garbled noise, like the sound of people talking in a crowd in unison. Another adjustment and the sound went dead.

Jack breathed out in relief through his clenched teeth.

“Can it hear us?” Jack froze as he realized that must've been the boy speaking.

“I believe so. Look how quiet he is now.” The hands that were holding him down relaxed their grip and released him. He didn't try to get up, because his head was pounding. He reached back and tentatively touched the thing attached to his head and jerked away when it sent an unpleasant zing through his head.

“Attempts to remove the device will result in discomfort. Removal will result in permanent damage to your mental faculties.”

Jack frowned. Great... just great. He reached up and covered his eyes with his hand. “Did you do this to the rest of my team?”

“The rest lacked appeal. The path they were on was not intercepted.”

“So you let them make it home?”

“Correct.”

“Well, why in the hell did you intercept my path? I didn't do anything different from the rest of my team.”

“Edrin favored you over the others. We don't get visitors often.”

“Yeah, I can see why,” Jack said rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand. “Edrin is the boy?”

“Yes.”

“And you are?”

“I am Turner.”

“Well, Turner, I'm Jack. I can't say that it was great to meet you, but you've got a heck of a view of the woods from here. Really nice looking trees,” Jack said with a hard look on his face. Turner looked confused. “Anyway, thanks for screwing up my head and giving me one hell of a headache.” Jack gave Turner a nasty little grin as he sat up and Turner gave him an unsure smile back. “Now that we've got that out of the way I want my gun back, and I want to go home.”

“Ah, I'm afraid you misunderstand. You have been chosen as a favored one. It is a great honor.”

“Yeah, okay, whatever. The kid likes my sunglasses or something. I'll give them to him if he wants, but I can't stay here.” Jack moved to stand and found his feet wobbled under his weight. He was almost queasy. He took a moment to breathe and recover his composure.

“I cannot allow you to leave. Edrin wishes for you to stay, and so you shall.”

Jack glared at Turner and then looked to the boy who was watching the two men. “The boy is in charge?”

Turner gave a quick nod. “I am in his service.”

“So you let this little kid tell you what to do?” Jack furrowed his brow and scratched above his eye.

“He is of noble blood.”

“Whoa... whoa. Noble blood? Like a Prince or something?” Jack frowned.

“I told him that you would not understand. That taking you would be a difficult task, but Edrin was very insistent.”

“Well, Edrin,” Jack made sure that he made firm eye contact with the boy. “Get this through your head. I want to go home. I can't stay here with you. I'm not any fun and you won't like me once you get to know me, so you might as well give it up before you waste any of our time.”

“Turner,” Edrin said, “Does he not understand even with the device in place?”

“He understands us well enough. It is his will that refuses to bow to our customs.”

“Ah, I see.” Edrin seemed to think for a few moments. “Can you not fix him?”

“Perhaps, in time.”

“There is nothing wrong with me, kid!”

“Very well, Turner. I leave him to you. Inform me when he has been mended.” The boy walked off and disappeared down the hall. Where he was going and what he was up to was anyone's guess.

“Nice kid,” Jack said raking his fingertips through his hair.

“You should rest now. The device has drained much of your strength to teach you our language.”

Turner walked Jack to a small room, and while it had no windows it did have an actual door. Jack looked at the small mat on the floor and sighed. Not even a real bed, but something he would have offered to a dog at home.

“I'll return later to fetch you.”

Jack waved to him, whatever. He walked over to his small bed and sat down. It surprised him that the little bed was actually soft, and once he had sat down for awhile it started to warm up. Well, at least he could sleep on a warm dog bed. He yawned and stretched. Jack blinked, he hadn't realized how tired he actually was.

It seemed like he had only just closed his eyes and now someone was shaking him by the shoulder. Idiot. Anyone that knew him would have known better than to touch him while he wasn't fully aware of things. Jack jerked alert when the shaking wouldn't stop. “What! What the hell is the matter with you?” He blinked, as he was still groggy from sleep.

“Ah, apologies,” Turner said quietly. “It is time that you eat something. Afterward you may take more rest.”

Jack inhaled a deep breath and sat up. His head was still swimming a little. Turner must've woke him way too soon. He pulled himself into a sitting position and saw that Turner had brought a plate of food to him. Some sort of melon cut into pieces and a pale white liquid that reminded Jack of watered down milk. He picked up a piece of fruit and smelled it. It looked and smelled a lot like honeydew melon. He took a small bite. The melon was cold enough to make his teeth hurt a little and he waited to take another bite.

Jack finished his melon and drank down the liquid they had offered to him. It wasn't bad, almost like sweet pear juice. He left the empty dishes near his sleeping mat and lay back down. He was still really tired. He glanced at his watch. He tapped the watch face with his forefinger. Was the thing even working? Maybe the battery had gone dead. It didn't really matter, since he didn't have any pressing engagements at the moment. Man, he was tired. Maybe just a small nap would fix it.

Whatever was the matter with him was not being helped by sleep. He felt even more worn down from the past few hours of sleeping. That was it. No more sleeping. He stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds before glancing at his watch. Stupid thing still wasn't working. From the feel of things, hours had passed since Turner had came in and brought him the melon.

As Jack sat in his room alone his mind began to wander. What was it about him that the kid, Edrin, found so appealing anyway? He wondered if he would be able to talk to the boy again soon. Perhaps Turner could relay a message for him. No, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. From the few seconds he had known Edrin the boy seemed impatient and single minded. If Jack were to make him angry and lose his appeal, what then? Would they sentence him to death? Or just leave him in his little room to rot?

Jack shook his head. What was he thinking? He was talking about a boy. A boy who perhaps held a lot of power on this world, his mind told him. Perhaps a cautious approach was best.

It might have been a few days, or even a week, since he had seen anyone from his team. Without his watch he couldn't tell for sure. He sat up nervously on the edge of his sleeping mat. Was someone going to come and feed him? It seemed like Turner waited longer and longer between feedings. Jack tapped his fingers on the tip of his knee. What the hell was taking so long?

Jack looked up as soon as his door opened. Turner was standing in the doorway with the boy.

“Well Turner, have you mended him?” the boy stepped up and looked Jack over as if he were an animal about to be sold at auction.

“I have seen changes in him.”

Changes? Jack pursed his lips. Was that a good or a bad thing?

“Why does he look at you like that?” the boy asked looking back at Turner and then to Jack.

“Perhaps he is apprehensive.”

“Over what?”

“Your presence seems to have upset him,” Turner said putting his hands behind his back and interlacing them.

“He is afraid of me? He was not afraid when you first brought him here. Why is it different now?”

“It was necessary to change him in order to make him submissive as you wanted.”

The boy stepped up and touched Jack's forehead as if feeling for a fever. A deep frown creased the boy's face a few moments later. Turner spoke the truth; the man was changed, and not for the better. Edrin pulled his hand back and wiped it on his robes because Jack had been sweating a little. “I didn't ask you to make him a coward.”

Turner frowned. “Perhaps he just needs a bit of time to adjust to your presence.”

“No,” the boy said.

“Edrin, please,” Turner said quietly. “I haven't had time to finish my work with him.”

“Send him back. His people can keep him.” Edrin spun angrily out of the room on his heel, and Jack felt his insides quiver. Turner didn't look happy at all, and when Turner reached out for Jack's arm to help him up Jack cringed.

“I'm sorry,” Jack said looking down at the floor. He should have felt glad. He was going home. Edrin was letting him leave, but he wasn't happy. Jack's stomach fluttered as he let Turner lead him out of his room.

Turner gave Jack back his weapon without even hesitating. “Do you have all of your possessions?” Jack nodded without really thinking about it. He flinched back roughly when Turner approached with a small silver object. Turner steadied him by grabbing his shoulder and pressed the silver device to the thing behind Jack's ear. Jack heard a faint buzz in his head and then he felt the thing release as if it had lost suction. When Turner pulled away from him, Jack reached up and rubbed behind his ear.

Jack felt the tingle of energy buzz through him, seconds before his vision blurred. He stumbled forward as his feet hit the gate room ramp and nearly ran over Daniel who was stopped just a few feet away from the gate. Jack glanced backward to see the wormhole flicker and close.

“What the hell?” Jack murmured.

“Something wrong, Jack?” Daniel asked.

Jack said nothing, but reached up and rubbed his hand over his face. Jack heard Daniel call his name once again, but still did not respond. He was busy thinking. Was this a trick? Daniel reached out to Jack, gently gripping his shoulder. That got a response from the colonel. Jack grabbed him twisting his arm behind his back until he was sure it would hurt. He'd get answers from this “Daniel” now, and if this really was Daniel he'd say he was sorry later.

“What the hell is going on here?” Jack growled.

Daniel made a small distressed noise as his shoulder protested the angle that Jack was pressuring it into. “I don't know what you're talking about, Jack. Nothing's happened.”

“Sir?” Carter said looking back at Jack with confusion. “Sir, what's the matter?”

“This isn't right,” Jack whispered, talking to no one in particular.

“Ah Jack, my arm is really,” Daniel stopped when his shoulder jolted with fire.

“Shut up,” Jack hissed. The airmen in the gate room were staring at Jack with grim faces, but nobody was moving. They seemed to be waiting for him to do something so they could react to it. Jack could feel his head throbbing, maybe he had a migraine brewing. He reached up with his free hand and fisted his eye. “I just need to think.”

“Sir, I don't understand.” Carter's voice came out of nowhere, and Jack shot her a glare. “Nothing happened while we were on that planet.”

Jack flinched as someone grabbed him from behind. Carter had distracted him from watching his six. Daniel was pried out of his grip, and Jack could feel his hands being maneuvered so that he wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight. Daniel worked his arm, as if to make sure that it was still attached to his body. “Your behavior confuses me as well, O'Neill.”

Teal'c put just enough pressure on Jack to keep him in control. General Hammond stormed into the gate room moments later. The look on the General's face was a mixture of concern and irritation. Never a dull moment with the SGC under his belt. “What in the world is going on here?” He looked at Colonel O'Neill and waited for him to say something.

Jack only grunted.

“We're not sure, Sir. He was fine before we stepped through the gate,” Sam answered. She looked toward the colonel as if to make sure he hadn't escaped from Teal'c.

Jack locked his legs when Teal'c attempted to move them forward. General Hammond had ordered Teal'c to escort him to the infirmary, and Jack did not want to go. Against his will his feet moved forward as Teal'c moved. Jack let his weight drop, and Teal'c responded by adjusting his leverage and dragging O'Neill along the corridor as though nothing had happened.

Jack knew the infirmary by scent, and he groaned when the room hit his nose. He was still dragging his feet when Teal'c and an airman lifted him into a bed. The two men held him steady. Frasier bustled into the room and looked at him.

“I can explain,” Jack began.

Frasier waited with her arms folded over her chest. He thought about it for a second. Explain what exactly? That a boy named Edrin and a guy named Turner had kidnapped him from the gate room somehow. That they had attached an alien device to him that taught him a new language. That he had been gone for days and now he was back as if nothing had even happened to him. Why hadn't anyone seemed to have missed him?

Frasier stared at him, and Jack looked away. “It's complicated,” he said finally.

“I'll bet.” With SG-1 everything was complicated.

Jack balked as the airman who had been holding him began to fit him with restraints. “You don't need to do that.” The airman didn't even look at him. He grimaced as a strap pinched him at the wrist. “Hey! Knock it off!”

The airman didn't loosen the strap, but he did fix it so that it wasn't pinching Jack's skin off. Once he was finished Teal'c and the airman backed off.

Frasier barked orders at a young nurse. Jack groaned. He had a feeling he wasn't getting out of here anytime soon.

When Frasier came over to Jack with the equipment to draw his blood she noted the tension in his face. “You want to tell me something?” Janet asked as she tied off a tourniquet rubbed Jack's forearm with a swab. He clenched his eyes shut and turned away from her as much as his restraints would allow. He was tense, as if with anticipation. She knew that he didn't care for medical tests, but she'd never seen him behave quite like this.

Jack shook his head. No. He waited for her to just get on with it. Breathe in, breathe out.

“Try to relax. You're a little too tense, Colonel.”

Well, she was stabbing him with a piece of steel to suck out his blood! What was she expecting? A cheery jig? Jack didn't even try to relax. It wouldn't have worked anyway. He hissed when he felt the sting of the needle and the pressure of the tourniquet let off right after. Frasier capped off a couple vials of his blood and then withdrew the needle. Finally. She pressed a piece of gauze to his small wound for a moment, keeping up the pressure to keep him from getting a nasty bruise.

After she'd taken the blood she needed, Frasier left him alone to go and run her tests. If he had to choose between her company and being alone, at the moment he would have rather been alone. Whenever Frasier was nearby unpleasant things were almost certain to follow after her. He stared at the ceiling and tried not to wonder how long he was going to be in this particular bed.

Jack picked at the sheet beneath his fingers. There wasn't much else he could do tied down as he was. He looked up as he heard someone approach. He almost hoped it was one of his team come to visit him. Nope, just Frasier, and she was headed straight for him.

“Whoa! Wait a second, Doc!” Jack protested at the sight of the hypo in her hand. She filled it and set the vial on a tray near his bed.

“Easy Colonel,” she said.

“You don't need to give me that. I'm not going anywhere in a hurry,” Jack said as he glanced around the room for an escape, in spite of the fact that he really wasn't going anywhere unless someone let him up.

“Which is why you should take this opportunity to rest.”

“I can do that without any help, thanks.”

Frasier wasn't buying it. Jack was too wound up. Even if he hadn't been strapped to his bed she couldn't see him resting. He was more into pacing a game trail into the concrete than actually taking it easy.

“No, I think you'd do better on the meds for now, Colonel.”

Jack shot her a nasty glare, but she didn't see it. He looked away as she rubbed alcohol into his skin and then she paused. The thought occurred to him that maybe she was pausing to draw this out, to torture him, but then he realized that she was giving him a chance to collect himself. Prepare for battle, Colonel. “Ready?”

He frowned, and refused to look at her before releasing a breath. That was as close to relaxed as she was going to get out of him naturally. She stuck him and Jack sucked in a rough chunk of air through his nose. Once she'd given him the dose of whatever was in the syringe she left him to check on someone else. Jack fingered the sheet beneath his hands and ignored the dull throb from his shot.

When Frasier came by a few minutes later to check in on him, Jack rolled lazy eyes toward her. No, he really didn't feel like talking at the moment, thank you. She took his pulse at his throat since his wrists were covered. “How do you feel?” she asked.

He seemed to have forgotten his unwillingness to speak as he struggled to process her words and come up with a response. He stared at her for several seconds and then decided to answer. “I think I'm dead,” he slurred at her.

She misunderstood him, because she wasn't really listening all that closely. “I'm glad you feel good.”

He opened his mouth to correct her and stopped, because she was already turning to do something else. Whatever.

When Jack opened his eyes again it took him several moments to realize that he had been completely out for who knows how long. He blinked several times and made his hands into tight fists a few times in an attempt to wake his body the rest of the way.

“Hi Jack. How are you feeling?” Jack turned toward Daniel's voice and saw that not only Daniel was at his bedside, but his team was there. They were all staring at him, like he was a sick dog about to barf in the car.

“Ah, I'm a little groggy, but other than that I'm just peachy, Daniel. How's your arm?”

Daniel winced at that and rubbed at his shoulder for a second. “Fine, just a little tender.”

Jack silently wished that everyone would stop staring at him. “So kids, what's everyone up to?”

Daniel was the first to answer, as Jack suspected he would be. “We just finished the debriefing with General Hammond, and wanted to see how you were.”

“Ah,” Jack raised an eyebrow. “Long meeting was it?”

Sam gave him a little smile.

“There was little to discuss about that particular planet, due to our inability to fully explore, O'Neill,” Teal'c said blandly.

“I know that,” Jack said back tersely.

“So...” Daniel began softly, before hesitating for several seconds. He was considering his words, running them over in his thoughts to make sure they were right. “What happened to you back in the gate room?”

Jack inhaled a breath. “Daniel, do you remember that time when you touched the mirror and went to the other reality? And how when you came back I didn't believe you had been anywhere?”

Daniel straightened up a little on the bed that everyone was sitting on. “Yeah?”

“Well, this is a little like that. If I told you what happened to me, you wouldn't believe it.”

“Jack,” Daniel began.

“I really don't feel like talking about it.”

“How can we figure out what to do for you, if we don't understand what's wrong?” Daniel asked.

“Nothing's wrong. I'm just a little tired.”

Nobody looked convinced.

“Sir, we've been through some interesting situations before. Maybe, if you explain what happened to you in the gate room, or even back on the planet, then we could help.”

Jack swore under his breath. They were never going to leave him alone without an answer. “When I stepped through the gate, I felt something, like a shock. When my feet hit solid ground again I wasn't in the gate room anymore.”

Jack watched their faces. They were trying to believe him, at least he thought they were trying.

“Where did you go?” Sam asked.

“I have no idea. One second I was in the gate room and the next I was in a dark, concrete cell listening to some awful recordings of an alien language.”

“How long were you there?” Daniel asked, putting his chin in his hand and resting his arm on his knee.

“In the room? Several hours. I was there for several days after I was let of the holding cell.”

Everyone exchanged glances.

“Sir,” Sam began to protest.

“I told you that you wouldn't believe me, but I was there with two of the indigenous people for several days. They spoke a language that I think even Daniel would have had trouble understanding.”

“Oh?” Daniel perked a little at that.

“Yeah, they spoke in these awful hums. Supposedly they tried to teach me their language by playing me those recordings in the holding cell, but hell, I couldn't understand any of it without help.”

“Help? What do you mean help? Like an interpretor?” Daniel asked.

“Ah, no, not exactly.” Jack wanted to scratch at his eyebrow, but wasn't able thanks to his restraints. “They jammed this thing behind my ear and then things made sense. I dunno, I didn't really ask how it worked.”

Sam was scrutinizing him, while trying not to let him see it. “Which ear was it, Sir?”

“The left,” Jack said.

Sam got up and gently folded the colonel's ear away from his head so she could look at it. She hissed at the marks she saw. Something had been there. “It almost looks like a puncture wound, Sir.”

“Well, I wouldn't doubt it. It didn't feel very nice when he put it on me.” Jack's hands twitched. He wanted to reach up and rub the spot, just to make sure for himself that it really was there.

“Has Doctor Frasier seen this, Jack?” Daniel asked.

Jack set his jaw and didn't answer him.

“I'll take that as a no,” Daniel said raising his eyebrows.

A muscle in Jack's jaw jumped. Daniel don't you dare call her over here!

“Doctor Frasier,” Daniel said loudly. Jack watched her turn toward them out of the corner of his eye. He gave his restraints a good yank, yep, still tight thanks to that stupid airman. He could hear Frasier's shoes clipping against the floor as she approached him. He squeezed his wrists harder against the straps, maybe if he didn't have these stupid thumbs in the way he might have been able to get loose.

“Sir?” Sam was watching Jack's face, which bore a grimace as if he were in pain. He hadn't heard her call out to him.

Daniel scratched his eyebrow and fiddled with his glasses. “Jack was just telling us about...”

“Shut up, Daniel,” Jack growled.

“Jack, she needs to know if she's going to help.”

Sam crossed the space between the two beds and gently folded back Jack's ear so Frasier could see what they were talking about. The doctor gave a little frown and moved closer to have a better look.

“How did this happen, Colonel?”

Jack jerked his head away sharply, startling Sam and almost yanking his ear off. He could feel his ear throbbing in protest, but he ignored it. “Whoa, easy Sir,” Sam said stepping back. Frasier moved in a little more and Jack narrowed his eyes at her.

“Don't touch me,” he snarled.

“She only wants to help,” Daniel said quietly. Jack gave Daniel a nasty look. What did he know?

“Colonel, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you,” Frasier said quietly. Jack stared at her, squeezing his hands into the tightest fists he could possibly make. He didn't believe her for a second, and when she called for the airman to help her, he screamed.

“At first, I couldn't find anything at the sight of the injury that looked like it could be causing his strange behavior. However, there is some scarring of the tissue right here.” She pointed to the part of the colonel's brain that was next to his injury. There was a tiny spec of darkness in the tissue. “Normally, this part of the brain is where language and speech interpretation is processed.”

“So what's causing him to act like this?”

“I'm not entirely sure. I'll need to run some more tests before making a decision on what to do.”

They were talking as though he wasn't even in the room. Everyone seemed to think that Jack was sleeping. Well, just because his eyes were closed and he couldn't call the strength to move, didn't mean that he couldn't hear them. He processed what was being said around him slowly. Frasier's drugs must've still been pulling a number on him. More tests. Great. Just what he always wanted.

Jack managed a whine from his bed, which to everyone else was more like a loud grunt. He wanted off of this bed and out of the infirmary.

It had taken a great deal of self control, which Jack hadn't even been aware he had in him, not to flinch every time Frasier looked at him. If he wanted to get out of the infirmary he was going to have to try and act at least semi-normal.

She was sitting on the edge of his bed, flashing a small light in his eyes and checking his other reflexes. Jack was still restrained, but he wasn't resisting anymore. There was a feeling strumming through him, telling him to keep alert, to not let his guard down around the others, but he did his best to ignore it.

“So, how do you feel?” Frasier asked.

Jack blinked, assessing his body in a few seconds. He was still slightly buzzy from the sedatives, but fine otherwise. “I'm just a little tired. Sick of being on this bed, but other than that I'm dandy.”

“Well, you seem much better to me. I'll see what I can do about moving you to temporary quarters.”

Jack winced at that. He knew exactly what that meant. It was a nice way to describe an isolation room. Guard at the door, camera in the corner, the works. Still, it was a step up from restraints in the infirmary, so he wasn't going to protest.

“Daniel, you've got to help me. Get me out of here. I'm going nuts,” Jack whispered in the hope that the camera wouldn't catch what he was saying to the other man.

“Jack, you know I can't do that. Doctor Frasier was reluctant to even let you stay in a room like this.” Daniel gestured around the room as if to emphasize how much better these quarters were when compared to the infirmary.

Jack shook his head. “Will you keep your voice down, please!” Jack hissed. Daniel winced a little and managed to give Jack a weak smile.

“I brought you this.” Daniel handed Jack his Gameboy. “Batteries are all charged up, so you should be good for awhile.”

Jack gave Daniel a glare and set the game system on the table. “Are you kidding me? You're just going to stand by, and let this happen?”

Daniel frowned. “Jack...”

“You don't get it do you?” Jack's tone changed; he was growing more agitated with each passing moment.

“I don't think I'm understanding what you're getting at, Jack.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Jack tugged at the ends of his short hair. Didn't look like Daniel was going to be any help to him at all.

“I'm sorry.” Daniel turned to leave.

Jack stared at the rations they had brought to him. Applesauce? Who eats that? He scooped up a portion with his spoon and let it fall back into the dish. Someone had put a nasty blob of creamed corn on his plate too. Why were they giving him food that looked like it had already been chewed once before? He glared at the plate, and shoved the untouched food away; he wasn't hungry yet anyway.

He looked up as his door unlocked. Maybe Daniel had changed his mind about helping him. Nope, no such luck. Frasier stepped into the room, with a couple of young airmen in tow. He had the strangest feeling that bad news was going to be following her into the room very soon.

Jack tensed when the door shut with a loud clang. “Hello Colonel. How are you feeling?”

Jack blinked, and rubbed his hands on the front of his fatigues. He was starting to sweat. “Peachy,” he said dumbly.

“Not hungry?” Frasier gestured at his plate of still warm food.

“Would you eat that?” he asked not bothering to look at her.

She smiled at his answer. “I have the results back from some of the tests we ran on you earlier.”

Jack stared at the tabletop. Here it comes.

“Other than some chemical abnormalities you seem to be in perfect health. BP is a little elevated, but I attributed that to the stress of your imbalance.”

“So... are you gonna let me out of this box, or what?” Jack clenched his hands into fists.

Frasier heard him clearly; he was sure of it, but she seemed to move forward in an attempt to skirt by his question. “It should be a simple matter of treating the imbalance of chemicals and then you'll be back to your old self.”

“Don't ignore me.”

“Sir, I wasn't ignoring you, but in your current emotional state it would not be advisable to release you.”

Jack resisted the urge to grind his teeth. “There's nothing wrong with me.”

She just looked at him for a few seconds. “Colonel, it would be in your best interest to start treatment as soon as possible.”

Jack rubbed his hands on his pants again. Dammit, they were still sweating.

“Restoring the balance of the chemicals in your brain could take weeks, but I believe that you should make a full and complete recovery.”

Jack scrubbed his hair, and brought his hands down low to look at his palms. They had a sheen of sweat on them still. He shoved his hands down out of sight when they started to shake a little.

“I don't want any drugs,” Jack said firmly.

“Sir, I don't think you realize the seriousness of the problem.”

“NO DRUGS,” Jack said, pulling out the words so that he was sure they were clear. “That includes needles, pills, and crushing pills and trying to put them into my food.” He eyed the doctor suspiciously and flicked his gaze toward the nasty rations they had offered him. He wasn't an idiot, thank you.

“Sir, if you go untreated the problem is not likely to resolve itself.”

“Are you done?” Jack gripped the fabric of his fatigues in tightly clenched fingers, just above his knees. He really, really wanted her to leave.

Frasier pursed her lips, gathered herself and left the room with her escorts. Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He waited until he was sure that she was gone, and set his head down on the top of the table for a minute, letting the cool surface soak into the skin of his forehead. She'd be back soon; Jack was certain of that. Frasier wouldn't leave him alone until she was sure that he was “recovered”.

Jack tried to play the Gameboy to waste a little time, but it was too hard to focus on the game while he was so edgy. He shut the unit off and set it down on the table. Jack drummed his fingers on the table for a second and then stood. He paced the perimeter of the room. His hands were still shaky, in spite of his commands to be steady. He sensed it without even looking at them. He clenched and unclenched them a few times to try and stop the shakiness, but he wasn't sure if it had really done him any good.

He could deal with this on his own. All he really needed was a little time, maybe a few beers and some decent sleep. Yeah, maybe some tv would help too. Fat chance of any of that coming to him in this kennel though.

“What did I say about needles?” Jack protested, as he rose from his chair in an abrupt and awkward motion. The chair clattered to the floor behind him. Truthfully, Frasier had only just stepped through the door, with a male nurse following behind her closely. Jack had seen her hand hiding in her lab coat pocket and automatically assumed the worst.

“Actually, Colonel, I came to offer you a choice.” She took her hand out of her pocket and revealed an amber colored bottle of small white pills. Jack narrowed his eyes at them; he was pretty sure that he had said no drugs period.

“I'm fine,” he said, trying to make sure his voice and his hands were steady.

She gave him a little smile. “I know you're trying, but you can't fool me, Colonel.”

Jack scratched behind his right ear, as he went over the best way to respond in his head. “I...” he began, but cut off and took a few involuntary steps backward as Frasier motioned to the male nurse that had accompanied her. Jack gulped and eyed the man warily, waiting to have to fight. The nurse stepped up and handed Frasier a large tan envelope. She unsealed it and took out two sets of prints from digital scans she had taken of the Colonel's brain.

Frasier handed him a sheet of images. “This is a scan of your brain after your return from a mission a few weeks ago.”

Jack glanced at the images of his brain that were used to check for Goa'uld parasites upon the return from each mission through the stargate. “Yeah,” he said rubbing at the short stubble that was sprouting from his chin. “So?”

“So this scan shows your normal patterns. This set of images is from a few hours ago.” She handed him the other sheet and he looked at them with an expression of indifference. He didn't see why these images justified keeping him a prisoner, when he clearly wasn't a host to a hostile parasite. The images she was showing him really meant nothing to him at all.

Frasier closed the space between herself and the colonel. He didn't move away from her, just frowned. “See this little area of your brain here?” She pointed to something small and round, in both sets of images. Jack nodded. “The amygdala, or this little area of the brain, plays a good part in your reactions to stress. In the recent set of images, this part of the brain is more active than usual.”

Jack let her have the images and took a few steps away as he slid his hand down his brow and to his chin. “And that's bad?”

“Normally this part of the brain works with other areas to interpret threats. When the body senses a threat chemicals are released that cause a natural heightened state, and when the situation is resolved the body settles back down into a normal mode of functioning. In your case though, the chemicals that help the body to calm, like dopamine and serotonin, haven't been releasing into your brain in sufficient amounts to neutralize the fight or flight reaction.”

Jack watched her for a moment as he processed what she was telling him. “So you're saying that I'm on full alert when I should be on stand by?”

She nodded, feeling glad that maybe she was getting through to him a little bit.

“But I should get back to normal right?”

“Normally, I would say yes, but the changes in your brain were so drastic and done so quickly that your body can't figure out on its own how to get back to normal. You're going to need help, Sir.”

A light bulb went off in the Colonel's head. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Frasier stared at Jack.

“I need help, so send me back to the people who screwed me up.”

“Sir, you don't understand-”

“No, just listen. Maybe this is something you can't fix. What if your drugs don't work? Then what? I'm just screwed? Pack me off with the guys in white jackets?” Jack stopped mid rant, something flickered in the corner of his eye distracting him. “Whoa,” Jack murmured before he'd even thought about it.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.” He stared at her, feeling the constant companion of sweat freshen on his palms.

“Maybe you should try to get some rest, Sir. You've been through a lot lately.” She probably thought he was AWOL in his head. It was only a matter of time before she decided that she wouldn't be able to help him, and turned him over to someone else.

“Send me back. They have to know how to fix this.”

“Sir, even if I wanted to send you to that planet, you've been restricted from gate travel. The General sent another team to that planet just before you were moved to this room. They weren't able to find anyone there to talk to.”

“Just because they couldn't get over the wall doesn't mean there aren't people there!”

“I realize that Colonel, but those people don't seem to be interested in communicating with us. There has to be a way to correct this without them.”

Jack fisted his eye as his light flickered and burned out inside his head. His one good idea had been shot to hell. “Dammit.” As he pulled his hand back from his face the glint of whatever he had seen before was back. Like a blip in a movie screen, it was gone in a blink, but Jack was sure he'd seen the figure of a man standing there.

“I'll do all that I can for you,” Frasier said as she turned to leave the room.

“Yeah, everything but let me go back to where they can probably fix this,” Jack ground out bitterly. Frasier pretended not to hear him, and he flinched as the door clanged shut loudly from behind.

Jack paced for a few moments in an attempt to to dampen the heated irritation that was coursing through him. It wasn't working. Normally, he could push aside emotion if he needed to and accept things for the way that they were going to be, but at the moment he couldn't seem to force himself to manage it. Jack finally sat down on the edge of his bunk and dropped his face into his palms. He looked up very slowly when he heard a familiar voice call his name. No freaking way.

No way was he hearing his own voice talking to him in real time. Jack blinked in surprise as he stared into his own dark eyes. How? Oh crap... this was so screwed up.

“I've been sent to deliver a message to you.”

Jack shuddered as his own voice came from the other body standing in front of him.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I've come with a message from Turner.”

Jack frowned and picked up his feet so he could move further back under the shelter of the bunk.

“Turner wished me to inform you that he is slightly concerned that you have not returned to your former state.”

Jack scooted forward a little, interested in what the other Jack had to say. “Can he fix me?”

“Turner wishes me to leave you with instructions to obey your medical staff. He believes that you will recover fully without further intervention.”

Jack groaned. “What do you know? You're just a freaking hallucination.”

“Not a hallucination, Jack. I am a program that was implanted in your brain to be used as a translator, had the device used to alter the language center in your brain failed to function properly. I was left in place to spare you from permanent brain damage, but I am real.”

Jack crawled closer to the other Jack, to curl his fist into a tight ball and give the guy a good, hard punch in the mouth. That'd teach him if he was real, and if he wasn't it would prove that Jack wasn't an idiot. He knew a hallucination when he saw one.

“Jack, I am not real in a tactile sense. Only you can see or hear me.”

Damn. Well, that took all the fun out of that. “Right,” Jack grumbled. “So how do I get Frasier to back off?”

The other Jack frowned.

“Look, you just said that I would recover without further intervention, so how can I do that with Frasier breathing down my neck?”

“No, that is not what I meant at all. You need medical attention from your people here. Turner will not intervene with you again unless it is absolutely unavoidable.”

“You could have been a little plainer the first time.”

“Apologies,” the other Jack said.

This fic has been in the works for a long time. I thought I would post to perhaps see what people thought about it. Hope you enjoyed it! TBC of course.