What Dreams May Come - 13/21
Warnings and summary are here: Chapter One
The previous chapters can be found here: What Dreams May Come
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Chapter Thirteen
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"If it is your intention to harm Daniel Jackson, you will do so over my lifeless physical form."
"Dead body, Teal'c," Daniel corrected, looking up quickly from Jack's bedside.
Teal'c turned his head toward Daniel and nodded at him. Daniel returned his worried gaze to Jack's face, and Teal'c turned his attention back to MacKenzie. "Daniel Jackson informs me that the correct phrase is 'over my dead body.' Is it required that I repeat my statement in order for you to understand?"
MacKenzie stared at the man, openly shocked. He had been preparing to terminate the life support when he had found his path to the machines suddenly blocked by one very large, very determined, and obviously very upset Jaffa.
"Mr. Teal'c, I can and will have you restrained and sedated just like Colonel O'Neill. You will stand aside now!"
"I will not," Teal'c replied evenly, fixing the man with his unwavering gaze. "Daniel Jackson has informed me that you are prepared to prematurely end his life. This I refuse to allow."
"Daniel told you that, Teal'c?" Sam asked, stepping toward him. "When?"
"Only two or three moments ago, Captain Carter."
"Did he tell you anything else?" Janet asked.
Teal'c nodded. "He did. On our rapid walk to this room, he said that O'Neill had attempted to stop this course of action and had been forcibly restrained and sedated. And that you, Captain Carter, heard his voice in your mind. Daniel Jackson also believes that you, Dr. Fraiser, and General Hammond knew him to be here, but this man," he indicated MacKenzie with a nod of his head, "refused to listen to you."
"General, sir," Sam said quickly, stepping toward the silent Hammond. "There's no way anyone who wasn't in this room could have known any of that. Teal'c wasn't here, and no one we can see left …"
"Teal'c," Hammond began. "Is Dr. Jackson in this room?"
"He is."
"And you can see him?"
"I can."
"Where is he exactly?"
Teal'c turned back toward Daniel, who was muttering to himself at Jack's side. "He is standing at O'Neill's bedside. He appears quite agitated."
"I can imagine," Hammond said, his voice little more than a mumble. He moved to O'Neill's bed, looking at Teal'c for confirmation that he was in the right place, and at Teal'c's silent nod, he began to speak. "Dr. Jackson … son … I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we didn't believe Colonel O'Neill when he told us what was happening, and I'm very sorry for what you had to stand here and watch us almost do. Twice."
Daniel looked up at the older man and smiled weakly. "It's okay, General. It was kind of a wild story. And I'm sorry too."
"He says it is all right, General Hammond," Teal'c repeated for the sake of the others in the room. "He apologizes as well."
"For what?" Hammond asked the air in front of him, knowing that Daniel could hear him. "Son, you haven't done anything wrong. None of this is your fault."
"I should have tried harder," Daniel said quietly, turning back to Jack, watching his face intently. "I shouldn't have laid this all on Jack."
"Daniel Jackson feels that it was unfair of him to place O'Neill in the position he did."
"Daniel, don't," Sam said, stepping to Jack's other side. "There's no blame in this for you. Don't take any."
"It's our fault, Daniel," Janet added, taking a place at Sam's side. "We didn't listen, and we should have. General Hammond tried to tell me that SG-1 has a way of making the impossible possible. I should have listened to him."
"And I should have listened to Colonel O'Neill," Hammond added.
"And I should have listened to you," Sam whispered, looking directly at where she knew Daniel's eyes would be.
"What none of us should have done, though," Hammond continued with a wave of his hand in MacKenzie's direction, "is listened to him."
"General Hammond," MacKenzie said indignantly. "There is absolutely no way that Dr. Jackson is alive. The only thing keeping his heart beating and his lungs working are those machines that Mr. Teal'c is currently preventing me from disconnecting. You've all obviously been affected by the same madness that has taken control of Colonel O'Neill. And I am fully prepared to take all decisions out of your hands, General."
As he said this, MacKenzie stepped around behind Daniel's bed and grasped the cords that powered the machines that were keeping Daniel's body alive.
Daniel gasped when he realized what MacKenzie intended to do, but before he could speak he felt a strong, reassuring hand on his arm.
"Teal'c, you tell that slimy Freudian worm that if he unplugs those machines, I'll kill him myself."
"What is a Freudian worm, O'Neill?" Teal'c tilted his head as he looked toward the bed that O'Neill's consciousness was rising from, seemingly unperturbed that the man's body wasn't moving.
"Teal'c, he's about to unplug the life support machines you're standing in front of! Just stop him before he kills Daniel!"
Paying no attention to the frozen forms in the room, all of whom were stunned into silence by Teal'c speaking to someone they could plainly see wasn't conscious, Teal'c turned his head in MacKenzie's direction. He saw the man squatted down in front of the power outlet, two heavy cords in his hand.
"Dr. MacKenzie. O'Neill wishes me to inform you that if you terminate the life of Daniel Jackson, he will terminate you."
MacKenzie looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. "And do you really believe he would be able to do that, Teal'c?"
"I do not."
"And why not?"
"Can you not plainly see that O'Neill does not currently have access to his physical body?" Teal'c ignored MacKenzie's smile of triumph and continued. "However, I am not similarly incapacitated, and I would have no difficulty in dismembering you in his stead."
"Way to go, Teal'c," Jack said with a smile.
"Hey, guys? Could we maybe have a few less threats? I mean, it's not that I don't appreciate the sentiment but …"
"Daniel, what is MacKenzie trying to do to you over there?"
"Well, he's trying to kill me, but he thinks I'm already dead, so …"
"Daniel Jackson, I do not believe that Dr. MacKenzie believes you to be dead any longer."
"What makes you think that, Teal'c?" Jack asked.
"He is no longer attempting to disconnect the power supplies to the machines."
Jack and Daniel looked up and finally noticed what everyone else in the room had already seen. MacKenzie had removed his hands from the power cords, risen to his feet, and backed away from Daniel's bed.
"He could just be really scared of you, Teal'c."
"That is possible, O'Neill. But it does not matter. The end result is the same. Daniel Jackson will live."
- = - = -
"This situation is completely unacceptable, General!" MacKenzie declared before Janet had even closed the door to the observation room completely. "I cannot believe that you will allow that … man … to come into that room and threaten me like that!"
Hammond shook his head slowly and tried to hide the smile that threatened to spread across his face. "Teal'c isn't going to dismember you, Doctor."
"How can you be so certain of that? Need I remind you that he's an alien, General? One who was, until a very short time ago, second-in-command to … ?"
"No, Doctor, you don't," Hammond interrupted with no small amount of heat, his good humor suddenly gone. "Teal'c's loyalty is not in question here. He swore an oath to protect and defend this planet and I have no doubt that he will hold himself to it." Hammond's voice rose in conjunction with his mounting anger. "What is at issue is that this oath also extends to the members of his team, Doctor, and in the past twenty-four hours, you have developed a very nasty habit of threatening to kill one of them. Repeatedly, I might add. And convincing me to do the same!"
"You can't kill someone who is already dead!"
Hammond jerked his hand through the air in a gesture of dismissal. "Doctor, this is no longer open for discussion. After what we just saw, the official record will read: Dr. Jackson did not die on P2A-759 as previously believed. His consciousness was somehow removed from his body, requiring a return trip by SG-1 for the purpose of discovering how to reverse the process."
"General, that is not only absurd, it is completely without basis! And as ranking medical officer in this case, I refuse to allow it to happen."
Hammond glared at the other man and his face flushed. "Do you seriously expect to overrule me on this?"
"Dr. MacKenzie," Janet interrupted, keeping her voice intentionally soft, momentarily derailing Hammond's anger. "If you believed what SG-1 is saying, would you withdraw your objection?"
MacKenzie gave a single, curt nod. "Absolutely."
"Then what would it take to convince you? It seems that Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c both seeing him and talking to him, Captain Carter hearing him and the physical evidence of the parallel anomalies in their MRIs isn't enough. What more proof do you need?"
"I would need to see him for myself, Dr. Fraiser," he answered without hesitation.
"What if that weren't possible?" Janet asked. "I think we can say with no small amount of certainty that no one outside of the three remaining members of SG-1 is going to be able to see him."
"Then I'll never believe it, because it isn't possible."
"But what if, instead of seeing him for yourself, you were in total and complete control of a person who could? If that person couldn't lie to you, even if she wanted to, and if hallucination weren't even a possibility? Would that satisfy you?"
MacKenzie nodded. "Yes. If I were in total control of the situation and knew that the subject had to be telling me the absolute truth, that I could accept."
"What are you thinking, Dr. Fraiser?" General Hammond asked.
Janet leaned forward and triggered the microphone, allowing SG-1 to hear her in the isolation room below.
"Captain Carter?"
"Yes?" Sam answered.
"Captain, would you consent to Dr. MacKenzie hypnotizing you again?"
It was Teal'c who answered first, though the words obviously weren't his own. "O'Neill says, 'No way in h …' "
"Why?" Sam asked, silencing Teal'c with a motion of her hand. "Colonel, this might be important."
Teal'c tilted his head and raised an eyebrow as he turned his head to the right and stared at something only he could see. He blinked twice before turning back toward Sam.
"O'Neill expresses … severe doubt at that possibility."
Janet felt the urge to giggle at Teal'c's translation of the colonel's protest, which she had no doubt contained a much larger string of invectives than Teal'c would ever feel comfortable repeating. She turned the microphone on again.
"Captain, I have a theory."
"Okay."
"We're all aware that the colonel woke up from his sedation this morning with the apparently sudden ability to see Daniel, when before he'd only been able to hear him, and that, only occasionally."
Sam nodded slowly, not completely understanding where Janet was going with this. "Right."
"And now, Teal'c can see him too. Teal'c," Janet turned her attention from Sam to the Jaffa. "What exactly were you doing the first time you saw Daniel?"
"I was … meditating is the word you would use."
"Was it a deep meditation, Teal'c? Was your subconscious mind engaged?"
"It was," Teal'c answered with a nod.
Sam's face brightened in sudden understanding. "You're thinking that if I'm hypnotized, if we put my subconscious mind in control, that I'll be able to see him too?"
"That's my theory, Captain," Janet answered.
"Then yes," Sam said. "If there's a chance that I'll be able to see Daniel, and prove to everyone that he's here, then yes."
"Thank you, Captain," Janet replied. "We'll be right down."
"Captain Carter, O'Neill believes that you are placing too much trust in Dr. MacKenzie. He wishes to have no more members of SG-1 placed under the care of this … winged, aquatic animal?"
Sam smiled. "I think he said 'quack', Teal'c. Colonel, I know you don't trust Dr. MacKenzie right now, and I don't blame you. But I think Dr. Fraiser is right. I think that once we see Daniel with our subconscious, then we can just see him. It certainly does seem that that's what worked for you and Teal'c. And if hypnotizing me is what it takes to convince Dr. MacKenzie that we're telling the truth, then I'm more than willing to do it."
- = - = -
"All right, Captain. When I count to three, you will open your eyes, and you will tell me exactly what you see. One, two, three."
Sam opened her eyes slowly and looked around the isolation room. She saw him immediately; he was standing right in front of her. Her eyes filled with tears even as a broad smile crossed her face. She ignored everyone else in the room as she stood and walked toward him. He smiled back at her and nodded.
"Hi, Sam."
Her breath caught in her throat as happiness threatened to overwhelm her; tears of joy and laughter mingled together as she came face-to-face with the truth she had known all along, but had convinced herself was impossible.
"Captain?" MacKenzie prompted from behind her. "What are you seeing?"
"Daniel," she answered without hesitation. "It's Daniel." She pulled her eyes away from his face for only a second, to share a brief smile with the other non-corporeal person in the room. "And Colonel O'Neill."
"You see Daniel and the colonel lying in their beds?" MacKenzie asked.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, they're both standing."
"Where are they?"
"Daniel is right in the middle of the room, about two feet in front of me. The colonel is standing beside him."
MacKenzie turned toward Janet and General Hammond in shock. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. As if realizing how ridiculous he must look, he snapped his mouth shut quickly, only to open it again to speak.
"General, Doctor, I … I don't know what to say … I didn't think it … It's just not possible …"
"And yet," Janet said, "it's true."
"Yes," MacKenzie admitted, obviously reluctant but at last unable to argue any further. "Yes, it appears that it is." He sighed again and turned back toward Sam. She'd not moved since he'd turned away, but she was deep in conversation with two people that she shouldn't have been able to speak to at all-Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill. One was dead, the other was heavily sedated and unconscious, but apparently those facts meant nothing.
"Captain," MacKenzie said, "I do hate to interrupt, but I'm going to wake you up now."
Sam nodded without taking her eyes away from whatever-or whoever-it was she was looking at so intently. "This is the part where we cross our fingers," she said. "If I'm right, I'll still see you when I'm awake. If I'm wrong …" She swallowed hard and took a step backwards. "If I'm wrong, I'll see you when you get back." Sam wiped her cheeks and nodded to MacKenzie.
"Close your eyes, Captain. When I snap my fingers, you will wake up, and you will remember everything that happened. One, two …"
MacKenzie snapped his fingers.
Sam stood for a moment, breathing deeply, with her eyes still closed. She looked almost afraid to open them. She did remember everything, just as MacKenzie said she would, but there was a small part of her that was worried that it all might have been a dream, or an hallucination, and that when she opened her eyes it would only be to find that Daniel was still dead, the colonel was still insane, and she and Teal'c were following him down that path.
"I'm not dead, Sam."
Her eyes shot open when she heard him, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief when she realized she was still staring directly into the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen, made all the more beautiful by the fact that she'd spent more than twenty-four hours thinking she'd never see them again.
"And you're not crazy," Daniel added with a smile.
"Well, no crazier than you were ten minutes ago, anyway," Jack interjected.
"I can still see them," Sam announced to the room.
Janet and Hammond shared a broad smile of relief and happiness. SG-1 might not have been entirely corporeal, but they were still whole. Janet's expression changed to one of near-contempt as she glanced at Dr. MacKenzie, but the smile was back on her face before she turned and walked across the room, on her way to the newly reunited SG-1.
Dr. MacKenzie turned to General Hammond, determined to make his exit as quickly and with as much dignity as he possibly could. "General, I believe I've done all I can here. If you'll excuse me …"
Hammond motioned for silence, stopping the psychiatrist from making his departure. "Oh no, Dr. MacKenzie, I don't think you're quite finished yet."
MacKenzie looked from Hammond to the visible half of SG-1 and back again. "I withdraw my objections, General, and reverse my previous orders. Colonel O'Neill is of sound mind and body, and he is more than competent enough to make all decisions regarding Dr. Jackson's medical care. However, that hardly seems necessary, now that Dr. Jackson himself is able to express his wishes …"
"Oh, I don't care about that," Hammond interrupted. "I'd already decided that I'd have had you forcibly removed from this base if you'd persisted." MacKenzie had the good grace to not look offended at that. "No, Doctor, I'm talking about the apologies you owe."
Dr. MacKenzie swallowed visibly and looked disturbed by the prospect. "Apologies, General? Certainly you can understand, sir, I was only doing my job …"
"You tried to kill Dr. Jackson-repeatedly. You ignored SG-1 every single time they tried to explain to you what was going on. When they came to you with actual physical proof, you claimed that Colonel O'Neill had multiple personalities and that Teal'c and Captain Carter were both delusional." Hammond's voice was cold and emotionless, but when he leaned closer to MacKenzie, the anger in his eyes was plainly visible. "And what's worse, Doctor, is that you convinced me to listen to you. You convinced me to ignore my faith in my own people. And you damn near convinced me to let you kill Daniel."
Hammond leaned even closer, so that only MacKenzie could hear what he was saying, and smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile, however, and it sent a shiver down the psychiatrist's spine.
"If you ever meddle in the affairs of my command or my people again, Doctor, I'll have you giving couples therapy to penguins by the end of the day. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly, sir."
"Good." Hammond nodded and then added, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, yes … I think if I were you, after I'd apologized, I'd stay as far away from SG-1 as possible. I don't think Teal'c likes you very much, and you know how testy those Jaffa can be."
The previous chapters can be found here: What Dreams May Come
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Chapter Thirteen
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"If it is your intention to harm Daniel Jackson, you will do so over my lifeless physical form."
"Dead body, Teal'c," Daniel corrected, looking up quickly from Jack's bedside.
Teal'c turned his head toward Daniel and nodded at him. Daniel returned his worried gaze to Jack's face, and Teal'c turned his attention back to MacKenzie. "Daniel Jackson informs me that the correct phrase is 'over my dead body.' Is it required that I repeat my statement in order for you to understand?"
MacKenzie stared at the man, openly shocked. He had been preparing to terminate the life support when he had found his path to the machines suddenly blocked by one very large, very determined, and obviously very upset Jaffa.
"Mr. Teal'c, I can and will have you restrained and sedated just like Colonel O'Neill. You will stand aside now!"
"I will not," Teal'c replied evenly, fixing the man with his unwavering gaze. "Daniel Jackson has informed me that you are prepared to prematurely end his life. This I refuse to allow."
"Daniel told you that, Teal'c?" Sam asked, stepping toward him. "When?"
"Only two or three moments ago, Captain Carter."
"Did he tell you anything else?" Janet asked.
Teal'c nodded. "He did. On our rapid walk to this room, he said that O'Neill had attempted to stop this course of action and had been forcibly restrained and sedated. And that you, Captain Carter, heard his voice in your mind. Daniel Jackson also believes that you, Dr. Fraiser, and General Hammond knew him to be here, but this man," he indicated MacKenzie with a nod of his head, "refused to listen to you."
"General, sir," Sam said quickly, stepping toward the silent Hammond. "There's no way anyone who wasn't in this room could have known any of that. Teal'c wasn't here, and no one we can see left …"
"Teal'c," Hammond began. "Is Dr. Jackson in this room?"
"He is."
"And you can see him?"
"I can."
"Where is he exactly?"
Teal'c turned back toward Daniel, who was muttering to himself at Jack's side. "He is standing at O'Neill's bedside. He appears quite agitated."
"I can imagine," Hammond said, his voice little more than a mumble. He moved to O'Neill's bed, looking at Teal'c for confirmation that he was in the right place, and at Teal'c's silent nod, he began to speak. "Dr. Jackson … son … I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we didn't believe Colonel O'Neill when he told us what was happening, and I'm very sorry for what you had to stand here and watch us almost do. Twice."
Daniel looked up at the older man and smiled weakly. "It's okay, General. It was kind of a wild story. And I'm sorry too."
"He says it is all right, General Hammond," Teal'c repeated for the sake of the others in the room. "He apologizes as well."
"For what?" Hammond asked the air in front of him, knowing that Daniel could hear him. "Son, you haven't done anything wrong. None of this is your fault."
"I should have tried harder," Daniel said quietly, turning back to Jack, watching his face intently. "I shouldn't have laid this all on Jack."
"Daniel Jackson feels that it was unfair of him to place O'Neill in the position he did."
"Daniel, don't," Sam said, stepping to Jack's other side. "There's no blame in this for you. Don't take any."
"It's our fault, Daniel," Janet added, taking a place at Sam's side. "We didn't listen, and we should have. General Hammond tried to tell me that SG-1 has a way of making the impossible possible. I should have listened to him."
"And I should have listened to Colonel O'Neill," Hammond added.
"And I should have listened to you," Sam whispered, looking directly at where she knew Daniel's eyes would be.
"What none of us should have done, though," Hammond continued with a wave of his hand in MacKenzie's direction, "is listened to him."
"General Hammond," MacKenzie said indignantly. "There is absolutely no way that Dr. Jackson is alive. The only thing keeping his heart beating and his lungs working are those machines that Mr. Teal'c is currently preventing me from disconnecting. You've all obviously been affected by the same madness that has taken control of Colonel O'Neill. And I am fully prepared to take all decisions out of your hands, General."
As he said this, MacKenzie stepped around behind Daniel's bed and grasped the cords that powered the machines that were keeping Daniel's body alive.
Daniel gasped when he realized what MacKenzie intended to do, but before he could speak he felt a strong, reassuring hand on his arm.
"Teal'c, you tell that slimy Freudian worm that if he unplugs those machines, I'll kill him myself."
"What is a Freudian worm, O'Neill?" Teal'c tilted his head as he looked toward the bed that O'Neill's consciousness was rising from, seemingly unperturbed that the man's body wasn't moving.
"Teal'c, he's about to unplug the life support machines you're standing in front of! Just stop him before he kills Daniel!"
Paying no attention to the frozen forms in the room, all of whom were stunned into silence by Teal'c speaking to someone they could plainly see wasn't conscious, Teal'c turned his head in MacKenzie's direction. He saw the man squatted down in front of the power outlet, two heavy cords in his hand.
"Dr. MacKenzie. O'Neill wishes me to inform you that if you terminate the life of Daniel Jackson, he will terminate you."
MacKenzie looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. "And do you really believe he would be able to do that, Teal'c?"
"I do not."
"And why not?"
"Can you not plainly see that O'Neill does not currently have access to his physical body?" Teal'c ignored MacKenzie's smile of triumph and continued. "However, I am not similarly incapacitated, and I would have no difficulty in dismembering you in his stead."
"Way to go, Teal'c," Jack said with a smile.
"Hey, guys? Could we maybe have a few less threats? I mean, it's not that I don't appreciate the sentiment but …"
"Daniel, what is MacKenzie trying to do to you over there?"
"Well, he's trying to kill me, but he thinks I'm already dead, so …"
"Daniel Jackson, I do not believe that Dr. MacKenzie believes you to be dead any longer."
"What makes you think that, Teal'c?" Jack asked.
"He is no longer attempting to disconnect the power supplies to the machines."
Jack and Daniel looked up and finally noticed what everyone else in the room had already seen. MacKenzie had removed his hands from the power cords, risen to his feet, and backed away from Daniel's bed.
"He could just be really scared of you, Teal'c."
"That is possible, O'Neill. But it does not matter. The end result is the same. Daniel Jackson will live."
- = - = -
"This situation is completely unacceptable, General!" MacKenzie declared before Janet had even closed the door to the observation room completely. "I cannot believe that you will allow that … man … to come into that room and threaten me like that!"
Hammond shook his head slowly and tried to hide the smile that threatened to spread across his face. "Teal'c isn't going to dismember you, Doctor."
"How can you be so certain of that? Need I remind you that he's an alien, General? One who was, until a very short time ago, second-in-command to … ?"
"No, Doctor, you don't," Hammond interrupted with no small amount of heat, his good humor suddenly gone. "Teal'c's loyalty is not in question here. He swore an oath to protect and defend this planet and I have no doubt that he will hold himself to it." Hammond's voice rose in conjunction with his mounting anger. "What is at issue is that this oath also extends to the members of his team, Doctor, and in the past twenty-four hours, you have developed a very nasty habit of threatening to kill one of them. Repeatedly, I might add. And convincing me to do the same!"
"You can't kill someone who is already dead!"
Hammond jerked his hand through the air in a gesture of dismissal. "Doctor, this is no longer open for discussion. After what we just saw, the official record will read: Dr. Jackson did not die on P2A-759 as previously believed. His consciousness was somehow removed from his body, requiring a return trip by SG-1 for the purpose of discovering how to reverse the process."
"General, that is not only absurd, it is completely without basis! And as ranking medical officer in this case, I refuse to allow it to happen."
Hammond glared at the other man and his face flushed. "Do you seriously expect to overrule me on this?"
"Dr. MacKenzie," Janet interrupted, keeping her voice intentionally soft, momentarily derailing Hammond's anger. "If you believed what SG-1 is saying, would you withdraw your objection?"
MacKenzie gave a single, curt nod. "Absolutely."
"Then what would it take to convince you? It seems that Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c both seeing him and talking to him, Captain Carter hearing him and the physical evidence of the parallel anomalies in their MRIs isn't enough. What more proof do you need?"
"I would need to see him for myself, Dr. Fraiser," he answered without hesitation.
"What if that weren't possible?" Janet asked. "I think we can say with no small amount of certainty that no one outside of the three remaining members of SG-1 is going to be able to see him."
"Then I'll never believe it, because it isn't possible."
"But what if, instead of seeing him for yourself, you were in total and complete control of a person who could? If that person couldn't lie to you, even if she wanted to, and if hallucination weren't even a possibility? Would that satisfy you?"
MacKenzie nodded. "Yes. If I were in total control of the situation and knew that the subject had to be telling me the absolute truth, that I could accept."
"What are you thinking, Dr. Fraiser?" General Hammond asked.
Janet leaned forward and triggered the microphone, allowing SG-1 to hear her in the isolation room below.
"Captain Carter?"
"Yes?" Sam answered.
"Captain, would you consent to Dr. MacKenzie hypnotizing you again?"
It was Teal'c who answered first, though the words obviously weren't his own. "O'Neill says, 'No way in h …' "
"Why?" Sam asked, silencing Teal'c with a motion of her hand. "Colonel, this might be important."
Teal'c tilted his head and raised an eyebrow as he turned his head to the right and stared at something only he could see. He blinked twice before turning back toward Sam.
"O'Neill expresses … severe doubt at that possibility."
Janet felt the urge to giggle at Teal'c's translation of the colonel's protest, which she had no doubt contained a much larger string of invectives than Teal'c would ever feel comfortable repeating. She turned the microphone on again.
"Captain, I have a theory."
"Okay."
"We're all aware that the colonel woke up from his sedation this morning with the apparently sudden ability to see Daniel, when before he'd only been able to hear him, and that, only occasionally."
Sam nodded slowly, not completely understanding where Janet was going with this. "Right."
"And now, Teal'c can see him too. Teal'c," Janet turned her attention from Sam to the Jaffa. "What exactly were you doing the first time you saw Daniel?"
"I was … meditating is the word you would use."
"Was it a deep meditation, Teal'c? Was your subconscious mind engaged?"
"It was," Teal'c answered with a nod.
Sam's face brightened in sudden understanding. "You're thinking that if I'm hypnotized, if we put my subconscious mind in control, that I'll be able to see him too?"
"That's my theory, Captain," Janet answered.
"Then yes," Sam said. "If there's a chance that I'll be able to see Daniel, and prove to everyone that he's here, then yes."
"Thank you, Captain," Janet replied. "We'll be right down."
"Captain Carter, O'Neill believes that you are placing too much trust in Dr. MacKenzie. He wishes to have no more members of SG-1 placed under the care of this … winged, aquatic animal?"
Sam smiled. "I think he said 'quack', Teal'c. Colonel, I know you don't trust Dr. MacKenzie right now, and I don't blame you. But I think Dr. Fraiser is right. I think that once we see Daniel with our subconscious, then we can just see him. It certainly does seem that that's what worked for you and Teal'c. And if hypnotizing me is what it takes to convince Dr. MacKenzie that we're telling the truth, then I'm more than willing to do it."
- = - = -
"All right, Captain. When I count to three, you will open your eyes, and you will tell me exactly what you see. One, two, three."
Sam opened her eyes slowly and looked around the isolation room. She saw him immediately; he was standing right in front of her. Her eyes filled with tears even as a broad smile crossed her face. She ignored everyone else in the room as she stood and walked toward him. He smiled back at her and nodded.
"Hi, Sam."
Her breath caught in her throat as happiness threatened to overwhelm her; tears of joy and laughter mingled together as she came face-to-face with the truth she had known all along, but had convinced herself was impossible.
"Captain?" MacKenzie prompted from behind her. "What are you seeing?"
"Daniel," she answered without hesitation. "It's Daniel." She pulled her eyes away from his face for only a second, to share a brief smile with the other non-corporeal person in the room. "And Colonel O'Neill."
"You see Daniel and the colonel lying in their beds?" MacKenzie asked.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, they're both standing."
"Where are they?"
"Daniel is right in the middle of the room, about two feet in front of me. The colonel is standing beside him."
MacKenzie turned toward Janet and General Hammond in shock. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. As if realizing how ridiculous he must look, he snapped his mouth shut quickly, only to open it again to speak.
"General, Doctor, I … I don't know what to say … I didn't think it … It's just not possible …"
"And yet," Janet said, "it's true."
"Yes," MacKenzie admitted, obviously reluctant but at last unable to argue any further. "Yes, it appears that it is." He sighed again and turned back toward Sam. She'd not moved since he'd turned away, but she was deep in conversation with two people that she shouldn't have been able to speak to at all-Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill. One was dead, the other was heavily sedated and unconscious, but apparently those facts meant nothing.
"Captain," MacKenzie said, "I do hate to interrupt, but I'm going to wake you up now."
Sam nodded without taking her eyes away from whatever-or whoever-it was she was looking at so intently. "This is the part where we cross our fingers," she said. "If I'm right, I'll still see you when I'm awake. If I'm wrong …" She swallowed hard and took a step backwards. "If I'm wrong, I'll see you when you get back." Sam wiped her cheeks and nodded to MacKenzie.
"Close your eyes, Captain. When I snap my fingers, you will wake up, and you will remember everything that happened. One, two …"
MacKenzie snapped his fingers.
Sam stood for a moment, breathing deeply, with her eyes still closed. She looked almost afraid to open them. She did remember everything, just as MacKenzie said she would, but there was a small part of her that was worried that it all might have been a dream, or an hallucination, and that when she opened her eyes it would only be to find that Daniel was still dead, the colonel was still insane, and she and Teal'c were following him down that path.
"I'm not dead, Sam."
Her eyes shot open when she heard him, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief when she realized she was still staring directly into the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen, made all the more beautiful by the fact that she'd spent more than twenty-four hours thinking she'd never see them again.
"And you're not crazy," Daniel added with a smile.
"Well, no crazier than you were ten minutes ago, anyway," Jack interjected.
"I can still see them," Sam announced to the room.
Janet and Hammond shared a broad smile of relief and happiness. SG-1 might not have been entirely corporeal, but they were still whole. Janet's expression changed to one of near-contempt as she glanced at Dr. MacKenzie, but the smile was back on her face before she turned and walked across the room, on her way to the newly reunited SG-1.
Dr. MacKenzie turned to General Hammond, determined to make his exit as quickly and with as much dignity as he possibly could. "General, I believe I've done all I can here. If you'll excuse me …"
Hammond motioned for silence, stopping the psychiatrist from making his departure. "Oh no, Dr. MacKenzie, I don't think you're quite finished yet."
MacKenzie looked from Hammond to the visible half of SG-1 and back again. "I withdraw my objections, General, and reverse my previous orders. Colonel O'Neill is of sound mind and body, and he is more than competent enough to make all decisions regarding Dr. Jackson's medical care. However, that hardly seems necessary, now that Dr. Jackson himself is able to express his wishes …"
"Oh, I don't care about that," Hammond interrupted. "I'd already decided that I'd have had you forcibly removed from this base if you'd persisted." MacKenzie had the good grace to not look offended at that. "No, Doctor, I'm talking about the apologies you owe."
Dr. MacKenzie swallowed visibly and looked disturbed by the prospect. "Apologies, General? Certainly you can understand, sir, I was only doing my job …"
"You tried to kill Dr. Jackson-repeatedly. You ignored SG-1 every single time they tried to explain to you what was going on. When they came to you with actual physical proof, you claimed that Colonel O'Neill had multiple personalities and that Teal'c and Captain Carter were both delusional." Hammond's voice was cold and emotionless, but when he leaned closer to MacKenzie, the anger in his eyes was plainly visible. "And what's worse, Doctor, is that you convinced me to listen to you. You convinced me to ignore my faith in my own people. And you damn near convinced me to let you kill Daniel."
Hammond leaned even closer, so that only MacKenzie could hear what he was saying, and smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile, however, and it sent a shiver down the psychiatrist's spine.
"If you ever meddle in the affairs of my command or my people again, Doctor, I'll have you giving couples therapy to penguins by the end of the day. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly, sir."
"Good." Hammond nodded and then added, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, yes … I think if I were you, after I'd apologized, I'd stay as far away from SG-1 as possible. I don't think Teal'c likes you very much, and you know how testy those Jaffa can be."