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The Haunting of Daniel Jackson
Chapter 1 – The Awakening
It had been too long dormant. How did it get here? It stretched and found unfamiliar boundaries. Just where was it? Trapped, weak, and furious, it started it’s search for answers.
.
.
Jack was on his feet, armed, and half way out the tent before his mind registered what it was that had woke him in the first place. A scream. It had been a scream of pain and terror. The kind that would make your flesh crawl if it came from a child’s nightmare. And freeze blood when it came from an adult’s.
Jack swept his gaze around their tiny camp. The fire was still going, flickering in the rain. Nothing was disturbed. There was little noise; his heavy breathing, the steam of the rain meeting fire, and an animal in the distance. He would have dismissed it as a figment of his imagination were it not for Carter and Teal’c, both standing at the ready and looking equally confused.
At the same moment he registered the missing member of his team, he heard whimpering. Faint sobs that would have been lost in the normal nightly noise of any normal planet. This place, and this trip, had been anything but.
He motioned Teal’c and Carter to take the flanks as he cautiously approached Daniel’s tent. He was prepared to find an intruder, despite the emptiness of the planet. Maybe some wild animal having found its way into the tent. He was not prepared to find Daniel alone.
Alone, crouched in a corner, and staring with horror at an empty spot on the floor.
Jack put down his weapon and signaled to the others that they could lower their guard.
"Daniel?" Jack kept his voice low, not wanting to startle the distraught scientist.
Daniel pulled tighter into himself at the noise. He was trembling, his mouth working silently, his eyes still glued to a spot on the floor.
Jack eyed the spot, then the entire tent. Nothing seemed to be amiss other than Daniel himself. Jack knelt before him.
"Daniel, can you hear me?" A chill went down Jack’s back at the way Daniel looked right through him. Jack reached out and touched his shoulder. No reaction. "Daniel? Come on, Daniel, wake up." Jack gently shook Daniel.
Daniel was completely unaware of his surroundings. He continued to gaze at an empty space, shaking with the shock of the nightmare visions only he could see.
"Wake up, Daniel." Jack tried his CO tone, hoping it would snap Daniel back to reality. When that didn’t work, he tried another tone, other words. Daniel did not react to anything he said.
Jack sighed in resigned frustration. This planet was enough to give anyone nightmares, but this was ridiculous. He made himself comfortable beside Daniel. Jack continued to speak to Daniel in soft, soothing tones, hoping his voice would draw the younger man out.
Jack now had words to go with the lip movements, as Daniel finally found his voice. "So much blood. So much blood." Daniel repeated his soft mantra, sending chills down Jack’s spine.
Some nightmare, he thought. Or flashback. Jack didn’t like the idea. What could he have seen that would have so much blood? Oh. His parents.
Jack swore softly. It was bad enough Daniel had seen his parents die once. But to relive it?
Jack cursed Daniel’s luck and pulled the trembling man into a protective embrace. He rubbed Daniel’s back and rocked him as he would a child. His murmurs of comfort never could quite drown out Daniel’s repeated whispers.
After what felt like an eternity to Jack, Daniel stopped shivering. He looked down to find the younger man silent and asleep in his arms.
Jack didn’t sleep the rest of the night. He stayed in the tent with Daniel, keeping watch as Daniel slept peacefully through the rest of the night.
Morning finally came, and Carter stuck her head in to announce breakfast. Jack thanked her, stretched, and woke Daniel.
They ate breakfast in uneasy silence. Daniel didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong. Everything had been done in eerie silence on this planet. There was a cacophony of life here during the day, and almost utter silence at night. That, combined with stillness this place exuded, had put the whole team on edge from the moment they arrived. Finding the demolished village hadn’t helped. It had looked as if its residents had tried to wipe any evidence of their existence off the face of the planet, but left just short of doing so.
Jack watched Daniel over his meal. He appeared to be lost in thought. Nothing new there. He was also wide awake where Jack was stifling yawns and Carter was still rubbing at bleary eyes.
"I can’t wait to get off this planet," Daniel finally broke the silence, causing Jack to jump a bit.
"I know what you mean," Carter mumbled. She glanced at Jack, returned her scrutiny to Daniel. "This place gives me the creeps."
Daniel smiled faintly. "Gives me the willies," he said, returning to the bantering competition they had started on the way back from the village.
"Gives me the screaming meme’s."
"The feeling of being watched when no one’s there."
Sam grinned. "The disembodied hand on my shoulder."
Daniel shook his head. "The cold spot," he said in the scary story tone of voice.
Sam opened her mouth, clearly at a loss. "The cooties," she blurted, then blushed.
Jack spit out the water he had just taken a sip of. Daniel looked at her with a gaping mouth. Teal’c raised an eyebrow but refrained from asking his usual question.
"Cooties?" Jack asked, still not sure he had heard right.
"Long time since I’ve heard that one," Daniel muttered.
"Well," Carter drew herself up a bit straighter, "If they ever existed, this place has them." There was a pause as the chuckles died down. "Your turn, Daniel."
"Oh. Where were we?"
"Cooties," Jack supplied helpfully, shaking his head at the major.
"Right. I’ll give you that one. Uhm…" He searched for the right metaphor. "Feels like someone walked over my grave," he said triumphantly.
The smile fell off of Carter’s face. Jack felt his own grin slipping. Even Teal’c had turned his scrutiny to the stretching scientist.
"Is that what you dreamt about last night?" Carter asked softly.
"I don’t think I dreamt of anything last night," he said with a frown of concern at the change in Carter’s tone. "Why, did you have a nightmare?"
"It is you who had the nightmare, Daniel Jackson," Teal’c provided.
"What?" His brows creased in obvious confusion as he looked at his teammates.
"You woke us up screaming," Jack said slowly, watching his friend’s face.
"I did?"
Jack nodded. Daniel glanced at the others for confirmation before returning his perplexed gaze back to Jack. "But I would have remembered a nightmare like that." He frowned. "Wouldn’t I?"