Author's Notes: To those who've loyally followed this story from its beginning, you have my undying gratitude.

Chapter Eight
Another Briefing

It had been a long day. Way too long. Examined, questioned, and stared at most of the day, Daniel had finally snapped. He kicked one of Janet's nurses, dumped over a tray of medical equipment, and ended up in Jack's arms wailing that he wanted to go home. Jack was frankly surprised it hadn't happened sooner. He retreated to his office with Daniel clinging to him like a limpet and sobbing inconsolably. When Daniel had eventually fallen asleep, Jack had dozed off as well.

The knock woke him. He blinked the blurriness out of his eyes in time to see Carter open his door and poke her head inside the office.

        "Sir?  The briefing?  Everyone's waiting for you."
        He checked his watch.  Two hours had passed since he'd holed up in the office.  

He peeked down at Daniel, nestled in his lap. The kid was still sleeping, face and body totally relaxed, the shirt at Jack's chest bunched loosely in one hand.

        "Teal'c offered to skip the briefing and watch Daniel."
        Jack shook his head.  Two hours was a record, but he was willing to try for three.  

Daniel had fought to stay awake most of the night, and even when exhaustion won, he had slept fitfully, never more than an hour before nightmares drove him awake and the whole cycle started again.

"Let him sleep." He stood and rearranged Daniel in his arms. Daniel's fingers tensed around the shirt, but otherwise, he didn't stir, accepting the change in position like a puppet. "If he wakes up, Teal'c can take him out."

Carter nodded. She rested a hand on Daniel's back for a moment, then spun on her heel, and led the way to the briefing. Jack pretended not to notice when she wiped surreptitiously at her eyes. The discovery that Daniel remembered absolutely nothing related to math or science had upset her quite a bit. Jack decided his 2IC needed to get good and drunk. Hell, he needed to get drunk. Carter, however, was obsessing over the damage done to Daniel, and she really needed to stop thinking for a while. Since Jack couldn't manage that one himself, he intended to sic Janet on her.

The murmur of conversation ceased the moment Jack entered the briefing room. He was glad everyone here had already viewed Daniel's transformation because the shocked stares they'd been getting all day had grown old. He settled into the chair next to Hammond and adjusted Daniel in his lap. Both Janet and Allyssa gave him the "oh, how cute!" look, something else they'd been enduring all day. If either doctor actually said the words, Jack was certain he'd have to shoot her, just on general principles.

Teal'c brought coffee to Jack and Carter, refilled the cups in front of Hammond and Allyssa, and poured more water for himself and Janet. Jack took a sip and lifted an eyebrow. Someone had replaced the regular coffee with one of the richer, more eclectic blends that Daniel had favored. It was pretty good. Too bad Daniel wasn't getting any.

"I've informed Doctor Michaels of the particulars of Daniel's situation," Hammond said. "Doctor Frasier, let's start with your report. How is Daniel? I heard there was some difficulty this afternoon."

Janet blushed. "Yes, sir. I wasn't watching carefully enough. I should have noticed that Daniel was tired." She glanced apologetically at Jack. "I thought he'd complain, but he never said anything before he blew up at us. I didn't realize he would act so much like Daniel."

        "He is Daniel," Jack responded testily.
        "In a six-year-old body," Allyssa said.  "I understand what Doctor Frasier is 
saying.  Sometimes I see a little boy, and sometimes I see Daniel.  It's hard to see both."
        Janet nodded.  "Most of the personnel who've had any contact with Daniel today 

are having the same problem. They see the child and forget it's Daniel, or they treat him as they would treat an adult Daniel and forget he's a child. Frankly, Colonel, from what I've noticed, you, Sam, and Teal'c are the only ones who manage to see both Daniel and the child. You're dealing with it extremely well."

"And how is Daniel dealing with it?" Hammond asked, reiterating his original question.

Janet sighed. "As well as can be expected. He's been traumatized, so he tends to seek out people and places that make him feel protected. Right now, that's Colonel O'Neill, and to a lesser extent, Major Carter and Teal'c. When they're nearby, Daniel seems to be a well-adjusted, happy, inquisitive child. Whenever they leave or something else threatens his feeling of safety, he becomes sullen, uncooperative, and often terrified. Until Daniel is able to reestablish his sense of security, SG-1's continued presence will be essential."

        Hammond frowned.  "How long, Doctor?"
        "It's impossible to say.  A lot depends on Daniel."
        When Hammond continued to frown, probably considering the effect of dropping 

SG-1 from the rotation, Jack said tightly, "I'll retire if I have to, General. There's no way I'm letting Daniel go through this alone."

"I know that, Jack," Hammond said with a fond glance toward Daniel. Jack knew Hammond himself had a soft spot for Daniel and would do everything possible to facilitate Daniel's recovery; it was the pressure from "upstairs" that worried Jack. Hammond turned his attention back to Janet. "What's the situation with Daniel's memories, Doctor?"

Janet sighed again and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked tired. "We began by operating under the assumption that Daniel's memories were all intact within his subconscious and that he would eventually recover them. According to Daniel, he remembers more after he's slept for a time. Since the subconscious tends to surface during sleep, that seemed to confirm our assumptions."

        "I'm sensing a `but' in here," Jack said.
        "But," Janet offered with a nod toward Jack, "it's more complicated than that.  

We've done a session of hypnoregression with Daniel, and it seems that many of his memories, especially from his childhood and the time before he joined the Stargate program, are gone."

        "Gone?"  Hammond's brow wrinkled with confusion.
        "Yes, sir.  He still retains the emotional impact of certain events, but in his mind, 

the events themselves no longer exist. Daniel *can't* remember some things because the memories simply aren't there anymore."

"You can't fix it?" Jack asked. If there was a way to fix it, he was pretty sure Janet would have mentioned it already, but he needed to hear her actually say it.

Janet blew out a frustrated huff. "I'm not even sure how the damage was done. Even if the conscious memory is lost, Daniel should still be able to access it through the subconscious. A technique like hypnoregression should work, no matter how deeply the memory is buried. How Daniel can tell us what he felt when his parents died but have no memory of the actual event..." She shrugged.

"So bottom line this for me. If, by some chance, Daniel got turned back into an adult--"

Janet shook her head. "I'm sorry, Colonel. As far as I can tell, this memory loss is permanent. I don't see any way of recovering the memories, regardless of his age or size. Once Daniel manages to access whatever's in his subconscious right now, that's it."

Jack winced. Listening to Daniel flip from language to language with Allyssa and then watching him translate the Ancient language, he'd had the wild hope that Daniel would be restored to them as he once was.

"I don't mean to say that Daniel's mental aptitude is impaired in any way," Janet hastened to assure them. "He's forgotten some skills. He can't write, he doesn't recognize numbers, and his knowledge of history is sketchy, but his IQ is exceptionally high. He reads well beyond his age level. I don't doubt he'll learn as quickly as he did when he was a child the first time."

        "In other words, he's still a genius," Jack said.
        "And still smarter than you," Carter added with a grin.  "Just wait till he's a 
teenager."
        Jack had a mental image of a teenaged Daniel explaining in pedantic tones why he 
should be allowed to stay out later than his curfew and groaned.  "Oy."
        Hammond smiled and looked to Allyssa.  "Doctor Michaels, what can you add?"
        "From what I've been able to test, Daniel's retained all of his languages.  In fact, 

he speaks them better than English. He doesn't forget the words or grammar the way he tends to when he's speaking English."

        "All of them, Doctor?"
        Jack couldn't blame Hammond for sounding skeptical.  Twenty-three plus some 

was a lot of languages, and if Jack hadn't actually seen Daniel babbling to Allyssa and three other linguists in her department, smoothly following their language shifts, he might not have believed it either.

"I'd have to pull in a few more people to cover what we missed, but it appears so. At our count, Daniel spoke and translated nineteen languages comfortably."

        "With just the one problem," Jack said.
        Allyssa nodded and explained Daniel's difficulty in initiating a conversation in 

another language. "There's one more thing. Do you remember that tablet SG-1 brought back from Abydos a month ago? Daniel translated some of it. Plus a couple other things we've identified as Ancient. Apparently, while Daniel was wherever he's been--" Allyssa flapped a hand in the air. Jack had tried to explain the whole ascension/descension thing to her, but for being a linguist, she'd had the hardest time understanding the concept. "It seems he picked up the Ancients' language. So, whatever else happens, I'd like to see Daniel helping out in linguistics, if possible. I've got a whole stack of Ancient writings no one's been able to make heads or tails of."

"We'll see, Doctor," Hammond said. Jack figured Hammond had kept his answer noncommittal because he was having the same problem as everyone else. He saw the kid instead of Daniel. A kid had no place in the SGC. Jack grinned to himself. He doubted it would take long before Daniel reminded Hammond otherwise. Kid or not, Daniel belonged here.

Carter poured herself more coffee and mused out loud, "It's odd what Daniel remembers and what he doesn't. There doesn't seem be any pattern."

"It's my fault," Daniel whispered, but in the sudden hush that descended over the room, his voice carried easily. "I gived them things."

Jack stroked a hand up and down Daniel's arm. The kid was still lying quiet and relaxed against Jack's chest. His steady, deep breathing hadn't changed. Jack wondered how long he'd been awake.

"I hid 'portant things," Daniel continued. "Things about here. Things I'd want if I comed back. Then I gived them other things so they'd leave my 'portant things alone."

Daniel didn't sound upset. He wasn't trembling or hyperventilating with panic. Jack flashed back to the time Daniel had described how the radiation would slowly devour him. Daniel's voice had been like this, empty and resigned. Jack's gut clenched.

"Daniel," he started. He wanted to say, "You don't have to tell us this. You don't have to relive this." As usual, words failed him but not his linguist. Daniel was still talking.

"There were lots of 'portant things. Lots and lots. I 'member that. But they comed back for more, and I runned out of other things. So I cutted up the 'portant things into little pieces."

Despite the unnatural calm in Daniel's voice, Jack could feel a dampness starting to seep through his shirt and onto his chest. Jack closed his eyes, feeling the pain all the way to his heart as Daniel soaked it with silent tears.

"Daniel, please," Carter whispered. She was begging Daniel to stop, but she couldn't get the words out any more than Jack could.

Daniel's voice was as relentless as pounding rain. "I gived them the pieces slowly. One at a time. But sometimes I gived them more because I wanted them to stop hurting me. I wanted them to stop coming back. I gived them too much. I didn't mean to forget. Sorry, sorry. It's my fault. All my fault."

"It's not your fault, son," Hammond said with gentle firmness. "You did what you could to survive and come back to us. That's the important thing."

If Daniel heard what Hammond said, he gave no indication of it. He uttered a sigh so deep it felt as if he had dragged it all the way out of his soul. "Jack, can we go home now?"

Jack glanced at Hammond, who acquiesced with a silent nod, and then stood, readjusting Daniel in his arms. Daniel clung to him limply. As they left the briefing room, Daniel's eyes closed and his breathing slowed. By the time Jack reached his truck, Daniel was asleep again.

The snooze lasted until Jack was pulling into his driveway. Daniel suddenly jerked. His eyes snapped open, wide and unseeing. Jack reached over and palmed the back of Daniel's neck, murmuring reassurances as he brought the truck to a stop. Daniel turned his head, leaning into the touch. He closed his eyes, released the tension of his dreams with another soul-deep sigh, and opened his eyes again to look at Jack.

"I'm home," he whispered. Jack was pretty sure Daniel wasn't talking about Jack's house.

        "Yes, you are."
        Daniel smiled and unbuckled his seat belt.  "I'm hungry, Jack."
        "You're six.  Of course you're hungry."
        It was as if the last few hours of stress had melted away.  Jack ordered a pizza.  

While they waited for its arrival, Daniel took a bath. He had Jack explain how to do everything and then kicked Jack out of the bathroom, promising to yell if he had any problems. Jack lingered in the hallway, but Daniel never called out. Twenty minutes later, he emerged, his head lost in his pajama top as he struggled to pull it on.

        "Um, Jack?  Help?"
        Jack grinned, got the pajama top in place, and combed down the spikes of wet 
hair.  The doorbell rang.  Daniel sprinted to the door, a bundle of wired energy.
        "Jack!  Jack!  It's pizza.  I 'member pizza!  Hurry up, Jack."
        The delivery girl, a teenager with purple-dyed hair and a nose ring, watched Daniel 

dance from the door to Jack and back again like an excited puppy. She grinned. Jack hoped she wouldn't say anything about how cute Daniel was.

Daniel quieted long enough to wolf down three pieces of pizza and a glass of milk. Then he was off again. First, he dashed around the house with his arms outspread, occasionally bouncing on the sofa, yelling for Jack to come and watch him fly. At one point, he zoomed into his bedroom. When he zoomed out again, he was waving a wooden ruler from his desk. He brandished it, complete with sound effects, so Jack had no trouble imagining the ruler as a lightsaber. He winced as one of the lamps nearly suffered a catastrophic death. Daniel saved it at the last moment, shot Jack an embarrassed look, and scaled back his liveliness enough that Jack didn't have to bring the game to a halt.

        "Note to self," Jack muttered.  "Schedule roughhousing for the middle of the day."
        He settled into a chair and read the newspaper while Daniel fought off all the bad 

guys. Jack let him play. After a day of being a lab rat, he needed the release. Besides, Jack admitted to himself, Daniel's laughter was a balm to his own battered heart. Eventually, Daniel ran out of steam. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned a moment later, holding a book and dragging the quilt from Carter and Janet. He climbed onto Jack's lap and squirmed his way into a comfortable position. Jack helped by pulling the quilt up and tucking it around them both.

        "Read to me?"
        Since Janet had proved that Daniel could read perfectly well, Jack figured Daniel 

was after the closeness. Charlie had done that, snuggled up to Jack for stories even after he'd learned to read for himself. Jack swallowed back the pain of that memory and decided he could use the closeness too.

        He read until Daniel started to yawn.  "Okay, kiddo.  Bedtime."
        "Not tired."  Daniel rubbed at his eyes and sat up, away from the support of Jack's 
chest where he had slumped during the story.  "I sleeped at the SGC."
        "Daniel, you didn't sleep worth squat last night.  There's no way that little power 
nap before the briefing was enough."
        Daniel yawned again.  "Not tired.  Don't wanna sleep."
        "You know what, Dannyboy?  You used to do this before.  You'd work yourself 
to a coma or drink coffee by the gallon--"
        "What's coffee?"
        "Don't try to distract me--or you'd wander around the SGC or play all sorts of 
other tricks just to stay awake.  You remember that?" 
        Daniel shook his head.
        "Sometimes I let you get by with it because I figured you were a big boy and you 
could take care of yourself."
        Daniel shook his head again.  "You always taked care of me.  I 'member that."
        "God knows, I tried, Danny.  But I screwed up sometimes.  Sometimes, I 

should've took better care. And that's my point. I don't want to screw it up this time. You need to sleep, okay?"

Daniel gnawed his lower lip, and his forehead scrunched with the "I'm working on a compromise" look. Jack waited him out. Daniel peeked at him under lowered eyelashes.

        "Can I sleep with you?  In your bed?"
        Jack considered.  He was concerned about this dependence thing Daniel had going 

on, but as Janet said, the kid had been traumatized. Between the memory loss and the nightmares, he was probably feeling vulnerable. Maybe that record two hours at the SGC wasn't a fluke. Maybe Daniel had managed to sleep that long because he felt more secure in Jack's presence.

        "Okay, buddy.  We'll give that a try."
        Daniel latched his arms around Jack's neck and squeezed gently.  His breath 
tickled Jack's ear as he whispered, "Thanks, Jack.  Love you."
        Dammit, the kid was way too cute.