Author: MegTDJ
Category: Angst/drama; hurt/comfort
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Daniel/Janet
Spoilers: Up to and including season 5's Summit/Last Stand
Archive: DanandJan, D/J Challenge, Gateview,
Summary: An accident in the lab has drastic consequences for Janet, leaving Daniel feeling fully responsible.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1, its universe and its characters are not mine. The story itself is, however, so please don't archive without my permission.
Warning: Kid!Fic. Read at your own risk. ;)
Author's notes: The plot for this fic was inspired by one of Tiv's challenges on Our Stargate - Can't have enough kid fics. :) What if Hammond is turned into a kid? Janet? Siler? Davis? Brata'c? Kasuf? Thanks for the bunny, Tiv!
Many thanks to Kerri, Misty, Julie, Chrysa, Jammer, Isabelle, Cait, and the rest of you zany Gateview chatters. You're the wind beneath my wings. I love you all bunches.
Reversals - Chapter 1
"How's it coming, Janet?"
Janet sighed and looked up from her microscope to see Sam entering the lab. "Well, I haven't discovered that this powder holds the key to eternal youth, if that's what you're asking," she said in a somewhat snarky tone. "I don't know what the people of P4... whatever think this is, but it's just plain old talcum powder from what I can see."
Sam grinned. "Really? So, if I go and snuff some talcum powder, it'll take away my wrinkles?"
Janet gave her a wry smile. "Hardly," she said. "To be honest, I really don't think this is what's causing these people to live twice as long as us. It could be something in their food, their water, or even the atmosphere of the planet." She shrugged. "Then again, I'm not a scientist. I'm looking at this from a strictly medical point of view, but still... I just don't see how this could be the 'fountain of youth' drug these people claim it to be."
"Maybe it just makes them high enough to think they're getting younger."
Janet laughed. "I think that's more likely, yes," she said, turning back to her work.
"Well, keep at it," Sam said. "From what Daniel could gather, these people use this stuff for just about everything. They even apply it to wounds, and say they heal in half the time."
"Wouldn't that be nice," Janet murmured. She looked up at Sam again as a sudden thought occurred to her. "Hey, where is Daniel, anyway?" she asked. "I haven't seen him since you guys got back, and he was supposed to be here helping me with this."
"I'm here!" Daniel said as he hurried into the room. "I'm here. Sorry, I was... caught up in something else." He made an apologetic face and sat down on the stool beside her. "So... what do you need me to do?"
Sam smiled and shook her head over Daniel's grand entrance. "I've got to go, but I'll see you guys later," she said as she made her way to the door.
"Okay, Sam," Janet called after her. "See you later."
As Sam left, Janet took a moment to study Daniel's rather unkempt appearance. He seemed distracted, his hair was a mess, and his clothes were rumpled - all of which were very unusual for Dr. Daniel Jackson.
Daniel looked over at her as she did so and seemed somewhat uncomfortable under her scrutinizing gaze. "What?"
"What was it that you got 'caught up in,' exactly?" she asked.
Daniel's mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to think of an answer, but finally he shot her a sheepish look and said, "I... fell asleep at my desk."
Janet sighed. "Again? Daniel, I told you to come to me if your insomnia persisted..."
"But the insomnia is gone," he argued. "Now it's more of a... fall-asleep-at-the-worst-possible-time kind of thing." At Janet's glare, he shrugged his shoulders and looked down at the notebooks and equipment scattered across the table. "So, what are we doing?" he asked in an obvious attempt at changing the subject.
Janet made a mental note to continue this discussion later, but allowed his diversionary tactic to work. "Notes, Daniel," she said. "Remember? I can't read them, and it's very important that I know all of the information we've been given about this drug."
"Right," Daniel said. He picked up one of the notebooks and started leafing through it.
"Daniel, are you okay?" Janet asked, concerned by his absentmindedness. She often found his scatterbrained tendencies endearing, but this time it was worrying her. "You seem... preoccupied."
"No, no, I'm fine," Daniel was quick to insist. "I'm just... tired."
Janet narrowed her eyes at him.
"From the mission," he added nervously. "I'm fine."
Janet nodded warily. "Okay," she said. "But on the safe side, don't overdo it."
"I won't. Which one of these notebooks do you need me to translate first?"
"Why don't I leave that up to your discretion?" she said. "I have no idea what any of it's about, so I really can't say. It's all Greek to me."
Daniel grinned at her. "It's all Greek to me, too," he joked.
"Yes, well, unlike me, you can actually read Greek," she said with a smile. "I just need to know anything that may explain just what this drug is. So far all it seems to be is useless powder."
"Well, yes, that's because it is."
Janet's brow furrowed in confusion. "What?"
Daniel winced. "Oh... I forgot to tell you," he said. "This is just the main ingredient of the final product, so to speak. You have to add things to it in order to make the drug."
Janet could have smacked his ear on the spot. "Daniel! Why didn't you tell me? I've wasted all this time..."
"I know! I know! I'm sorry!" He started looking frantically through the notebook in his hands. "I don't know where my mind has been lately... ah, here it is. You add... oh boy."
Janet looked over his shoulder to see what had stopped him dead. "What is it?"
Daniel glanced over at her for a moment, though he seemed lost in thought. Then he snapped back to reality and quickly turned his attention back to the notebook. "Uh... they've given the base elements different names than we have," he said. "That makes sense, when you think about it, because they would have been discovered at different times by different people..."
"Yes? And?" Janet interrupted his babbling.
"And... it might take me a little while to figure out what the hell they're talking about," he said.
Janet sighed. "How long?"
"I have no idea," Daniel replied absently, already lost in his work.
Janet crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in her chair. She should have known it was going to take longer than she'd hoped.
During the long wait that followed, Janet took the opportunity to watch Daniel as he worked. It wasn't very often that she got to do that without him even noticing her attention. He really did look tired, she noted in sympathy. She knew he'd been having disturbing dreams ever since his inside look at a System Lord summit a few days earlier, and that had rapidly led to insomnia. She had figured it must be because he'd been so close to getting Sarah back, only to lose her again.
The thought of that made her want to scream. Daniel was her dearest friend, and she hated to see him hurting like this. 'Damn those Goa'ulds,' she thought to herself. 'If one of them was within my reach right now, I'd wring its snaky little neck for what its kind has done to Daniel.'
"Penny for your thoughts."
Janet blinked, suddenly realizing that she had been staring at Daniel for much too long. She hadn't seen him look up, though, so surely he hadn't noticed? "Excuse me?"
The corners of Daniel's mouth curved upwards slightly, though he kept his gaze focused on the book in front of him. "You've been sitting there in complete silence for the past ten minutes," he said. "Just wondered what was on your mind."
Janet's brain froze for a moment. There was no way she was going to tell him that he was on her mind, and she couldn't seem to think of anything else. "I... was just waiting for you to finish," she finally said. "Will you have the answer anytime soon? Because if you don't, I may as well go and do something else until you do."
Daniel looked over at her then, stricken. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm doing the best I can, it just isn't easy."
"I know. I'm not trying to rush you..."
"No, no, you're right. I should have this done by now," Daniel said, starting to sound annoyed with himself. He went back to his work with renewed determination. So much so, in fact, that it was barely two seconds later when he said, "Aha! Here it is."
"Here what is?" Janet asked, looking over his shoulder again.
"What you need. Here, look." Daniel scooted his chair closer to hers and pointed to a row of symbols on the page. "Here's their table of elements. It's very similar to ours, only they used different names for each one. Now that I know the basis of their naming system, I can figure out what the ingredients are." He grinned at her. "Piece of cake."
Janet couldn't help but grin back. She knew he wouldn't let her down.
Daniel yawned and leaned his head on his hand as he watched Janet carefully measure each chemical and slowly add it to the liquid mixture she was creating. His eyes were following her every move, and he was finding her gracefulness very soothing. He could feel his eyelids drooping more and more with each passing moment, and had to fight to keep himself from actually drifting off.
"What's next?"
He snapped back to attention at the sound of her voice, and quickly glanced down at the notebook on the desk. His vision was blurry, so for a second he thought he wasn't wearing his glasses. After a few heavy blinks, though, the haze disappeared and he narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember what it was he'd translated the next ingredient to be. "Uh... sodium hydroxide," he said.
"Are you sure?" Janet asked as she reached for it.
"Yep." Daniel resumed his former position with his head on his hand, and watched Janet closely as she began to drop the pellets into the mixture.
If he wasn't fully awake then, he certainly was when the mixture started to bubble and sizzle and release a rather menacing cloud of gas. "Janet?" he cried.
"I don't know what's happening," she said. "I did everything just as you said..."
Before she could say more, there was a loud popping sound, and the liquid seemed to fly right out of the beaker to land on every available surface in its path - mainly Janet.
Daniel snatched the notebooks off of the desk and grabbed Janet around the waist to pull her out of harm's way. "We need some help in here!" he called towards the door. Then he turned his attention back onto Janet. "Are you okay?" he asked fearfully, spinning her around to check her over for burns or any other serious side effects of her exposure to the explosive chemical. She was dripping wet with the stuff, and that was probably not a good thing.
"I'm fine," she replied as she panted for breath. "That was... interesting."
"I'll say." He turned toward the door as several doctors and scientists rushed in.
"What happened?" one of them asked.
"I don't know," Janet replied. "I was working on the compound and it just... exploded."
A knot of worry was quickly forming in Daniel's stomach as he tried to pull Janet over to the doorway. "Come on, let's get this stuff off of you," he said.
"No, I should help clean up this mess..."
"Janet, you've just been covered in an unknown chemical," he said firmly. "You need to get checked out."
"He's right, ma'am," another of the scientists said. "We can take over from here."
Thankfully, Janet didn't argue further, and allowed Daniel to escort her to the medical bay.
Daniel had to wait outside while Dr. Brightman examined her, so he took the opportunity to look over the notes one more time. He knew he hadn't missed anything or added anything to the mixture that would cause it to react so badly... or had he?
"Oh God," he breathed as his mistake leapt off the page and smacked him between the eyes. "Potassium hydroxide, not sodium! Dammit, why didn't I pay closer attention during chemistry?"
The two chemicals were very similar in composition, and both quite harmless on their own, but mixed with the other ingredients of this drug... Daniel kicked himself for his negligence. He could only hope that Janet would suffer no ill effects from her exposure.
"Well, she doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects from her exposure," a female voice suddenly echoed his thoughts.
Daniel snapped the notebook shut and jumped to his feet. "That's great," he said. "Can I see her?"
Dr. Brightman nodded. "I don't see why not. I've told her to stick around on the base for the next twenty four hours just to be on the safe side, but other than that, she's free to go."
Daniel breathed a sigh of relief and entered the medical bay. "Hey," he said as he saw Janet standing by one of the infirmary beds putting on a fresh lab coat. "I hear you're doing okay."
"Yes," she said, beaming a sunny smile at him. "I feel fine. I really don't think it's harmful, and it didn't burn my skin or anything. Actually... I feel better than I've felt in years. I think there's something to this 'fountain of youth' thing after all."
Daniel grinned. "Well... you look good."
A look of surprise flashed across Janet's face at this innocent comment, but was soon replaced with a sly smile. "Oh?"
Daniel suddenly realized what he'd said, and he could feel his face begin to flush. "I... I mean... you look okay," he stammered. "You're... you're not... you know what I mean," he finished in exasperation.
Janet laughed. "Thank you, Daniel, I appreciate the compliment," she said as she walked past him toward the door.
Daniel shook his head and tried not to laugh. Her teasing wasn't a rare thing, but he always fell for it. "Where are you going?" he asked as he fell into step beside her.
"I thought I'd go back to the lab and see what's going on," she said. "I really need to figure out what I did wrong."
Daniel slowed down and took hold of her arm so she would do the same. Janet turned her face up to him as they came to a stop, and when he looked into her questioning brown eyes, he had to work up all of his courage before he could speak. "I... it... was my fault," he finally said. "I misinterpreted one of the chemical names..."
"What? Daniel..."
"I know, I know, I just... wasn't paying attention," he said, lowering his head in shame. "I read 'sodium hydroxide' instead of 'potassium hydroxide.' There isn't much of a difference between them, but I guess in this case..." His voice trailed off, and he shrugged. "I'm really sorry."
Janet sighed. "Well, at least now we know," she said. "So, next time we try this, it should work... and not explode."
"One would hope," Daniel said, forcing a smile.
"Thanks," Janet said as she started to walk on again. "See you later."
Daniel cursed his stupidity again as he watched her walk away. Those damn nightmares of his... if he'd just been able to sleep in an actual bed for longer than five minutes at a time over the past week, this wouldn't have happened. He hated letting Janet down - perhaps a little more than he could explain away to himself. He knew she had already forgiven him, but he also knew that he'd feel guilty as hell for days and somehow have to make it up to her before he could stand himself again.
For the moment, however, he felt it would be wisest to leave her and her research alone. She didn't need him around to mess things up even more, after all. 'If I'm so tired, I should just go to bed,' he thought miserably.
He went straight to his on-base quarters, got undressed, and got into bed. He had high hopes that he was finally exhausted enough to just pass out and sleep the night away, but he was soon disappointed. He just lay there staring at the ceiling.
"Great," he muttered after a couple of hours of tossing and turning, "I guess I should have picked up something to knock me out after all. God, why can't I just sleep?"
He threw back the covers in frustration and got up again. After sloppily putting on his pants and over-shirt, he left the room and marched off to the commissary. If he wasn't going to sleep, he might as well be drinking coffee. It was only logical.
After downing two cups of the brew, he was wired and bored, which wasn't a very good combination. He stopped by the lab in case Janet was still there, but the room was dark and empty. He went looking for Sam, but she was nowhere to be found. He decided against disturbing Teal'c out of his kel'nor'eem, and went instead to his office, where he promptly fell asleep at his desk.
"Crap," he muttered as he woke up hours later with a crick in his neck. "I've really gotta stop doing this."
His first thought then was of Janet. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was still very early, but his restless dreams all night had been of her and the many disastrous results that could have come about through his carelessness. Some of them had seemed so real that he was left with the nagging feeling that something was terribly wrong. He had to see her just to put his mind at rest, no matter what the time was.
As he made his way to her quarters, the feeling of unease started to grow rather than fade away. He tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator seemed to take its own sweet time getting to the floor he wanted, and as he stepped out into the hall, he suddenly had the overwhelming urge to run straight to her door without wasting another second. He settled for a brisk walk.
When he arrived at his destination and raised his hand to knock, he paused mid-motion as it occurred to him that she might be angry with him for waking her so early. He had no real reason for doing so, after all. The whole 'I had a bad dream and needed to make sure it wasn't real' excuse probably wouldn't fly. But even so, he had to know. He had to see for himself that she was okay.
Before he could rethink his decision, he knocked.
And waited.
Knocked again.
His anxiety started to turn into fear, as he still heard no answer. "Janet?" he called. He strained his ears to hear a response, but still there was nothing.
He reached for the door handle, but again he hesitated. What if she wasn't decent? He couldn't just go waltzing in there uninvited. Still, if she was in trouble...
A sudden cry coming from the other side of the door made the decision for him. He burst into the room at lightning speed... and then stopped dead in his tracks.
There was someone in the bed, but it wasn't Janet. The frightened form that was cowering there with its head buried in the pillow wasn't Janet. Couldn't be Janet. It was... it was a child.
Well, whoever it was, he couldn't just leave her there, shaking and crying and obviously greatly distressed. "Hey, it's okay," he said, stepping farther into the room to stand beside the bed. "Don't cry... I won't hurt you."
He squatted down beside her and reached out a hand to rest on her trembling back. As soon as he did so, she flinched and squirmed away from him. With another frightened cry, she lifted her head off of the pillow and turned her wide, brown eyes onto his face.
Those eyes... Daniel knew those eyes...
"Oh my God!" he exclaimed in horror. "Janet?!"