#4 in the Life's Little Problems Series
Color Outside the Lines
A Little!Danny fic by: Maj. Cliffhanger
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Part 5
While Siler wandered around the house and Jack was on the phone – apparently one of the first things Landry had ordered done was a sweep of their line – Cam sat at the dining room table with Dr. Lam and Danny eating breakfast. Well ... he and Danny were eating. Carolyn had declined, saying her day had started a lot earlier than theirs. Actually, Cam found himself pushing his food around his plate more than really eating it. What had seemed like the perfect breakfast earlier, now had little appeal. His appetite and good mood had both vanished.
"Why you?" Cam asked as he bit off a piece of bacon, hoping to tempt his taste buds.
Lam frowned in confusion as the question came out of left field at her. "I'm sorry?"
"Why'd they send you with Siler?" he clarified. Seemed to him, they could have just sent Siler.
"I was wanting the check on Danny anyway," Lam answered, offering the boy a friendly smile.
Danny tried to be polite and return it, but it was obviously forced. He glanced away and hid a grimace even as he slumped dejectedly in his chair. He'd spent way too much time in the Infirmary recently.
Lam merely grinned at his obvious discomfort. "Don't worry," she assured the boy. "No poking or prodding this time. I just want to make sure you're feeling okay. Any headaches or trouble sleeping?"
Danny slumped further into his chair. "No," he answered in a half-whine, concentrating on mashing his eggs into a yellow and white pulp.
Cam took pity on him. "He's fine, Doc," he assured their guest. "I'd be the first to let you know if anything was up."
She nodded but continued her questioning, looking to Cam for the answers now. "No return of the fever then? Even slight?"
Cam shook his head. "Cool as a cucumber, as my mom used to say."
"And what about the flashbacks?" she asked. "I'm hoping they'll settle down now that you're ... uh...."
"...Disconnected?" Cam supplied.
She shrugged at the thought and then smiled. "I guess that's a good way to put it."
He nodded and then looked to Danny. Although there hadn't been any violent episodes in the last couple of days, it really wasn't a question he could answer for the kid.
"I'm fine!" the boy insisted despondently, as though expecting no one to believe him.
"Good!" Lam responded brightly, refusing to meet those expectations - though the glance she tossed Cam said she questioned the boy's assertion and expected to be immediately informed of any problems. Cam returned the look with a slight shrug. There were no problems he knew of. She turned her attention back to Danny and rested her hand against his upper back as she leaned down to get a better look at his averted face. "You know I'm only asking because I care, right Danny?" she offered gently.
This was answered with a rather large and impatient sigh. "Yes," he admitted and repeated his earlier statement even more emphatically. "I'm fine!"
"Okay!" she repeated, backing off hastily. "And what about Col. Mitchell?" she asked instead, the change of subject getting both their attentions. "You promised to call me if he wasn't following my orders. Has he been taking care of himself lately?"
Cam was surprised to see the kid actually have to think about it. "Hey!" he protested. "I've been good!"
"He hasn't been icing it, like you said," Danny offered with a frown and Cam relaxed.
Lam smiled. "That was only necessary for the first seventy-two hours," she explained for the munchkin. "What about his meds? Has he been taking them like I said?"
"I'm doing just fine, Doc," Cam hurried to interrupt and change the subject. "Tell us more about what happened this morning at the mountain. How'd you figure out someone tried to get into Danny's files last week?"
Lam offered him a lifted brow, clearly stating that she'd caught the abrupt change of subject and suspected its cause - but she didn't pursue it. "We run an automated check on the weekly access logs every Saturday night. When I came in this morning, it had flagged a discrepancy. It's tied into the check-in logs up top. Apparently, someone tried to access the files after having left for the day."
"Someone used another person's log-in to access it?" Cam translated.
Lam nodded. "A definite no-no in my department but it happens sometimes if someone forgets their password. Usually, it's someone else on shift who let's them into the system. My first red flag. The second was that they used a system in the O.R. to do it. There's no reason for someone to use that system if they had legitimate authorization and need to see his files,"
Cam frowned.
"When I saw what they'd accessed, I called security."
Which had set a rather large ball in motion. "So I assume the computer's getting the microscope treatment and all the security tapes for the O.R. and surrounding corridors are being reviewed to catch the guy?"
"It's possible it was just someone who was overly curious about what had happened, but they'll still get the boot - if they're lucky. Dad's not taking any chances." She was obviously trying to be reassuring but Cam wasn't sure how well it was working. "Col. Carter's departure for the Omega Site has been put on hold while she oversees a complete forensics search of the base's computer systems."
"Do we know what they got?" Cam asked quietly and frowned at his plate.
"Not as much as they wanted, fortunately," she answered. A glance at the boy beside her turned into a mild admonishment for him to eat - apparently his appetite was as lacking as Cam's. She glanced back up at the man opposite her. "It looks like they tried to access his complete medical record, but the archival stuff is kept in a separate system. Another discrepancy. Apparently, whoever it was, they aren't medical or they'd have known that."
"Couldn't they have just like ... borrowed his chart or something, and gotten everything that way?" Cam asked, frowning pensively as he again shoved the shredded bits of his syrup-soggy pancakes around his plate.
Lam shook her head as she sipped at a cup of coffee. "The charts are constantly being updated. A missing chart would have been noted immediately. Nor do we take kindly to just anyone glancing through them."
"What about the Records Room?" Danny asked, glancing up with eyes that understood more than Cam would have liked.
"Locked at all times," Lam assured them. "But the security tapes and computer logs on the locks are being checked anyway."
"So what'd they get?" Cam repeated. He forced himself to stop playing with his food and actually take another bite.
Lam winced unhappily. "Everything to do with his downsizing."
Cam swallowed and lifted his eyes to stare at her, knowing that's probably what they'd been after in the first place. "Everything?"
"Pretty much," she sighed and rested her elbows on the table, cupping the warm mug between her hands. "'Course, unless they have someone with some rather advanced medical training to review it, I doubt they'll be able to understand most of it."
That probably wasn't a problem, Cam knew, not given the caliber of enemies they had who might be interested in that kinda stuff in the first place.
"But it was a week ago, right?" he asked, wanting to make sure he understood everything clearly. "So, they wouldn't have gotten anything about Danny's fever and..." He waved his fork as words failed him. Not that anything that really happened should be in his files anyway, but--
"No," Lam assured them. "I checked all the more recent files personally and found no evidence that anyone had tried to access them who shouldn't have." She offered another little apologetic wince as she amended that. "Col. Carter's going to double-check of course. I'm not nearly as computer savvy as she is."
"Who is!" Jack suddenly interrupted, moving to rejoin them at the table. A chair was scraped out across the floor before he threw himself into it with a rather gusty sigh. "No word yet," he quickly brought them up to date without anyone having to ask. "The computer diagnostic and forensics search that Carter's doing is apparently going to take a while, and the security guys are still going over the tapes. They don't show anyone in the room with the computer in question at the time of the breach, so...."
"...So they probably used another computer to hack into it from somewhere else," Cam surmised.
Jack grimaced and asked, "Why can't the bad-guys be stupid once in a while and do something that would make it easy for us to catch 'em?"
"'Wouldn't be able to get past the front door of the SGC if they were stupid, sir," Cam answered - and then quickly leaned back to correct himself as the General lifted a hand. "Jack!"
Jack offered him an amused look but dropped his hand, then sighed. "Landry will call when they know something. Where'd my coffee cup go to?"
Cam glanced around and pointed to where he'd left it on the breakfast bar. "What do we do in the meantime?"
"Nothing," Jack answered, scrapping his chair back again to retrieve the cup. "You and Danny are still on downtime, and I'm still on vacation." He scowled at the tepid remains in his cup and quickly headed over to dump it down the sink. "Or as much of a vacation as I ever get now a days."
Lam leaned in over her own cup. "So, no additional security measures here or orders to stay inside until this mole can be found?" she asked, a little surprised that her father hadn't gone completely ballistic and ordered Danny into protective custody on base!
Jack shrugged as he returned to the table and she suddenly suspected he was the real reason none of those things were being done. "Nope," he answered. "Nothing major anyway. We've dealt with situations like this before. Going into lockdown mode is sometimes exactly what the bad guys want."
"It also makes them harder to flush out," Cam noted.
Jack nodded. "That too," he conceded. He reached out and ruffled Danny's hair - which earned him a frown and roll of the eyes. "Forewarned is forearmed. Don't worry. Nobody's getting their hands on our boy," he declared firmly. "Uh-uh, no-way, no-how!"
* * *
Danny sat on his bed and sighed. Mitchell had sent him to get dressed after Sgt. Siler finished sweeping his room and did a quick check of his computer. He'd said to leave it off. Apparently, Sam would be coming by later to check it out further, along with the one in the home office. So now Danny was dressed and bored and he didn't want to go back out and listen to everyone trying to make small talk. He remembered things like that from when he was older. Sorta. It was all a bit vague like most of his older memories. Little flitting glimpses - some bigger than others - which sometimes felt like they belonged to someone else entirely even though he knew they didn't.
Why did his life always have to be so messed up?
He glanced around his room, frowning at the mess he and Jason had made. There were toys and books scattered on the floor, and for a second he smiled. Jason was cool. He didn't know much about how real military engagements tended to play out and Danny had purposely turned off that part of his brain while they were playing. They'd pretended to be on Col. Dixon's 'Special Forces Team' somewhere in Iraq because Jason didn't know anything about the Stargate and what his father really did. They were supposed to be hunting down a terrorist - which kinda reminded Danny of hunting a goa'uld so that was cool. At one point Danny had taken on the role of the bad guy and nearly spoiled the fun when he pointed out the 'good guys' were making too much noise killing everyone and the terrorist would be long gone before they got to where he was hiding.
"The walls are really, really thick in his bunker and he's really hard of hearing because he's been making bombs and blowing stuff up forever!" Jason argued. "He can't hear anything!"
Danny didn't bother to point out that making bombs and being around when they blew up were two very different things, or that the guards the guy must have around him would run to tell him what was happening. Instead, he'd shrugged and proceeded to play the terrorist as really dumb and really, really deaf! It was funny! And in the end Jason had called in an air strike to obliterate the bad guy's fortress. They'd run around kicking boxes and boards from boardgames they'd been using as a model, making the sounds of explosions with their mouths as another 'building' was demolished even while Jason's older brother complained about the noise and the fact that they didn't know the first thing about how a 'real' battle should be fought.
Danny ignored him and just grabbed up the terrorist doll - it was supposed to be Jack but Danny decided it looked like Cronus with super short hair - and put him through an elaborate and pathetic death scene that had him coughing and gasping and begging for mercy.
And then Jack, Sam and Teal'c had arrived and Jason had wanted him to go Trick or Treating and....
He shoved the memory aside and frowned at the room. He'd done a quick pick up last night but got distracted, and then Mitchell had said it was time for his bath - so it was still a mess. He should get up and clean it, but he didn't want to. He'd do it later, after Siler and Lam left.
He glanced up as he heard voices in the hall. It sounded like they were getting ready to leave now he realized. He should probably get up and say bye - but he didn't want to do that either.
A knock sounded at his door, before it swung open and Mitchell stuck his head inside. "Lam and Siler are leaving, Squirt. House is clean. Come say good-bye."
So much for what he didn't want to do. With a sigh, he hopped off the bed and hurried to get the good-byes over with. At least Lam wasn't carting him off to the infirmary again. And Mitchell had said the house was clean so that meant the bad guys hadn't gotten in here the way they had at the SGC.
And that thought suddenly had him worried about going back to work.
Darn it! He shoved it aside and grabbed hold of Mitchell's pant leg even as he forced a polite smile for their visitors.
"...Not a problem, sir. " Siler was answering something Jack had said. "Glad to do it. Hey, Dr. Jackson." He noted Danny's arrival with Mitchell. "'You tested out that swing set me and the guys put together for you yet?"
He managed a little more genuine smile for this question and nodded. He'd spent a few minutes on it a couple of days ago, thinking how some of the other boys and girls he'd grown up with would have loved it.
Siler smiled and reached out to ruffle his hair before Danny knew what was happening. He scowled and pulled back, ducking behind Mitchell's leg. Why did adults always have to do that? Siler either didn't see the scowl - or he thought it was cute! - and merely laughed as he finished his good-byes and turned to leave.
"Now you remember to call me if Cam does anything to abuse that wrist," Lam instructed Danny, grinning right along with everyone else. He'd been right; Siler - and everyone else apparently - thought his scowl was cute! "He doesn't have to ice it anymore but I still don't want him using it. And if you see him wincing or rubbing at it that means he's not taking his meds. I want to know about that too, alright?"
Danny forced the scowl aside and nodded. It was cool to be the one who had to watch out for someone else for a change. She must have already given Mitchell the lecture about him because she didn't mention anything about fever or flashbacks before smiling happily and turning to follow Siler. The door was shut behind them and the three in the foyer exchanged relieved glances - even if it was for different reasons.
"Okay," Jack broke the momentary silence and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "So, this is supposed to be my last full day of vacation, though in light of new developments - and this spiffy new conference system we're supposed to be using later today - I might just be able to extend it a little bit. 'Can't really even try until tomorrow." He shrugged unhappily, but dismissed the thought as unproductive. "Thanks to the IOA, I'm blocked out from twelve-thirty to 'if you don't shut the hell up I'm going to reach through the phone and strangle you!' 'Figure I should reach that point in a couple of hours. Things will start to get repetitive by then, and I don't do repetitive well. Anyway ... what are we going to do for the rest of the day?"
And both men looked at Danny.
Danny did not like being reminded that this was Jack's last day. What with everything that had happened with his fever and all, the last four days had sped by and felt wasted. It didn't seem fair.
"Oh, I know!" Mitchell suddenly exclaimed. "They recently opened one of those laser tag centers over on Academy boulevard. 'Laser Quest' I think it's called. The guys on SG-4 challenged us a while back but we've been too busy to even check it out. It's supposed to be cool."
"'Cool,' Mitchell?" Jack echoed. "You sound younger than Danny."
Mitchell ignored him, grinning. "It'll be great!" he claimed. "It's this massive indoor maze with fog and black lights and everything. Robinson said they have individual play or team play, so we can either go one on one or go up against some cocky team of kids who'll have no idea what hit 'em when we're done with 'em. Think how fun it would be to see our little Danny here school a bunch of know-it-all teenagers in tactics and strategy."
Jack glanced at Danny and lifted a pensive eyebrow. It was obvious the idea tempted, but.... "You're assuming he remembers tactics and strategy," he observed uncertainly, then killed the idea all together. "Besides, a dark maze filled with fog and noise probably isn't the safest place to take him at the moment."
Mitchell grimaced. "Yeah...."
Danny grimaced as well but for a different reason. "I'd rather go fishing," he muttered.
"What was that?" Jack immediately pounced on the statement. "Did you say ... 'fishing'?"
Of course he'd pounce on that. Danny rolled his eyes. "I think we'd need more than a couple of hours to get to Minnesota and back."
Jack offered that a truly evil chuckle as he pulled out his cell phone. "Not if you have the right connections." He flipped it open and hit the speed dial as Cam and Danny exchanged bewildered looks. "Hey, Walter!" he sang out a moment later. "Is the Odyssey still hanging around in orbit by chance? ...That's what I thought. I have a little favor to ask Col. Emerson...."
* * *
Ba'al fumed silently as he listened to Charlotte's report. "And here I'd been thinking of giving him a bonus. I take it they discovered whatever recording device he foolishly used to get that little meeting for us between the Tauri, Asgard and Tok'ra."
"No," the woman on the other end of the phone line surprised him. "Apparently they detected his attempt to hack into Dr. Jackson's medical files last week. He warned me at the time they might but that they shouldn't be able to trace him."
Ba'al frowned harder, not liking it when he was taken by surprise and those under him weren't. "So this was expected?"
"Yes and no," she allowed. "We expected the attempt might eventually be detected but apparently they are pursuing it much harder than our mole thought they would."
"The man has underestimated the importance those at the SGC place on the boy. They will not let this go until their traitor is found."
"Then we will give them someone else to find," Charlotte answered, supremely confident. "I have a list of everyone who works there. It's a simple matter to pick someone and set up a fake Swiss account. Then we hack into their regular bank, do a little creative financing for them, and it should point the finger quite nicely at anyone we want."
A slow smile pulled at Ba'al's lips as he considered the woman's proposal. The resources of the now defunct 'Trust' were vast and very useful - especially in situations like this. "I want him killed as well," he ordered. "Either an obvious execution or a suicide." He didn't care which. They didn't need any loose strings that could come back and haunt them. He'd had enough of Tauri incompetence of late.
"A triple blast with a zat and he'll never be found."
"No," Ba'al rejected the idea immediately. "I don't want them searching for the man indefinitely. They need to find a body - and evidence tying him to the Trust. Just make sure they can't trace it."
"Naturally," she answered, sounding just a bit irritated that Ba'al would think it necessary to tell her that. He would have told her more - regardless of how irritated she got - but his secretary interrupted. She offered only a quick sharp knock before daring to open it and stick her head in the door.
There was only one reason she would dare to do that.
"Now," she told him simply.
Ba'al knew exactly what she meant and smiled broadly. "Sorry, love," he told the woman on the other end of the line. "I'm going to have to leave this little problem in your capable hands. Dr. Jackson has finally decided to come out and play."
She chuckled lightly and told him to 'have fun!' even as he quickly hung up and reached down to press a concealed jewel in his belt. His secretary had already withdrawn again and saw only a brief flash of light from under the door as an Asgard transport beam swept him away.