#4 in the Life's Little Problems Series
Color Outside the Lines
A Little!Danny fic by: Maj. Cliffhanger
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Part 2
"...The elevator wasn't there and ... and I started to fall, but someone grabbed me from behind and I knew it had to be Col. Carter and I didn't want to go with her but then I heard the elevator coming down and I knew if I didn't, it would hit me and," he glanced at where Col. Mitchell stood holding Danny at the foot of his bed listening, "I figured if we could stand in it and everything that getting hit by it wouldn't be good because I wouldn't pass through it like we could doors and walls and stuff--"
Dr. Lee was waving his hand to interrupt, forcing Jason's attention from Danny to the balding scientist and the medical doctor who were standing beside his father. "You could pass through the elevator doors but not the elevator itself?"
"It had more mass," Jason explained what Col. Carter had told both him and Danny. "If something had enough mass we could touch it, that's why we didn't fall through the floor 'though it was kinda spongy." He turned back to his father. "We tried to use x-ray vests to talk to everyone but they were so heavy they almost squashed us into the floor! I wonder if we would have fallen to the next level or if we'd have gotten stuck, which wouldn't have been good 'cause we wouldn't have been able to breathe!"
The doctor guy was waving his hands again to interrupt. "Wait, wait.... Mass?" he repeated. "You were out of phase--"
"--Col. Carter said there was an overlap--"
"--Which would allow for limited interactivity with our universe!" He sounded surprised.
"Dimension." Danny corrected, speaking for the first time. He'd already told everyone what had happened before they came to ask Jason about it. Jason thought it was a little stupid that they had to ask him too if they already knew, but Danny had said it was something called 'debriefing' and they all had to do it. Apparently, Danny hasn't told them much if they didn't know about the mass thing.
Dr. Lee waved off Danny's correction and went on as if the other boy wasn't even there. "If there was an aspect of inter-dimensional interference then that would..." He glanced up suddenly. "That explains how Sam lost her hand!"
Dr. Lam offered him a confused glance.
Lee turned his attention back to Jason. "You were trying to get through the elevator door but the elevator wasn't there."
Jason nodded. Wasn't that what he'd just said?
"She then tried to pull him out, but the elevator door was 'spongy'! It was made of metal so it wouldn't be as spongy as the floor, but still, you know, she had to try and brace against something to pull him out of it."
It was Col. Mitchel who put it together. "You're saying her hand broke through the doors at the same time she pulled Jason to safety and then the elevator arrived?"
"Shearing it right off," he agreed, bringing the edge of his right hand down across the back of his left wrist.
"It would've killed me if she hadn't gotten me out," Jason acknowledged. He'd have been cut in two and then smashed down into the concrete at the base of the elevator shaft and his body would have been there forever. Half his body. That'd be cool and gross all at the same time. He was glad Col. Carter had saved him. He glanced back at the doctor lady. "You're sure she's going to be okay?" he demanded. "You're not lying to me like some grownups do to try and protect me or anything are you?"
"No, I'm not lying to you," Dr. Lam insisted once again. "Sam is going to be fine. I promise."
"Well, except for the missing hand of course," Dr. Lee amended, then snapped his fingers at a sudden though. "Hey, I'll bet we can find it at the base of the elevator shaft! Do you think we could still reattach--"
The look Dr. Lam was giving him stopped his rambling.
"Oh. It's been too long, hasn't it. Besides, it's probably pretty messed up what with the way it was removed, you know the ripping forces versus a nice clean--"
Jason's father turned to shoot his own glare at the scientist even as Danny turned his face to bury it in Col. Mitchell's shoulder. He offered the doctor guy a dirty look too.
"I - should shut up now."
"Smart man," Jason's father growled as he turned back to his son, offering Jason's hand a reassuring squeeze. "It's over. You're safe now and Sam's going to be fine. You don't have to worry about anything anymore. We've gotch'ya."
Jason glanced back to where Col. Mitchell was whispering something to Danny. His friend was really upset about what had happened and so was Jason but not in the same way. He'd been really freaked out by all the blood and especially when he thought Col. Carter had died, but he wasn't any more because everyone kept saying she'd be fine and that he and Danny were heroes so he kept thinking about that but Danny couldn't. Danny was upset because he hadn't been fast enough to get them back in phase but Jason knew he'd done it as fast as he could and no one could have done it faster. Even if you were really smart, somethings were hard to do, but Danny didn't seem to know that. Jason decided he needed to help to make him happy again. He glanced back at his father. "So can we go Trick or Treating tonight?"
The adults shared a surprised but guarded look.
Jason's attention went back to Danny. "I know you said you didn't want to but I don't think you want to be alone right now and I know I don't and it would probably be good to do kid stuff after everything that happened though I don't think we should do the Haunted House this year and I don't care if Andy and Robert laugh or not." He glanced again at his father. "They told me about how Danny used to be grownup and how confused his memory is because he isn't grownup anymore and he really is five even if he is way smarter than he should be and knows stuff from when he was old. Did you know him when he used to be big? He has an office here and everything so I guess you had to but because it was all secret and everything you couldn't--"
His father quickly laid his hand across Jason's mouth and Jason knew he was talking too much and too fast. That's what it always meant when his dad did that. He shut up and fought not to fidget. He had a lot of questions, he always had a lot of questions and it always got him into trouble at school. His mom said it was because he was smart and thought so much. He just had to learn to give others time to hear his questions, let alone answer them.
But it wasn't easy.
* * *
"No way," Jack insisted firmly. "I can't believe it, Hank. I won't! Sergeant Siler has been with the program since its inception. He's the one who helped implement the interface between the Gate and our computers. Hell, he practically designed it! If he were going to betray us, it would have happened a long time ago."
" 'Preaching to the choir, Jack," Hank rejoined, tossing the myriad reports before him aside. "I've been over the man's record, it's spotless, and there's no denying his engineering genius. The fact remains, our computer forensics experts claim it was his computer work station that was used to hack into Dr. Jackson's medical files, using a back door he apparently created in the O.R. computer that Lam detected."
"Now see, I don't buy that," Jack argued. "He may well have the know how, but if Siler was going to do something like this, he wouldn't be dumb enough to use his own work station."
"They also found a partial fingerprint on a battery in some hidden surveillance equipment discovered behind an access panel in the level 14 electrical substation."
"Let me guess, there were no other fingerprints to be found on any of the other equipment or tools." He rolled his eyes. This was a waste of time. Sam was sitting in recovery having lost a hand and facing the fight of her life to stay in the program and he was stuck here trying to defend a man who'd obviously been framed! Could the day get any worse?
Don't go there Jack, he told himself, knowing too well that it could.
"The police have been known to capture professional killers because they forgot to wipe down a weapon's magazine or left a print on a bullet casing."
"It's a set up, Hank!" Jack decided, remembering the monthly card games the sergeant would occasionally attend and the many short, but oh-so-insightful, discussions they'd had in passing regarding the Simpsons. Siler had a dry sense of humor that made the Sahara seem like a swamp, and a real poker face that allowed him to bluff like no one's business - but that didn't make him a traitor!
Hank Landry merely nodded in silent agreement, but said, "We still have to question him."
Jack frowned and raked a hand through his graying hair - well, more silver than gray now. Hank was right. They had to follow up on all their leads. "So where is he?"
Hank shook his head. "We don't know."
Jack straightened in his chair, his alarms suddenly going off. "What do you mean, 'we don't know?'"
"It's his day off," Hank answered.
"You sent a team to his house." It wasn't really a question. Jack knew what the procedures were in this situation.
"Empty. Clothing and personal items missing. No signs of a struggle."
Jack winced again, seeing the jaws of the trap around Siler closing down even tighter.
Hank continued. "We're canvasing his neighborhood to see if anyone saw anything."
Jack was shaking his head again. "What about a clone or a mimic device like they used on me?" he asked, reaching for possible explanations. "Are all of them accounted for?"
Hank nodded. "Already checked and made sure none had been swapped out. As for a clone.... We know Ba'al has the technology. But he'd need to copy Siler's mind too, wouldn't he?"
Jack nodded. " 'Be simpler just to snake him." He blinked as he heard himself and sat back in sudden realization.
"Damn it!" Hank exclaimed in surprise as he too realized Jack's half-facetious comment was more than possible. They'd only recently discovered untattooed Jaffa running around loose with symbiotes in their guts! "SG teams are scanned whenever they come back from off world, but we don't scan ordinary base personnel. Why should we? There were no Goa'uld on Earth before."
"There are now."
Hank felt his face pale as his realized the implications. "You think Ba'al picked Siler up and implanted him?"
Jack nodded, but hedged his answered. "Maybe. If Ba'al was wanting to make Earth Goa'uld central...." He shook his head, dismissing the thought. "The Trust tried that before and failed. He'd just wind up with another Ra type rebellion on his hands." Ba'al didn't have the resources he would need to crush Earth into proper subjugation. "Besides, he needs us at our meddling and interfering best to help tackle the problem of the Ori. Even he has to know how much of a threat they really are."
" 'We're more valuable free than enslaved, you mean?"
"For now. Regardless, he won't repeat the Trust's mistakes."
"But getting someone on base he can trust to keep tabs on our meddling and interfering would be right up his alley."
"And Siler would be the perfect target, with full access to every part of the base," Jack agreed.
Hank suddenly relaxed and shook his head. "Siler was working with Sam just before she went through to the Gamma Site with SG-3 and the IOA delegates. She would have sensed if he were a Goa'uld."
Jack offered a less-than-happy smile. "The Goa'uld developed a drug a few years back that can mask the presence of a symbiote."
On Kalowna, of course, when the Goa'uld in Kyanna Seer was working for Ba'al to find out what Anubis had found so interesting about the planet. "So we scan everyone." Hank shook his head, wrestling with the logistics. "That's over five hundred people Jack, including non-military support personnel."
"And any one of them could be a Goa'uld in sheep's clothing." They should've implemented random checks years ago. What was it they said about hindsight being 20/20? That lack of foresight might just be coming back to bite them in the ass now.
Landry nodded and picked up the phone. "I'm going to order an immediate lock down and then inform the President of a possible Code 9. He's going to be less than happy with us I think."
"No lock down," Jack countered the move. "It'll just tip our hand. Things could get dicy if there's a Goa'uld on base and he knows we're on to him."
"So what do you suggest?" Landry asked.
Jack sat back and thought for a second before offering a little shrug. "We need to call Thor."