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Suffer the Little Children Chapter Six
The trees in the park were becoming frightening, looking more like monsters from a child's nightmare than a beautiful creation of nature. No longer did he see the sun, but only faded stars in a moonless sky. The birds that chirped above him, the far-off sounds of anonymous people in the distance and the closer voices of the children playing hide-and-seek at the top of the hill no longer brought a nostalgic smile to his face, but instead filled his heart with dread.
What was in this park that kept drawing him back to it? What did he hope to find?
Or was something in this park trying to find him?
Daniel watched them from the bottom of the hill, those children up above, but stayed close enough to the old grey oak tree that he could duck behind it when the shadow approached. They were out without permission, having snuck out the window after their parents had gone to bed. He knew that the little boy's heart was beating as much with the joy and freedom of their game as from the fear of what their father would do if he found them alone in the park at night.
Daniel tilted his head slightly and smiled softly despite his fear. The little boy's smile was a beam of sunshine in the darkness, a blissfully happy expression on a face that had seen so much pain and sorrow in his young life that he'd thought he'd never smile again. The blue eyes shone with joy behind the oversized glasses, beneath the shaggy mousy brown bangs.
Daniel sighed deeply, almost painfully. This little boy's life was so close to being "normal" again; he was so close to having a family - a real family - with a mother and father that loved him and a big sister to look out for him.
But the shadow would be coming soon, to wrap itself around his chest and take it all away in a matter of seconds, and it would never be replaced.
Just as Daniel had known would happen, the shadow appeared at the bottom of the hill and started climbing toward the little boy - the little boy with the big blue eyes and the shaggy hair who was still so innocently unaware that his life was about to end for the second time in as many years.
He didn't try to run to them this time. He knew that it would do no good, and he feared the arms that would wrap themselves around him, the hot breath that would brush against his neck, and the evil words that would whisper themselves in his ear. Crying out a warning that they wouldn't hear would serve no purpose other than to alert the shadow to his presence. So he did what a coward would do, what a ten-year-old boy should have done, and hid behind the tree.
It was when the little boy started screaming that Daniel fell to his knees with his eyes closed tightly and his hands pressed again his ears.
"Not real," he whispered to himself. "Not real, not real, not real."
And suddenly he was falling, tumbling, head-over-heels and out of control; the world was spinning and whirling around him before he felt a sharp pain behind his ear and it all went black.
The little boy's screams stopped, and then there was a strange thumping noise on the other side of the oak tree.
The girl had started yelling now, but there was defiance and hatred in her voice, not the fear that had been in the little boy's. Daniel dropped his hands from his ears, opened his eyes, and pushed himself to his feet slowly. He had to see what was happening, what had happened. He walked around the tree warily, both afraid and strangely certain of what he would find on the other side.
The little boy was lying on his right side at Daniel's feet, his small body bent around the tree and his left arm draped across himself. His glasses were cracked, and blood streamed from a gash behind his left ear, staining his long hair an angry crimson. Another dark stain spread out across the front of his upper left arm, a deep, jagged wound visible at its center. The speed of his body rolling down the hill while his arms flailed bonelessly had pulled some of the blood down his arm, under his shirt, and out across the back of his small hand. Tiny rivers of blood ran between his knuckles and dripped onto the ground beneath him. A smaller stream of red came from a mark on his neck and trickled down the inside of his collar bone to pool in the hollow at the base of his throat. He wasn't moving and his breathing seemed off somehow, but he was alive. He shouldn't have been alive, Daniel thought. He shouldn't have lived through this.
"Someone help us!"
Daniel heard Jenny screaming for help that he knew would never come, and he closed his eyes again. He wanted to stand up, to run to her, to save her… but his head hurt so badly and his arm felt funny and it was so hard to breathe. He pressed his hands against the ground and tried to stand - Jenny needed him and he had to get up.
He just needed to ignore the pain and get up.
"Daniel!"
To hear Jenny screaming his name like that, to hear the terror and desperation in her voice, was enough to get him to his feet. There was a strange sound from above, a sound he had never heard before and was certain he didn't ever want to hear again, and Jenny's screams fell silent. With his heart pounding in his chest, he spun toward the hill, steeling himself for the climb up, but found himself face to face with the shadow.
In his nightmares, he'd always imagined that the shadow was a disguise for a monster, a demon, with claws and fangs ready to rip him to shreds at the first opportunity, but the reality was much different than his imagination. He supposed he should be grateful not to be staring at a living, breathing Satan on the hunt for blood, but he wasn't. He was terrified by what he saw - more terrified than he'd been in years.
He was staring into the eyes of a perfectly average human, a man - a man with cold, black, evil eyes. It was a man who had already tried to kill him once, a man who held a knife that dripped Jenny's blood, a man who had haunted countless unremembered nightmares for two decades.
It was a man he knew, and he was staring right back at Daniel with those eyes and raising that knife again.
Daniel screamed.
The screams of a terrified ten-year-old boy were still ringing in Daniel's ears when his own screams woke him. He found himself sitting straight up on a bed he didn't immediately recognize, blankets tangled around his feet, his heart hammering in his ears and his breath coming in quick, almost painful, gasps. He looked around the room frantically, trying to remember where he was and how he'd gotten there.
"Daniel Jackson?"
Daniel spun his head toward the voice and saw the vaguely familiar shape stepping out of the shadows. Still disoriented from his sudden waking, he could only recall that he knew this man… but he'd known the man in his nightmare, as well. Should he trust this man just because his mind was telling him that he knew him, or should he fear him for that very reason? He scrambled back on the bed, pushing himself as far against the headboard as he could go, and closed his eyes, trying to force the overwhelming feeling of terror that still filled him away.
A hand touched his face lightly, and Daniel's eyes shot open.
"Daniel Jackson?"
Daniel bit back the scream that perched on the edge of his tongue and took a deep breath. ‘Teal'c,' his mind told him as the nightmare finally released him from its grasp.
"Teal'c," he said out loud, his voice broken and shaky. He blinked hard, and when he looked at Teal'c again, he truly saw him for the first time since he'd awoken.
The memory of the face in his dream, and the feeling of having known the man that haunted him, faded away.
"You are safe, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said gently.
Daniel nodded his head quickly and swallowed. "I know," he whispered. "Wasn't real… just a dream."
His heartbeat was returning to normal, and he'd managed to get his breathing somewhat under control. He took another deep breath and forced his muscles to relax, so that his back was leaning against the headboard rather than trying to become part of it. He reached up with his right hand to wipe away the beads of sweat he felt running down his face, only to find that he was shaking. He balled his hands into fists and tucked them under his legs, hoping that Teal'c hadn't seen it.
He should have known that Teal'c would notice, though. He realized that when Teal'c sat down on the edge of the bed carefully and wrapped his hand around Daniel's upper arm. "You are safe," he repeated.
Daniel looked down at the strong hand that circled his arm and opened his mouth to answer, but his voice was stolen by a gasp. At some point during his nightmare, or during the panic that had followed, the sleeve of his black T-shirt had ridden up slightly, and though Teal'c's hand was covering most of it, the very bottom of a scar was visible, a slightly-raised, jagged white line against his skin.
Without a word, Daniel yanked his arm away and pulled his sleeve down. He wrapped his own right hand around it, rubbing at the slight imperfection through the fabric, tracing the raised surface of it with his fingertips. He'd had the scar as long as he could remember; he didn't know where it had come from, and it had never bothered him. He couldn't explain why he was suddenly worried about Teal'c seeing it; he only knew that he had to hide it. And though he couldn't remember the injury that had caused it, it suddenly hurt in a way that he could only describe as badly, but muted as though by the years, throbbing - a phantom pain laced with fear that set his heart pounding again.
Teal'c raised his eyebrows slightly in confusion at the odd reaction. He lowered his hand to rest in his own lap and looked at Daniel in concern.
"Is your arm injured? Do you wish me to summon Dr. Fraiser?"
"No!" Daniel answered too quickly. He closed his eyes and tilted his head, digging through the rapidly vanishing memories of his nightmare. He knew that he wasn't supposed to talk to the doctor about his arm, felt very strongly that he wasn't allowed to do that, but he couldn't remember why.
Daniel opened his eyes, saw the expression on Teal'c's face, and forced himself to smile. He was being ridiculous; after all, it was only a nightmare. It was far from the first one Teal'c had ever seen him have, and Daniel was certain it was far from the last, but he could see the concern on his friend's face. He was worrying Teal'c, and he really shouldn't be doing that.
When people worried, they asked questions, and Daniel wasn't allowed to answer questions about his arm.
"I'm fine, Teal'c," he said, his voice much calmer than it had been only seconds before. "I'm just still trying to get my bearings here. I really don't need Dr. Fraiser."
"Actually, Dr. Jackson, you do need to see her," said a voice from across the room.
Teal'c and Daniel both turned toward the slowly opening door just in time to see Janet walk through it. She stopped just inside the room and looked back at them. The expression on her face made it clear that she knew she'd just walked in on something; the undercurrent of anxiety in the room was palpable. Daniel felt his muscles starting to tense again and forced himself to relax.
"Am I interrupting?" Janet asked.
"No," Daniel answered with a shake of his head. "I just woke up. Everything's fine."
Teal'c spun back to face Daniel, who pointedly ignored the look of incredulity of the other man's face. To Teal'c's credit, he said nothing to dispute Daniel's seriously abbreviated version of the past several minutes.
Janet didn't look like she completely believed him either, but she said nothing about it. "Well, I do need you to come to the infirmary. That's why I'm here. You've got a follow-up with me for that head injury."
Daniel reached up with his left hand and felt the bump on his head. It was behind and just slightly above his left ear, and it was still tender when he touched it. When he moved his hand back down he stared at his fingers, strangely surprised that they were clean. He had a vague memory of there being blood, a lot of blood, in his hair and on his hand… but that wasn't right. He'd fallen in the park and hit his head on a rock, but it hadn't bled at all.
He shook his head slightly, chasing the obviously false memory from his mind, and looked up at Janet again. "Yeah," he said, quietly. "Yeah, I'm coming."
Daniel untangled his feet from the blankets, and Teal'c stood and crossed the room to Janet's side. As Daniel bent over to retrieve his boots from the floor and slip his feet into them, Janet motioned Teal'c closer.
"He seems a little… off," she whispered. "Is everything all right?"
Teal'c looked at Daniel, who glanced up from tying his boot. Blue eyes stared back at him, almost begging him to keep quiet, to keep his behavior after waking a secret. Teal'c inclined his head ever-so-slightly, and Daniel returned a quick expression of gratitude before turning back to his boots.
"Daniel Jackson has only just awakened," Teal'c replied evenly. It might not have been the whole truth, but it wasn't a lie.
Janet looked confused. "Wait, Teal'c… why are you here?"
Daniel's eyes widened - he didn't think it would be the greatest idea to tell Janet that Teal'c had been assigned to keep Daniel from waking up halfway down the mountain. His mind clicked through all the different excuses he could give her, but Teal'c was faster.
"O'Neill's presence was required elsewhere," he answered smoothly.
Before Janet could ask why that mattered, Daniel stood, straightened his shirt, and crossed the room.
"Why don't you go find Jack, Teal'c?" he said. He touched Teal'c's arm briefly, both relieving him of his responsibility and thanking him for not telling Janet exactly what condition he'd woken up in. "I'll just be in the infirmary with Janet."
Teal'c nodded deeply, silently, and stepped out the door.
Daniel turned to Janet, his best imitation of a carefree smile on his face. "After you, Doctor," he said, motioning toward the door.
Janet nodded, though it was plain from her face that she still wasn't completely certain of what had just happened, and stepped into the corridor.
Daniel followed close behind her, closing the door as he went.
Jack stood close to Sam's back, watching over her shoulder as she typed in her search terms, narrowing their search down with every search she did. If she made a mistake, which he had to admit wasn't often, he stepped in to help her.
"You've got the wrong city, Carter," he said. "We're to 1977, right? In 1977, Daniel was living in New York state. Searching in Chicago won't do any good."
Sam nodded and adjusted her search terms, replacing Illinois with New York, and pressed enter.
"And this will find it?" Jack asked for the third time.
Sam smiled almost indulgently at him. "Like I already explained, sir, I'm searching newspaper articles for deaths involving girls named Jenny in 1977. If there was ever an article written about her, we'll find it."
"How long will it take?"
"It shouldn't be long, sir."
"O'Neill," Teal'c said from the door.
"Hey, Teal'c," Jack greeted, looking up. He straightened his back and walked toward him, glancing into the hallway to see if anyone was with him. "Daniel awake?"
"He is," Teal'c answered. He paused, and it looked to Jack like he was almost uncertain of what to say next, or of how to say it. The lab was silent, except for the clicking of Sam's mouse and the occasional tap of her fingers against her keyboard.
"Something wrong, Teal'c?"
"I am unsure," Teal'c answered. "Upon waking, Daniel Jackson seemed…" His voice trailed off.
Jack tilted his head, waiting for Teal'c to continue.
"Fearful," he finally said. "He was afraid, O'Neill."
"Of what?" Jack asked.
"Of me."
Jack's eyes widened and he shook his head quickly. "No, Teal'c, that can't be right. Daniel would never be afraid of…"
"Oh my God! Sir!"
Jack and Teal'c both spun toward Sam's nearly frantic summons. She was staring intently at her computer screen, an expression of near-horror on her face.
"Carter?" Jack asked.
Sam glanced up at them and then back down at the monitor. "I found her, sir," she announced. "I found Jenny."
Teal'c and Jack crossed the room quickly, taking up positions behind Sam's back and reading the screen across over her shoulder.
"Jenny Miller," she said, summarizing for them the article she had already read in its entirety. "Thirteen years old, from Albany. She was murdered, sir, in the park. According to the article, she was playing hide-and-seek with her younger brother when she was attacked. Her throat was cut."
"And her brother saw the whole thing," Jack muttered. "Damn." He bit his lip as he read through the article for himself, looking for mention of a second witness. "Are you sure it's her, Carter? It only talks about her brother…"
Sam nodded. "I'm almost positive, sir. This is the only article that came up as a full match on all the terms. The year is right, sir… and her brother was ten."
Jack shook his head. "How does her brother's age matter, Carter?" he asked. "Daniel's an only child."
"Look at the picture, sir."
Jack put his hand on the desk and leaned around Sam's shoulder, getting close enough to the monitor to clearly see the picture that accompanied the article. It was a standard newspaper photo, black and white, grainy, and obviously taken at the scene. In the foreground, a stretcher bearing a small black body bag was being loaded into an ambulance. In the background, surrounded by policemen, was a little boy - a little boy covered in dark splotches that had to have been blood, a little boy with long light-colored hair and glasses, a little boy with the same shell-shocked expression Jack had seen a dozen times in the past two years.
Jack squinted and leaned even closer, hoping he was wrong, but he already knew who he was looking at. The little boy's face hadn't changed much as he'd aged, and Sam and Teal'c saw it, too. Jack's heart was pounding in his ears, Sam's hand was gripping his sleeve tightly, and Teal'c's posture had stiffened considerably behind him.
"Oh, holy hell," Jack whispered as his eyes fell closed. A sudden thought occurred to him, and he pushed himself upright, spinning to face Teal'c.
"Where is he?" he demanded. "Where's Daniel?"