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Power
and Punishment by Jb part two, of two
Kinsey checked his watch. He was fifteen minutes early; fifteen minutes of peace in which to check the place out before he telephoned the bar several miles away… to the woman who said she would be waiting there for his call before she came over. He eyed the door to unit 107. She had said that the key would be on top of the door sill. Kinsey was pleased at her quick agreement that he be first to arrive there. He hadn’t given any serious consideration to the possibility that she might have an accomplice waiting here for him. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t at risk. Anyone who knew of his involvement in Jackson’s abduction and murder was dead. To Kinsey’s way of thinking, where there was no suspicion there could be no risk. He allowed himself a few moments to sit in the car and gloat; to recall the venomous look General Hammond had given him upon his and the Secretary’s arrival at the SGC. That had been rewarding. He would have preferred that the old goat have defeat in his eyes as well, but Kinsey figured that it wouldn’t take long for that to appear; only as long as it would for the Secretary of Defense to pronounce sentence… the immediate disbanding of SG1, detention of the Jaffa Teal’c, the official investigation of O’Neill and Carter, and – an added bonus – the mandatory retirement of Hammond himself. It crossed his mind that maybe he should just start up the car and drive away from here. After all, he had already won. But her words kept coming back to him; O’Neill’s complicity with Jackson… that she had hard evidence that just as the archaeologist was not as he seemed to be, neither was O’Neill. Kinsey just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to destroy yet another member of the infamous SG1. Even as that thought crossed his mind, his palms began to sweat and his heart beat a staccato rhythm in his chest. The Lord would see him triumph over all those like Jackson and O’Neill… all those who sought to bleed dry this glorious country through satisfaction of their own selfish interests; all those who would belittle and defy his personification of the savior incarnate. Kinsey got out of the car and practically ran to the door of unit number
107. Pulling the key from atop the door frame and unlocking the door,
he stepped quickly inside.
Swallowing hard against the bitter taste in his mouth, Daniel reached out in front of him for the edge of the open door and as quietly as possible swung it closed. Daniel was now fully revealed; should Kinsey choose to look behind himself, the senator would be face to face with Daniel. However, all of Kinsey’s attention was on Samuels. Small guttural noises escaped the man, and in his shock he was trembling visibly. Then Kinsey suddenly found his voice. "Samuels! You’re supposed to… agh… this isn’t possible…" Kinsey abruptly stopped his advance. "What are you doing here? What do you want?" He quickly looked to his left, toward the two beds against the opposite wall. He didn’t bother looking back behind him. He paused, took a few more cautious steps toward Samuels, and with acid in his voice once again addressed the frightened man. "You’re too much of a coward to do this alone. So who are you with? If we’re going to deal, I want to do it with the right people." Daniel was not surprised at how quickly Kinsey recovered from his initial shock. A man like Kinsey had probably coped with a lot of unpleasant occurrences in his career. But things were about to get a whole lot more unpleasant … with some degree of satisfaction, Daniel thought that perhaps Kinsey wouldn’t adapt quite so quickly to his next surprise. He was right. Daniel knew he had to do this, to face Kinsey, and even though he had planned for this encounter he’d been dreading it. After all, this was the man who had set him up as being a tool of the hated Goa’uld; had arranged for his mistreatment and murder. Now that Kinsey was here, Daniel’s knees felt weak and nervousness threatened to swamp his already unsettled stomach. But he wasn’t frightened. With some amazement, Daniel realized that he wasn’t afraid of this man. He was hurting and his body was weak, yes, – almost to the point of collapse, but that knowledge was his and his alone – and certainly he was anxious… but beyond that, all Daniel felt was tremendous relief and determination. He knew he could do this. Daniel nodded sharply at Samuels, who was alternately staring in panic at Kinsey and then back to Daniel. As Samuels allowed his eyes to remain on Daniel and brought his arm up to point at him, Kinsey realized that something was behind him. As Kinsey turned, Daniel calmly said one word. "Hello." It was enough. It was plenty.
The intensity of the reaction startled Daniel. It hit home to Daniel just how very sure of himself, how sure of Daniel’s own intended dismal fate and of the success of his machinations against SG1, Kinsey had been. Backing slowly away from what to all intents and purposes seemed to be a bomb at the end of a sizzling and very short fuse, Daniel found himself pressed up against the door behind him. As the bomb exploded, there was just barely enough time for one thought to flit through Daniel’s mind. ‘The bigger they are, the harder the fall.’ Kinsey screeched. His hands came up to his own head, grabbing at the sparse grey hair. He yelled at Daniel, spittle flying in all directions. "You! You’re dead! You… you…" Kinsey launched himself forward; claw-like fingers grabbed at Daniel, scratched at his neck and face, withdrew and returned, aiming for his eyes. And then were gone. Daniel had managed to remain upright only through having been effectively pinned between Kinsey and the door. As Samuels pulled Kinsey back, the senator’s elbow made painful contact with the cracked ribs on the right side of Daniel’s chest as the man swung out violently against Samuels’ restraint. Daniel reached out for something to grasp onto but found only the doorknob, which wasn’t nearly enough. He fell forward onto his knees, gasping in pain, and as he did so he heard a cackle of triumph from Kinsey. Looking up at Kinsey and Samuels, Daniel’s eyes widened. Kinsey had pulled his arms out of Samuels grasp and just as Daniel looked up Kinsey gave the man a great shove. Samuels ended up on his rear at the foot of the nearest bed. However, just after true fear finally surged in Daniel, he realized that he need not worry about another physical attack on himself after all; despite the alarmingly incoherent reaction Kinsey’d had to Daniel’s presence, even now the man was pulling himself together… ‘ahm, sort of ?’. Kinsey widened his stance, gave a twist of his head as if to get a kink out of his neck, and tugged on the hem of his suit jacket. He focused a righteous stare on Daniel and pointed at him. "There! See! You fall even now… You are weak; evil is weak. What did you think? That I would be frightened of you? You are nothing… your pitiful little life is over. You will suffer, and you will die." Then it got a little more personal. Kinsey took a step closer to Daniel, leaned over the younger man and dropped his voice to a harsh whisper. "I know who you really are, what you really are. You thought you could fool me?" Daniel could only stare in shock as Kinsey clawed at his own hands, drawing blood as the fingernails of one hand dug into and wreaked havoc on the back of the other. "You are a traitor to this great nation and to this world. You choose to sow your seed with the devil…" Kinsey got right down to it. "You took away my position, my reputation. You thought you could dismiss me?" A trembling hand reached into a breast pocket and pulled out a vaguely familiar crumpled piece of paper. As Kinsey waved it in the air between them, Daniel realized what it was. Kinsey snarled, spat at Daniel. "I will not rest until I have satisfaction. I'll see you suffer in the burning fires of hell for what you did to me." ‘Oh crap.’ Daniel could see that the man was, ah, well, Jack would probably use the word ‘nuts’. Daniel just hoped that Kinsey wasn’t so far gone that he would be unable to comprehend his own precarious situation. Daniel gathered himself mentally, and working to stifle any overt signs of weakness he rose to his feet. "I don’t think so." Kinsey gave a wildly derisive laugh at Daniel’s response, flicking his hand in Daniel’s direction in a dismissive gesture as he turned partially away. Daniel looked behind Kinsey to Samuels; gave him a quick nod before returning his attention to the senator. "Ah… you’re pretty sure of yourself. So, maybe you want to join me there then?" Reaching out for the tape Samuels had extended, Daniel took it in his hand and held it up, waggling it slightly in order to get Kinsey’s undivided attention. Daniel watched with as close to an impassive look on his face as he could muster, as Kinsey listened to the recording of himself giving instructions to Samuels for the delivery of the evidence tape. Hoping against hope that Kinsey’s madness had not robbed the man of all of his intelligence, Daniel carefully studied the response, seeing haughty disdain quickly turn to disbelief, and then to anger. Samuels punched the stop button and the room was silent. Daniel watched and waited, but Kinsey didn’t seem to progress any further. Anger, as a final destination, wasn’t good. That wasn’t at all where Daniel wanted to end up. "You know that the recording of me is flawed, don’t you?" Kinsey smirked at Daniel, obviously very sure of himself on that count. Daniel waved over at Samuels. "You think he’d be here, with me, if it was clean? It’s already been blown wide apart." Daniel indicated the telephone. "Go ahead… you came to the SCG with the Secretary of Defense? Call him." Daniel was quite willing to make the call himself, if need be. Kinsey needed to know that he was about to be thoroughly humiliated. The veins in the man’s forehead looked as though they would pop as he considered what Daniel had just told him. If anything the anger intensified. "How did you know the Secretary was here? Never mind… that doesn’t matter." Kinsey blew Daniel off with an impatient shake of his head, pointing toward Samuels. "You’re grasping at straws. That just incriminates him. You have nothing. You can’t prove anything. Not with that…" he indicated the tape he had just listened to "…and not with the recording because-it’s-perfect. I had it checked…" Kinsey stopped for a moment, tipping his head as the truth sank in. "You, you did this together… you tricked me… you… I have to go fix this…" He turned suddenly and headed for the door. Pushing past Kinsey, Daniel grabbed the tape player from Samuels and pushed the play button. Kinsey’s voice again filled the room, this time giving John the terse instruction which – in light of the previous taped conversation and within the context of Kinsey’s now-revealed involvement – could only be interpreted as a death sentence. Kinsey stopped dead in his tracks. There was pause, and the voices began anew. This time, Kinsey paled considerably as he heard himself openly acknowledge that his order to eliminate Jackson and the others had been carried out. Disbelief again flooded Kinsey’s face, and then Daniel saw one of the things he had desperately hoped for. Kinsey’s panic was obvious. He turned huge red eyes onto Daniel. His voice was so strangled as to make his words barely intelligible. "What do you want?" So Daniel told Kinsey just exactly what it was he wanted, no, insisted upon – their freedom from Kinsey, forever; freedom for himself, Samuels, John, and for SG1 and the Stargate Project – in return for their silence about Kinsey’s role and involvement. And eventually Daniel saw the second thing he had hoped for… Resignation. Of course, it took Kinsey some time to get there, though. Predictably, the senator had started right back from the beginning, going through the gamut of righteous indignation, disbelief, anger and then panic. The anger had not been pretty. For a few hairy moments Daniel had thought that Kinsey was in fact too far over the edge to deal with rationally and when Kinsey had advanced on Daniel, fire in his eyes, spittle on his chin and his hands raised in tightly clenched fists, Daniel had once again feared for his safety. But the threat passed as Kinsey’s native intelligence and political insight survived the resurgence of heretical fervor... barely. The man was clearly very unstable, but he was demoralized and exhausted as well, and the deal was made. Daniel just hoped that the ruthless politician’s overriding drive toward self-preservation would help Kinsey to recover his lost sanity; at least, enough of it so that over the long haul Kinsey would remember that this was one deal that he could not welch on, not ever. As he turned to bang hard on the wall, Daniel delivered one last message to Kinsey. "You know, even if you blame Armin, you’ll have to resign your seat in the capital Senate." That was the one part of this affair that Daniel truly regretted… that an innocent dead man would take the blame for this atrocity. The risk of prosecution to himself for blackmail and conspiracy, the travesty of releasing Samuels and John from all involvement, even his own guilt at accepting the death of the two other men at John’s hand… these things Daniel would have to learn to live with. But the destruction of the reputation of a blameless man… a flash of rage coursed through Daniel at the thought that the dead Armin probably had a family, loved ones… Pounding on the wall as hard as his devastated left arm would allow for, Daniel turned to Kinsey and snapped at him. "Remember what you said to us at the SGC? That what grows in the shadows but withers in the light of day doesn’t belong on the vine? That’s you, you son of a bitch." Daniel turned and raised his fist to just in front of Kinsey’s chin.
"You said you didn’t suffer fools gladly. You are the
fool, Kinsey."
"No… wait. Listen…" They heard some indeterminable noises, a few bumps on the wall, and then the sounds from the adjacent room settled into a low drone characteristic of conversation muffled by two sheets of gyproc, plywood studs, and four inches of dead air. "It’s settled down. Sir, there’s going to be some shouting; that’s inevitable. We can’t go running over there just because they raise their voices." Jack glared at her. "Sir, we just have to trust…" "Trust , what? Trust Kinsey not to knock Daniel’s head off? Trust Daniel to handle him? He’s hurt, Carter! This whole thing is a big mistake…" Jack reached for the doorknob, only to find a big dark hand cover his own. "Maybe so. But we have given Daniel Jackson our word that we would allow him to try this. O’Neill, our only other option will result in losing our friend from SG1, even though he has been proven loyal. I believe Daniel Jackson can handle Senator Kinsey." This was so screwed up. "Hell! Teal’c! So that makes it okay? Even if he can manage Kinsey, Daniel’s in there committing a criminal offense, for Christ sake…" "Sir…" Carter’s voice was soft, heavy with concern and regret. "He didn’t have any choice. He had to handle it the way he did…" "Well we’re here now, Carter! He’s got a choice now!" Jack whirled on John, who was lounging on one of the beds. "His life isn’t in danger… we’re here, aren’t we? I say we just round up all three of these slimebags and turn them in…" "You’re so wrong, soldier-boy. Even if your good buddy Jackson doesn’t end up in jail right along with the rest of us, he’ll never get out of this in one piece. Kinsey will get to him, somehow, in the end." John grinned facetiously, wagging his finger in Jack’s direction. Jack knew in his heart that Carter and Teal’c were right. That Daniel had been right when he tried to explain it earlier. Even the creep was right. He sank into the chair, the grim expression on his face not coming even close to touching the dread in his heart. Teal’c took up a position beside him, placing one hand on Jack’s shoulder. In his anger, Jack came close to shrugging off the supportive touch. Jack understood that even though the recording of Daniel was fake, the actions that Daniel had been forced to take to stay alive would preclude his staying on at the SGC… and maybe, just maybe, even though it was clear that Daniel had acted under duress, the collusion with his kidnappers could result in some jail time. Daniel had made his decision – to plot against Kinsey – figuratively at the end of a gun; it was pretty clear to Jack that if Daniel hadn’t agreed to work toward neutralizing Kinsey, John would have simply used a which-of-us-gets-control-of-this-kid tactic, using Daniel as a bargaining chip with Kinsey. The inevitable end of that would have been Daniel’s death. Jack didn’t know how far an argument of duress and traumatic stress would go in a court of law, but it wouldn’t go very far with the powers that be who were in control of the Stargate Project. They’d lose Daniel for sure. As much as Jack had fought against the situation, he knew that there were no viable alternatives. They had to allow Daniel to follow this through to it’s end, and they had to do it from afar. Daniel was right, of course; for the sake of all that Daniel was fighting so hard for here, they couldn’t take the chance of being recorded on the tape that was rolling next door. But he didn’t have to like it. ‘Oh, for crying out loud... What a mess. Letting these creeps off… this is serious shit, Danny…’ A sudden thumping on the wall interrupted Jack’s thoughts, and John jumped up from the bed. "That’s my signal." Spreading his arms wide and turning in a slow circle to show that he wasn’t carrying a weapon, the big man leered at Carter. "We’ll see you later, sweet-cheeks." Then he was through the door and gone. Teal’c and Carter moved to the open outside door to watch John enter the adjoining room. When the door clicked shut behind him, they rejoined O’Neill. Silently, theirs eyes and hearts heavy with misgiving, they strained to try to make sense of the indistinct buzz of voices which came through the wall. That’s just where they were – eyes narrowed in concentration, leaning forward toward the wall in a vain effort to listen to what they couldn’t possibly hear – when the muffled shouting started. And then the gunshot rang out.
Just after pounding on the wall, Daniel moved over to the head of the bed where Jack had placed the gun under the pillow. John was coming in here, and although Daniel doubted that the man would do anything stupid, emotions were bound to flare once again when Kinsey realized who John was. Daniel didn’t want either of the two anywhere near that gun. After all, shit happens. The door opened and John strode confidently into the room. Samuels, in his customary terrified huddle at the washroom door, shot a panicky look at Kinsey. For his part, Kinsey just stood impassively by the foot of the bed, gazing at John with no sign of the anxiety or confusion that Daniel had expected. Instead, Kinsey’s expression appeared to be one of acceptance. Daniel felt his face crease into a frown even before he was cognitively aware of his own confusion. It was John who spoke first, and surprisingly enough it was not to Kinsey, but to Daniel, that he directed his comments. "It’s okay, Doc. Don’t look so confused; you’re a smart guy." Moving along the wall toward the small unit which housed the room’s television set, John waved a hand in Kinsey’s direction. "You don’t think he’d hire me without knowing everything about me, what I looked like… do you?" In a flat monotone, Kinsey simply said, "I know who you are." He turned dull eyes to Daniel. "So you think I’m the fool? Think again." John reached out and swiveled the small TV on it’s base, reaching
behind it. As Daniel suddenly, with dawning horror, started to suspect
what the man was doing, John’s voice hardened. "Move away from
there. Over here with us, Buddy." The hand emerged from behind the
television, and in it was a second handgun. This one was fitted with a
silencer.
Daniel stared as the weapon was swung up to point in his general direction. The barrel waggled slightly just before Daniel saw John tip his head and change the direction of travel. Just as John deliberately aimed directly at Samuels, the fog in Daniel’s head cleared. John wasn’t interested in making any deals. John was going to kill them. As that thought snapped into focus, Daniel cried out "Jack!" as he lunged in panic for the weapon under the pillow. Grabbing it up in a weak two handed grip, his broken fingers hindering his coordination, hands jerking in time with the rapid pounding in his chest, Daniel brought the muzzle up to point at John. Samuels let out a small mewling noise, and fainted. Kinsey just sat there. John… laughed. In the most pleasant of tones, he gave Daniel the bad news. "There’s only blanks in there, Jackson. Low-powered at that. Won’t do you any good.". His relaxed demeanor changed abruptly. He snarled at Daniel. "Put it down, Jackson, and …get…the…hell…over…here. You folks are too spread out. Put it down." In a whirl of confused thoughts, most of which were ones of self-recrimination – ‘stupid… how could I have been so stupid – one abstract thought suddenly swirled to the forefront. If the gun was useless, why did John want him to put it down so badly? Daniel wondered… Why didn’t he just shoot him… and then Samuels, and Kinsey … Why was he waiting? Making an abrupt decision, Daniel tensed and shifted his grip on the gun, maneuvering the forefinger of his left hand more firmly onto the trigger. He saw John’s eyes widen as the man noticed the slight movement and correctly interpreted it as the immediate precursor to Daniel discharging the weapon. John’s arm began a wide arc, moving from Samuels direction towards Daniel. Satisfied that this weapon wasn’t harmless after all, Daniel held his breath and squeezed firmly. John’s enraged scream of "Don’t fire that!" was immediately followed by the deafening blast of the gunshot. Daniel felt himself driven backwards. The weapon jerked sharply in his hands, producing excruciating stabs of pain in his hands and up his left arm. Daniel was far too weak to control the recoil and, with a shout of his own, he couldn’t help but drop the heavy weapon. In amongst the pain in his arm and fingers, Daniel felt a sharp stinging sensation on his left shoulder and looking down, he caught sight of a rush of blood running down his arm. Dully, he realized he had been shot. Daniel brought his head up, to find himself staring directly into the muzzle of a silenced pistol held by a very much intact John. "I told you, buddy… blanks. And your aim is pathetic. Now that you made all that noise, though, I really have to hurry." In the split second that he saw John’s hand tighten on the trigger, John swiftly diverted the gun’s aim away from him. Daniel became aware of a strange noise and followed the direction of the extended arm holding the weapon to it’s source. The noise… it was Kinsey. Daniel felt disconnected from reality, from the pain and blood and shock… Kinsey was laughing. John cast what appeared to be a panicked look behind himself. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion and there was a red haze forming over Daniel’s vision. Confused, Daniel wondered why John would be panicked. He was the one with the gun. He had all the power. Daniel was only vaguely aware of a rising commotion somewhere off to his right. He tried to ignore it, in favor of concentrating on keeping himself upright. Daniel didn’t even have time to make sense of what was happening before the gun went off. Kinsey was laughing, a high pitched insane giggle. Daniel looked at him in incomprehension. Suddenly, John screamed out again. "Shit! Shut up!" There was a audible puff from the direction of the gun muzzle, and Kinsey abruptly stopped giggling as a not-so-neat hole appeared in his forehead. Daniel watched in deepening shock as Kinsey’s body stayed rigidly in place for a moment, a trickle and then a stream of blood running down his forehead and over his nose, before it folded and fell off the bed. Daniel wasn’t even aware of John bringing the gun around, swiftly and surely, and once again depressing the trigger to produce that little phutt of displaced air. That action was lost in a sudden mind-jarring increase in the intensity of the background commotion, as Teal’c finally smashed through the door John had locked as he had entered, closely followed by Jack and Sam.. The Jaffa launched himself at John, crashing into the man just as John was bringing the weapon to bear on his attacker. John was no match for an enraged Teal’c in full battle mode, and Daniel watched dazedly as Teal’c easily bore the thug to the floor and disarmed him. Then there were hands on Daniel’s arms and he felt himself being guided onto the bed. "Daniel! Hey, we’re here… it’s okay…" He looked up to see Sam’s worried face close to his own, Jack just behind her. Then the room did a slow loop and blurred out. When it reappeared, Daniel found himself laying down, with Jack sitting on the edge of the bed next to him while Sam pressed a towel to the cause of the red-hot stinging high on his left arm. "It’s okay, Daniel… you zoned out for a minute. It’s okay, it’s all over." Jack shot a glance over to his left. Shaking his head to clear it, Daniel felt a strong need to get up… to see what was over there. There was something… something horrible… Jack held him down. Sam spoke gently. "No, Daniel, just stay still. You were grazed on your shoulder. It’s deep, and it’s still bleeding…" Daniel ignored her. He struggled against their gentle grip, and reluctantly Jack nodded at Sam. Daniel reached out for his friend, and found himself supported by Jack’s strong arms as he helped Daniel to stand up beside the bed. A little voice in Daniel’s mind chanted at him; ‘horrible… something horrible…’ He saw John, effectively pinned and silently glowering under Teal’c’s massive bulk. That wasn’t it. There was something else, something he’d only been vaguely aware of before… He saw Kinsey’s body, the hole in his forehead and the back of his head a pulpy, bloodied mess; he remembered that, expected it. That was only part of it. He knew there was something more; he had to find it… Then he saw it. Samuels… a hole, a pulpy bloodied mess, just like that of Kinsey. Dead. Samuels was dead too. Daniel’s knees and his stomach gave out at the same time. As he fell, as he retched and choked and as the darkness took over his vision and his mind, Daniel was certain he heard Kinsey telling him that he was the fool. This was all his fault.
Buzzes and clicks and faint humming sounds, quiet footsteps; whitewashed concrete walls, a very familiar ceiling and, upon turning his head to the left, a familiar face. "There he is." The face came close, turned away for a second, then reappeared. "It’s very good to see you, Daniel. We’ve been worried about you." Dr. Fraiser looked down and fiddled with something, and Daniel felt a an uncomfortably warm weight settle on his left arm. He looked down to see that she was in the process of swaddling his entire forearm, from his wrist to a point just past his elbow, in a thick compress. "Hh- ’t." The word didn’t sound right to Daniel, so he tried again. "S’too h’t." That was even worse. Janet Fraiser just smiled at him, though. "It’s not too hot; it needs to be that way, Daniel. I know it isn’t very comfortable." She indicated the IV line on Daniel’s right. "I just gave you something for pain… when I saw you were waking up. It’ll feel better in a minute." Then she stood and turned away, addressing someone behind her. "I’ll call and tell General Hammond he’s conscious. He won’t stay awake for long." Just before leaving, Janet reached out and gently rubbed her fingers over the creases furrowing Daniel’s brow. "Relax, don’t worry. Everything’s okay now." Dr. Fraiser was replaced by Jack O’Neill. At the sight of his friend’s grim face, earlier events came back to Daniel in a rush. Kinsey and Samuels, dead. John, uh… John… Daniel knew that Dr. Fraiser was wrong; things weren’t okay. Nothing was okay. He struggled to move, to sit up, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. Putting his energy into an attempt at speech, Daniel found that he couldn’t seem to organize that either. ‘Damn. Have to find… find out…’ As Daniel’s mouth moved wordlessly and his body fidgeted and trembled from the effort of trying to raise himself up, Jack put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "It’s okay, Danny… you’re still in a bit of shock. Some of it’s the morphine; just go with it. Relax." His face leaned in very close, and Jack’s voice became an urgent low whisper. "Listen carefully to me, okay? Cool it, stay still. I need you to stay with me here, Daniel. We only have a couple of minutes." Daniel felt his eyes captured by Jack’s as he was intently studied. Apparently Jack didn’t like what he saw, because his face tightened. He turned away and spoke to someone else. "I don’t know… I think he’s too drugged up to understand. Damn. He could blurt out anything." "Let me try, Sir." Sam Carter came into view, leaning in very close to Daniel. He could feel her breath on his face, recognized her fresh scent. She placed a hand on his cheek, cupping his face. "Daniel, do you understand me?" Daniel nodded, swallowed. "Y’s. Un, unersta…" Her eyes encouraged him, and he focused on visualizing the words in his head, and on trying to enunciate more clearly. "I… un’erstan’ you. Jack’s a pess’mis." Sam smiled widely at him, and then her face became serious. "Listen. General Hammond is on his way here to see you. He has someone with him… Daniel, are you following me here?" He nodded. "Hamm’n." A scornful little voice in his head laughed at him. ‘Now you’re gonna get it.’ "Good. Daniel, just go with whatever they say, okay? Don’t say anything, especially don’t admit to anything… nothing about Kinsey or the tapes, about what happened…" Jack’s voice chimed in. "Just smile and nod, Danny… smile and nod. Okay?" Daniel was confused; he had a million questions. Who was coming with the General? Was it someone to question him… was he under arrest? Why didn’t they want him to talk to Hammond? What happened to John? Asking them, though, was quite impossible. His thoughts were quickly becoming as indistinct as his enunciation. Hazily, Daniel thought that trying to communicate while under the influence of a powerful intravenous narcotic, well... as Jack might say... really sucked. The little voice in his head got louder. ‘You’re in deep shit now, Jackson. They want you to lie… to make it worse…’ He took one last stab at coherence. "C’n’t lie, Sam. N’ gonna lie." Voices, footsteps, faint at first but quickly getting louder caused Sam to turn away for a second. When she turned back her face was flushed, blue eyes wide and her expression earnest. Her words, however, were hurried. "They’re here. Nobody’s expecting you to lie, Daniel. Please… just trust us. Like the Colonel said, just smile and nod." Then she stepped back, out of view. Daniel unexpectedly found himself staring at the crotch of a pair of grey dress pants. It seemed like too much of an effort to move his head, so he just continued looking to his left at the beautifully tailored waistband and double stitched fly. His little voice sounded irate. ‘Geez. You’d think the guy would at least bend over, or sit down or something.’ Daniel figured if his interrogator didn’t respect him enough to make it easier for him to see the man, then maybe he wasn’t interested enough to look. General Hammond’s voice interrupted the one in his head. It came from off to his right; Daniel couldn’t be bothered to look over there, either. He was starting to feel quite drowsy. "Doctor Jackson. Daniel…" There was a pause, and the general cleared his throat. "It’s good to see you, son." The general’s tone changed from soft and gentle to moderately loud and officious. "Doctor Jackson…" ‘Here it comes…’ Daniel told the little voice to shut up. A warm hand fell onto Daniel’s right shoulder. "I’d like to present the President of the United States. Mr. President, I’m very proud to introduce you to our Daniel Jackson." Even through the increased lethargy which enveloped his mind, Daniel felt a wave of shock and awe. Just as he got himself adequately organized to try to redirect his gaze upwards, the grey crotch moved. It wrinkled, puckered, and then disappeared… to be replaced by the head and shoulders of his visitor. Kind hazel eyes twinkled at Daniel from a wide and pleasant face. The President smiled, and Daniel was immediately overcome by the immense natural charisma of the man. Even Daniel’s little voice was impressed. ‘Hey… he could give Hathor a run for her money…’ With a start, Daniel realized the President was talking to him. He shook his head slightly to clear it, and tried to focus on what the man was saying. Something about being sorry they had to meet this way… something about wanting to see him before having to go back to Washington. The words seemed to Daniel to run into one another. …regret your ordeal… sorry to have to visit at such at bad time… hope you are feeling all right… no, stupid thing to say, can see that you aren’t… won’t bother you for very long… respect you very much… despite your trauma, instrumental in revealing the truth… the murderer, never need to fear him again… "… and I just want you to know how sorry I am that we didn’t have the faith in you that we should have had, Doctor Jackson. I sincerely apologize." Silence. Daniel watched in a amazement as the friendly face swam in a lazy counterclockwise circle. Daniel’s little voice was once again impressed. ‘What a neat trick… talent. Guess that’s why he’s a president…’ More silence. The lengthy quiet was finally interrupted by General Hammond’s voice, his words breaking into Daniel’s drugged stupor. "Doctor Jackson? Son? Is there anything you’d like to discuss, or that you’d like to tell the President before he leaves?" Daniel realized he should say something. After all, how often does one get the ear of the President? ‘Say something… something wise, insightful… uhm, maybe, thanks for the apology?’ The little voice, now indistinct with exhaustion, taunted him ‘You don’t deserve an apology. You killed them; you’re the murderer.’ Daniel opened his mouth to speak. It took a few tries for words to form; he was so tired, on the very edge of dropping off to sleep. Finally he got it together and just as he sank into slumber, Daniel said the only truly safe thing he could think of that was appropriate for when the President of the United States came knocking at one’s door. "I… I voted for you."
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