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Notes: Unbeta'd!

"So...so what the hell happened? Where were you?"

Daniel�s got this nervous energy that�s making him look all at once like an addict impatiently awaiting his next fix and like he�s going to come right off the edge of his seat. Hell, knowing him, he probably will, if he doesn�t get the answers he�s looking for and fast. "Hockey rink," I say quickly, and shovel a spoonful of rapidly congealing mashed potatoes into my mouth.

Apparently ascension wreaks havoc with your appetite. �Hell of a dream, I�ll tell you that.�

Daniel McTact steps in smoothly, unable to stop himself from correcting me even though he still has a slightly nutty, worried look about him. �Jack, I don�t think it was a��

�Yeah, yeah, so you keep saying, but let me have my delusion, will you? I�m not completely prepared to deal with the fact I was kidnapped against my will. How long was I gone, anyway?"

I choose to ignore Daniel's mutter about redundancies as the doc muscles her way past my lunch to take yet another reading on my pulse, brain function, or something--I don't even know anymore. "Colonel, please don't speak with your mouth full."

"Three days." Daniel's still staring at me like I'm going to disappear. "You vanished from Kheb--"

"And the infirmary," Fraiser supplies.

"--And the infirmary...and then you showed up unconscious back in your bed here."

"Naked," Frasier throws in with an evil grin.

�But I guess you already know that part,� Daniel finishes, oblivious to her interruption.

Spoon frozen in its progress, I blink at her. �Don�t you have something better to do?�

"Not really."

"Jack, you're miraculously recovered from some serious brain damage," Daniel admonishes. "Give her a break."

"Give me a break! I�m the one this is happening to; I'm the one who�s starving to death!"

�Don�t be so dramatic�sir.� The salutation seems added only by an afterthought, but Fraiser can�t wipe the relieved smile off her face. �I�m pleased to let you know, that aside from your obvious hunger�which isn�t life-threatening, no matter how much you whine�you are completely fine.�

�But still a kid,� I add. Which doesn�t really make me �fine� at all.

Her enthusiasm only dims slightly. �But still a child,� she agrees. �Though, under the circumstances��

�We�d rather you like this than not at all,� Daniel blurts. I fix him with an assessing stare, a little layer of �smug� starting to cushion any guilty feelings I�ve had while complaining.

�Why, thank you, Daniel.�

Fraiser fiddles with her penlight, and no, silent dirty looks being exchanged over my head aren�t a giveaway; I�m just good enough to know a fight when I�m in the middle of one. Apparently Fraiser loses the war over who gets to give me some bad news, because Daniel steps back about five feet, and with one last sneer his way, she plasters what I think has to be the fakest smile I�ve ever seen on her face. �Now, Colonel��

�Yeah, I got it. You want to keep me here for observation, make sure I don�t go glowy, yadda yadda. No need to try and present shit as chocolate.�

�Tasteful, Jack.� Easy for him to correct me from way over there.

Fraiser takes my resignation as a boost to her confidence in the bursting-some-bubbles agenda. �Well, you yourself said you aren�t fine, sir. I�d just like to keep you overnight, at least.�

�And in case you get lonely, I�ll be in my office,� Daniel placates.

I�m not even going to dignify that with a response. �Whatever. Just�let me finish eating, will you? Please? Then you can pester me and fawn over me for returning all triumphant and heroic.�

�Okay...sir.� Fraiser tilts her head toward the door meaningfully, and Daniel snorts, but leaves without a fight�and I settle back in to my forgotten dinner. If it�s cold, someone�s gonna die.

=====

Shortly after the nurses dim the lights for the night, I roll over and covertly assess my situation. The infirmary is relatively empty; Fraiser seems to have retreated to her office, and as Chisholm leaves, quietly exchanging goodnights, it leaves only Cartwright as the nurse on duty who is actually in the infirmary. She�s going a bit deaf with age and I count my blessings that the gods seem to be on my side. Silently cheering my good fortune, I tumble off the bed and thank the heavens for scrubs rather than the assless infirmary gowns.

Just because the infirmary is hunkering down for the night doesn�t mean it�s so for the rest of the SGC, where it�s relatively early so the corridors aren�t completely empty. I try to look as casual as I can meandering the halls barefoot and sporting infirmary chic, but it seems the kid in me has woken up a bit for this little sojourn; my stomach is in knots, like it used to be when I knew I was doing something I wasn�t supposed to be and was over my head in fear of getting caught.

I think it�s the scrubs and bare feet that weirds out people the most as I pass them with casual greetings. By now word has spread over the base about my shrinking, ascension and return�we really aren�t that big a place. The closest I've come to being ratted out so far is Ferretti and the rest of his team noisily coming up the corridor to await the same elevator, but I�m ready for him. �Colonel, are you supposed to be out here?�

�Ferretti, were you supposed to leave an opened pack of condoms in Taylor�s car as a �birthday surprise�?�

Touch�. �Carry on, sir. Where to?�

Good man, Ferretti. �18.�

�Going to give Daniel some hell?�

�It�s what I do, Lou.�

=====

The Matres or Matronae (Latin; "important mothers/ladies") were ancient deities venerated in northwestern Europe from the 1st to the 5th century AD. They appear in votive reliefs and inscriptions in southeast Gaul, as at Bibracte (illustration, right), and also in the Romano-Celtic] culture of Pannonia, in the form of similar reliefs and inscriptions to Nutrices Augustae, "the Nurses of Augustus" found in Roman sites of Ptuj, Lower Styria.[1]

It�s about at that point that I decide reading the stuff is going to make it sink in even less than if Daniel were explaining it, so I reach up and poke his cheek, then grin when it makes his head fall off his supporting hand. �Daniel. Hey!�

�Wha�Jack? Whaddarya�what are you doing here?� Daniel gropes for his fallen glasses and squints at me out of one eye. Yup. Hard at work, here.

�I came to see if you might need any help researching,� I snap dryly. �Obviously, it�s going real well.�

�It is. Really. I�m just wiped out�three days, and I think I might have caught an hour, maybe two��

That�s one of the good�and alternately disturbing�things about Daniel. Wake him up out of a dead sleep on friendly territory and he�ll tell you just about anything you want to know until he�s actually awake enough to be called a functional human being. He catches himself before he manages to reveal that he was worried about me while I was gone, and deflects his embarrassment by pointing out the computer screen. �I take it you�ve seen this?�

�Some of it.� Read: Most of it went right over my head, so read it to me again, please?

As always, bless him, Daniel reads the subtext. �I found this; it�s related to your�thing. This is about the three mothers of Celtic mythology�mother goddesses. Here, listen��Matronae were representations of motherhood, often displayed with fertility symbols such as baskets or cornucopias of fruit and bread, or babies. They are usually depicted wearing long garments with one breast bared. Locally they may have been associated with other spheres of influence besides fertility and motherhood. The line between the generic Mother Goddesses and more specific local or insular goddesses is quite blurry, and the ancient Celts had a tendency to adapt the nature or sphere of a deity to differing local traditions. In some depictions they are different ages--Robert Graves among others have popularized the idea that girl, matron and crone is the common or default configuration--but in fact depictions of three mothers are much more common.

�Worship of the Matres was widespread in Celtic and other European religions, with monuments to them having been discovered in Gaul, Germania, northern Italy and northern Spain. Just as the religion had a wide range of adherents, so were the identities of the Matronae widespread. They differed widely from place to place, with a great many names: Deae Matres, or Matrones, the Suleviae, Alaferhuiae, Cartovallensiae, Rumaneheihae, the Vatviae�--I feel my brain start to melt, doubly so since Daniel�s adopted his rapid-fire method of speech he usually only employs when he�s under pain of death or facing the possibility of losing his audience to the door--�and many others. In Glanum, Provence they were called the Glanicae. Their number was most likely influenced by the Celtic tradition of triplism, which deemed the number three to be particularly auspicious. There are numerous singular matronly goddesses of Northern Europe as well, many difficult to distinguish from the triplicate variety (from whom they may often derive, or vice-versa), while the triadic version are clearly cognate with the Greek Fates and Roman Furies, and the Nordic Norns or Weird Sisters, and survive in caricatured form into relatively modern times as the three witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The concept of the Triple Goddess remains important in Neo-Paganism, where--�

"Wait. Breathe." All this mythologi-talk is making my head spin. I press both palms of my hands against my eyes and Daniel abruptly cuts off. "Can you explain this in words I actually understand? I still don�t see why�"

Daniel sighs; he's getting just as frustrated with this as I am--but then again...he is the one who actually knows what he's talking about. "You said 'Maponos', right?"

"No."

Got him. His forehead furrows and his expression clearly reads 'don't start with me'. "What?"

"Oma said 'Maponos'."

"But you repeated it when you were in the infirmary, so you said it."

"Semantics. It�s not like a name I randomly came up with or anything."

"So it is a name?"

"I have no idea; I guess I�m assuming--"

But Daniel's already gone, and he's all excited again. "Then I'm definitely on the right track! This makes sense...but then--oh."

"Daniel, I really don't know if it's a na--"

"Jack, are you going to listen to me or not?"

"Shutting up." Jeez, pissy much?

"All right. I searched high and low for anything relating to something called 'Maponos'; took me a while to sort it all out, but--"

"Daniel. Please cut to the chase."

"Maponos is Mabuz, and Mabuz is Mabon."

"And what; Mabon is Monopoly? Not helping."

Daniel growls. Actually growls--come to think of it, I must have this effect on people an awful lot, because I see that shuttered look on Daniel's face often enough, but I�ve just never really noticed it before. Kinda scary. "Maponos is a god of youth in the Celtic pantheon, and the son of the mother goddess Dea Matrona--a lady of the lake killed by Balin. According to scholars, Maponos is also a contemporary of Mabuz and Mabonagrain, two more obscure characters of Arthurian legend."

I hold up a hand. "Serious question this time--sort of. Are you telling me that we're going to have to pull a Knights-who-say-'Ni' quest?" Daniel chews the inside of his cheek and combines a shrug with a nod. "Daniel, have I ever mentioned how much I hate living mythology?"

"Okay, but just hear me out. In Arthurian legend, Mabuz is the son of the fairy who raised Lancelot, and Mabuz is thought to be the Celtic god Mabon--your Maponos."

"A...fairy."

"Therefore, the fairy who raised Lancelot must have later become Morgan Le Fay."

He wants me to see something; to get something. I can see it in his face; he's desperate for me to catch on to something. Unfortunately, my experience with King Arthur doesn't go much further than that Disney movie from the sixties. "And she is...?"

"Oh, uh, Arthur's half-sister in some versions of the story; a fairy who was turned into a woman and then became a magician to retain her former powers. She is thought to be derived from the Welsh mother goddess Modron--and Modron was derived from Dea Matrona. I could be wrong, but given all the supernatural and unexplained events in Arthurian legend, I think Morgan LeFay was�or is�an Ancient."

Whoa. I think I actually get it. "That's cool."

"That--it--'cool'?" Daniel sputters until he actually realizes that I'm serious, and then a surprised half-smile lifts one corner of his mouth and he proudly looks back at his beloved computer. "Yeah. It is."

"Yeah." I round his desk, climb the stool at his side like a pro, and peer at the numerous windows that are open on his desktop. "I think I know now why you get so nuts over this stuff."

"Uh...really?" He's waiting for the punchline. For some reason, though, I don't seem to have one, and grin up at him.

"Yeah. It's kind of neat to see how all this stuff ties together. I don't think I'd be able to figure it out in a lifetime." He lets me scroll up and down the page, reading more about Morgan and her kids, the future Owain and Morvydd. After several minutes though, Daniel is too quiet, and when I look up at him, he's studying me warily. "What?"

"Jack, are you okay?"

I shrug. "Yeah; why wouldn't I be?"

---

Why wouldn't he be? He just went from demon to saint in about ten seconds flat. He said there wasn't any residual �child� personality from earlier, but listening to and watching him now, I don't think I buy it. The only difference now is that the childish qualities seem more subtly interlaced with his normal personality. He's not aware of it, I guess, but it's still not as extreme as before, when his adult side seemed to black out when the child would emerge. The adult Jack would never content himself to kneel on a stool and scroll through information on King Arthur or mythology, nor would he admit to the stuff being the least bit...cool. Sure, he'd listen and take my advice, but he wouldn't want a closer look; wouldn't--

"Hey Daniel, look at this!"

--He definitely wouldn't be looking for more Arthur stuff related to his case. "What's that?"

"It's a dragon! Do you think Maponos fought dragons?"

"Um...maybe. Hey Jack, I think we should go see Janet for a minute."

"Huh? Why? What's with you, Daniel?"

�Nothing. I�she said to bring you in after a few hours just so she could do a few follow-up tests.�

�No she didn�t.�

�She did.�

�Did not. I�m supposed to be there already, remember? She doesn�t even know I�m gone. What�s up with you?�

�Yeah, what�s up?�

�Carter!� Jack swings his stool around to face the door, where Sam is leaning, watching us, with Teal�c looming over her shoulder. �Carter! Teal�c, c�mere and take a look at this!�

Teal�c gives me the eyebrow as he slowly follows Sam inside, and I shake my head. It�s going to take some explaining, and I think it�ll be best done when Jack isn�t within earshot. �What�ve you got there, sir?� Sam hunkers down beside him, and Jack mashes his fingertip against my computer screen. I try not to cringe. He chatters away at Sam, trying to reiterate what I�ve told him�he doesn�t really get it all right, because now he�s convinced Maponos fought dragons and probably has a few of his own at his dispense, but I let him ramble.

�So, I dunno,� he says excitedly, �but I think we�ll have to go find the holy grail, or something, to turn me back into a grown-up. Hey Daniel, can I search up some more Arthur stuff?�

�Uh, yeah, sure�maybe later, though, okay? Right now, we have�uh��

�You don�t have anything, Daniel�it�s late! It�s night time! You were asleep!�

Sam�s mouth twitches in a reluctant smile, but lucky for us Teal�c steps in with his usual calm and genius. �O�Neill, I was observing Sergeants Siler and Morrison playing a game called�Ping Pong in the gym. I am most eager to learn this activity.�

�Ping Pong? I should let you know that I�m the Ping Pong master, Teal�c.� Arthur and the late hour apparently forgotten, Jack slides from his perch and stares up at Teal�c, hands on hips. �I can teach you, but you might not ever be as good as me.�

Teal�c inclines his head solemnly. �It is something I must learn to accept, O�Neill.�

He likes this, and after that, his mind is made up for him. He takes off for the door, apparently still forgetting that he�s in scrubs and not BDUs. �Okay. See ya, Daniel! Bye Carter!�

�Um, bye, Jack.�

Sam rounds on me the moment they�re out in the corridor, but I�m stunned speechless when I hear Jack�s parting remark: �Daniel�s really cool, huh, Teal�c? He has the best job!�

Well, that�s that. Hell has officially frozen over.

======

To Be Continued...