"Obviously." Daniel giggled hysterically, scooting further into the corner. "Don't worry, Jack...I didn't have the-the guts...to do it anyway...I just-just...." Daniel's voice trailed off as his head drooped back down on his upraised knees.

The huddled figure tore at O'Neill. Memories flooded Jack's mind of another time and place. Of Daniel huddled in a corner, his eyes full of terror. Doubting his own sanity. The colonel hated admitting his own doubts about the scholar's mental capacity at the time. He'd detested the feeling of worthlessness at not being able to help his young friend. Well not this time! Not this time!

"Danny, I'm here....I'm right here." Laying the gun aside, out of reach, Jack eased himself to the floor beside his friend. "Danny, it was a test..." The colonel's own voice trailed off as the light from the aquarium shown down on the linguist. "God, Daniel, what did you do?"

Confused blue eyes raised to follow Jack's look at the dried blood covering the scientist's hands. Why was this hallucination asking about his hands? It had been there, nagging him to eat, bugging him to sleep, generally being a normal Jack. Normal, that is, if you could normally put your hands through a hard nosed, smart assed, silver haired colonel.

"Mirror," he mumbled with a nonchalant shrug. Lowering his head again, he vaguely remembered being unable to face himself. Seeing his guilt reflected back at him, he had pounded his fists against the mirrored surface until it had shattered into a thousand pieces. What difference did it make? Didn't this Jack hallucination realize his hands were always covered with the blood of others anyway?

Jack listened to the mumbled words spilling from his friend , his fists clenching in frustration.. "Never again what, Danny?"

Daniel forced his head up, flashing Jack a small smile. "Nobody's ever gonna get hurt again just cos I care about them."

"How you gonna prevent that, Daniel? People do get hurt. People do die. It's a fact of life and unless you've decided to become a Goa'uld while I was gone, there's nothing you can do about it." Jack fought the urge to shake some sense into younger man's head, afraid of what might happen if he reached for him again. Daniel already thought he was hallucinating. He would almost bet the kid had been living on coffee and little else.

Jack gave silent thanks to whatever God watched over supposedly dead colonels and grieving archaeologists that Rooshan had sent him back when he did. While it was heartwarming to know someone cared about him so much, the misery the kid had suffered tore at his heart. For the life of him (he silently snickered to himself) he couldn't understand why Daniel had holed up in his apartment away from all those who would have helped him with his grief. Why hadn't he shared his pain and loss with someone else?

"Because, stupid," his inner voice chided, "the person he shares his pain with is the one he's grieving for." And Jack knew it was true. He was the one Daniel came to with his troubles, and with his joys. He was the one Daniel allowed behind those high walls of self protection. He was probably the only one, besides Sha'uri, who glimpsed his very soul.

"Don't have to care anymore....won't let nobody in...here..." Daniel placed a shaky hand on his chest. "Hurts to-too much."

Jack shook his head and gave the younger man a bittersweet smile. "Take my word for it, Dannyboy, it's not that simple...Somebody always wiggles their way in. When you least expect it, someone finds their way into your heart." Suddenly on the verge of tears himself, Jack let out a shaky little laugh. "When did you eat last?"

"How many times you gonna ask me that?" Daniel demanded dully, licking his lips, his words beginning to slur. "For a lucination you sure are a pain in-in the ass!"

"Damnit, Daniel! I'm not an hallucination!!" Jack shouted, jumping to his feet, tripping over the debris as he marched across the room and flipped the light switch on and off several times. "Do hallucinations turn on the lights? Or use a key to get in?" O'Neill dangled the keychain, noisely rattling the dozen or so attached keys.

Daniel didn't even bother to look up as he muttered lowly, "I guess mine do."

"Damnit, Danny, that's enough! Enough! It was all just a test to see if you were telling Rooshan the truth!" Out of patience and more than a little concerned for his friend's state of mind, Jack grabbed the younger man's arms, jerking him to his feet. "It's me, Daniel! It's Jack! Don't you see? Rooshan sent me back through the gate a little while ago."

Daniel jerked loose, backing away, his hands up in a defensive gesture, his face a mask of sudden terror. "Oh God...help me! I really have lost it!" His words ended in a wail of disbelief and despair.

"Danny!" Jack caught him as Daniel stumbled away from him, tripping over the coffee table and losing his balance. "Look at me, Danny. Do I feel like an hallucination?"

"J-Jak?...Really?" Jack's own vision blurred as he watched a spark of hope flicker in the blue eyes, fade then flame brighter as Daniel tentatively placed his fingertips against Jack's chest. "J-Jak!"

"Yeah, Space Monkey, it's really me!" The soldier hugged Daniel to him, running a hand gently up and down his back as the trembling scholar sobbed joyously, clinging onto Jack, terrified his friend would vanish as he had all the previous times.

Jack's heart plunged to his feet, as the tears suddenly subsided and Daniel's limp body started to slide to the floor. Gathering the slight form in his arms, Jack carried him to the couch, satisfying himself the younger man was just physically and mentally exhausted. Covering him with a quilt, Jack called the base giving them a glossed over version of`the situation. Washing Daniel's hands he gently covered the many small cuts with antiseptic and then set about putting the apartment back in some semblance of order.

His brown eyes twinkling, Jack waved a slice of pizza back and forth under Daniel's nose, his smile spreading as the long lashes fluttered several times before actually lifting enough for the eyes to track the pizza as O'Neill took a huge bite.

"Hungry?" he asked around a mouthful of cheese and pepparoni.

"Jack?..." Doubt flashed through the younger man's brilliant blue eyes.

"It's me, Danny. I'm still here and I ain't going no where, I promise." As the doubt was replaced by relief, Jack grinned, and hearing the rumble of Daniel's stomach, passed him a slice of pizza. "Now eat."

With a small smile, the scientist accepted the pizza and slowly nibbled on it, his eyes never leaving the soldier. As he worked on his second piece, the words came softly, "I'm sorry, Jack."

Jack looked up, his expression slightly puzzled at the words. "For what....and don't you dare say for being a head case!"

"It was my fault, Jack....it was my fault they-"

"No, it wasn't, Daniel!" Jack raised a finger cutting off Daniel's protest. "Shut up and listen to what I have to say! Don't open your mouth except to fill it with pizza until I finish what I'm saying. You got that?...Got it?!....Ahh, ahhh" He cut him off as Daniel started to agree. "Stick the pizza in your mouth, chew and nod your head." Jack lowered the hand as Daniel copitulated, doing as he was told for once.

"Now Danny, I'm going to speak very slowly because I want you to get this through that thick scientist skull of yours. Absolutely nothing that happened on PQ5-whatever was your fault. It was a test, that's all. Just a stupid test that brought pain to all the wrong people."

Daniel waited several moments before deciding Jack was finished, stubbornly pointing out, "If he'd believed me, there would have been no reason for any kind of test."

"He did believe you, Danny. He told me so but it's their law. It's the way they protect themselves from other races who use the Stargate. They're alot more advanced than we are but not as much as the Tollen or the Nox." Taking the hand containing Daniel's pizza, the colonel pushed it toward the young man's mouth. "I want you to believe something else...There was absolutely nothing you...or Sam or Teal'c could have done." Daniel started to speak, but Jack silenced him. "Nothing, Daniel, no-thing."

He was rewarded finally with a tiny nod of acceptance. Smiling, the colonel reached for another piece of pizza and surpressed a grin as Daniel picked up another as well. Satisfied, Jack pushed the empty box aside and insisted the archaeologist get some sleep.

Even as he protested, Daniel was trying to stifle a deep yawn. With a gentle push, Jack nudged him down onto the couch and draped a quilt over the kid, promising to be there when Daniel woke up. Sitting on the corner of the coffee table, he touched the scientist's shoulder to get his attention. "Daniel, I want you to promise me something."

"Anything, Jack," Daniel struggled to keep his eyes open as he yawned yet again. "Anything."

"Don't ever close yourself off from people. A very wise friend of mine once said you took a chance of getting hurt when you let people in your heart, but the joy you got back from those same people made it all worth while."

His eyelids heavy, Daniel gave him a small smile. "Who told you a sappy thing like that.....?"

As his eyelids closed, Jack reached out to softly ruffle the long hair from his forehead. A smile settled on his features as he got to his feet, his brown eyes still on his sleeping friend. "A very special young man told me, kid... a very special young man..."

That's all Folks!