<< Previous | Story Intro | Return to Stories | Next >>

Whispers in the Dark

He kept listening for her, knew somehow that she was unconscious. For ten more agonizing minutes they searched. Selmak was the first to notice the pod.

"Ring it directly to the ship," the Tok’ra demanded. The crew jumped to obey. Daniel was already on his way down to the level where the rings were, Teal'c and Jack on his heels.

The pod was badly damaged, it was a miracle that it had survived at all. Daniel grabbed at the front of it, trying to rip it open with his bare hands. Jack gently pulled him aside, Teal'c zatted the door, which then fell off. Casey fell to the floor. Her lips were blue, her skin pale and cold. She was dead.

He pulled her into his arms. "We’ve got to get her warmed up!" He held her close, her nearly frozen body chilling him, rocking back and forth with her. One of the crewmen appeared with two blankets, wrapped one around Daniel’s shoulders, helped him wrap the other one around Casey. The other two members of SG-1 sat down beside him, as close as they could get to him, offering their body heat to keep him warm.

Jacob sat down beside them. "Daniel, what is going on here? How were you able to communicate with her?" Jacob asked.

He shook his head. "I don’t know. A couple of weeks ago she was asleep, taking a nap with Emmie. I was working in the den. I heard her scream…she was terrified. I ran into the bedroom, she was sound asleep, but I could see that she was having a nightmare. I just wanted to comfort her, so I laid down beside her, pulled her close, and when I picked up her hand, I could see, and feel everything she was seeing and feeling. I…uh…I was able to alter her nightmares, actually enter them and change them. Took care of some demons that could only come around when she was asleep. The next day she told me she had a dream about me doing just that, fighting demons that were threatening her. I’ve never been able to pick up her…thoughts…or have her hear mine, until today."

Selmak nodded. "You are The Chosen. Perhaps this is merely a manifestation of the power that the two of you possess. From what you have just described, it is possible that only under extreme conditions can you communicate in this way."

Daniel nodded. "I don’t give a damn what the reason is, I’m just glad it happened." He pulled her closer, kissed her cold cheek.

"Daniel Jackson, if we take her to the infirmary, they would be able to warm her more quickly," Teal'c said softly.

He nodded, let the Jaffa help him to his feet. There was no way in hell he was letting her out of his arms. Not until she was alive and warm and breathing.

The doctor on the Phoenix had different ideas, however. Because she was dead, there was no way to raise her internal body temperature. However, getting her external temperature raised would allow her to reanimate more quickly. Jack finally convinced Daniel to lay her down, and an electric blanket was placed over her.

Two hours after being brought on aboard, Casey arched her back and took in a deep breath. She looked around, nearly sobbed with relief when Daniel reached down and took her into his arms.

"Welcome back, my star," he whispered. He lowered her back to the bed. Her body temperature was still lower than it should be. He tucked the blanket tightly around her slender frame. She was starting to shiver.

"Oh, Daniel! Did you really hear me? Were you really talking to me? Was all of that…real?"

"Yes, babe, it was all real," he said softly, smiling down at her. He smoothed her hair from her face.

"How?"

He shook his head. "I don’t know. Selmak thinks it might have something to do with me being The Chosen, and the power that we have together."

Casey nodded. "I remember Lya saying something about that." She was silent for a minute, then looked up at him, her eyes wide. "My nightmares! You did change them, defeat my demons!"

"Babe, I’m sorry, I don’t even know how I did it. I didn’t mean to intrude…you screamed, and-" Daniel tried to explain.

She pulled her hand out from underneath the blanket and put a finger on his lips. "Oh, my love, don’t apologize! I told you before that you defeated all of the demons that haunted me. And you did. I wish I could explain how much…peace…I feel now. Oh, my heart, how I love you!"

He smiled, raised her fingers to his lips. "I love you, my star." He tucked her hand back under the blanket.

"Welcome back, Case," Jack said, a smile on his face. "You sure know how to make an exit, don’t you?"

She couldn’t help but giggle. "Not exactly how I intended to leave the ship, but it worked." She frowned. "There were two pods missing when I got the them. Which means Zinder and somebody else made it out of there. I couldn’t do anything with mine, it must have been damaged. I barely had life support," she told them. "He must have flown the coop when that first explosion went off. One went off about a minute and a half early."

"Damn!" Jack swore softly. "If that happened on Osiris’ ship as well, that bitch could have escaped as well!"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "It seems unlikely that any of the devices would have detonated early, unless they were set to go off early."

"Unless the timer was defective in some way," Daniel said. "I was so concerned about Casey that I completely forgot about the first explosion being early. I guess I must have thought it was supposed to happen then, to keep the Jaffa off of the team while they got to the rings."

Jack shook his head. "Everyone of those timers was checked out before they were attached to the bombs. The timers were all preset to go off at a specific time, not a specific number of minutes after being set. We knew that it would take time to get them all in place. That was why you had one hour. Somebody would have had to manually change the timer."

Daniel frowned. He thought about the colonel who had refused to allow him the one minute to find his wife. And about the SF who had made it back to the rings with just seconds to spare, and the knowledge that Casey had been captured. "Colonel Harrington barely waited until the agreed upon time to leave the ship, and one of the SF’s managed to make it back just in time, and she knew that Casey had been captured. I’m not saying it’s either one of them…"

"It would have to be the SF on the explosives team," Jack said. "How would she know that Casey had been captured?"

"Unless she saw them taking Case to the cells," Daniel said.

Jack shook his head. "Who was it?"

Daniel wracked his brain for the name. "Carrie Walters."

The older man nodded. "I’m going to talk to Jacob. We just might have another one of those Zanex things going on."

"Zatarc," Daniel said.

"Whatever," Jack replied. "We have to find out. Casey almost died because of this-"

"Uh, excuse me," Casey said, raising her hand, "Casey did die because of this."

Jack looked at her. "Permanently, Case. You almost died permanently. If you hadn’t been smart enough to get to the escape pods…"

"Daniel told me to…" she looked over at Daniel. "I heard you tell me to get to the escape pods," she whispered.

"I was already back here, going nuts worrying about you," he told her. He took her hand and raised it to his lips. "I was thinking that if you got to the escape pods, you’d be okay."

"I heard you mumbling something about the escape pods," Jack said.

"He wasn’t mumbling when I heard it," Casey grinned. "Sounded more like an order!"

Daniel grinned. "Glad to know you follow orders so well."

"Don’t get any ideas, sweetheart. It’ll come back and bite you on the ass," she warned, although she was smiling.

His grin widened, and he leaned down to kiss her.

Jack patted her shoulder. "I’m going to go talk to Jacob." He turned and left the infirmary.

<< Previous | Story Intro | Return to Stories | Next >>