Title: The Lotus-Eaters [Novella]
Author: Biblio
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Jack and Daniel
Category: Angst. Drama. First Time. Friendship. Hurt/Comfort.
Date: 11 October 2004
Season/Spoilers: Set late Season 3.
Synopsis: His mind overwhelmed by a mysterious alien influence, Jack takes irrevocable action which will change his relationship with Daniel forever.
Click here to read story warnings

STORY EXTRACT

"I've been hammered, forked, poked, prodded, needled, blinded, deafened and scanned. Repeatedly. There's nothing wrong with me," Jack pronounced flatly.

"You have abnormally high dopamine levels," Dr. Fraiser corrected him calmly, mostly for the benefit of her audience rather than her patient. "Dopamine affects brain processes which control movement, emotional response, and ability to experience pleasure and pain. While the other tests were normal, the MRI and particularly the PET scan show that the limbic system of your brain is wildly overactive."

"Limbic system?" Daniel queried.

Leaning past Fraiser, Jack made a point of scowling at his so-called friend. Whatever Jack was supposed to have done to him, Daniel blatantly hiding out behind Teal'c and hugging the crap out of himself was, quite frankly, overkill.

"The limbic system links the brain stem with the higher reasoning elements of the cerebral cortex," Fraiser responded. "It affects a wide range of behaviours including emotions, motivation and memory."

"Ooo-kaaay," Daniel drawled thoughtfully. "That almost makes sense. The, um, way Jack's been behaving?" Wincing in embarrassment, he kept his gaze fixed firmly on the floor.

Jack was starting to feel like a dog which understood it had just humped someone's leg. In company. It was pissing him off.

"Actually, it doesn't make sense," Fraiser countered briskly. "Hyperactivity in the limbic system is more typically associated with violent and aggressive behaviour." She glanced broodingly from Jack to the many and varied scans she'd insisted on taking of his brain. "The fact the colonel has no memories of these affective states suggests his hippocampus is also affected. The hippocampus," she began to lecture automatically, before anyone else could ask dumb questions, "is considered the area of the brain where short-term memories are converted to long-term memories for storage in other areas of the brain. It also forms part of the limbic system."

"If I can get a word in edgeways," Jack snapped, "I have to say that I feel pretty good for a man with weird-assed, alleged, brain damage."

"That would be the dopamine," Daniel retorted, refusing to look at him. "It's like a drug."

"In a sense," Fraiser said slowly. "Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. As a chemical messenger, dopamine is similar to adrenaline. If I can use a simple analogy-"


Shifting his numb ass uncomfortably on the hard Infirmary bed, Jack patted her shoulder encouragingly. "Please!" he begged.

"In simplest terms, dopamine is like the steering in a car, 'where are we, the body, going to go?' Norepinephrine is the gas."

"So Colonel O'Neill's brakes are shot?" Hammond summarised carefully.

Jack was starting to take this stuff personally. They were way past surreal and headed at speed towards completely whacked.

"Why is he steering for Dr. Jackson?" Hammond asked, even more carefully.

Everyone looked at Jack. He glared back at them. Like he had any answers, here!

"The limbic system is also where the sense of smell is located. The scent which Colonel O'Neill associates with Dr. Jackson could be what is triggering these episodes," Fraiser suggested a trifle dubiously, eyeing Daniel.

Episodes? Jack wondered if he'd just been upgraded. He'd never wasted much time thinking about this particular issue, it had never actually come up, but he was pretty sure it had never occurred to him Daniel Jackson smelled all that good.

Fraiser nodded at some thought she wasn't choosing to share and looked brightly up at Teal'c. "Kiss him," she ordered authoritatively, nodding at Daniel.

Teal'c inclined his head in acknowledgement, turned smoothly and obediently took a startled, objecting Daniel into his arms.

Jack didn't remember moving. One minute he was telling Teal'c to get his hands the hell off and the next, his face was being ground into the floor, a terrific weight lodged between his shoulder-blades.

"I do not wish to hurt you, O'Neill," Teal'c's voice warned him sternly. "There is no danger to DanielJackson. Hear me and be still."

"Ugh," Jack choked into the concrete.

"You tried to kill Teal'c," Daniel told him shakily.

"Kill?" Jack grunted disbelievingly.

"Kill," Hammond reiterated grimly.

Return to Biblio Phile order page