Stargate – The Sleeping Beauty Effect.

By Allyson.

(A/N I do not own anything to do with Stargate: SG1. Story set anywhere in the earlier seasons)

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Daniel Jackson was sat in his office translating an ancient tablet when Colonel Jack O'Neill wandered in looking bored.

"Hey, Daniel," greeted Jack, startling the archaeologist out of his concentration. "Watcha doin'?"

"SG2 brought back this fascinating tablet but I'm having a little trouble with the translation. It seems to derive from a -" Daniel stopped his explanation when he glanced up and saw Jack's eyes glazing over. "Jack? Are you bored? What are you doing down here? I thought you were headed home."

"I am," replied Jack, moving to stand next to Daniel's workstation. "Just thought I'd drop by and make sure you hadn't buried yourself down here. You're not going to make me put an airman on your door to drag you home, are you?"

"Very funny, Jack," replied Daniel, dryly, watching Jack fiddle with some of the artefacts on the table in front of him. "Once I've finished translating this line of text, I promise I'll go straight home."

Jack snorted. "Right," he responded, without conviction. "That's what I thought you'd say."

"Sir?" Samantha Carter appeared in the doorway. "Ready to go?"

"Jack?" Daniel raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Well, seen as I knew you wouldn't be going home before midnight, I can at least make sure you have at least one proper meal before I leave. Carter and I are taking you for lunch in the canteen," Jack told him, a smug glint in his eye.

Carter grinned at Daniel's defeated look as he stood up, stretching painful kinks out of his neck and shoulders.

"Fine," Daniel growled, though secretly relieved of the break. His eye caught sight of the object that jack was intent on playing with. Shaped like an hourglass in a wooden frame with a horizontal spindle, the object oscillated rainbow colours that enticed a person to sit and look at it for hours on end. The wooden frame was carved with simple pictographs that Daniel had translated the day before. Now he remembered the warning. "Jack, don't touch that. It's breakable."

Jack shrugged. "I was just looking, Daniel."

"No, you don't understand," Daniel shaking his head as he hurried around the table. "If you touch the spindle, it'll –"

"Relax, Danny-boy, your toy is fine, see?" Jack made an elaborate show of placing the artefact down on the table with exaggerated care. "You are becoming far too attached to your rocks and toys."

"Artefacts, Jack," Daniel replied, automatically.

"Let's go before the meatloaf starts to mutate," said Jack, ignoring Daniel's remark. "Carter's got jello to eat."

As they left the office, Jack's hand brushed passed the artefact, pricking his skin on the spindle.

"Ow," he complained, raising his hand to see a pinprick of blood rising from his skin.

"Sir!" called out Carter, as she watched him sway and then begin to crumple to the ground. Being the closest to him, she managed to catch his head and shoulders before they connected with the hard floor. "Sir, can you hear me?"

Reaching for his pulse, she sighed in relief as she watched his chest rise and fall steadily. "He's unconscious," she told the archaeologist, who was now crouched beside them. "Daniel, what happened?"

"Jack, why do you never listen to me?" muttered Daniel to himself before replying to Carter, "The artefact that Jack was playing with can cause a person to loose consciousness if the spindle is touched. I haven't been able to figure out how or why yet, but the translations basically point towards a Sleeping Beauty effect."

"Sleeping Beauty?" repeated Carter, in disbelief. Daniel blushed at his inability to explain himself more scientifically. Sam's eyes widened as the implications hit her and she almost dropped Jack's head from her lap. "Are you telling me that one of us has to . . . kiss the Colonel in order for him to regain consciousness?"

"That's what the pictographs represent," affirmed Daniel, gesturing to the wooden frame of the artefact.

"No." Sam shook her head violently. "There has to be another way. Maybe Janet can figure something out or we can go back to the planet that the device came from and talk to the inhabitants –"

"Sam, there isn't another way," interrupted Daniel. "Jack's going to stay unconscious until you do this."

"I can't do it," protested Carter. "Regulations aside – what would the Colonel think if he woke up to find me hovering over him?"

"Tell him you're checking his temperature," responded Daniel, innocently.

Carter glared at him. "Daniel!"

Daniel bit back a grin and in his calmest voice, said, "Look, there's no other choice and I'm certainly not going to take your place. He's unconscious, there are no cameras, Hammond will never find out and Jack is never going to know."

"Not a word to anyone," she threatened.

Daniel nodded. "Not in any language," he promised.

Carter gave him a look before taking a calming breath. Thoughts of revenge against Daniel flittered through her mind as she leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss on Jack O'Neill's lips. The moment she felt O'Neill's lips move against hers, Carter swiftly sat back up again, blushing furiously. In doing so, she cracked the side of her head against Daniel's forehead, who had seen Jack's eyes fluttering and had leaned forwards to check he was okay.

Jack O'Neill regained consciousness to the sound of two familiar voices muttering curses at one another. He frowned when he realized he was lying on the floor with a fuzzy memory of how he'd got down there.

"Kids, stop arguing. You're giving me a headache," he groaned, as he levered himself into a sitting position. "Why am I on the floor?"

"Next time I tell you not to touch something, will you for once listen to me, Jack?" demanded Daniel.

Jack frowned at his friend before seeing Carter's embarrassed expression. He couldn't explain it, but something nagged at his memory when he stared at his Second-in-Command. Something he desperately wished he could remember. "Carter? You okay?"

Carter forced herself to meet his gaze, act natural and smile. "Everything's fine, sir. How are you feeling?"

"Good," nodded Jack, although he was still confused. "What just happened?"

"We'll tell you later," dismissed Daniel, helping Jack to his feet. Carter scrambled to his feet moments later. "Let's get something to eat, shall we?"

"Sure," Jack agreed. He smiled at Carter as they headed for the elevator and added, "I hear the jello's good at this time of day. Glad you woke me up for it."

The End.