sunshine

You are My…Sunshine

By Travelling One

Email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca

Web: http://www.travellingone.com/

Summary: It's already too late for SG-8 when this story opens…but what about SG-1?

Disclaimer: The theme and main characters have been borrowed from the Stargate SG-1 tv series, and are copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. This story has been written for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.

Notes: Sometimes …things are better left to one's imagination…..

10/28/02

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine …..You make me happy, when skies are gray, ….. You'll never know dear, how much I love you…" The eerily sweet voice droned on, and she danced happily, collecting the shadows from her dirt floor as best she could, polishing them.

Daniel watched in tight apprehension, as the shadows that only she could see slipped from her hand and her eyes grew cloudy and cold.

"You!! You have to stop stealing my belongings!" she hissed angrily, stepping closer, within a few inches now. "Give them back!"

Daniel forcibly steadied his breath, he had no idea what she would do this time, he never did.

"Take them!" he attempted, humouring her. "They came to see what I had in my pockets. They're done now!"

She smiled, having been appeased for the time being. Bending low, she stooped to retrieve what had escaped her, those mischievous little things, and checked inside Daniel's pockets. "You have nothing there," she stated defiantly.

"No," he responded wearily, "You took everything already."

"Get more, then," she ordered, and turned happily to sit her shadows down around her, lining them up in a row. Looking deeply towards Daniel once more, she began to slowly chant in her high pitched voice, almost childlike, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray,…."

Daniel dropped his head and waited for her to drift off into her own land of sunshine and shadows, wondering if the time of his rescue was getting any closer, yet. She pressed her signal, the one on the floor by her bed, and the closet door shut him in as his remote-controlled restraints stretched loosely from the wall, releasing him to some degree.

_____

In the darkness, Daniel once again gained reprieve, usually for most of the night. It was at these times that he would crouch down and think of his teammates; he had to believe they had gotten away. When SG-8 had gone missing and SG-1, with their knowledge of the terrain, had been sent through to find and retrieve…

"I don't understand what could have happened to them, Jack. SG-8 was supposed to be on a quick mission to collect more samples of those medicinal plants we found."

"There's obviously something else here besides plants, Daniel. And I'm not referring to the bugs and frogs."

"We were here two days last time, Jack, and saw nothing. We've seen nothing for the past four hours. Other than bugs and frogs," Daniel added.

"Daniel, SG-8 is missing. There's a reason."

"Of course there is, Jack, I know that…."

"Were you not on P3X 888 for three weeks, Daniel Jackson, before the Unas appeared to you?"

"What're you saying, Teal'c? That you think…"

His words ended suddenly, as the four teammates came in view of a meadow and a brown rock structure that may have been a lodging vibrating in the distance. Not more than a dozen feet away, were three … no, four dismembered bodies lying scattered around the base of what looked like a fruit tree.

"Oh God."

Jack had the choice of picking up the pieces or getting his team out of there.

They hadn't heard her coming, and Daniel knew he'd been the first one down. Hopefully, the others had escaped and were looking for him. If not… no, he wouldn't go there. It wouldn't do him any good to think like that right now.

_____

He could feel the controls reactivating from outside his cubby hole, could feel the pull of the bands around his wrists and his waist tightening. Jumping up, he allowed himself to once again be closely adhered to the wall. Not that he actually had a choice, but it was much better, he felt, than to be pulled back against his will. No, the force had winded him once, not to mention her fury when he didn't comply willingly.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine ….You make me happy, when skies are gray, ….You'll never know dear, how much I love you …. Please don't take my sunshine away." She smiled her falsely sweet smile at him, and brought the bowl of food. Putting a small round green fruit at his lips with that ever-present jolt of electrical static, Daniel complied with a bite, unwilling to endure the rage that his unacceptance of her gifts had at earlier times wrought. Sometimes, the food actually tasted as though it was meant to be eaten. The other times, he'd close his eyes and swallow quickly, pretending it was good for him, and try not to gag. This fruit was definitely among the better culinary moments.

Daniel's thoughts never strayed far from the fate of the rest of SG-1 and his own dismal situation. If she was with him always except at night, where were his friends? They would have been here by now, had anyone escaped. Were they here somewhere? Was she feeding them? Were they alive?

"Are my friends here?" Daniel asked again. One time, she might reveal an answer.

She smiled endearingly at him, and touched his pockets with one hand, a fistful of fruit in the other. "They like my shadows. Here is where we will look." She dropped some fruit into his pocket. "Stop stealing!" she shrieked, as Daniel flinched.

Composing himself quickly he took a deep breath. "Do you have all of them? All your shadows?" he asked, a plan taking shape in his mind.

A frown creased her features, as she pulled away, tossing the rest of the fruit to the dirt floor, crushing some of it into the ground with her foot. Daniel watched aghast as she began to count what only she could see.

"…seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven." She sat down, sweeping the shadows onto her lap, smiling gleefully. "They are all here." Her face radiated a soft pleasure as she stroked a shapeless form, then seemed to drop it inside the front of her shirt.

"Good," Daniel commented. "because I thought I saw one running off to the shadows of my friends."

"Pets!" she screamed, jumping up. Her tall frame hovering over him in rage, he cowered. Grabbing his hair in both hands, she pulled his head forward to touch hers. "Twelve! I have twelve!" her breath was on his chin.

"One's gone down to my friends," he tried again, nervously.

"No! It will never find its way, it will get lost in the darkness." She pulled at his hair. Rage and uncertainty mixed with concern washed over her. She lowered herself to her knees, whispering, "It will come back. It will come back." As she crept out of the room, his door closing and the elasticized, pullied restraints loosening him from the wall, Daniel realized this was the first time he'd been left alone during daylight. But did it mean what he thought? Had she really gone to check on his friends? If so, she had just inadvertently shown him that they were indeed somewhere down those stairs. But maybe he was reading too much into this.

There had been just one clue in the room. Daniel's visual search had revealed a bed made of a type of slate embedded with bits of polished crystal, and tree stumps that seemed to serve as seats. There was nothing else but some SGC equipment scattered around…a GDO, 8 day packs, some military clothing, his glasses thrown and cracked upon the floor, and a tape-recorder. This woman appeared to live alone, but who was she? How had she come to be here?

Eight day packs; did that mean she really did have the rest of SG-1?

Where the hell were his teammates?

And what did she want with him?

_____

"Eat!" She had scraped the fruit up from the ground, and was again pressing it to his lips. Daniel complied and swallowed quickly, keeping his expression blank. She sat down, joyfully sifting through a roughly-constructed wooden vessel, pulling out some of the bitter black leaves she had fed him the previous day, and chewed contentedly. Almost in rapture, she would spend hours each day munching in this fashion, and Daniel would watch, thinking how she reminded him of the camels in Egypt.

It had been hours, and Daniel had not seen her since her quick disappearance earlier in the day. Then she had returned, and stared straight into his eyes, singing her one Earthly song again and again. And this had gone on, until she had tired or become hungry and had fetched the barrel, again, Daniel praying that she would not feed him more of those leaves, or the roots at the bottom, or the bark scrapings.

"Sleep!" Her rumination over, she suddenly jumped to her feet, arms extended towards him, waiting.

The evening ritual was falling into a pattern, now, always with some minor variation. Daniel knew by now what that order meant, as he got ready for The Pyjama Game. Wearily humouring her, with his waist restrained but his arm bonds loosened, fully stretching from their depths in the wall, Daniel removed his boots and socks and fatigues, and handed them to her. Neatly folding the clothing and balancing the boots on top, she placed it all on her hard bed. Turning back to him, she smiled that sickly sweet smile. "Put these on," she ordered, handing him back the same boots and trousers. Daniel sighed. Sometimes, it had been the clothing of one of the SG8 members, much of it covered in blood; usually, though, it was his own again. Thankfully, she didn't seem to have any clothing from SG1.

Daniel hoped she was about to go to sleep herself, although sometimes she would forget, and stare at him throughout the night until morning. Uncomfortable under her scrutiny, Daniel tried at those times not to fall asleep at all. One would think being pinned to the wall in an upright position would make that easy, but having one's sleep patterns disrupted made staying awake voluntarily impossible.

"You are my sunshine…" she sang in that high-pitched voice, as she kneeled, stroking Daniel's knees. Closing his eyes, he chanted his internal mantra again and again, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, hoping she could somehow pick up the vibrations and act upon his mental suggestion. Her games continued to unnerve him, alone here at night with the shadows falling through the windows, adhered in place by someone whose name he didn't even know.

If his teammates were indeed downstairs, then there was no rescue coming; Hammond would not risk a third team disappearing. But if his teammates were still alive, it was up to him to get them all out of here before she did to them what she'd done to SG-8.

_____

The door opened, and the tight bonds were reinstated once again, pulling him back against the wall with just a moment's warning.

"You are my sunshine…" this time she was singing along to what sounded like an audio tape playing in the background, and it suddenly dawned on Daniel exactly whose voice it was she owned. That tape belonged to Leonard Scheller, member …former member of SG-8. The voice belonged to his eight-year-old daughter, Tammy.

So … Leonard had carried his daughter with him on missions, her song on cassette, to be closer to his family while offworld. Now, Leonard was dead and his daughter's sweet song was being used for dubious purposes, and Daniel felt sick. "Sing with us," she ordered, and Daniel tried to join in, his heart elsewhere.

"SING!" she commanded, heaving a GDO at his chest, and his voice caught; clearing his throat and swallowing to soothe the lump, Daniel tried again, louder this time. He sang along until she smiled, and she patted his head.

"Pet!" she screamed, and removed the shadow from inside her shirt, dropping it now down Daniel's.

The song ended, and Leonard's voice began.

"Pat …sssh. That thing's out there again, that humanoid… what is it?"

She looked startled, the fear and shock in her eyes reflected in her tense body position as she flung herself onto the recorder and stopped the tape. Looking back towards Daniel sheepishly, she seemed embarrassed that he had heard.

Oh yes, he had heard.

And his bonds held him as she rewound the tape, and began again to chant, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine," with the exact same voice as Leonard's eight-year-old Tammy.

_____

He didn't know how much more of this he could take, his legs screamed to move, to run, his body needed real food, his mind longed for stimulation other than trying to figure out how to escape and rescue whatever had become of his friends. If she wasn't feeding them, they were probably dying downstairs by now. He relieved himself into the wall tube, then tensed when he heard her puttering around in the room. Any minute, she'd probably tighten his bonds and open the door.

He could hear the tape through the closed door, and he pressed himself up against it, listening, cherishing the freedom of even restricted movement while the bonds were still loosened. Leonard had seemed to be recording into the tape, as Daniel had so often done on archaeological missions.

"We saw something move in the shadows. It could be one of those little furry creatures that Pat joked would be a great pet for Tammy. Kinda cute, not that we could bring one back to Earth, although they seem harmless. But Terri's worried that it's that humanoid thing again."

What? SG-1 hadn't seen anything like that. Daniel could hear her voice now, as she paused the tape. "Shadows, shadows, shadows. Pet CREAtures! Terri. Cute little creatures."

What the hell was she doing?

Daniel listened intently, his cheek up against the cold smooth door.

"We caught it going through our belongings when we got back from searching for those medicinal plants SG-1 found. It made off with a picture of my wife and some of the clothing from our packs." The tape stopped.

"Clo …cloth-ing…picture of my wife…" this time it was using Leonard's voice.

Daniel gasped, realizing she was imitating the speech, maybe even learning the language.

"Pictures of my clothing. Change your clothing. Do it NOW! Shadows of my wife. Our belongings…humanoid plants, humanoid plants, humanoid wife shadow creature. PETS …cute pets …pictures of SG8 …shadows of SG1…"

Did she really understand him when he was speaking? When he had asked about his friends, had she understood?

"Sunshine …you are my sunshine…you are my SG1 shadow pet…"

There must have been a lot more on that tape, or she had listened in on many conversations…

"Time to go …Daniel! Terri! Belongings, shadows are my belongings, you make me happy when skies are gray, love you, I love you, I love you dear sunshine shadow friend …Earth explorers…dead my god …oh my dead SG8…" Leonard's voice alternated with Tammy's, and Daniel wanted nothing more than to run … open his eyes and find himself back at the SGC…find his friends and know that they were safe and not dead under some fruit bush. The fruit that she was feeding him…

"What now Daniel…"

Startled, Daniel stiffened. That was Jack's voice, and Daniel's heart sank at the irony of wishing so badly for his friends while hearing that voice in an atmosphere of terror and nightmarish treatment. Jack wouldn't want his voice to be used like this, in this way, to scare him.

Her voice …or rather, Tammy's, was back again, leaving Leonard's and Jack's to rest for the moment, and Daniel continued to lean against the door, listening intently.

"I know Jack, Terri, Daniel, change your pictures…give me those shadows, cute Daniel NOW , dial dial who is that what is that, Pat, dial my dead Daniel…"

Daniel was not strapped tightly to the wall when the door popped open, causing him to tumble to his knees.

What he saw, he knew had not been meant for his eyes.

A strange creature stood in the corner of the room by the tape recorder, two-feet tall with a wild mane of hair on its head and muzzle, brown hairy arms that reached to the floor. As it spoke at the machine, imitating the voices that were emanating off the tape and in its memory, it gazed at a photograph, slowly changing into the woman Daniel had known for the past five days. The woman whose photograph he could now see …the stolen photo, he assumed, of Leonard's wife.

The changeling woman looked up in horror as Daniel stumbled in the now open doorway, invading her space. "PET!!!" she shrieked at him, rage and fury rippling through her features, through her arms and body, and she lunged at Daniel. "Pictures are for me! Take off your shadows!" Ripping at his hair, his clothes, Daniel tried to fight her off, but the creature was strong and he was still loosely restrained with long elasticized bonds. "Don't look!" it cried. "Don't look! I'm alone no more, alone no more, alone! Shadows, where are they? Shadows?" She sat back, panting, as Daniel tried to slink away from her, deeper into the closet, though his three feet of harness did not leave many options.

Creeping closer, she was barely inches from him, as Daniel tried to hold her off with his loosely bonded arms. She stopped, gazing at his face, staring…

….staring

….staring

as Daniel nervously sat motionless, waiting for her next move, she began to change, slowly into the small hairy creature, and then more quickly into another human form…

…looking exactly like himself.

"You are my sunshine," he sang, stealing Daniel's face, Daniel's voice.

Daniel closed his eyes, wondering if this nightmare would ever end, or ever give him a reason for his being there. Alone, she no longer wanted to be alone? Was that it? Then why didn't she take them all as hostages? Were four too much for her to handle? Had SG-8 been perceived as a danger? What function was he meant to serve …that of pet? Toy? Companion?

Was this creature blindly, unsuccessfully, trying to fit into its new and unknown world of humans, or was it unstable from loneliness?

Daniel kept his eyes closed as the creature who now looked like himself and wore his own clothing breathed down upon him, running its fingers up his left cheek, over his hair, and down his right. Then under his chin, and around again. And again, and Daniel couldn't pull away for he was already against the wall and there was no place to go.

_____

"You are my sunshine…" it who still looked like Daniel sang along with the tape, though the voice was wavering, as he stared into Daniel's eyes from six inches away. He had been standing and singing and staring like that for nearly four straight hours, and Daniel had gone from highly tense to unnerved to rigid with terror, being helplessly pinned tightly to the wall as he was.

"Bring her back," Daniel whispered.

"You'll never know dear how much I love you…" it stopped singing and spoke the words, looking puzzled, then gently traced Daniel's lips with its finger..

"Bring her back," Daniel said more loudly. This being who looked like him had him completely unhinged. If anyone was going to sing that damn song to him, he wanted it to look again like Leonard's wife. "Her," he nodded towards the photograph. "I want her."

The Daniel creature slowly turned and moved towards the picture.

"That's right," Daniel nodded. "Bring her back."

It must have understood, combining words with body language, for as it stared at the photograph, the creature once again morphed into the woman who had been holding Daniel captive for the past several days.

"I make you happy sunshine?" She asked, coming again to stare into Daniel's panicked eyes.

"Yes, that's better," he said as calmly as he could. Imagine, wanting this thing back again.

"You make me happy…when skies are gray, you'll never know dear, how much I love you…" She was breathing on his cheek, on his chin…

Oh god, stop that. Please just stop that.

As if on cue to Daniel's thoughts, the tape started to fade, and she swivelled around sharply. Rushing over to the recorder, she pressed and repressed the buttons, but there were only faint sounds.

"You have hidden my song!" she screeched, turning back to Daniel. "Give it back!"

"Release me," he wearily advised.

Storming over and slapping his throat, the sting accompanied by the familiar electrical jolt, she touched her face to his. "Release my song." And she was speaking now in Leonard Scheller's voice.

"It's in my bag," Daniel said guardedly, his fear escalating. "It's there."

She looked behind herself, into the room.

"It's in there," he repeated, his voice unsteady.

Rushing over to the daypacks, she grabbed inside one and tossed out medical supplies.

"Not that one," Daniel said. "Mine." He motioned with a toss of his head. "Bring it here."

She looked inside the bag he had indicated. "No! It's gone, FIND IT!"

"I will. Bring it here."

Charging into the closet with the pack, she held it open in front of him. Then, her thumb and index finger putting light pressure on his eyelids, she again yelled,"FIND IT!" and pressed harder.

"Stop!" Daniel tried to shift away, pointing into his pack. "There's your song," he told her.

"You lie," she snarled, turning the bag upside-down, as its contents fell onto the floor, spreading around his feet. Daniel moved his toe towards a pack of batteries. "Here. I can show you."

Moving into the room to release the tension slightly on his arm restraints, she returned, handing Daniel the batteries.

"Get me the machine," he said, pointing towards the recorder by the far wall.

Soon this was handed to him as well, and Daniel pulled open the battery compartment, clumsily managing to drop in the two batteries with trembling fingers. Pressing the play button, the song came on clearly, and she smiled, patting his head, smoothing down his hair.

Feeling his arm harnesses activating once more, Daniel quickly pleaded, "Wait, stop. I can show you something else."

Curiosity holding her attention, she acquiesced.

"Hand me that," Daniel pointed with his foot to the camcorder that gravity had dumped out of his bag. With a sublime smile, she did as requested.

With the camera now in his hand, he rewound the film to his first hours on this planet, hours spent studying and filming the plant and insect life, on the mission before this one, before SG-8 had gone missing. Pausing at a benign greenish creature that Sam had said was related to the cicada nymph, he showed her the now still photo. "Pets," he told her. "We love them."

She gazed in confusion. "Pets."

"Pets," he repeated. "We love them." Looking at the curiosity in her expression, he tried again. "Pets …you are my sunshine…" he sang uncomfortably to the camcorder image. "You never know dear, how much I love you…" she was now singing with him, looking at the picture as well.

"Pets!" Daniel called, stroking the camera screen. "We love them."

Slowly, she began to change.

The woman who resembled Leonard's wife shrank away, and she was once again a small brown hairy creature with long arms. But this did not last, as it stared at the image, singing along with Daniel, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…" again and again, and it changed into a tiny greenish beetle, and climbed up towards Daniel's pocket.

Daniel fumbled twice before succeeding in opening the battery compartment of the camera, and quickly dumped the batteries onto the floor as the insect climbed onto his sleeve. He watched, barely daring to breathe, as it crawled upwards along his chest. Allowing it to reach his face, Daniel grasped it suddenly, then shoved it into the now empty compartment, slamming the latch in place, his heart thumping madly.

Hopefully she can't transform while inside something, he prayed.

Now… to find a way to free himself completely from these bonds.

_____

As Jack would say, "Okay kids, what do we need, and what do we have?"

Well, Daniel knew the aqua crystal on the floor by the bed would loosen his bonds, and he needed to activate it. What he had was an assortment of SGC equipment lying at his feet.

He wouldn't throw the camera, in case the battery compartment came open, but his restraints weren't quite loose enough yet to allow him to reach the floor.

Lifting his foot, Daniel removed his boot with his semi-free hand. He could try that first.

The throw just missed, but the second boot hit right on, loosening his restraints enough for him to reach the pen knife on the ground, and after several tense and nerve-wracking minutes he finally managed to cut through the rubbery bonds around his arms and waist. Finally, after five …or was it six? days of living in a closet, Daniel had found freedom.

Frantically sliding back into his boots, fingers trembling too much to tie the laces, Daniel bolted out of the room and down the stairs in search of what may have become of his teammates, his heart pounding. Reaching a lower chamber only partly above ground level and what might loosely have been considered a basement, rock and earthen walls crumbling and allowing slight streaks of daylight to filter in from somewhere, Daniel's eyes fell upon a tall but narrow opening in one of the walls. Pushed against this hollow was a free-standing, uprooted tree trunk.

"Jack?" Daniel called tentatively through the two-inch spaces around the barrier. "Sam? Teal'c?" There was no reply.

Taking off his belt and looping it around an upper branch, he pulled, until the trunk began to give. Slowly, it shifted position enough to allow him room to squeeze past. There was no light at all in the enclosed area beyond.

"Damn. Flashlight." Daniel pushed his way out past the tree trunk again, and raced up the packed dirt stairs, cautiously re-entering the bedroom. His camera was where he'd left it on one of the treestump seats, and the creature was still thankfully nowhere in sight. Just to be sure, he set the camera down in the closet, then shut and barricaded the door with eight military packs, imprisoning it.

He again raced down the stairs, taking them three at a time.

Once again behind the tree trunk, fumbling with his flashlight in the cool interior of the damp, hollowed out enclosure, Daniel's light dimly illuminated a small earthen room. And there, lying in one corner attached to similar bonds that had held Daniel, were his three friends, huddled against each other, unaware of his presence.

"Oh god… Jack? Sam?" Reaching Sam first and feeling for a pulse, Daniel realized that she was indeed alive. Yes!

"Who's that?" a feeble voice sounded from beside him.

"Jack…God, Jack! It's me, Daniel." Daniel watched his friend blinking rapidly in the new light, weakly trying to sit up. "Stay there, Jack. I'll go get help. It's safe now."

"No …Daniel, where have you been? We thought…you know, SG-8 and all." Relief flooded Jack's eyes. A week of believing Daniel dead … shit.

"I've been …with her, Jack. Long …long story. I'm okay."

"Good …that's good." Jack was feebly sitting up, eyes investigating his friend. Daniel seemed okay…some scratches on his face, a ripped t-shirt... they'd seen him go down, and when a week had passed with no word… they had just assumed…

He sighed. "Carter's been sleeping a lot."

Daniel frowned. "Have you guys eaten?"

"Uh …yes, right before we left the SGC. There has been water dripping in here, though." Jack nodded his head towards the damp ceiling above them.

"I'll go get help." Daniel first cut through Jack's bonds, before moving to Carter's.

"I shall come with you." The two teammates now saw Teal'c with his eyes wide, and he was smiling. "It is good to see you safe, Daniel Jackson."

"You too, Teal'c."

"I can come too, Daniel. I'd rather not stay here while you two get to go home. That thing is nuts, Daniel."

Daniel nodded. "Tell me about it."

Jack eyed him warily, not moving for lack of strength. "You been with her this whole time?" He frowned at Daniel's fleeting grimace, decided not to think about it 'til later, then motioned over to Carter. "Time to split this classy place. You're okay to help with her, right?"

"Absolutely." Daniel himself was relieved that his friends wouldn't be staying here any longer. He still didn't trust the strength of his camera's battery compartment to hold an energy such as that alien commanded.

_____

Settling a semi-conscious Carter between Teal'c and a lethargic Jack, Daniel activated the DHD and pressed the digits on his GDO. Sliding a woman's photo and a tape recorder into his vest pockets, Daniel tossed eight daypacks into the open wormhole, then waited for his friends to stumble through before releasing the catch on the battery compartment of his camcorder. Tossing a little green bug into the air, Daniel watched it land on a blade of grass before he, too, stepped through the wormhole that would finally send him home.

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