Title: To Catch a Falling Star
Author's LJ/DWJ: sg_wonderland
Categories: theme: kidfic, au, tag: Fallen, character: daniel, crossover: NCIS
Warnings: None
Author's Webpage/Fic list: Fic List
Link to story: Wonderland
Why this should be read:

And here's the other fic that stuck with me after my kidfic-spree a few months ago. This is an alternate take on the episode Fallen: about a year after Dr. Daniel Jackson takes his leave of Earth, the NCIS crew come across a young boy lying naked in the middle of a crime scene. Unsure of his identity and connection to the murder, they take him into custody. But how can a little boy have the exact same fingerprints as an MIA civilian consultant to the Air Force?

I love Wonderland's portrayal of downsized!Daniel here. He's obviously affected by the whole amnesia and waking up next to a dead body thing, but he's not overly emotional and in general he acts a lot like how I imagine Daniel as a kid would act. Great reactions by the NCIS crew, too (most of the fic is from their POV), though I confess I'm not terribly familiar with the series.


Tony supposed he was right, it was tough for anyone. But when that anyone was a frightened kid with amnesia, somehow that made it that much worse. “Hey, kid, my name’s Tony.” Don’t scare the kid with your badge, title and all that stuff, Tony recalled his training. “They tell me you don’t remember your name?” Tony perused his witness. It was hard to tell what size he was, he was scrunched up under a blanket. His hair was a light blonde, long, shaggy, curly; his large eyes were the kind of blue usually created by contacts. He was dead pale, except for a skip of freckles across his cheeks and nose; obviously they’d cleaned him up since the tangled hair looked damp.

He seemed to draw himself even smaller. “I…I don’t know.”

Tony snagged one of the white boards from the wall and grabbed markers before flopping down on a task stool and rolling over. “I just want you to write anything that comes to mind.”

The boy reluctantly took the marker, eyeing it carefully. “Okay.”

“I remember when I was a kid and having to sign my papers in school.” He wrote in an exaggerated script. “Anthony DiNozzo. I always wanted a shorter name, so I started not answering to anything but Tony.” He eyed the child surreptitiously, watching him draw random figures on the board. “I never could draw worth a da…, until I studied drawing in school. You go to school?”

The kid seemed to consider the question seriously. “I don’t think so, I don’t remember school.” The marker seemed to be moving of its own accord. Tony glanced over and watched a series of letters emerge. He waited until the kid seemed to finish. “D-A-N. Dan? Danny? Daniel?”

The kid’s head jerked up sharply, then looked down at the board, silently tracing the letters with his finger. “Daniel. Daniel.”

“I like that name, Daniel.” For some odd reason, it seemed to fit the kid.

“Me, too,” the kid whispered.