"Oh, god, make them stop this!" Daniel cried again. "Oh god, please!" he begged.

He was now climbing the wall in agony, literally. Jack had managed to get him into bed after an hour long stint at the latrine. The arsenic had caused havoc to his digestive track and it had taken ages to make the short walk from the bathroom to the bed as Daniel felt so faint when upright.

Jack had tried to make him comfortable in bed. He had tried everything - buddy hugging, rocking, massage – but nothing helped. Daniel had literally rolled out of bed, trying to smother the abdominal pain and no amount of help from Jack had been able to get him back in bed. He was now writhing on the floor while Jack sat helplessly in the chair. All he could do was move the furniture to the edges of the room to prevent Daniel from injuring himself as the pain in his stomach kept him constantly seeking a comfortable position.

"Jack please?" Daniel pleaded, "make them stop this." He crawled to the wall and tried to pull himself upright, bent double and trembling violently, his scrubs were plastered to his body with sweat. Daniel started to bang his head on the wall, over and over again.

Jack moved to his side and rubbed the stricken man's sweaty back.

"Please, Daniel, don't do that," he begged.

Daniel shook his head and continued to hit his head, arms still wrapped tightly round his stomach.

"Take. The. Pain. Away." His words were punctuated by the blows to his head.

"Danny, please!" Jack tried to pry him away from the wall and into his arms but Daniel fought him all the way until, suddenly, his whole body started to lurch.

"Gonna be…"

"Bowl!" Jack ordered, just in time as Daniel projectile vomited.

Xxx

"Bowl," Jack tiredly ordered again. He now held Daniel in his arms, both of them sitting on the floor. Daniel had now been vomiting nearly non-stop for over half an hour, and he was absolutely exhausted, trembling, and weak. Jack had one hand on Daniel's forehead as the sick man continued to vomit, his hand being the only thing stopping Daniel from taking a head long dive into his own mess. He had started to vomit blood a couple of minutes ago, and was soaked in urine as he had now lost control of his bladder, too weak to even crawl to the bathroom. Jack was too tired to carry him anymore and waited until Daniel finished with his current bout of vomiting before he ordered some new clean scrubs.

Daniel was now bent over double in Jack's arms, which held him round his waist, his forehead resting on the floor. Jack's back hurt like a son of a bitch in the position but he sighed with relief that Daniel seem comfortable. He rested his own head against Daniel's back and allowed a few tears to fall as a feeling of utter despair washed over him. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a being enter the room.

Jack lifted his head and sniffed.

"Is that it? Is it all over," he asked, reaching a hand up to scrub at eyes.

"Well, come on then! Do your stuff," he spat. "He's done, he's had enough."

Another being entered the room.

"Ah, glad you could join us," Jack stated, sarcastically. "The more the merrier hey, Danny?" Je jiggled Daniel but he remained limp in his arms. "Not sure he's still alive after that," Jack continued in the same sarcastic tone, "can ya see from where you are?" he asked as another five beings entered.

Daniel's body was then transported back on to the bed while Jack remained on the floor, head leaning against the wall, and eyes closed.

"Get on with it," he muttered sourly, "do your thing, cure him again! Put him back on his feet so ya can knock him down again, you're pretty damn good at that. Oh, and don't worry about me, I'll be with him every step of the way. We'll go through this little act as many times as you want, even if it takes for ever, we can do that, me and my Danny." He opened his eyes and watched as the beings started their spinning. He looked at Daniel, he was dying, Jack was sure of it.

The beings discarded their gowns and spun around and around, each taking it in turn to swoop in and massage Daniel's abdomen. Their motion was making Jack dizzy. They were spinning faster and faster, their actions more and more frantic. And Daniel? Daniel just lay there, totally naked, his head to one side and his mouth open.

Suddenly the beings ceased their actions, turned to Jack, bowed and retreated to the shadows.

Jack scrambled to his feet, using the wall as leverage.

"Is that it?" he cried. "He's dying, look at him." He indicated Daniel who had not moved an inch.

"What? Are you giving up! You can't fucking well do that."

He rushed to Daniel, pressed his hand to Daniel's neck – no pulse. He bent down to listen to Daniel's breathing – he wasn't.

"Do not do this, Daniel," he spat. He straddled Daniel's prone body, thumped the middle of his chest as hard as he could. He then tipped Daniel's neck back and started CPR.

"Do. Not. Do. This," he ordered after each rescue breath.

"Do. Not. Do. This," he ordered after each compression.

"O'Neill!"

The call of his name halted his frantic movements. He looked up and suddenly realized they were not in the room anymore. They were surrounded by grey walls and blipping machinery, he turned to look behind him and then returned to saving Daniel's life.

In between compressions he greeted his 'knight in shining armour.'

"Took. Your. Time. Thor. Old. Buddy." He scrambled around to the top of the bed in readiness to continue the rescue breathing, he looked up.

"Get your skinny little ass over here and save Daniel Jackson's life," he ordered, smiled, and added, "please."

Xxx

"Daniel Jackson will remain in statis until our scientists have prepared the correct antidote," Thor bowed.

Jack rested his hand on the statis pod that Daniel now lay peacefully asleep in. Thor had worked his magic, revived the scientist, and had transported the book of antidotes to the lab on the Daniel Jackson.

"He gonna be okay?" Jack asked not taking his eyes off his friend.

"He will be fine, O'Neill," Thor assured. "I have cured him from the effects of the drugs administered, we will lower the levels of sedation when we have word from the lab but, unfortunately, Daniel Jackson will still be suffering from the symbiote poisoning."

Jack looked up and interrupted.

"So, that's what it was?" he asked.

"I am afraid so, O'Neill," Thor answered with a bow. "I'm afraid it was Loki's doing. His creations were ultimately programmed by the Goa'uld to produce an antidote for the poison Daniel Jackson was experimented on.

Jack sighed and shook his head.

"I trust the Asgard will deal with the whole situation?"

"You can be assured of that, O'Neill," Thor stated with a curt bow. "Now, may I suggest you rest while Daniel Jackson sleeps? You may use the chamber next to Doctor Jackson. I must hasten to the lab and supervise." Thor backed out of the room, indicating to the gurney next to Daniel's pod.

Jack nodded in agreement, toed his boots off, and gratefully lowered his exhausted body on to the bed. He turned onto his side and watched his friend sleep.

"Too close, Danny, way too close," he muttered, closed his eyes, and was soon fast a sleep, hurtling through space on an alien ship with Daniel at his side… only just though.

Xxx

EPILOGUE

"Hey, sleeping beauty got ya a pressie."

Jack wafted a Styrofoam cup of Daniel's favourite coffee under the slumbering man's nose.

"Wakey, wakey," he urged, "come on, wake up and smell the coffee!"

Jack smiled as Daniel wrinkled his nose and sniffed.

"Colombian?" Daniel asked, eyes still closed.

"Of course," Jack replied.

"Give." Daniel went to reach for the cup, Jack pulled it away.

"Open your eyes first," he ordered.

Daniel sighed, opened his eyes and scooted up right.

Jack gave him the coffee. "That's better." He smiled and pulled up a chair.

Daniel took a sip of coffee, smacked his lips and sighed contentedly. "God bless you, Jack O'Neill." He grinned.

"Thought you deserved a treat," Jack replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Think you're right," Daniel agreed, taking another sip.

Jack watched him with a smile on his face. "Is it good?" he asked.

Daniel nodded vigorously "It's good," he confirmed, returning the smile.

Jack picked up Daniel's discarded book and started flicking through it.

"So, how you feeling?" he asked, glancing at his friend who had his eyes shut once more.

"Tired but good," Daniel commented, nodding his head and smiling. He opened his eyes once more and looked at Jack. "I take it we are home," he said, his free hand indicating the infirmary bedding.

"Yup." Jack confirmed with a nod.

"How long?" Daniel asked. The last thing he could remember was Thor injecting the antidote. He had vague memories of Janet waking him and asking him questions, Sam and Teal'c dropping by – the cookies sitting on the chair next to the bed had been a give away - but everything else was a bit murky.

Jack placed the book on the bedside cabinet, turned and gave Daniel his full attention. "Well, took us twelve hours to return to Earth via the good ole Daniel Jackson." He smiled. "Thor beamed us down when we got in range, you were out of it the whole time and have been sleeping now for," he checked his watch, "eighteen hours." He shrugged.

"Wow," Daniel commented with amazement, "seems like I lost a day, or two." He smiled sadly.

"Your body needed the rest," Jack told him, smiling equally as sadly.

Daniel straightened up a bit. "So," he began, "the antidote worked."

"Yup." Jack nodded.

"I'm cured?"

"Yup."

"I'm not gonna get sick again?"

"Nope."

"Good, that's good." Daniel nodded slowly. "So – what actually happened?" he asked, putting his coffee down.

Jack sighed. "Long story short you were used as a guinea pig."

"Oh?"

"From what I can gather from Carter and Teal'c…"

" God - are they okay?" Daniel asked urgently, "I remember them coming by earlier "and they looked okay. How did they get back?"

"Apparently Carter was beamed back to the forest where Teal'c was being held, some sort of force field, I don't know the full story as we haven't debriefed properly. I think they just asked to be let go and they were. You know how obliging our hosts were," Jack said with a knowing smile.

"Yeah, very obliging," Daniel sarcastically replied and carried on. "So, they contacted Thor and he came and rescued us?"

"Actually, they contacted Jacob, who contacted the Tokra, who contacted Thor, yadda, yadda…"Jack gestured. "Turns out the Tokra and the Asgard are the guilty parties in our little adventure."

"How so?" Daniel asked, leaning forward a little more.

"Turns out Loki's little experiments produced our kidnappers," Jack replied.

"Oh," Daniel commented, leaning back against his pillows with a sigh, "I'm not gonna like this, am I?" he muttered, shaking his head.

"Well, he made them wrong. God, that Asgard was a shit scientist," Jack observed slowly shaking his head, "and to cover his mess, he abandoned his creations in a cloaked Asgard ship that he manage to 'magic away' right under Thor's nose. I swear that little grey fellow went bright red when he realized what Loki had done, Daniel," Jack said with a shrug then continued. "Years later, after being handed a sample of the symbiote poison by a renegade Tokra, the Gou'ald stumbled across said ship, realized that the beings were super, super intelligent, scientifically, and programmed them to believe that their sole purpose in life was to come up with an antidote."

"And that's what they've been doing ever since?" Daniel queried and Jack nodded.

"Kinda think the Gou'ald forgot about them a long time ago. The beings had used Asgard technology to create a smokescreen, and an illusion of a perfect world, to tempt visitors. They then picked off the Jaffa that turned up, injected them with the poison then beamed them up to the ship, again creating surroundings that the victim was familiar with by the means of mind reading. They then experimented with as many drug combinations as they could think of, reviving the Jaffa over and over, and then using another combination. When they ran out of ideas the Gou'ald discovered that book in a Tokra lab and they believed it contained the cure. Problem was, you were right, it was written in Latin and neither the Gou'ald nor the beings understood a word. They must have thought they had hit the jackpot when you turned up."

"Because I jumped in front of Teal'c, I received the poison instead," Daniel mused, closing his eyes as a fresh wave of exhaustion washed over him.

"Yup, and, I haven't forgotten that were are gonna have a little chat about your actions a little later," Jack scolded.

"Mmm," Daniel replied drowsily. "So Thor came and beamed us outta there?" he questioned, slinking down in bed once more.

"Correct, he came, beamed, put you in stasis as you were breathing your last, his scientific guys translated the book, came up with the proper antidote, which contained cane sugar, would you believe? That would have been a bit easier, hey?"

Daniel turned onto his side. "Umm," he replied, barely awake.

Jack smiled and gently patted his friend's leg.

"I'll let you get some sleep, Danny," he said, standing. "Main thing is Thor cured you and you're gonna be fine, just fine."

"Colonel?"

Jack turned to see Janet standing at his side, empty coffee cup in hand.

"Hey, Doc," he said sheepishly.

"I do hope this was decaf," she scolded, "and why was I not sent for when my patient was awake?"

"Still awake," Daniel muttered drowsily, giving Janet a slight wave.

Jack cleared his throat and started to back out of the cubicle.

"See, Doc – still awake." He squeezed Daniel's blanket-covered foot on his way past the bottom of the bed.

"Catch ya later, Danny," he said.

"'Kay," Daniel replied. "Oh, and Jack?" He turned his head slightly so he could see the retreating Colonel.

"Yeah?" Jack replied.

"Thank you. For everything," Daniel said sincerely.

"No probs, Danny, like you said, you'd do it for me – and you have. Reckon we're even now." Jack smiled.

Daniel nodded. "Reckon we are," he agreed and Jack gave him a two-fingered salute before he left the room.

Daniel turned his head back to his sleeping position.

Janet took his arm and attached a tourniquet around the top, then pressed on the middle of his forearm. "Good, that's a good vein," she mumbled to herself and then spoke to her patient. "Right, Daniel, I'm just going to take some blood for the laboratory," she told him, reaching for her equipment.

"I spy, syringe," Daniel muttered drowsily.

"Sorry, what was that?" Janet asked as she proceeded to draw some blood. When Daniel didn't even flinch, she looked and was not surprised to find him fast asleep. She put the filled vials back on the tray, undid the tourniquet and snapped off her gloves. She then lowered Daniel's bed, dimmed his lights and straightened his covers. She ran her fingers through his hair. "Well," she whispered. "I spy a very tired young man." She smiled and planted a kiss on Daniel's cheek. "Welcome home, Daniel."

She turned and pulled the curtains round his bed to let him sleep and recover in peace. She picked up the syringe off the tray. "Oh. I see. I spy," she stated and made a mental note to asked the Colonel the significance of the comment. She was sure there were some amazing tales to be told about the last few days…

THE END

There you go, hope you all enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!

Right, I'm off to find inspiration to end this bloody writers block!

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