Title: Unnatural
Rating: G
Relationship: Unacknowledged
Summary: Does he know she's there, waiting for him to return?
Author's Note: My motto for future pieces: no apologizing for the angst! (You have been warned... although they all won't be tearjerkers.)
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It was the one sound that you always heard in hospitals; the one repetitive noise that said, 'Your heart still works… for now.' The monitor beeped slowly away as she sat on an empty bed, watching him with traces of worry in her eyes.
He hadn't woken up since they had 'gated back to Earth; Doctor Frasier kept telling them that everything was fine, but even she was looking concerned. Five days, and he hadn't moved…
Normally she was the one who got injured. And that was fine; she had learned to deal with the pain. If it wasn't her, it was accident-prone Daniel who hurt himself the most- but either way, Jack just wasn't the kind of man to take a wound and lay down for five days.
He should have been up and awake, trying to get Frasier to let him out of the Infirmary early. Or failing in his attempts to convince Teal'c that he was fine, and, no, he didn't need help getting up off the floor. Or arguing with General Hammond to let them have another mission.
But Colonel O'Neill wasn't doing any of these things.
Daniel had wondered if the sleeping man was trapped in a alien 'dream'. Teal'c had suggested he might be involved in some form of communication with inhabitants of K0T-884. Either way, SG-1 couldn't remember any reason why their leader had collapsed like this.
Janet paused beside the empty bed, looking at Carter with understanding eyes.
"I know it's hard, Sam, but you need to get some rest yourself. You know he'll be annoyed if he wakes up and SG-1 can't go out because you're in the Infirmary." The blonde nodded, knowing her friend was right. But when the Doctor walked away, she didn't leave. There was no one else down here, and she didn't want him waking up to silence.
She knew that he would have done the same for her.