4.
Ready For Action
Summary: Dr Fraiser clears Daniel Jackson for duty.
Ready For Action
The young man sat on the side of the infirmary bed in front of her swung his legs back and forth under him in an almost childlike fashion. His blue eyes stared at the open doorway, glazed with distant thoughts.
His waiting ears caught the dim rumble of the stargate powering up at once. Dr Janet Fraiser knew Daniel Jackson well enough to be able to read into his faraway look.
In his mind's eye he was stood at the base of the ramp leading up to the shimmering blue event horizon of the wormhole that would take all who stepped through it to an alien world of excitement, discovery and perhaps danger. He saw his friends walk up to the 'gate, dressed in green combat gear with the SG-1 insignia badges on the upper sleeves. Jack slipped dark shades over his eyes, Teal'c altered his hold on his staff weapon, Sam casually shifted her P-90 into a more comfortable position and Jonas relieved an itch behind his ear. Then with a quick wave to all those personnel watching, O'Neill calmly lead his team through the stargate, leaving Daniel stood alone in civilian clothes to watch the wormhole flash into rapid dissipation.
Dr Fraiser tactfully coincided Daniel's medical assessments with SG-1's embarkments whenever she could. So as to save him from having to really watch them leave him behind, and also, secondarily, as a precaution against the unlikely but possible event of him running after them on a sudden impulse.
Daniel sighed heavily and his eyes slid back into lazy awareness. He fiddled with the glasses in his lap, subdued and waiting for the doctor to finish taking her measurements.
Dr Fraiser strapped a cuff around the firm biceps of the arm he raised with the manner of someone who had repeated the same motion more times than either of them cared to remember. Releasing his arm, Janet took a pen from her pocket and noted down his blood pressure of 120/80 next to his resting pulse rate of 60bpm, below the similarly fit results from a week before.
Next she examined his torso, which two months ago had been swollen with angry, dark, black-blue bruising with cracked bones underneath. Now the flesh was a healthy pale peach with only a few smudges of fading yellow-brown here and there. The nicks from the shattered glass and scrapes from the road had fully healed leaving few scars. Yet she could still recall the sight of his frail, broken body lying in the hospital bed when she had seen him for the first time for just over a year. Going beyond that to the last memory of him before his ascension was too painful for words and had haunted her dreams for months afterwards. She hadn't been able to save him, if it had not been for the spiritual alien, Oma, he'd have died and gone for good. That was an 'if' that still drew a lump to her throat.
She prodded his ribs, applying precise pressure to test for pain and remaining damage. The darker places produced the slightest tensing of his jaw and chest muscles only noticed by the trained eye, and the faint discomfort was alleviated at once upon the release of pressure. No problems there.
"Ok, Daniel, you can go," she told him.
He gave her a faint smile and slid off the bed, as she handed him his shirt.
"As long as your blood comes back clear, I'll inform the general that you're fit for duty."
The smile changed into a wide grin and his thick eyebrows rose with pleasure and slight surprise. He had become so used to routinely reporting to the infirmary that he hadn't seen an end to it. He picked up the small pile of books that had accompanied him and left with his shoulders lifted a little from the bored slouch that had descended upon him recently.
Dr Fraiser, also smiling, went to her desk to finish Daniel's medical record sheet. After a few minutes, a nurse came into the doctor's office to deliver a piece of paper. Janet thanked her, took the sheet and scanned down the printed blood results with a practised eye. After double-checking to be safe, she happily ticked all the negative boxes in the allotted section on Daniel's form. Then she pulled the computer keyboard closer to write a report for General Hammond.
She filled in the patient details at the top of the template before typing in what she knew the general would be glad to read.
I am pleased to report that Daniel Jackson is fully fit both mentally and physically.
She quoted some medical statistics as evidence, then summed up the blessedly short report. Daniel was now well, pure and simple.
I give Dr Jackson the all clear to return to active duty.
She printed off the report, slipped it into a presentation folder with his latest medical record sheet and blood results. Then with a pleasant expression of calm joy on her face, she got up to take the folder to Hammond herself.
~ End ~