There was something to be said for the absence of pain. Not that pain was all that terrible a thing. It had its uses, after all. In small amounts, it could tell you when you've reached the limits of what you should be doing - exercising for example - and it could tell you when you've managed to nick yourself shaving so you'd know you were going to be bleeding in a minute. It was also a good indicator that you were alive. However, Jack was just as happy to use some other indicator in this moment.

He hovered on the edge of waking for a long time. It wasn't completely unlike allowing yourself that long Saturday morning wake up time, although this was more a chance to get a good idea of exactly how ready you were to open your eyes. If, as you felt yourself waking up, you also felt a great deal of pain, there was still a chance that you might be able to drift back off into blissful unawareness and delay facing that pain for as long as possible. If you didn't feel a lot of pain - or even better, no pain at all - then you could decide if you were still sleepy, or tired or exhausted. If you were any of these, and you felt no pain, then there was also a good chance that you'd be able to fall back into that deep sleep that you'd dragged yourself out of.

What Jack felt was no pain. He did, however, feel tired, and numb, and he knew even without opening his eyes that he was in a hospital room, simply from the sounds that were being made all around him. Unwilling to face all of those things, he'd pretty much decided that he was going to try and do the who drift back into sleep and wait for things to get better before really waking up thing.

Then he'd heard her voice. She was close by, and talking to him in soft tones. Jack didn't know exactly what she was saying - in order to understand that, he'd have to allow himself to wake up a bit more - and he wasn't so sure he was ready to do that. Not even for her. She wasn't hurt. He knew that. Knew it without even having to think about it, because if she were hurt he'd have forced himself awake long before. He thought back, trying to remember what had happened, to decide if there was a reason he needed to be awake. Was someone hurt? He was, yes, but he didn't matter. He knew how he felt. More or less. He remembered a puppy sucking on his finger. And ribs. His ribs hurt. No, a rib dinner. Not his. A good rib dinner. But that wasn't important enough to wake up for, either.

She touched his hand, and his wandering thoughts focused once more on her. She was still speaking to him, and he thought he heard a note of concern in her tone of voice, even though he still wasn't focused enough to know everything she was saying. Her touch was stimulating, though. Something he always longed for, and something that was probably worth waking up for. But something in his mind also told him that she would touch him later, when he'd decided to wake up completely. He didn't have to wake up just to get her to touch him.

He heard her mentioned a name. Shawn. His mind sprang into action, even as he lay still. Shawn? Was he hurt? No. He was fine. He'd been with the others. Teal'c had been hurt, but Teal'c had Junior. Jack had half a mind to get himself a symbiote, too. Unfortunately, he didn't like the Goa'uld or the Tok'ra enough to join either of the two, and that was pretty much necessary in order to tote a snake of his own around. He certainly wasn't going to become a Jaffa any time soon. Who else had been hurt? Andrew. Andrew had been hurt. And badly enough that yes, he was worth waking up to check on. Jack felt the darkness drifting away, and forced himself into a more alert state of mind. Now he could understand what she was saying, and he listened for a moment, just to see if she'd answer his questions without him waking up.

She was speaking mumbo jumbo. Jack didn't understand a word of it. Something about some physicist named Shawn something or the other who had developed a theory about the Oort cloud holding the key to-

"Carter."

He couldn't go on listening to that. Not even to sleep a little longer.

Sam put down the book she'd been reading aloud, and looked over at the man sleeping in the bed. His eyes were closed, but there was an intense expression on his face nonetheless. A pained look, although Janet had assured her that Jack wasn't feeling any pain from his injuries.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"You're awake?"

"What are you talking about?"

"What?"

"Who is Shawn-"

"Ryerson?"

"Yeah."

"A physicist who developed a theor-"

"Stop."

Sam smiled, despite her concern. "You asked."

"Because you were talking about him." Jack opened his eyes for the first time and looked at her. She looked tired, and worried, but she was beautiful nonetheless. "Why are you talking about someone like that while you're sitting by my bed?"

"I was reading, Jack. Aloud. Janet said it might do some good, and it wouldn't hurt. She said you could hear-"

"Yeah, I could hear it. And it was driving me crazy."

He looked down at her hand, which was touching his own. His had a bandage on it that was undoubtedly hiding the needle end of an IV, considering the thin tube that was running out from underneath it.

"I'm sorry."

"Just don't..." he paused, thinking of some way he could make sure she knew just how annoying that was. "Just don't do it again. I don't even like having you read those books to me silently, okay?"

"I'll remember that." She leaned over and brushed a feather light kiss against his cheek, and Jack forgave her instantly. "How do you feel?"

"I'm tired. How's Andrew?"

"Broken legs and a separated shoulder. They had him in surgery for a while, but he's going to be fine with a little physical therapy and a lot of casts."

She started to move away, but he held her hand so she couldn't. He was awake now, so he wanted to be with her.

"You know... the next time I tell you I don't want to go somewhere... I-"

Carter started crying, which wasn't the response Jack expected. Not at all. He sat up in his bed, feeling a pressure in his chest that might have been pain if he could feel any pain just then, and he pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her carefully to avoid tangling her up in the IV.

"Sam, I'm sorry. It was a joke, nothing more-"

"I'm sorry, Jack," She collapsed against her shoulder, even though she knew she wasn't supposed to. "I knew you didn't want to go, and I bullied you into it. And look what happened-"

"None of this was your fault." He was completely awake now, and he turned his head, brushing a kiss against her tear stained cheek. "You didn't do anything, love. I was just teasing you. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

Sam sniffed, a little embarrassed and angry that she'd broken down for such a dumb reason. She'd just been so worried about him, and he'd been so still, and pale, and she'd been afraid that the worst was going to happen. They'd come so very close to losing him, and to something so stupid.

"I'm sorry."

"I know. I am, too. Okay?" He kissed her cheek again, and then gently untangled himself from her. "Let's start that part over, again."

"All right."

He looked down at her hand. "Andrew's really okay?"

"Yes. He's fine, although he'll be in the hospital for a while. Exposure, and hypothermia, and they're giving him antibiotics to counter the pneumonia he managed to catch. Like you did," she added.

"I caught –"

"Yes. It was pretty bad." She sniffed again, "You had us all pretty worried."

"Exactly how long have I been in here?"

"Almost two weeks."

"Two weeks?" He didn't feel like it had been two weeks.

She nodded.

No wonder she'd been so worried, Jack thought. He squeezed her hand gently, slightly ashamed that he hadn't woken up sooner. He didn't like to worry Sam. Of course, it hadn't been his fault, but that didn't matter.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I'm just glad to have you back with me."