Chapter 8: Homecoming
At about 7:00 the next morning, General Hammond walked down to the infirmary to check on Jack's condition for himself. He found the room where Jack was recovering and opened the door quietly.
"Good morning, people. Jack, I'm glad to see you're awake and feeling better." Hammond smiled as he stepped through the door and saw Jack awake and talking to Daniel, who was sitting in a chair next to the bed.
"Morning, General." Jack responded. Daniel turned around and gave his chief commanding officer a tired smile.
"How are you feeling this morning, Daniel?"
"A little tired, General, but other than that I feel better than I was. It's a little rough running on the approximately only 9 hours of sleep I've had over the past three days." Daniel said sheepishly, noticing the shock in Jack's eyes.
"Jack, I've heard that Janet says you'll be away from active duty for a period of six weeks. I placed SG-1 on stand down until you're back on your feet."
"Yeah. Carter told me about that yesterday. At least I won't have to worry about my team getting into danger without me there to help out." Jack acknowledged.
"Jack, for the next six weeks the only thing I want you to worry about is relaxing and allowing yourself to heal."
"Understood, sir."
"Good. I'll go now and allow you to rest a little." Hammond said as he turned to the door.
"I'll walk you out. Be back in a minute, Jack." Daniel offered, standing up and following the General out of the room.
As Daniel and General Hammond were talking in the hallway, Janet walked by the two and gave them a smile, which was returned as she walked by.
"Good morning, Colonel. You seem to be doing much better this morning." Janet said brightly as she walked into Jack's room.
"I feel a lot better except that I'm about to go crazy here. How about letting me go home today so I can sleep in my own bed. What do you say, Janet?" Jack said hopefully.
"Well, Colonel O'Neill, I don't see why I couldn't release you to go home today. But I'll only do it under one condition."
"What condition?" Jack asked. At this point, he was willing to agree to just about anything if it meant he got to go home.
"I'll only clear you for release if you have someone drive you home tonight and stay with you. You've had a very serious injury and I don't want to take any chances." Janet insisted.
"If you need someone to take Jack home and keep an eye on him tonight, then I'm your man." Daniel spoke up from where he leaned wearily in the doorway.
"See, there you go, Doc. Daniel's agreed to take me home and stay at the house with me tonight. So how about it? Can I go home?"
"All right. I'll clear your release with General Hammond."
"Great. Thanks." Jack smiled gratefully and then turned to Daniel. "Daniel, can I get you to do something for me. I need you to go to my office and get my keys out of my desk. Since I won't be able to get my truck tonight, I don't want to take any chances with it."
"Yeah, sure Jack. That way you'll have time to let Janet prepare you for release." Daniel smiled, turning and heading down the corridor toward Jack's office.
"Janet, can I talk to you for a minute? I need to discuss something with you. Since Daniel is going to be crashing at my house tonight, do you think you can discreetly give me something to slip him to make sure he gets a good sound sleep? I heard him tell Hammond earlier that he's only had about 9 hours of sleep in the past three days. He's got to be exhausted. Can you do that for me?"
"Sure. Actually I was thinking of that very idea myself." Janet agreed as she walked to a cabinet on the other side of the room. She took a small package out of it and handed it to Jack. "Here. Give him both of these at some point tonight. That should be enough to make him sleep for hours."
"Thanks."
"Okay. I'll go and inform the General of your release. You need to hurry and get ready to head home and stash that packet before Daniel comes back."
After a few minutes of effort getting pants on over the cast on his leg, Jack managed to get back into his normal clothes. He grabbed the crutches that Janet had issued to him and hobbled over to his mission bag that lay in the corner. He carefully slipped the packet into it and went back to sit on the bed just as Daniel returned.
"What are you doing, Jack?"
"I was just getting the hang of walking on these crutches. They'll be my legs for the next several weeks so I might as well get used to it."
"Okay. Well here are your keys." Daniel said as he handed the keys to Jack, who dropped them into the side pocket of his mission bag. "You ready to go."
"You bet. Let's get the hell out of here."
"Here, let me get your bag for you."
Jack and Daniel slowly made it out of the SGC to Daniel's car. After taking a few minutes to get settled, the two set off for Jack's house.
"I really appreciate you doing this for me, Daniel. I don't mean to put you out of your way."
"You don't need to apologize to me, Jack. That's what friends do for each other. If our positions were reversed, I know you'd do the same for me." Daniel smiled at his friend.
"You've got that right. You are one in a million, Daniel."
"Thanks."
When Daniel pulled his car into Jack's driveway, he helped his friend out of the car and they walked, or in Jack's case hobbled, into the house. Once inside, the two men sat in the living room and turned on the television. For a couple of hours they watched a baseball game seeming content to enjoy each other's company, Daniel feeling extremely relieved to see Jack looking so much better.
"So, Daniel. You wanna get a pizza or something. I'm starving."
"Uh, yeah. Sure, Jack. Whatever you want."
"Great. I'll order the pizza and we'll have something edible inside of an hour." Jack quipped, causing Daniel to smile.
"I can't begin to tell you how totally relieved I am that you're getting back to normal, Jack. You have no idea how worried we were about you."
"Come on, Daniel. You know you can't get rid of me that easily. I just keep on coming."
"You'll never know how thankful we are for that." Daniel said quietly as the doorbell rang. "I think I need to go get the door."
After Daniel paid the delivery guy and got the pizza, he walked back into the living room, placed the pizza on the table and sat down across from Jack.
"Seems like I'm having a little déjà vu here. This is weird."
"What in the world are you talking about?"
"Huh? Oh, never mind, Jack. I'll tell you later." Daniel said distantly, leading Jack to drop the subject.
A short time later, the two had finished their dinner and were sitting back in the living room. Jack noticed that Daniel seemed particularly stressed for obvious reasons and he was thinking about the packet concealed in the pocket of his mission bag that was sitting by the kitchen door.
"Hey. You all right, Daniel? You seem a little wound up." Jack asked, concerned.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. It's just that I've been under tremendous stress for the past few days. Probably just getting to me now that I've had the time to actually sit quietly and think about it."
"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you head to my guest bathroom and catch a hot shower. Maybe it'll help you relax and wind down."
"Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea, Jack. Thanks."
"While I'm waiting, can I fix you a drink or something?"
"Yeah, I usually drink a glass of milk before I go to bed. Helps me get to sleep better."
"I think I can handle that." Jack smiled as Daniel disappeared into his guest bathroom.
Jack waited until he heard the water stop before heading to the kitchen. He first grabbed the packet out of his mission bag and then hobbled to the kitchen counter. He gently pounded the two tablets into powder with the blunt end of a butter knife. After Jack had accomplished this, he got out a glass and dropped the powder into the bottom of it before filling it with milk. Finally, he got a glass of water for himself and went over to sit on the couch just as his guest reemerged. Daniel had changed into a t-shirt and cutoff shorts and seemed much more relaxed.
"Feel better now?"
"Yeah, I do actually." Daniel smiled as Jack handed him the glass of milk. "Thanks a lot."
"No problem."
"If you don't mind my asking, what were you doing in here? I heard a banging sound and I just wondered if you were okay."
"Oh, I was just breaking up some ice to put in my water." Jack explained quickly, raising his glass. "Ice crusher broke last week."
"Ah. I see." Daniel said as he drank the whole glass of milk in one gulp. "That's much better."
Jack then turned on a late night comedy show for the two of them to watch for a while.
About fifteen minutes later, Daniel began to feel a little drowsy. He tried to shake his head to clear the fog forming there but found it felt too heavy for his shoulders. It seemed that he was floating off of the couch where he was lying.
"Something wrong, Daniel?" Jack asked, knowing the answer perfectly well.
"Not wrong, necessarily. It's just that I'm really sleepy all of the sudden. My head feels to heavy for my shoulders and it's getting harder to keep my eyes open." Daniel said with a yawn.
"Well, I did hear you telling Hammond this morning that you've been running on 9 hours of sleep for the past three days. That's nowhere near enough to function on, Daniel. Your body's just trying to catch you up. Why don't you close your eyes for a minute."
"I guess I could give my eyes a little break. I didn't realize I was so tired. I guess adrenaline cuts a person's need for sleep." Daniel mumbled as he rested his head on an oversized pillow on the couch. Then he removed his glasses, placing them on the coffee table, and allowed his eyes to slide closed. Within a few moments, unknown to him, the drug Jack had slipped into the milk took its full effect and Daniel had sunk into a sound sleep.
Jack turned his attention from the television at the end of the show he had been watching, only to be greeted by soft, even breathing coming from the couch. He looked over to the direction of the sound and shook his head at what he saw. The pills he had ground up from that packet had really packed a punch and Daniel was sleeping very deeply. Jack pulled the quilt off of the back of the couch and spread it over Daniel, being extremely careful not to make any unnecessary movement that may in any way disturb his slumbering friend. "Get some rest, Danny. After the time you've had over the past few days, you really need it." Jack whispered as he grabbed his crutches, hobbled down the hall to his bedroom, crawled carefully into bed and fell asleep within five minutes.