Last part, everyone and thanks for the great reviews.
There is a small spoiler for the episode 'The Nox' here.
Shattered Crystal - Part Three
Dan looked at the man lying spread across the couch in his office, and wondered if he had done the right thing. He hadn't dismissed the medical report as easily as the doctor seemed to think, but whatever was wrong with Jack didn't seem to be life threatening. Something serious had happened to his friend, and knowing Jack, he needed some space before he had to face it.
And if Jack needed time, Dan was going to do all in his power to give it to him.
The long, lanky form shifted, and the eyes opened briefly before slamming shut again.
"How are you feeling?" Dan didn't really need to ask, but he wanted to get the other man talking.
"Like crap." Keeping his eyes shut, Jack rubbed a hand over his face.
"Spending all night drinking will do that."
"Ya think!"
Dan smiled at the familiar O'Neill expression, but sobered again quickly when he saw a wince of distress cross Jack's face. "Jack, you have to tell me what's going on. I can't avoid calling Hammond for too much longer – too many people saw me bring you over here, and the gossip will be flying." He had never realised just how many personnel wandered the base in the pre dawn hours, all extremely interested in the sight of their General taking a staggering, and obviously drunken man, into his office.
Jack looked up. "How long have I been here?"
"You've been asleep for four hours." The general glanced at his watch before picking up the phone and issuing an order. Within a few minutes there was a knock on the door and his secretary appeared, carrying a pot of coffee and two mugs. She entered at Langdon's nod, walking to the desk and placing the tray down, careful to avoid the reports spread across its surface. She exited quickly, as Dan mentally gave her extra points for the careful avoidance of any sign of curiosity.
He poured the hot liquid into the mugs and waited for Jack to sit before handing him one, waiting for his hand to stop shaking before letting go. He settled back in a chair, took a sip, and tried again.
"Talk to me, Jack. Tell me what brought all this on."
For a minute Jack sat there, all his attention seemingly focused on the cup in his hand, then he brought his head up and spoke.
"I can't, sir."
Dan shook his head at Jack's words. "I assume it's something to do with the SGC?" When he got a nod in reply, he sighed. Jack obviously needed a friend to talk to, and Dan knew there were very few people that fitted that description. And how many of them could he talk to about his job? He wasn't one of them, and he knew it.
"Do you want me to call Hammond now?"
To his surprise, Jack nodded. Dan had expected him to take the initiative, and call his own CO, ready to face the music. That he hadn't offered to do so was so totally unlike the Jack O'Neill he knew that it was shocking.
General Langdon wasn't surprised to find General Hammond already at his desk at the SGC. For George to have put a flag on O'Neill's records Dan knew there must be something serious going on, and Hammond's tone confirmed it. Annoyance was overshadowed by relief, and within a few minutes arrangements were made to send the wayward officer back to his command.
Jack only nodded when he was told, and after a quick wash, was standing ready as the car pulled up outside. A brief handshake and muttered thanks, and he was off – back up the mountain, and to face whatever had made him run.
Dan stood watching as the car receded into the distance, before heading back to start a new day.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
"Colonel O'Neill, sir." General Hammond's aide held the door open and stepped back to let the officer through, closing it behind him with a click.
George watched as Jack O'Neill moved to stand at attention in front of his desk, taking in the ruffled appearance, and bloodshot eyes.
"Would you care to explain yourself, Colonel?" He deliberately kept his tone sharp. God knows he deserved some after the events of the past couple of days, but the last thing this man needed now was sympathy.
"No, sir."
"Well you don't have any choice in the matter. You were ordered to stay in the infirmary and you chose to ignore that order. Then you turn up, causing problems, at Peterson. You're lucky you have friends, Colonel, or who knows where you'd be now." He stopped, taking in the too pale face, and the slight quavering of the man in front of him, and dropped his voice. "For goodness sake, Jack, sit down before you fall down."
As the Colonel dropped into a chair with a muttered thank you, Hammond stood and moved around the desk to stand beside him.
"We were worried about you, son. Captain Carter and Doctor Jackson have been searching for you all night, and Doctor Fraiser is almost frantic."
Although Jack seemed relaxed, Hammond noted the balled up fists, and the barely suppressed tension. He had known this man for too long not to recognise the signs.
He stepped back as the Colonel stood with a sudden movement, the emotion translated into restless pacing. Finally the silence was broken.
"I needed to think." The movement didn't stop. Jack reached the far wall, and turned back, his head down.
"Is it something to do with the crystal being?"
The steps faltered for a second, then resumed. "Yeah." The one word answer was spat out.
George decided to cut to the heart of the matter. "It can't have been easy, seeing him turn into your son."
The reaction to his words was spectacular. Jack stopped dead in his tracks, his back turned, his face concealed.
"Why did he do that? What could he hope to achieve?" The words were torn out of him.
"Maybe he thought the reminder of what your son meant to you would bring some measure of comfort to you and your wife, Colonel?"
Jack spun, and Hammond took an involuntary step back at the fury evident in his face. "Comfort! What sort of comfort does having a copy of your dead son appear and then be taken away again, bring? What sort of comfort would it give Sara to touch her son again, and be told he's not real? What sort of comfort does it bring to watch that copy turn back into a rock!?" He threw himself back into the vacant chair, his hands up, clutching at his head. "Why did it do that? Sara is just managing to get her life back together and this happens. She has to watch him walk away again, with no explanation. Couldn't it see how cruel that was?"
"Jack..." Hammond didn't know what to say, how to comfort the devastated man. Everything he said was true. The crystal being had unknowingly caused so much pain to Charlie's parents. He could only begin to imagine what it must be like for O'Neill, to have lost his son so violently and he knew what no one else on the base but Doctor Jackson knew – that the Colonel had been within a hair's breadth of suicide in the weeks following his son's death. He seemed to have found some measure of peace now, with purpose brought back into his life here at the SGC. Now this.
George put his hand on the strong shoulder and felt it slump and shudder. He waited until he felt the tremors still, before leaning over the desk and paging Doctor Fraiser to his office.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
"Are you sure he's fit for duty, Doctor?"
Janet Fraiser nodded, paging through the extensive notes she had taken on Colonel O'Neill. "Yes, General. The electromagnetic energy emitted by the crystal has dissipated completely. The headaches and resulting blurred vision the Colonel was experiencing were a direct result of his being hit by that energy twice in a short space of time. After I managed to identify the problem it was just a case of giving his body time to rest and recover. The three days he spent in the infirmary appears to have done the job, and he checks out at one hundred percent fit."
Janet thought back to the scene that had greeted her when she had been called to the General's office a few days before, her relief at finding her missing patient tempered by her concern when she saw the state he was in, his physical problems combining with the trauma to send him right to the edge and almost over it. The Colonel had been close to emotional collapse and she could have hardly blamed him. If only they had thought through the events of those days, and seen the consequences for him, they might have been able to help. But hindsight was a fine thing, and they had seen what he had chosen to show them – the unemotional professional, touched by nothing.
"Keep the lights on, I'll be back."
It had sounded so frivolous, so joking, that they had all taken it at face value and hadn't seen the pain hidden behind the eyes.
She shut the folder with a snap, and saw in the General's face an answering acknowledgement of her thoughts. They would have to be careful in future – not take so much for granted.
The mission SG-1 was about to leave on would be a perfect chance for Colonel O'Neill to ease back into his duties after his enforced sick leave.
Hunting invisible dragons – it sounded right up the Colonel's alley.
Just the thing to take his mind off beings that could bring the dead back to life.
The End