DISCLAIMER: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-1, the goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of the people who made them up. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

A Snake In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush

Part sixteen

Jack felt a sharp stab in his thigh as he watched what was going on in front of the gate after Jacob had raced over to help Sam. Seeing the path open before him, Jack had been about to grab Clare and make a dash for it as well when he felt the dart sink into his leg. Cursing silently to himself he realised that he may have been able to get himself to the gate but with the injury to his leg there was no way he could get Clare there safely as well. Taking only a moment to reach a decision he spoke to Teal'c, the only remaining member of SG1 still on this side.

'Teal'c, we can't get to you. Get back and give us twenty-four hours to return. Over.'

'Understood O'Neill. Good luck.'

As the 'gate shut down Jack turned to Clare who was watching him, eyes wide with anxiety.

'Hey, it'll be fine. I've done this dozens of times before,' he reassured her before wincing as he felt another sharp pain and realised he'd been hit again, this time in the shoulder.

Clare swallowed hard, fighting the panic that threatened to overwhelm her, and looked to Jack for instructions. Thankful that at least there wasn't going to be any panicking or hysterics - or not yet at any rate - Jack directed her to help support him while they headed away from danger.

'I don't think those darts were aimed at us, I think they were strays and I got unlucky - twice. We need to get further away from here and try to find somewhere we can hide out for twenty four hours.'

With Jack using her shoulder to support himself they made slow going, and after an hour she realised that in spite of his confidence and good spirits it was becoming harder for him to keep going.

'Hey - what's going on - we have to find somewhere to shelter first,' he protested as Clare stopped abruptly.

'You need a rest. I can't carry you and if you're going to make it any further you need some water and a chance to catch your breath. I'm going on ahead to see what I can find.' Not giving him chance to argue, Clare had disappeared into the trees and out of sight. Accepting her instructions grudgingly, he slid to the ground and allowed his body the rest it needed while assessing his injuries.

Both darts were firmly embedded and would take some shifting. They'd have to come out of course or they would get infected. He couldn't do it himself, so that meant Clare would have to do it. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't Jacob have held on, at least he would have been able to do what was necessary. Feeling slightly dizzy now, he closed his eyes, listening out for Clare.

Opening his eyes suddenly he realised Clare had returned and was standing in front of him. He hadn't heard her come back so either she was very good at moving quietly or he had dozed off, the buzzing in his head telling him it was probably the latter.

'I found a cave this way, it took me about twenty minutes to get back, it's near a river so we should be ok for water.' Twenty minutes, Jack thought to himself. Twenty minutes there, twenty back plus looking around. She'd been gone at least an hour and he hadn't been aware of the time passing. Cursing to himself again he realised that he was not going to be much help to Clare and was determined to keep himself going as long as possible, to give Clare as much help as he could now in case he wasn't able to later.

It took them a further hour to reach the cave, Jack needing to pause to catch his breath all too frequently for his liking, his head was starting to feel light and he was finding it hard to focus. At last he was lying down in the cool shade of the cave, glad to rest his aching head against the hard floor.

Some time later he awoke to an excruciating pain in his shoulder. Opening his eyes with difficulty he realised the dart was no longer protruding from his shoulder and he could feel a warm trickle of blood working its way down his arm.

'You need to stop that, you know. I've got that stuff in me for a reason,' Jack said through gritted teeth.

'Actually I need to let it bleed for a while.' Clare's voice came to him, sounding strained but still in control. 'I'm afraid there may have been something on the arrow - when I checked your injuries they were both badly swollen and inflamed and dark purple - the purple area seemed to be spreading out from where the darts went in. I'm going to let it bleed for a while, then I'm going to flush it out with some water to try to eliminate some of the poison. Then I'll need to do the same for your leg.'

'Med kit,' Jack hissed in pain. 'Should be one in both our packs. Painkillers and antibiotics - need to stop infection.'

Clare hunted through their packs, found what she was looking for and gave Jack a shot of both drugs, allowing the painkiller to take affect before removing the dart from Jack's leg.

Jack's head felt it was twice its normal size now and he seemed to be floating, looking down on what was happening from a great height. He felt a sharp tug on his leg and realised the second dart had been removed and Clare was flushing the wound in the same way as she had his shoulder.

Once the bleeding had stopped, Clare covered the wounds with bandages and helped Jack change into a fresh t-shirt before he crawled into his sleeping bag.

'Doing a good job - put Doctor Fraiser out of business,' Jack mumbled his thanks.

'You're welcome.'

While Jack rested, Clare was going through their packs, seeing what they had available. After a few minutes she returned with a couple of MRE's.

'They're cold, I'm afraid, but I daren't light a fire just now. Better than nothing, I suppose.'

Clare ate hers hungrily then noticed Jack hadn't touched his. She tried to get him to eat something but he just pulled a face and asked for some more water.

Jack struggled to gather his rapidly scattering thoughts, to give Clare some much needed help before he was no longer able to think straight. His brain, however, had a different idea and seemed to have turned to cotton wool. Fighting to keep his eyes open, he glanced briefly at Clare before blackness descended.

Clare felt overwhelmed by loneliness. Since she'd become involved with these people she'd rarely felt alone like she had after her parents and Steve had died. Now Jack was not going to be up to much until they got home, and she didn't know how long it would be before they got there. Jack had told Teal'c to give them twenty-four hours, but that was before they realised the darts were poisoned and unless he improved considerably, Jack wouldn't even be able to get himself to the gate.

Steeling herself, she resolved to do what she could to get them both home safely.

Ensuring that Jack was as comfortable as possible Clare climbed into her own sleeping bag and curled up against Jack. In spite of her inner resolve to be strong it helped to have that contact with another human being. Exhausted from the long day and its unhappy ending, she was soon asleep.

********

Clare was woken the next morning by a ray of sunshine falling across her face. It was still early, the sun having just risen, but it was more than time to get up.

Jack had moved around in his sleep and was now lying uncomfortably on his injured arm. Gently she rolled him over on to his back, taking the pressure off the wound and checked that it hadn't started bleeding again. Both wounds were looking red and inflamed, the purple area that marked the poison working into his system did not appear to have spread any further but she was concerned that they were infected and administered another shot of antibiotics.

Jack, woken by the activity, opened dazed eyes at the sight of Clare preparing something for them to eat.

'Morning,' Jack greeted her.

'Morning - how are you feeling?'

'You don't really want to know the answer to that one,' Jack replied dryly.

'I've checked your injuries and redressed them and given you another shot of antibiotics. I don't think the poison or whatever it is has spread any further but I'm afraid you may have an infection. Here.' Clare finished her update by handing Jack another cold MRE and the canteen.

'Thanks.' He picked at his food and drank thirstily from the canteen, water spilling down his chin as if he couldn't get enough of it.

Clare put her own unappetising meal on the ground beside her and moved over to Jack, placing her hand against his forehead to check his temperature, not surprised to find he was burning up with a dry heat.

'You don't need to tell me, I've got a fever, I know. You done with that?' Jack gestured towards her meal. As Clare nodded, he continued. 'Can you give me a hand to get up then? It's about time we made a move for the gate.'

Clare gave him a quizzical look but didn't like to argue with him. As far as she could see there was no way he could make it out of the cave let alone walk for over an hour to the Stargate. Shrugging, she lent him her shoulder and using her and the wall of the cave he nearly made it to the entrance before his legs gave way and he passed out. Holding his weight awkwardly Clare lowered him as gently as she could, making him comfortable again with the sleeping bag for warmth.

Once this was done, she went out to the entrance of the cave to have a look around at what the day had brought. What she saw made her duck back inside the cave in a hurry. People were searching the area, calling out to each other in a strangely familiar guttural language, she couldn't understand what they were saying but it was clear they were searching for something or someone.

The remainder of the day passed slowly. Clare divided her time between checking outside at regular intervals and trying to keep Jack's temperature down, placing cold, damp cloths on his forehead, changing them regularly as soon as they got too warm to be any use. As the day wore on she could see he was getting worse, no longer making any sense when he talked, mumbling constantly to himself.

The sun was low in the sky before the searchers finally withdrew from the area and just before it got completely dark, Clare left the safety of the cave to fetch water and firewood. She moved as quietly as she could toward the river but on hearing a sharp crack behind her she froze, melting into the dark until she saw a small deer like creature running away, startled by her presence. Allowing herself time to calm down, she continued making her way carefully to the river, listening out for signs of another presence. She reached the river safely, filled the canteens then headed back, picking up wood as she went, again taking careful note of any noises that would warn her someone was around.

On returning to the safety of the cave she sank to the floor with her back against the wall, shaking at the strain of having to go out in near darkness and having to make sure she wasn't caught, her heart pounding and her breath coming too fast.

Shaking herself, she focussed on making a small fire, well concealed by stones to prevent any hint of it giving away their position. She quickly boiled the water she had collected to make it fit for drinking and heated a couple of the MRE's, hoping they would taste better hot than they did when they were cold.

Moving over to Jack with a mug of soup, she tried to get him to wake enough to drink some. Surprisingly Jack roused up at the smell of warm food and consented to drink a little of it and to drink some more water but was too feverish to consider asking where the wood had come from to light the fire or to notice that she'd gone out at all.

Jack appeared to be more comfortable now, having the warmth of the soup inside him and the benefit of a day spent sleeping. Putting the fire out and covering all traces of it Clare also took to her sleeping bag and curled up next to Jack again, although sleep did not come so easily this time. Their twenty four hours were up and they were still here, with no way to get back to the gate and with the search parties out it would be virtually impossible for help to get to them. She had more on her mind and had not had the physical activity of the day before to tire her out. Eventually, her eyes drifted closed and she felt sleep claiming her…

…only to be woken almost immediately by wild yelling and thrashing about. Afraid their hiding place had been discovered, Clare fumbled around trying to find the weapon she'd left beside her, before she realised it was Jack. His apparent recovery of the previous evening was obviously only a prelude to this.

The fever had taken hold of him again and Jack was moaning and very restless. Sitting up, she laid a hand on Jack's shoulder, squeezing it gently, letting him know she was there and that it would be alright.

'It's ok, it's gonna be alright, you're gonna be alright,' she murmured to him over and over, his restlessness easing as he gradually fell back into an uneasy sleep.

It happened again as she was about to fall asleep herself, and again, and again until she lost count of the number of times she'd said those same words to him, smoothing his hair, rubbing his back and arm, to reassure him and soothe him back to sleep.

At last, rubbing her hands over her gritty eyes, she realised it was morning and she should see about getting them out of here. Afraid of what he might be like if she were gone for any length of time, Clare gave Jack a shot of the antibiotics and the painkillers, hoping they would keep the fever at bay for a while and keep him calm while she was absent.