"You have to hold on, Jack..."

He opened his eyes and saw Dotty Adams standing next to him. She was pale and looked slightly concerned, but when she saw he was looking at her, she smiled softly at him.

"Dotty?"

"I'm coming, Jack, but I can't get there fast enough. You have to fight."

"I'm dying?"

"Jaffer's sustaining you."

"He can do that?"

She nodded. "As long as he's with you, he can. The two of you are linked in ways you'd never understand."

"He's a dog."

"You know better, Jack." She told him, resting her palm against his cheek tenderly. "You've always known he's more than that."

"I have...?" He closed his eyes, confused and too tired to try to figure out what she meant. He wanted to sleep more than anything.

"Jack!"

The sharpness in her voice forced his eyes open once more. Dotty was still there, and now he could feel Jaffer was there as well. There was a comforting weight on his legs, and Jack could feel... something else. A tiny, but steady, trickle of energy coming into him from somewhere else.

"You have to fight, Jack." Dotty told him, firmly. "You have to hold on."

"I'm fine, Dotty," Jack told her. "Relax."

"You need to stay awake."

"I can't."

"We need you too badly to let you sleep."

"It's just sleep."

"Sam needs you."

"It's sleep, Dotty. That's all."

"If you die, Jaffer will die."

"What?" This woke him up a little more. He tried to sit up, but found he was pinned to the bed he was on by some force he couldn't fight. Couldn't even struggle against. "Jaffer's hurt?"

"He's fine, Jack." Her voice was fading, though, getting more and more distant. "You have to fight, Jack. Don't sleep until I tell you that you can."

"But-"

"Do what I tell you."

He scowled. People were always telling him what to do.

"Jack..."

This voice was different. Masculine. Loving in a way he'd never heard before. Not even a whisper in the dark from Sam. Transcending love. Beyond anything Jack could understand.

"Stay with me..."

The trickle of energy became a little bigger as Jack focused on that voice, a voice that was forcing him to stay awake through sheer will.

"Who...?" He tried to speak, but the voice hushed him.

"Later. Concentrate on staying awake for now, okay?"

"You won't leave me?"

"Never."

Jack nodded, and closed his eyes, but he didn't try to sleep. Instead, he focused once more on the voice, waiting to hear that he could sleep, but finding himself able to stay awake far easier than he'd thought it was possible. The entire time, the energy infused him, giving him the strength he needed and at the same time wrapping him in a blanket of love and comfort.

How long she stood there with Teal'c, Sam would never know. She watched the bustling activities of the two teams of medics, trying to understand what was happening with the people she loved by listening to the orders the doctors were giving. The ones working on Daniel weren't as frantic, speaking in low tones and murmurs as they called for their tools and various medicines and bent over his leg with intense concentration as they worked on putting together the sinews and muscles and God only knew what else.

Janet Fraiser's team was a bit noisier as they worked on Jack. They had all given up on trying to move Jaffer off the Colonel's legs, and were carefully avoiding his teeth, although unless someone came too close to him, he didn't actually bare them at anyone. The medics were concentrating on getting IVs into Jack, replacing blood and other fluids lost, and pumping him full of antibiotics to quell any infection or fever. Janet was working furiously, but she was starting to tire, and Sam thought that Jaffer, too, was beginning to droop.

The black lab was certainly resting heavily on Jack's legs, now, smearing them with blood from his chest. Sam wondered if he'd been hurt without her noticing, and was just deciding that she'd better go see if he'd let her look when Janet broke off from the rest of the group and headed over to her, stopping only for a moment to talk to one of the doctors that was working on Daniel.

Hammond had noticed as well, and walked over from the corner he'd been standing in, trying to stay out of the way, anxious to hear what was happening.

"Janet?"

Fraiser could hear the fear in Sam's voice, and she wished she had better news to give her friend.

"It's bad, Sam," she said, gently, trying to soften the blow. "I can't get him to stabilize. He's lost a lot of blood, and his chest is badly injured."

"He's not going...?" Carter couldn't even finish the sentence. Her face had gone pale, and she felt her knees give out. Only Teal'c's supporting arm kept her upright, and Janet and the Jaffa guided her to a padded bench to sit on. Janet knelt in front of her, and Teal'c and Hammond sat on either side of her.

"Sam, I don't even know why he's alive, now." Janet said. "He shouldn't have made it back through the gate. Not with the injuries he's sustained. I'm using machines to keep his heart beating and forcing oxygen into him, but they're not going to be enough. Even if I could keep him on them forever, he's still slipping away."

"What about Doctor Jackson?" Hammond asked, needing some good news. He was as numb as Sam was with the news on Jack, and only the fact that he absolutely couldn't allow anyone to see him break down was keeping him from crying out in denial. Unfortunately, Janet's news there wasn't much better.

"He's probably going to lose his leg. There's a lot of nerve damage, and Doctor Hild doesn't know how much – if any – he can repair."

"This isn't happening..." Sam closed her eyes, putting her head in her hands. Things had been so good only that morning, and now she couldn't imagine how they could be any worse.

"We've got to get Sally here."

"I'll call her myself," Hammond said, wrapping his arm around Carter. He was thinking that he'd better call Jacob as well. Someone was going to have to stay with Sam, and her father was the best choice, really.

"How..." Sam looked up from her hands and over to the table, where the medics were still working, changing IV bags, and checking machinery. "How long... Janet?"

She understood the question, and frowned slightly, shaking her head.

"I don't know, Sam... minutes... hours... it depends on him, I guess." She honestly couldn't believe Jack had held on as long as he had. There was nothing keeping him alive except the machines, and they weren't really doing all that much, Janet knew.

"This is not acceptable."

All heads in the infirmary turned at the sound of the strange voice.