It was much later. Sam had taken Cassandra home with her, other family members of the other wounded had come and gone as well, and the SGC was closing up for the evening. As much as it ever did, at any rate. There were no more teams off-world, though, so unless something tried to come through the gate, or one of their allies came to them with a problem, things were done for the night.
Emmett Bregman was still on base, but he'd been forced to remove himself from Janet's side and go take care of some of the interview things, which was good, really, because Janet was tired, and she needed her rest. She'd denied that need at first, but she'd fallen asleep only a few moments after they'd all left her alone.
Jack was awake. His body had cleared the painkillers out of his system, so when he slept now it would be because he wanted to. True, he ached a bit – especially after grabbing Cassie like he'd done earlier – but he'd asked for a few Tylenol and had downed them, and they'd taken the edge off the ache. Now he was lying in his bed at the end of the infirmary, half asleep and spending some very quality time with Jaffer, who hadn't gone home with Sam.
The lab was wide awake, and stretched out beside Jack with his head resting lightly on O'Neill's chest. Jack was stroking his shoulder then his face, and teasing him lightly by pulling back the floppy lips and making Jaffer smile every now and then. Jaffer didn't mind. He loved playing with Jack like this, and his brown eyes were so cheerful that it made Jack smile every time he looked at him.
"We should probably take you out once more before I go to sleep, huh?" Jack murmured softly, mostly because he definitely didn't want to wake Janet up. She'd just call for a medic to take Jaffer out for Jack – although that would only work if Jack allowed it to, since Jaffer wouldn't go with anyone unless O'Neill told him to. Except Sam, of course. Sam was an exception. To a lot of things.
Jaffer's tail thumped against Jack's leg. He didn't really need to go out, but he thought it was an excellent idea. They could go get some fresh air and take in the smells, and maybe stop at the commissary and grab a snack?
"You have to be quiet," Jack cautioned the lab as he started pulling off the little suckercups that were connected to the monitors. He wasn't on an IV, so at least he didn't have to yank a needle out of his arm. That always hurt. He swung his legs over the bed, watching Janet Fraiser's sleeping form as he did so, but she didn't make a noise. The joys of painkillers.
Jaffer hopped down from the bed silently, and then waited for Jack, who was only a moment behind. With bare feet and no shirt, he walked down the aisle.
"Sir, you should be in bed..."
He'd known the medics weren't going to just let him go, but Jack was ready for them.
"I know, Lieutenant," he told her. "But Jaffer needs out."
"I could have someone take him."
"Nah, he's been kind of grumpy, and I don't want anyone else to have to deal with his attitude."
The medic looked down at Jaffer, who wagged his tail cheerfully at her.
"Grumpy." Jack reminded the lab out of the side of his mouth.
The tail stopped wagging, and the head and ears went down, just a little. Of course, his eyes were still happy, and the medic had heard the reminder, so it wasn't as if she was really going to fall for that. But it was kind of cute, and she did have to smile. She knew that O'Neill wasn't seriously injured, so it probably wasn't going to kill him to take his dog out for a few minutes.
"Don't be gone long, Sir."
"There and back," Jack promised.
She nodded, and stepped a little to the side to let him pass, and the two headed out of the infirmary and down the hall for the elevators.
"You know, you're going to have to work on your acting skills, little man. That was the most awful portrayal of a grumpy dog that I've ever seen."
Jaffer wagged his tail. Yeah, he'd work on it. As soon as Jack worked on his lying skills.
The elevator opened, and Ben Crane – who had been on his way down to the infirmary to stand outside the door once more – debating whether or not he dared approach Colonel O'Neill – suddenly found himself face to face with the man. And the big lab. He paled immediately, and Jack's expression grew cold when he realized who was on the elevator. Jaffer caught the emotions, of course, and his tail stopped wagging, and his head dropped in warning.
"Colonel O'Neill..."
The voice was a bit higher than usual, Jack noted with some satisfaction. He didn't normally like to bully people, and intimidate people, but when he was trying to it was nice to know he could.
"Mr. Crane."
Jack moved to the side so the man could get off the elevator, but he didn't move. He was still staring at him, and there were a dozen emotions going across his face. Jack raised an eyebrow at him – again, a trick he'd learned from Teal'c.
"Are you getting off on this floor?"
"Um..." Ben swallowed nervously. "Actually... I was looking for you..."
"You found me. Congratulations."
"I... could we talk for... for a minute? Please?"
That was unexpected. Jack frowned, but motioned Jaffer onto the elevator. Crane pressed himself into the very corner as Jack got on, too.
"We're going up to the surface," O'Neill told him, pushing the button. "That okay with you?"
"Yes... that's fine."
They were silent in the elevator. Jack didn't know what the guy wanted, but if he was willing to get into a very small room with him and Jaffer – who was looking at him suspiciously – then it had to be important. To him, anyways. Which probably meant it was something interview related.
When the door opened, Jaffer stepped out first, and O'Neill gestured for Crane to precede him. The two men started down the hall to the first checkpoint, and were waved through by one of the four Marines on guard there.
"I wanted to apologize to you, Sir," Crane said. "We got off on the wrong foot – and it was all my fault – but I'm not really as bad as you think I am."
He'd been practicing the apology since he'd decided to tender one, but it didn't come out quite like he'd intended for it to. Jack looked over at him, a little surprised. He'd never have figured Crane to be a guy to figure out he when he was in the wrong and step up to the plate on it. So to speak.
"I'm listening."
Ben shrugged.
"I'm not... I really do have more respect for people than I've let on. You just happened to be there the two times that I suddenly turned into an idiot and put my foot in my mouth."
"Two times in two days," Jack told him. "About the two women I probably love most."
Ben nodded.
"I know. The... the thing with Major O'Neill... um... your wife..." He hesitated. "That was dumb. It was just a guy thing. I wanted to... I don't know, seem to be one of the guys, and that's what guys say and how guys act when a beautiful woman walks past."
"I don't." Jack said, dangerously, although he really wasn't as angry as he was acting. He was actually impressed with the way Crane was explaining himself. "Men don't need to act like morons around women just to prove they're men."
Ben nodded.
"I know that, now. It won't happen again. Not here. Not anywhere."
Well, that was a start.
"And the other thing?" Jack asked, as they went through yet another checkpoint and headed out into the open air, following Jaffer to the wide-open field that was designated a running area for the base dogs.
Ben swallowed again.
"I have no excuse for the other comments I made about Doctor Fraiser," he said. "She's probably a great person, and I judged her before I even had a chance to get to know her. Emmett's crazy about her – which tells me she's probably something special."
The younger man watched as Jaffer took off, running across the open ground far more quickly than you'd think a dog his size could go, but then he turned to Jack.
"My mom was in the Army. She got pregnant, had me, and dumped me and my dad, both. She decided she didn't want the responsibility of a family. She wanted to be able to see the world and all that shit, and didn't want baggage."
"Not everyone's like that."
"No. I know. And people don't have to be in the military to split up. I know that, too. There's bastards everywhere, they're not confined to uniforms."
Wow. The boy'd been doing some serious thinking, obviously. Jack was more impressed than he thought he should be.
"I just over reacted when Emmett told me he'd went out with Fraiser –"
"Doctor Fraiser," Jack corrected.
"Doctor Fraiser." Ben nodded. "I could see he looked happy, and I instantly thought she'd hurt him and jumped all over her character because of it. It was wrong, and I'll apologize to her for it."
"She doesn't know about it." Unless Bregman had told her, but Jack doubted he had. "She doesn't need to know about it."
"Should I apologize to your wife?"
"No. She doesn't know about that, either, and I don't want you telling her anything."
"Yes, Sir."
Jack scowled, and held out his hand to the other man. If the guy was man enough to admit his mistakes and come clean on them – and as far as Jack was concerned, he'd done that and more – then Jack could bury the hatchet.
"I accept your apology, though, on behalf of both of them."
Ben looked startled, and almost flinched when Jack had put his hand out. But he smiled, mostly in relief, and took the offered hand.
"Thank you, Colonel O'Neill."
