The day was mostly uneventful. Nobody fainted or got sick or injured, and there were no surprises, on-base or off-.

Janet had Jack come to the infirmary several times to be checked on, but all she noticed was a distinct irritability towards her, which was, after all, normal for him. Daniel, however, was abnormally quiet, even for being sick. She asked him about it, but all he did was shrug and say, "It's nothing."

Sam was in Janet's lab all day, looking at the blood, dirt, and water samples and drawing and calculating things on pads of paper. At 1300, Janet came in and told Sam she had to eat something or be thrown out.

"Janet..." Sam moaned.

Janet threw Sam a stern look. "Sam, I know you have to be hungry by now. I'm surprised you're not falling over with fatigue, myself, but I'm not going to argue about that one too. Just eat something, now!"

Sam rolled her eyes, but complied.

At the commissary, she saw her CO, and sat down across from him with a piece of cheese pizza. "Hey," she said.

He looked up, startled. "Oh, hey, Carter," he said when he saw who it was. "What's up? Danny isn't..."

"He's the same," she said.

"Ah," he replied.

The conversation, having been played out several times over the last day and a half, ran dry quickly. After about five minutes, however, Jack said. "I'm really worried about it for some reason."

Sam looked up, swallowed, surprised, and put her pizza down. The colonel usually didn't talk about his feelings; it was, in fact, near the top of his list of dislikes. Damned if she wasn't going to listen when he actually opened up.

"Why's he so quiet today? I mean, he may be feeling rotten, but...this is different. Like he's brooding or something..."

Sam told him about the dream—or at least, as much as she knew. She felt slightly guilty for telling Jack about it, but if anybody could find a way into Daniel's head, it was Jack. Jack had known Daniel for longer than anybody else on base, and had helped him through more than one emotional problem.

"Jesus," Jack said when Sam was through. "I hope he's okay."

--------------------------------------

Daniel was holding onto consciousness as hard as he could. "I can't sleep," he said to himself. "I can't. Not unless I want to have that dream again. Or even one that's worse. I can't sleep..."

Janet came over, a worried look in her eyes. "Daniel," she said, "you have to sleep sometime." She'd been trying to get him to sleep for hours, and he'd refused.

As he did now. "I can't," he muttered. "If I sleep I'll—I'll..." he trailed off.

"You'll what?" Janet asked gently. But Daniel shook his head urgently, wincing at the pain the motion gave him. "Daniel," Janet sighed, "If you won't go to sleep I'm going to have to sedate you."

"Sedate you..."

"I'm going to have to sedate you. If you won't calm down I'm going to have to sedate you."

"No!" Daniel screeched.

Several nurses looked over as Janet took a step back. After a minute, she said, "Daniel, are you okay?"

"No," Daniel repeated, covering his face with his hands. "I just...I can't—please don't sedate me," he said desperately.

"Alright, I won't," said Janet, confused and worried. "But what's wrong?"

Daniel looked up at her blearily. "I can't," he said cryptically.

Janet sighed. "Daniel..."

Daniel shook his head. Janet sighed again. "Okay, Daniel," she said.

----------------------------------

Soon after, Sam came back in, with Jack right behind her. They both stopped to say hello to Daniel, but he didn't say much. After trying to chat with him—and not getting very far—she gave up, patted him on the shoulder, shared a cryptic glance with her superior, and headed to the lab again. Jack, however, stayed.

"So I hear you won't sleep," said Jack casually. Daniel looked questioningly up at him, and he said, "I have my ways."

"Oh," Daniel whispered.

"So..." Jack said, "Why not?"

"I can't," Daniel said softly, looking at his hands.

"Well, you looked bushed to me," said Jack. "If you just tried..."

"No, it's not that I can't, it's just that I...I can't."

Jack frowned slightly. "You know that makes no sense whatsoever, right?"

Daniel smiled mirthlessly. "Yeah, I know," he said.

Suddenly Jack sat down on the bed, and hugged his friend. "It's okay," Jack said to him. "I'm here."

Daniel, surprised, took a minute to realize what Jack had done, but when he did he held on as hard as he could. "Oh, god, Jack," he said, his voice muffled.

"It's okay," Jack repeated. When Daniel let go, Jack said, "So what was the dream about?"

Daniel blinked. "How did you know I had a dream?" he asked.

"Well, uh," said Jack, "You won't sleep. And it's obvious that you're tired, so it had to be something..."

"Oh," said Daniel.

"And besides, Sam told me."

That got a chuckle out of Daniel. Jack smiled to see his friend hadn't lost all of his sense of humor. "So what was it about?"

"Shao're..." Daniel murmured, gazing at the sheets covering him.

"What about her?" Jack asked.

"She was—she said she hated me—and then she slapped me. And—Jack, please don't make me..." Daniel looked at Jack with anguished eyes.

"Remember it?" Jack asked.

Daniel nodded silently.

They were both quiet for a minute, then Jack said, "You dreamed she hated you...because you didn't find her?"

Daniel looked up at him again, this time really shocked: he hadn't even told anybody about that. "How did you know?" he whispered.

Jack shrugged. "Charlie and Sara," he said simply. "After I lost Charlie, I had dreams...nightmares where he came and yelled at me, told me how much he hated me. And then Sara'd come and tell me it was my fault."

"Oh, god, Jack...I'm sorry..."

Jack laughed softly. "That's just like you, Daniel. My dreams are long gone, and I know they're not true. You, however..." he sighed, and looked straight at his friend. "I know this doesn't help much, but you tried as hard as you could to find her, and she knew it. She loved you more than anybody ever could. I saw how she looked at you, Daniel. She loved you. Okay?"

Daniel nodded numbly. "I know, but—"

"No buts," said Jack. "Now..." he got up, and sat again, this time on the chair next to Daniel's bed. "You need to sleep."

Daniel looked at Jack angrily. "Jack, I can't! I thought you understood—"

"No, I do," said Jack, gazing kindly at his friend. "But you really, really need to sleep. Look, if you have a dream I'll wake you up, okay? I promise."

Daniel was quiet for a minute, then said, "You promise?"

"Yeah," said Jack. "Now go to sleep."

"Okay," said Daniel softly, and closed his eyes.