Janet sighed as the sedative she had administered to her thrashing patient began to kick in. The man finally started to calm down, and within moments he lay perfectly still, aside from the rapid rise and fall of his chest with each breath.
"Start the IV," Janet instructed nurse Rachel Penner. "Now that he's not fighting us, maybe we can do something about his dehydration."
"Yes, Doctor."
Janet moved on to the next cot, in which lay a frightened young woman who was growing more and more distressed. "Get them away!" she cried. "Please! Get them away!"
"Shhhh, it's alright," Janet soothed, but the woman did not acknowledge her.
"The madwa are coming! They'll take her! My baby! Get them away from us! Please!"
"Brom?" Janet called as she saw the healer enter the ward.
He hurried over to her. "Yes, Dr. Fraiser?"
"What is she saying?"
Brom listened to the young woman's delirious ranting for a moment before replying. "The madwa are a legend among our people - beasts who feed on the flesh of infants. Merely stories made up to frighten young children. She is seeing things that are simply not there."
Janet looked on in sympathy as the young woman screamed in terror and curled up into a fetal position on the bed. "Nurse Penner," she called.
When the nurse appeared at her side a second later, Janet gave her quick instructions on which antibiotics and antipyretics to administer to the woman in order to prevent her sores from getting infected and hopefully lower her temperature a few degrees. Then she moved on to her next patient.
It went on this way for what seemed like hours, but what according to her watch was only forty-five minutes. She had just begun to feel like she was making some headway when Sam beckoned her over to the doorway.
"What is it, Sam?" she asked, concern making her stomach sink into her shoes at the look of despair on her friend's face.
"We have the results of those tests you wanted us to run."
Here it comes, Janet thought. She braced herself for the worst. "And?"
Sam didn't come right out and say it, but it didn't matter. The look on her face said it all. "I'm sorry, Janet."
Janet took a deep breath and nodded. "I want to be the one to tell him."
Daniel looked up slowly as the door opened again. It had been a relatively quiet hour since Janet had paid them her short visit, but it hadn't made the waiting any easier.
His roommates rose to their feet as Janet, Brom, and two men he didn't know entered the room. Daniel stayed seated on the floor. He had been in the same position for so long that he knew his legs would protest if he tried to stand, but the truth was, he was just too tired to bother moving anyway.
He watched as Brom approached the other four of the room's occupants. "My friends, I have some good news for you," the healer said. "You do not have the mind fever. You will be free to return to your homes once you have bathed and changed your clothes."
Three relieved sighs and bright smiles followed this announcement, but one stifled cry did not go unnoticed by Daniel. The man who had spoken to him earlier sank to the ground and began to sob.
"Mika, did you not understand me?" Brom asked. "You are well. You can return home."
"He doesn't want to," Daniel wearily spoke up for the weeping man. "He has nothing to go home to."
Everyone else in the room became deathly silent, not even daring to breathe as Mika sobbed out his grief. After a few moments, however, Brom indicated for the other two men to escort him away, and within moments the room was empty of everyone but Daniel, Brom, and Janet.
"Daniel..." Janet began, squatting down to bring herself to Daniel's eye level.
"You don't have to say it, Janet," he cut in. "I already know."
Janet looked stricken, his calm acceptance of the inevitable seeming to shake her more than the knowledge that he had the virus had done. "There is hope, Daniel," she asserted. "Some of the drugs I requested be brought here from the SGC seem to be helping everyone I've managed to get them into so far. I already know which ones work for lowering the high fever, lessening the severity of the seizures... We'll get through this, Daniel. I promise you that."
Daniel wordlessly reached out for her hand and guided it to the back of his neck. He rolled his head to the side, effectively holding her hand in place as he sighed and closed his eyes.
"Are you in pain?"
"Headache," he answered, the word slurred with exhaustion.
"I can give you something for that if you want."
Daniel opened his eyes a crack and looked at her. His heart ached even more than his throbbing head at the look of anxiety and empathy on her face. "No, it's fine," he said, lifting his head and releasing her hand. "Don't worry about me. You should be with your other patients right now."
Janet stroked the side of his face and shook her head. "I don't want to leave you alone like this..."
"It doesn't matter, Janet," he said with as much firmness as he could muster. "They need you more than I do. Besides," he added with a half-hearted smile, "we'll be spending lots of time together soon enough."
Janet swallowed so hard he could almost hear it through her hazmat mask. She darted a quick glance around the room. "This place is too much like a cell," she murmured. "I wanted them to bring in a cot for you, but they were all needed for..."
"I've had worse."
She nodded and sagged a little in sadness. "I'll send Colonel O'Neill in to stay with you until..." Her voice trailed off before she could finish her thought.
Daniel gave an appreciative nod. "Thanks." He certainly hadn't relished the thought of being locked away all by himself.
Janet patted his arm softly as she rose to her feet.
A sudden feeling of drunkenness washed over him as he looked down at the hand that rested for a moment on his sleeve. He couldn't drag his eyes away from it, and while he knew that his mind must be playing tricks on him, he wasn't able to completely deny what he saw. He studied it curiously, finding the absurdity of what he was seeing strangely addictive.
It was shrinking.
He watched in fascination as Janet turned to leave, wondering why she was moving in slow motion. He heard her speak but couldn't understand what she was saying. He saw her lift her hand towards the window on the opposite wall, heard the door swing open, saw Brom exiting the room...
Shrinking. Everything was shrinking. Everyone was moving in slow motion. Every sound had its own echo, and they were getting quieter and quieter as everything around him got smaller and smaller.
His mind started trying to rationalize what he was seeing, but he found he couldn't do it. What was going on? What was happening to him? He couldn't remember where he was, couldn't focus his mind on any one coherent thought. Everything inside his head - every thought, sound, and image - was floating around, rising and falling, always out of his reach. He tried so hard, but couldn't grasp onto reality. It was slipping away from him and he couldn't stop it. He couldn't think, couldn't breathe...
Suddenly, his fascination turned into panic. He lunged forward and grasped Janet's ankle just as she was about to walk through the door. He didn't understand the words she shouted at him. Her voice sounded far away, her words garbled. Everything around him began to wave in and out of focus, growing and shrinking, growing and shrinking in time to the steady throbbing in his head.
He could only hear one sound now, and it was getting louder, splitting his head in two with its intensity. His throat felt strained and he struggled to draw in a breath. The noise stopped as he gulped in a lungful of air, but began again in earnest a moment later.
Blackness was already descending over his mind as he realized what the sound was - it was the sound of his own terror-filled screams.
This was the end.
To be continued...