Author's Note: On the off chance that the site goes down, I'll remind those of you who don't know, that there is a forum where I also will post these chapters so you don't have to wait to read them and I don't have to wait to post them. All chapters will eventually end up here, though, once the site gets back up. A link to the forum is in my profile – and you don't have to join to read the messages.

OOOOOOOO

"You're doing great, Ian."

"I feel like shit."

"Just hang in there. You're going to be fine, just don't rest until I tell you that you can, okay?"

"Can't you do something…?"

"You don't need me to do anything, son. You're going to be fine. Help is here, and as long as you keep fighting to stay with me, you're going to make it through this."

"I'm pretty tired."

That was an understatement. He was exhausted, and drained in a way he'd never felt before.

"You've lost a lot of blood. You'll feel better soon. Just don't sleep."

Ian snorted.

"Ironic that I want to sleep now, when I haven't wanted to in months…"

"So stay awake so you don't have to worry about the nightmares."

"I'm not afraid of the nightmares…" And even if he were, he'd still be so tired that he probably wouldn't have them. "Tell me about Dotty. What is she?"

"I can't tell you that."

"What are you?"

There was gentle amusement. Everything about this conversation was gentle, Ian noticed. It was good, though, because he wasn't really feeling up to anything confrontational.

"You know I can't tell you," the Presence told him. "So don't try to trick me into it. How about I tell you a story, instead?"

"I'm a little old for stories, don't you think?"

"A person can never be too old for stories," he was corrected. "Stories are good teachers."

"What's the story about?"

"Do you want to hear it?"

Ian sighed, figuring sure the moment he said yes, he was going to hear about unicorns and virgins and leprechauns with pots of gold stuck up their asses. But he nodded anyways – or tried to. He couldn't seem to get anything to move for him.

"Sure, tell me a story." He said. "But if I fall asleep, it'll be your fault…" For boring him.

There was a soft chuckle.

"A long time ago – so long ago that the numbers don't even matter – there was a race of people who called themselves the Ancient Ones. These people were a very powerful…"

Ian perked right up after hearing the first sentence. The Ancient Ones had to be the same as the Ancients – the people who built the Stargates.

"Right. Now let me continue…"

"Sorry."

"These people were a race of powerful beings, but they were, for the most part, good hearted people who…"

And so the story started. And Ian listened; his mind taken once more off just how tired he was and how badly he wanted to sleep as he listened to what was probably the most fascinating story he'd ever heard. And the time passed.

OOOOOOOO

By the time Reyes and the Sergeant came back, Jack was once more standing by the door, his arms crossed nonchalantly as he watched Danson, and Jaffer in a guarding stance next to him, his eyes also watching the man on the table who was still weeping softly – although there weren't any more marks on him now than there were when the two police officers had left.

"Thank you for watching him for me, Colonel," the Sergeant said, looking over at his prisoner and wondering what had happened to cause such a reaction.

"It was my pleasure," Jack said. Meaning it. "Reyes, I need to talk to you for a moment. Sergeant, you might want to keep your prisoner away from a phone until further notice."

Which told both of them that Jack had managed to get something they could use – and didn't want Danson to have a chance to warn anyone that he'd talked.

"Sure…" Reyes said as the Sergeant nodded. "I'll walk you back out to the waiting room."

They left the room as the doctor walked in, and as soon as the door was closed behind them, Jack started telling the police officer what he'd been told. None of it – especially the confession he'd just gotten – could be used in a court of law, but the address was extremely helpful and Reyes was on the radio the moment he had the address of the garage that Zeke Lang was supposedly hiding in. Before Jack had finished the bare bones of the story, the police were already heading for the garage.

"What did you do to that guy to get him to tell you that?" Reyes asked, curiously.

"I didn't do anything," Jack lied. "He must have thought I was a priest or something, and felt like confessing."

Reyes snorted.

"I'm going to go start rounding up the other suspects – Hall and I can identify them, so we're going to go with the teams that are sent, and do that. Care to join us?"

Jack shook his head.

"I'm not leaving here." Not until he was certain Ian was going to be okay – and he still hadn't heard anything from Janet Fraiser. He didn't know if that was bad news or good news, and he looked at a clock in the hallway as they entered the waiting room. "I'd appreciate it if you kept me in the loop, though – especially on this Lang guy…"

"Will do." It was the least they could do considering the help the Colonel had been.

Jack shook his hand, and he and Jaffer headed over to where Sam and the others were sitting, while Reyes left the room.

They all looked up when Jack came over, and he sat down next to Sam, gathering her into his arms even though he felt dirty after spending so much time with Bob Danson.

"Have you heard anything from Janet?"

Sam shook her head.

"The nurses still don't know anything."

"He's hanging in there," Dotty said from the chair she was sitting in, Shawn on one side of her and Cassie on the other. The woman was so calm that Cassie had gravitated to her without realizing it. "He's a tough kid, from what I hear," she added, looking over at Jack. "I'm sure he's going to be fine." Which told him quite plainly that if Ian needed her, she was more than willing to take matters into her own hands – and that she'd know somehow if he did need her.

Jack nodded, resting his chin on Sam's blonde hair.

"Yeah, I'm sure he is…"

"What did you find out, Jack?" Emmett asked, curiously. "You were gone an awfully long time."

"A lot," Jack admitted. "It's fairly graphic, though…" Meaning it might upset the fainter of hearts in the room. But they all turned towards him, and their expressions were identical – they all wanted the story and none of them were faint of heart. He let go of Sam, and reached for her water glass and took a sip before settling into a bit more comfortable a position.

"Apparently," he said. "They weren't actually out looking for him tonight – they just happened to find him while he went for his run."

"He went running?" River asked, shaking his head.

"Something about not wanting to be out of shape when he went back on Monday," Sam said with a faint smile.

"Makes sense," Shawn said, his brown eyes holding just a little bit of humor.

"Go on, Jack," Dotty said. "I'd like to hear the story – without a million interruptions, please…"

"It's not a long story," Jack said, shrugging. "They – they being the five guys that you and Ian ran into at Dairy Queen the other day – came upon him while he was running and decided to set things strait, since apparently they decided Ian got the better of them that day and they couldn't handle that. What they really planned to do – according to the slimeball I talked to – was to scare him off or make him back down. Something that would make him look as foolish as he'd made them look."

"Only Ian didn't back down, did he?" River asked, well able to imagine how his hot-headed roommate would have reacted to that.

"Nope. Not in the least. He made a comment about one's mother and they jumped him."

"With guns?" Sam asked, shaking her head in amazement.

Jack shook his head.

"Hand to hand, is what I was told. He managed to fight them down – look at what he did to Danson, after all – and was walking away when one of them yelled at him, and then pulled his gun and shot him as Ian was turning around. They didn't wait around after that. They all took off, and probably thought they were going to get away with it until Danson came looking for medical treatment, and was recognized by Cassie…"

He trailed off, then, because they knew the rest of the story from there.

"So the police know who to go looking for," Sam said.

Jack nodded.

"They're already on their way. They'll get them - at least these guys better hope the police get them..." He didn't say anything else, but he didn't need to.