It was Jaffer that woke Jack up the next morning. The lab had been restless most of the night, which had transferred itself to Jack, prompting him to go out and sleep on the couch to keep from waking Sam up over and over. She had enough trouble sleeping, what with the baby occasionally giving her a good whack to the bladder or liver, and he didn't want to add to the reason she didn't get any sleep that night. He kissed her softly, telling her where he was going, and she'd mumbled something he couldn't understand and gone back to sleep almost immediately.

Taking Jaffer with him, Jack had flopped down on the sofa, and still the lab was restless, whuffling and making rumbling noises deep in his chest until Jack finally just pulled him up on top of him and cuddled him, mumbling to him sleepily about how Sam wasn't going to let either of them back into the bed if hekept this up. Jaffer had whuffled and rumbled a bit more, but if he kept doing it Jack didn't know, because he finally drifted off.

"You're up early."

Jack looked over at Sam when she came into the kitchen and immediately started her a cup of tea.

"Jaffer woke me."

Otherwise he would have slept in, since it was Saturday. As it was, he was showered and shaved and already dressed for his day.

Sam looked over at the lab, who was busily munching his way through his breakfast, and smiled.

"Maybe he's having sympathy pains?"

"I think it was the salad he stole off my plate last night coming back to haunt him."

She smiled again, and walked over, wrapping her arms around him, and he set his coffee down and hugged her lightly.

"Are you hungry?"

"Starved."

"Go sit down. I'll make you some breakfast."

"Are you going to eat?"

He shook his head.

"I'm going to go take Ian out for breakfast."

She looked at the clock – it was a little after 8 AM.

"Did you call him?"

"Nah. This way he doesn't have a choice."

"And if you take him out into public, you'll be less inclined to lose your temper and will hear him out…"

He nodded. How well she knew him.

"Do you need anything before I go?"

"Are you taking Jaffer?"

"No. He can stay and keep you company."

And guard her to make sure if something happened she wasn't going to be alone.

Sam smiled; not at all fooled.

"I'm fine. I'll make my own breakfast, and then maybe we'll go for a walk to the park."

"I'll see you later, then."

She nodded, tilting her head so he could kiss her.

"Tell him I said hi."

OOOOOOOOOO

When Jack pulled his truck into the parking area at the apartment building, he parked it right next to Sam's convertible. He sat in the truck for a long few minutes, gathering his thoughts and going over what he wanted to say. On the way over he'd been trying to figure out the best way to broach the subject of what had happened Thursday night without getting either himself or Ian angry, and had pretty much come up blank. Which meant he was going to have to wing it – something he did well, normally, but had a feeling it wasn't going to go well in this instance. He and Ian were too much alike sometimes. But, it was something he had to try, anyways.

He got out of the truck, and headed inside. And promptly ran into Daniel.

"What are you doing here?"

"Good morning, Jack. I'm fine, thank you. How are you?"

Jack scowled.

"Hi, Daniel. How are you? What are you doing here?"

"I came to steal a couple more books from my shelves."

Jack looked at Daniel's hands, which were empty.

"And Ian wouldn't let you have them?"

"He didn't answer the door. So I thought he must be gone – or sleeping in."

"Sam's car is here. Did you try calling him and waking him up?"

"He didn't answer."

"Well… let's go wake him up."

Jack wasn't going to go home and tell Sam that he hadn't had his talk with Ian. At least not without trying to have it.

"I can come back later, Jack… it's no big deal…"

"Come on, Daniel."

Without looking to see if he was following, Jack headed for the elevators, and after a few minutes he and Daniel were outside the door of the apartment.

He knocked on the door and the two of them looked at each other while they waited for an answer. But none came.

"I told you."

"Yeah, yeah. Do you have your key?"

"It's just a book, Jack. I can wa-"

But Jack couldn't. Now it was different, though, than just wanting to talk to Ian, because he knew the kid was an early riser – even on Saturday. He should have been up for at least a couple of hours, and definitely should have answered the door.

"Open the door, Daniel."

Daniel sighed, but did as Jack told him, pulling out his key to the apartment and opening the door, wondering as he did so if this was just another sign of how ticked off Jack was at Ian.

The apartment was silent when they walked in the door, and Daniel frowned at the scattered clothes on the floor. That wasn't like Ian, he knew.

"Ian?"

The archeologist could hear Jack's concern in his voice, and he felt a stab of worry, as well. If Jack was worried, then Daniel knew there might be a reason to be.

There was no answer to his call.

"Maybe he went for a run…"

"He drives to the school when he runs," Jack told him. "Ian!"

Jack was walking through the apartment, now, glancing out onto the balcony as he walked past that door, and then heading down the hall, with Daniel right behind him. The bathroom door was open, but the bedroom door was closed, and Jack didn't even knock. By then, he was certain something was wrong. He opened the door, and they both walked in – and stopped.

Ian was in the bed, tangled in sheets with the rest of the bedding on the floor. He was muttering something, but they could both tell he wasn't awake, and even from the doorway, they could see he was flushed with fever. He didn't react when they crossed the room, but he did cry out when Jack reached him and pressed his hand lightly against his sweaty cheek.

"Ano dirsartium! Ano caratian deca feratum…"

"Jesus…" Jack started to untangle the cadet from his sheets while Daniel reached for the phone.

"Ian?"

"Alositu…"

"What's he saying?" Jack asked Daniel, who had frowned and hesitated in mid dial.

"I'm not even sure what language he's speaking…"

"What?"

Daniel shrugged, looking baffled, and started dialing again.

"It almost sounds like Ancient…"