Chapter 3: Preparing For a Miracle
Jack walked once more into Sam's office to find her still working on the same project she had been working on before. Due to his good mood at the latest development, he decided to have a little fun so he snuck up behind her and poked her lightly in the ribs, causing her to jump a mile in the air.
"What? Who's there?" Sam said, whirling around to face her possible attacker.
"Easy, Sam. It's just me. I was just having a little fun with you, that's all. Sorry if I freaked you out or anything."
"Oh, Jack. You scared the living fool out of me. What's going on? Are you okay?"
"Yep." Jack said, grinning.
"I know from that look that something's up. Will you please let me in on whatever it is that you obviously know?"
"Well, you remember when I told you earlier today that my life was in danger."
"Yeah, it's been all I've thought about since you left."
"You can forget about it. Daniel and Fraiser found a solution. Everything's going to be fine."
"Are you serious? I'm so glad that you're going to be okay and we aren't going to lose you." Sam cried as she threw herself into Jack's arms and hugged him as hard as she possibly could.
"There's a catch to this whole thing, though."
"Wait a minute. What kind of catch?"
"Well, the solution involves my getting a portion of a liver from a living donor. That's where Daniel comes in to this whole thing. He's going to donate a portion of his liver to me and we'll both regenerate a whole so there are no extraneous risks. This was all Daniel's idea and Janet will be there to assist. It's all set up. We report to Air Force Academy Hospital at 0900 tomorrow morning."
"Oh my God. This is insane. There has got to be some way that this can be solved some other way."
"This is our best chance, Sam." Janet said as she walked in the door with General Hammond.
"Dr. Fraiser's right, Major. This plan that Dr. Jackson has come up with is the best chance for Colonel O'Neill's survival at this time."
"What are we going to do in the meantime? I mean, you can't expect us to go off world on missions without Jack and Daniel." Sam said, obviously terrified.
"Give me some credit here, Sam. Effective immediately, I'm placing SG-1 on stand down until this situation has been resolved. You're all going to need each other's support right now and besides, I don't believe you and Teal'c would be very effective on off world missions when your minds would obviously be with Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Jackson here." Hammond said, touching Sam's arm reassuringly.
"What is transpiring here? For what reason are you discussing O'Neill and Daniel Jackson when only one is present?" Teal'c asked, having entered the office looking for Sam.
"Teal'c. There's something that you need to know. We're on stand down until further notice. Daniel and I are going into Academy hospital tomorrow morning at 0900."
"To what end?"
"Ah, well, you see Teal'c, I'm not sure if you get the implications of what I'm about to tell you given that you carried a symbiote for immunity and all but I'll give it a shot anyway. My liver function has declined and I need a transplant to save my life. Daniel has volunteered to donate part of his to me so that I can survive."
"Would that not involve sacrificing the life of Daniel Jackson?"
"Oh, no. Sorry about that, Teal'c. No one is going to die. Both organs will regenerate to whole within a matter of months and then things will be as they were before." Jack explained quickly.
"Indeed. I wish you well. I shall be present the entire time in case my services are needed. But for now, I must meditate on the events of the coming day." Teal'c said, nodding to his friends as he excused himself from the room.
"Well, now that that's settled, I think we should all get some rest for tomorrow. Especially you, Jack. I understand that Dr. Jackson has already left the base."
"Yes, sir. He said that he had to break the news to Sarah. I'm going to call him later."
"Very well. I'll see you people in the morning before this gets underway. In the meantime, I'm ordering all of you to get some rest."
"Yes, sir." Jack said, saluting Hammond smartly as he led Sam out of the room.
As they walked to the elevators that would take them to the surface, Jack and Sam tried to make idle conversation to keep their minds off of what was to come.
"Sam, why don't you follow me back to my house tonight and I'll throw together some steaks and things for dinner. We'll even call Daniel, Sarah and Teal'c and see if they all want to come over too. Make kind of an evening out of it. Means of distraction, that kind of thing."
"That sounds like a good idea. Let's go invite Teal'c and then we'll go." Sam agreed, smiling a little.
When Jack and Sam arrived at Teal'c quarters, they knocked gently on the door to make sure that they weren't disturbing him. He had said that he was going to Kelnoreem and they didn't want to interrupt.
"Enter!" Teal'c called.
"Hey, T. I'm going to have a cookout at my house this evening and Carter and I were wondering if you'd like to come." Jack said.
"Will Daniel Jackson also be present?"
"Yeah. We were going to call them as soon as we get to Jack's house. I'm sure they'll be happy to come over." Sam confirmed.
"Then I shall come as well. I would relish this opportunity to spend time with two of my greatest friends on the eve of such a desperate situation."
"Great. Come on over in about 2 hours. That'll give me enough time to get everything set up, talk to Daniel and get the steaks on before everyone gets to my house."
"Very well. I shall see you then. Do you wish me to bring anything?" Teal'c asked.
"Nope. Just yourself. Carter and I'll take care of everything else." Jack smiled at his friend as he left Teal'c's quarters and headed for the surface, Sam closely in tow.
In the meantime, back at his house, Daniel walked slowly into the front door trying to think of how in the world he was going to break the news to Sarah of what the next day was to hold.
"Sarah! Are you here?" Daniel called as he stepping into the living room.
"I'm right here, Daniel. I was cleaning up a little." Sarah answered as she appeared from the back hallway, approaching to kiss him. "What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Sarah, sit down. Honey, we need to talk about something very important."
"What's happened, Daniel? Please tell me. You're really starting to scare me."
"I'm not even sure where to start. This morning, Jack came into my office and seemed really upset. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that Janet found his liver function was severely declined and he needed to have a transplant to live longer than six months. So I went on the Internet and queried a search to look for any possible solution and I found a site on live organ donation that caught my attention. I talked to Janet about it and we went through some procedures and found that we have a match for a partial liver transplant for Jack and it's a person on base."
"Who's the match?"
"It's me. I'm a match for Jack. We report to Academy Hospital across town at 9:00 tomorrow morning for the procedure. Now, before you get too distressed I want to tell you that there aren't going to be an extraneous risks to this situation and there is a 100 success rate according to the intel that I was able to gather." Daniel explained softly, hating the tears of horror than he saw in Sarah's eyes.
"Oh my God. This is too hard of a situation to believe. I'm going to be there for you every step of the way. You won't go through this alone." Sarah whispered, wrapping her arms tightly around her fiancé's neck as she began to cry.
"I know. Shh. It's going to be okay. I promise. You know you can't get rid of me that easily."
Thirty minutes later, Jack and Sam had arrived back at Jack's house and as Sam went into the kitchen to chill some drinks, Jack picked up the phone and dialed Daniel's number to invite him over for steaks.
"Hello."
"Hey, Daniel. It's Jack. Were you and Sarah planning on doing anything tonight?" Jack asked.
"Not really. Just planning on spending time together. Why?"
"Because Sam's over here and we're going to grill out steaks. Teal'c's going to come over and we want you guys to come over too. That way we can all spend time together. So, are you guys in?"
"Hang on a minute, let me talk to Sarah."
"Okay."
"Hey, Sarah. Jack's on the phone and he wants us to come to his house tonight for a get together with him, Sam and Teal'c before this whole deal. Is that okay with you?"
"Yeah. That's fine. This way I'll be able to keep my mind off of everything." Sarah said quietly.
"Jack. Count us in. What time do you want us to come by?" Daniel asked.
"How about you guys head over in about an hour and a half. We need to keep our minds off of what's going on and spending time together is the best way to do that."
"Yeah, that's exactly what Sarah said. We'll see you in a little while then."
An hour later, Jack was out in the back yard starting his grill when he heard a car pull up outside. He walked in through the living room just as Sam opened the front door far Daniel and Sarah, who had just arrived.
"Hey, Daniel. Hey, Sarah. Come on in." Sam said as she hugged her friends.
"Hey, Sam. Where's Jack?"
"Right here. Hey guys. I'm really glad you decided to come. Teal'c should be here before too long. I'm just getting ready to put the food on the grill. Wanna help me, Daniel?" Jack asked, placing his arm around Daniel's shoulders.
"Yeah, sure. Sounds like a way to kill a little time until Teal'c gets here." Daniel smiled as he followed Jack out the door into the back yard.
Fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang again as Sam and Sarah were sitting on the couch talking. Knowing who was there, Sam opted not to go to the door.
"Come on in! Door's open!" Sam called. "Hey, Teal'c."
"Greetings, Major Carter. I see that everyone else has already arrived. I am late, am I not." Teal'c said as he walked stoically into the house.
"No, of course you're not. Daniel and Sarah just got here a little bit early."
"What is the location of O'Neill and Daniel Jackson."
"They're out in the back starting the grill. You can go out with them if you want. Actually I think they'd like it if you did."
"Indeed." Teal'c said as he walked out the back door to join his friends.
"O'Neill. Daniel Jackson. May I be of assistance?"
"Hey, Teal'c. Glad you came. We're almost finished here so we're just about to eat."
"So, Teal'c, can we count on you to take care of the girls for us when we can't?" Daniel asked.
"Indeed. I am unable to believe that you would think I would do anything other, Daniel Jackson."
"I don't think you'd do anything else, Teal'c. I was only joking."
"If you insist. I am unaware of this class of humor."
"Teal'c, you still have a lot to learn about Earth culture. Hell, you may never learn it all. But that's not important now. Let's just get through this roadblock we're standing in front of and then Daniel and I'll teach you as much as we know." Jack grinned, slapping Teal'c on the shoulder as the Jaffa looked on him with a raised eyebrow.
"All right. These steaks are done. Let's eat, guys." Daniel smiled as he took the food off of the grill and followed Jack and Teal'c into the house.
A few minutes later, they were all sitting around the living room having dinner and drawing what ever courage and strength they could from each other's company. It was a while before any of them dared speak a word.
"I'm still having a hard time believing that this whole thing is really happening. It all seems like a really bad nightmare." Sam said softly.
"Well, now you know how I've felt ever since this morning. When Jack came in my office this morning and told me what was going on, it took me until the point that Janet and I were planning for tomorrow to realize that I wasn't dreaming and it was very real." Daniel reassured her.
"This is indeed a trying situation. But I believe Dr. Fraiser to be a very capable person to assist in getting the job done."
"Come on, people. Let's not be all gloom and doom here. I see this as a very positive thing. Right now it's important that we all support each other and stick together." Jack insisted as only he could.
It was about 10:00 that evening when the group decided to call it a night and go get some rest for the upcoming, no doubt strenuous, events of the next day.
"As much as I'm enjoying the distraction, we all need to get some sleep for tomorrow so Sarah and I are going to go. I'll see you in the morning, Jack. Keep your spirits up." Daniel said as he took Sarah's hand and helped her up off of the couch.
"Yeah, you too. Get some rest, you two. See you in the morning." Jack smiled, clapping Daniel on the back and giving Sarah a supportive hug.
"I think I'm going to head home now too. There are a few things that I need to sort out and you need to get some rest."
"As do I."
"All right. I guess you're all right."
Jack walked his four friends outside and watched as they got into their cars and headed home, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Once everyone was gone, he went back into the house and sat in his big comfortable chair in front of the television and turned on the sports channel to try to distract himself. An hour later, Jack began to feel tired so he locked up the house, made his way to his bedroom, went to bed and fell into a troubled sleep.
When they got home, Daniel and Sarah went to bed and lay awake for a while talking about everything. Daniel wanted to make absolutely sure that Sarah was going to be okay.
"I wish that there were some other way of solving this problem. I mean, I think the world of Jack O'Neill but I don't like the idea of you putting yourself in harms way when there might be another solution."
"Sarah, honey, we've been over this. I'm the closest match to Jack, almost perfect, in fact the only way it could be closer would be if Jack and I were related. I know you're scared, I am to, but this is the only logical solution. Either I do this or Jack is going to die, so if you look at it honestly, I don't have a choice in the matter." Daniel whispered.
"I know, but it still doesn't make it any easier. This all still just seems so surreal to me. I keep thinking that any minute I'll wake up and watch you sleeping beside me." Sarah said as she began to cry and Daniel held her tightly to try to comfort her.
"I understand how you feel. If I were you I'd probably be saying the exact same thing right about now. But Janet has assured me that she will be there assisting the entire time. Jack and I are going to be in the best of hands. That is a promise. You really don't need to be so worried."
"Well, for now I think maybe we should both stop worrying and try to sleep for a few hours anyway. You have a very big day tomorrow."
"Good idea. Sarah, no matter how scary things seem tomorrow the one thing that I want you to remember is how much I love you. That should help to get you through." Daniel whispered as he settled deeper into the blankets and resting his head on the pillow as he closed his eyes. Moments later he had drifted off to sleep.
"I will remember that, Daniel. I promise. I am going to see you through this thing, no matter what it takes." Sarah thought as she settled in, watching as Daniel slept and thinking about the next day and the extreme trials that lay ahead for everyone involved.
