Chapter 10: Healing Begins
Janet walked happily down the hall into the waiting room to let the four waiting there know that Jack and Daniel were awake. As she entered the room to four sets of anxious eyes, she couldn't keep the smile off of her face.
"Janet, what's going on? What's happened?" Hammond asked sharply.
"Well, sir, I'm pleased to say that I'm the bearer of good news."
"Please elaborate, Dr. Fraiser." Teal'c requested quietly as Jacob and Jonas exchanged a puzzled look.
"I just wanted to let you know that the Colonel and Daniel have regained consciousness. They're both asleep right now but I'm glad to be able to say that the worst is over."
"Are you kidding?" Jonas asked enthusiastically, looking up as Janet shook her head in confirmation. "That's fantastic. Now things can start getting back to normal."
"I'll say one thing. It's definitely for the best that this thing is over. I don't know how much more of this Sam and Sarah could have handled." Jacob agreed.
"Well, they won't have to handle anymore, Jacob. Like Janet said, the worst is over. Everything can start getting back to normal soon." Hammond smiled, clapping Jacob on the back and giving Janet an approving look.
"I can't stay. I have a few more patients to look in on and then I'm going to look in on the Colonel and Daniel again. If anything else changes I'll stop in and let you know."
"Very well. Thank you, Dr. Fraiser and again well done."
"Yes, sir. I'm glad everything worked out for the best." Janet said, heading out of the room to continue with her work.
A short while later, Sam was reading an article in a science journal as she waited for Jack to wake up again. She was actually getting into the material she was reading since Jack had regained consciousness which meant she could read the entire piece as opposed to reading the same paragraph over and over. In fact, she was so engrossed with what she was reading that it startled her when she sensed the presence of a symbiote. She looked up, ready to spring up and protect Jack if necessary, and relaxed when she saw Jacob standing in the doorway and realized the symbiote presence she'd felt was simply that of Selmak.
"Dad. What are you doing?" Sam asked, trying to calm herself.
"Sorry if we startled you, Sam. I just wanted to come and see how Jack was doing and maybe keep you company for a little while. Judging from the looks of things I'd say Jack's going to be out for a while longer." Jacob paused to glance over Sam's shoulder to where Jack slept on the bed. "I just thought you might like to have someone to talk to."
"Thanks, Dad. I would like the company. When you came in I was just reading an article in one of my magazines. This is the first chance I've had to actually do something with it rather than spend an hour reading the same paragraph time and time again."
"I'm glad to see that things are getting back to normal. No one should have to go through what has had to be endured over these last few days. I'm very proud of you for the way you've handled this, Sam. You've always been very strong."
"The only thing that matters is that it's all over now and Jack and Daniel can begin down the road to healing. Thanks to Janet's skill and Daniel's quick thinking, in a matter of a few weeks, we'll be back exploring planets and everything will be exactly as it was before. I appreciate you coming here, Dad. I know that you have your hands full keeping the Tok'ra hidden from the Goa'uld." Sam said, reaching out and grasping her father's hand.
"Sam, the thing that matters to me more than anything is your happiness. Nothing in this or any world is more important to me than being here for my little girl." Jacob whispered, taking Sam into his arms and embracing her strongly.
Sarah was sitting by Daniel's bedside as he slept, relief radiating from her heart as she allowed the knowledge to sink in that the danger had passed and things were going to be fine now. She began singing softly to Daniel as he slept and turned abruptly, startled, when she heard a soft knock on the door. She smiled softly as Teal'c and Jonas entered the room.
"Hi. What's going on?"
"Jonas Quinn and I have come to request that you accompany us for some lunch. It has been several hours since you have last eaten." Teal'c stated quietly.
"I appreciate your offer but I can't leave. I don't want to leave Daniel here by himself. I don't want him to be alone in case he wakes up."
"I have a simple solution to your problem. I'll stay here with Daniel so someone will be here if he wakes up. You go with Teal'c and get something to eat. You're not going to be any help to him at all if you don't eat and make yourself sick. I'm not really all that hungry right now anyway. I'll just grab something later." Jonas offered.
"Okay. I'll go with you, Teal'c. I am a little hungry. Jonas, make sure you let me know if Daniel wakes up." Sarah agreed.
"Of course. You have my word on it." With that, Sarah headed to the cafeteria with Teal'c to get lunch, leaving Jonas to keep watch over the sleeping Daniel.
Two hours later, Sam was sitting in Jack's room with Jacob, glad that her father had come to sit with her, when Jack opened his eyes as he slowly began to awaken. He looked around the room, confused when he saw Jacob there. Just then, his eyes came into focus as Sam came over to the bed and stood smiling down at him.
"Hey, sleepyhead. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up." Sam joked.
"Well, you know how it is. Getting a new lease on life tends to take a lot out of a person." Jack retorted, gripping Sam's hand firmly as she giggled.
"I'm just glad you're awake now. How are you feeling?"
"A little better. I'm not hurting as much anymore. It looks like you've had some company. How've you been, Jacob? What are you doing here anyway? Did something go wrong that I don't know about?"
"I've been well, Jack. To answer your question, nothing went wrong. The reason I'm here is because George sent me a message. He thought that the stress of this whole thing might be getting to Sam and that she really needed her father so he sent a message through the Stargate to me and I came here. It's good to see that everything went well." Jacob smiled, his hand on Jack's shoulder.
"The thing that matters most to me is that Sam had people here for her that care about her. I can only imagine how rough this must have been on the girls and if it had to go down like this, I'm glad that they didn't have to deal with it alone."
"Well, I think that you two need some time to yourselves so we're just going to go and let you guys be alone."
"Okay. Thanks again for sitting with me, Dad." Sam said as she gave her father a hug and walked him out of the room.
Once Sam was alone with Jack, she took his hand in her own and leaned over to place a gentle kiss on his forehead.
"So, before I fell asleep I seem to remember beginning a conversation with you about ideas for an outing of spontaneity for the team. I'm excited to hear what you've come up with since you've had a couple of days to think about it."
"Well, I was thinking about something along the lines of all of us taking a long vacation somewhere together. You know, somewhere we wouldn't normally think of going. We haven't had the chance to do something relaxing like that in a very long time."
"That sounds pretty spontaneous to me. I like it. As soon as Daniel and I are up to busting out of here, we'll look at some possible destinations and decide on one that we all like." Jack smiled, pulling Sam close to give her the tightest hug that he could manage, comforted by her calming presence. It was in this one moment that they both realized that there was definitely something special between them, something that was worth holding onto.
While Sarah was down in the cafeteria with Teal'c getting something to eat, Jonas had stayed with Daniel so he wouldn't be alone. He was flipping through a book that he found laying on the table, trying to ignore the disturbing images swimming around in his mind. Just then, a soft groan to his right drew his attention. Jonas looked up just in time to see Daniel open his eyes.
"Hey." Jonas said.
"Uh, hey." Daniel mumbled groggily as he began feeling for his glasses so he could see who he was talking to.
"Oh. Here you go."
"Thanks." Daniel said as he put his glasses on and looked at Jonas with a puzzled expression. "Wait a minute. Jonas, what are you doing here? How did you even know what was going on?"
"Well, Teal'c sent a message to me the night before this whole thing started and just said that I should come to Earth as soon as possible but it wasn't until the day of that I actually was able to get away seeing as I got the message in the middle of the night. Anyway, I didn't have any idea what was actually going on until I actually stepped through the gate at the SGC and Teal'c met me in the gate room and filled me in. I would have come and wished you luck before everything started but you guys had already been taken into surgery by the time I got here to the hospital. So how are you feeling, Daniel?"
"I feel okay considering what I've just been through, I guess. I really appreciate that you came through when you heard what was going on. I know you've been really busy since you've been back on Kelowna."
"That sounds a lot like how Sam reacted when she first saw me. She asked me what I was doing here and I wondered where else she thought I'd be after I heard that something was going down here. I may be back on my home world but as far as I'm concerned I have two homes. Earth seems like home to me now too."
"Well, I'm glad you feel like that. So how long are you planning on staying? Is Kianna with you?"
"No, Kianna wanted to come with me but she was working on a project that she just couldn't get away from. She said that she sends her best though. I got clearance to leave for a week so I'll more than likely be staying around for a couple more days. That reminds me, I met your fiancé. I've been trying to help her out as much as I can. When did you get engaged?" Jonas explained.
"We've been engaged for about five months now. I appreciate you helping her through this. Where is Sarah anyway?"
"She's down in the cafeteria getting something to eat with Teal'c. We convinced her to take a break for lunch and I told her I'd stay here with you because she wasn't going to leave otherwise. She didn't want to leave you alone in case you woke up and my staying here put her at ease."
"Oh, okay. It's good for her to get some food. I feel better to know that she's with Teal'c, too." Daniel began, but stopped, concerned, when he noticed that Jonas was staring off into nothing and he seemed suddenly distant. "Jonas, are you okay? There's nothing bothering you is there?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm fine, Daniel. It's just that I've been having what I guess you'd call flashbacks in my mind since I got here to the hospital. You know what, that's stupid. Forget I mentioned it."
"No, it's not stupid. Let me guess, this situation reminded you of what happened when you first came to Earth from Kelowna and the circumstances surrounding that. Am I right?"
"Yeah. That's it exactly. How did you figure that out?" Jonas asked, shocked that Daniel had hit the nail on the head so quickly.
"Because for some reason that's exactly what went through my mind when Jack came to my office that day and told me that Janet found that his liver was going bad. You want to know how I dealt with it?"
"Yeah. How?"
"I simply told myself that it was in the past and I needed to put that out of my head if I was going to help Jack forge on to the future and keep things as close to normal as I possibly could."
"Maybe I can make myself think of it like that. Actually it didn't really start bothering me until Sarah asked me to tell her again how you and I came to know each other. It was then that I realized just how much that incident has stuck with me after all these years. I mean, there are times I still wake up in a cold sweat from the nightmares."
"Another thing I can relate to. I still have nightmares from time to time that even scare Sarah. But again, I just tell myself that period of my life is over now, the chapter of the book is closed, and I'm back in human form and I can get on with my life and leave that behind. I know it's hard to do sometimes but you have to search deep within yourself for the strength. I know it's there and I think you do too. You just have to have the patience to find it."
"I guess I do have the strength to forget, and I think I know a trick I can try to find it. Thanks, Daniel. Look at this. Here you are lying in a hospital bed and you're concerned about me and my problems. It's no wonder people talk so highly of you." Jonas said, amazed at his friend's selfless attitude.
"Have you talked to Sam recently?" Daniel asked.
"Not recently. The last time I talked to her was when we were down in the cafeteria early this morning. Why?"
"I just wanted to see if you'd heard anything else about how Jack's doing, that's all."
"Sorry, I don't know. I wish I did. I'm sure Jack's still doing fine though. If that wasn't the case, surely we would know by now. I wouldn't worry."
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm worried as much as I am anxious to talk to Jack so I can know that what I did and the sacrifice I made achieved the end that I wanted it to."
"Daniel, let me ask you something. Have you ever taken the opportunity since this whole thing started to think about yourself and how this scenario has affected you?" Jonas asked pointedly.
"Actually, I haven't had an opportunity to concentrate on myself at all, come to think about it. I guess I've tried not to because I realize how tricky this whole thing must have been and everything that could have been lost. If I take the time to think about it, then I'll see how close I came to losing one of my best friends. Right now, I don't want to think about that and I seriously doubt I'd have the strength to even if I did."
"I can't say that I don't sympathize with that. I guess I can relate to this thing that you and Jack are going through because I went through not exactly the same situation, but something very similar and equally as trying."
"You did?" Daniel asked, confused.
"Well, it was about a month or so before you retook human form and all that. We were on a planet trying to negotiate trade relations with the indigenous people."
"Same old song and dance."
"Yeah. Anyway, at one point I had a vision of something and when it happened a few minutes later just like I'd seen it, I was so shaken up that I passed out. When we got back to Earth, Dr. Fraiser ran some tests and found a formation of new brain tissue that was causing me to see these things. When it was discovered that this tumor or what have you had grown to the point that it became life threatening, a specialist was called in to assist and they removed the thing. I had a very long road to recovery. In fact, when I woke up a few days later and was in my right mind again, I found out that I nearly died during the surgery."
"You know, this is going to sound strange, but even though that happened during the year that I was ascended, it sounds vaguely familiar. I don't understand how it could though since I wasn't even there. During that time, for all intents and purposes, I wasn't even alive."
"Hmm." Jonas muttered, getting an eerie sense about this conversation and decided that he should change the subject. "So, tell me about how you and Sarah got together. I've been a little curious. I would have asked her earlier but given what the situation was, I thought it was a little inappropriate."
"There's quite a story to that actually. Sarah and I first met when we were working together at a university up in Chicago. We dated for a while back then but I kind of ruined it with my penchant for overworking. Not long after that, I left Chicago and came to Colorado. I didn't see Sarah again until four years later when my mentor was killed. It was around that time that Sarah was taken over as host to the Goa'uld Osiris. I tried on a couple different occasions to rescue her but it wasn't until earlier this year, after we helped save your planet from destruction, that Osiris was apprehended and successfully separated from Sarah. After that we spent a few months getting the relationship we had back on track and here we are now." Daniel explained, smiling as he remembered.
"Wow. You were right, Daniel. That is quite a story. Sounds pretty similar to mine actually. It's a little funny when you think about it."
"Well, if I had to make a guess I'd say that there are some serious conversations going on here." Sarah joked as she entered the room.
"Hey, Sarah. Did you have a good lunch, honey?" Daniel asked as Sarah came over to the bed to stand beside Jonas, taking his hand tightly in her own.
"Yes, I did. I feel better now. At least my stomach isn't grumbling at me anymore. I appreciate you staying here with Daniel for me, Jonas. Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help you out. Look, you guys need to have some time to yourselves now that Daniel's awake so I'm just going to go. Holler if you guys need anything."
"Sure. Thanks a lot, Jonas. I appreciate all that you've done here. I just hope that the talk you and I had was able to return the favor at least somewhat."
"Anytime. Our conversation did help a lot. I'll see you guys later." Jonas smiled, patting Daniel's shoulder as he left the room to go join the others.
"Teal'c says that he'll stop in later to see you. I'm so glad that you're awake and that this is all over, Daniel. I've never been so scared in my life. Not even when I was controlled by Osiris." Sarah whispered, as soon as Jonas had gone.
"I understand how you feel. But it's going to be fine. Like you said, it's all over now and everything turned out okay. You don't have to be afraid anymore. I'm not going anywhere. Not for a very long time."
"You don't know how glad I am of that. Nothing in the world could be more reassuring right now." Sarah said calmly, sitting on the bed beside Daniel and resting her head on his shoulder, drawing comfort from his embrace and the strength of his presence.
