Even though he'd been at the SGC for over an hour and hadn't received a new dosage of painkillers for almost an hour before that, River Hayden was still heavily medicated, and it showed. When Jack slipped behind the curtain that surrounded his bed, he found River propped up in his bed with one leg elevated and uncovered. The cadet had been watching as a doctor had been probing the leg with gentle fingers – although he could have been using a steak knife for all River cared just then – and looked up when Jack entered the area.

"Hiya, Jack."

O'Neill smiled; while Ian called him Jack all the time, and Shawn, of course, did as well, River had never done it before, and that told Jack all he needed to know.

"Still medicated, I see?"

The doctor nodded, without looking up from what he was doing.

"It'll be a few hours before he's back to normal – whatever that it."

River grinned.

"I'm normal already. But Janet's not happy with me."

"No?" Jack went over and watched what the doctor was doing; trying to figure out what he was trying to find out. "Why not?"

"Beats me."

The doctor looked up.

"He asked her to marry him."

"That's not so bad."

"And started describing the honeymoon. In full detail."

Ah, yeah.

"Which is why she's not here?"

"And why I am."

Meaning he was male, and River wouldn't be quite so forthcoming with a male doctor.

"How's his leg?"

"It's not too bad. A bit of tissue damage and some bruising – although I don't feel any swelling so I'm not sure where the bruising is coming from. He's a lot healthier than he should be considering what happened to him."

"Good."

"Doctor Fraiser will keep him overnight – at least – and see how it looks tomorrow before she decides if she'll allow him back to school on Monday."

Not to mention they needed to have a long talk with the young man before he went anywhere – and they had to wait until he had burned off all the narcotics in his system to do that.

"Does he need anything?"

"You could bring me some pancakes," River told him.

"He's not allowed to eat," the doctor said before Jack could say anything. "Eating while so doped up might make him sick, so we're going to wait to feed him."

"Don't listen to him Jack, he's anti-pancake."

"Anti-pancake, huh?"

"Yeah."

The doctor rolled his eyes, clearly amused, and Jack shook his head.

"I'm going to go check on Ian."

"Tell him to bring me some pancakes."

"I'll do that."

Of course, since the New Yorker was asleep – probably – he wouldn't hear him anyway.

Jack left River and went over to Janet, who was standing at the far end of the room, next to Ian's bed. The curtains were open and Ian was sprawled in the bed, dressed sweats and a t-shirt and completely still.

"Hey, doc. How's it going?"

Janet scowled, looking at the monitor that was registering Ian's heartbeat. She'd taken quite a scare when he'd flat-lined, and there was no way she was going to take any chances on anything when it came to Ian, now. She didn't have any IV s hooked up to him – he didn't need any fluids or painkillers – but she had every kind of monitor at her disposal watching him, and she was watching the monitors carefully as well as making periodical and frequent physical checks on his systems as well. Every time she checked his heartbeat and blood pressure, he was within normal areas, but she still didn't have any idea why he was asleep. And absolutely no intention of trying to wake him again.

"He's driving me crazy."

Jack looked at the cadet sleeping in the bed.

"Doesn't he need to be awake to do that?"

"You'd think he did," Janet answered, seeing where Jack would find some humor in the situation. "But he's doing it all the same."

"What's wrong?"

She shrugged.

"Nothing. I can't find a thing wrong with him, and absolutely no reason for him to be asleep – but…"

She gestured to Ian, as if that said everything.

"I have half a mind to call his parents and see if there's some hidden medical problem I don't know about – like low blood sugar or thyroid problems."

"Would those be doing this?"

She shrugged.

"Probably not, but I'm pretty much grasping at straws."

"Is he in any danger?"

"No. He's just asleep. As long as he wakes up, eventually… he'll be fine."

"Well, Nate's on his way here, so you might get that chance a lot sooner than you think."

"Oh?"

Jack nodded, and looked at his watch.

"He'll be here in about an hour, but I don't think he'll be coming down here any time soon."

"Why is he coming? Did someone call him about Ian?"

Jack shrugged.

"I don't think so – but who knows? I just wanted to make sure I didn't have to tell him that Ian's in danger… he's not, right?"

"No. He's not. As far as I can tell."

And since Jack knew that Janet was as good as they come, it was good enough for him.

"Great. I'll be back to check on him when I can…"

She nodded, and went back to watching Ian sleep, her expression still marred by a scowl and Jack went back to Sam and Shawn.

OOOOOO

"How are they?" Sam asked when Jack reappeared.

Jack sat down, running his hand along Jaffer's silky black hide. The lab didn't even open his eyes, proving to Jack that he was sound asleep. Big shock there.

"Ian's asleep and River asked Janet to marry him."