Once again I'd like to thank you all for your reviews. I am so pleased that you are enjoying this, especially the reunion in chapter 10.

None but the Brave Deserve the Fair.

By Lingren.

Previously:

She smiled as she watched them go, both holding the other's hand and together, as in all things they did, they stepped through to the SGC. Then she turned her attention back to Jack, who sat there almost dreamlike, seemingly unaware of anything around him. She eased him upright again, steadying him as he stumbled a little, then guided him through the Stargate and home.

Chapter 11

Teal'c stood passively waiting but Daniel couldn't take his apprehensive eyes off the shimmering flux, eager to see his friend again. He'd enthusiastically greeted the boys who had then been whisked away to the infirmary for Dr. Warner to check them out, but Janet had remained at his side, both of them anxiously waiting for Jack to appear. The General and the others had all but given up expecting Jack to return, most had believed he had perished; permanently this time; but it was not so. Jack was almost home again. He'd brought the children through tempest and flood and they were all safe. Shattered, muddy and hungry, but all in one piece.

The wormhole rippled and suddenly there he was, though everyone got quite a shock at the first glimpse of the man standing unsteadily at the top of the ramp. He looked as if he'd been to hell and back. Daniel nervously decided a little quip wouldn't go amiss. This was Jack after all.

"Well, if it isn't Gladys Aylward," (See Author's notes on chapter 1) Daniel remarked, grinning at the sight of his best friend with young Nemus cradled in his arms. There was a ripple of sniggers from behind him at his comment, but nothing from Jack, though this didn't matter. He was more than happy just to see Jack return, as well as the safe delivery of the young children. "Welcome back Jack!"

Jack only had the strength to nod slightly in return, he couldn't even muster a smile at Daniel's flippant comment. All he wanted to do was get Nemo to the infirmary then collapse somewhere and sleep for a week. He staggered down the ramp.

Without the thick mud sucking at him, his steps felt strangely lighter making his gait unbalanced and faltering, but Sam was there, helping him.

Daniel then really took in the appearance of his friend and realised that Jack was on his last reserves of energy. He offered to take the boy from him but Jack just pushed past him, his mind set on Janet standing nearby with a gurney. At Daniel's puzzled frown Sam shook her head and put up a hand in warning, meaning for Daniel to leave the Colonel be. She knew better than anyone how focussed Jack could be and right now, she knew he wasn't thinking about anything other than the welfare of the child in his arms.

Janet gestured for him to place Nemus onto the gurney, but the boy who had awoken afraid after the swirling ride through the wormhole to noise and bright lights, was now fretful and refused to release his hold on Jack, clinging to his shirt as he feverishly cried out. The pitiful cries tore into Jack's defenceless heart, dragging up the past at his most vulnerable point.

Instead of seeing Nemo, he looked down on the face of his son Charlie as the hospital staff wheeled him away forever. It was the last glimpse he'd had of his son alive, and there was no way he was going to let them take Nemo from him. He was convinced it would be the last time he might see the boy. He picked up the child again and headed straight for the elevator. The doctor and her team following quickly, and with Janet's and Sam's distressed voices, ringing in his ears, calling out for him to allow them to take the boy, but he ignored them all, now focussing entirely on reaching this new objective.

Once there in the infirmary, Jack lowered him onto one of the beds silently allowing Janet to examine the pathetic bundle of alien human that was called a child. Nemus was covered from head to toe in mud and frightened rigid. He hung on to Jack's arm with a surprisingly tight grip. Jack had saved him; Jack had helped him and Jack had been there to comfort him; there was no way he was letting Jack go.

Sam, Daniel and Teal'c watched the trauma of the examination from the doorway, unwilling to add to the child's distress by crowding him in this strange environment. They watched Jack closely too, knowing it was only by his sheer determination that he was still standing. He stood stiffly, one hand clutched desperately in Nemus' hand the other stroking the boy's matted hair, calming him.

Janet worked round him, talking softly to him and the nurses while she worked. She kept giving Jack surreptitious looks, assessing his state. She could hear his harsh breathing above the hushed voices of her staff and knew his body had it's own matching set of symptoms like Nemus' to tell, if only he would admit it and relinquish the child to her care, even if he did scream the place down.

Eventually she stood back and smiled down at the sleepy form of Nemus.

"Nemus," she said, "You have a nasty chest infection, probably from all that horribly muddy water you swallowed, and from the cold, wet weather. Merus told us how you nearly drowned too." She watched his eyes track back towards Jack and knew that he looked up to Jack as a hero for rescuing him. The boys had told their own story of Jack's heroics that day with awe and wonder. Looking up herself at the child's object of view, she couldn't help feeling a frisson of warmth and privilege to know the man who stood there and be able to call him a friend. One who would literally go the ends of the earth to rescue a child, or in this case an alien world and several children.

Jack was completely oblivious to the reason behind the child's adoring glances; he wouldn't class himself as a hero or even acknowledge his status as an idol. That just wasn't his way. He was far too modest and self-effacing of his heroic deeds and always brushed off any words of praise that came his way with sarcasm to cover his embarrassment.

The smile that lit his tired face was for the child, and hid a multitude of aches and pains and exhaustion behind it. Janet watched as the officer soothed the child's hair back from his face, aware that he was holding onto his consciousness by a mere thread, and that he would never reveal his weakness to Nemus.

Janet set up an IV for fluids, and antibiotics, then injected a mild sedative into him to make the boy relax and sleep. She watched as the child quickly drifted off to sleep, then turned her gaze to the child's fingers as he eventually relinquished his hold on Jack's hand. As he did so, Jack felt all the adrenalin that had kept him going, drain away with it.

Janet was expecting this and so was Sam, but his sudden collapse against the bed and his desperate attempt to stay upright at the moment of his release, caught them off guard none the same, when he started to slip slowly sideways towards the floor as his knees weakened and began to give way.

Janet snapped into action, and many other hands rushed to help hold him upright and he was manoeuvred then lifted onto the next bed before he could actually hit the deck. The curtains were pulled quickly round the bed, shutting off the view of the fussing medical staff from his anxious team. As one, the nurses began to strip him of his sodden, muddied clothes. They worked tirelessly to clean him up to attach him to various pieces of equipment and an IV drip. Janet already vying for position to examine him around them as they worked. Sam stood outside the drapes and listened in an fearful daze as Janet reeled off one necessary procedure after another, until Daniel pulled her from the room allowing the medical staff to concentrate wholly on Jack. Daniel prompted Sam togo and clean up while they waited.

OoOoOoOoO

It was another hour or so before General Hammond arrived outside the infirmary, and it coincided with the same moment that Janet emerged. Straight away she was pounced upon for news of their friend and colleague.

She pulled the rubber gloves from her hands and scrubbed one of her hands through her hair, gathering up the wayward strands and unconsciously pinning them back into place, heaving a heavy sigh, knowing they were anxiously waiting for news.

"How is he Doctor?" Hammond asked, voicing their thoughts.

"Well, right now sir, he is a sick man. He was exhausted to the point of collapse, as we saw quite plainly. He's dehydrated and not surprisingly has developed pneumonia. He also has a lot of superficial cuts and bruising to just about everywhere, as well as two cracked ribs and a swollen knee. Apart from all that I believe at some stage over the past two or three days he must have suffered a concussion. I've cleaned and stitched the cut over his eye. There is some infection there, and his temperature was quite high. I can't say what exactly caused this, at least, not without investigating it further. To be quite honest sir, I really don't know how he got home at all, let alone caring for five children, and carrying Nemus all the way too." She sighed, amazed at the man's stamina and determination.

"He's clean and comfortable for now and sleeping, and that's how I'd prefer him to stay for the next 24 hours at least," she said firmly, directing the last point at Daniel and Sam in particular. "Perhaps by then we'll know more about what happened. I've got him on fluids and oxygen and a high dose of antibiotics and oxygen and that's all I can do for now. The rest is up to him, but he needs to sleep more than anything."

Janet cast another weary eye at each of her friends, but before Sam or Daniel could utter a word, she continued.

"You can sit with him as long as you don't wake him, but personally I think he's so far out of it, it would literally take an explosion to rouse him," she commented smiling.

"Thanks Janet," Sam and Daniel chorused, and Sam laid a hand on Janet's arm, saying without words, how much she appreciated her efforts to help restore Jack to health once again.

Daniel hurried into the ward with Sam on his heels, both eager to see Jack and the child, leaving Janet to explain whatever she needed to the General. Teal'c followed them at a more sedate pace to take up his vigil at the foot of Jack's bed as was his habit.

"How's the child?" Hammond asked, concerned about both Nemus and Jack.

"He's developed Pneumonia too sir. His fever is quite high, and although he was fairly lucid, he was very distressed when the Colonel tried to leave him. He just wouldn't let go of his hand, and the Colonel all but refused to leave him too sir."

Janet had thought about transferring Jack to a private room, but she fully expected him to make a fuss if Nemus wasn't in the same room when he awoke. That's why she had kept him in the next bed to the child, and that was another reason for her decision. She didn't want the youngster to wake without be able to see where Jack was. This way they could at least see each other and know they were both safe.

TBC