Thanks for all your reviews – they are helping to motivate me, but I still need more feedback from you guys. PLEASE! This is rather a gloomy chapter I guess, certainly not a happy one. Stay tuned though, it will get better. I promise...just not yet!

Title: Unity.

Author: LetitiaRichards.

Previously:

Hammond had read Janet's report on the numerous injuries that Jack had sustained and it didn't make for pretty reading. He'd seen the reports from Jack's first imprisonment and that was bad enough. How could he have let Jack go back to Iraq and then allow him to go through all that again. Orders, be damned; he should have stood up to the joint chiefs, and refused to let Jack go. He'd failed Jack; the finest officer he had had the privilege to serve with, as well as being a friend. Some friend he was! Guilt suffused him and he retreated to his office at the SGC to consider his retirement.

Chapter 19

Jack flinched, sucking in a hiss through his clenched teeth as Janet gently pulled away the soiled dressings from the burned and blistered soles of his feet. They were looking better than they had, but they were far from healed by a long way. He wouldn't be walking on them for some time, much to his annoyance and frustration.

Looking up at him now from her position by his feet, she could see that he hadn't slept well and she considered slipping him something that would make him sleep, even if that meant engaging his wrath later; but even as the thought entered her head, she dismissed it as purely unprofessional. She couldn't and wouldn't go against his wishes, and he'd made it quite clear that he didn't want her drugs.

He'd had enough unwanted drugs in his system during his captivity thank you very much and didn't want to feel that awful feeling of being out of control of his thoughts and actions; not for all the coffee in Brazil. He'd rather put up with the pain and the nightmares.

Janet redressed the burns with sterile dressings to keep them clean, then she moved to the other copious small cigarette burns covering his torso; evidence of some of the torture he'd undergone. Most of them were healing nicely now, but that didn't make it any easier to see them. Janet checked his numerous cuts and then examined his broken fingers to make sure he still retained the feeling in them.

She finished up with a sign having given up trying to hold a conversation with him; he'd all but ignored her probing questions, answering only those that dealt with his injuries.

Just as she cleared the discarded dressings into a waste bag, Daniel entered looking as haggard as Jack was.

"Daniel," Janet greeted him. "How are you feeling today?"

Jack closed his eyes unwilling to take part in the ritual of exchanging pleasantries.

Daniel had come to a decision last night and was more than determined to put his resolve into practice; popular or not with a certain Colonel.

"I'm fine Janet," came the usual response from the Archaeologist.

"You don't look it Daniel," she retorted, looking him over thoroughly, "Did you get any sleep last night?" she asked.

"Ah...some."

"Daniel!" she warned, looking sternly at him.

"I did get some Janet, just not a lot of it," he grudgingly admitted.

Jack cast him a worried look, willing him not to mention the reason why. Daniel flashed him a reassuring look that said, 'Don't worry, I wasn't going to tell her anyway.'

Jack sighed and laid his head back on the pillow, shutting the world out once more.

"All done Colonel. Do you need anything before I leave you in peace?"

"No," he snapped, then changed his mind. "Yes."

"What's that sir?"

"Take Daniel with you," he said, giving Daniel an icy glare.

"No!" Daniel replied instantly, returning the glare with equal frostiness.

Janet felt the temperature in the room plummet, and took herself off hastily, leaving them to argue. She had better things to do than act as referee. She knew Jack needed to talk, and she believed Daniel was the one person who could probably get through to him.

"Daniel!" Jack growled menacingly.

Janet shut the door quickly and warned her nurses to keep an eye on the pair, but to let them thrash it out, but to step in only when it looked like they might actually resort to blows.

"Jack!"

"Get out!" Jack said dangerously quiet.

"No. I'm not leaving Jack until you talk."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Yes you do!"

"No I don't!"

"Do!"

"Not!"

"Forget it Jack. I'm your friend and you are sooo not shutting me out."

Jack shifted uncomfortably on his bed and turned his gaze to the view outside his window.

"I can't!"

The words came out in a strangled whisper, and Daniel knew this was the first step. If only he could get Jack to open up further. He waited to see if Jack would continue. Several minutes ticked past when he was rewarded by a choked confession. Daniel watched his friend, seeing that far away glazed look in Jack's eyes as he stared at nothing while he recalled his trip to hell.

"I was drugged."

"I know Jack," Daniel replied softly. "Janet says they're out of your system now."

"They gave me nightmares; I didn't know what was real."

"Yeah, we...uh...noticed." Daniel snorted with amusement but kept his voice low, trying not to break the spell, hoping that Jack would reveal his inner torment.

"I couldn't break free of them."

Daniel waited with baited breath for more.

"They seemed so real."

"Mariposa, Jack."

"What?" Jack turned to look at him for the first time wondering what he was talking about.

"Mariposa. It was a word that brought you back from whatever you were dreaming about."

Jack looked aghast at his associate, his glare turning icy once more.

"Get out!" Jack yelled.

Daniel was stumped. What had he said? Jack's mood had changed like flicking a switch. One minute he was talking about his experiences, the next he was yelling fit to burst. Whatever had happened it was because he'd mentioned that word.

"Why?" he demanded, goading Jack into telling him. "Tell me Jack. Why?"

Jack grew angrier, and threw the glass from his bedside table at Daniel, trying to get him to leave. Daniel ducked and it smashed harmlessly against the wall, and scattering over the floor. Daniel moved nearer; pushing.

"Why Jack? Because I said 'Mariposa?' A word you devised to help someone else. Come on, tell me Jack!" he demanded just as angrily.

"No!" Jack held his hands over his ears, not wanting to hear more. He struggled from the bed, landing painfully on his poor feet, and crumpling to the floor.

Daniel stood by and watched, hoping to break through Jack's defences and help him to return to them again, normal. If only he would let it go.

Jack sat on the floor and cried, hugging his knees to his body.

"Is it that word Jack? Are you afraid of that word. Mariposa! Tell me Jack! Tell me. Mariposa!"

Jack screamed in denial and launched himself at Daniel who ducked behind the bed, just as the door flew open to admit Janet and Teal'c.

"What's going on Daniel?" she demanded. She could hear Jack's sobs and wondered where he was. There was a scuffling on the floor behind the bed and then the door to the bathroom slammed shut, and before any of them could react, they heard the lock click into place.

Daniel sighed and hung his head. He had hoped he was helping but from where Janet stood it looked as if he'd pushed too far.

"I'm sorry Janet. We were getting somewhere. I swear he was going to tell me, then... Well, as you can see, things just spiralled out of control."

Janet laid a hand on his arm to reassure him that they would find a way, but it might just take them a little longer now.

Teal'c headed for the bathroom door, knocking softly.

"O'Neill, unlock this door."

Silence filled the air, before they heard a soft keening wail. They listened hard and Teal'c with his excellent hearing could just make out the words.

"He keeps repeating that he is sorry, Doctor Fraiser."

Janet moved to join him, inadvertently crunching over the broken glass on the floor.

"What the? Damn Daniel, what...?"

"Ah...sorry Janet. He threw it at me in temper."

The petite doctor glanced at the floor, stepping over the shards of glass, before she suddenly stopped, registering the fragments.

"Oh God. No!" she cried.

Daniel looked up at her and Teal'c turned back to face her, both wondering what she had made her cry out.

Janet looked under the bed and around the room, adding the pieces up in her mind.

"Teal'c!" she cried urgently. "Break that damn door down now!"

"What?" Daniel gasped in surprise.

Teal'c obeyed without question and started battering the door while Janet turned to Daniel to explain.

"He's got a piece of that glass in there with him Daniel."

TBC