Chapter 8
About an hour before the sun set, Daniel became aware that Arwen's breathing had changed. It was less strained; more relaxed, more natural. He set his journal down and leaned over her, listening. He reached out and laid the palm of his hand gently across her forehead and was pleased to find she was no longer feverish. He sat back on his folded legs and watched her as she progressively became more aware of her surroundings.
"How long?" Her voice was just barely a whisper.
"Since you've been sick? Three days. Six days since we've been on the planet, that is if we're still on the same planet." Daniel reached for her canteen. "You ready for some water?"
"Yes." She tried to sit up, but wasn't able to move.
Daniel moved behind her again, propped her up against his chest and helped her hold the canteen while she drank her fill. "Are you hungry yet?"
"No. Just tired."
"You really need to eat something. It's been three days since you've eaten. Do you think you could eat an energy bar or maybe some dried fruit?"
"I'll try."
Daniel moved her backpack behind her back and slipped out. He searched through the pile of MRE's, found a foil packet of dried banana chips, opened it and handed it to her. She accepted it and picked out a chip and chewed on it slowly. As she chewed she realized she really was very hungry. Daniel smiled as he saw her enjoying the food. She ate the entire packet quickly.
"I think you should wait a while before you eat more, just to make sure it stays down."
She nodded closed her eyes.
"You OK? Are you in pain? We have a few more morphine tablets." Daniel reached toward her to feel her forehead.
"I'm all right, just weak and tired, but I'm getting better. No more pain killers, please."
"Um, OK. But if you need something, we also have aspirin." Daniel was concerned and wanted to be sure she wasn't in any pain.
"Talk to me, Daniel. Tell me about yourself. I'm tired of sleeping, but I'm not ready to get up yet."
Daniel wasn't willing to talk about his personal life, so he told her about some of SG1's earlier missions. He kept it light and focused on the funnier events, like when Sam made a move on Jack when she was "touched," or when Jack had eaten cake and gotten the mother of all STDs – old age. He told her how they'd found Cassie and Dr. Fraiser adopted her. How SG1 had been thrown back in time to 1969 and the culture shock they'd experienced, except Jack who remembered living through 1969. He told her about Urgo and how their senses had been heightened so the even eating peas was a sensual experience.
He talked and she murmured occasionally to let him know she was still listening. When it began to grow dark, Daniel stopped.
"I need to set some traps by the oasis and catch some rabbits, or whatever they have on this planet. We have a couple of weeks' worth of MREs, more if we ration them, but we could be here much longer. I'll go gather some materials and build the traps back here so you don't need to be alone."
"Actually, I'm getting rather sleepy, so I think I'll just close my eyes for a while." Arwen's voice faded into an incoherent mumble by the last word and her eyes closed.
Daniel leaned over, again, and felt her forehead – cool. Good, she's getting better.
Daniel was able to set several traps around the oasis very quickly. He didn't want to stay close to the oasis because he knew his presence would scare away their dinner, so he filled their canteens again and headed back to the hut.
She was sleeping when he came back, so he sat and listened to the sounds of the desert night. He could hear faint movement down by the oasis. He hadn't seen any flying animals, no birds or bats, but he's seen evidence of rabbit-like animals, along with the snakes and insects. He guessed that there was probably also a larger predatory animal, such as coyotes, or the rabbits would overpopulate the planet.