"Yeah," Jack replied, not looking up from his own book.
"Is it hard?" Boone continued.
Jack looked at him. "Delivering a baby?" he asked. "Not from my end. It's the woman who's got the challenge, not me."
"So it's not that complicated, then?"
"Are you looking to have a go yourself?" Jack queried, wondering exactly where Boone was going with this.
"No," Boone replied, giving him a look. "But for a doctor it's pretty straight forward?"
"Boone, childbirth is a natural process, women are quite capable of doing it on their own without the assistance of any medical staff. We're just there to guide things along. We're only really needed if something goes wrong," Jack explained.
Which reminded him, of course, of what went wrong with Kimberley. It still managed to surprise him how these thoughts would keep creeping up on him like this. He found himself thinking about when they brought Sarah in with bleeding and he'd taken over the ER and started yelling at everyone who was trying to help him and ordering the other doctors to let him deal with it. They paged his father who had to haul him out of the room and he collapsed in the corridor, crying like an idiot. And when he returned to work the next week everyone was walking on eggshells around him. Just like when he got back from the island.
"So even a less than par doctor could do it?" Boone asked.
"Boone, what are you going on about?" Jack said, shaking his head.
Boone looked annoyed. "I want our baby to be safe."
"So what does that have to do with all this?" Jack asked him.
"Do you think Dr. Hamilton's a good doctor?" Boone wondered.
"Yeah, I don't see why not," Jack replied.
"Not exactly a glowing recommendation, is it?" Boone pointed out.
"I'm not familiar with the guy, I don't know his work. From what I've seen with Tayla I have no reason to doubt him, I'd say he's been pretty solid throughout the treatment," Jack answered.
"Huh," Boone mumbled, looking back to his book.
"Why? What's going on?" Jack asked him.
"Nothing," Boone shrugged.
Jack rolled his eyes. Right, did Boone really think he didn't know when he was lying? Probably not. He was probably hoping to get caught out so someone else would start the conversation for him, which usually happened if Boone thought it was something they were gonna argue about, knowing the 'you started it' thing couldn't be thrown back in his face. Jack considered letting it rest to see what other amusing hints Boone would give but he'd really rather just get it over with.
"Just tell me so we can go to sleep," Jack requested.
Sure enough Boone put his book down and rolled onto his side to look at Jack. "I don't trust Dr. Hamilton," he said.
"You don't trust him?" Jack asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Okay, maybe trust is the wrong word," Boone mused. "I don't like him."
Jack tried not to show his amusement. "You don't like him?"
"I don't want him to deliver our baby. I don't like that he does anything with our baby," Boone said. "Which I know sounds stupid, by the way, but there's something about the guy."
"I really don't know what you're talking about, Boone," Jack shook his head.
"Why don't you do it?" Boone suddenly suggested.
"Why don't I do what?" Jack asked. Sometimes Boone could come seriously out of left field.
"Why don't you deliver the baby?" Boone clarified.
"Me?" Jack asked. He'd never thought of that.
"Yeah, you should totally do it," Boone stated, getting excited. He moved a little closer to Jack. "You said you've done it before and that it's not all that hard. Plus, I trust you. I think you should do it."
That wasn't actually a bad idea and Jack couldn't quite believe it hadn't occurred to him before. But since getting back from the island he'd become re-accustomed to the fact that he wasn't actually the only person with medical skills around and that it was best to let specialists do their jobs, so he'd automatically taken a back seat to Dr. Hamilton and become little more than a patient. But now that Boone had brought it up, why didn't he deliver the baby?
"That sounds like a pretty good idea," Jack replied.
Boone smiled widely at him. "Really?"
Jack nodded. "Yeah, I think we should go with it."
"That is so great," Boone said enthusiastically. "We can be like a team. You do the below the waist stuff and I can do the above the waist stuff."
Jack smiled at him. It was amazing how squeamish Boone could be considering all that time he'd spent covered in blood and open wounds. "Okay, deal," he agreed.
Boone gave him a smile in return. "That's good. I feel better now." He moved closer again and threw an arm over Jack, resting his head on his shoulder.
"You been worrying about things?" Jack asked.
"Not worrying. I just want everything to be organised. I just want to know what's going to happen when and who's going to do them and how," he explained. "I like to have a plan of action."
"If I looked on your laptop I'd find a project analysis for this baby, wouldn't I?" Jack teased. Well, actually, he was fairly sure it would be true.
Boone gave him a sarcastic look. "You have to be prepared for this kind of thing," he insisted. And side stepped the question in the process Jack noted.
"I agree," Jack said. "But there's prepared and then there's Boone Carlyle."
"You'd be lost without," Boone bantered. "Your date book alone would be a nightmare of a mess. You'd never find anything in the house. You'd forget appointments. You'd have to do your own washing."
"I do do my own washing," Jack stated.
"I do your washing," Boone insisted.
"You sometimes do my washing. And sometimes I do yours. In your bid to not be a total housewife you tend to skip out on the chores," Jack replied.
Boone lifted his head and raised his eyebrows at Jack. "First of all, I'm not a housewife."
"I know, that's what I said," Jack pointed out.
"And secondly, I do not skip out on the chores. Sometimes I'm too busy to do the chores but as I'm not a housewife the chores are not my sole responsibility so therefore I cannot skip out on them," Boone went on.
"Fine, fine," Jack said.
He knew Boone wasn't really mad, they were just joking around, but sometimes even light-hearted fights with Boone could take it out of him. And he liked Boone's head resting on his shoulder, there was something rather reassuring about it. And sure enough, feeling suitably subdued and obviously believing he'd won and had the right to throw it in Jack's face whenever he wanted, he settled back down and replaced his head to it's resting place.
Jack put his book down on the bedside table and turned off his lamp. Boone's was still on Jack considered asking Boone to turn it off but when he looked down at him he'd already closed his eyes. Jack could sleep with the light on. Gave him more time to look at Boone anyway.