For the umpteenth time, Jack placed two fingers on Daniel's carotid artery and took time with his watch, counting the rapid beat. Around 120--slower than the last time he'd taken it, but still way too fast for someone who'd been unconscious for over an hour. Jack couldn't help worrying, young and healthy though Daniel was. Such continuous stress just couldn't be good for anyone.
Jack had done pretty much all he could think of, which wasn't a lot. He'd found some new claw marks, on Daniel's back and on the back of his head, but they all looked superficial. The actual torture was the hand device, not the claws. The ruler was probably used to handling dinosaurs, not humans. From Barney's injuries, Jack had learned that a dino could take a tremendous amount of painful cuts and still be able to crawl a long distance in the jungle, and survive far longer than a human would. The pure, simple pain of the zat-like hand device might be more effective on dinos. On humans, too, in a way, but at least Daniel wasn't going to bleed to death.
As Jack waited, and waited, and watched the dino guards come and go, the sleepless night of terrible waiting started getting to him. The sun climbed slowly higher, the first, gentle rays turning into a promise of the scorching heat that was to come. They'd have no shelter from the direct noon sunlight. For now, the warmth was still pleasant, and Jack found himself starting to nod.
Daniel was looking slightly better. His face was still pale and haunted, but at least his vitals had finally returned to near normal. He might wake up soon, or not. At least he'd probably not take a turn to the worse. Jack could take a nap. If he'd get a few hours of sleep, he'd be better prepared to escape when help came. Because it would come. He was sure of it. The only question was, how soon.
Jack lay down on the cool stone floor, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
He woke up at around noon, when the sunshine blazing on his face finally got too hot. He put on his cap and his sunglasses. Daniel was still out, and didn't wake up, no matter how Jack shouted and shook him. Jack placed Daniel's boonie halfway over his face, to give him at least some cover from the sun.
Though he didn't feel even remotely hungry, Jack had a lonely breakfast or lunch or whatever. He'd have more energy to make a run for it that way. He was just considering whether he should have a cookie for dessert, when Daniel groaned, announcing that he was finally waking up.
Jack crouched to his friend's side. "Daniel? You with me?"
"Sorta..." Daniel said in a hoarse whisper, and licked his lips. "Water?"
Jack realized that Daniel had to be really thirsty, especially with this intolerable sunshine, and helped him to a sip from the canteen.
"Was it the same as before? Two hand device-zats?" Jack asked, hating himself for forcing his friend to return to those thoughts, but he needed to know.
"Worse," Daniel's anguished tone made Jack's heart sink. "Longer blasts," Daniel added.
"Daniel, I think we have morphine in the first aid kit, would you..." Jack began, and Daniel quickly nodded his reply, eyes closed, lips pursed. If the after effects were this painful, Jack didn't even want to imagine what the actual hit must have felt like.
When Jack busied himself with searching for the auto-injector, Daniel spoke up again. "Jack--next time they take me, I'm not going to make it," he uttered softly, keeping long pauses between words, sounding so desperate that it made the hair stand up on the back of Jack's neck. "Jack, you can make a run for it. When they open the door. Run and climb down, you have rope, right?"
"Daniel, shush!" Jack told him firmly, gently running a hand through his hair. "I'll do no such thing. Of course you'll make it, and I'll be right here waiting for you."
Daniel might not be dead yet, but he surely was in hell. Every inch of his body hurt. Though it was not the intense pain of the actual hit, it was still awful. So bad he could barely think. The suffocating heat of the blaring sun made it worse. He wouldn't be able to run. If they'd have the chance to escape, Jack would have to do it alone. And he was sure he'd not be able to take any more of those hand device hits.
As the effects of the morphine slowly kicked in, the pain turned into a dull ache, much like what it'd been the first time. The drug definitely didn't make thinking any easier, though. After a while Daniel couldn't even make out Jack's face anymore, it was all blurred.
And then the dinosaurs came, and stepped into the cage, and though the fair and honest truth was that Daniel was as good as unconscious, they took him anyway. Tore him up by the arms, and hauled him out. He couldn't even stand, let alone walk, so his feet dragged along the ground. He heard Jack shouting after them, sounding angry.
When they reached the throne room, the guards let go of Daniel, and he sagged to the floor. He heard Rrragrathssh speak, but he couldn't concentrate enough to be able to understand one word of that wretched growling.
Only when the ruler grabbed the bandaging on Daniel's upper body to lift him from the floor, so that they faced each other directly, Daniel heard him say, "You disappoint me, human. Speak now, while you still can."
But Daniel couldn't.
And the blue flash struck him again, and the pain, the lighting, the fire...
Daniel's ominous words kept ringing in Jack's ears. "Jack--next time they take me, I'm not going to make it," he had said. But he had to make it. He'd made it every time before, survived lethal staff weapon blasts and Tyrannosaur attacks and sarcophagus addiction and more bad things than Jack cared to think about. No way Daniel was going to die at the hands of a Goa'uldosaur, a creature mad enough that even the other Goa'ulds had thrown its ancestor out of their club of evil maniacs.
Jack tried to pass time by figuring out when help was most likely to arrive. It was now 1600 hours. Daniel and he had left Earth yesterday, early in the morning. They'd been supposed to report back in a few hours, which they'd failed to do. The folks back home would've been very worried by the evening. Maybe they'd waited for the morning before they'd returned to Dinoland for the search and rescue, but even then, if they'd had any luck in tracing the two of them, they should show up soon. But maybe something unexpected had come up. Anything could've happened. Still, Jack didn't think it completely unreasonable to expect that help would arrive soon. Tonight. Only tonight might be too late for Daniel.
The last hours Jack had spent with Daniel, he'd been afraid of when the dinos would return, and had hated every time they showed up. Now, he was anxious to see them back. If they returned, if they brought Daniel back, then he'd have to be alive. There just wouldn't be any point in keeping a dead body in a cage.
After an hour of restless pacing around the limited space, Jack caught the sound of approaching dinos. He peered through the bars, and his knees almost failed him at the relief. The dinos really were carrying Daniel back.
Jack knew what to expect, so that when the dinos dropped his friend like a sack of potatoes, he was able to catch him before he hit the floor. Jack lowered Daniel down gently, noting that his face looked white compared to the gray stone. His breathing sounded fast and shallow, and this time, his skin was cool to the touch. Jack could see the signs of shock which he had been fearing all along. He felt for a pulse--it was weak and irregular, fluttering almost too fast to be countable at all. And then he lost it. He kept his fingers in place, but there was nothing. That awful realization hit Jack like a punch to the gut.
"Daniel, no, you're not gonna do this to me!" he cried out, feverishly trying to think back about all the first aid training he'd had. He wasn't just going to let Daniel die, no way, if there was anything he could do.
He fisted his hand above Daniel's chest, over those cuts he'd bandaged himself just hours ago. He wasn't sure this was such a good idea. Grimacing at himself, eyes partly closed, he hit his friend in the chest, one quick blow on the lower part of the sternum. Like he'd been taught years and years ago.
Jack forced his fist to open, and placed his badly shaking fingers at Daniel's throat again--and--thank God, that had actually done the trick! It wasn't just his fingers trembling, it was there again, a heartbeat, rapid but steadier than before. He felt like fainting from the sheer relief of it.
"That's it. Good job, keep it up," Jack patted Daniel's chest lightly, and sat back, struggling to catch his breath.
Help really had better come soon, he thought, as he covered Daniel with his jacket. The sun was already low on the sky, the shadows long. The rain would start soon. And again, all Jack could do was wait.
There was no sign of any help. Instead, though Jack couldn't have imagined it was possible anymore, things seemed to be getting even worse. He cursed under his breath when he heard the dual growl of a Goa'uldosaur from afar, and then, the approaching clawed footsteps. A party of three dinos was walking towards the cage. One of them had a zat gun, and it spoke in that Goa'uld voice. It had to be the ruler.
The Goa'uldosaur turned the key in the lock and opened the cage door. Jack stood up, placing himself protectively over Daniel in a fighting stance, his hands clenched in fists. He'd fight the damn lizards with his bare hands if he'd have to, but by God he'd not let them take his friend away ever again--they'd only get to Daniel over his dead body.
But the dinosaurs didn't attack. Instead, the Goa'uldosaur shook his head, an eerily human gesture, and made another very human gesture with his hands, waving them soothingly.
"Fear not. It is I, Barney," the dinosaur said, without the Goa'uld tone this time, in perfectly understandable English.