Jack was out of bed in an instant and halfway down the hallway, barely sparing a glance for Teal'c. He could hear the strangled breaths before he even entered the room, throwing the light on as he entered and crossing the space from the door to Danny's bed in two strides. The boy was sitting up on his bunk, knees to his chest and skinny arms wrapped around them. Wide, scared blue eyes locked on his face and Jack could see that the boy was using everything in his power to suck in breath. There was an alarming grayish cast to the boy's skin, and his nostrils flared in and out. He could see the muscles in Daniel's neck pulling with each breath, and the boy's breaths wheezed with each one.
"Daniel, it's ok, I'm here now," Jack said even as alarm set in. He tried to stay calm, but he wasn't sure what to do first. His first instinct was to call 911, but suddenly he realized that perhaps that wouldn't be the best thing to do in this case. What if these symptoms were something to do with the alien device or the process that had changed them, and they were only now seeing first signs? "I think we need to go see Doctor Janet," he said, as much to himself as to Daniel. The Doc would know what to do.
A shape moved behind him, and Jack realized Teal'c had followed him in. "I will retrieve Samantha," Teal'c said quietly, leaving the room immediately. Jack blinked, realizing he'd forgotten all about the little girl. In his current state, he'd probably have left her behind. Good thing Teal'c was so quick thinking.
Forcing himself to calm down, Jack knew that he would need his keys and ID. Squeezing Daniel's arm, Jack kept his voice even. "Daniel, I'm just going to go get my car keys, then we'll go see Doctor Janet and she'll make you all better." Daniel only nodded, too focused on trying to breath to speak.
Jack charged down the stairs, taking them two or three at a time to return with his cell, wallet, and keys, only to meet Teal'c in the hallway, a sleepy Sam in tow. The little girl had her shoes on, and had a blanket wrapped around her Pj's. Jack was again grateful for the boy's maturity and forethought. He didn't think he'd be able to handle both waking up Sam and getting Daniel together. Then Teal'c surprised him further by passing over his jeans and shoes, and Jack realized he hadn't even thought about them. With mumbled thanks, Jack pulled on the pants over his shorts and stepped into the shoes, not bothering to tie them before he swooped back into the boys' room and gathered Daniel into his arms. Teal'c followed, pulling Sam with him by the hand, who now was wide-eyed and worried looking.
The cool, crisp air seemed to ease Daniel's breathing slightly, as he rapidly carried the boy to the car, and settled him in his usual seat. As Jack moved to close the door, Daniel caught his eye. "Scared," he whispered, his voice barely above a whisper and Jack's heart constricted.
"I know," he said, cupping the boy's cheek. "Doctor Janet will know what to do."
While he had secured Daniel, Teal'c had settled Sam and was now strapping himself in the front seat. Jack wasted no time hurrying around to slide behind the driver's seat.
He might have broken a few traffic laws on the way, but fortunately, the hour was late and there were few drivers on the road. Sam had reached across the back seat to take one of Daniel's hands, and the boy was clutching it like a lifeline while his every breath wheezed. Jack made use of his cell phone to call ahead to the mountain, relieved to learn that Janet had been on-call that night, and was already at the mountain wrapping up a minor emergency that had needed her presence. Preparing to leave, she changed plans immediately on receiving Jack's call and had promised a full pediatric medical team to be standing by.
Jack was prepared to use his rank to it's full power at the gate, but the lieutenant on gate duty took one look at his backseat passenger and sent his subordinate to escort them right to the entrance, skipping the rest of the checks.
Stopping at the doors, Jack barely pulled the SUV out of the driving lane and ran around the other side, nearly not remembering to turn off the engine and take his keys out. He'd no sooner gathered Danny into his arms and turned around then Janet and her medical team met them.
The doctors and nurses practically snatched the small boy from his arms; the last he saw of him was wide scared blue eyes and a pajama-clad arm reaching out towards him beseechingly.
Vitals were called out, and he heard one of the doctors, it might have been Janet, demand, "Start him on a 2.5 mg albuterol neb with oxygen and prepare a Mag drip. After this neb, I want to start an atrovent net stat, then another albuterol neb. And lets get Solu-medrol, IV…" The words trailed off as the mass of bodies moved down the hall and Daniel was lost quickly from sight, but Jack had caught one more glimpse of him when the crowd parted as someone settled a mask over his face that was giving off a white mist. Then the bodies closed back in as they loaded him onto the elevator. The doors closed with a sort of finality, leaving Jack standing in the hall.
Teal'c moved up behind him, and he felt Sam tugging at his T-shirt. "Colonel Jack," she whispered, as if afraid to disturb the sudden silence that had fallen when the elevator doors had slid shut, "Will Danny be ok?"
But this time, Jack had no answer, and he only pulled the kids along, summoning an elevator for them all.
AsLongAsWeGotEachOther,WeCanTakeAnythingThatComesOurWayThey didn't have to wait long outside the infirmary before Janet appeared. Sam popped off the bench where she was curled into his side and dropped her blanket before wrapping her arms securely around Janet's waist. Janet returned the embrace and looked over the little girl's head, taking in the worried expressions on Teal'c and Jack's faces.
"He's responding well to the treatments, Colonel. It's good that you brought him in when you did." Janet was quick to reassure him. "We're going to keep him on continuous nebulizers for a little while, then see if we can start spacing them."
Jack only stared at her blankly. At his obvious confusion, Janet took a mental step back. "Daniel is having an asthma attack. A pretty bad one, but we are giving him medications that are already starting to help."
He blinked. "An asthma attack? That's all this is? Isn't asthma something that geeks get, and they walk around puffing on those little inhaler things all the time?" Jack's mind latched onto his vision of a stereotypical asthmatic, and tried to reconcile it with what he'd seen tonight. He'd never thought about asthma being the cause of Daniel's breathing difficulties, which had been so sudden and severe he had been thinking there was something wrong with the process that changed his team into children or even something else like the recent cold, but definitely not asthma.
Janet seemed to sense his internal dilemma. "Yes, it's an asthma attack, and no, it's not like the movies where they walk around taking a puff of medicine every other sentence. It can be very scary when it gets this bad, and it looks like Daniel may have had asthma more severely as a child. Fortunately, he grew out of it. But it looks like we're going to have to deal with this now."
Jack just nodded, relieved and worried all at the same time, and he had so many questions he didn't know where to begin. Dr. Fraiser gave him a knowing look. "Don't worry, we'll be doing some teaching with you, so hopefully this won't happen again. For now though, I think you'd all like to spend some time with each other. In fact, I think that would be best for Daniel to have you all nearby." Not waiting for a reply, Janet took Sam by the hand and led the way into the infirmary.
Standing in the hall outside, Jack shook his head, bewildered. "This could happen again?" he said to no one in particular. Teal'c merely pulled on his wrist and Jack's feet moved on their own accord.
The hiss of the oxygen mask was audible before they even spotted Daniel's cubicle, and Jack could see immediately that Daniel looked much better. While still scared and wide eyed, his skin was pink, and he was definitely breathing easier. Daniel looked up as they entered and immediately his posture relaxed somewhat. He reached out a hand, one finger encased in the small red oxygen probe, and Jack wasted no time in taking it, the child seemed so small and frail in the large bed.
"Hey kiddo, Doc says you'll be good as new before long," Jack told him as he plopped into the familiar plastic infirmary chair, the one that was great for posture. Sam moved around the other side of the bed and climbed up into it, laying her head on Daniel's shoulder. Teal'c stood beside him.
Daniel gave him a half grin, lost in the foggy mask. "Feeling… better…" he answered, in between breaths. Jack grinned, and squeezed Daniel's hand.
Over the next few hours, Daniel's breathing eased, and the kids dozed. Teal'c in the next bed, Sam in the same spot she'd climbed up into, and Daniel with his head on top of hers. Even Jack caught himself dozing a few times, much to the protest of his neck and back. Gradually, the nebs were spaced as promised, going an hour, than two in between each treatment, and they could no longer hear the wheezing without a stethoscope. At that point, Janet pointed at the bed on the other side of Daniel's, and arched an eyebrow, her intention clear. Knowing there was no point in arguing with the woman who wielded big and honkin' needles, Jack acquiesced, reluctantly removing Daniel's hand from his.
On the way to the next bed, Jack noticed that someone had removed Teal'c and Sam's shoes, and tucked all three children in under the covers. No one seemed to mind that Sam and Daniel were in the same bed, and had even pulled the rails up, so Jack decided not to be concerned with the impromptu sleeping arrangement either. Gratefully, he fell into the provided bed, pleased that he was allowed, even encouraged, to remain nearby, able to keep watch over his young charges. He'd been somewhat worried that he'd be chased away and that Daniel would wake up frightened. Obviously, the medical staff agreed, and Jack dozed off.
A/N: there's one more chapter on Daniel's asthma, though I hoped you liked this one! Nothing new here, except my kitchen is nearly finished, and they are still playing with the water here, sometimes its off for hours, and the last few days its been varying from a weak trickle to something approaching normal pressure. Makes it hard to shower! The cats… well, they're still crazy. Sammy was bouncing around earlier with his back arched and chasing shadows all over the place. And poor baby, I went out and bought styptic powder, I've never accidentally cut a cats claws too close, but Sammy was being less than cooperative (he hates having his nails cut) and he was squirming and I missed where the quick was and cut too closely. Every time he stopped bleeding he'd either lick the clot off or go running around like an idiot. Poor baby.