Part Three.
"I'm telling you, Daniel it's cake!"
Words echoed from his memory as he stared fixedly at a spot on the bunk above, silently noting the obvious stains where liquid of some sort had been spilt and he prayed it was a drink and nothing else, though most of the guys who slept in these things were bound to have more exciting night-time activities besides spilling their hot-chocolate while reading a good book. No, Daniel figured that was a crime only one such as he would be guilty of.
"You need to relax and start to live a little."
He squeezed his eyes closed and brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose trying to alleviate the pressure building up behind his eyes.
He had been laid there for an hour almost and hadn't managed to close his eyes for more than a few minutes when his mind decided to play out images he had no wish to see then or ever. The worst being...
"You have to do it now, do it now before he wakes up, for God's sake, Daniel."
He grunted and quickly - or as quick as he could - sat up. He had to stop thinking about it or he would never sleep again. He sat on the edge of the bunk, his bare feet cooling on the stone floor and as he shifted his feet slightly to relieve the pressure building up in his travel weary limbs, he noted the faint imprints of moisture left there. Even in just his shorts he felt hot and the now monumental headache thumping a dance beat behind his eyes was probably a good indication he was far from well.
"God it hurts!"
"...hurts." He stood and started for the bathroom, he had to wash his face, drink something. He felt so anxious. The small wash room was little more than a toilet and a sink when in reality he could have done with the full jet powered heat of a shower. He doubted he could make it all the way to the locker rooms now without help so this would have to do.
Running the water he filled his shaking hands, briefly noticing the cuts around the fingers, the dirt still firmly wedged under his short nails and the bruising from his wrist leading up into his fore-arm.
"Daniel! Stop it, now please, stop!"
He choked back a sob and assailed his face with the water, reaching under the gushing tap once more and doing the same. Hoping the sound of the water would be enough to stop this...this noise! It was over, all that had been said, been done, he'd had Jack suffer once already, he didn't want to see it, do it again!
"I have to do this, Jack!"
More water, up and over his face, his head down his shoulders and back, the iciness of it.
"Stop!"
"I can't, you'll loose it if I don't!"
"I don't care!"
Light.
"Well I do!" He stared at himself in the mirror for a long time, wondering why he had called out. He was soaked again, his breathing ragged and now his throat felt incredibly sore. He stared back at himself, his skin pale and his eyes red-rimmed the left eye so blood-shot it looked like it would actually bleed out. He looked nothing like himself. He looked haunted...
Haunted by what he had to do, what he had to put Jack through in order to save him.
Jack had hit the floor with such force, although not as much force had he not been able to stop himself after the initial descent, had he not managed that he would have continued to the ground and split open like a ripe melon. A splat rather than the thud Daniel had heard since he was but inches away from when Jack had hit.
For a long time he stood not knowing what to do, till Sam's rushed and fear soaked words screamed at him through the Radio.
"Colonel! Colonel O'Neill!" The silence that followed Sam's request for her CO's answer hung heavy in the air, surrounding and threatening to consume Daniel as he looked on at the still figure that had landed literally inches away. The woodland floor, disturbed by the impact, settled once more in that time. The dead leaf's and the dry dirt settling like sediment in the bottom of a cloudy drink. "Daniel, can you see him is he..."
It must have been the sound of his name that did it. Freed his rooted feet from the spot and he took that first step towards Jack. That silence, it made his leaf crunching steps so crisp and breifly he thought back to his days as a child running through the park.
Why wasn't jack getting up yet? Half of him expected the hot-headed Colonel to sit up and reel off a good few curses for the bruise he had just received on his arse.
But he didn't.
And he wasn't going to.
"Daniel!"
"S..sorry, here." He answered into the Radio, an answer enough to infuriate Jack when he was in desperate need of input from the far-to-often-flaky civilian member of his team.
"Daniel, is he alive!?" Sam pushed for an answer, desperate to know. "Mitchel, do you have visual?" Sam was usually patient with him, but in this instance not so much.
Mitchel's response became like background noise to Daniel as he knelt down by Jack slowly. Part of his brain seemed to have closed down, as if protecting itself. What is Jack was dead? What if he was gone forever? The thought alone was enough to scare Daniel to hell and back and he looked down at Jack through tears he had no idea he was shedding.
"J'ck?" He tested, praying to anything that was listening that he was okay.
He got no answer.
But he did notice something. Something that his so far numb mind had only just realised and with that realisation came the ability to function again.
"Breathing...he's breathing..." Daniel muttered to himself and slowly reached for the radio. "He's breathing!" He called through it and as Sam's sigh of audible relief filtered through Daniel snapped out of it and set to work.
He had a little knowledge of first aid. He remembered the most important rule being not to move them. Okay, that was fine because at that moment in time Daniel was to scared to touch him. But he had to. That was how he would check him. Gently but firmly he ran his hands down, first, either side of Jack's head. A warm, wet, sticky mess greeted his left hand, Jacks dark hair having hid the darker blood. He pressed into the wound but no bone gave beneath his probing fingers. Good.
Shoulders where next, both were at the same angle, and the collar bones in tact. Arm's fine, they even moved without making crunching sounds. Rips, hips, legs...
Here was the problem.
"Sam...his leg, it's..." He left it unsaid, she would know after all. His right leg once again had been broken.
"You're gonna have to set it." Came her instant reply and the colour drained from Daniel's face. Had she been there Sam might be worried he would pass out.
"I..I can't, Sam."
"You have to, if you don't he'll loose it!"
"We need a doctor down here."
"No one else is coming down here," interrupted Mitchel as he emerged from the trees. "I barely made it down here before my line gave. I'm not risking any more deaths."
"He's not dead." Daniel muttered, still pale and still in shock.
"You have to do it now, do it now before he wakes up, for God's sake, Daniel." Sam's frantic words snatched him back from the daze and he looked down at Jack once more. What she said made sense, why wouldn't it? After all, Sam had lived this, Sam had been here before. Trouble was, he wasn't Sam and he most certainly couldn't do this.
"Do what?"
Silence.
To late. Jack had come to. He moved his arm up to nurse his obviously pounding head, the impact that had caused his obvious injuries, obviously to blame for the pain's Daniel couldn't see but his friend could most definitely feel.
"Oh dear God!" Jack suddenly spat out, his face turning a bright shade of red, his mouth pull back thinly over his teeth as he bite down and screamed at the same time, his hands reaching for his badly twisted leg. "Arggggh! For cryin' out loud, Daniel!" Jack now blindly reached for the frightened man beside him, grabbing and pulling at his jacket. "It hurts, God it hurts!"
Daniel could do nothing but look into Jack's wild, pleading eyes as his hands pulled and almost tore his jacket. He shook his head, helpless not knowing what to do.
"Daniel do it!" Sam called down into the radio, but Daniel could swore he heard her from the cliff above him too.
He pushed Jack down and bit down on his own lip as he first positioned himself at Jacks feet. "Hold him down!" He snarled at Mitchel, wiping tears from his eyes as he done so. "Hold him down, because this is going to hurt..." Mitchel done as he was bid and Daniel wiped his eyes again, he needed to see, needed to make sure he got this put right, he didn't want to have to turn it and pull and end up going the wrong way. "Jack, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" He said, one hand on Jacks shin, the other at the knee. "I'm sorry!"
He pulled and turned slowly, till the toe was again pointing to the sky and not towards the left. Jacks scream was drowning out the sound of the bone but Daniel still felt it vibrating through the leg...making his own hairs stand on end.
"I'm sorry..." His words were washed away by Jacks pain filled wails, tears rolling down the older man's face.
"Daniel! Stop it, now please, stop!"
"I have to do this, Jack!"
"Stop!"
"I can't, you'll loose it if I don't!"
"I don't care!"
"Well I do!"
Light...
And then it was dark again. The light in the bathroom had gone out but Daniel could still see his eyes staring back at him, reflecting what little light there was coming in from the main sleeping area. They had been closed, briefly, but it was more than enough to time to re-live those terrifying moments. Jacks expression as he screamed, etched forever into his minds eye and he couldn't escape, couldn't get it out of his head.
"I'm sorry..." Daniel said again, or was it just for the first time that night? He wasn't sure, the fine line between what was in his memory and what he was actually living, here and now blurring far to much.
Pulling in shuddering, hungry breaths he staggered from the bathroom, dripping water as he went before collapsing down onto the bed, holding his pounding head, heat pouring out of him despite the swilling with the cold water all he could do was continue remembering. His mind playing it all back in slow-motion black and white.
"We have to go."
Daniel looked up, his eyes searching the darkness for the source of the voice. It was Mitchel, the Air Force Major had been knelt by him at some point and said that. Jack had passed out...the pain to much for the even the hardened special-ops trained veteran and Daniel had no intension of moving him again, not till he had recovered from Daniel's far from gentle hand as he literally snapped the bone back into place.
"Snap to it, Jackson, pull your shit together and lets get the hell out of here."
"No, no I'm not leaving him..." His voice cut through the silence, the raspy whisper sounding clear and crisp despite its rough edge. He felt drained and confused. What the heck was he doing here? All this had happened, gone before days ago, why was his mind insisting on playing tricks on him?
It had to be some kind of delirium, he was hot and with each desperate breath his chest felt like someone had placed a burning hot blade, dead centre.
He ran a hand over the area, trying to knead away the ache, his skin clammy but cold to his hot hands. If this was him supposed to be resting...he was in a lot of trouble.