Chapter 11

The young woman breezed into the room. She was beautiful, long blond braids and clear blue eyes. It made Jack think he had died and been reborn in a Wagnerian Opera. She explained the healer was on the extreme end of the other side of the fjord attending a few patients, some collateral damage of the warring Jaffa and an old man near his end as well as a young woman about to give birth.

"My name is Uli and I will assess your condition. If the healer is needed she will return as soon as is possible. I am her apprentice."

"Sorcerer's apprentice?" O'Neill muttered.

The woman glared at him she asked "Would you rather I cast the runes?"

And with that she flung the blanket and sheet up and back that had been covering O'Neill. He grabbed them with his right hand and brought a handful down to cover his groin. He glared at her.

Uli stopped her perusal of his body to ask "Shy?"

He could tell if she were speaking to him or Carter but felt as though she was definitely mocking him.

"Chilly" he replied tersely.

Looking at Carter she said "Are they all this big on your world"

Now he was sure he was being mocked.

"A little larger than average" was Carter answer.

Okay, Jack thought, how the hell did she know. Well maybe they were talking about his height but he didn't think so. They seemed to be having too much fun at his expense.

The young woman removed the bandages, carefully washed the wounds, applied more of the herbal salve and reapplied bandages to the most severe burns.

"The wounds are healing well. Has there been any fever?"

"He was a little sweaty last night…"

'I should have been so lucky' he thought.

"…when I was late with the medicine."

"I have another medicine for you." With that she placed another small jar on the table. O'Neill made a face.
"It doesn't taste quite as foul and it will not make you so sleepy. It will protect against fever and pain but it is not as strong as the other. And maybe if you didn't grimace so much the cut on your lip would heal."

Uli poured out a dose and handed it to O'Neill, who muttered something about ruining a perfectly good lunch.

Directly to Carter she said "If you see him in great pain so that he cannot rest or if the fever returns, resume the stronger draught; use it at night in any case. Today he should drink and eat and rest. It is good for him to get on his feet" and looking at O'Neill she said "but not over do."

"Oh I almost forgot… the oil."

Jack had managed to pull the covers over him while the woman talked so she flung them back again exposing his legs. She sat on the bed put a towel under his right knee and motioned for Sam to sit on the other side and watch what she was doing.

"Rub some of this oil into the joints that are painful or swollen."

She was extremely gentle yet O'Neill could not help the groan that escaped his lips as she massaged his knee.

She put some of the oil in Sam's palm and directed her to massage on Jack's ankles while she worked on his other knee. For Jack the mixture of pain and pleasure was unsettling.

"Use it sparingly as it is rare. But do use it. It is very effective; many of our people suffer from this malady."

Uli wiped her hands, gathered her things and bid them good day. Her smile, bright and warm, was directed at O'Neill, then she turned and left.

Jack felt worn after the healers apprentice left and relaxed into the bed. He wasn't feeling groggy but satisfied from lunch, comfortably warm in the small bed and most of his pain alleviated. He drifted off listening to the steady rainfall with the pup appearing from nowhere to nestle at his side.

Sam wondered why he never whined about injuries on mission. He drove Janet and her staff to distraction in the infirmary. But both places he was reticent to be touched. It just seemed so strange because for the most part he was a rather touchy feely kind of guy. No, not the emotional heart on his sleeve kind but the tactical inquisitive fingers guy. When they were in Hadante he warned Daniel about appearing weak in any way, giving anyone else a view of a chink in your armor. Is this what it was all about - not appearing vulnerable, not being the weakest link, not slowing down the team or putting it in jeopardy. Was he afraid they would deep six him for their own survival? Hadn't it happened to him before? Cromwell left him for dead and left him behind to rot in prison. Even his wife had left him after his son's death.

Perhaps he did withdraw but maybe it was the only way he could react. And perhaps his wife's departure, no doubt for her sanity, left shards of the man dissolving in pain and self flagellation, abandoned again by those he depended on.

How could he think his team would ever leave him behind? How could he think she would or could ever do that to him? Hadn't she moved heaven and earth, reshaped the laws of physics just for him? And then she remembered the diamond ring and the man named Pete, far from her thoughts and her heart. Was this the next in the long list of abandonment's Jack had endured and did he feel about her the same way he had felt about Cromwell?