10
He woke feeling as if something furry had died in his mouth, he recognised the symptoms of the after effects of being sedated straight away, after all he had had a LOT of practise to get to know what it felt like the morning after.
He was in the bed in Sams quarters, a fresh BDU by the side of the bed on a chair, along with fresh underwear and his boots.
He got up and had a shower, he had to admit he felt more human than he had been doing ever since he 'got back'. He had to use her shower gels and the smell of her in his nostrils meant he had to take care of a morning problem manually rather than willing it away, he hoped that the PX had his usual brands in, otherwise he was going to be walking around all the time he was on base aroused. He exited the bathroom covered in only a towel to find Walter dropping off toiletries for him, they WERE all his usual brands, fragrance free soap, shower gel and shampoo. Walter noticed that he had been showered already and apologised for his tardiness, Jack laughed at the thought of Walter being accused of being late and thanked him for his care.
He debated the time it would take him to shower again but when he raised the towel to his hair and his body reacted to the scent on it, he decided the time would be well spent and returned to the small room.
By the time he got to the nursery there was a breakfast tray waiting for him, and one for Sam that was untouched on the over-bed table. He noticed a bench had been set up under the phone with a coffee machine on it and the whole of SG13 were holding mugs of the strong black liquid.
Jack called for Dr. Lam and warned her that if she ever sedated him again, unless it was a medical necessity he would have her before the board. He then thanked her for his good nights sleep. She smiled at him and said she was just following orders and when he asked who issued them she pulled out a folded sheet of paper from her pocket and gave him it. It was a letter addressed 'to whom it may concern' and it was from Janet!
She had listed all his bad habits when ill, playing with the sterile tray, shouting at the nurses, refusing to have his temperature taken or his pupils checked, and told her successor that the ONLY way to deal with him was to knock him out and not allow him to wake unto he was fit to go home. He was almost sure she had not meant every word to be taken 100 at face value… but it was Janet.
He smiled as he read the letter, he could hear her voice as he read it, the tone she always used when she was explaining for the 50th time why he was not fit to go home yet… he passed the note to Daniel, then to Teal'c and then to Sam, he raised his mug and said "To Janet" everyone joined the toast.
A beam of light and Thor was in the room again, at his side was a box, about a foot cubed, he explained that it was a shield generator, big enough to cover the whole complex. It would save a problem if anything happened to his ship, say if it had to leave orbit suddenly.
He recommended that it not be stored in with the babies, as it had a powerful electrical field and Sam had mentioned that it could be detrimental to their health when helping design the portable ones with Hermiod.
Teal'c lifted the box without apparent effort and sent Wells to the phone to call for Siler.
Thor followed them out so he could explain how it worked and what the controls did. Sam followed them, slowly. Jack watched her go, worried, usually she would have been bouncing with happiness to get hold of a new toy, she hardly seemed to have the energy to walk out the door.
He decided to follow her and when they got to the lift he let the others travel to 18, Siler suggested the room next to Daniels lab, it being directly above the nursery, and only 35 feet away in a direct line. He stopped her following them and took her to her quarters. There he made her strip and have a shower, and he helped her dress again, only her trousers and t shirt though he left the jacket hung up. Though he had his usual reaction to the sight of her naked, she looked so very tired he did not try to initiate anything. He guided her to the bed and tried to press her into laying down but she resisted until he agreed to take her to the nursery.
Once there she lay on the bed, and he slipped in behind her next to the wall. He held her tight, spooned to her, until she fell asleep again.
He woke himself to see Carolyn and the paediatrician discussing blood results and another UV was hovering over another cot. Danielle this time, this was the first time any of the girls had shown symptoms of any kind.
Jack was really starting to worry, but Carolyn assured him that it was nothing to worry about as yet, the babies livers just needed time to start functioning properly, and unless it did not clear fully by the end of a fortnight then there was no danger.
The paediatrician stepped up at that point "Actually Dr. Lam we MAY have a problem" He looked at Jack as if trying to decide if he could cope with the news. "The children are showing that they are developed to the point of one month of age, this means that the jaundice could already be serious"
"Show me your evidence!" she snapped and they walked off to the far side of the room, where he had been keeping himself ever since witnessing Jack having a go at the marines.
After watching her examine each baby he saw her nod to the colleague and she came towards the bed he was sat on the bottom of it, just below Sams feet.
"How much do you know about jaundice, sir?" she asked, Jack noticed that Sam stiffened as Carolyn spoke, he nudged her and told her to wake up… she didn't move.
He got to his feet and went to the head of the bed and shook her, her eyes remain tightly closed. He suspected she was just pretending to be asleep so she could listen but not have to be subject to scrutiny when she reacted.
"Sam, you need to hear this love," he said in a low voice, she still got embarrassed about him showing her affection in a military setting. He shook her shoulder again, and she rolled onto her back, her eyes were rolled back in her head and her mouth hung open, Carolyn pushed him out of the way roughly and shouted for one of the nurses to help, they took the brakes off the bed and pushing past the SG13 members and the rest of SG1 they took Sam into the infirmary proper. Jack followed, all thoughts of jaundice removed from his head!
Sam had slipped into a coma.
The babies were getting worse and Jack still didn't understand why it was dangerous.
The paediatrician waited until he was sat holding one of the healthy children on his lap and then attempted to explain.
"There is a substance called bilirubin" he started "it is naturally produced by your body as red blood cells break down, as they die ready to be replaced. Your liver takes away any excess bilirubin in the system and sends it as waste to be excreted." Jack nodded, he was following so far. "When babies are born they have been relying on their mothers for more than a safe haven, through the umbilical cord the blood is filtered and cleaned and so their livers have not really started working when they come out, same as their lungs."
"However, unlike the lungs, the liver can take a few days, a week even, to begin to filter the blood correctly, and the build up of bilirubin is what gives the body that yellow colour" Jack nodded again. For a doctor and a scientist this man was excellent at explaining, though that could be because of his usual clientele, it cannot be easy talking to people whose children were ill, Jack knew that when Charlie died he didn't understand one word in three, and yet it was not complicated.
"If the liver does not start to work correctly, or the red blood cells die too often and bilirubin builds to too high a level it can be dangerous" Jack knew that the liver was one organ you could not live without. "High levels of bilirubin may cause deafness, or cerebral palsy, or even brain damage"
Brain damage! "How about the kids? How high is the levels in them?" he asked
"The danger is at around 20 micromoles per litre , though the lower the better, anything between 2 μmol/L-14 μmol/L is within 'normal' range, under 14 is recommended, at the moment Jonathan is worst off, he is at 18 μmol/L . If it increases another point I am going to have to recommend a full blood replacement!"