Jack's Fangtastic Adventure - Part Fourteen
Daniel Jackson practically flew from the elevator, running down the corridor outside the infirmary and into the ward without pausing, Teal'c, Sam, and an out of breath General Hammond following hard on his heels.
He looked around, unwilling to believe what they had been told – that his critically ill friend had vanished from the infirmary. "Where is he?"
"That's what I'd like to know, Doctor." The General fixed Warner with a steely glare, as if daring him to hesitate.
Doctor Warner didn't give a direct answer, turning first and pointing at the bed, the drips pouring their contents uselessly onto the sheets.
"He was here. He can't have left by himself. He hadn't come out of the anesthetic." The doctor bent to look under the bed, a sign of desperation in its simplicity. Daniel would have found the sight amusing if it wasn't for the look of panic on Warner's face.
"Where the hell's my patient?" Janet Fraiser's outraged voice cut through the babble. Her hair was dripping and damp patches showed through the material of her uniform blouse, telling of a very hurried departure from the shower.
Doctor Warner stepped back, gesturing wildly at some of the nurses. "I don't know. Cordato, Finley, and Shaw were settling Colonel O'Neill when he just apparently…" He paused, and looked uncomfortable, "…disappeared."
"He did, sir." Nurse Cordato, the senior nurse on duty stepped away from the group of medical personnel and addressed herself directly to the General. "We were adjusting the Colonel's IV lines. I had my hand on his arm, when suddenly there was a …sort of…" She thought for a moment as if getting her facts straight before continuing. "There was a shimmer, and he was gone."
"What do you mean 'gone'?" Janet demanded, "You mean he got up?"
The nurse shook her head. "No, Doctor, I mean he was gone. He just vanished." She looked at the bed as if she couldn't believe her own words. "One second he was there, the next he wasn't."
"He can't have just disappeared. He has to be here somewhere." She stared at the empty bed as if by pure will alone she could make his absence a fallacy.
"You say there was a shimmer? Like a ripple?" Daniel almost hoped the nurse wouldn't confirm his suspicions, but she did, nodding.
"Doctor Jackson?"
Daniel tore his gaze from the blood slowly spreading across the bed, dripping from the bag fixed above a nonexistent patient, to meet the puzzled stare of the General.
"Are you thinking this has some connection to the creatures' ability to disappear?"
Daniel nodded. "Yes, I do. It's the only explanation."
"So where is he?" Sam spoke for the first time, her eyes flitting about the room.
Janet brushed a hand through her hair and pulled it away to wipe the moisture off onto her white coat. "Wherever he is, we have to find him fast. His condition is far from stable and any delay in treatment could have irreversible consequences."
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Finally Jack felt safe, here in darkness so deep that even the lightning behind his eyes failed to brighten it. He was home, the familiar smells and sounds of the SGC grounding him, and relaxing him further.
His team had come back for him.
He was home and safe, here in the dark.
Soon he would wake, in the infirmary, probably to the sight of Daniel or Carter sitting beside him. Teal'c would be on guard at the foot of the bed, watching.
He knew that this time his recovery would be slow, he could still feel the pain from his arm even through the medication, but come what may, against all the odds, he was home.
Jack stretched out, drawing his knees from his chest, relaxing. All around him he heard the mountain groan, low sounds as the rock moved. It was soothing, coming from far beneath the earth and reaching out to him.
In a corner of the blackness a lighter, quicker song began. Younger and more eager it moved through the darkness as if seeking him out. A ripple, a splash, dancing quicksilver light, and it took Jack with it.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Down in a forgotten basement, in the unused sublevels of the SGC, a patch of red in a disturbed layer of dust was the only sign that anyone had ever been there.
xoxoxoxoxoxo