Chapter 11

It was getting dark by the time Daniel regained consciousness. Jack had finally pulled himself back onto his feet and was about to hoist Daniel over his shoulders when he saw his eyes pop open.

"Wha... where...?"

"Easy, Daniel," Jack said, crouching down and trying to soothe his friend as best he could. He remembered those first moments of disorientation when he'd woken up and found himself in a strange place full of strange people, so he knew what Daniel must be going through. "It's okay. I got you."

"Jack? What... what's happening?"

"I'll explain it all when we get home," Jack said. "Come on. Think you can walk?" When Daniel didn't respond, Jack took his arm and helped him to stand. He supported him with an arm around his middle, and although the added weight almost made his legs buckle beneath him, once again Jack found himself putting one foot in front of the other.

They somehow managed to make it down the hill without collapsing, though Daniel seemed completely spaced out and unaware of his surroundings. Jack would almost have described him as catatonic, if it weren't for the fact that his legs were moving.

"One last hill," he said with forced optimism as the ground began to slope upwards yet again. Not that he really believed it, of course. He just liked the way the words sounded.

Which is precisely why he didn't believe his eyes when he reached the top of the hill and saw the Stargate glowing in the moonlight just a short distance away.

"Daniel," he said, giving him a slight shake in the hopes that it would bring him around. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Daniel blinked heavily and slowly turned his head from side to side. He coughed and fumbled for the hood of his robe. "Sand storm," he croaked.

Jack rolled his eyes in frustration and lowered Daniel down onto the ground. He had neither the time nor the energy to put up with Daniel's delusions right now. He had enough of his own to deal with already.

Daniel immediately curled up on the ground with his face completely hidden under his hood, in almost the exact position Jack remembered him being in when he'd fallen off the Abydonian camel as they were running from Ra.

It made Jack feel more than a little uncomfortable to watch the scene playing out before him, not only because it wasn't a particularly fond memory, but also because it was something they had both experienced. He was sick and tired of going back and forth between believing Daniel was real and doubting him over and over again, but there seemed to be no escaping it.

Still, Daniel had brought him this far. He had nothing to lose by assuming it was all real and seeing it through to the end.

"Come on, Daniel," he grunted as he tried to hoist Daniel to his feet. "We're almost home."

Daniel was barely conscious by this time so he hung like a dead weight on Jack's side, but Jack didn't have the strength to carry him completely. "Just a few more steps," he kept telling himself. "Just a few more..."

He didn't question why there were no guards waiting for them at the gate. He didn't question how they had made it to exactly the right spot without the aid of a compass or a map. He just kept his eyes on the DHD and willed his legs to keep moving.

He was almost afraid to touch it once he reached his destination. He didn't know what he would do if his hand passed right through it and it disappeared. Still, he had to have faith that that was not going to happen. He dumped Daniel unceremoniously on the ground beside the DHD, closed his eyes... and reached out his hand.

His fingers touched what felt like cold stone. For a moment he feared that it was just a plain old rock, but when he cracked his eyes open again, it was still the DHD that was standing before him. He laughed out loud and clapped his hands together before rubbing them against his thighs and beginning the dialing sequence.

One chevron after another lit up before his eyes, and the Stargate began to spin. He thought he'd never seen or heard anything so beautiful in his life. It took him a few moments to find the point of origin symbol, but soon he was pressing the center crystal and watching the Stargate come to life.

He stood there staring at the event horizon for a long moment, almost hypnotized by the shimmering light. It looked so real, but some part of him was still not sure...

"Here goes nothing," he said, stooping down to grab Daniel's arms. He walked backwards towards the gate, pulling Daniel along with him. He barely had the energy to hoist him up the dais steps by his armpits, so he rested for a moment on the platform before slowly letting out his breath and pulling Daniel through the event horizon.

There was no mistaking the feeling of being broken down into a million pieces and hurled across the galaxy. And then... he was home.

Jack collapsed on the ramp as the gate shut down and half a dozen people in hazmat suits rushed towards him. Now that he'd made it, his exhaustion finally took over and he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness.

It had only just registered in his mind that Daniel was nowhere in sight when everything went black.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Jack was in and out of consciousness for more than a day, sedatives keeping away the hallucinations and flashbacks so that he could finally rest.

Only he couldn't rest - not until he knew whether Daniel had made it. The question of whether or not he had come through the gate before the wormhole had shut down was constantly nagging at the back of his mind, waking and sleeping. Still, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to form the words to ask the various doctors and medical personnel who bustled in and out of his quarantine room.

Not that he could have understood their answer even if he'd been able to ask about Daniel's condition. The sedatives kept him feeling so loopy that he only caught snatches of the conversations that took place around him, and even then he couldn't retain the words long enough to figure out what the context for them may have been.

It was some time during his first night back on the base that he finally heard the word "Daniel." He forced his drifting thoughts to come together long enough that he could listen to the rest of the conversation, but all he heard was, "Sam and Teal'c are worried sick."

He was sure it was Fraiser's voice that he was hearing, so he groaned and waved a limp hand in her general direction.

That seemed to get her attention. A second later, she appeared at his side, peering out at him from inside her hazmat suit. "Colonel?" she said. "I didn't realize you were awake. How are you feeling?"

The words swam around in Jack's head for a minute before he could make sense of them, but in the meantime he waved them away with his hand. "Daniel?" he said. Or tried to say - it came out so slurred that he wasn't sure she would even be able to understand him.

She looked confused for a moment, but then she nodded and laid a gloved hand on his arm. "I'm sure you'll see him soon, Colonel. Just try to rest."

Jack wasn't sure what meaning to take from that, but he was too tired to think about it anyway. Fraiser adjusted something on his IV, and within seconds Jack was finally falling into a deep, restful sleep.

To be continued...