Chapter 23
Noli didn't wake up. Janet wrapped her in thermal blankets, examined her, hooked her up to new machines and took new colorful pictures of her brain. She announced that as far as she knew, Noli's brain activity had adjusted back to normal. Or not, there were small anomalies that she couldn't account for, but they were most likely about her ability to feel energy emissions. Jack mentioned again that they needed to make up a name for that. Teal'c suggested "buzz", as the z's implied the sensation of something vibrating. Daniel explained how the word used in that sense described something you did to something else, rather than the communication that took place between Noli and what she touched, and then went into a monologue about grammar that no one cared to listen to.
Six hours later Noli still hadn't woken up. The team had left her in the competent hands of the medical staff, who could do nothing but fluff her pillow and wait. It was more than they could do for her though, and a sense of disappointment that after all that tension, everything still didn't just go back to normal settled in some of them.
"It's to be expected", Sam said to Daniel, "She's exhausted. Her body needs to rest." Daniel was leaning on her desk, she was fingering her laptop, thinking she might as well get some work done. Daniel grunted.
"I'll bet you she'll sleep like the dead till tomorrow, and then she'll be fit for fight."
"I just wish..." Daniel fidgeted with a pen. He looked up at Sam. "I just wish there was something we could do, you know?" He looked down again.
"I know." Sam took her pen back. "But there's nothing to worry about. She's ok."
"Yeah..."
Daniel left for his own office. He entered slowly, almost reluctantly, and sat down at his desk without turning the lights on. It felt dusty, as if no one had been in there for years. That wasn't the case, he still used it every day. Just not... in as long stretches as before. He sighed deeply. Sam was right, Noli was ok, everything would be fine, let her rest, bring her a bag of peanuts in the morning. Do some work until then. Figure out how many people he would need at the site for going through the rocks in as short a time as possible. Copy the writings and hand them out for reference. Catalogue some of the never-petering pile of artefacts collecting at the base. Think of something to say that could possibly make Noli feel better about her first and only gate travel turning into disaster.
After a while of sitting in the dark, the only light in the room coming through the open door from the empty corridor outside, Daniel started realising how tired he really was. He looked at the time; it was way past bedtime. He gave up his plans on working and went to throw himself on the bed in his quarters instead. He was pretty sure the others had done the same.