A/N: Here's the next chapter. Yes I meant 'tarnation' and not 'carnation' hehe.
Chapter 5
White noise. It was the first thing he truly noticed. There was a buzzing of white noise echoing through his head. He was still terribly cold. He could breathe but each intake of breath seemed to tear his lungs to shreds. Immeasurable weight bore down on him, crushing him. He squirmed beneath it and moaned. It was a faint raspy sound to say the least but someone must have heard because he sensed a presence so close to him, hovering. Someone was talking, to him? He wasn't sure. Something was wrapped around him and it was warm. It felt nice against the cold throbbing ache that tormented him. A hand pressed against his cheek and tapped it lightly. So warm. He pushed into the palm trying to get as close to its heat as possible.
"Daniel, you with me? Daniel?" Jack. He tried to open his eyes. He had to see if he was dreaming. He remembered being alone. Alone and scared.
"Daniel, c'mon buddy I know you can wake up for me" he was becoming more pressing seeing Daniel's eyes fluttering under their lids. He was trying He was really trying to obey. But his eyelids were so heavy. He couldn't make them lift. It felt like they were glued together. The dark shroud began to curl around him once more and he felt his whole body starting to relax but there was a sharp tap to his cheek that made him jolt in surprise the darkness springing back to where it lie in wait until another opportunity.
"Daniel so help me, wake up!" Jack sounded impatient but there was something else in his voice. Something Daniel rarely heard. Fear. Why was he afraid? Daniel had to know and bucking against the exhaustion's grip on him, his eyes fluttered open then settled to stare straight ahead. Everything was terribly blurry, more so than usual when he didn't have his glasses, and he couldn't quite distinguish where he was.
"Daniel, you with me now?" Jack turned Daniel by the chin gingerly so his eyes were on him. Daniel blinked sluggishly for a moment and the colonel watched as he struggled to orient himself.
"Hey Doc, he's awake!" Jack's shout was jarring in Daniel's ears and he winced then opened his mouth trying to say his friends name but it all caught in his throat choking him, burning white hot with pain.
"No don't talk Daniel, don't, you'll do more damage to your throat." Jack chided seeing his attempts. Daniel frowned. Nothing was making sense. Everything around him was splintered, disconnected pieces that wouldn't fit together. Janet was hovering over him now. He was starting to lose his grip on comprehension. She was saying something to him but he could only catch snatch bits and pieces of her words.
"Home" he mouthed making no effort to put sound to the word. It hurt enough just forming the word.
"Soon Daniel, Soon, you just rest and lay still" he nodded. It hurt to do even that. He listened to Jack talk for a while, he didn't know how long, nor did he know what Jack was saying, but the sound of his voice was good to hear. It still had that slight edge of fear but it let him know he was safe. He wasn't alone anymore.
He drifted in and out for a long while after that. Each waking moment did not last long. Sometimes he was riddled with confusion and couldn't bring himself above the foggy disorientation. He was always so tired. Other times things made more sense and he could piece together what was going on and realized just how pale his friend looked. Had something happened to Jack? He tried to ask a couple of times but they always told him to hush. Don't talk. It was the one thing that they said every time he woke. Don't talk. Don't cause more damage. He felt so lost and confused. He knew something was wrong with him, terribly wrong. The way his throat burned and he felt like spikes had been driven through many parts of his body but when he fought to remember what had happened it slipped away like sand between his fingers.
He woke again nauseated by the soft sway back and forth. He was overwhelmed by the sensation of floating. He had to swallow back rising bile, enduring a pain like nothing he'd ever felt by the action, brought tears to his eyes. He could hear his own whimpering now, pitiful and disjointed as the sound was. Instantly he felt himself lowered, the swaying stopped and Jack's voice was hovering over him now. It was distant and faint. He latched onto it, felt Jack's hand gripping his own, and drifted away again. He was in limbo again. He could hear sound all around him but found it too difficult to open his eyes. He heard the grate of stone grinding against stone with a thunk and then the rush that was almost like water plunging over a fall. He fell into oblivion once more unsure what he'd heard but too weak to fight the pull of sleep.
00000
Jack paced. He fretted. He worried. They were home. They were finally home. He felt like curling up in bed and never waking he was so tired. An effect, he knew, from his direct blood transfusion from him to Daniel. He hadn't meant to cut it so close. He'd meant to stop it for a while to let his own body recover. The problem was it had caught up to him so fast he'd missed the stopping point. He'd fallen asleep despite the efforts he'd put, which were great, into staying awake. So here he was in the infirmary told to lay down and drink his juice like a good boy so his body could recover. While he did welcome the blanket wrapped around him finally making him feel warm again after so long in shock, and yes the juice did make him feel far less shaky, there was no way he was going to just sit down and nap while Daniel was in such a bad way.
He'd been whisked away to emergency operation the minute they'd stepped through. No one that had been in the gate room or the halls from there to the infirmary knew his true condition or really any hint at it because Janet had so fully tucked him in with blankets that he was only visible from the chin up. Nothing of his neck or anything lower than that was exposed. That had been thirty six hours ago. He hadn't been in surgery that long O'Neill knew, but Fraiser wasn't letting anyone close enough to even see him she said he was so fragile right now. She looked exhausted. He figured she'd only gotten five hours sleep since they got back and even less the two days she'd spent off world getting Jackson strong enough to travel. They'd run through the stock of bagged blood they'd brought knowing they would need it in the first day. It had taken a force very near pulling teeth to get Janet to let the colonel give him more blood but being forced to let him or watch Daniel die of blood loss, she'd given in.
Jack's winning argument was that she would be there the whole time to make sure he was recovering enough. The infusions had happened in frequent but small quantities. The time between them was enough for Jack to recover and for Janet to think he wasn't slowly killing himself in the process. It would have been easier if one of the other men and women with them had been the same blood type as Daniel but they weren't. It had been the hardest two days any of them had ever faced. Jack made a mental note to do as much for Janet as he possibly could to make up for all the worry they were putting her through.
"Jack you're supposed to be resting," General Hammonds tone jerked O'Neill from his contemplation as he paced.
"I'm not tired. I don't need rest." he argued not in a giving mood.
"Dr. Fraiser had a different opinion of that Colonel, one that I heard very heatedly and in great detail just a moment ago." the two stared at each other.
"I can't just sit and drink my juice like a good boy with Daniel…with Daniel…" Jack just gave up trying to say it because the general already knew.
"Jack, the best you can do is get yourself back up to par so Dr. Fraiser has one less person to worry over." Jack huffed, puffed, then sat down and glared at his empty cup of juice.
"Have any of the docs told you anything? They've been tight lipped as mimes with me" his whole body sagged as he plucked angrily at the hem of a bed sheet.
"No, just that they're doing everything they can Jack." a heavy silence filled the room as Jack managed to get a thread loose and tugged at it slowly unraveling the corner of the sheet.
"I know they are" Hammond eyed his second in command for a moment realizing he looked years older than he had before and how worn out he really was.
"Get some rest Jack, eat and drink whatever they put in front of you, it's the best any of us can do right now" a few more cursory words were exchanged before O'Neill was left alone, his glass of juice refilled, to wait for word.
Hours passed. It felt like days. He'd already been through days yet it felt like more. He would always look from clock to door to clock to door eager for word on Daniel. Sam and Teal'c came often and stayed in vigil with him until they were called away by some unavoidable duty, or were forcibly removed. O'Neill always stayed, drinking his juice, eating whatever food they put in front of him hardly aware if it even had a flavor. Only once did he fall asleep, try as he had not to, he couldn't stop himself. He woke with a jolt hearing the swinging of doors and the clatter as the wheels of a gurney and iv pole approached. He sat up quickly, too quickly, and the room spun around him slightly before settling. Daniel. They'd brought Daniel this time.
The surgeons, nurses, and Janet looked to be at a level exhaustion he'd never before seen. Their eyes seemed bruised from the dark circles beneath them, their pallor pale and gaunt from hours heaped upon hours of strained worry. Jack resisted the urge to jump to his feet and rush over for the sake of staying out of their way just long enough to get his friend properly settled. The moment the nurses were away Jack rushed to the bed to lean over Daniel. He was pale, a sickly pale, with swashes of bandages covering so much of his body it was frightening. He had dark smudges beneath his eyes that made the doctors look hardly even like a wisp of shadow. There was thankfully no longer a blue tinge to his lips for the ventilator did its work well. He was abnormally thin, eyes sunken, cheeks hallowed.
"I did the best I could Colonel." Janet spoke softly a cup of fresh, overly sugared and caffeinated coffee in her hand. She looked like she'd gone a month without sleep. Her face was drawn and her posture sagging wearily.
"Is he…Is he going to make it Doc?" Jack ran a hand through Daniel's sweaty limp hair automatically loathing the unresponsiveness of his closest friend.
"He's a fighter Colonel, otherwise he wouldn't have even made it home. I did the best I could to repair everything. It was bad though. Both his legs were broken, a spike went straight through the bone in one leg and arm which could lead to an infection in the bone and that's dangerous. But this is Daniel' we're talking about. It's up to him now." they both sighed heavily.
"How's the damage to his throat going to affect his…..well, will he be able to talk after this?" Jack hated the question but aside from will he live it was the second inquiry that burned through his mind the hottest.
"Well, I did what I could there but I've sent all the imaging results to some specialists to see what they say and once Daniel is strong enough I'll actually bring someone in to do what they can. I can't really say at this point though how the injuries will affect his voice." she sounded tired, but not defeated. There was a gleam of hope in her eye and that told Jack that she still saw the potential for good results.
"You're looking a little better," she moved on quickly and setting down the cup began to take his vitals, "Have you been eating and drinking the juice we've been giving you?" back to the mother-hen tyrant it is then.
"Yes, I've been a good little boy and drank all my juice" he mocked sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. Janet harrumphed with a scowl.
"Alright, you're blood pressure seems to be back to normal. Are you still feeling cold or shaky at all?" he could hear the soft click of her toe tapping, in annoyance at him rather than impatience most likely.
"Nah, feeling pretty and perfect" Jack chimed with a innocent ring to his voice that told Janet he was lying.
"Uh huh, well you're ordered to rest and since I know you aren't leaving go get a chair to sit in I don't want you standing all day, and make sure you actually eat and stay hydrated." she clucked.
"Yeah Doc, I'll be a good boy and rest so long as I get to stay" Janet pierced him with a look that bore deep into his soul as if to check him for some deception he was prone to when being a patient or standing vigil over one. She must not have found any this time for she gave a satisfied huff and walked off for some much needed coffee.
O'Neill was the only true constant next to Daniel. Time ticked past him, nurses and doctors came and went. Bandages were changed and frowns abounded. He never so much as twitched a muscle in the days that passed. Despite Janet's best efforts infection set in and fever began dragging his improved health back down. His muscles jumped and twitch out of his control, head lolling about struggling to escape whatever torments pierced through the unconsciousness that held him captive. Jack kept a grip on his hand, gentle but firm, careful to not disturb the lines and tubing weaving in, out, and about his friend keeping him alive and on the road to recovery. He talked to Daniel often trying to soothe him. Sometimes it seemed to work and he would settle while other times he remained unawares of the attempts by the colonel. Teal'c and Sam hovered over him too, Sam taking up the mother hen position of pressing a cool wet cloth over Daniel's face and neck washing away the sweat.
It was hard to watch. He grew thinner and thinner the sickly pallor only worsening. Jack could see it in the doctors' eyes. Daniel's chances were growing slimmer. His body couldn't take much more of this. It needed to rest. His reserves of strength wouldn't last much longer. He was on the strongest regiments of antibiotics at their disposal. A feeding tube filled him with the most nutrient rich combinations Janet could think of to help sustain him. It helped but more was needed. With their backs to the wall and no other ideas popping into their minds, they called Jacob Carter. The gate shut down sharply as he descended the ramp.
"Sam, I came as soon as I could." he wrapped his daughter in a firm hug then loosened enough to look into her worry worn face.
"I'm so glad you came. We didn't know what else to do." she sounded tired, and desperate.
"I'll do everything I can Sam, is everything ready to start now?" he straightened and let go of her clearing his throat.
"Yeah, everything's ready Dad, we were just waiting for you" When Jacob saw the true state Daniel was in his heart sank. He'd known they were at wits end if they'd called him but this was beyond even what he'd expected. His frame shook like a weak leaf covered in sticky sweat. His hair was plastered to his face and Jack was just brushing it out of his face when they walked in.
"Jacob, glad to see you here. Can you help him?" He was strung out, too tightly wound, and high strung. Jacob could see it in the way he moved, the worried, fearful look in his eyes, how fast he talked and the tension that seemed to emenate off of him. Jacob only hoped, for his their sake as much as Daniel's that he hadn't come to late.