Chapter Four

Janet was jerked awake as the cart they were trapped in began moving again. Wherever they were being taken it seemed to be a fair distance. Still resting on Daniel's chest Janet decided the only thing she could really do was go back to sleep. She was just drifting back to sleep when she realized something wasn't right.

Daniel was absolutely radiating heat. With her ear resting over his heart Janet could hear Daniel's pulse pounding hard. She lifted up her head and glanced up to see if he was still sleeping. When she saw that he was sleeping, seemingly peacefully, she became truly concerned. His heart shouldn't be working so hard.

Sitting up Janet distanced herself from Daniel for a moment. Sleeping up against him had heated her own skin making it difficult for her to tell if he truly had a fever or not. Once she cooled down Janet touched the back of her hand against Daniel's forehead and had no doubt that he was running a considerable fever. Daniel slowly opened his eyes.

"Janet?"

"Right here. How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm going to be si..."

Daniel bolted up right only to pitch forward on his hands and start retching violently. With nothing in his stomach he heaved unproductively for a few minutes. Getting his stomach somewhat under control Daniel sat back and took a few deep breaths. Laying back down he wrapped his arms over his stomach and groaned.

"I guess the water was bad." Janet sighed.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine."

"If it's the water, why aren't you sick?"

"Everyone's immune system is different. I'm sure I'm infected, I just happen to be asymptomatic."

"Feels like the flu."

"A lot of infections do. Try and get some rest."

"Are you warm enough?"

"Me?"

"Yes, it's freezing in here."

"No, Daniel, that's just your fever talking. Your body wants to trick you into seeking out heat to raise your temperature higher. Sleep is the best thing for you right now."

Daniel nodded and tried to get comfortable on the hard wooden floor. Janet moved so that she could offer him her lap as a pillow. Daniel smiled and gratefully accepted the offer. Janet was a little alarmed by how easily he fell back to sleep. Placing her hand against his forehead again she tried to decide if his fever was high enough to be truly dangerous.

When Daniel started shivering Janet realized that no matter how high his fever was now his body had plans to take it even higher. Unable to do much more than 'wait and see' Janet did exactly that. Around midday the carriage came to a halt. This was a normal occurrence. The men used the time to rest their horses. They also allowed Daniel and Janet out to attend to any of nature's needs.

Janet nudged Daniel awake as they came to a stop. Opening his eyes slowly Daniel forced himself to sit up. His skin was pin pricked with goose bumps despite the warm afternoon. He shook his head to clear it and went to get to his feet.

"Easy, Daniel."

"We can't let them know I'm sick. I don't want them thinking I'm weak, it might give them an excuse to take advantage of you."

"Push yourself too hard and you'll make yourself weaker."

"I can handle a quick trip outside."

Daniel did manage to act healthy during the half hour break from travel. However once he was safely out of view again he practically collapsed. Janet helped him get comfortable and once again he was out. A few hours later Janet became hopeful when Daniel started sweating heavily, it meant his body was trying to bring down the fever. The relief wasn't long lived as Daniel's fever spiked higher than before.

When they stopped again for the night Daniel rallied once again and put on a good show. Janet tried to keep him awake long enough to drink something, but he refused the water. Curling up on his side he hugged his arms close to his chest as he went into classic fever digging behavior. Janet was always amazed by how the body could change a person's habits when it was fighting an infection.

When dawn broke the next day Daniel was still battling the mysterious illness. The unbreakable fever worried Janet the most as it continued to spike. She hadn't slept much during the night, she'd been too busy trying to keep his temperature down using her torn shirt as a damping cloth. Now that there was enough light to see Janet peeled back Daniel's upper lip. The pale colour of his gum was cause for added concern. Waking without opening his eyes Daniel reached up and took Janet's hand away from his lip.

"What are you doing?" Daniel muttered.

"Checking for shock. You need to sit up and drink, maybe eat something."

"No thank you." Daniel shook his head. "The water is what's making me sick."

"I'm not so sure of that anymore. In any case if you don't drink something the dehydration from the fever is going to kill you."

"Seems like a bit of a catch 22." Daniel managed a weak smile.

Daniel struggled to sit up. Unable to support himself in an upright position he moved back so that he could rest his back against the wooden boards. With his eyes still closed he nestled his chin against his chest and fell asleep again. Janet had to give him a gentle shove to wake him once again. He didn't open his eyes, but he did pick his head up. After taking a few sips of water he pushed it away.

Daniel fluttered his eyes open to look around with his slightly out of focus eyes before shutting them again. Janet's breath hissed across her teeth as she caught sight of his eyes for the first time that morning. Daniel was settling his head back, clearly planing on going back to sleep despite the fact that he was still sitting up. Janet reached out and cupped his jaw in her hand to lifted his head back up to face her.

"Daniel, look at me."

Although slow to respond Daniel did as Janet asked. His eyes were rolled back at first, but he brought them forward again. Now that she had a good look there was no denying the yellow hue to the whites of his eyes. Daniel's expression turned to one of concern as he reflected the look in Janet's eyes.

"Janet?"

"How long have you been on this planet?"

"About a month."

"Have you been eating the food here?"

Daniel nodded.

"Okay, good news and bad news." Janet sighed. "It's not the water, it's the food. I'm 99% sure you have hepatitis A, a very, very severe case. You must have been infected shortly after arriving, since the disease has an incubation of around 28 days."

"Great." Daniel sighed. "You always warned me that it was just a matter of time before this happened."

"I know. But the vaccine for hepatitis A is a two dose treatment and after your allergic reaction to the first dose..."

"The second could have killed me." Daniel finished in a weary voice.

"On the bright side when you recover you'll be immune for life."

"So, this isn't going to kill me now?"

"It shouldn't." Janet forced a smile.

"'Shouldn't'?" Daniel repeated. "That's not exactly comforting."

"It's not the infection that worries me, it's this fever. If we can't get it down and keep it down...we could be in trouble."

Unable to keep his yellow eyes open Daniel closed them again. Almost in an effort to prove Janet's diagnosis correct he reached up and pressed his hand against the upper portion of his stomach on the right side with a wince of pain. Breathing slowly he forced himself to look at Janet again.

"I'm sorry, Janet, I can't stay awake."

"That's okay, you need rest. Just drink a little more and lay back down."

Daniel only managed a few sips at the water before he was on the verge of passing out. Janet helped him lay back down and guided him to use her lap as a pillow. Within seconds he was asleep again. Janet pressed her fingers against his throat and despite his shallow breathing his pulse was strong as his heart pounded hard to increase his body temperature once again.

The virus in Daniel's system wouldn't regularly be enough to take down a healthy grown adult. It was his immune system's over reaction that was causing the true danger. Looking down at Daniel Janet sighed heavily, knowing that even a simple aspirin could bring him out of danger. Janet felt a surge of adrenaline as she suddenly remembered that the men had taken her tackle box with them.

"With any luck they still have it."

Trying to get someone's attention Janet pounded on the side of the wagon. After fifteen minutes she finally gave in. Either she couldn't be heard over the horse's hooves or the men carrying them further from the city simply didn't care. Realizing that she'd have to wait Janet turned her attention back to keeping Daniel's fever under control in anyway she could.

As the hours of travel passed Daniel remained locked in his unnatural sleep. Once every two hours Janet would force him to wake and drink some of the water. However the last time she had roused him he didn't stay conscious long enough to get anything down. It had taken him longer to get back to sleep due to the increasing pain in his abdomen over the infected liver. Crying out weakly a few times he had finally passed out. Janet made the decision not to wake him again.

When midday arrived Janet breathed a sigh of relief. She went to wake Daniel so that he could tell the men what he needed to get better. Daniel opened his shockingly yellow eyes, but he didn't focus on Janet. Pressing her hand against his forehead Janet realized that his fever was high enough to make him delirious.

"Daniel, wake up, pay attention."

Daniel struggled to follow orders, but it wasn't happening. When the men opened the door they made similar demands on him. It didn't take long for an angry Gaius to join the scene. He took one look at Daniel and started talking in an alarmed tone. Janet wished she knew what they were saying, particularly when two of them hauled Daniel out into the fresh air.

Janet was a little surprised when the men simply disappeared from view. She cautiously stepped down out of the wagon. It was clear that they weren't worried about her escaping. They had a point, she wasn't going anywhere. Janet followed the men as they brought Daniel over to the crystal clear pool that they had stopped at.

"A bath could do him wonders, if it's not too cold." Janet agreed.

Gaius himself crawled into the pool to help keep Daniel from drowning. At first Daniel accepted the bath without complaint. As he became more conscious of what was going on he began to give Gaius a bit of a fight. When Daniel opened his eyes the men started chattering in alarm once again. Gaius started barking orders and hauled himself and Daniel out of the water.

"Daniel, what are they saying?" Janet asked anxiously.

Daniel shook his head weakly, trying to focus on the world around him. He offered the men no struggle as they laid him down in the grass. All Janet could do was hover at the edge of the chaos as the men prepared for whatever they were planing. Gaius had one of the men stretch out Daniel's arm with his wrist facing up. When Gaius pulled out his knife Janet forced her way into the fray to kneel down next to Daniel.

"No!" Janet cried. "You can't bleed him, that is the last thing he needs right now!"

Gaius snarled something at her. Janet ignored him and turned Daniel's face so that he was looking at her. She was desperate to keep them from trying to help by spilling his 'bad' blood. It was a primitive medical practice that often proved deadly.

"Daniel, listen to me, please." Janet ran her hand through Daniel's wet hair to get his attention. "You have to tell them that you can cure yourself."

"I can?" Daniel asked confused.

"No, but I can. I need you to tell them that you need the box they took from the library."

It took Daniel a moment to snap to enough to make the translation. Gaius thought about Daniel's request for a moment before nodding. One of the other men brought over the large tackle box and placed it on the ground next to Daniel. Janet helped Daniel sit up and opened the box for him.

"What am I looking for?" Daniel asked.

"For starters some aspirin."

Daniel pawed through the myriad of drugs that Janet had brought along until he found a bottle of aspirin. He asked to have some water brought over and took three of them, as prescribed by Janet. When he was done he looked exhausted once again. Janet also had him take a handful of glucose tablets to bring his blood sugar up.

"Daniel, see if you can get them to spread a blanket out under that tree of there and let us rest until at least tomorrow."

Daniel looked up at Gaius and asked for the favor. Janet could see Gaius wanting to say no, however after a minute of thought he nodded. The red headed man gave instructions for one of his men to go and get a pair of deer hides which were laid out under the tree that Janet had indicated. Daniel was able to get up himself and wander over to lay down on one of the soft hides.

Janet took the risk of retrieving her last bag of saline and an IV line out of the medical supplies. She had picked the tree because it had a branch at about the right height to hang the IV from. Janet had Daniel help place the IV needle in the back of his hand. Once he was comfortable Janet sat down next to him on the other deer hide. She checked and found that he still had a fever, but it seemed not to be as high as before. Daniel looked up at her, his eyes still a terrifying yellow, and smiled.

"Plain old aspirin, eh?" Daniel teased.

"One of the greatest drugs ever produced."

"We'll see about that."