Sam was frantically trying to dial the gate but each time she finished the dialling sequence the gate just wheezed asthmatically and gave up. "It's not working sir!" she cried out in frustration. "I can't get a lock". Jack sat propped up against a tree, the field dressing on his chest soaked with blood. "Try harder Carter" he said painfully, "I'm counting on you." Teal'c came running out of the trees dodging the glowing blast from a staff weapon. "We are in trouble" he cried out, his eyes wide with un-Teal'c-like fear. Sam turned and looked pleadingly to Daniel, who stood rooted to the spot. "Do something Daniel!" she pleaded. He tried to move, but his feet felt like lead. "I…" he stuttered weakly. "Dammit Daniel – stop just standing there." Jack interjected; Daniel could hear the rasp of pain in his voice. Behind him a soft voice said "He can't. Dan'yel cannot save anyone." Slowly he twisted round to see Sha're, he tried to reach out to her but then her soft voice changed and her eyes glowed. "I have betrayed you as you betrayed me" she said angrily as she stuck a knife into his side.
Daniel gasped and opened his eyes. In confusion he looked around him but everything was blurry in the half light. Something was preventing him from moving and the pain from the knife blow burned like fire in his side. He moved his hand down to staunch the flow of blood, but instead of feeling stickiness felt soft gauze and smooth cotton sheets. Dazed, he looked around him again and the shadowy images began to resolve themselves into the familiar shapes of the infirmary. The blue glow in front of him was not fire from a staff weapon but a screen of backlit x-rays, the tall figure to his right was a drip stand. He was safe then, but where were the others?
Suddenly, it all came flooding back to him. Those tense hours in the control room, the certain death, the vanishing gate. Again, relief and gut-wrenching fear fought for dominance. SG-1 had had a chance of escape, but escape to where? He tried, and failed, to rid his mind of the image of Jack, blood-soaked and fading by the minute.
His heart was racing and discomfort and fear combined to ensure that he was thoroughly awake. Carefully easing himself into a sitting position he fumbled in the bedside cabinet for his watch half-wondering why whoever designed the infirmary hadn't thought to put a clock in on the wall. 3:20 am, really not morning, but, he was reluctant to surrender just yet to any more morphine-filled dreams. He groped further into the drawer and found a dog-eared book that a previous patient must have left there. It was not the type of book Daniel would usually choose to read, (in fact, it was the type of book that usually he would studiously avoid) but it was better than dreams.
Several hours later, when he had read the book cover to cover and been made angry by the paucity of plot he drifted back to a haunted sleep.
"No" Janet said the next morning in tones that suggested she would not be swayed. "You are not to get up today. Maybe tomorrow, but not today."
"But I feel fine" Daniel protested.
"And I want you to stay that way!" Janet responded with spirit. "I don't want to spend today following you round with a syringe full of morphine, worried that you might collapse at any moment. The SGC will continue to run just fine without you." She gave him a mock glare. Yesterday there had been a reason to let him get up. Today, nothing would stop her from ensuring that Daniel got the mandatory bed-rest. The wound was healing well, but Daniel's pulse and temperature were both a little higher than she would have liked.
Daniel sighed, but didn't argue the point. He was dog-tired, everything ached and the sharp pain in his flank frequently reminded him to stay still. Besides, he reasoned ruefully, it wasn't like his presence was needed for getting the gate online. Maybe it would have been if the only instructions were in some alien tongue (though presumably even then he could translate them from bed), but in this instance they had detailed technical notes made by the SGC technicians themselves from the initial instillation and activation of the stargate. And they had schematics and report from the decommissioning of the Antarctic gate. Presumably, he mused, there were now whole reams of classified scientific papers into the physics of stargates. Daniel pulled an involuntary grimace; he didn't like being surplus to requirements. Janet noticed immediately.
"What was that look for?" she asked, evidently amused.
"Nothing" Daniel replied quickly, somewhat embarrassed to reveal his narcissism. He looked away, trying to feign casual indifference and clumsily straightened his blanket.
Janet cocked one eyebrow disbelievingly. "It didn't look like nothing." She gave him a hard stare, trying to decode the look. "You don't like the fact that you are not indispensable!" It was a guess, but she instantly saw that she had him!
"Maybe" Daniel said with a sheepish grin, slightly taken aback by her insight. Perhaps she knew him too well."Remind me never to play poker with you."
"Shame, I enjoy a good game" Janet grinned triumphantly.
Daniel chuckled and then stopped himself quickly as the pain in his stomach and side flared. In retrospect, "feel fine" had been a definite exaggeration. The raised temperature combined with too much exertion the previous day made his back and joints sore in a flu-like way. His head was thumping and he had a constant nagging ache in his stomach. All of this he could have ignored, but moving really, really, hurt; especially if the action involved his abdominal muscles, which – he recently had come to realise – pretty much all useful movements did.
"Here" Janet said, spotting his discomfort and passing him a pillow "If you want to laugh or need to cough or sneeze, try cuddling this tight to your tummy first. It will make it less painful."
"Uh..thanks" Daniel grunted taking the pillow cautiously and laying it gingerly across his middle. "But I think maybe I'll just side-line my sense of humour for a while." He lapsed into subdued quietness once more, subconsciously hugging the pillow tightly. The stab of pain had reminded him of his dream.
Several silent minute passed. "How are you doing?" said Janet quietly.
Daniel, realising after a moment that she wasn't asking a medical question, shrugged half-heartedly. "Ok I guess." Janet waited, hoping that he might say more. When he didn't she said brightly "Well let's hope the beta gate is up and running soon eh?" Daniel nodded absently. Once the gate was operational, it would be a case of more waiting and hoping that SG-1 dialled home sooner rather than later.
"Wait and hope" Daniel said softly voicing his thoughts, "presumably somewhere Jack, Sam and Teal'c are doing the same thing."