Daniel stood up quickly and scanned the rippled surface of the water, squinting against the sun still rising through the morning. He had dozed off in the warm sunlight, reclined comfortably on the sloped beach, and he berated himself for allowing that to happen. He pulled his watch out of his pocket and saw it had been more than an hour since Jack swam to the Stargate. He turned to look up and down the beach in case he had come ashore further away. Seeing nothing, he knew Jack had been in the water too long.
He dropped to the ground and started pulling at his laces. He cursed the tightened loops as he slowly removed his boots one-handed, fighting against the growing pain in his useless arm. He had two doses of morphine left, but they were back at camp, so he pushed the need for relief into a small corner of his mind. He set his glasses in the sand next to the canteen and squinted at the sea, this time in a futile attempt to make up for his poor eyesight. He muttered another curse as he stood up and waded into the cold water.
His skin prickled painfully as he moved forward, but he forced a long exhale then braced himself to submerge. As he pulled in a deep breath, a movement in the water entered his periphery and he heard a voice. He stumbled but managed to stop his forward momentum before he dunked. "Jack!"
"Daniel, what… are you doing?" Jack sounded winded as he paddled through water, listing to one side as his strokes became less coordinated. He reached the shallows and pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. Daniel grabbed his arm and placed it over his shoulder, but Jack dangled heavily as they reached the shore so he let him slip to the ground.
"Jack, are you okay? You were out there a long time," Daniel asked, reaching for the canteen and passing it to him. The man drank deeply before answering.
"I'll be alright. It was a longer swim back than I remembered," he groaned lightly and flopped backward onto the warm sand. He spread his arms, soaking up the sun's warmth as water rolled in small rivulets across his skin.
Daniel collapsed to the sand as well, relieved Jack returned without incident. His intent to swim to his rescue had lacked any sort of realistic plan. His arm ached, demanding his attention, so he searched for a distraction. "The gate. What did you find? Is it working?"
"Yep, it's working. I dialed out," Jack answered with closed eyes. His breathing slowed to normal, and after a moment he kicked his legs to roll up to a seated position. He scrubbed a hand through his wet hair to shake loose the sand then propped his chin on his bent knee, frowning, "I couldn't exactly communicate, but at least the ocean didn't flush me into the gate room."
"Well, it was worth checking out, I guess," Daniel conceded vaguely. His arm throbbed and he could not think clearly about how this exercise had helped. "So what now?"
"Now…" Jack started, but paused, thinking, "well, we head back to camp and get some rest. It feels like it's going to get hot this afternoon, and I wouldn't mind washing up in the creek. Come on, let's get our boots on."
A few minutes later, he offered his hand to Daniel, pulling him up stiffly. He had seen the man grow quieter as he helped with his laces, his brow creased with pain. Jack knew the math, Daniel was long overdue for morphine if he had not taken any when he woke up this morning. He needed him to make the walk back, so he did not ask how he felt. As he steadied him on his feet, Daniel swayed a moment, then murmured a soft thanks, before they started forward.
Daniel lost track of time as the two of them walked back toward the distant camp. The waves rolled rhythmically up on shore, softly shuffling the sand with each surge. He counted them like heartbeats, diverting his mind away from the pain.
His gait had become increasingly unsteady in the loose sand so Jack was ready when he finally stumbled. He managed to lower him to his knees, sparing his broken wrist from further injury. But the archaeologist was rooted in place and stayed silent with his eyes closed, breathing in small gasps. Jack looked up the beach and realized he could just see the banks of the river near camp, maybe two hundred yards away.
"Daniel, can you hear me?" he started, looking for eye contact, but continued despite receiving no response, "you just stay here for a few minutes. I'm going to run back to camp to get the morphine. I won't be gone five minutes, okay?" he stood and backed up slowly, as though the man might argue through his stupor.
Jack turned and sprinted away from shore, pushing his feet through the deeper sand until he reached firmer ground along the tree line. He checked back to see Daniel had not moved, then put on more speed despite his exhaustion. His swim was probably a bad idea, but still, knowing the gate was operational gave him some hope. Given Daniel's condition, they could both use some of that.
He reached the fire ring and skidded to his knees near their gear. The morphine was in Sam's jacket, stashed securely in a zippered pocket. He fumbled to pull out one dose, but managed it. Next he pulled his canteen from his belt and scooted to the river eddy to fill it up. The cool water moved slowly, but he counted to twenty to force his patience until it was half full. He put the cap back on and heard a light skittering sound nearby. He glanced quickly around camp, then peered into the dark forest but saw no movement. Dismissing it as dry reeds moving in the river flow, he took the canteen, grabbed his BDU jacket from the roof of the shelter, then scrambled back towards the beach.
Daniel was still on his knees, slouched with his head hanging over his chest. The back of his neck faced the sun, already turning pink with exposure. Jack called to him as he approached, relieved when he saw him stir. He draped the jacket over his back to shield him from the sun's intensity, and also worried that he could be headed into shock. The pain or the exhaustion, or both, had come on rapidly.
"Daniel, I've got the morphine. Can you take it?" Jack faced him, kneeling in the sand, and steadied him with one hand as he took the pill. He tipped the canteen until Daniel pulled away, draining water down his chin. "That's alright, let's give that a few minutes to start working."
Daniel kept his eyes tightly closed, breathing deliberately and silently counting to fifty in Latin, then ancient Egyptian. He smiled to himself when he recalled Sha're's amusement long ago as she corrected his pronunciation of the simple words.
"I see a smile," Jack softly spoke, causing Daniel to finally open his eyes, and search for the source of the voice. Jack was still kneeling directly in front of him, watching him intently. His worried expression softened just a little when he made eye contact with the scientist. "Does that mean we are feeling better?"
"Better, yes, thank you," he nodded slowly. The arm still throbbed, but the mind numbing pain had retreated to a safer corner of his mind. "I think I'd like to take a nap, Jack."
"Sure," he agreed, but frowned at Daniel's broken wrist. The skin pushed out between the reeds stabilizing the break, turning a sickly shade of purple. "How is your hand? Can you, you know, feel all of your fingers?"
Daniel concentrated on working his arm muscles gently, trying to wiggle his fingers while at the same time fearful of actual movement. His index finger finally twitched causing a tight pull across the back of his hand. The swelling muffled the sensation, with a little help from the drugs.
"Good," Jack breathed with relief, "let's get back to camp and rest. With any luck, Teal'c will be back here by nightfall and we can send you home."
Daniel barely registered the rest of the walk to camp as the drugs fogged his awareness. Jack was grateful that he mostly moved under his own power as they navigated through their meager camp.
He lowered him slowly to the ground under the shelter and pulled a pack closer to place under his head. Jack took his glasses and tucked them close to the wooden post supporting the shelter. By the time he adjusted his jacket over Daniel's shoulders, the scientist was fast asleep.
Jack was sticky from the humidity and his exertion, but the shaded camp was comfortably cooler than the open beach. He pulled off his T-shirt to rinse it in the river, then with a shrug, pulled off his pants as well. They had dried stiffly after his swim in the salty ocean. He dunked himself in the cold water and rubbed his skin briskly before climbing up onto the bank, unwilling to drive himself to the edge of hypothermia again.
As he wrung out his clothing he looked toward Daniel, solidly asleep now. Even in the shadows he could see the discoloration in his wrist. They had set the bones back in place the night before, but the swelling had barely reduced. Feeling the cold water of the river, he got an idea.
With his soaked shirt and a full canteen of water, Jack sat next to the sleeping man and lifted his arm carefully into his lap. He grimaced as he started removing the straps and reeds that made up the splint. The swollen skin was bruised purple in several places, but looked better than he expected without the wrappings. The narrow reeds formed a strong splint, but failed to spread out the pressure against his skin. Jack doused the arm with cold water hoping to reduce the swelling, then he wrapped it loosely with the wet t-shirt. He placed new reeds over the wrappings, and secured them in place with the elastic vest strap. Daniel shifted with a soft moan, but did not wake up. His fingers started to pink up, so Jack claimed success and lowered the arm back across Daniel's torso.
He checked his watch. Almost six o'clock at the SGC. More importantly, the sun had passed its zenith in the sky, and it had been ten hours since the moon had reached its highest point the night before. So this planet's rotation was close to that of Earth, about twenty hours, give or take.
He lay on his back on the cool ground staring up at the sunlight filtering through the tree leaves. They danced across his vision as they swayed in a breeze. Humid air hugged the ground and none of the wind reached them. The afternoon was getting warmer, as he had suspected, so he was fairly comfortable in his half naked state, but he felt exposed. He sat himself up and pulled his damp pants back on. He no longer had a shirt, and Sam's jacket draped over the lean-to would not offer much coverage on his frame, but he would be fine for now. By the time Daniel headed home, he would get his own jacket back.
He could feel himself getting drowsy so he got to his feet and pushed around the last embers of the fire, lost in thought. When Teal'c returned to get Daniel, he would be on his own for most of the coming night and all of the next day. He would not be able to stay awake all that time. Getting a few hours of sleep now during the daytime actually sounded like a pretty good idea.
Daniel was out for the count and there did not seem to be any significant threat from the forest, so Jack added some reeds and a log to the embers just to keep the fire burning, then rolled onto his side, keeping Daniel at his back. He decided to wake up before Teal'c returned, so he set his watch to chime in two hours. Keeping one hand on his gun, within minutes he was asleep.