Work Text:
Warmth.
That was the first thing Jack noticed as he came around. Warmth. And next, a familiar tightness in his gut and leg. Stitches. He had undergone surgery? And right after that, something even more familiar: the smell.
“Colonel. Colonel, can you hear me?”
The voice was also familiar. A woman.
“Colonel, can you open your eyes?”
Open eyes. Sure. Piece of cake. Ok, maybe not. C'mon, how hard could it be to lift a pair of stupid eyelids? Alright, next try. Ugh. Someone turn off that damned light!
“Hey, there you are,” the voice said kindly. “How are you feeling?”
“Like cr’p. Confus’d.”
“That’s understandable. You went through a lot.”
“Inf’rmary?”
“Yes, sir,” the voice he now recognized as Dr. Janet Fraiser’s said. “Do you remember what happened?”
Jack closed his eyes and searched his memory. Cold. Pain. Solitude. No, that wasn’t right. There was someone else. Sara. What? No, that wasn’t possible. Not Sara. Carter. It was Carter. Carter was there, trying to take him home.
“Icy pl’net. DHD didn’t… w’ork.”
“Yeah, more or less,” Janet said as she started a routine examination. “You broke a few bones and were bleeding internally. You were lucky that we found you when we did. A few more hours… Anyway, Dr. Warner and I operated on you, and we were able to repair all the damage. You will be out of the field for several weeks, but I expect a full recovery.”
Jack was feeling more awake by the second, and although he couldn’t remember most of his ordeal, his mind filled in a few blanks.
“Carter?” he asked.
“She was exhausted and suffered a mild case of hypothermia. She’s gonna be fine,” the doctor informed him. “I discharged her a few minutes ago. She’s waiting outside to see you.”
“Daniel? Teal’c?”
“They came through the Stargate,” the doctor simply said. “They’re both fine.”
“Thank God,” the colonel sighed in relief. “I had no way to know what happened to them.”
He didn’t say it out loud, but it had been his main concern aside from his own situation, especially regarding Daniel. The colonel had barely gotten over what happened with Nem, the squid-like alien, and images of the young civilian abandoned, who knows where, possibly injured, had haunted him for hours until he forced himself to push them away.
“Well, I’m happy to say that everything looks fine,” Janet said as she finished the examination. “I’ll tell the General you’re awake and I’ll give Captain Carter the green light if it’s ok for you.”
“Sure.”
The doctor left, and a few seconds later, Sam entered the room as expected, and Jack was glad to see that Daniel came in behind her.
“Hey, kids,” the colonel greeted the youngest half of his team.
Janet hadn’t lied. The archaeologist was fine, and other than a few burns on her face, the captain looked ok, too. Jack could breathe now.
“Sir, it’s good to see you're feeling better,” Sam smiled at her CO.
“Thanks to you.” The colonel reached out a hand as he smiled back with pride.
She grabbed the offered hand and sat on the chair at the bedside while Daniel stood at the foot of the bed, his arms wrapped around his chest, his head slightly bowed, his bangs cascading over his forehead.
“Jack,” the archaeologist nodded his greeting. “It’s, uh… it’s good to see you, uh… awake.”
The young scientist was struggling to control his heartbeat. Even if Janet said the colonel was going to be fine, he hadn’t been able to breathe until he saw his friend awake.
“Thanks,” the colonel replied. “It’s good to be home, although I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Carter’s insistence.” He smiled at her affectionately, and she mirrored his expression. “But she did it. She tried and tried until she fixed that damned DHD. I’ll make sure you get a medal for this, Captain. What do you think, Dannyboy?” Jack looked at the archaeologist now. “Our Carter did a fine job, huh?”
“I, uh…” Daniel fidgeted. What was the colonel talking about? He didn’t know the full details of what happened in Antarctica, but he knew the DHD worked perfectly well. That wasn’t the reason they were stranded. But of course, Jack didn’t know that. He was unconscious when they found him and Sam, so unless someone explained it to him…
“What? Cat got your tongue?” Jack asked sardonically, confused at Daniel’s reaction. He had never pictured him as the resentful type. “Doctor Talk-Your-Ear-Off Jackson has no words to congratulate a teammate and friend?”
“Sir, that’s not necessary, really,” Sam blushed, "I didn't really..."
“No, it’s ok, I mean,” Daniel cleared his throat, “you kept him alive. He wouldn’t have made it without you.”
“She did much more than that,” the colonel frowned at the younger man’s flippant tone. “She took me out of that hole.”
“Yeah…” A wave of dizziness hit the archaeologist, and he gripped the footboard of the bed.
“Hey, you alright?” Jack’s frown deepened. “You look rather pale.”
“Yeah, just tired,” Daniel shrugged. “I haven’t slept much lately.”
"Huh, knowing you, I bet you were engrossed in your translations while we were missing," the older man said. “Go lie down for a while before you collapse. Carter will keep me company, right, captain?”
“Yeah, of course.” She shot a glance at Daniel and quickly looked away.
“Uh, yeah, good idea,” the archaeologist replied, feeling as if he had just been kicked in the gut. “I, uh… I’m glad you’re both alright.”
And with that, he turned around and left the room, his stomach churning and a mantle of ice wrapped around his heart.
“Civilians.” Jack rolled his eyes as he watched the younger man leave.
However, the moment the archaeologist disappeared from his sight, the colonel’s gut twisted, causing him to grunt. Maybe he had been too harsh, but Daniel’s evasive attitude had hurt.
“Sir, are you alright?” Sam asked with concern.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jack gasped. “I must have pulled a stitch. Is it me, or was Daniel a bit… off?”
“Well, all things considered…” she bit her lower lip.
Before Jack had time to ask her what she meant by that, General Hammond appeared, accompanied by Teal’c. Sam let go of Jack’s hand, rose to her feet, and saluted.
“At ease, Captain. Colonel O’Neill, it’s good to see you awake,” he said. “You had us worried for a while.”
“Yeah, well, you know what they say.” Jack raised his eyebrows. “A bad penny always turns up.”
“O’Neill,” the Jaffa greeted his friend with a bow of his head.
“Teal’c, it’s good to see you’re well, too.” The colonel returned the gesture.
“We came across Doctor Jackson on our way here,” the general commented. “He looked pretty upset. Did something happen?”
“Good question, sir,” Jack said. “I mean, I mentioned that Carter should get a medal for taking my sorry ass home and I got the feeling that it bothered him.”
Hammond's eyebrows clashed in the middle of the Texan’s brow. He looked at Sam, who had her gaze glued to her feet.
“Captain, Teal’c, I need to speak with Colonel O’Neill alone,” the Texan said earnestly.
“Yes, sir.”
“As you wish.”
Sam swallowed, joined Teal’c, and they left without uttering another word. Jack looked at his CO with an even deeper frown. Hammond sat on the chair and took a deep breath.
“Jack…”
Oh, no. First name basis. The colonel gulped. Something was wrong.
“What do you think happened?” Hammond asked. “How do you think you got here?”
“Well, obviously Carter fixed the DHD,” Jack replied, wondering where Hammond was going with that. “What else?”
“Jack, the DHD was never broken,” the Texan informed his subordinate. “It works perfectly well.”
“What are you talking about?” The colonel’s confusion increased tenfold. “Of course it was broken. Carter tried to dial home plenty of times. It didn’t work.”
“Jack, I already spoke to her, and I need to ask you something to confirm her statement.” Hammond rested his hands on his thighs and stretched his back. “Did she try to dial somewhere else?”
“Why should she?” Jack wondered. “We didn’t want to go anywhere else. We were trying to go home.”
“So she didn’t try, not even once, to dial anywhere else?” the general insisted.
“General, what’s all this about?” Jack asked, uneasiness spreading in his gut. Definitely, something wasn’t right.
“Colonel, you should know you owe your life to Doctor Jackson,” Hammond replied, his tone serious.
“Daniel? What are you talking about? He wasn’t even there,” Jack protested.
“I'd better start from the beginning,” Hammond sighed.
“Please,” Jack said with a hint of sarcasm.
“The day you went missing, the Stargate ejected Doctor Jackson and Teal’c here at great speed,” Hammond explained. “They both hit the ramp hard. Teal’c sprained his shoulder. Doctor Jackson hit his head. Concussion. He was unconscious for hours. I think that’s why it took him a few days to figure it out.”
“Figure out what?” Jack asked, completely at a loss.
“You weren’t off-world, Jack,” Hammond revealed. “You couldn’t dial home because you were already here. There is a second Stargate on Earth, in Antarctica. When the Stargate malfunctioned, the wormhole redirected itself and dropped you there.”
“What?!” the colonel exclaimed in shock, and then grimaced at the ache in his gut.
“Doctor Jackson’s first theory was that the wormhole had sent you to some planet between P4A-771 and Earth.”
“Yeah, Carter thought about that, too,” Jack said, his brain still trying to process what Hammond just said about a second Stargate.
“We checked all of them and came up empty,” Hammond explained, “but Doctor Jackson didn’t give up. He kept insisting he was missing something. Then, one of the times Captain Carter dialed Earth, the chevrons of our Stargate glowed, and there was a slight vibration. That’s when he came up with the theory of the second Stargate. It was 400 hours, Jack. The man didn’t sleep a wink in days; he was recovering from a concussion, and yet he was the one to solve the puzzle. He suggested using a seismometer, and we located you in no time.”
Jack looked at the Texan, mouth agape.
“Are you telling me that if Carter had simply tried to dial another address…?”
“You could have arrived home the same day you went missing, only doing a slight detour.”
“Jesus.” Jack ran his fingers through his short strands. “The land of light, Argos, Cimmeria… we could have gone to any of those planets! God, Carter was so obsessed with the idea that the problem was the DHD that she never considered any other possibility!”
“She was?” Hammond cleared his throat. “Well, she’s a fine officer, and needless to say, smarter than you and me together, but…”
“… kind of narrow-minded, sometimes?” Jack finished for him, his mind reeling.
“Which, considering your line of work, is quite dangerous,” the general agreed. “This is serious, Jack. I’ll put her through an evaluation before allowing her to cross the Stargate again.”
“Oh, crap,” Jack swore.
“Colonel, you have to understand her obstinacy almost cost both your lives,” Hammond defended his position.
“No, no, I understand that,” Jack dismissed the general’s answer. “It’s Daniel. Sir, I need to speak with Daniel!”
The Texan smiled at the urgency in the colonel’s tone. Apparently, his brain cells had finally clicked.
“I’ll go find him,” he said as he abandoned the chair. “Why don’t you take a nap in the meantime?”
And with that, he left.
A nap. A nap! Jack rolled his eyes mentally at Hammond’s suggestion. As if he was able to relax enough after the Texan’s explanation. Jeez, the way he had treated Daniel! How he had mocked him when he was the one who deserved his recognition! God, he owed the archaeologist the mother of all apologies. Where was he? He had sent him to lie down, dammit, although it was unlikely the younger man had followed the suggestion. Jack smiled. Yup, that was Daniel, Doctor I-Give-A-Fuck-About-Your-Suggestions-Allow-Me-To-Save-Your-Life-Instead.
Jack’s smile widened. It wasn’t the first time his ability to think outside the box saved the day. Hell, it was that particular way of thinking which had opened the Stargate, to begin with, and one of the main reasons why he… liked him. Carter, however… she said it herself the day they met. She was studying the Stargate technology for two years and couldn’t make it work. Daniel did it in two weeks.
The colonel sank deeper into the mattress and waited. Twenty minutes was the time it took Daniel to appear. Twenty minutes that felt like twenty hours to the older man.
“About time!” Jack exclaimed as soon as he saw the archaeologist opening the door of the ISO room.
Daniel entered, his back hunched, his head bowed, his arms tightly wrapped around his middle. All in all, he looked miserable. The colonel's heart sank. Dammit. He had done it to him.
The archaeologist stood at the foot of the bed like before and glanced at Jack from above his glasses.
“Uh, General Hammond told me you wanted to see me,” he said, his heart pounding hard.
“Come closer,” the colonel said. “Sit down.”
Daniel frowned at the older man’s kind tone. Janet had likely jabbed him with some sedative.
“I, uh… I’m fine, thanks,” the archaeologist refused, not trusting Jack’s intentions.
“Come on,” the colonel insisted. “Don’t be silly.”
The comment caused Daniel’s face to contort in pain, and the colonel immediately kicked himself mentally. God, what was wrong with him? He was supposed to apologize to Daniel, not to upset him further.
“Sorry, sorry,” the colonel quickly corrected his words. “Please,” he added as he patted the mattress.
Daniel hesitated for a moment, but he finally gulped and did as told. He sat on the chair, but kept his head bowed.
“Hey, look at me,” Jack asked softly.
The archaeologist complied, and the older man had to suppress a gasp. Daniel looked completely exhausted, not to mention hurt on more than one level, but this time, the colonel knew why. God, he had been so unfair to him. How could he have thought for a minute…?
Noticing the concern in Jack's eyes, the younger man frowned. General Hammond didn’t tell him what the colonel wanted to talk to him about. He figured he wanted to read him the Riot Act for not supporting Sam, but now he wasn’t so sure about that.
Lost in his thoughts, Daniel didn’t even realize Jack’s hand was moving towards his head. Suddenly, he found the colonel pushing away his bangs to reveal the deep cut on his forehead.
“Jesus, Daniel,” the older man breathed the moment he saw the extent of the injury. He had seen dead men with cuts less deep than that one.
“It’s nothing,” the archaeologist said.
He tried to look away, but Jack grabbed his chin and didn’t let him.
“Nothing? Hammond told me you hit the ramp pretty hard, that you were unconscious for hours.”
“Well, yeah…” Daniel licked his lips and swallowed, unable to find more words.
“And he told me something else.” Jack's eyes bored into the archaeologist’s blue pools. “He told me I owe you my life.”
“I, uh… I only did my job.” Daniel’s gaze found the archaeologist’s lap and focused there.
Jack’s hand moved from the younger man’s chin to his wrist.
“Listen, I was an ass before. Why didn’t you correct me?” The colonel shook his head in incomprehension. “Why did you let Carter take credit for something she didn’t do?”
Daniel raised his head and met confused brown eyes.
“Because it’s thanks to her you’re alive,” Daniel said. “She… she kept you warm, and I would have never figured things out if she hadn’t dialed Earth.”
“Anyone could have dialed Earth,” Jack observed, “but what you did… God, Daniel, only you could have come up with such a theory. Two Stargates on the same planet? How unexpected was that? And you figured it out while you were recovering from a concussion! It would have never occurred to me on my best day, not in a million years.”
“I, uh… I was lucky, I guess,” the archaeologist shrugged.
“Lucky? Lucky?” The colonel rolled his eyes in disbelief. “That had nothing to do with luck. It’s you. The way your brain works is… I don’t even have words. You never cease to amaze me, you know?”
“Yeah, you said that before.” A blush rose on Daniel's cheeks as the ice wrapped around the archaeologist's heart thawed. The scientist swallowed and looked away.
Daniel couldn’t explain the reason, but every time he got some kind of recognition from Jack, he felt a mantle of bliss enveloping him whole. That never happened when that recognition came from someone else, but with Jack… nothing felt better than being wrapped in his kind words. Daniel wondered what it would feel like to be wrapped in those strong arms, but he quickly pushed that thought away. He was married, for God’s sake. What the hell was his mind doing going there?
“Hammond is going to put Carter through an evaluation,” the colonel said, abruptly cutting the younger man’s thoughts, "and needless to say, there won’t be a medal this time."
“What?! Why?!” Daniel’s head lashed upwards, his blue eyes sparkling in alarm.
“He thinks her way of thinking is too rigid, that it endangers the team, and I happen to agree.”
“What? That’s not true!” the archaeologist protested. “I mean, she’s a great asset to the team!”
“Daniel,” Jack cleared his throat, “I was there. She was so adamant that the problem was the DHD that she didn’t even consider any other options, like trying to dial somewhere else. She’s the expert, so I trusted her judgment, but the truth is that she was wrong, and her obstinacy almost cost our lives.”
“And my obstinacy almost cost our lives on Heliopolis when I got obsessed with that pedestal,” Daniel reminded the colonel, “and I didn’t even get a reprimand.”
“Oh, but I did,” Jack replied.
“Come again?” The archaeologist adjusted his glasses.
“Heliopolis was my responsibility,” Jack explained. “I was the commanding officer, and I was in full possession of my faculties. You were the civilian in a military operation. I should have been able to make you obey sooner, drag you out if necessary.”
“So you got the reprimand for me?” Daniel blinked, stunned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There was no point. You had already learned the lesson,” Jack chuckled. “Am I wrong?”
“Uh, no, I guess not.“ The archaeologist’s shoulders slumped.
“However, in Antarctica,” the colonel continued, “I wasn’t in my best condition, to put it mildly. I was so out of it that I thought Sara was there, wherever there was. That automatically put Carter in charge, and I'm sorry, but she wasn’t up to the challenge.”
“That’s not fair,” Daniel protested. “She was freezing, and exhausted…”
“In the end, yes,” Jack conceded, “but she was perfectly ok for days. In the meantime, you worked to exhaustion while recovering from a concussion. Tell me, when was the last time you slept?”
“I, uh… I dozed on the plane on our way here,” the archaeologist informed him.
“And before setting off to Antarctica?” Jack asked, stressing the second word.
The archaeologist looked away guiltily. He thought about protesting further, but he had to admit that Jack’s words had only strengthened his conflicting feelings about Sam. Someone with her outstanding intelligence should have checked the functionality of the DHD by dialing another planet instead of quickly determining that there was some technical problem with the device. She hadn’t been able to see beyond her field of expertise, and it wasn’t the first time something similar happened. Actually, the captain usually dismissed any idea that didn’t fit in her scientific schemes, but when your job consists of exploring other planets… well, let’s say having a more open mind wouldn’t hurt. Daniel only hoped that she would learn the lesson as well.
The archaeologist felt an incoming yawn building in his chest and covered his mouth with his fist.
“Come on. You should rest for a while,” Jack said as he patted the mattress.
“Here?” the archaeologist raised his eyebrows.
“Do you feel like walking to your quarters?”
“Not really,” Daniel said, and he was unable to suppress a yawn this time.
“C’mon,” Jack insisted. “I’ll nap for a while, too, and I promise I won’t snore.”
“Uh, ok,” the younger man finally agreed. “Only for a few minutes, until you fall asleep, and then I’ll go to my quarters.”
“Deal.”
Daniel leaned forward and rested his arms on the bed and his head between them. He closed his eyes and sighed.
“Only for a few minutes,” he repeated drowsily.
Jack brought his hand to the archaeologist’s head and gently carded his long strands. Daniel immediately relaxed to the touch, so the colonel closed his eyes and continued drawing soothing movements with his fingers, without bothering to analyze why such a simple gesture warmed his heart so much.
“You’re an extraordinary man, Doctor Jackson,” he whispered with affection.
“I’m not,” Daniel protested, half asleep.
“Yes, you are.” Jack’s lips curved upwards in a genuine smile.
As they drifted off to sleep, both men shared the same thought: they could stay like this forever, never tiring of it.
The end