Chapter Text
Footsteps sounded from down the hall. Jack looked up into the doorway quickly. As the guards approached, he waved them away with one arm but kept the other firmly wrapped around Daniel, who was still shaking and crying. One of the guards bent down and retrieved the gun from the floor, then they all backed away.
Daniel’s sobs were already starting to abate; he was exhausted. “Hey,” Jack said, pulling back just enough to look him in the eye. “You’re gonna be alright. But you need to rest.” He sat back on his heels, extending a hand to Daniel. “You can trust us. You know you can trust us.”
Daniel looked at his hand for a moment. “It hurts,” he managed to get out.
“I know. I know it does. And it’s gonna hurt for a while longer. But then it’s gonna be over. And you’ll have beat it.” Jack bent down a little to make sure Daniel was looking him in the eye once more. “I know you. You’re a fighter. You don’t go down easy. And you’re not gonna go down to this. You’re gonna fight it, and you’re gonna beat it.”
Tears were still spilling silently from Daniel’s eyes, but he was much more sedate. Slowly, he reached out and took Jack’s hand.
Jack pulled him to his feet and immediately had an arm around him again, taking much of Daniel’s weight as he led him out of the closet. “I’m gonna take you back to your bed, and you’re gonna lie down and sleep, alright?” Daniel didn’t respond, but kept stumbling forward without any resistance. The guards made way for them but still kept a wary eye. Jack could feel Daniel trembling under his arm, and tightened his grip as he led the archeologist back to the isolation room.
Dr. Frasier was there waiting for them. A medical team was taking her attendant to the infirmary on a stretcher, but she was waving them away from checking herself. When she saw the duo coming, she quickly made her way toward them. Jack glanced at her to see if she was really okay with staying here, and she answered with a firm, determined gaze. She only said, “Come on in, Daniel. You’ll be okay.” Together, she and Jack led him in and helped him get back in the bed. He seemed shell-shocked and dazed, but also completely spent. There was a brief moment where Dr. Frasier’s hand hovered over the leather straps. She looked up at Jack again.
Jack shook his head. “No, he won’t need those anymore.” He was assuredly certain, so Dr. Frasier took his word for it.
“Okay,” the doctor said to other members of the medical team who were still there. “I’m going to need a new dose of sedative and then we can hook him back up to the IV-”
Daniel’s eyes suddenly opened wide in alarm. His hand shot forward and grabbed Jack’s wrist. “Jack-”
“Hey, I know,” Jack reassured him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Daniel looked at him a moment longer. Dr. Frasier waited, syringe in hand. Then, satisfied, Daniel released his hold and laid his head back on the bed again. Jack nodded at Dr. Frasier, and she injected Daniel.
As they began the process of hooking Daniel back up and Daniel’s eyes began to get heavy, Jack nodded at one of the unoccupied attendants. “Can you bring me a chair or something?” Dr. Frasier leveled him with a look, but this time Jack returned the defiant gaze. “I meant it, Doc, I’m staying right here.” The attendant returned with a chair, and Jack took it and sat down, daring Frasier to kick him out.
“Alright, Colonel,” Frasier said. “I’ll still be watching on the cameras, if either of you need anything.”
Jack nodded as the doctor and the rest of the medical team all left the room. He looked down at Daniel again to find that he was fast asleep.
The moment Daniel began to move several hours later, Jack immediately sat forward and said, “Hey.”
Daniel took a deep breath and lifted his eyelids halfway, not responding but just looking at Jack.
“How ya feeling?”
“...it hurts,” Daniel mumbled again. His face screwed up briefly and he pressed the backs of his fingers against his eyes.
The door opened and Dr. Frasier came in, syringe in hand. “No, no,” Jack said. “No more of that.”
“Colonel-”
“Look, he needs to really beat this. He’s not gonna be fighting us anymore, he’s already taken that first step. But now he’s got to do the rest.”
Daniel was looking at Jack again, with an unreadable expression on his face.
“I understand where you’re coming from, Colonel, but I insist on doing something. The amount of pain he’s in should be decreasing, but to have every cell in your body fighting against you…”
Jack nodded. “Alright, a painkiller then. But no more sedatives.”
Daniel lay there through the whole exchange, not saying anything. His body was very tense.
Once Dr. Frasier had administered the painkiller and left, Daniel looked up at Jack again. “What… what do you mean ‘beat it?’”
Jack sat forward and leaned his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together loosely. “I mean, this sarcophagus has control of you right now. You feel like you can’t live without it. The only way to fix this is for you to beat that feeling and be the one in control of yourself. And you can’t exactly do that while you’re sleeping. It’s not the same.” A different light came into Jack’s eyes. “You never let people control you. And you’re not gonna let this thing control you either. That’s not who you are. You’re gonna beat it.” He spoke with complete certainty.
Daniel blinked slowly again. His body was beginning to relax and the tension was releasing. “You think I can?” he finally whispered, with more vulnerability than Jack had seen in him since Abydos.
“I know you can,” Jack answered without missing a beat. “And you will.”
Daniel took another deep breath. He rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. “It feels impossible.”
“Maybe it does, but it’s not. Besides, you’ve got lots of friends here to help you. Carter and Teal’c and the General keep checking on you, Dr. Frasier’s always watching those cameras.. and I’m right here.”
Daniel turned his head to look at Jack again.
“You’re not alone anymore, remember? And you’re never gonna be alone again.”
After a long moment, Daniel nodded slowly. “I can beat it,” he said softly.
One corner of Jack’s mouth quirked into a smile.