Stargate SG1: Heir to the Ennead (5/5)
All disclaimers, notes, warnings and summary are in the Master post: Heir to the Ennead
Chapter Nine
Teal'c saw Saq'ar across the room, standing against the wall, staring at the rapidly growing violence. One of his men was already dead. Zats were firing in every direction. It wouldn't be long before SG1 and the two Tok'ra with them started shooting to kill, if only to defend themselves.
"Order your men to stand down!" Teal'c shouted to Saq'ar desperately.
Saq'ar turned toward him when he heard the summons, and there was such great sadness and disillusion in his eyes. He was torn between the honor of the goddess he'd worshiped only in theory and the live of the men he'd known and trained with since birth.
"She is a false god. You know this to be true!"
The battle raged on. Teal'c turned to fight back against the Jaffa that were suddenly filling the room, having come from other parts of the temple when they heard the disturbance.
"Saq'ar! We have no wish to kill these men! Order them to stand down!"
The Jaffa were streaming into the room now, and Teal'c found to his dismay that he recognized most of them. He'd trained with these men for two days, preparing for the tournament. He'd never imagined that he'd be forced to fight them to save his own life, or those of his friends.
"Brother!" Teal'c tried one last time. "Help us!"
"Jaffa! Kree!"
Most of the fighting stopped immediately, though a few minor skirmishes remained.
"Jaffa!" Saq'ar bellowed again. This time, all attention turned to him.
"You have been misled, my brothers. This creature is not our goddess. She is an imposter!" Teal'c nodded his head, both in approval and in understanding. Saq'ar understood the specifics of the Goa'uld, but he couldn't be so sure that all of them would.
"These you fight are our friends. They have eaten at our tables. They have slept within our walls. We will give them protection."
Teal'c watched as one by one the Jaffa lowered their stances, and the allies lowered their weapons. He heard Sam exhale in relief beside him and turned toward her. He'd just nodded his head to her when he heard the desperate and panicked cry from across the room.
"No! Daniel!"
Daniel had seen Nephthys coming before Jack did, had tried to call out a warning, but he'd been too late. She'd knocked him to the ground and was standing above him, dagger in her raised fist, before Jack had been able to react at all.
In the midst of all the chaos, Daniel reached across himself with his left arm and started working frantically to free his right wrist. He had four knots to work loose on his arm, and then three more on his ankles, and he didn't think he had very long to get it done.
His thoughts were proven right when he saw Nephthys pick Jack up from the floor and throw him bodily into the wall. Daniel cringed in sympathy when he heard Jack's head hit the stone, but he didn't stop working on the ropes. He'd gotten one knot completely loose and was just starting on the second when he heard Jack cry out.
"No! Daniel!"
He looked up just in time to see her coming, but nowhere near in time to get out of the way. He had enough time to notice that her insanity was clearly visible now, her eyes wild with it, her hair flying madly in all directions. He also had enough time to realize that she was headed straight for him with her dagger held high above her head.
He pushed with his knees and flung his left arm out to the side, flattening himself against the cross at his back, but he knew it wasn't going to be enough. He knew it wasn't going to work.
Nephthys left her feet and jumped toward him, dagger held in front of her. He could hear a thousand different sounds in the room at that second, people moving, shouting, running, but all he could see was her. And everything was moving in slow motion.
He didn't feel the blade at first, which struck him as odd, because he was watching when it broke through his skin, digging itself deep into the meat above his ribs. And as he watched Nephthys fall forward, her own body weight dragging the knife down further, pushing it in deeper, he couldn't help but be fascinated by the amount of blood that poured out from the wound. It was past his ribs, then, slicing further down his side and into the sensitive skin of his belly. That was when he started to feel it.
He threw his head back and screamed.
He saw Jack launch himself at Nephthys with a scream of his own, though Jack's sounded more like rage and less like pain. He landed on her back, just as she'd done to him, and tackled her to the ground. But instead of standing above her, Jack straddled her back. He took advantage of her moment of shock to raise his dagger and plunge it into the back of the host's neck with both hands.
Even if he hadn't managed to severe the host's spinal chord with that one blow, he had cut the symbiote within in half.
Nephthys was dead.
He'd done it. For everything she'd done to him, for everything she'd forced him to almost do to Daniel, for every evil thing she'd ever even thought about - he'd killed the bitch. But it hadn't been enough, it wouldn't be enough, and it couldn't be enough.
Because if the amount of blood pouring out of him was anything to go by, it didn't look like Daniel would be far behind her.
"No," Jack begged as he pushed himself forward on his hands and feet. "No no no."
Daniel had crumpled forward as far as his bonds would allow, all of his weight suspended from his right wrist. His left hand was pressed loosely against the top of the wound in his side, and he was staring down at it with a look of morbid fascination on his face.
Nephthys' body had fallen at Daniel's knees, with her left hand and the knife in it resting against Daniel's hip. It was obscene to Jack, her hand being on Daniel's skin like that. He grabbed her arm and flung it away in disgust. The dagger, it's once-shining blade now slicked with Daniel's blood, clattered when it hit the stone.
"Daniel?" Jack fell to his knees in front of him, took Daniel's left hand in his right and moved it away from the wound so that he could see how bad it was. "Oh, God."
He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but he hadn't been able to stop it. Daniel looked up at him slowly, with eyelids already drooping.
"That's bad."
"No," Jack lied. "No, it's fine. You're fine."
Daniel's head fell forward, and Jack pressed his hand against the side of his face, holding his head up and looking him in the eye. He ignored the fact that he was smearing Daniel's blood all over his own face, because if he had to stop and think about that, he didn't think he'd make it through this.
"Do you hear me, Daniel? You're fine. It's just a scratch."
"Sure, Jack," Daniel said weakly. "...ever you say."
And it was just a scratch, Jack told himself. A scratch wide enough and deep enough that he could see Daniel's ribs through it, but still just a scratch.
"Carter!" he cried out. "Teal'c!"
"You're bleeding."
Jack shook his head and blinked in shock, but recovered quickly. He hadn't thought about the blood running down his face since he'd hit the wall, and he didn't intend to start now. "Yeah, well... so are you." He swallowed hard and tried not to think. "Now be quiet. No talking right now."
Daniel started to nod, but seemed to lose all strength in his neck instead. His head fell forward again, and Jack gently pushed it back up with the hand he had against Daniel's face.
"Hey, hey, hey now. No passing out. You hear me?"
Daniel's eyes started to flutter closed.
"No, Daniel," Jack begged. "Keep your eyes open. Look at me."
He could see Daniel trying, fighting what was sure to be a losing battle to stay conscious, but it was all they had, and that would have to be enough for now.
And then Sam and Teal'c were at his side. He didn't know how long they'd been there, and he didn't care. What mattered was that they were there.
"Help me get him down."
He wanted to believe that his voice wasn't shaking as much as his hands were, that he sounded like he'd just given a command, not a plea. He managed to convince himself it had been an order, because they both jumped to follow it.
Teal'c walked over to Nephthys' dead body and pulled the dagger out of her spine without remorse, then walked behind Daniel and knelt down to cut through the ropes around his ankles. Sam walked to Daniel's left side and took his hand in hers, holding it up and out of Jack's way. He could see her rubbing circles on the back of it already, and it looked like she was trying to keep Daniel calm.
Jack looked up, and he realized that there was no point in trying to keep Daniel calm. Because the problem was that he already was calm. Too calm, in fact. He was smiling.
"Hey, Sam," he said tiredly.
"Hey, Daniel," she said back. And if her voice was shaking, too, Jack wasn't going to mention it.
Teal'c pulled the knife through the last loop of rope around Daniel's ankles. Freed from their binding, Daniel's feet moved apart naturally, which jarred his legs, hip, and ribs every-so-slightly.
The result was a hissing gasp that froze Jack's blood.
"Easy, Daniel," Jack said. He positioned himself on his knees under Daniel's right arm and put one hand on his wrist as Teal'c stood and started cutting through the last set of ropes that held him to the cross. When those came free, Daniel was coming down, and if Jack wasn't careful, he'd be coming down hard.
"Just take it easy, big guy. We've got you."
Jack heard a rustling noise near them, and his head snapped around. Saq'ar had brought three of his men over, and they were currently dragging the "imposter" out of the room. It made Jack glad to see it, not only because they were getting rid of her, but also because they'd cleared the floor around them so that he could hopefully lay Daniel down without causing him too much pain.
"O'Neill."
Teal'c's soft tone was all the warning Jack would get of what was coming, and he understood that. He scooted as close to Daniel's arm as he could get while still holding on to his wrist.
"Hang on, buddy," he whispered. "You can do this."
Teal'c sliced through the last rope, and Daniel's arm fell free. Jack gripped it as tight as he could, trying to spare Daniel as much pain as he could. Then the rest of Daniel crumpled forward against him, into Jack's arms, the weight of him pulling his left hand out of Sam's grasp.
Jack lowered Daniel's arm quickly and repositioned his own arms, bringing his right hand up behind Daniel's head and his left hand on Daniel's lower back.
"It's okay," he kept muttering. "I've got you, Danny. It's okay."
He shifted his legs slightly, ignoring all the pressure on his knees, and turned so that he could lay Daniel down. Sam knelt across from him, reaching her arm under Daniel's back for extra support. And then Teal'c was standing above his head, with his hands under Daniel's shoulders. The three of them worked together and managed to get Daniel laid down on the ground with a minimum of movement.
Even still, Daniel's mouth was open in what Jack was certain would have been a scream, if he'd had enough strength to do it.
"Carter, med kit?"
She shook her head sadly as she handed him one of the discarded robes on the floor to use as a rudimentary wound dressing.
"We had no way to carry them, sir. I'm sorry."
"Okay. That's okay." Jack wished he could think of something else to say, because kneeling on the floor, in a puddle of Daniel's blood, and saying, "Okay," over and over again was anything but okay. He took the robe and pressed it tightly against the wound in Daniel's side.
Daniel reared up from the floor with more strength than he should have possessed, but Sam's hand on his shoulder pushed him back down again gently. "Just relax, Daniel. Let us take care of this."
Jack had seen the wound more clearly before he'd pressed the robe material against it. He could still see bone when he looked, which was why he wasn't looking.
"Teal'c!"
At there was Teal'c, on his knees at Jack's side. "Yes, O'Neill."
"There's a sarcophagus on the other side of the room. Go get it open."
And with a quick nod of his head, Teal'c stood to do just that.
"Jack." Daniel was shivering now; the blood that flowed from him freely despite Jack's attempts to staunch it was draining him of both life and warmth. Jack moved his right hand from the robe he held pressed so tightly against Daniel's side and placed it against a cheek that burned with cold.
"I'm right here, Daniel," he whispered. "Just hang on a little longer. T's gonna get that thing open, and we're gonna…"
"No," Daniel gasped weakly. "No sarcophagus."
"What?" Jack asked, incredulous. "Look, I know how you feel about those things, but now isn't exactly the time…"
"Won't be… m-me anymore."
Jack looked up at Sam and then across at Teal'c. Both of them looked as shocked as he felt. No way was Daniel going to die like this, bleeding to death on the floor of some crazy Goa'uld's temple a million light years from home - not if they could prevent it.
Jack moved his hand back to the makeshift pressure bandage and pressed harder, eliciting a moan. Daniel's back arched and his head tilted back. "God, that hurts!"
"I can imagine," Jack said, forcing his voice to remain calm despite the fact that he was anything but. "That's why we're putting you in there."
"Said… no…"
"Daniel," Sam said softly, causing him to turn his head slightly to focus on her. "We know what you're thinking, believe me. But there's no indication that using the sarcophagus when you're actually injured does any damage at all. I don't think you could get addicted again."
"I still am…" Daniel argued. "Already… feel it." He paused for a few seconds to catch his breath, and shook his head. "Don't want to… n-not again."
Jack sighed in frustration, and Daniel turned back toward him again. Jack switched to his best 'command' voice and said, "End of argument, Daniel. One way or another, you're getting in that sarcophagus."
"No… I'm not."
"Damn it, we are not going to just sit here and watch you die!" The words came out more vehemently than Jack had intended, and he immediately wished he could take them back. Daniel was in pain, suffering from massive blood loss, and quite possibly not in his right mind. There couldn't be any other explanation for his stubborn refusal to allow them to save him when they had the technology to do so at their immediate disposal.
Rather than react the way Jack was expecting him to - with fear and retreat - Daniel looked into Jack's eyes and smiled.
"S'okay, Jack," he forced out. "Doesn't hurt any m-more…"
Jack buried his reaction to that statement as deeply as he could. If Daniel was already going numb from the shock and blood loss, he would not be long for this world, or any other.
"We're not going to let you do this, Daniel," Sam said softly.
"I concur, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c added from across the room. "It would be a pointless death in that it could have been prevented."
Daniel didn't say anything, but Jack could feel him looking at him. He forced himself to ignore it, pretend that Daniel wasn't looking up at him with eyes that, while tired and filled with regret, were completely lucid. Daniel wasn't insane; he knew exactly what he was saying, and why.
"Promise, Jack. Promise me."
Jack sighed again and looked down, forcing himself to see the determination in those eyes. "I…" He stopped himself short and looked to the other two members of his team. Their opinions were clear; they didn't want Daniel to die, no matter what his thoughts on the matter were. They had the technology to save him, and neither of them saw any reason why they shouldn't.
Jack finally looked down at Daniel, and shrugged. "What's to stop us from waiting until you're dead and putting you in it anyway?"
Daniel shook his head slowly with a faint smile. "You wouldn't do that."
"How do you know that?" Jack asked.
"I trust you, Jack." There was no hesitation in Daniel's answer, no thought, no doubt.
Jack froze and stared down at Daniel in disbelief. All the times in the past week he'd wanted to hear Daniel say those words, had wanted Daniel to trust him again… and he'd picked the worst possible time to do it.
"Never stopped," Daniel continued. He closed his eyes and his smile widened. "Just forgot…"
"God damn it!" Jack screamed, at everyone and no one. "Somebody help him!"
Dashu was on her knees across from Jack almost immediately, pushing his hands away from Daniel's wound gently and lifting the robe carefully. The look on her face was one of intense concentration mixed with regret and guilt.
"I am sorry," she said softly. "He is injured beyond my means to heal." She bowed her head deeply. "Forgive me my friends. I beg of you."
Jack didn't have time to forgive anyone at that moment.
"Colonel," Sam said beside him. "You're thinking of not putting him in the...?"
"He trusts me," Jack muttered to himself. "I can't, Carter, we... I can't..."
Daniel's eyes had been closed for too long, and Jack was having a hard time swallowing around the enormous lump that had lodged itself in his throat. "Daniel, please," he begged. "Don't make me do this!"
Another hooded figure knelt down across from him, and Jack struck out his arm before he even thought about it.
"Get away from him!" he ordered. "Whoever you are, just get the hell away."
"Let me help him, Jack."
The hood fell away, and Jack almost fell over. If it hadn't been for Teal'c's hand grabbing his arm, he would have.
He didn't know what he was more grateful to see - Jacob Carter's face or the healing device he held in his hand.
Epilogue
Chapter Nine
Teal'c saw Saq'ar across the room, standing against the wall, staring at the rapidly growing violence. One of his men was already dead. Zats were firing in every direction. It wouldn't be long before SG1 and the two Tok'ra with them started shooting to kill, if only to defend themselves.
"Order your men to stand down!" Teal'c shouted to Saq'ar desperately.
Saq'ar turned toward him when he heard the summons, and there was such great sadness and disillusion in his eyes. He was torn between the honor of the goddess he'd worshiped only in theory and the live of the men he'd known and trained with since birth.
"She is a false god. You know this to be true!"
The battle raged on. Teal'c turned to fight back against the Jaffa that were suddenly filling the room, having come from other parts of the temple when they heard the disturbance.
"Saq'ar! We have no wish to kill these men! Order them to stand down!"
The Jaffa were streaming into the room now, and Teal'c found to his dismay that he recognized most of them. He'd trained with these men for two days, preparing for the tournament. He'd never imagined that he'd be forced to fight them to save his own life, or those of his friends.
"Brother!" Teal'c tried one last time. "Help us!"
"Jaffa! Kree!"
Most of the fighting stopped immediately, though a few minor skirmishes remained.
"Jaffa!" Saq'ar bellowed again. This time, all attention turned to him.
"You have been misled, my brothers. This creature is not our goddess. She is an imposter!" Teal'c nodded his head, both in approval and in understanding. Saq'ar understood the specifics of the Goa'uld, but he couldn't be so sure that all of them would.
"These you fight are our friends. They have eaten at our tables. They have slept within our walls. We will give them protection."
Teal'c watched as one by one the Jaffa lowered their stances, and the allies lowered their weapons. He heard Sam exhale in relief beside him and turned toward her. He'd just nodded his head to her when he heard the desperate and panicked cry from across the room.
"No! Daniel!"
Daniel had seen Nephthys coming before Jack did, had tried to call out a warning, but he'd been too late. She'd knocked him to the ground and was standing above him, dagger in her raised fist, before Jack had been able to react at all.
In the midst of all the chaos, Daniel reached across himself with his left arm and started working frantically to free his right wrist. He had four knots to work loose on his arm, and then three more on his ankles, and he didn't think he had very long to get it done.
His thoughts were proven right when he saw Nephthys pick Jack up from the floor and throw him bodily into the wall. Daniel cringed in sympathy when he heard Jack's head hit the stone, but he didn't stop working on the ropes. He'd gotten one knot completely loose and was just starting on the second when he heard Jack cry out.
"No! Daniel!"
He looked up just in time to see her coming, but nowhere near in time to get out of the way. He had enough time to notice that her insanity was clearly visible now, her eyes wild with it, her hair flying madly in all directions. He also had enough time to realize that she was headed straight for him with her dagger held high above her head.
He pushed with his knees and flung his left arm out to the side, flattening himself against the cross at his back, but he knew it wasn't going to be enough. He knew it wasn't going to work.
Nephthys left her feet and jumped toward him, dagger held in front of her. He could hear a thousand different sounds in the room at that second, people moving, shouting, running, but all he could see was her. And everything was moving in slow motion.
He didn't feel the blade at first, which struck him as odd, because he was watching when it broke through his skin, digging itself deep into the meat above his ribs. And as he watched Nephthys fall forward, her own body weight dragging the knife down further, pushing it in deeper, he couldn't help but be fascinated by the amount of blood that poured out from the wound. It was past his ribs, then, slicing further down his side and into the sensitive skin of his belly. That was when he started to feel it.
He threw his head back and screamed.
He saw Jack launch himself at Nephthys with a scream of his own, though Jack's sounded more like rage and less like pain. He landed on her back, just as she'd done to him, and tackled her to the ground. But instead of standing above her, Jack straddled her back. He took advantage of her moment of shock to raise his dagger and plunge it into the back of the host's neck with both hands.
Even if he hadn't managed to severe the host's spinal chord with that one blow, he had cut the symbiote within in half.
Nephthys was dead.
He'd done it. For everything she'd done to him, for everything she'd forced him to almost do to Daniel, for every evil thing she'd ever even thought about - he'd killed the bitch. But it hadn't been enough, it wouldn't be enough, and it couldn't be enough.
Because if the amount of blood pouring out of him was anything to go by, it didn't look like Daniel would be far behind her.
"No," Jack begged as he pushed himself forward on his hands and feet. "No no no."
Daniel had crumpled forward as far as his bonds would allow, all of his weight suspended from his right wrist. His left hand was pressed loosely against the top of the wound in his side, and he was staring down at it with a look of morbid fascination on his face.
Nephthys' body had fallen at Daniel's knees, with her left hand and the knife in it resting against Daniel's hip. It was obscene to Jack, her hand being on Daniel's skin like that. He grabbed her arm and flung it away in disgust. The dagger, it's once-shining blade now slicked with Daniel's blood, clattered when it hit the stone.
"Daniel?" Jack fell to his knees in front of him, took Daniel's left hand in his right and moved it away from the wound so that he could see how bad it was. "Oh, God."
He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but he hadn't been able to stop it. Daniel looked up at him slowly, with eyelids already drooping.
"That's bad."
"No," Jack lied. "No, it's fine. You're fine."
Daniel's head fell forward, and Jack pressed his hand against the side of his face, holding his head up and looking him in the eye. He ignored the fact that he was smearing Daniel's blood all over his own face, because if he had to stop and think about that, he didn't think he'd make it through this.
"Do you hear me, Daniel? You're fine. It's just a scratch."
"Sure, Jack," Daniel said weakly. "...ever you say."
And it was just a scratch, Jack told himself. A scratch wide enough and deep enough that he could see Daniel's ribs through it, but still just a scratch.
"Carter!" he cried out. "Teal'c!"
"You're bleeding."
Jack shook his head and blinked in shock, but recovered quickly. He hadn't thought about the blood running down his face since he'd hit the wall, and he didn't intend to start now. "Yeah, well... so are you." He swallowed hard and tried not to think. "Now be quiet. No talking right now."
Daniel started to nod, but seemed to lose all strength in his neck instead. His head fell forward again, and Jack gently pushed it back up with the hand he had against Daniel's face.
"Hey, hey, hey now. No passing out. You hear me?"
Daniel's eyes started to flutter closed.
"No, Daniel," Jack begged. "Keep your eyes open. Look at me."
He could see Daniel trying, fighting what was sure to be a losing battle to stay conscious, but it was all they had, and that would have to be enough for now.
And then Sam and Teal'c were at his side. He didn't know how long they'd been there, and he didn't care. What mattered was that they were there.
"Help me get him down."
He wanted to believe that his voice wasn't shaking as much as his hands were, that he sounded like he'd just given a command, not a plea. He managed to convince himself it had been an order, because they both jumped to follow it.
Teal'c walked over to Nephthys' dead body and pulled the dagger out of her spine without remorse, then walked behind Daniel and knelt down to cut through the ropes around his ankles. Sam walked to Daniel's left side and took his hand in hers, holding it up and out of Jack's way. He could see her rubbing circles on the back of it already, and it looked like she was trying to keep Daniel calm.
Jack looked up, and he realized that there was no point in trying to keep Daniel calm. Because the problem was that he already was calm. Too calm, in fact. He was smiling.
"Hey, Sam," he said tiredly.
"Hey, Daniel," she said back. And if her voice was shaking, too, Jack wasn't going to mention it.
Teal'c pulled the knife through the last loop of rope around Daniel's ankles. Freed from their binding, Daniel's feet moved apart naturally, which jarred his legs, hip, and ribs every-so-slightly.
The result was a hissing gasp that froze Jack's blood.
"Easy, Daniel," Jack said. He positioned himself on his knees under Daniel's right arm and put one hand on his wrist as Teal'c stood and started cutting through the last set of ropes that held him to the cross. When those came free, Daniel was coming down, and if Jack wasn't careful, he'd be coming down hard.
"Just take it easy, big guy. We've got you."
Jack heard a rustling noise near them, and his head snapped around. Saq'ar had brought three of his men over, and they were currently dragging the "imposter" out of the room. It made Jack glad to see it, not only because they were getting rid of her, but also because they'd cleared the floor around them so that he could hopefully lay Daniel down without causing him too much pain.
"O'Neill."
Teal'c's soft tone was all the warning Jack would get of what was coming, and he understood that. He scooted as close to Daniel's arm as he could get while still holding on to his wrist.
"Hang on, buddy," he whispered. "You can do this."
Teal'c sliced through the last rope, and Daniel's arm fell free. Jack gripped it as tight as he could, trying to spare Daniel as much pain as he could. Then the rest of Daniel crumpled forward against him, into Jack's arms, the weight of him pulling his left hand out of Sam's grasp.
Jack lowered Daniel's arm quickly and repositioned his own arms, bringing his right hand up behind Daniel's head and his left hand on Daniel's lower back.
"It's okay," he kept muttering. "I've got you, Danny. It's okay."
He shifted his legs slightly, ignoring all the pressure on his knees, and turned so that he could lay Daniel down. Sam knelt across from him, reaching her arm under Daniel's back for extra support. And then Teal'c was standing above his head, with his hands under Daniel's shoulders. The three of them worked together and managed to get Daniel laid down on the ground with a minimum of movement.
Even still, Daniel's mouth was open in what Jack was certain would have been a scream, if he'd had enough strength to do it.
"Carter, med kit?"
She shook her head sadly as she handed him one of the discarded robes on the floor to use as a rudimentary wound dressing.
"We had no way to carry them, sir. I'm sorry."
"Okay. That's okay." Jack wished he could think of something else to say, because kneeling on the floor, in a puddle of Daniel's blood, and saying, "Okay," over and over again was anything but okay. He took the robe and pressed it tightly against the wound in Daniel's side.
Daniel reared up from the floor with more strength than he should have possessed, but Sam's hand on his shoulder pushed him back down again gently. "Just relax, Daniel. Let us take care of this."
Jack had seen the wound more clearly before he'd pressed the robe material against it. He could still see bone when he looked, which was why he wasn't looking.
"Teal'c!"
At there was Teal'c, on his knees at Jack's side. "Yes, O'Neill."
"There's a sarcophagus on the other side of the room. Go get it open."
And with a quick nod of his head, Teal'c stood to do just that.
"Jack." Daniel was shivering now; the blood that flowed from him freely despite Jack's attempts to staunch it was draining him of both life and warmth. Jack moved his right hand from the robe he held pressed so tightly against Daniel's side and placed it against a cheek that burned with cold.
"I'm right here, Daniel," he whispered. "Just hang on a little longer. T's gonna get that thing open, and we're gonna…"
"No," Daniel gasped weakly. "No sarcophagus."
"What?" Jack asked, incredulous. "Look, I know how you feel about those things, but now isn't exactly the time…"
"Won't be… m-me anymore."
Jack looked up at Sam and then across at Teal'c. Both of them looked as shocked as he felt. No way was Daniel going to die like this, bleeding to death on the floor of some crazy Goa'uld's temple a million light years from home - not if they could prevent it.
Jack moved his hand back to the makeshift pressure bandage and pressed harder, eliciting a moan. Daniel's back arched and his head tilted back. "God, that hurts!"
"I can imagine," Jack said, forcing his voice to remain calm despite the fact that he was anything but. "That's why we're putting you in there."
"Said… no…"
"Daniel," Sam said softly, causing him to turn his head slightly to focus on her. "We know what you're thinking, believe me. But there's no indication that using the sarcophagus when you're actually injured does any damage at all. I don't think you could get addicted again."
"I still am…" Daniel argued. "Already… feel it." He paused for a few seconds to catch his breath, and shook his head. "Don't want to… n-not again."
Jack sighed in frustration, and Daniel turned back toward him again. Jack switched to his best 'command' voice and said, "End of argument, Daniel. One way or another, you're getting in that sarcophagus."
"No… I'm not."
"Damn it, we are not going to just sit here and watch you die!" The words came out more vehemently than Jack had intended, and he immediately wished he could take them back. Daniel was in pain, suffering from massive blood loss, and quite possibly not in his right mind. There couldn't be any other explanation for his stubborn refusal to allow them to save him when they had the technology to do so at their immediate disposal.
Rather than react the way Jack was expecting him to - with fear and retreat - Daniel looked into Jack's eyes and smiled.
"S'okay, Jack," he forced out. "Doesn't hurt any m-more…"
Jack buried his reaction to that statement as deeply as he could. If Daniel was already going numb from the shock and blood loss, he would not be long for this world, or any other.
"We're not going to let you do this, Daniel," Sam said softly.
"I concur, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c added from across the room. "It would be a pointless death in that it could have been prevented."
Daniel didn't say anything, but Jack could feel him looking at him. He forced himself to ignore it, pretend that Daniel wasn't looking up at him with eyes that, while tired and filled with regret, were completely lucid. Daniel wasn't insane; he knew exactly what he was saying, and why.
"Promise, Jack. Promise me."
Jack sighed again and looked down, forcing himself to see the determination in those eyes. "I…" He stopped himself short and looked to the other two members of his team. Their opinions were clear; they didn't want Daniel to die, no matter what his thoughts on the matter were. They had the technology to save him, and neither of them saw any reason why they shouldn't.
Jack finally looked down at Daniel, and shrugged. "What's to stop us from waiting until you're dead and putting you in it anyway?"
Daniel shook his head slowly with a faint smile. "You wouldn't do that."
"How do you know that?" Jack asked.
"I trust you, Jack." There was no hesitation in Daniel's answer, no thought, no doubt.
Jack froze and stared down at Daniel in disbelief. All the times in the past week he'd wanted to hear Daniel say those words, had wanted Daniel to trust him again… and he'd picked the worst possible time to do it.
"Never stopped," Daniel continued. He closed his eyes and his smile widened. "Just forgot…"
"God damn it!" Jack screamed, at everyone and no one. "Somebody help him!"
Dashu was on her knees across from Jack almost immediately, pushing his hands away from Daniel's wound gently and lifting the robe carefully. The look on her face was one of intense concentration mixed with regret and guilt.
"I am sorry," she said softly. "He is injured beyond my means to heal." She bowed her head deeply. "Forgive me my friends. I beg of you."
Jack didn't have time to forgive anyone at that moment.
"Colonel," Sam said beside him. "You're thinking of not putting him in the...?"
"He trusts me," Jack muttered to himself. "I can't, Carter, we... I can't..."
Daniel's eyes had been closed for too long, and Jack was having a hard time swallowing around the enormous lump that had lodged itself in his throat. "Daniel, please," he begged. "Don't make me do this!"
Another hooded figure knelt down across from him, and Jack struck out his arm before he even thought about it.
"Get away from him!" he ordered. "Whoever you are, just get the hell away."
"Let me help him, Jack."
The hood fell away, and Jack almost fell over. If it hadn't been for Teal'c's hand grabbing his arm, he would have.
He didn't know what he was more grateful to see - Jacob Carter's face or the healing device he held in his hand.
Epilogue