Part 45
Jack looked up from his book when he heard the soft swoosh of the hospital door opening up.
Daniel's face appeared around the corner, then seeing he was in the right room, he entered properly.
“Hey,” the anthropologist said with an unsure smile as he looked at the man asleep in the bed, propped up with pillows around him and a small tube against his mustache which helped supply pure oxygen to him through his nose.
Closing the novel in his lap, Jack tilted his head and said, “Hey, yourself. Who told you?”
“Word gets around, you know,” Daniel said, dragging his eyes from the sleeping man and looking at his friend. When he saw the questioning arch of Jack's brow he pursed his lips and shrugged. “Sam.”
Jack's mouth formed the word “ah”, but no sound came out.
“How is he?”
“Better. He started having some trouble breathing last night so I thought-” Jack shrugged then looked at Daniel, “- Better to be safe, you know? Doc says he responded well to the steroids. If he’s okay tomorrow, they’ll let him come home.”
Daniel tilted his head and stumbled on his first word as he said, “whoa…Steriods?”
“They gave him some to open his tubes or to keep his heart pumping or some damn thing..” Jack sucked in a loud breath as he rubbed both hands over his face then pushed them up into his hair before dropping them back to his side.
“Oh, God..” Daniel said wretchedly as he looked at Philip.
“He’s okay now though. This was when we first got here around midnight.”
The younger man nodded. “Yeah. He seems to be breathing easily now.”
Jack leaned over and adjusted the cannula under Phil’s nose, and the sound of the hissing air seemed to grow a little louder. “This is one hundred percent pure oxygen,” he said, explaining the tube under Phil’s nose.
Daniel nodded and went around the bed to get a little closer. As he watched Jack carefully adjusting the tubing he said, “I didn’t realize Philip was such a heavy sleeper.”
“He’s sedated,” Jack commented, reaching to hold Phil’s hand as he brushed the backs of his slightly curled fingers on his other hand down the bearded cheek.
Daniel watched the tender display then quickly met Jack's eyes when the older man turned to look at him. “How about you?” the younger man asked.
“They never offered me any. Probably would have taken some though!” Jack quipped tiredly and Daniel chuckled softly.
“You know what I mean. Have you eaten yet?”
“I stole a few fries off Phil’s lunch plate. He didn’t want them.”
Daniel inhaled deeply then nodded as he looked at his sleeping friend once more. “And have you had much sleep?”
“No,” Jack said honestly. “But I’m okay.”
Daniel looked at the haggard face then shook his head as he came around the bed and stood beside his friend again. “Why don’t we go for a bit of a walk and maybe get a coffee?”
“No, I shouldn’t,” Jack said, looking over the arm Daniel had hold of him with and at the man in the bed.
“Shouldn’t what, Colonel?” Janet asked as she entered the room. She shot Daniel a conspiratory glance and he gave a slight nod in return. Jack didn’t see any of this, as his attention was on the bed.
“Janet, tell him he has to come for a coffee..”
“Jack, you have to go for coffee!” The doctor ordered immediately then pulled out her pen light and carefully lifted Phil’s eyelids to ensure she could get a reaction from his pupils, indicating that he wasn’t in a coma. She was satisfied with the results and as she started to write on his chart, she muttered, “Oh, are you still here?”
“I should stay here,” Jack argued.
“You should go and sleep, that’s what you should do. But I’m willing to accept that you’ll take a short walk and grab a coffee with Daniel instead.”
Daniel grabbed his friend’s sleeve. “Come on, Jack.”
Janet looked at the older man and jerked her head towards Daniel. “Don’t make him beg, please. You know how he gets for coffee. It might get ugly!”
Daniel laughed softly as he tugged the unwilling man away from the bed.
“I’ll be here Jack, shoo!!” She made the ‘go away’ gesture with both hands then rolled her eyes as she looked at Daniel. He shrugged then gripped Jack's arm harder before turning him towards the door.
“I’m just going to the café. I have my pager, so call if you need me.”
“Will do, Colonel!” She said, with a mock salute as he finally allowed Daniel to drag him from the room.
*
Jack cradled the coffee cup between both hands as he sat, stooped over the table. Daniel was staring out at the garden through the windows as he listened to Jack tell him about Philip’s inheritance.
“He wants to leave the house in Arlington to Graham.”
“Graham? Why?” Daniel frowned.
Scratching at his brow, the forlorn man sighed as he said, “Because after this is over, the Lieutenant’s putting in for a transfer back there. He doesn’t want to stay in Colorado Springs anymore.”
The golden lashes fluttered as Daniel lowered his coffee mug and then ran the tip of his index finger around the lip of the cup. Jack lifted his eyes to watch him.
“You okay with that?” He asked after a long silence. Screwing his nose up slightly, Daniel picked up his hot drink again and took a sip while he thought about that question.
With his bottom lip against the edge of the cup, Daniel mumbled, “Of course.”
Jack didn’t seem to believe him as he arched his brow then tilted his head to rest against his raised fist.
Daniel checked his watch then looked around them, unaware now of Jack's frown.
“What are you looking for?”
“Teal’c,” Daniel told him. “When I called him earlier he was in Kel’no’reem and couldn’t be disturbed.”
“What? Daniel, why did you call him? You know, this is probably going to happen a lot! Janet was telling me how this one guy went in and out of hospital a few times a week for over a year!”
“Relax Jack. I wasn’t summoning him to the side of the bed!” Daniel watched the people passing by in the corridor with intent as he commented, distractedly, “I just need him to drag you out of this place.”
“Huh? Um, no!” Jack said, determinedly.
“Grae was on duty when Janet called him. She told him there was no rush, so he’s not going to get here until after seven. I left a message for Teal’c to come with him.” Daniel returned his attention to Jack now. “And he’s going to take you home, so you can sleep and then in the morning you’ll come back and relieve Graham. I’ll come by around lunchtime and see how things are going.”
“Daniel, for crying out..”
“Jack!” The blue eyes looked at him intently. He leaned a little closer to Jack as he wet his lips then lowered his voice. “This is probably the start of a very long road, if we’re lucky! You have got to face the facts that Philip might not recover that well from this and if he doesn’t-” He quickly held his finger up as Jack's mouth opened to say something. “If he doesn’t, you’re going to need an organized team around you to help with caring for him.”
“And what if he does come out of this fine? Janet said he might…”
“Fine. Great! Then we stand down and go back to our everyday lives as well.”
Jack stared into the compassion-filled blue orbs then he blinked quickly and looked away, a little overwhelmed by how much thought and consideration Daniel had put into organizing this for him. He felt his friend’s hand cup over his forearm, then Daniel leaned even closer and said, “Regardless, I’m here. Right through. Whatever you need.”
Jack looked back at him then nodded slowly. “What I need is to get back there.”
“Sure,” the anthropologist said as he stood, pushing his chair back with his legs. Jack got to his feet a little more slowly than that.
<end of part 45>
Stories on this page are the property of Nessessitee and Slida. Please do not copy these without the written permission of the Author. All Rights are acknowledged for MGM, Gekko and Stargate Productions as to the Copyrights of the characters within this story and no infringement on the copyrights are intended. For the Bombshells Series the character of Philip Simmons is entirely the creation and intellectual property of Nessessitee and Slida.
While the performances given by RDA and MS help to fuel the author's desire to write for their characters in a niche that she feels is present on the actual show, the portrayal of their characters in loving relationships in no way reflects the Author's opinion of the men's private life, nor should it be construed in that manner.