Continued....
Continued....
"Colonel Jack O'Neill?" Norita kneeled beside them, "Is Daniel Jackson all right?"
"He's dying damnit! Do you consider that all right?"
"Soon it will be too dark to travel," Taking the bandana, Jack, still holding the linguist, was awkwardly attempting to dampen, she tilted the canteen, soaked the rag, and wrung it out before handing it back. She watched as he tenderly wiped the sweat from his friend's face and neck before draping the damp cloth across Daniel's forehead "Not far ahead is a small cave. It will be a safe place to pass the night."
"And just what do you consider not far?"
"We will be there before the sun fades." Jack followed her gaze to the sun hanging over the horizon, before glancing at his watch. Two hours. Could Daniel walk another two hours? Stupid question. It really didn't matter because they had no choice. They couldn't stay here and he wasn't egotistical enough to think he could carry Daniel for almost two hours.
"I hate to do this to you, big guy, but you need to wake up." Daniel groaned, turning his head slightly as Jack gently slapped at his cheeks. "C'mon Danny.....talk to me buddy.....Daniel?"
"Nooo........" the scientist protested, not opening his eyes.
"Daniel....I know you're tired but we gotta keep going.....just a little longer." The lids fluttered and Jack found himself staring into intense pain filled blue eyes. "Hey buddy......"
"Hapn?....."
"Nothing much......" Jack forced an unfelt smile. "You just decided it was time for a nap,"
"Sry," Daniel slurred, biting his lower lip against the pain ravaging his body, his limbs shaking as he struggled to rise.
Giving Norita a look of gratitude as she silently shouldered Daniel's pack, O'Neill slipped an arm around the scientist's waist, steadying the anthropologist before they slowly began the painful trek to the cave.
*****
"Last one Danny." Jack's hand tightened around Daniel's forearm, feeling the minute convulsions traveling through the younger man's body, as he pulled him to the next ledge. The ledges seemed cut into the mountain almost like stairs and O'Neill's outstretched fingers reached the edge with plenty of toe holds to pull themselves up. They had settled into a routine, Jack lifting Norita until she could pull herself up, with him following and helping Daniel. Under normal conditions the climb wouldn't even have left them breathing hard but this was anything but normal conditions.
The cave they'd spent the night in was barely more than a large dent in the mountain wall with room enough for the three of them to stretch out around the small fire. Tossing the empty hypo aside, Jack had placed his sleeping bag over the one already covering Daniel as the scientist had shivered uncontrollably in the chilly night air, his teeth chattering. The morphine did little to help and the night had passed with the colonel alternately holding his young friend, as he fought the pain, or the chills which racked his thin body,or the fever which nearly drowned him in his own sweat. Each time it thankfully ended, Jack had reached to check for a pulse as Daniel gave in to unconsciousness.
"You should rest Colonel Jack O'Neill. We should reach our destination tomorrow but it will be most difficult." Norita had awakened as Daniel thrashed about, caught in the throes of delirium, crying out for help, begging Jack to stop the pain, before sinking once more into stillness.
"How long do we have.....I mean.....how long do we have to get him to swallow this plant before it'll be too late to help him?"
"I do not know. Never before has my mother or myself tried to stop the Kom'Ki once it has started." Her expression was apologetic. "Rest. I will watch over the Cho-....over your Daniel Jackson." Doubting he would sleep, but certain he should try, with a nod, Jack had stretched out, using his pack for a pillow and concentrated on forcing tense muscles to relax.
The colonel had been stunned that morning when Daniel, gratefully accepting Jack's helping hand had pulled himself to his feet, insisting they get started. There was no color left in his face, the left hand he could no longer open was pressed tightly against his stomach and he was limping. Jack didn't know which frightened him more, Daniel's increasing confusion or that the linguist's speech was becoming more slurred and indistinguishable.
Unable to stand as his knees cleared the edge, Daniel sank to the ground, teetering on the threshold of consciousness. His muscles no longer wanted to cooperate. He could almost feel his heart straining to pump the blood flowing through his veins, his lungs toiling with the exertion of drawing the air he needed so desperately. His vision had narrowed to mere pinpoints and despite all his learned knowledge, he couldn't think of a word in any language to accurately describe the agony his body was suffering.
Daniel's survival, alone in a world that until recently had never seemed to give a damn about him had depended on his perseverance. His inability to quit no matter the odds stacked against him. The stubborn will to fight for what he wanted, what he needed had kept him going more than once. Right now, all the linguist wanted was to stop the excruxiating pain and it didn't matter how.
"Daniel?...."
He curled into a ball. The scientist couldn't seem to draw in enough breath to scream as even the lightest touch of Jack's hand felt like barbed wire tearing into his skin, the quiet voice echoing through his head like fingernails on a blackboard. The world was spinning out of control and the pain only receded as Daniel fell over the edge into the bottomless pit of blackness which accepted him with painless comfort.
His breath freezing in his lungs, Jack pressed trembling fingers to Daniel's neck, searching for the pulsation which told him his friend still clung to life. Nothing!!! Ripping open the vest, O'Neill lay his ear on the archaeologist's chest, praying for any sound, any movement........There?.......A tiny flutter? A heartbeat or his imagination? Taking a deep breath, calling on every ounce of military training for control, Jack placed his fingers once again to Daniel's cartoid artery, breathing only when the faint heartbeat repeated itself.
"Thank you God!" It was more than a prayer.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill?"
"He's alive." He didn't look up afraid to take his eyes from the slack features his friend. "He's not giving up. Just hang in there, Spacemonkey, ya hear me? Just hang on!"
"We have only a short distance to travel." She drew his attention to several large boulders pointing at the dusky sky approximately a mile and a half from their present location. "The plants grow just beyond those boulders."
"Almost, Dannyboy.....we're almost there.....just hang on alittle longer." O'Neill urged. Exhausted muscles protested as he lifted the scholar into his arms.
*****
"You gotta be kiddin' me." Jack's brown eyes widened as he glanced over the edge of the precipice. Fifteen feet below, thick vines filled with lavender flowers clung to the cliff face. He examined the rock wall, his brown eyes searching for hand and foot holds.
O'Neill glanced back at Daniel. The Egyptologist was still motionless laying where the colonel had gently placed him on the soft grass under the lone tree gracing the tiny clearing. His kind, diplomatic, lovable friend whose crystal blue eyes sparkled with curiousity and laughter. His young friend who had only discovered what it felt like to be loved in the last few years. Pulling his gaze from his friend, he turned his thoughts to the more pressing matter at hand. The soldier couldn't remember the last time he'd done any free hand climbing but those flowers were the only chance the best friend he'd ever known had at life and Jack would do what ever it took to see Daniel received that chance.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill!" The tone of her voice set off the warning bells in Jack, his hand automatically encasing the assault weapon, a finger encircling the trigger as several soldiers stepped into the clearing, their own weapons aimed at the colonel and priestess.
"Son of a bitch!" He'd been so careful about covering their trail, but had to admit as Daniel's condition deteriorated so had his attention to details.
"Lay your weapon aside Leader O'Neill. We wish you no harm but the Chosen One must be returned to the city at once." An officer the colonel recognized from the celebration knelt next to Daniel placing a hand under the scholar's nose, for signs he still lived.
"I don't think so." Jack snapped, wondering how many of them he could take out before they killed him.
"You are a brave man but you are greatly outnumbered Leader O'Neill. It would grieve me to give the order for your death."
"Well I sure as hell wouldn't wanna cause you to lose any sleep but that's just what you're gonna have to do if you think you're leaving here with Daniel."
The native raised his hand, readying his soldiers to take out the colonel. He opened his mouth to give the order, when suddenly a deep voice rang somberly across the clearing. "I would suggest you do not utter those words."
A smile slipped across Jack's face as the familiar baritone voice drew everyone's attention. The Jaffa stepped into the clearing his staff weapon pointed at the enemy officer. Carter and the members of SG-3 had circled around and now stood with their weapons trained on Breetan's soldiers.
"This changes nothing Leader O'Neill. The Chosen One must be returned so the Kom'Ki can be completed. I regret you will no longer have your friend at your side but you may take comfort in knowing he will live on." The man looked down at Daniel, his eyes softening. "Like the priestess' I no longer believe the ritual is best for our people but Breetan has ordered his return. He must be obeyed."
"It is too late."
"NOOOO!!"
The priestess' soft words sent Jack's heart crashing to his feet, as he rushed forward, dropping to his knees beside Daniel.
"I do not speak of Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill. It is Breetan who has followed the path of the ancestors."
All eyes turned to the officer, whose name Jack still couldn't remember. Grief registering on his expression, "Priestess Malina warned this may happen." At a nod from their commander, the soldiers lowered their weapons. "How may we help you Leader O'Neill?"
O'Neill stared up at the other man in confusion. The colonel's tired brain seemed to have shut down refusing to process the information rushing at him from all directions. Janet? Was that Janet now kneeling beside Daniel, taking his pulse, shining her penlight in his eyes? Think Jack. Concentrate. Tell her what Daniel needs. What is it Daniel needs?.....Antidote....Flowers! The flowers on the cliff!
"With Breetan's passing, the Chosen One is no longer needed. There is no reason you should lose your friend when it can not help my people."
He barely heard the other soldier's words as he scrambled back to the cliff's edge preparing to lower himself over the side. Jack struggled frantically against the hands pulling him back. Didn't they realize he had to get the flowers? Without those flowers Daniel would die!
"I will make the climb O'Neill." Teal'c stated as a member of SG-3 stepped forward with the needed equipment.
"He's right, Colonel." Carter cut off the expected protest.
"I-"
"Leader O'Neill, think of how your friend will feel, if you fall while retrieving that which will save him because you are too weary to react." The native officer placed a hand on his shoulder. "My men will help."
