Title: Too Little Too Late
Author: Secret Art
E-mail: [email protected]
Date: 30th December 2004
Category: angst, character death, romance
Pairings: Jack/Sam
Spoilers: none
Summary: Jack tries to make up for everything but it's not enough.
Feedback: can only make me better
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author.
Author’s note:N/A
Jack looked down at the floor as he slipped into her room, trying not to look at all the machines surrounding her, keeping her alive.
He walked up to her, silently sitting in the chair next to her, resting his head against the arm he placed on the armrest.
"You look so peaceful, so happy. I don’t understand why you aren’t awake."
He laughed to himself, knowing exactly what the reason was, understanding what forced her into the hospital bed.
"The docs said that the longer you are like this the worse your chances, and I want to kill them, god Sam I want to kill them for doing this to you, for pushing you so hard, forcing you into doing all the work. And I know you told me, you kept telling me that the workload was too much but I thought you were just having a bad day, but now, I know you’d never complain unless there was a reason and I should have listened, should have seen this coming."
He paused, flashes of what she had looked like running through his mind, reminding him of his failure to keep her safe.
"I could see the bags under your eyes, the stoop in your shoulders as they brought you more work, pilling it up with demands of you doing it first. I know you hardly slept, hardly ate, just worked, worked and worked and worked and yet you never saw the light at the end of the tunnel, never saw what you were doing.
All you could see was the pile of reports, the lists of things you still hard to do, things that looked pointless, appeared stupid but we appreciated them, we appreciated them so much Sam.
I guess no one told you that, we all just assumed you’d do it, that you didn’t mind, we never had to complain to you so we never bothered complimenting you either."
He tried to say something meaningful but all that came out was air, same as every other time he’d tried to compliment her, fear of damaging her reputation, her career, their relationship. All had seemed valid reasons, but now, looking at her he wasn’t so sure.
"I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you for everything you’ve done, and when you wake up, see I said when not if as you will wake up Sam, then everything will change. I know I know you think I’m just saying that but it will, I promise, even if I have to get Teal’c to stand out side your lab and scare away everyone that isn’t involved in the one experiment you are doing. Hell, I’ll get Hammond to bring in more scientists. Ok, so they won’t be as good as you are but at least they can do the basic stuff, remove some of your workload.
But you have to do something too Sam, you have to wake up, and more than that, promise never to do it again."
Jack stared at her, willing her to say those words, to promise that she wouldn’t leave him but he knew she would never say them, not to him.
He’d been where she was now, but he’d had people to stop him, prevent him for killing himself, he was just thankful that Daniel had found her before it had been too late.
"Never pegged you for a pills girl I must admit. Thought you would have followed in my footsteps, good old fashioned shooting. Not that you should, I’m very glad you didn’t, meant that Daniel could get you to the hospital who treated you. Yeah, I’m afraid you are in a normal hospital, Daniel didn’t want to take you to the SGC as you know what they are like with rumours."
He paused as he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, looking up to see Daniel, watching through the window. He met Jack’s gaze for a moment, glancing at Sam before walking off, leaving them alone again.
"Guess I should probably get to the point before Daniel gets back and starts saying whatever it is he says to you. I know why you did what you did, I understand it, but next time please come and see me first, let me know how bad it is. I know you tried, but I didn’t listen, next time I will. When you wake up I promise I’ll be everything you need me to be."
He leaned over, kissing her briefly on the head before standing up.
"I have to go on a mission now, standard sort of thing, SG-13 got captured again, me and Teal’c are going with SG-3 to rescue them and kick some evil ass. Daniel is going to stay here with you so that you will have a friendly face when you wake up."
He walked to the door, turning to face her one last time.
"I love you" he whispered, knowing that even if she did wake up he probably wouldn’t survive the mission so this was the last time he’d ever see her.
Sighing, he opened the door, nodding silently to Daniel as he walked out the room.
"Jack?"
He looked at his friend, wanting to say so much, but not being able to find the words.
Daniel smiled sadly at him. "I understand, now go save SG-13, we’ll be waiting for you when you get back."
Jack smiled back, taking a deep breath as he walked out of the hospital, knowing that Daniel would lose at least one close friend before it all ended.
Fin