One Less Thing by Shane Vansen

Jack lay on his back on a gurney in the infirmary, one arm crooked over his eyes in an attempt to block out the world. Despite his efforts his temporary oblivion was interrupted by footsteps, followed shortly by the too-familiar voice of the SGC's Chief Medical Officer. "Colonel?"

He grunted an unintelligible reply, but relented and removed his arm when she didn't say anything else. Blinking at the sudden brightness, he turned his squinting gaze toward Janet Fraiser. "What, Doc?"

"How are you feeling?" He opened his mouth to make a sarcastic retort, but she amended her question with, "Physically, I mean."

He snapped his mouth shut -- it wasn't her fault, after all, and Janet didn't need him being difficult right now -- and considered his response. "Okay, I guess. Tired, a little weak, but that's about it."

She nodded as if that were the reply she'd been expecting. "Good. Your test results came in normal, so I can release you from the infirmary."

"Can I go home?" Jack asked wearily. It had been an incredibly long day and he had to get away from the base; there were just too many memories here. He suspected that being home wouldn't help much either, but being trapped underground would just increase his stress. He needed to get away.

The doctor looked doubtfully from Jack's chart to him. "No sir, I wouldn't advise driving right now. However, Major Carter has offered to drive you home if want."

*Carter* had? Of course, of all the members of SG-1 she had been the only one not present during the 'incident' and so was in perfect health; she would understand his need to go home, and probably had some questions she wanted to ask him before the official briefing the following morning. He guessed that it wasn't that unusual. "Sure. Whatever."

***

Sam watched Jack carefully from the corner of her eye as she manoeuvered the car around the final corner that would lead to his house. He was too pale, too silent and, above all, too still; she couldn't remember ever seeing him stay in one position for so long, not even while sleeping on overnight missions.

She didn't even know what had happened to Daniel, not really. Teal'c had told her what he could, with Jack filling in some of the blanks, but all she could understand was that it had something to do with Orlin and Oma Desala's race, and that though Daniel was gone he wasn't dead -- or so the other two men thought. Sam didn't think they knew what had happened either, despite being there. She cursed herself yet again for missing Daniel's final moments, for missing her chance to say goodbye; if only she hadn't offered to send a message back to General Hammond just then....

Sam shook the recriminations out of her head angrily as she turned into Jack's driveway; they served no purpose. She should be grateful that the aliens had been able to help Daniel instead of letting him die, and that at least Jack and Teal'c had been with him. Daniel had had that comfort, and she could only hope for as much when her time came.

Shutting off the car, she turned toward Jack, startled anew by the whiteness of his face. Daniel's change had had the side effect of radiation emission, which meant that both of her remaining teammates had been exposed, and while it had turned out not to be life-threatening it had had a definite effect on their health. "Sir? We're here."

Jack's eyes blinked open slowly, and he looked around for a moment as if confused. Eventually he reached for the door handle and got out of the car. He walked around to her side and leaned heavily on the frame of her open window. "Come in," he murmured. "Please."

Sam hesitated; given their circumstances and their emotionally vulnerable states, she wasn't sure it would be such a good idea. No, scratch that -- she *knew* it was a bad idea. "Sir, I don't think--"

"Please Sam." The rare use of her first name silenced her, and she found her eyes riveted to his. "Nothing is going to happen. I just want you here."

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, debating with herself, but Sam had known her answer the instant he'd said her name. She wondered briefly if she should be concerned about the hold he seemed to have over her sometimes. "Alright," she relented, releasing her own seatbelt and following him to the front door.

Once inside she trailed Jack upstairs to his bedroom, where he found her some clothes to wear and left her for a few minutes to change in privacy. He came back in wearing pyjamas and slid into bed. She joined him.

Jack lay beneath the sheets on his back, while Sam lay on top of the sheets but beneath his comforter on her side, their hands loosely clasped in the space left between them in the large bed. Once Jack's breathing had evened and deepened, however, and Sam gathered that he had fallen asleep, she moved closer and rested her head on his chest, with one arm across his stomach and a leg draped over his as she listened to the rhythmic heartbeat, his arm coming up to encircle her waist.

Sam had always found listening to a beating heart immensely soothing; she remembered how as a child she would curl up in her mother's lap and be able to hear only her heart as they waited for her father to return home from a mission -- or not. The steady thumping sound then, as now, calmed her.

As she drifted into sleep, Sam felt her mortality pressing down on her for the first time in quite a while and had the sudden need to say the words out loud just once, even if he couldn't hear her. It would be one less thing she'd regret.

"I love you," she murmured into his chest, barely audible even to her own ears. As she let sleep claim her she thought she felt his arm tighten around her in response, the whispered reply a mere soft sigh in her dreams.

"Love you too, Sam."

--end--