ansostuff | Woe To Thee

PART ELEVEN

“Colonel, what are you doing here?” Sam said, surprised when Jack turned up not thirty minutes later.

“Oh, couldn’t sleep. I’ll just hang out for a while, okay?”

“No problem, sir.” She indicated Daniel’s bed. “He woke for a moment, but he’s high as a kite, so he fell asleep again fairly quickly.”

Jack pulled a stool over and he and Sam sat in companionable silence, watching Daniel sleep. Sam was reading some papers and Jack had brought a crossword puzzle.

“I thought I ordered you to sleep,” Janet said, coming over to the bed a few moments later.

“Yeah, well,” Jack shrugged.

“Why don’t you get some sleep, Sam,” Janet suggested with a smile. “It seems the colonel here is incapable of doing so.”

Sam sighed. She’d rather stay here with Daniel, but there was no point in both of them staying. “Okay. I’ll be back in the morning.”

“Night, Carter.”

“Night, sir.”

“Colonel, when Daniel wakes up, would you let him know I want to talk to him?” Janet asked after Sam had left. “He needs another dose of his medications soon.”

“Sure,” Jack answered. He had no real intention of waking Daniel, yet the suggestion was there. Jack tilted his head to the side and looked at Daniel. He didn’t look all that bad. A gentle poke in the shoulder wouldn’t hurt, would it? It would only be to see how deeply Daniel was sleeping. Making his mind up Jack gently nudged Daniel’s shoulder. Daniel grunted and unerringly swatted at Jack’s hand.

“Colonel,” Janet said sternly, coming over to Daniel’s bed again and crossing her arms over her chest. “That’s not how one wakes a patient in my infirmary.”

“Then why did you want me to wake him?” Jack asked. He was going for confused but knew he was busted by the way Janet looked at him questioningly.

“I didn’t want you to wake him. I said when he wakens I’d like to talk to him.”

“Ah. Sorry, Doc,” Jack said, not sounding very contrite, wanting Daniel to be awake so they could talk. “You know how difficult it can be to wake Daniel on a good day.”

“Yes, I know, but this isn’t a ‘good day’. He’s sick and tired.”

“My point exactly,” Jack said, opting to shake Daniel gently instead of poking at him to prove his point. “He’s even more difficult to wake now.”

Janet sighed and shook her head. She knew Jack wasn’t as insensitive as he sounded, waking Daniel like that. The more likely explanation was that he was just as worried as she was, a fact that was clearly evident in the way he hovered over Daniel’s bed, keeping himself within Daniel’s immediate line of vision, a hand resting on Daniel’s head, thumb unconsciously rubbing the short hair beneath his fingers, eagerly waiting for Daniel to open his eyes. It was only an outlet for pent up energy and worry, nothing more.

Daniel finally blinked his eyes open, pushed away Jack’s hand that was hovering just above his shoulder and cleared his throat. “Hey, Jack. Janet, don’t mind him.”

“Hi,” Jack said, leaning over the bed, looking at Daniel. “How are you feeling?”

“Sleepy,” Daniel said, finally opening his eyes again. “You woke me.”

“Sorry about that. Doc’s here though,” Jack said.

“’Kay.” Daniel found the bed controls and sat up, but lowered his bed again when he felt nausea starting to build up in his stomach. Breathing heavily to keep the fast-increasing sickness at bay, Daniel looked around for something that could help. He felt feverish and in pain and was not all that happy about being woken up. “Don’t feel so good,” he muttered when Jack and Janet both looked at him worry.

“I know,” Janet said, holding up the syringe she had in her hand. “I’m about to do something about that now. Try to calm your breathing. This should help.” She quickly injected the contents of the syringe into Daniel’s IV port and helped him turn onto his side. “Colonel, could you hand me that tray?” Janet asked, indicating the emesis basin on the tray on the rollaway table behind Jack.

“Ah,” Jack quickly leaned over and grabbed the basin, holding it ready in case Daniel needed it. A few minutes passed but Daniel didn’t throw up and Jack put the basin away.

“Oh, god,” Daniel mumbled, curling up and clutching at his stomach. Closing his eyes tightly he rode out another wave of nausea.

“I’ll give you some morphine,” Janet said, waving a nurse over, giving the order to fetch the medication. Daniel turned onto his back, hoping the change in position would alleviate the pain. The pain was making him dizzy, and that alone made the nausea worse. This day was turning into a bad circle of pain, nausea, upchucking and more pain. He was getting tired of it and fast. Feeling the medication starting to work, he closed his eyes and was relieved when his breathing calmed down and the urge to throw up disappeared.

“Colonel, if you don’t mind, the ultrasound is available, and I need to check Daniel out again,” Janet said.

“Sure, feel better soon, Daniel,” Jack said, starting to regret waking Daniel after all. “I’ll be back in a bit. I’m sorry I woke you.”

Daniel shrugged. “’S okay.” He gave a little smile before waving at Jack. “See you.”

Janet closed the drapes around his bed again, and had started to get the ultrasound ready, stopping when she saw Daniel had pulled the blankets to his chin and that he was shivering. Placing her hand against his forehead she asked “Your temp is up. How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” Daniel said. “Stomach still hurts, but the roar is down to a dull ache.”

“That’s good to hear.” Janet looked at the screen displaying Daniel’s vitals, writing down the data in his chart before injecting something into the IV port. “I’m giving you something more for the fever too. It should be down soon.” She pulled the blankets down and helped Daniel out of his gown so she could start with the ultrasound. “Your blood work indicates there’s an infection in your gallbladder, which accounts for the fever and the pain you’re experiencing. I’ve started you on intravenous antibiotics to take care of the infection, but let’s see what’s going on in there. You ready?” Janet took the top off the ultrasound gel, warming it before spreading it liberally across Daniel’s stomach.

As Janet worked, Daniel drifted. The ultrasound gel felt cold to his hot skin, but the probe didn’t make anything hurt worse. The fever was making him ache all over, and he had a throbbing headache.

“Daniel, are you asleep in there?” Janet asked, drying the gel off, noticing that Daniel had closed his eyes.

“No,” Daniel mumbled, opening his eyes to look at her, missing the coolness of the warmed ultrasound gel against his too-hot skin. “Find anything?”

Janet sat down on the side of his bed and Daniel frowned. She never did that unless she had bad news. Janet patted his leg before tucking Daniel in again, smoothing the covers. “Janet?” Daniel asked a little fearfully. “What’s wrong?”

Janet smiled, and shook her head. Her news wasn’t good, but it wasn’t that bad. “I want you to have a CT before I can say for sure, but as it looks we might have to go in and take out both your gallstones and your gallbladder.”

“Why?” Daniel asked.

Janet turned the screen connected to the ultrasound around so Daniel could see. “When I examined you last time, I didn’t see this,” she pointed to a particular spot in the picture. “This is your gallbladder, but these two tubes here are your bile ducts. See those spots there? Those are stones too.” Janet said, looking at him to see if he understood. Daniel nodded, urging Janet to continue with a wave of his hand. “They’re too big, blocking the way for the bile the gallbladder produces to pass into your small intestine. Because the stones are stuck, the bile ducts and the gallbladder are infected, and that’s why we might have to operate. The CT will confirm it. The stones in your bile ducts are probably the reason why you’ve been in so much pain. They weren’t large enough to be seen when I examined you earlier; most likely they grew over the last couple of days.”

“How’s that possible?” Daniel asked. “I’ve hardly eaten anything at all. I know I don’t know anatomy as well as you do but if I remember correctly I’ve had to eat to produce bile, right?”

Janet nodded. “Yes, but you’ve produced bile even if you haven’t eaten. You were mostly throwing up bile earlier, remember.”

Daniel nodded.

“The thing is, Daniel,” Janet said, “that this probably has been going on for a while. You’re not the typical candidate for a cholecystectomy.”

“How’s that?”

“Well,” Janet said, smiling to herself a little, “although you are 40, you’re not female and overweight.”

“No,” Daniel said, drawing the word out into a question, sensing there was more coming. “But?”

“I think the most probable cause is that you don’t eat regularly. Your cholesterol is fine, but you tend to eat only when someone reminds you to, and that might have caused your gallbladder to be over-productive at times, producing more bile than what it can rid itself of, thus creating the stones when the fats the bile is there to break down don’t pass quickly enough through your system,” Janet said.

“So when will you operate?” Daniel asked eager to get rid of the pain completely and wanting Janet to stop chastising him.

“Tomorrow,” Janet said, letting the lecture be for now. She knew Jack gave Daniel enough grief about not eating regularly as it was. “It’s getting late and I want both you and your system to have a chance to rest before we start poking you full of holes. It’s not surgery you need right this minute, but you do need it. We can keep your pain in check with meds. However, I don’t like to keep you on strong painkillers for longer than necessary.”

“What do you mean poke me full of holes?” Daniel asked. He didn’t want to be on strong pain killers more than he needed to either. They made his brain fuzzy.

“Four or five small holes, actually,” Janet said. “Cholecystectomy is mostly done laprascopically. There’s no reason for us to do it any other way unless you take a drastic change for the worse.”

“Go for it,” Daniel said, scooting down on the bed, ready to sleep some more.

Janet smiled. “Good. Get some rest.”

&&&&&

A long nap that turned out to be almost a full night’s sleep and a CT scan later, Daniel saw Sam waiting as he was rolled back in to the main infirmary again. “Hey,” he greeted.

“Hi,” Sam replied, standing up to help the orderly to push Daniel’s bed back in place. “How are you doing?”

“I’m better,” Daniel adjusted his position in the bed, making sure he wasn’t lying on any of the lines attaching him to the IV pole and the monitor, scooting down a little so he was lying back against the pillows.

“Janet said she’d sent you to take a CT of your stomach? What’s going on?” Sam asked, looking intently at Daniel. He was looking a lot better but he still had the blush of fever in his cheeks and he looked tired and was clearly still on the “good stuff” as his eyes didn’t track as fast as they usually did.

“Janet wants to take out my gallbladder,” Daniel explained.

“That’s good,” Sam nodded, relieved that Daniel would feel much better soon.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Daniel asked when Janet joined Sam at his bedside.

“The CT confirmed what I’d found earlier, so we’re going in to operate. It’s scheduled for later today.”

“Okay.”

Janet brushed the hair off his forehead, checking for fever, glad to see it was somewhat reduced. She checked the monitor and wrote the numbers down in Daniel’s chart before returning it to the foot of his bed. “You feel like eating anything? You can have a little something now if you’d like.”

Daniel shook his head.

“Yesterday you said he couldn’t have anything,” Sam said confused.

“Yes, but he hasn’t thrown up anything and there’s no free blood in his system, so it’s safe for him to have a little something if he’d like now. It’ll be more than six hours till we can start on his surgery.”

“Sorry, I don’t think I could handle anything,” Daniel said, yawning and placing a hand protectively over his stomach.

“Okay, try to get some sleep,” Janet suggested, adjusting the IV lead. “It’s still early.”

“Sam, I’m sorry I’m not much company at the moment,” Daniel said, yawning.

“That’s okay,” Sam said, smiling and patting his arm. “I don’t expect you too be. Sleep well.”

Turning over onto his side, Daniel drew the covers up past his shoulders and slept before Janet even had left his bedside.

&&&&&

“Daniel, wake up,” Janet said, shaking Daniel’s shoulder.

“Huh?” Daniel blinked his eyes open and peered at Janet through half-closed lids.

“We’re taking you into surgery soon.”

“What?” Daniel mumbled into his pillow, still not awake. “Oh. Okay, I’m up.” He rolled over onto his back and looked at Janet who was pulling his blankets away and tugging at his gown.

“I’m just going to check your stomach before we get started.”

Daniel grabbed her hand. “I need to pee first.” That business taken care of, Daniel lay back and watched as Janet palpated his stomach.

“No change from yesterday, that’s good.” She checked his vitals and fetched a syringe from the tray on the rollaway table by the bed. “I’ll just give you something to make you relax and then we’re ready.”

“You just woke me to make me sleep again,” Daniel muttered good-naturedly. He felt okay, but he knew that was due to the drugs running through his veins.

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Janet laughed. She handed Daniel a surgical cap to wear and an orderly rolled him into the operating theatre. A mask was placed over his mouth and nose and someone told him to count backwards from ten. Daniel only made it to seven and then he was out.

&&&&&

“When’s he supposed to wake up?” Jack asked, tapping his fingers on the table in the observation room above the recovery room where Daniel now lay, still in the clutches of the anaesthesia. Jack winced as a nurse took the tube out of Daniel’s mouth and placed an oxygen mask there instead.

“They just finished with the surgery so it’ll be a couple of hours. Why do you ask?” Sam said, sitting down beside him.

“Oh, just wondering, really,” Jack said, continuing his tapping on the table.

“I’ve talked to General Hammond. Thor and Cully will arrive in about thirty minutes, and we’ll have a briefing when they get here. I just came down here to see how Daniel was doing.”

“And you knew you’d find me here,” Jack said.

“Yup,” Sam smiled, looking out the window down at Daniel, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

“Well, Daniel’s going to be out of it for a few more hours, so I’m ready if you’re ready,” Jack said, getting to his feet.

Sam opened the door and let Jack precede her down the stairs into the main hallway where Janet was coming down the hallway from another direction.

“Doc,” Jack greeted. “How’s he doing?”

“Daniel will be fine,” Janet said after greeting them good afternoon. “The surgery went well, and he’s recovering nicely. I’m keeping him for a few days because of the infection, and to make sure that his system is working properly, but he should be back on his feet and on light duty in within the week. Although he’s had minor surgery, I don’t recommend any traipsing around the galaxy for a week or two.”

“He’s not going to like that,” Sam commented.

Janet chuckled. “No, probably not.” She, like SG-1 did not like the thought of a grounded Daniel. A grounded Daniel was a grumpy Daniel, and a grumpy Daniel was not good for the environment and was best avoided. “I’ll let you know when he wakes up.”

“Thanks,” Jack and Sam replied simultaneously before they headed to the briefing room to wait for Thor and Cully, and Janet went into the recovery room to see how Daniel was doing.

&&&&&

“How is Dr. Jackson?” General Hammond asked as Teal’c, Thor and Cully sat down at the briefing room table.

“He came out of surgery less than an hour ago, sir. Dr. Fraiser said he’ll be fine,” Sam said.

“I take it Tallis agreed to let you continue the negotiations?” Jack asked.

“He did,” Cully said. “He was most pleased to receive help from Thor’s engineers.”

“Indeed,” Thor supplied. “They have already begun repairs on the ship and if things progress ad predicted they will be able to repair it in short order.”

“That’s great news,” Jack said. “Wonderful. Now we just have to wait for Daniel to recover so we can go check out Tubris. No offense, Cully, but I wouldn’t go there without him. He’s the one who’s figured out most of what we know, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. We need him there.”

Cully nodded. “We would like to find the Circulation as soon as possible, but we can wait a few days. What is a few more days when we have waited for centuries?”

Jack smiled. “Wise decision.”

“In the meantime, I suggest you and Thor can continue your negotiations for the future relationship between your peoples,” Hammond said. “Until Dr. Jackson recovers enough to join you, we are happy to have you as our guests. I’m sure there is a lot you can learn from our people.”

“Thank you,” Cully said happily. “I very much appreciate all your help.”

“Colonel, why don’t you sit in on the negotiations?” Hammond suggested, getting a panicked look from Jack. “You’ll do fine.” Jack shook his head but didn’t say anything. Sam smiled and Teal’c bowed his head regally at all of them before they left together with General Hammond.

“So,” Jack said, uncertain, “where to start?”

Part twelve