Title: When the Ash Settles
Author: Flatkatsi
Email: flatkatsi@optusnet.com.au
Status: Complete
Category: Hurt/Comfort
Pairings: None
Spoilers: None
Season: Any
Sequel/Series Info: Sequel to When the Smoke Clears
Rating: PG
Content Warnings: None
File Size: 25kb
Archive: Incoming Wormhole, Jackfic
Summary: The team brings Jack home.
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. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
Author’s Note: Thanks to Ruth for the title.
Jack had gone as far as he could. His clothes were still wet and heavy, covered now with a clinging layer of ash.
He blinked away the burning tears from his eyes and looked around him, trying to get some idea of where he was in relation to the gate, but everything had changed. So he sunk to his knees and waited. He didn’t know how long he knelt there and after a while he began to forget why.
Then the wind came up and the swirling smoke parted, revealing hazy figures floating towards him. He remembered why he was there and he reached out an arm and smiled.
Hands touched him, holding him tight. He felt them around him and knew that he had been right to not accept death. He remembered the certainty that they would come.
The absolute certainty and trust.
They lifted him up and took him home.
They stepped through together, Daniel and Teal’c each holding an arm, Sam leading. The Colonel shook them off and straightened, searching the room with anxious eyes.. His clothes shed the remains of the forest on to the ramp with every small step that he took. And they were very small, more a stagger than a stride.
Steps sounded loud on the metal Control Room stairs before hurrying into the Gate Room. The General was panting slightly, a smile on his lips.
Jack watched as he walked in, and the anxious look was replaced by one of relief. It was as if he hadn’t been completely sure that he was back home until he saw Hammond.
“Sir.” The hoarse word was all that he managed before the coughs wracked his tall frame. He put his hand up and wiped the cloying moisture from his lips, surprised to find that it was black.
He took a long, rasping breath and grabbed out, searching for support.
It was very strange. He thought that the smoke had been left behind, but it seemed to have followed him. He could smell it everywhere and now it was back, wisping at the edge of his vision, getting thicker.
Teal’c caught him as he fell.
The others had expected it. They had watched him carefully from the moment that they had found him. Watched him struggling to walk, to see, to breathe. Now they walked behind the gurney, to the infirmary.
They had thought that they had lost him once this day and they weren’t about to let him out of their sight.
They perched in various positions around the room, not ready to accept that they were as much in need of care as their colonel. Shock could be dealt with later.
Jack held on to consciousness as the doctor examined him. He wanted water. He wanted air. He wanted to get away.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
Ash is an evil thing when it settles in you. Jack was discovering that. As the hours passed he struggled more and more, unable to take in enough oxygen. His throat felt raw. He coughed and wheezed and choked. When the tube was finally put down his throat, his team watched on, refusing to leave.
They were going to be there for him, this time.
He searched them out, each isolated in their small space. Daniel huddled in on himself by the doorway. Sam, with knees up, against the wall. Teal’c, rigidly straight, as close to his bed as possible.
His eyes never left them.
Until they shut, knowing that, at last it was alright to stop fighting.
Because he knew that they would be there when he woke.
.
