FIC: Zymotic (12/12)
Chapter 12
The first thing he noticed when he regained consciousness was that he had no idea what time it was. It didn’t take him long to realize that this was a very good sign.
The second thing he noticed, once he cracked his eyes open, was that the quarantine curtain had been taken down. This, he knew right away, was an extremely good sign.
It wasn’t until he turned his head and looked around that he noticed the third thing - he wasn’t alone.
“Hey, Jack. Welcome back to the land of the living.”
Jack blinked a few times to clear his eyes of the lingering blur of sleep. “Hey, Daniel,” he croaked, his throat as dry as sand paper. “That really you?”
Daniel quickly got up from his chair and brought him a cup of water. After helping Jack to sit up and take a few sips, he set the cup down on the table beside Jack’s bed and sat down again. “You had us worried for a while there,” he said. “Janet was pretty sure this thing was some kind of brain infection that was treatable with steroids and the right kind of antibiotics, but you almost died of exhaustion before she even got the chance to try.”
“It was a long trip,” Jack said.
Daniel smiled and nodded. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
Jack paused to think for a moment before answering. His mind was still too foggy to fully register what he was feeling, let alone put it into words. “I’ve felt worse,” he finally said. It was usually pretty safe to say that, considering some of the crap he’d been through. “What about you?”
“Me? I’m doing great, thanks for asking,” Daniel said. “Much better now that we know you’re okay.”
Jack tried to roll his eyes, but it just made him dizzy. He settled for making a wry face instead. “That’s sweet,” he said. “But seriously… that inoculation didn’t seem to do you much good back there, and you seemed just as exhausted as I was by the time we got to the gate.”
Daniel gave him a blank look. “What are you talking about?” he said. “I’ve spent the majority of the last few days trying to negotiate your release with the town leaders.”
Jack could feel the blood draining from his head as his internal organs all seemed to migrate down to his feet. “What… no… no, you were there, in the colony,” he said, trying to convince himself of it as well as Daniel. “You were there, and you helped me break out!”
Daniel laughed in surprise and shook his head. “Okay, I think you need some more sleep, Jack,” he said with a patronizing pat on Jack’s shoulder. “I’ll come back later when the drugs have had a chance to do their job.”
Jack watched in dismay as Daniel turned to leave, memories of their escape running through his mind one by one as he tried to separate fact from fiction. Somehow, now that his mind was no longer playing tricks on him and he was back in familiar territory, he found he could look back on his time in the colony objectively, almost as though it had all happened to another person. He knew now what had been reality and what had been delusion… didn’t he?
“Daniel,” he said just as his friend was heading out the door.
Daniel stopped and turned around with a guardedly expectant look on his face.
Jack cleared his throat and swallowed convulsively. “Thank you,” he said.
Daniel tilted his head and thrust his hands into his pockets. “For what?”
“For…” Jack sighed, trying to think of the right words to say. “For busting your ass to get me out of there, even though all you got in return was doubt and suspicion,” he said, remembering what Daniel had said to him just before his collapse. “And for… being there. Keeping me going. Not just… in the colony, either.” He sucked in a ragged breath and looked down at his hands as he forced himself to finally say what he should have said months earlier. “When you asked if you were helpful… you were. I would’ve given up and gone insane if you hadn’t been there bugging the crap out of me, so… thank you.” He gave a short nod and shot a tentative glance over at Daniel to see his reaction to this uncharacteristic speech.
Daniel seemed frozen in place for a moment, but then a slow smile spread across his face. “You’re welcome,” he said.
Jack let out a relieved sigh. He figured he had a right to be pissed that Daniel had messed with his mind like that, but the relief that he hadn’t just been talking out of his ass trumped any anger or embarrassment that he might otherwise have felt. He finally knew for sure that it had all been real.
Daniel reached into his jacket then and pulled out a small package wrapped in colourful paper. “Here,” he said, tossing it to Jack. “I figured I owed you a cheeseburger.”
Jack caught it and grinned, holding it up with a nod of gratitude. He had no appetite whatsoever, but he knew that wasn’t the point of it anyway - Daniel just wanted him to know that he’d not only been there, but he’d been paying attention, too.
As Daniel left the room, Jack settled back against his pillows with a contented sigh. It was damn good to be home.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jack spent another five long, boring days in the infirmary before Fraiser finally let him leave. The most aggravating part about it was that in all that time, nobody would tell him what the hell had happened back at the colony.
Once he left his part of the infirmary, he understood why.
“We told the town leaders that their loved ones could be cured and sent home to them,” Daniel told him in a low voice as he led Jack into the main ward, “but they wouldn’t listen. They won’t allow them back into their population, healthy or not. General Hammond is already negotiating with other worlds who are willing to take them in.”
Jack gritted his teeth as he scanned the room, memories of his time in that place flooding into his mind and making him feel sick to his stomach. The people who had once looked so hopeless and filthy were now lying in comfortable cots with fresh white sheets, looking spotlessly clean and… happy. Somehow that only made him angry, knowing that they were never again going to see the people who had supposedly loved them before they were stricken with this damn disease.
“Are you okay, Jack?”
Jack blinked and cleared his throat at the sound of his name. “Yeah, fine,” he said. He wasn’t able to stomach the sympathetic look on Daniel’s face, so he quickly stepped forward into the room and began walking slowly between the two rows of cots lining the ward, smiling and nodding at anyone who was awake as he passed.
He stopped when he thought he heard a weak voice calling his name, and turned to see Marzun lying in one of the cots to his right. Jack grinned and lifted his hand in a wave. “Hey, Marz,” he said as he approached the man’s bedside. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Hello, Jack,” Marzun said, though his voice was so quiet and weak that Jack almost didn’t hear him. “You are looking well.”
“Why, thank you,” Jack said good-humouredly. “I wish I could say the same about you, but you’re still looking a little gray around the gills there, buddy. I’m sure you’ll perk up in a day or two.”
Marzun’s face remained content and serene, but his reply caught Jack off-guard. “No, in a day or two I will most likely be at rest.”
“At rest?” Jack repeated in a hollow voice. “But… I thought this treatment…”
“It comes too late,” Marzun said.
Jack’s spirits deflated like a punctured balloon. “I’m… sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say.
“You need not be sorry,” Marzun said. “I made peace with my death long ago. I have lived to see my people cured. That is enough for me.”
Jack sank down onto the edge of Marzun’s bed, his lack of exercise over the past week finally catching up to him. He felt like there were lead weights on each of his limbs, but they were nothing compared to the one he felt clamping around his heart. “It’s thanks to you,” he said, laying a hand on Marzun’s wrist and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I wouldn’t have survived long enough in that place to escape if it hadn’t been for you, and then there would have been no cure. You did this.” He swept his arm around in a half circle to point out the three dozen other people in the ward who were healing right before their eyes. “You.”
Marzun smiled, if it were possible looking even happier and more at peace than he had before. “You as well, Jack,” he said. “Thank you. And thank your friends also. They have been very kind.”
Jack nodded and smiled. “Will do.”
“I am glad you found your friend again,” Marzun said, though it seemed that every word was becoming an effort for him now.
Jack shook his head in confusion. “What friend?” he asked.
“Daniel… was his name?” Marzun said. “The friend you believed you had lost.”
Jack was still confused for a second, until he remembered the hallucinations he’d had while in Marzun’s quarters. He must have put two and two together from the scraps of one-sided conversations he’d heard over those few days. Jack was kind of impressed. “You were really paying attention,” he said.
Marzun chuckled, and gave a slight cough. “You have experienced things that none of my people could even imagine,” he said. “I watched you living out your memories with great interest.”
Jack almost laughed at that, until he saw that Marzun was fading fast. “Hey, maybe I should call a doctor over here,” he said, reaching over to gently fluff Marzun’s pillow to make him more comfortable.
Marzun gave no indication that he’d heard Jack’s comment at all. “He came to see me,” he said, his voice no more than a whisper now. “Your friend. He thanked me… for caring for you… while you were in the colony.”
“Yeah, Daniel’s nice like that,” Jack said, his hand closing softly yet firmly around Marzun’s as he could see the man starting to slip away.
“The two of you remind me… of how Derya and I used to be,” he continued with great effort. “Derya… Derya will be waiting for me.”
“Yes, he will.”
“And Daniel… Daniel is waiting for you.”
Jack looked over his shoulder to see Daniel still waiting in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets as he pretended not to be watching Jack’s every move. “Yes, he is,” Jack said with a wry smile as he turned back to Marzun.
“Friendship… very important…” Marzun muttered as he seemed to be drifting off to sleep. “Always… take care… of each other.”
Jack sighed and lowered his head in respect as Marzun let go of his last breath. “We always will,” he said.
He knew now more than ever that it was true.
The End
The first thing he noticed when he regained consciousness was that he had no idea what time it was. It didn’t take him long to realize that this was a very good sign.
The second thing he noticed, once he cracked his eyes open, was that the quarantine curtain had been taken down. This, he knew right away, was an extremely good sign.
It wasn’t until he turned his head and looked around that he noticed the third thing - he wasn’t alone.
“Hey, Jack. Welcome back to the land of the living.”
Jack blinked a few times to clear his eyes of the lingering blur of sleep. “Hey, Daniel,” he croaked, his throat as dry as sand paper. “That really you?”
Daniel quickly got up from his chair and brought him a cup of water. After helping Jack to sit up and take a few sips, he set the cup down on the table beside Jack’s bed and sat down again. “You had us worried for a while there,” he said. “Janet was pretty sure this thing was some kind of brain infection that was treatable with steroids and the right kind of antibiotics, but you almost died of exhaustion before she even got the chance to try.”
“It was a long trip,” Jack said.
Daniel smiled and nodded. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
Jack paused to think for a moment before answering. His mind was still too foggy to fully register what he was feeling, let alone put it into words. “I’ve felt worse,” he finally said. It was usually pretty safe to say that, considering some of the crap he’d been through. “What about you?”
“Me? I’m doing great, thanks for asking,” Daniel said. “Much better now that we know you’re okay.”
Jack tried to roll his eyes, but it just made him dizzy. He settled for making a wry face instead. “That’s sweet,” he said. “But seriously… that inoculation didn’t seem to do you much good back there, and you seemed just as exhausted as I was by the time we got to the gate.”
Daniel gave him a blank look. “What are you talking about?” he said. “I’ve spent the majority of the last few days trying to negotiate your release with the town leaders.”
Jack could feel the blood draining from his head as his internal organs all seemed to migrate down to his feet. “What… no… no, you were there, in the colony,” he said, trying to convince himself of it as well as Daniel. “You were there, and you helped me break out!”
Daniel laughed in surprise and shook his head. “Okay, I think you need some more sleep, Jack,” he said with a patronizing pat on Jack’s shoulder. “I’ll come back later when the drugs have had a chance to do their job.”
Jack watched in dismay as Daniel turned to leave, memories of their escape running through his mind one by one as he tried to separate fact from fiction. Somehow, now that his mind was no longer playing tricks on him and he was back in familiar territory, he found he could look back on his time in the colony objectively, almost as though it had all happened to another person. He knew now what had been reality and what had been delusion… didn’t he?
“Daniel,” he said just as his friend was heading out the door.
Daniel stopped and turned around with a guardedly expectant look on his face.
Jack cleared his throat and swallowed convulsively. “Thank you,” he said.
Daniel tilted his head and thrust his hands into his pockets. “For what?”
“For…” Jack sighed, trying to think of the right words to say. “For busting your ass to get me out of there, even though all you got in return was doubt and suspicion,” he said, remembering what Daniel had said to him just before his collapse. “And for… being there. Keeping me going. Not just… in the colony, either.” He sucked in a ragged breath and looked down at his hands as he forced himself to finally say what he should have said months earlier. “When you asked if you were helpful… you were. I would’ve given up and gone insane if you hadn’t been there bugging the crap out of me, so… thank you.” He gave a short nod and shot a tentative glance over at Daniel to see his reaction to this uncharacteristic speech.
Daniel seemed frozen in place for a moment, but then a slow smile spread across his face. “You’re welcome,” he said.
Jack let out a relieved sigh. He figured he had a right to be pissed that Daniel had messed with his mind like that, but the relief that he hadn’t just been talking out of his ass trumped any anger or embarrassment that he might otherwise have felt. He finally knew for sure that it had all been real.
Daniel reached into his jacket then and pulled out a small package wrapped in colourful paper. “Here,” he said, tossing it to Jack. “I figured I owed you a cheeseburger.”
Jack caught it and grinned, holding it up with a nod of gratitude. He had no appetite whatsoever, but he knew that wasn’t the point of it anyway - Daniel just wanted him to know that he’d not only been there, but he’d been paying attention, too.
As Daniel left the room, Jack settled back against his pillows with a contented sigh. It was damn good to be home.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jack spent another five long, boring days in the infirmary before Fraiser finally let him leave. The most aggravating part about it was that in all that time, nobody would tell him what the hell had happened back at the colony.
Once he left his part of the infirmary, he understood why.
“We told the town leaders that their loved ones could be cured and sent home to them,” Daniel told him in a low voice as he led Jack into the main ward, “but they wouldn’t listen. They won’t allow them back into their population, healthy or not. General Hammond is already negotiating with other worlds who are willing to take them in.”
Jack gritted his teeth as he scanned the room, memories of his time in that place flooding into his mind and making him feel sick to his stomach. The people who had once looked so hopeless and filthy were now lying in comfortable cots with fresh white sheets, looking spotlessly clean and… happy. Somehow that only made him angry, knowing that they were never again going to see the people who had supposedly loved them before they were stricken with this damn disease.
“Are you okay, Jack?”
Jack blinked and cleared his throat at the sound of his name. “Yeah, fine,” he said. He wasn’t able to stomach the sympathetic look on Daniel’s face, so he quickly stepped forward into the room and began walking slowly between the two rows of cots lining the ward, smiling and nodding at anyone who was awake as he passed.
He stopped when he thought he heard a weak voice calling his name, and turned to see Marzun lying in one of the cots to his right. Jack grinned and lifted his hand in a wave. “Hey, Marz,” he said as he approached the man’s bedside. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Hello, Jack,” Marzun said, though his voice was so quiet and weak that Jack almost didn’t hear him. “You are looking well.”
“Why, thank you,” Jack said good-humouredly. “I wish I could say the same about you, but you’re still looking a little gray around the gills there, buddy. I’m sure you’ll perk up in a day or two.”
Marzun’s face remained content and serene, but his reply caught Jack off-guard. “No, in a day or two I will most likely be at rest.”
“At rest?” Jack repeated in a hollow voice. “But… I thought this treatment…”
“It comes too late,” Marzun said.
Jack’s spirits deflated like a punctured balloon. “I’m… sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say.
“You need not be sorry,” Marzun said. “I made peace with my death long ago. I have lived to see my people cured. That is enough for me.”
Jack sank down onto the edge of Marzun’s bed, his lack of exercise over the past week finally catching up to him. He felt like there were lead weights on each of his limbs, but they were nothing compared to the one he felt clamping around his heart. “It’s thanks to you,” he said, laying a hand on Marzun’s wrist and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I wouldn’t have survived long enough in that place to escape if it hadn’t been for you, and then there would have been no cure. You did this.” He swept his arm around in a half circle to point out the three dozen other people in the ward who were healing right before their eyes. “You.”
Marzun smiled, if it were possible looking even happier and more at peace than he had before. “You as well, Jack,” he said. “Thank you. And thank your friends also. They have been very kind.”
Jack nodded and smiled. “Will do.”
“I am glad you found your friend again,” Marzun said, though it seemed that every word was becoming an effort for him now.
Jack shook his head in confusion. “What friend?” he asked.
“Daniel… was his name?” Marzun said. “The friend you believed you had lost.”
Jack was still confused for a second, until he remembered the hallucinations he’d had while in Marzun’s quarters. He must have put two and two together from the scraps of one-sided conversations he’d heard over those few days. Jack was kind of impressed. “You were really paying attention,” he said.
Marzun chuckled, and gave a slight cough. “You have experienced things that none of my people could even imagine,” he said. “I watched you living out your memories with great interest.”
Jack almost laughed at that, until he saw that Marzun was fading fast. “Hey, maybe I should call a doctor over here,” he said, reaching over to gently fluff Marzun’s pillow to make him more comfortable.
Marzun gave no indication that he’d heard Jack’s comment at all. “He came to see me,” he said, his voice no more than a whisper now. “Your friend. He thanked me… for caring for you… while you were in the colony.”
“Yeah, Daniel’s nice like that,” Jack said, his hand closing softly yet firmly around Marzun’s as he could see the man starting to slip away.
“The two of you remind me… of how Derya and I used to be,” he continued with great effort. “Derya… Derya will be waiting for me.”
“Yes, he will.”
“And Daniel… Daniel is waiting for you.”
Jack looked over his shoulder to see Daniel still waiting in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets as he pretended not to be watching Jack’s every move. “Yes, he is,” Jack said with a wry smile as he turned back to Marzun.
“Friendship… very important…” Marzun muttered as he seemed to be drifting off to sleep. “Always… take care… of each other.”
Jack sighed and lowered his head in respect as Marzun let go of his last breath. “We always will,” he said.
He knew now more than ever that it was true.
The End