"Sniff!
Sniff! Just a minute, Jack," Daniel said, rubbing the back of his hand absentmindedly
beneath his nose. It was little help, and he snapped forward, covering his nose
and mouth at the very last second. "HTChhoo!
huShhuhh!" He sniffed again. Wetly. Then returned to his brush and the wall
of glyphs he alone could decipher. "Before we head back, I want to finish this
part about the culture."
"Daniel,"
Jack said, rubbing his thumb and forefinger against his eyes. "Let me tell you
a little bit about our culture. In
our culture, when people are sick they go home and rest."
"I'm well
aware of that," Daniel replied. "But I really would like to finish this before
we gate back. With the wind storms picking up, these ruins will probably be
buried in sand within a day and we'll either have to spend time digging it out
again or wait it out until the sand falls away. It's easier just to..." He
scrubbed hard at his nose, glasses bouncing on the bridge as he rubbed. Then
his eyes closed and his glasses only just stayed on as he snapped forward with
another sneeze. "hih-YIH-chahh!" It
took him a few moments of sniffling and rubbing his nose into the cuff of his sleeve
before he could carry on.
"Doesn't
look very easy to me," Jack said skeptically.
Jack's
walkie-talkie clicked and he sighed in frustration at the timing. He reached
down and pressed the button to click back. "Colonel," said Carter's voice. "Teal'c
and I are finished here. We're ready to head back through any time you are."
Jack
pressed the talk button. "I'm working on that right now. Stand by." He looked
pointedly at Daniel.
Daniel
pretended to be too busy sniffling and deciphering to have heard the
conversation. He was rubbing his cuff and his whole sleeve at his running nose
as often as he was brushing away sand and scribbling down translations on the
pad of paper.
"Daniel..."
Jack said, walking over and standing right next to the man. "We've already got
pictures. You can read all this when we get back to Earth and you get into bed."
"Almost
done," Daniel replied, avoiding the whole point. He scribbled something down on
his notepad and then pressed the back of his hand against his nose again. "hahh-hah-CHIH!"
"Bless."
After watching Daniel slowly recover, Jack decided it was time to pull out the
big guns. He dug around in the large pockets of his pants and withdrew a small travel
box of tissues he had acquired from Dr. Fraser before their trip, just in case.
He had known Daniel wasn't feeling one hundred percent when they left, but now
that it was clear Daniel had a bad cold, Jack was quite glad he'd thought to
bring it. "Want some Kleenex?"
His nose
buried in the bend of his arm at the elbow, Daniel looked back with incredibly
gratitude. He sniffed hand and reached out to take one, but Jack jumped back,
out of reach. "What? Sniff!" Daniel
asked, confused.
"If you
want it, you're going to have to come and get it." He shook the box enticingly
at Daniel and took a few more steps back, in the direction of the stargate. "Come
on, Daniel..."
Daniel
rubbed at his nose, glancing up at the wall of hieroglyphics. Then he looked back
at Jack, holding the box of Kleenex and grinning. He sighed. "Well... so long as
we have those pictures... sniff, sniiiiffff!"
He followed Jack, and the tissues, as they headed back to the gate. Finally,
Jack handed the box over and put his hand on the man's back, guiding him
onward. Daniel set to work, this time in blowing his nose.