"Jack…?"

A voice, rough from lack of use, called out from the bed, rousing Jack from his light doze and uncomfortable position in the chair. Cracking open his eyes, Jack smiled at the sight that greeted him – a groggy, bleary-eyed Daniel looking back at him, the white bandage around his head contrasting starkly with his dark brown hair and pale face.

"Hey," he responded softly, sitting up and stretching his stiff muscles. "How are you feeling?"

"Ow?" Daniel hazarded, putting up a hand to his head and grimacing in reaction. His other hand had automatically gone to his bandaged ribs.

"I thought as much," Jack said dryly, moving the pillows around and helping Daniel to sit up once he'd piled them up properly. "Careful, minor concussion there, remember?"

Wincing at the throbbing headache, Daniel fought the wave of nausea that swept over him. "Really? I wouldn't have guessed…"

"How's the head?"

"Being used as a drum, actually…"

Jack shot him a concerned look as he sat back down, "Want me to get the doc?"

Quickly waving a hand at him, Daniel said in a hoarse whisper, stopping Jack even before he was fully out of his chair, "No … no, I'm fine. Thanks. Enough of doctors please. I think Janet mentioned something about a full medical check up later at the SGC…"

His mouth twitching at the long-suffering expression on Daniel's face, Jack handed him a glass of water without another word. Daniel sipped at the clear liquid with some measure of relief and Jack shook his head, his ire at what happened two nights ago fast replacing his initial amusement as he watched with a critical eye, taking in the linguist's ashen and pinched look.

At that moment, the object of his scrutiny glanced up, meeting his eyes. Jack couldn't help but to growl at him, "What did I tell you about rushing into things without thinking about them first?!"

Giving another wince at the controlled anger in his friend's voice, Daniel closed his eyes and pleaded softly, "Jack, please, not now…"

The Colonel exhaled a frustrated breath but yielded, respecting the younger man's wishes, at least for the time being, anyway. Besides, Jack told himself, he'd have all the time he needed to chew Daniel's ear off when the archeologist was safely out of hospital and inside SGC. Instead, he bent over and picked up a small container from the table beside Daniel's bed. Without a word, he plucked the now empty glass from Daniel's hand and replaced it with the jar.

"What is it?" Daniel frowned in confusion, turning the tiny glass container around and squinting owlishly at the contents.

"Fan mail …uh fan … scraps … whatever."

"What?"

"Go ahead, look inside."

Something in Jack's tone got Daniel's guard up immediately. What's he up to now…?

"Inside?"

"Yep."

Still directing wary looks at the Colonel, Daniel unscrewed the jar and poured out the contents. Several scraps of papers, of assorted shapes and sizes, floated down to the bed. He picked one up; it had a name and a telephone number on it. A quick glance through the others confirmed his suspicions; each had a woman's name with a telephone number on it. When he'd finished with the final piece, Daniel looked up, meeting Jack's amused gaze.

"Jack…"

The Colonel grinned, his good humour somewhat restored, as he held up his hands in response to Daniel's warning tone. "Hey, don't look at me. Those are all yours. You're the hero here. I'm just the humble messenger in all this."

"The humble messenger…" Daniel repeated wryly, eyebrows raised.

"Yep, have been collecting them for you all last night and this morning. They started coming in even faster once I placed the jar on the table."

"Jack … what have you been saying to these people?" Exasperation dripped off each carefully enunciated word.

"What? I haven't done anything," Jack protested, conveniently forgetting his part in the conversations with Daniel's unexpected visitors where he had unashamedly promoted Daniel's availability. "You can thank Mrs Cobbs for your jar of admirers."

"Who?"

"You know … the nice old lady that you saved the other night."

Realisation hit.

"Oh…How is she?"

"A bit shaken but otherwise okay. Been singing your praises since you got here." Here his voice dropped into a dramatic whisper as Jack leaned forward and hissed in all confidentiality, "The last I heard, you single-handedly took out four men … muscle bound and all, I might add … and oh, I think there was something in there about a huge killer dog…"

Daniel rolled his eyes at the last comment. Jack was having way too much fun with this. He had a feeling this was going to be a really long day. And, from the look on his face, the Colonel clearly wasn't done yet…

"As for me, I've practically had to beat your admirers off with a stick. Good old-fashioned heroes are hard to come by these days, you know…"

Still glowering at his best friend, Daniel didn't bother responding as he quickly stuffed the bits of papers back into the jar, screwing the lid back on. Despite his headache, however, Jack's glee was rather contagious and Daniel finally shook his head with a grin of his own as he gingerly placed the jar back on the table.

"So, who are you going to call first?"

Giving a startled glance at the jar, Daniel grimaced, before eyeing Jack with mock horror, "Oh no … Even if, and please note the 'if', I do plan to call anyone, there's no way I'm telling you…"

"Hey! C'mon, it's me! Your ol' buddy Jack!"

"That's precisely why I'm not telling you."

"I resent the implication here..."

"Sorry… But–"

"So, which one is she? Quick, gotta go call Carter and T… I can look her up on my way."

"Forget it, Jack. I'm not telling you." A pause. "Jack … please put the jar down … Jack!"

The End