A Human Touch

-- A "Frozen" Snippet --

Jack was barely aware of his surroundings. Pain and fever ravaged his body, blanketing his mind with an impenetrable red haze. He tried to think, tried to remember what had happened this time, but his thoughts scattered away. The only memories that drifted into his mind were of times long gone, but disoriented and ill as he was, they seemed to meld with the here and now until they became a swirl of incoherence. They all had one thing in common, though, and that was the pain. Infected wounds, sickness and disease brought on by terrible conditions in innumerable POW camps... Torture, agony... And no relief. No one cared. He was just another man, another prisoner, another number... Amusing when he screamed, but otherwise a waste of space, of humanity.

He could hardly breathe, and he hurt. Oh God, he hurt. It felt like a boiling pressure was building inside him, and was about to explode, taking with it everything that made him Jack O'Neill, leaving nothing but the hurt.

He struggled to break through the suffocating haze, to link back to the world that was quickly spiraling away from him, but on his own it was too hard. He couldn't hold on. And somewhere, he knew he was dying.

And then, all of a sudden, he could feel something. A hand on his forehead, feeling his temperature, and then shifting to gently stroke his hair back.

The pain didn't lessen. If anything, it was getting worse with each passing moment. But the simple human touch broke through the cloud of pain and confusion, and Jack remembered. Not all of it was comforting, but he knew that his team was here, and so was Doc Fraiser. If anyone could help him, they could. And at least this time he wasn't alone.