[Moments of Adoration]

For the choc_fic prompt: Teal'c/Jack, hurt/comfort, vulnerability - Meet on the ledge, we're gonna/Meet on the ledge/When the time is up, I'm gonna/See all of my friends…

O'Neill continued to voice his conviction that the long silence was nothing more than failure of range or batteries, though the pronouncement came less often the more time passed.

"Will you stop that? You're making me tired."

Teal'c turned away from the window of the small office complex that had been their home for almost a month, since O'Neill had been injured. The early evening sunlight did little to brighten the gloom. "I am doing nothing."

"Well, stop doing it so much."

O'Neill's complaint was too close to the truth of the situation. Teal'c had gathered enough food from the surrounding small stores during the long days of waiting, and there were many large jugs of fresh water from the office water coolers. It was too much of nothing, however, with the dwindling supply of antibiotics that Major Carter had found in an abandoned pharmacy. Teal'c had found nothing more helpful than over the counter pain relievers in his searching. O'Neill's badly fractured leg showed no sign of improvement; his skin now burned with a fever barely touched by the medication. Without it, Teal'c feared O'Neill's decline would be swift.

"Do you require anything?" Teal'c crouched at O'Neill's side, carefully checking the bandages. The bleeding where the shattered bone had broken through the skin was only intermittent now, but the infection was well settled.

"Where's a time machine when you really need one?"

"The appearance of such things is sadly never a matter of convenience, only disruption."

"True, but I'm still going to fire Carter for not making me one out of paperclips and manila folders." O'Neill's eyes were locked on the radio Teal'c had clipped to his belt. "Maybe you should go look for them."

Teal'c sat back on his heels. "We have had this discussion. I will not leave you."

In a pale shadow of his characteristic irritated dismissal, O'Neill flicked the fingers of a badly shaking hand. "Yeah, and I still think you're being a stubborn ass. Even if Carter and Daniel do come back today, unless they have a healing device or sarcophagus handy, I'm still as good as dead." His hand did not stop shaking, and Teal'c realized he was shivering.

"Are you cold?"

O'Neill shrugged. "Next time I'll tell the world to end in July."

The late September team trip to O'Neill's cabin, to "see the colors," had ended with a frantic call from Stargate Command, cut short when the bombardment started. Once they deemed the brunt of the attack over, three days later, they left for Colorado. They had made it as far as Pierre, South Dakota, staying on back roads, before entering the more populated area for fuel and supplies.

The attack had been swift and brutal, the act of desperate people trying to function in a world no longer recognizable. They left on foot with almost nothing, Teal'c carrying O'Neill.

Easing in behind, Teal'c pulled O'Neill against his chest, cradling him gently. "Rest, unless you wish to hasten your demise, or I am inspired to hasten it for you."

"Have I mentioned lately that you're a giant pain in my ass?"

"Next time you are on your deathbed I will make sure you are not burdened with my company."

"Now you're just being petty." He fell silent then, relaxing back against Teal'c's chest as the shivering ceased. Teal'c believed O'Neill had fallen asleep when he murmured, "You're not, you know."

"What am I supposed to know, O'Neill?"

"That you're not really a giant pain in my ass. Well, you are, but I'm okay with that."

Teal'c smiled into O'Neill's hair. "You are pleased that I cause you great irritation?"

"Ha ha. I'm glad you're around to irritate me. Well, not for your sake, because hey, this whole mess sucks, but you know what I mean."

"I do." He did not wish to encourage O'Neill's tendency to fatalism, but Teal'c knew O'Neill was correct about his odds for survival if help did not arrive soon. So he pressed his lips to O'Neill's temple. "You too, are dear to me. Beyond comrade. Beyond brother. I wish you to know this."

It took Teal'c a moment to recognize the choked rasp that burbled up from O'Neill's chest as laughter. It went on and on, and Teal'c steeled himself for the bite of O'Neill's dismissal when O'Neill's shoulders sagged as he breathed out a long sigh, settling back into Teal'c's arms. "Shit. I've gotta tell you, your timing sucks, big guy."

There was no anger or rancor in O'Neill's voice, only a heavy undertone of relief, and what Teal'c believed might have been regret. He held O'Neill as close as he dared do so without causing pain. "Are not such inappropriately timed confessions of devotion considered the height of tragic romance?"

"I take back all the nice things I said about you." O'Neill's laughter, while still weak, was warmer this time, and the sound of it gave Teal'c hope.

"Hey, T.?"

"Yes, O'Neill?"

"What you said?" Fingers, no longer cold, no longer shaking, curled around Teal'c's wrist and squeezed. "Backatcha."