Epilogue

“Achoo!”

“Bless you.”

O’Neill scowled and reached for the wet washrag that he’d put on the end table beside his recliner.

“Thanks.”

Since it felt like his brains had just exploded out his nose, it wasn’t hard to understand that his reply was a little less than sincere, but Sam didn’t mind. Or she was too miserable to allow it to show.

Proof of that misery was on the other end table – the one that was on the other side of the sofa that she was curled up, wrapped in not one, but two, comforters – in the form of a huge pile of rumpled and damp tissues.

“You know why they say that right?” Daniel asked, watching from the other end of the sofa where he, too, was wrapped in blankets and looking miserable.

Jack leaned his head back into the cushion on the back of his chair and closed his eyes.

“Yes.”

Everyone knew that.

“Why do they say it?” Harry asked, curiously.

Okay, not everyone, Jack amended silently.

“Because they believed that when you sneezed your soul was unprotected,” Daniel told him. “So they’d say God bless you to protect you until the moment passed.”

“Oh.”

Since he’d heard many things that were far more odd than that Harry didn’t argue about it. Besides, he knew by now that if Daniel said something, he was almost always right – at least when it came to that kind of thing.

Jack opened his eyes and gave both of them a pained look.

“I really don’t feel like listening to a lecture on the early superstitions of mankind, Daniel,” he told him. “If you guys want to finish this, why don’t you and Harry go to your place?”

He wasn’t all that sure why they’d all ended up at his house, anyway. All three of them were suffering from nasty colds – coming on in the aftermath of their excursion into the Forbidden Forest – but none of them had been stuck in the infirmary. Fraiser had told all three of them that they could suffer in the peace and quiet of their own homes. Of course, she’d also left strict instructions that they were to call if the colds got worse, or f they developed new symptoms.

“He can’t go to his place,” Sam said, smiling despite the fact that her throat was sore and her nose was running. “He likes to cuddle on the couch and his is cluttered with books and other stuff.”

The other stuff were things that had been brought back from various other worlds that weren’t so dangerous that they needed to stay at the SGC, but which were odd enough that Daniel had taken them home to spend more time studying them. And as Carter had suggested, they did seem to end up all over the place as more came home every time he had a chance, and very few ever left.

“If your lazy bird was half the mythological creature he’s supposed to be, he’d take care of our colds so I wouldn’t feel the need to cuddle on your couch,” Daniel said, sniffing mightily.

Jack looked over at Fawkes, who was pointedly ignoring the archeologist. Apparently the bird could heal any wound, but a simple cold was beyond it – or it just didn’t want to heal them. Either way it didn’t matter. They’d caught colds, but they weren’t bleeding to death, and they weren’t dying. They’d get better in a week or so – especially with Harry and various other wizards popping in and out to keep them stocked with hot soup and various other healing fare that Molly Weasley insisted on preparing for them to make sure none of them were starving.

“He fixed your leg and your head,” Jack told him, settling back into the pillow he had against the back of his chair – a wonderful pillow that Minerva had sent to him through Harry. It was magical, of course; containing a spell that kept it wonderfully warm on one side and refreshingly cool on the other so Jack could have whichever condition he desired at any particular hour or day. Add to that the fact that it could be fluffy or firm and smelled so good he refused to let anyone else even look at it funny. “You should be more grateful.”

Jack certainly was – although he tended to make it more of a joke to fend off the fact that Daniel really had been badly injured and might not have survived to get to a doctor – certainly not Fraiser – without Fawkes’ amazing healing tears.

Daniel sighed and looked over at the boy who was sitting on the raised area by Jack’s fireplace.

“See what I have to put up with, Harry?”

Harry grinned.

“He’s right, Daniel. You should be more grateful.”

Harry had been healed by Fawkes when he’d been certain he was going to die from the basilisk venom, so he had first hand knowledge of just how helpful Fawkes could be.

Daniel scowled, pulling his blankets up over his head to effectively end the conversation – especially since he was losing on all fronts. Inside the blankets they all heard a muffled sneeze.

Sam smiled.

“Gesundheit.”

The reply was a barely audible thank you, but Daniel didn’t poke his head back out of the blankets and Carter looked over at Harry, her expression amused, despite her headache.

“Do you know if Teal’c spoke with Sirius, yet?”

“About going to Diagon Alley?”

“Yes.”

Harry shrugged, looking a little uncertain.

“Mr. Weasley doesn’t think it’s a very good idea…”

“He’s not the only one,” Jack pointed out. “They did mention what happened at that wand shop in Hoghead?”

“Hogsmeade,” Sam corrected.

“Whatever.” Jack lifted his head from his marvelous pillow and looked over at Harry. “Did they?”

Harry nodded.

“That’s one of the reasons that Mr. Weasley doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Probably the biggest reason.”

“Probably,” Carter agreed. “But who’d be the one to tell him no?”

Harry grimaced, and then his green eyes turned cheerful and he shrugged once more.

“Not me.”

“Not me,” Sam said, quickly, before her CO could even look at her.

“Not me,” Daniel said from under the blankets, proving that he was still listening to the conversation even if he had no plans to join in.

Jack scowled, and then shrugged, too.

“It’s Sirius’ problem,” he said, leaning back into his pillow. “If I’m too sick to go back and fly on brooms again anytime soon, then I’m way too sick to tell Teal’c he can’t try again with the wand thing.”

“And maybe by the time you get better he’ll have forgotten?” Harry suggested.

None of them answered that, but that was answer enough, really.

"Never mind..."

The End

So! Sorry about the slow posting on this story. I really did intend to get it out faster than that. Hope you liked it, and if you didn’t I’m sorry!