Raindrops pound the earth relentlessly, falling down from the swirling skies at around 1:34 this afternoon, according to Colonel Jack O'Neill's wristwatch. Buckets of water practically dump down upon most of southern Montana, the sky overcast, filled with rolls of billowing gray. Lightning flashes somewhere on the other side of the mountains, followed by an unearthly baritone, that rumbles across the heavens. The rainy season begins with an alpha-lion roar and Jack sits in a comfy chair contentedly, on the side of his porch, sipping on a freshly cracked beer. He ruffles his recently peppered hair, wishing he had set up some sort of make-shift tent so that he could still fish during the storm. He considers setting it up now, but by the end of it he'd be soaked anyway, so there'd be no point to it. Besides, he always liked the sound of rain and thunder, and he nods his head in concurrennce with his thoughts, looking forward to this rainy day, taking another swig of beer.
The day before last, General Hammond suggested that SG-1 take some personal time off the base for a couple of days, before they were due for their next mission. Jack complied eagerly, and packed up most of his things before the General could even blink twice. Teal'c went home to his family on Chulak for a little while, despite Jack's weekend fishing invitiation. Daniel, however, did not take this grand opportunity for some 'me-time', and instead went to...some old moon with...old rocks, Jack assumes, why else would Daniel have been so excited? Carter, of course, declined also and rambled on about one of her many personal projects she never had time to work on.
A small smile spreads across Jack's lips, and he stops seeing with his eyes, and instead sees the face of his 2IC and, try as he might to ignore them, a very many things not considered gentleman-like in any circumstance. He chuckles and takes a long sip of beer. In mid-swallow, the crunch and pop of tires on gravel pulls Jack from his reverie. He turns his head to the sound, hoping that whoever it is will think he's not home and leave. 'Me-time' never includes others in its equation. Hence the 'me' part.
But his wishes aren't granted. He hears the sound of someone opening and closing a door. Jack sighs in exasperation and gets up out of his chair, starting to feel the other few beers he had earlier. He walks around the porch to the front of his log-cabin home and is surprised to see Samantha Carter, dressed in mostly white. He probably would have mistaken her for an angel - dressed in a white jacket and white jeans like that - if she hadn't been occupied with a stubborn purple umbrella. Her short blonde hair and her jacket are already soaked through as she tries to open the thing, and a quiet laugh escapes Jack's throat. She could program an ancient alien wormhole device to ignore its own safety protocols, like traveling through a damn sun, but she was mastered in the rain by the malfunctioning mechanics of an umbrella? If Sam was ever cute, it was now.
The umbrella finally flies open, sending droplets of rain in all directions. Samantha Carter's face softens with relief, taking refuge under it, shaking her head of the wetness. She looks up at the porch to find Jack, looking amused, and her skin reddens a few shades, having not been aware he was watching her. She tries to smile and walks over to him, watching how he runs his hands through his feathery hair. Automatically, she shifts her thoughts to where they should be, forcing her mind not to go down that road of thought about her commanding officer. Daniel needs them, and now is not the time for daydreaming. "Sir," she says, over the dull roar of the pouring rain, as a distant rumble of thunder descends over them, "We have a problem."
~ Two hours later, Sam and Jack are riding in the elevator silently, both with their arms folded across their chests. Sam had explained their situation on the way, and...well, from Jack's perspective, things were not good. At least that's as much as he was able to absorb from Sam's lengthy tale. Daniel apparently found something worth investigating on that moon of rocks, and brought it back to the base. Normal. From there, they brought it to the briefing room and let Daniel, Sam and the Geek Squad spend hours speculating over it, trying to figure out what it was. Also, relatively normal. Then someone did...something, and it...Jack wrenches his memory trying to find Carter's technobabble term, but he gives up trying to remember, as the elevator halts with a hiss and a bang. Sam said the device gave off some kind of energy and, of course, Daniel was the one in the way. Once again, fairly normal.
When the doors of the elevator finally open on level 28, a tense Dr. Frasier stands on the other side, clutching a stack of folders. "Oh, good you're back," Janet sighs, looking slightly relieved but not by much. Some of her brown hair is sticking out all over the place and there are purple areas under her eyes. Jack can't remember the last time he had seen her so frazzled. "Sam, he's getting worse."
The three of them walk as a brisk pace through the many gray halls of the SGC, to the infirmary. Jack thinks he'll find Daniel laying in a cot, with many tubes and wires attached to his skin, with some sort of sickness or poison in his veins. Everything always happens to Daniel, especially during leave, and when the incident is over, this is later how Jack usually finds him. So when they enter the room, and Jack comes across much more than he expects, he stops in mid-step, hovering by the door. For a moment, there is an emptiness inside him, like someone had removed all of the organs he possessed. The numbness travels then to his brain, and he is disturbed by what he sees, a rapid beeping burrowing straight through his ears.
Janet and Sam don't hesitate for a second and they both rush to Daniel's side. He is, for lack of a better term, 'hooked-up' but the cords and wires are flailing through the air along with Daniel's arms. His back is in a perfect arc, bent back like that girl in the exorcist, suspended almost more than a foot above the bed. His face is mashed into the pillow. His arms continue to flail wildly, fighting off nobody, and the heart monitor is beeping so fast, Jack waits with that empty, breathless feeling for the beeps to coalesce into one steady tone...