Title: Misplace Your Mistakes (Somewhere You Won't Miss Them)
Category: Janet, gen
Rating/warnings, etc: PG, angst. Slight A Matter of Time and The Light references. 400 words.
Summary: Sometimes, the Stargate makes triage really, really difficult.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: For the Take Back the Week ficletathon of holdouttrout's, in turn for a Janet prompt that I didn't write in time for the 'Awesome' drabble-a-thon, the prompt was 'crystal'. Also, I'm not sure Janet classes as awesome in it. Oh what am I saying? Janet is always awesome!
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It wasn't her fault.
If she hears that said one more time, she's going to lose it.
She was the one who'd insisted on keeping the 'gate open to talk to Major Harper about SG-5 and their possible contagion. Well, that was standard operating procedure, but it had been her decision to extend the communication to get a full idea of the situation. To establish exactly what the marines were and were not telling her.
The 'gate had been open for less than the full thirty-eight minute, but apparently that was all it took for a storm to descend on an alien world and drop the temperature by over 80oF. Ill-equipped in their combat gear, SG-1 had returned to the 'gate, probably struggling against a vicious headwind. Janet can see them in her mind's eye, can't stop seeing them even when she closes her eyes and tries to sleep.
They dial the SGC and get a busy tone. Teal'c dials a second time, because Daniel is too busy clamping his hands under his arms and stamping his feet. Four more attempts and it's gotten so cold that the dialing device is starting to malfunction. To begin with Janet couldn't fathom why they hadn't tried somewhere else – the Alpha Site or even Cimmeria, though that would have meant leaving Teal'c behind. Teal'c would've insisted on it. The rest would have objected. Maybe that's what happened – they were arguing around chattering teeth and in the meantime the 'gate spluttered and died.
Sam keels over first – she may be as strong and capable as the men, but the fact is her BMI is lower than the others and so her core temperature drops the quickest. Soon they are all hypothermic. Jack tries to get Sam to sit up, but he's losing the battle too. He sits with her, behind her, propping her up. Janet doesn't have to imagine this part; that's how she found them, with ice crystals on their eyelashes. Stiff and cold and sleeping, and although you're not dead until you're warm and dead, she knew they were.
It's been three days. The base is united by the numbness, the feeling of shock that comes when a whole team is lost. Major Boyd, SG-10 and that black hole... SG-5, in a previous incarnation, and their withdrawal-related depression...
It's far from the first loss, but she suspects the numbness will last a little longer this time.