Tegan Chronicles

Masked Microbes 1

Tegan walked into the infirmary after their most recent mission and smiled at Janet.

"No injuries?" She looked over the group.

"Nope." Jack rocked back with a self satisfied grinned.

"Glad to hear it. Colonel I'll do you first." She pointed to an empty bed.

"You hear that Kiser? She's doing me first."

"Colonel!"

"Believe it or not," Daniel interjected. "It's an innocent statement."

"Sounds completely innocuous to me." Janet eyed Jack as he hopped on the bed. "Don't forget…"

"Long dull needles, I know."

"So what was that about?" Janet asked when she got to Tegan's physical.

"Just a little observation that was made."

"Mind cluing me in?"

"It's nothing, just that you always do our posts in the same order. Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, Sam and then me."

"Jack?" Janet's left eyebrow cocked.

Tegan shrugged.

"I hadn't noticed."

"A lot of people slip into a routine, it's not a big deal."

"Why don't you wager money on it next time, and I'll switch it up."

"Because that would be wrong."

"So you don't want to switch it up?"

"It depends on what we're switching up, doctor."

Janet felt her body react to the tone of Tegan's voice, even though she willed herself not to. "How was the mission?"

"Long."

"You were gone two days." Janet held up two fingers as she spoke.

"The longest two days of my life."

"And why was that?"

"I'm not sure we should have that discussion here." Tegan grinned. "Besides it would be easier to show you."

Janet shook her head. "You're welcome to stay with me, but Cassandra and I are spending quality time together this weekend."

"No." Tegan shook her head, her tone suddenly taking on a somber quality. "I've got stuff I need to do. Plus I'm sure Cassie is tired of me stealing her mom all the time."

"Cassandra and I love having you there, you know we do."

"No, I understand. I don't want to cause a rift in your relationship."

"You're not…"

"Are we done here?"

"Tegan," Janet put her hand on her knee. "Maybe we can do brunch on Sunday?"

"No, I really do have a lot of stuff to do this weekend. I'm sure my house thinks I've abandoned it, and Shadow…"

"I'm sorry." Janet squeezed her leg.

"Don't, please don't ever say you're sorry for putting Cassandra first. It's where she belongs."

"I just…"

"I've got a debriefing to get to." Tegan interrupted again.

"You're not mad?"

"No silly." Tegan hopped off the bed.

It was a little before midnight and Tegan had spent most of the last hour riding around aimlessly on the Ducati. She'd opened it up a few times on a deserted stretch of road before calling it a night and heading home. Not feeling a rush to get back to Shadow and an otherwise empty house, she stuck to secondary roads. She realized that may or may not have been the best plan when a raccoon foraging for food scampered into her path.

Not being too keen on making a speed bump out of the rather robust masked mammal, she swerved; which would have been fine, except she hit a patch of gravel that had been spun onto the roadway by a vehicle re-entering from the shoulder. She felt the bike slide, four hundred pounds of pure energy between her legs, one second it was under her complete control and the next it wasn't.

She didn't have time to think 'do I hold on or let go?' Despite it seeming to happen in slow motion it only took a couple of seconds. She held on as long as she could, the bike tilted and slammed her into the asphalt. She'd let up on the throttle the second she saw Rocky raccoon, and had dropped her speed back to about thirty mph. Still enough to effortlessly propel her in a forward motion sliding on her side even as the bike slid easily from her grasp as it decided it would take a different path.

When she stopped sliding she lay there on her side, waiting for the turbo engine in her chest to drop out of the red zone. She was dazed and stunned as she tried to catch her breath. She ripped her helmet off feeling the cool air against her clammy skin. Where was her bike?

She couldn't see it, and tried to roll onto her back, the most logical way for her to stand up at the moment. "Ouch, damn it!"

The darkness didn't answer back. The only sound was the idling engine of her Ducati, which she took as a good sign.

Before attempting any more major movements, she decided to do a quick inventory of her body. Her head was fine, she'd managed not to slam it into the asphalt, and she was pretty sure she hadn't lost consciousness. She also reminded herself she had a pretty hard head. Her right arm and shoulder felt ok, she tried to wiggle her fingers. They wiggled as she'd expected them to. She rotated her wrist and extended her elbow, it was all in working order. Her chest no longer felt like it was going to explode, and her back wasn't hurting, which brought her to what did hurt, her hip and knee. When she slammed into the pavement her leg had been temporarily pinned between the bike and the road, then the gravel on the shoulder before she and the bike parted ways.

She wiggled her toes and rotated her ankle, they worked but she could feel her knee protesting at the movement. She lay there for a few more minutes fairly certain nothing was broken. By her estimate fifteen minutes had passed without a single vehicle passing in either direction. She'd have to try to stand up and move.

She sat up, that wasn't so bad. She spotted her bike twenty yards away with the headlight facing away from the road.

"Alright," She coached herself. "You can do this."

She scrambled to her feet, putting most of her weight on her left leg. "Piece o' cake."

She realized she'd slid about twenty-five yards on the dew covered grass, and probably a total of fifty from where she'd originally gone down. Luckily the road had curved or she may have slid that far on asphalt, and lost the majority of the protective gear she was wearing. She'd almost gone out in just jeans and her riding jacket, but was thankful she'd changed. She looked up at the sky wondering who had been watching over her.

She made her way to her bike using a cross between a walk and a limp, all the while cursing the masked critter who'd caused the accident. She leaned down and pulled on her bike, groaning as it pulled on sore muscles. She managed to upright it enough to see she'd done little body damage. In the dark she could see the scratches she had no doubt scarred her beauty, but she could see the missing foot peg and side view mirror which meant she'd have a hard time riding home. If she were honest with herself, she really wasn't up to riding anyway. She settled the bike back on its side and cut the engine before digging out her cell phone to call the only logical person she could think of.

"Hello?" The tired male voice grumbled into the phone.

"Jack?"

"Kiser, what's wrong?" He suddenly sounded wide awake.

"I need a couple huge favors."

"It's," He looked at the clock, "against regs to consort with a fellow officer."

"My bike and I need a lift home."

"Are you ok?"

"Nothing I can't walk off." She pulled the keys she'd landed on from her hip pocket with a grunt.

"Are you sure?"

"Look, I really need you to keep this between us. I wouldn't have called, except…"

"I've got a truck," He interrupted.

"Well, that's not what I was going to say, but yes. You're the only person I trust who happens to have a truck."

"Aww, shucks." He was pulling on clothes as he spoke. "What happened?"

"I'll explain when you get here." She gave him her location before hanging up.