Fighting Time - part 2

Here's the second chapter - be warned, it's about to become a little confusing.

"He's coming round."

Jack blinked his eyes open, then shut them tight again when a bright light pierced his retina.

"Ow." He complained.

"Jack? How do you feel?"

Daniel. That was Daniel. Daniel's here.

"Daniel." He called out groggily.

"I'm here, Jack." Daniel's image leaned over him.

"Hey." Jack said.

"How do you feel, Colonel?" Doctor Fraiser's voice asked. He blinked again, trying to get a clear view of his surroundings and clear his head.

"I've been better."

Then it hit him.

"Carter –" He couldn't go on.

"Yes sir?"

There was a pause while his brain wrapped itself around that voice. Carter's voice.

"No, she's . . ."

Sam exchanged a worried look with Doctor Fraiser. "I'm what, sir?"

"Dead. You're . . . you were dead." Jack turned his head, and saw her standing there, whole and alive.

"No . . ." he whispered. He sat up, ignoring the lurching of his stomach, and yanked out the wires that connected him to the machines by his bed.

"Colonel!" Janet protested, gathering up the discarded wires. They all stood back a little, alarmed, as Jack stood unsteadily and stared at Sam.

"What the hell is going on here?" He asked, still staring at Sam.

Sam glanced at the others uneasily. "We found you unconscious in the locker room, sir. Do you remember what happened?"

"I . . . you . . . I drove to your house, for the team night, and you were . . . I found you dead."

As one, Daniel, Teal'c and Janet turned to Sam.

"Major Carter appears to be very much alive." Teal'c said, one eyebrow raised as he looked at Jack. Sam shrugged at Daniel and Janet, who were still looking at her questioningly.

"Well, I can see that now, but before, she was dead."

"No I wasn't." Sam argued.

"Carter, you were lying in a pool of blood with a bullet hole in your head!" Jack said, losing his temper.

"Jack, are you sure you didn't dream it after you passed out?" Daniel asked quietly.

Jack rounded on him angrily. "It was real, Daniel!"

"And yet –" Daniel gestured towards Sam, who still looked a little alarmed at the turn of events.

Jack gazed at her, giving up the argument and revelling instead in the simple fact that she was alive. "Yeah."

Janet cleared her throat. "Colonel, if you wouldn't mind . . ." she waved him back into bed, and he complied reluctantly. "Your blood tests came back clear, but there's an abnormality in your MRI that I'm a little concerned about."

Jack raised his eyebrows as he swung his legs back onto the bed. "Oh?"

"You're also having an . . . unusual effect on my electrical equipment."

"We had to use equipment with special shielding to counteract the electrical interference your body was generating when we first brought you in." Sam explained. "The effects have lessened now, but there is still an undercurrent of electrical activity." She brought her wristwatch close to the colonel. He watched as the seconds ceased to tick over, and grabbed it from her, tapping the face of it and shaking it.

"Odd." He acknowledged. He looked around the assembled group. "So what is this? Alien technology? Some scientific voodoo?"

They all looked to Janet and Sam, who looked uncertainly at each other. "We're not sure yet." Janet admitted. "But – we're working on it."

"We should get back to it." Sam added, and she and Janet left.

Daniel and Teal'c moved closer to Jack's bedside. "So . . . you saw Sam killed." Daniel said quietly.

"Not exactly. She was dead before I got there."

"You did not see her assailant?" Teal'c asked.

Jack shook his head. "You think it was real?"

Daniel and Teal'c exchanged glances. "I don't know, Jack. Right now it seems more likely you just dreamed it, but . . ."

"Circumstances are suspicious. What with me turning into a human magnet."

"Is it possible this was a vision of the future?" Teal'c suggested gently.

Jack shuddered. "God, I hope not."

"Maybe we should suggest it though, just in case." Daniel said, glancing at the door Sam and Janet had just left through.

"Yeah." Jack said quietly, nodding.

So . . . Sam's alive again! I'd love to get your thoughts on this story (not only what you think of it, but where you think it might be going . . . I currently have two ideas and I'm not sure which to go with, so I'd love to know what you guys think could be going on!)

Beka