Thin Lines
Chapter 2
AU of 'In The Line Of Duty'.
Janet set the latest x-ray print beside the previous four and bit her lip. There was no change. Jolinar's delicate spine remained as crisp and clear as in the very first, recorded only hours after she had apparently died.
Apparently.
She carefully slid the prints back into the envelope and picked up the file folder to replace the envelope in it. A single sheet of paper slipped free and fell to the floor. Janet picked it up and sighed as she stared at the black-and-white scribed lines of ECG. The alien pattern was unlike any human one… but she had only one logical interpretation for the way it degraded and slowed until it collapsed into nothing.
.s.g.1.
Samantha. Jolinar had called her Samantha and now 'Sam' sat awkwardly when she thought of herself, like an ill-fitting garment. Doctor Frasier was pressing her again for permission to biopsy Jolinar's body.
Why couldn't they leave her alone?
.s.g.1.
"… since Captain Carter has not been cleared for active duty, I have assigned Lieutenant Wilson to SG1 for now."
"But -"
"Doctor Jackson, we only have twelve gate teams. I need you back out there. Now, there are several …"
Jack doodled, listening to Hammond list off their choices (the details of which were on the paper he was currently embellishing) without comment. Two weeks without off-world missions was more than he had expected and worried as he was about Carter, keeping the rest of SG1 idle was pointless.
.s.g.1.
Daniel gently shut the door to his office and dropped into her desk chair, the short reports on the three planets picked out for SG1's mission tomorrow tossed onto the table behind him. Pulling his glasses off, he pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. Hammond was right, they had to get back out there.
The image of Sha're rose up in his mind, her eyes brimming with tears.
He'd asked Sam if Jolinar had really known anything about Sha're. Sam had looked at him helplessly with a fresh set of tears in her eyes and answered: "I don't know."
He tried to remember her smile.
.s.g.1.
Teal'c carefully removed the spent candle from the holder, depositing the tiny remnant of wax in the bin. Taking a new candle from the cupboard, he placed it in the candle-holder and paced back to the mat where he preferred to kel'no'reem and knelt. Lighting the new candle from the flame of one already lit, he returned the holder to its place in the pattern around him.
Each flame in its place, each shining steadily in the dark.
He waited until Samantha Carter took her place opposite him before speaking. "Jaffa are taught to think of the flames as representing the gods. I choose instead to regard them as symbols of hope."
"Hope." Sam echoed before a faint smile touched her pale face.
His return smile was equally faint and he waited, on the cusp of kel'no'reem, until he saw his friend and team mate descend into the light meditative trance she'd learned. He hoped the oasis of calm that formed around them brought her some peace.