Chapter 3

Frustrated with her lack of stamina, Sam slowly made her way to her quarters with the intent of taking a short nap and then rejoining the rest of her team in the control tower. She knew she probably should have stayed, but she was just too exhausted. Stupid broken leg. She still couldn't believe she'd fallen off those boxes. If she'd known she'd be spending the next eight weeks in a cast, she might never have chanced the climb, even if had meant flashing a bunch of ten-year-old boys, Rodney McKay included.

Okay, she didn't really mean that. It was just that she could not wait to get out of that damn cast. She leaned down to scratch at the dry skin under the plaster, before stopping at her door to push the button to open it.

Before she touched it, however, the door slid open of its own accord. She wondered if Rodney had finally installed the sensors he'd been talking about so often lately. He'd insisted it was cool, that he could turn the City into the Starship Enterprise, but she secretly suspected he was just jealous that John could open all the doors on Atlantis with his mind, and he still couldn't, despite the ATA gene therapy.

Chuckling to herself, she entered her quarters and made a beeline to the bathroom. Once again, the door opened on its own, before she pressed the button. She supposed she should have appreciated that Rodney hadn't forgotten about her interior spaces, but the thought that the nosy scientist had been poking around her private quarters without her permission irked her. Like a lot of things, these days.

As she moved toward the sink to wash her hands, once again the water began to flow without her having done a thing. That brought her up short, because not only had she not known Rodney was tinkering with the plumbing; she wasn't even close to the sink. Nevertheless, she was simply too tired to dwell, so she just finished washing her face before attempting to struggle out of her uniform, which of course got hung up on her cast. After she'd finally freed herself from her jumpsuit with no small amount of swearing (why the hell hadn't they thought to design a uniform with separate pants and jacket?), she finally made her way toward the bed.

The moment she lowered herself onto the edge of the mattress, she dropped her head into her hands. God, she was bone tired, despite the fact that it was only - she raised her head to glance at the clock and groaned - a little after eight. Her bed, however, was quite comfy, and she gave some serious thought to turning in for the night.

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker. She considered calling the control room to make sure they weren't experiencing some sort of power fluctuation, but as she reached over to hit to the button for the comm, she was immediately distracted by the picture on her nightstand - the one she usually kept hidden in the drawer. It was a picture of Jack in his green BDUs, younger than he was now, but with the same cocky grin he still gave her whenever he saw her. Not that it happened that often now.

She picked up the picture, and let out a long sigh as she stared at his tanned face. As the seconds ticked by, she realized with some degree of alarm that she was actually getting a bit misty. Touching her index finger to the side of her nose, she caught an errant tear just as it escaped the corner of her eye. She stared at the offending drop in disbelief and wondered what the hell was wrong with her.

Another long sigh escaped, this one from the heart. Really, it was just that she missed him so much, now more now than ever. The distance had been harder than she'd originally thought it would be when she first accepted the assignment to Atlantis. Jack, of course, had supported her decision to go wholeheartedly. But she'd always suspected that he'd much rather have her with him - if not in the same city, then at least in the same galaxy. He'd all but told her as much on her latest leave.

The thought brought to mind their last night together several months earlier, before she'd returned to Atlantis. He'd promised her then that he was retiring soon and that they could finally be together, that they wouldn't have to hide their relationship anymore. He'd told her in no uncertain terms how much he loved her, something she'd already known, of course, but rarely heard voiced. And then...well, then he'd spent the rest of the night showing her just how much. Almost instantly, she flushed, remembering the way he'd touched her, how her body had responded to his, and a familiar pang of longing shot through her core.

A wave of nausea overwhelmed her, and she felt unexpectedly dizzy, far worse than she had in the control room. As she lay back down, it occurred to her that she really hadn't felt that all that good for a while now - ever since she returned from M5V-801. That thought caused her to sit up with a start, concerned, as she realized that the timing of her malaise coincided with both her return from the planet and the arrival of the intruder.

Without warning, the overhead lights in her room began to flicker again before abruptly shutting off completely. In the darkness, Sam heard her bathroom door start opening and closing, going haywire, while the water hit the sink with full force in intermittent bursts. Quickly, she reached over to flip the switch on the light by her nightstand. But just as she was about to contact the control room, Rodney called her instead.

"Sam?" he asked, his voice slightly panicky. "Are you alone?"

She refused to let his propensity toward histrionics affect her. "Yes," she replied, doing her best to keep her tone even, though she could feel her heartbeat pick up speed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course!" she replied immediately, but she looked quickly around the room anyway, just to be sure. She didn't see anyone - or anything - else there, but other than the light on her nightstand, the room was dark. Honestly, she couldn't see very well past the end of her bed.

She heard Rodney take a deep breath. "Okay. Sheppard's on his way."

At that moment, all of the lights in the room started flickering again, while the bathroom door still slid back and forth and the sink continued to turn on and off in fits and starts.

Sam was starting to lose her patience. "Rodney, what the hell is going on?" she demanded.

"It's just that...um," he hesitated. "We think we might have found the intruder."

Well, that was unexpected, she thought. "Where?"

"Actually, uh..."

"Rodney!"

The scientist began talking fast, his words tumbling over one another. "The system is telling us that he's in your quarters." He paused for a beat, making his next words even more ominous. "With you."

Sam gasped, as she felt panic welling in her chest. Everything stopped suddenly, and all the lights turned off at once, plunging the room into total darkness. She knew then that she needed to get out of that room, but when she stood, she immediately felt lightheaded.

Her last thought, before she passed out, was of Jack.

TBC...