Title: Control

Title: Control

Author: PapayaK

Category: Hurt/Comfort, Team, a touch of S/J

Spoilers: None that I can think of

Summary: Jack is definitely not himself and it's bad news for the team.

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. Just having fun.

As usual, please feed the writers - we're always starving for it!

oO0Oo

Control – Chapter 4

oO0Oo

Teal'c stopped a short time later behind an outcropping of rocks. Here they were surrounded on three sides by rock walls. Teal'c set Jack against the rocks and set himself on watch. The trail they had left would be easy to follow, even though Daniel was now moving mostly under his own power. They had to rest for a moment, and he suspected O'Neill's wound needed attention.

Daniel was moaning and holding his head as Sam and Kell helped him sit beside Jack, but he instinctively slid sideways away from Jack. "I'd not care to have Jack's hands on my head… ever… again! That was…disconcerting…"

He paused his rant to look gratefully at Sam, "Thanks."

Sam nodded at Daniel as Teal'c spoke from his lookout. "You must tend to Colonel O'Neill's wound. It was bleeding quite freely in the forest."

Sam cringed as she removed the blood soaked bandage from Jack's back. "How is he still able to move?" She asked Kell.

Kell shrugged, "He doesn't feel it. The controllers are doing exactly that. They will 'control' him to death."

"We've got to get him to your lab, Kell, soon."

"What are your intentions, MajorCarter?" Teal'c's eyes never left the surrounding forest.

"Kell tells me the original projectile remains as a power source for the controllers. They have their own power, but it's minimal. If I can remove the projectile, we may be able to deactivate the controllers completely. At the very least, they will have much less power."

"Without the projectile as a power source, they will turn to the weaker electrical impulses produced by the victim's nervous system." Kell added.

"And those only stop when Jack's dead…"

"It's not going to come to that, Daniel."

Sam had just finished applying a new bandage, when Teal'c stood and began firing into the forest. Projectiles and energy weapons flew around them as Sam threw herself against a rock next to Teal'c and returned fire. They were outnumbered.

"Kell! We've got to get to your lab! Now!"

Jack was vaguely aware of time passing. That part of him that kept all the secrets was finally waking up. Over time, Jack O'Neill had become an expert at boxing up his feelings and setting them to the side. It had helped him in many ways, not the least of which was keeping many, many secrets.

Now that part of him that was fully aware of what was going on, was awake, pissed off, and ready to fight.

The problem was; it was not in control of his body at the moment. It was, however aware of the pain in his back and wrists. Someone was addressing that issue. He tried to recognize the face. Carter? Okay – that was non-verbal. He tried again, this time, some of his voice got through, "Carter?" came out as barely a breath. But she was gone by then and he felt the 'box' shrink to merely a speck, as the psycho warrior returned, saw the situation and decided to play dead.

It pissed him off, but that is, after all, exactly what he would have done.

oO0Oo

They were badly outnumbered.

This time it was Daniel who threw Jack over his shoulder and staggered after Kell into the woods as Teal'c and Sam laid down cover fire.

"It is not far now. My lab is right on the edge of the forest."

Unfortunately, there was an empty field between the last of the trees and the door to Kell's lab. Sam covered Daniel as they crossed the space as quickly as he could.

He now thanked Jack for those miles he had been forced to run with a 100 pound pack on his back, although he had moaned mightily at the time. He wondered, now, what Jack had known at the time.

He was followed by Teal'c and Kell who was now also firing his weapon at the soldiers.

"They will know where we are. This door will not hold them for long." Kell shouted as he entered the combination to open the door while projectiles and laser blasts bombarded the walls around him.

"We'll see about that! Teal'c! Secure this entry!" commanded Sam confidently as they entered the relative safety of the building and she followed Daniel with his burden and Kell into the darkness of the lab.

As soon as they were in the lab the lights came on automatically as Kell swept several smaller machines and papers onto the floor to clear a table for Jack. Daniel laid him down on his stomach, and then leaned against the wall breathing hard. Sam immediately began removing the dressing on Jack's wound. Kell quickly sterilized a long handled tongs and handed them to Sam. "This is what I use to grasp the projectiles when I run tests. It is the perfect size. I just hope it is long enough.

He handed her a bottle of alcohol. She paused to make sure he was unconscious before she poured it liberally into the wound. She was surprised when Jack cried out at the sudden pain, almost as if he had, in fact, been awake. Whatever the case, he was now soundly unconscious.

Teal'c entered the room to report, "I have secured every entry point as well as possible, but we will not have much time."

Sam paused, holding the tongs over Jack. She looked across his still form at Teal'c. He nodded at her with his eternally calm face, and she bent to insert the tongs into Jack's wound.

Daniel had found a clean cloth which he was using to wipe Sam's forehead as she spoke, "They sure didn't teach us this in flight school! Janet's gotta give me a little more involved training next time. I have no idea what I'm doing. Can't see a thing… wait! I can feel it! Now if I can just…" She slowly removed the tongs from Jack's wound. "There it is!" she cried triumphantly while holding a small metal oval up for all to see.

In one of those moments that take less than half a second she was transported.

She saw her CO's face; his look of approval as she accomplished something that was by all beliefs, impossible. He always managed to look as if he had expected her to succeed all along. No one – in all her days of academia – had pushed her as hard as he, nor rewarded her as thoroughly – and all of it – with just a look in his eyes.

Time resumed.

Kell held out a small tray into which Sam dropped the bloody projectile. He ran it over to a machine, dropped it into a small compartment and pushed a button. "It is destroyed. Now you must zat him twice before the controllers lock onto their new power source."

Daniel protested; "That'll kill him!!"

Kell looked at Sam, who drew her zat and pointed it at Jack.

"You already shot him twice, Sam, are you sure?"

Sam's voice sounded hopeless, "No." And she fired. And fired again.