AN: And now as promised a little light relief…

13. JANET'S DAY

The car journey home was an entirely quiet affair. Janet pulled into Sam's driveway and got out. She took the woman inside and insisted that she sit down. She then set about making her something to eat. Sam didn't feel hungry but she hadn't the heart to argue. She picked at her plate until Janet scolded her, reminding her that the baby needed regular food. That finished her off, she couldn't touch another bite whether she wanted to or not. She dropped her fork onto the plate.

"Sam, did you hear me? I said-"

"Yeah I heard you Janet but I'm just not hungry. Leave it there and I'll heat it up tomorrow or later or something. Don't you think it's time you were leaving?" She wasn't trying to be cruel, she was just tired again.

Janet's eyebrows flicked up slightly. "Sam I'm not going anywhere. Number one, you are in no condition to be left alone tonight and number two, I've been awake now for forty one hours. I couldn't drive home even if I wanted to. Your spare room is going to be just fine."

"Forty one hours? What happened that you didn't get any sleep?" Sam was frowning at her friend. All of her self pity had completely evaporated.

Janet sighed and sat down beside her friend as they moved to the couch. "Well remember how my phone rang when I was here with you last night…god was that really only last night? Anyhow it turns out that SG-13 have only gone and got themselves shot in the ass with poisoned arrows." Sam grimaced, she knew exactly how that felt. "How that team ever got the title "Covert Ops" I'll never know, they're about as covert as a giant in a field of pygmies.

Sam laughed. That was about as accurate a description as you were going to get. It had only been a year since Wells had got himself, Janet and the then Colonel all shot up. Damn they were lucky they all had that new armour on. Wells called his baby daughter after Janet owing to the fact that she saved his life. She was also the child's godmother, a fact that never ceased to make the woman smile. How different things could have been. Sam couldn't imagine her life without Janet in it. "So I take it they swelled up?" She asked taking her mind of the grim subject it had wandered on to.

"Oh yeah, you could say that. I had to fill them full of enough medication to take down an elephant just to get them stabilised. So I get them all sorted out and am working on a proper antidote when the base klaxons go off again. This time it's SG-3 with a broken collar bone and busted ankle, landslide. Doctor Warner was already in emergency surgery with one of the day crew canteen workers who collapsed with a ruptured appendix so I have no choice but to patch up the boys and just hope that the culture I was preparing didn't grow a mind of it's own and wander off the base, 'cause you never can tell with alien plant life…as well you know."

Sam did. She nodded, completely fascinated by the day that she'd missed on the base.

"So SG-3 are all sorted out and away when Siler arrives with a busted noggin, fell out of the armoury store closet…again. Man alive, how he does that I'll never know. Three stitches and a mild concussion later he is back on duty saying it's nothing, same old Siler. Anyway to cut a long story short I finally get back to the culture and it has overtaken half the base…well the complete isolation chamber anyhow. So I call the hazmat team in and have to start again. The only good thing being at least I know it'll take no time to grow what I need to cure Dixon and Balinsky, who by this time are really starting to complain about the itching and stretching of their skin. By this stage it's already the afternoon and I'm on the go for over well over thirty hours so I just want to fill them full of tranquilizers and get on with it."

"Thirty hours, how come?"

Janet blinked at her friend. "I was on six to six the day before and came straight over here once I was done. I was still awake when the phone rang at after four in the morning and I'd just finished with SG-13 before I went over to Daniel's. So like I said, thirty hours at that stage, forty one hours over all and counting."

"God Janet, stop talking and go get some sleep then. How you don't look like a walking zombie I don't know."

"Thank you sweetie but I know exactly what I look like. I'm nearly done, do you want to hear the end of the story or not?"

"There's more!" Sam grinned, she couldn't believe it.

"Oh yeah, there's more. So I try Balinsky with the first round of antidote. Everything is fine for a while and I'm talking to Daniel on the phone but I've made a big mistake, seems this damn thing only gets worse when you try to fight it off. Balinsky goes down, crash-cart gets dragged in, it's really touch and go for a while, then out of the blue all his stats change and he's back to full health. Turns out all that is required is an electric shock, so I've done all that work and the guys have suffered for almost twelve hours for nothing."

"No-oo!"

"Ye-es, and to make matters worse, word gets out that Bosworth is going to zat Dixon so half the base turns out to watch the great and almighty Colonel get shot."

Sam was giggling wickedly. "I'll bet he loved that!"

Janet was flying high on the story and there was no stopping her. "Oh the boys in the tech lab went one better. They managed to McGuyver the security camera up to an external feed so the whole thing is being showed on every TV screen on the base. Even the team-leaders meeting in the briefing room gets interrupted with the live feed. Dixon is not going to be a happy camper when he finds out."

"He doesn't know!"

"Of course not! Who in their right mind is ever going to tell Dave Dixon that the whole base is laughing and pointing at him on a big screen. Even the Gen-" Janet drew up short, realising what she was about to say.

Sam threw her an irritated look. "You know, you can mention his name, I'm not going to fall apart or anything." It was apparent Janet wasn't too sure about that, which just annoyed Sam even more. "So even the General…" She continued for her.

"Right. So even General O'Neill isn't prepared to tell him. I reckon Bosworth will end up getting the short stick on that one. Or maybe Balinsky, as he's the only one who can genuinely say he didn't have anything to do with it saying as how he was asleep at the time."

"Oh man, how I wish I wasn't on leave. It's going to be fun around the base for a few days." Sam's heart suddenly sank as she remembered she wasn't going to be back at the base. Not in a few weeks, not ever probably. Once she was reassigned she wouldn't have clearance to be in Cheyenne Mountain any longer. Sure she'd probably still be contacted from time to time but she'd deliberately chosen an assignment that had virtually nothing to do with the SGC, it was the only way.

"Hey, hey, don't worry. I'll still keep you informed, even if I'm not supposed to."

Carter smiled, her friend was like a mind-reader. She squeezed back as Janet took her hand.

First one and then the other of the women yawned.

"Okay time for bed. Baby needs its rest." Janet informed her patient who very soon would not technically be her patient any more.

"So does its doctor. Spare room is already made up from last night. I pulled it together just in case you wanted to stay over."

"Fantastic! Because right now I think it would be way beyond me to make a bed. Can I get you anything else before I go?"

"Janet, this is my house. I'll be doing the getting."

Janet who had gotten to her feet placed a hand on her hip. "I don't think so, you've been through enough this past forty eight hours, you're on rest time only, so no running around. Which reminds me, I want to check your blood pressure before you lie down." She disappeared over into the corner and fished out her bag. "No protesting, arm, now."

Sam rolled her eyes. It seemed her doctor was never off duty.

Janet frowned as she counted the time. "It's a little high Sam, nothing to be overly worried about but I'll check again in the morning. It's important you look after yourself. This is a very delicate stage for you. In a few more weeks you can relax and do things a bit more normally but for the moment I want you to take it slow."

Sam nodded. She trusted Janet to give her good advice and she fully intended to take it. She knew what risks her friend was talking about and the thought of losing the baby scared her so much that it made her feel ill, which incidentally, was another new and almost constant feeling.

"Oh and one more thing Sam, I want to know if you feel headachey, dizzy or have cramps. I don't care what time of the day or night it is or how mild. I'm going to be here to look after you. Jolinar messed up your physiology pretty good so we don't quite know what we are dealing with."

"Janet please don't scare me. I don't want to be reminded of all the things that could go wrong."

Janet smiled. "I'm sorry hun, I'm just being a fussy Nelly, don't worry I'm sure everything will be just fine, it's probably just the sleep deprivation talking." With that she yawned again and took herself off to bed, grateful that she always carried a spare set of pj's in her medical bag. Who's over prepared now Cassandra Frasier? She thought to herself a smug grin on her face.

Sam sat up for a little while longer trying to sort through everything in her head. Janet's company had really lifted her and things didn't look nearly half as bad as they had done. They still weren't good but at least she could find a reason to smile again. That was definitely something she did not have this morning.

AN: Well I hope you enjoyed that, I love Janet :)