Hours had passed without incident. The boy's of SG1 were crowding around her when she suddenly stirred. General O'Neill tried to calm himself down. But he didn't feel like an overgrown kid today. No, today he felt his age. The crushing weight of the world were once again on his shoulders and his knees were giving out. His back hurt and it took him a little while to cave to the pain. He chalked it all up to his combat training and black ops, but he knew that it was something else. Like something was dragging him away and into a black hole.

Carter began screaming.

Cameron and Teal'c immediately got to their feet and tried to calm her down. But her eyes were still closed.

"Do you not think that you should alert General Hammond and General Landry, Cameron Mitchell."

"Right you are, T." Cameron made his way over to the speaker. "General Landry and General Hammond to the observation room. Repeat! Generals Landry and Hammond to the observation room!"

Carter was moaning in pain. She felt as if her body was boiling and would explode. "No, Sir, Please."

"Upping the dosage of sedative." Doctor Frasier rushed in. She took a moment to let the sedative kick in but Sam continued screaming and began yanking on her restraints. "Not responding" She told Hammond and Landry who were up in the observation room.

"Sir! Please! Kill me! Kill me! KILL ME!" She shrieked.

"Carter, I'm here!"

"Sir, it hurts too much! Kill me!" She was in hysterics now. Jack gripped her head in his hands firmly, and felt voltage course through his muscles. He felt some of what she felt. But feeling her pain, didn't take it away from her. "Kill me!" She kept screaming. He jumped back at the loudness of her voice, and let go for a moment. But only a moment.

"Doc, do something!"

That's when Daniel ran to the scene that was playing out in the infirmary.

"I've tried!" She yelled at the General. "Nothing is working!"

"Jack. The thread linking you and the Colonel can only be repaired by intense stimuli to the neurons closest to the brain!"

"What the hell does that mean, Daniel?"

"Kill me, SIR!"

"You have to kiss her, Sir." Janet turned towards the General.

"WHAT?" He let go of Carter's head.

"The neurotransmitters pick up stimuli from the lips faster than other nerves throughout the body." She stated matter-of-factly.

Carter's head cleared a moment and despite the physical pain she was coherent, if only for a moment. "No, sir." She coughed. "It isn't possible. The String's don't react that way. There has to be something else wrong with me."

"Carter!"

"Sir, please. Check for something else." Then she twisted and turned in ways that should be impossible for humans. She lifted her restraints and continued screaming.

Jack turned to Daniel in question and worry. Daniel took off his glasses and bowed his head. "Look, Jack, physically there is nothing wrong with her. Frasier said that she should be in perfect health."

"Then why is she like this, Daniel?" He screamed walking closer to him and grabbing him by his shirt and shoving him against the wall again.

"The only explanation is that this connection that Jaimee was talking about is true." He paused. "The text explains that the less advanced species that this molecular binding happens too, will die. It's like her cells are breaking down on the molecular level. You have to kiss her."

Jack dropped his friend to the ground. He fell with a loud thump.

He walked over to Carter who was still writhing in pain. He bent down by her bedside, took her hands in her restraints, and spoke. "Look Carter, I don't know what's going on here. Alternate realities give me headaches.."

Carter let out a painful laugh, but it sounded distorted, like metal on concrete.

"But I trust Daniel's judgment. If he's right, and giving you the kiss of life is all it takes, then I think we should give it a shot."

Carter shook her head uncontrollably and incessantly. "No, sir." She managed to squeak. "We can't." She coughed and began writhing again. "Sir, we-" The General's heart sank to the bottom of his stomach. He felt bile rise to his mouth and felt an all around pain coming from inside his body. When her screams resumed, she shook her head to get it away from the General, but his hands took her head again.

"Kill me, Sir."

"Not going to happen, Carter."

"We'll pull through this Sam. We always do." Cameron's voice came from a lonely corner from the back of the room.

"Indeed." Teal'c inclined his head.

Sam's eyes bore into Jack's. "Kill me." She earnestly desired to die. "Kill me, Sir."

"Carter, stop saying that. That's an order."

"Sir-" Her wailing had continued and no amount of sedative or morphine was going to dull it. She struggled against her restraints. "Sir, make it stop!"

"Oh for crying out loud." He took his hat off his head and it flew to the ground as his lips crashed onto hers. At first she tried to pull back from his kiss, but she felt a firm hand at her neck. Then she realised that her pain had stopped. Quite suddenly, the black hole didn't feel so black anymore.

She eased into the kiss and so did he. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled on her to sit up slightly. Their lips tore away from each other to catch their breaths. Neither one noticing that Carter had phased through the restraints that were holding her.

"All vitals returning to normal." Remarked the Doctor. Cameron wasn't feeling very good. He just saw a Commanding Officer kiss the girl of his dreams.

"Hey, T. I ain't feeling so hot. I'm gonna go."

Teal'c turned to Cameron with concern written all over his face. "Are you sick like Colonel Carter had been, Cameron Mitchell?"

"Nah. I'm good." Cameron left the room to the star-crossed lovers and sat outside the infirmary. He crouched to the ground and rubbed the sweat off his face. Although Cameron Mitchell wasn't feeling the tug of a black hole, he was far from good. He knew that the moment the General and Carter had kissed. He turned to look at what was going on behind the door. General O'Neill and Colonel Carter had not released from their embrace. His heart sank further still, if that was possible.

"Carter?"

"Sir, it's not possible. The String theory does not work that way. The strings don't bind solid matter to other solid matter that is fully formed and operates on our level of-"

"Carter." He cut her off. "I think this connection is real. No matter what explanation you have against it."

Sam was taken aback. "What makes you say that, sir?"

Daniel came out from against the wall. "We had to put you in restraints because you were getting seizures and falling off the bed and hallucinating that everyone on this base was out to kill Jack. You actually made it to the Gate Room, before I zatted you." Jack glared at him, but Daniel ignored it. "When we wouldn't let you leave, you began cutting yourself with a scalpel, like how Cassie did when she was in High School and College and in a manner similar to how Jaimee explained." His gaze temporarily fell on Jack. When he didn't respond Daniel continued. "And when Jack kissed you, you phased through the restraints and were restored to perfect health."

"I concur." Teal'c muttered.

"Phase? As in passed right through them?"

Jack indicated to the restraints tied to the bed. She noticed that they hadn't been undone. "But how?"

"Strings manipulate molecules. Maybe they can manipulate to phase."

Cameron heard a sob coming from Colonel Carter. "Sir, it's not possible." Sam was in denial because like Jaimee she was afraid to love. For as much as she loved her former commanding officer, she wanted any reason she could conjure to prove that the String Theory wasn't true. She had looked down at her wrists. They looked like they had been cut by exacto knives. Tears began streaming down her face.

"Sam, there was a lot of blood coming out of your wrists."

"Sir. I had a dream. Hanson... he tried to..." she paused, and took a breath. "He tried to hurt me and you. I had dreams that I cut myself. Like I did when I was with Hanson. There was blood... so much blood."

The General wrapped her up in his arms and muttered into her neck. "I won't hurt you. Not like Hanson. You don't have to be afraid anymore. I'm not going anywhere." He paused. "I promise." He added.

"Sir, you were dying. They had you hooked up to the multiverse machine. I felt it, you were gone. You were dying." She sobbed into his shoulder.

"Carter, I'm here," pointing to her heart. "Always."

Cameron, who was still listening in from out in the hall found it difficult to hold back the tears. He gripped his stomach and punched the walls. He breathed deeply and suddenly felt very tired. His heart was no longer beating, but having Carter alive was better than not having her at all.