It had been a busy few weeks at the SGC and everyone was feeling the burn.

There'd been another Retu attack and the self-destruct had been set before anyone could do anything about it. It turned out that they'd managed to get past security because the guards on duty, who were meant to be scanning for them, had become lax and had started only doing random scans as opposed to scanning every time the gate was open. They'd managed to stop the count down in time and they'd also found and killed all the Retu what had come through, but the guards were all going to be heavily reprimanded.

While the clean-up had still been taking place, the Retu had managed to do a lot of damage before finally being killed; SG2 had gone missing off world along with the team of scientists they had been escorting. SG11 and SG9 had gone through after them to look for them. It had taken three days but eventually they had been found, being held captive by the natives. They'd all gotten back home safe but there had been a few injuries and at one point it had looked like one of the scientists wasn't going to make it.

They had all been dehydrated and slightly malnourished, but the young woman had caught a bullet in the midst of their escape in the abdomen. It had taken hours and all of Janet's skill to stop the bleeding and save the young scientists life.

All in all everything had left everyone drained, both physically and mentally, and their current predicament was not helping them at all. They were all in lockdown. It wasn't anything overly serious, the gate was malfunctioning and Hammond had decided that just in case something did happen before the gate got fixed. While everyone could understand why he was doing it, it didn't mean that any of them wanted to stay there, every single one of them wanted to be at home, curled up in bed either alone or with their significant other.

Instead, they were all in various rooms all over the SGC, getting as much rest as they could, while still being on alert in case something happened.

SG1 were all holed up in Sam's lab, trying their hardest to stay out of Sam's way as she tried out theories and hypotheses about why the gate was doing what it was doing.

They'd asked if she wanted them to leave her to it but Sam had asked that they stick around, talk to her, and keep her awake.

They'd all agreed and were now all sitting around, talking about anything and everything.

Sam had joined in but would occasionally go totally silent as she got closer to an answer, only to realise that whatever was she going to try wasn't going to work.

"Carter," Jack said at one point from where he was leant against one of Sam's work benches, Daniel sitting on the floor beside him while Teal'c kel'no'reemed in a corner, "I think now might be a good time for you to take a break."

"I'm alright," Sam was quick to disagree.

Jack gave her a disbelieving look. "I just saw you wobble Carter, you've been at this for hours and you're tired, now take a break or I will make it an order."

Sam sighed but left what she was doing and moved across the lab to where the rest of the team were. She sank to the floor, leaning against the cabinet opposite Daniel and Jack, and let out a small sigh of relief.

"See," Jack said as he too sat down, "I do have good ideas every so often."

Sam smiled. "Yeah," Daniel quipped, "Once in a blue moon."

Jack gave him a shove but then joined in as they all laughed.

"I hope," Sam said once the laughter had stopped, "That after this is finished we have a few very uneventful months. Right now I'm feeling a little like a headless chicken."

"Mmm," Jack agreed, "We have been running around like headless chickens for just a little too long."

Daniel nodded his head in agreement. Then Teal'c, who no one had realised was listening in, said, "Why would a headless chicken be running around? And why would that liken to the SGC?"

Daniel, Jack and Sam all laughed, now how were they going to explain that particular earth saying to their alien friend.