Chapter 4

AN: short chapter, apologies. Busy on other projects. Should be another chapter up soon. Homework permitting, tomorrow. If not, Wednesday. Enjoy!

A pale hand uncurled from beneath her chin and Jack took hold of it, moving closer so that he could stroke her cheek, offering a little reassurance as she slid into a drug-assisted unconsciousness.

"Daniel's right." Sam murmured, almost inaudibly.

"What makes you say that?" He asked.

"It all makes sense now. Remember... remember that day."

"Which day?"

"The one... the one we agreed not to talk about. So many things about that day..." And she slipped in to a sedative prompted sleep. The hand in his grasp relaxed and he released it, tucking it by her side, still stroking her cheek lightly.

"What did she say?" Janet asked as she came in to take Sam to do the scans.

"That Daniel's right. I assume she means about his theory. The virtual reality thing."

"How does she know?"

"I'm not sure. She obviously thought of something. She always has the best clarity when she's just about to sleep, it's why she can never get to sleep in the labs. She'd just finish one thing, start to nod off and something else with pop into her head and she has to go and try it out. She sleeps with a pad next to her bed, so she can write it all down."

"You know that's probably what saved your life during the zatark incident." Jack looked up at this.

"We never talked about it, what happened?"

"She was half way to being sedated, just like back there, and it struck her and she started begging me to stop. It took three of us to hold her down long enough to administer a stimulant to combat the sedative. She wouldn't wait for it to work either. She was half was down the corridor when her body realised it was sleepy. She ended up leaning on me to keep her upright."

"She's always hated relying on others."

"I bet it's been hard on her for these last few years."

"You have no idea. And it's all been fake."

"How do you know?"

"I think it fitted to well when Daniel first said it. I can think of a hundred and one soaps that put their characters through the kind of things we've seen, the deaths and the tragedies. And if Sam's thought of something to prove it to herself then all it's going to need is those scans you're going for now to finish the deal and let us move on."

Sam blinked up drowsily at Jack, offering him a small smile.

"Hey sleepy, you up?" She blinked once more and murmured a non-committal reply. "Sam, wake up now gorgeous. I need to talk to you." She yawned and sat up.

"I'm awake."

"You were right, Daniel's theory seems to fit."

"What did Janet find."

"There's something mechanical attached to your spinal cord, it's inhibiting the transmission of impulses." Sam paled, but nodded quietly.

"So what do we do now?"

"I guess we deal with it. Did Janet say anything about this device?"

"No." Janet answered, walking up behind the two of them. "But she's about to." Janet handed Sam a scan of her lower back, a small solid white blob quite visible on her spine. "It is mechanical, not electronic. As far as we can tell it looks to just be putting pressure on your spinal cord. Truthfully it looks a little like a tiny G-clamp. But there are problems with that. I don't think we're going to be able to remove it without doing permanent damage, in fact I would say it would be impossible to remove without physically damaging your cord, but I would suggest you look for second opinions where ever possible. The only thing I would say is that there is also a possibility that it's already put too much pressure on and it might have damaged the cord. There would be no way of telling that without having the device out first." Janet sighed. "I'm sorry Sam."

"That's OK Janet. I don't know whether I'm glad or upset about this." She laughed wryly.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Well, now things can go back to normal. I'll have to sort some things out again, but at least I know how things should pan out and I know how to avoid certain confrontations and how I can expect to be treated. I've already done all the work, maybe it won't be so hard the second time." Jack nodded and hugged Sam tightly.

"We need to go and talk to General Hammond."