I want to say a HUGE thank you to Naliza for betaing this for me, you rock! The best beta a girl could ask for!
And big thanks to everyone who has reviewed it so far, I'm grinning like a fool! Please, please keep the reviews coming in, it makes me write faster so if you want to see the end of this thing, tell me what you think or else I'll get in a huff and stop writing!! (Childish tantrum moment over :-) )
Now on to why you came here….
***
The first thing Colonel O'Neill did upon arrival at the SGC was to check if there were any new leads on the attack on Sam. Some mention was made of sweeping Sam's house with TER's but it did not have the MO of a Reetou attack, so Jack severely doubted it would help.
He figured that the security chief was just trying to appease him since he had been such a regular visitor there, asking about any leads they had, and he instinctively knew that he was most probably annoying the man a lot. He left the office, once again asking to be informed if they found anything.
As he entered the infirmary he saw Sam and Daniel both sleeping peacefully. Daniel was sitting in one of the uncomfortable infirmary chairs with his feet up on Sam's bed, his glasses crooked on his face and halfway down the bridge of his nose, with a book open in his lap. The swelling around Sam's eye had abated slightly over night, Jack was happy to see even the slightest of improvement in her condition.
Jack greeted a couple of the infirmary nurses by name, grabbed a chair and sat across from Daniel. As he sat there his mind started wandering, once again he started pondering the situation regarding the missing lipstick and he could not explain to himself why he could not stop thinking about it.
He quickly switched his attention to Sam, who had begun twitching in her sleep. The movements became more pronounced as she started mumbling, incoherently at first but then more audible words escaped her lips, the fear evident in her voice. The sound woke Daniel, who looked confused for a few seconds but quickly pulled his feet away from Sam's bed and gave Jack a concerned look.
"What do you want? Stop! Please!"
Jack tried to rouse her by calling her name and when she did not respond he gently shook her arm. Her eyes shot open as she let out a scream, cut short by the pain she felt, the uncharacteristic fear was obvious in her eyes.
Jack took hold of her hand and addressed her ever so gentle, "Sam? You okay?"
He knew that she was far from being alright but he did not know what else to say. Sam looked around, seemingly unsure of her surroundings and as she realised where she was some of the fear melted away but, to Jack's dismay, was replaced immediately by pain.
"Sam, it's okay, you're safe", Daniel added soothingly from his side.
"Oh, God."
"Sam, what happened? What is it?"
"I heard them."
"Them, who?"
"What attacked me. They were mad at us Sir, because we 'invaded' their planet. The first time I heard them it was only a warning. They wanted us to leave but I couldn't understand them."
"Why you Sam?"
"I…I don't know, maybe the Naquadah in my blood. It's made me sensitive to other things before, It's all conjecture of course."
Jack smiled slightly, only Carter or Daniel could use words such as conjecture despite the amount of pain they might be in, which obviously was the case with Sam at that moment.
"We were on its territory, it wanted us to go and not come back so..."
"So it hitched a lift through the gate, followed you home and attacked you so we wouldn't go back to their planet. Does anyone else find their logic faulty, they could've just have asked nicely. Why don't we ever run into any polite aliens?"
"So, how did it get here? We haven't seen any sign of it."
"Yeah and six foot grey blobs don't just blend into the background, even here."
"I…I dunno." Sam exhaled, "I wish I did and how it got to my house."
Daniel gave Jack a pointed look and gestured towards the door, Jack got the inference.
"Hey Sam, you go back to sleep, you're safe now", Jack said gently. Sam closed her eyes and, as the peacefulness of sleep wrapped her in its arms, her ragged breathing slowed down and became more relaxed.
They knew they could not leave her alone, when she woke up later on she would need a friendly face to be at her side. The attack had shaken Sam and everyone was slightly concerned about how she was coping and how she would deal with it when she was released from the infirmary.
Janet arrived at that moment holding a cardboard tray containing three Starbucks cups with one hand and carrying her briefcase with another. She put her briefcase down and handed a cup to each of the men.
"I figured you would both be here and not sleeping", she said quietly in order not to wake her now peacefully sleeping patient. O'Neill and Daniel both took their cups gratefully and the archaeologist in particular looked at it with some reverence.
"Caffeine junky", muttered Jack but Daniel just grunted quietly, clearly enjoying the hot coffee.
"Doc, can you keep an eye on Sam for us, she had a nightmare, apparently something came back with us from 379. The last night we were there it was trying to get us to leave but we didn't get the message so it followed her home and attacked her", Jack said while pulling Janet away so they could speak, afterwards the doctor just shook her head in disgust at the news.
"I'm worried about her, she won't sleep if one of us isn't here, she freaks out if there's no one here when she wakes up, it's so unlike her."
"I know, I'm not used to seeing her so afraid either but being attacked like that, at home, where she was suppose to feel safe, has to be difficult."
"I know but it's weird, could you sit with her, friendly face and all that."
"Sure, I've got a ton of paperwork to do."
"Thanks Doc."
Jack looked at Daniel and jerked his head towards the infirmary door and the younger man immediately stood and followed him out. On their way to the elevator they met Teal'c, who was evidently on his way to see Carter. They filled him in on what Sam had told them.
"So." Daniel said as he closed the door.
"So?"
"What do you reckon about what Sam said?"
"I dunno, I hate to say it but could she be… nuts?"
Daniel raised his eyebrows at this statement.
"Okay, maybe not nuts but…"
"It does sound odd but saying that I think we live in the home of odd."
"True. So options?"
Daniel looked thoughtful, "Umm… invisible."
"An organism with the power to change its physical appearance at will."
"You mean a shape shifter."
"That would be a valid description."
"So, Teal'c, you haven't sensed a Reetou?"
"I have not O'Neill."
"And the TER's haven't found anything, so it's probably not an invisible…thing."
"You ever hear of a shape shifter Teal'c?"
"Indeed, when in service to Apophis I spent some time searching the star system known as the Roshan system for such a creature. The search was unsuccessful."
"Not surprising, I mean with it being able to change shape at will it can't be the easiest thing to find. And face it Apophis is not really the sharpest snake to crawl out of the primordial sea", Jack wryly observed.
"So it could have been a shape shifter that attacked Sam", Daniel said ignoring Jack's sarcasm.
"It's the best option we got."
"As the idea of an invisible foe has been discounted it is the only option we currently have."
"Thanks Teal'c", the Colonel said, his voice laced with sarcasm.
"You are welcome O'Neill."
"So, what now?" Daniel asked.
"Now we find it."
"Okay, great plan. How exactly? This thing, assuming it is a shape shifter can look like anything."
Jack uttered a silent curse but it was something that had occurred to him as well, he had no idea how to find it.
"So Teal'c, can you think of anything which could help us find this…this thing?"
"Assuming it is the same creature I searched for it must return to its natural state every 24 hours for a period of at least one hour."
"Well, it's a start", Daniel said, not wholly convinced.
"We should tell General Hammond."
***
"So, if it is a shape shifter, how do we find it?" Hammond asked.
"We're still working on that General." Daniel said.
"I really hate to say this Sir but what about the Tok'ra."
Jack's face showed his discomfort, his feelings about the Tok'ra were pretty much common knowledge. General Hammond nodded.
"I sent a message to Jacob when Major Carter was attacked, the Tok'ra said he would be here as soon as he had completed the mission he's on."
As he spoke the gate span in to action, the klaxons blared and a voice came over the speakers.
"Unscheduled gate activation."
General Hammond stood and rushed to the control room followed by Jack, Daniel and Teal'c. As they reached the large windows overlooking the gate it activated in its usual dramatic style.
"Receiving IDC, Sir." Sergeant Davis informed Hammond. "It's the Tok'ra."
"Now that's what I call timing Jake", Jack muttered.
"Open the iris", General Hammond instructed.
The metallic cover span expanded and a few seconds later Jacob Carter stepped through wearing the usual Tok'ra attire.
"Defence teams stand down," Hammond ordered as he headed out of the control room and down to the gate room.
"How you doing Jacob", General Hammond asked, approaching his old friend as he walked down the ramp.
"Fine, how's Sam?"
Jacob was worried about his daughter since the Tok'ra was not given a lot of information about what had happened to her.
"She doing just fine Jacob, I'm sure she'll want to see you."
Jacob nodded a greeting in the direction of SG1 before heading out of the gate room and towards the infirmary, "Jack, Daniel, Teal'c."
Sam was still asleep when Jacob arrived in the infirmary. Hammond had filled him in on the way from the gate room but left him at the door as they arrived at his destination. Jacob took the opportunity to speak to Dr Fraiser who assured him Sam would recover in time.
He thanked Janet for everything she had done and took up a seat beside his daughter's bed. His heart bled at the sight of her injuries and with the uttermost of care he took hold of her free hand. After a few minutes Sam's eyes flickered and she woke up.
"Sam," Jacob said gently "Sam honey, you're okay."
"Dad." Sam smiled slightly.
"How you feeling, kiddo?"
"Not too bad. It's good to see you dad."
"It's good to see you too and the best thing is Garshaw said I could have a week off so you're stuck with me for a while."
"That's great dad", Sam said, smiling one of the first true smiles since she was attacked. She had not spent much time with her father for quite some time. If only she was not stuck in the infirmary she might have been able to enjoy the time more but she rationalized in her mind that if she had not been injured he probably would not even be here.
"George says they've got a possible lead on what did this."
"Really?"
"Yeah, they reckon it could be a shape shifter. Apparently a few years ago Apophis had Teal'c looking for one close to where you were on your last mission."
"How close?"
"In gate terms next door, adjacent star systems apparently."
"So, what's the plan?"
"There isn't one, yet, no one knows how to even find this creature."
"Selmak ever hear of a shape shifter."
"There are some stories about them among the Tok'ra but they've been pretty much dismissed as myth."
"Tok'ra urban legends?"
"Something like that."
"So what next?" Sam was obviously eager to get involved.
"For you - Rest and recuperation."
"But dad…"
"But dad nothing. You are in no condition to do anything but relax and get better."
"Fine." Sam said resignedly.
"Good, so tell me what's been going on since I saw you last."
"We went to Russia, they had their own programme using the gate we thought was destroyed on Thor's ship and they had gated to this planet under water and…"
After a few hours of catching up Janet came over and gave Sam her next dose of painkillers, despite Sam's protest. Janet always marvelled at the fact that the SGC's flagship team was so reluctant to take medication when required.
Once the painkillers took effect Sam drifted off to sleep. Jacob looked at his daughter sadly, she look so vulnerable laying there and he, like any father, hated seeing her like that.
Seeing that Sam was asleep he decided to duck out and change his clothes, even after all this time he was not overly keen on the Tok'ra idea of high fashion. Once he changed into a set of BDU's he headed for the commissary.
He hated to admit it but he was seriously missing coffee and more worryingly, Jello. The Tok'ra did not have equivalents of either and the SGC always kept a ready supply of both and therefore the commissary was always high on Jacob's list of priorities when visiting Earth.
***
Sam once again stood by the fire on P4Y 379, she heard a noise and span around. In front of her stood the thing that had attacked her, it did not move and Sam did not feel afraid. As she watched it changed, morphing in to an MRE, a lipstick, a moth, a pack of chewing gum and a file before returning to it's natural humanoid state. She turned back to face the fire and saw Daniel, Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c, General Hammond, Dr Fraiser and her father standing in a semi circle.
***
Sam woke, she was not as afraid as she had been after waking from her other dreams.
She blinked as her eyes acclimatised to the harsh infirmary lighting. As the memories of her dream came floating back a realization hit her - she had brought this thing back with her and put her friends and family in danger.
She saw Jack standing across the room, fiddling with something and a small smile painted her lips. The Colonel always found something to play with when waiting around in the infirmary. Sam grinned slightly as she recalled the time he had nearly come to grief playing with a scalpel when waiting for Daniel to regain consciousness after a bad mission.
Sam saw Jack suddenly looking sheepishly and quickly put whatever he was playing with down. She could not be sure but she guessed that Janet had caught him playing with her instruments. Despite her size Doctor Fraiser had quite a presence and one stern look from her could put even Colonel O'Neill in his place.
Jack looked around and saw Sam was awake. He walked over, smiling slightly.
"Hey Carter."
"Sir, where's my dad?"
"Off getting some sleep, apparently he just got back from some Tok'ra top secret mission…thing.
"Sir…um, it's all my fault."
"What is?"
"All this, I…um, brought it back, it disguised itself as a MRE and came back in my pack, I put everyone here in danger."
"Okay, first thing, not your fault and second, how do you know you brought it back?"
"I saw it in my dream, it's a shape shifter and when we were on P4Y 379 my pack was open and I was sure I had shut it. I brought it back, I took it to my house and now it's somewhere on Earth and I think it's in the SGC now. What if it comes back?" Sam added quietly.
"What makes you think it's in the SGC?"
"In my dream, I saw it as a file, an SGC file."
"Well, if it's here we'll find it, it cuts down the search from everywhere to just the SGC and you know I won't let anything hurt you again, none of us will." Sam smiled ever so slightly.
"So can this ESPN stuff tell us any more? Sam gave him a brighter smile this time, she was pretty sure that he had done that on purpose, to cheer her up.
"Not really."
"Not even the lottery numbers?" This time Jack was rewarded with a small laugh from her.
"I wish we knew how to find it though, Sir."
"If it comes to it we'll just check every folder on base, there's not that many, is there?" Sam just gave him another huge smile.
"I'd better go and update General Hammond, if you'll be okay?"
Sam just nodded silently and Jack reluctantly left her side.
Daniel was in his office, trawling through all the possibly relevant information he could get his hands on, he had not found anything useful from either the video from P4Y 379 or Earth mythology.
He was starting to get tired so he switched on his coffee machine and turned as Jack entered the office.
"How's Sam?" Daniel asked concerned. Jack had only gone to the infirmary about an hour before.
"She's fine Danny, she had some bizarre dream thing, she reckons this thing is in the SGC disguised as a file."
"That's not good, we have to find it Jack."
"I know, I'm on my way to see General Hammond, thought I'd give you a heads up, it might have a grudge against SG-1 in particular."
"Thanks Jack, I feel much better", Daniel responded sarcastically.
"Well good, I'd better be going."
With Jack gone Daniel turned back to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup, relishing the taste and accompanied caffeine hit. He headed back to the desk, looking suspiciously at the folders that were laying around the office.
He cursed Jack for putting him on edge but span suddenly as he heard a folder fall to the floor. As he turned he saw what looked like an ordinary SGC folder starting to change colour and then size and shape.
He swore loudly, he knew he was in danger. He had seen what this thing had done to Sam. He began to back quickly to the door, as he reached the wall he hit the alarm, the sirens blared and the lights flashed.
The creature reached its full height and ran towards Daniel, who flung open the door. He only made it to the corridor before the creature reached him, slamming a palm into Daniel's chest and forcing him backward in to the concrete wall.
Daniel slumped to the floor unconscious just as Jack rounded the corner with a group of SF's who immediately took aim at the unusual creature they saw before them. Sensing the danger it was in, the creature screamed in such a loud and high pitched way it caused many of the SF's to cover their ears to block out the painful sound.
Jack gritted his teeth and grabbed a gun from the nearest SF but before he could fire a shot the creature turned and ran away. He gave chase but as he rounded the corner he could not see it and he uttered a silent curse under his breath. It could be anywhere now and look like anything. He could not see anything out of the ordinary but he knew it meant nothing at that moment.
He turned and ran back to where Daniel was. The younger man was still unconscious and two SF's were busy giving him first aid. Jack went into Daniel's office and grabbed the phone. He ordered the whole base to be locked down since there was no way this thing was going to escape again. He also requested a medical team for Daniel and increased security for Carter.
Jack was worried, this thing was definitely on base and was going after members of his team. He was going to stop it even if it was the last thing he did.