Camp Go'auld

Part eight

'You're not going to believe this,' Jack informed the rest of the team, 'Kerry's been admitted to a hospital in Denver. Dr Warner is on his way there now to see about moving her to the SGC infirmary.'

'How is she?' Dr Fraiser jumped in, aware of the complications that could have arisen.

'She's stable, apparently she collapsed in a diner near Boulder and was taken to Denver with a couple of broken ribs,' Jack advised the others. Janet nodded, relief evident in her face that it didn't sound too serious.

They had all been getting under Dr Fraiser's feet while she finished discharging her patients. The medication supplied by the Tok'ra to eliminate the long term affects of the drug the victims had been given had worked much to Jack's surprise and there had been no more incidents after the first death. Now, it looked like they could pack up and go home, the rest of the SGC personnel had already been shipped back to base, leaving SG1 and a handful of medics to finalise everything.

'Do you need any more help here, Doc?' Jack asked, eager to hit the road but wanting to make sure everything was under control first.

'No, we're just going to finish packing up and we'll be leaving sometime tomorrow,' Janet had reassured him, glad when at last he had gone allowing her to get on with her job uninterrupted.

***********

'Kerry? It's Major Carter - Sam.' Kerry swam towards consciousness. She could hear machines beeping and humming in the background somewhere and she struggled to open her eyes. Major Carter? Why did that sound familiar? And why did she suddenly feel trapped? 'Janet, I think she's waking up.'

A pair of heels clicked their way over to her and she could feel a cool hand on her wrist, taking her pulse, then she felt the same hand on her forehead and another familiar voice speaking.

'Kerry, can you open your eyes for me? Kerry?' Kerry struggled against the compulsion to open her eyes. She felt very uncomfortable and she had a feeling that if she opened her eyes she wouldn't feel any better, that maybe she should just sink back into comfortable unconsciousness. It was not to be however and her eyes opened, blinking blearily at two faces watching her. She looked from one to the other in confusion.

'It's alright Kerry, you're in hospital. You've got a couple of broken ribs but you're going to be fine, just a little uncomfortable for a few days.' Dr Fraiser explained.

'It's ok Kerry, you're safe,' Sam spoke reassuringly, seeing Kerry's eyes darting nervously around. 'Why don't you get some more sleep.'

Kerry nodded briefly and could feel her eyes sliding shut again, welcoming the darkness that brought forgetfulness with it.

**********

While she was in the infirmary, Kerry received visits from Colonel O'Neill, Jonas and Major Carter - Sam. Sam had explained to her that she had been brought to this military base, what she called the SGC, though didn't explain what it stood for, because of the sensitive information that she may have had access to.

'I know things have been less than ideal for you,' Sam said on seeing how defensive Kerry was, and recalling her poor track record for staying put, Sam was determined to do what she could to make things as easy as possible for all concerned. 'And we are going to try and clear things up for you, can you just be a bit more patient with us?' Kerry warmed to Sam's approach, feeling that she genuinely wanted to help her.

Sam had noticed that Kerry still seemed to trust Jonas instinctively and approached Jack concerning this. 'I think you should encourage Jonas to spend time with Kerry,' Sam said bluntly, referring to the conversation Jack had with Jonas after Kerry took off, suggesting it may not be a good idea for him to spend so much time with her. 'She seems wary around most of the personnel here but if she's able to relate to someone, then I think we should encourage it. We can trust Jonas, sir,' Sam finished, knowing that Jack still wasn't entirely comfortable around their fourth member.

Jack had agreed and Jonas would sit with Kerry, chatting about anything that came to mind, Kerry doing her best to teach him about the things she was interested in.

'No, that's not quite right. Smeagol is kind of a good guy but his other self, Gollum, wants to kill Frodo and Sam and take the Ring for himself. You really should watch the movies, they do stick pretty closely to the book and besides, it's worth watching just to see Legolas.' Kerry laughed and blushed, not believing that she had come out and said it. She certainly wasn't going to admit that she had a Legolas desktop theme on her home computer.

'I might just do that. Teal'c made me sit through all the Star Wars movies in one sitting, so I guess I could make him watch this.' Jonas smiled at Kerry, enjoying the time he had spent with her, finding he was able to learn about life in the outside world from someone who had time to talk.

'You both like watching movies then?' Kerry asked.

'When we get time, which isn't as often as I'd like, but we always seem to be so busy,' Jonas felt the conversation was getting a little too close to the truth here and changed tack again. 'Sergeant Siler - one of the men who works here - is a real motor bike enthusiast and he went to collect your bike the other day. He's put it in one of the garages here and I'm willing to bet that he's making sure it's kept in good condition.'

'When do you think they'll let me out of here?' Kerry asked, beginning to look fed up as her mind was brought back to where she was. 'Dr Fraiser says she should be able to release me in a couple of days, but Colonel O'Neill says he needs to talk to me before I can go home.'

'The briefing has been arranged for tomorrow providing you're up to it,' another voice joined in the conversation. Kerry looked up to see Colonel O'Neill coming in. 'How are you doing?' He asked, sensing the barriers going up as soon as he entered the room.

'Much better thanks,' Kerry spoke politely, getting a strong feeling all he really wanted was to find out what she knew and that made her really not want to co-operate, unreasonable though it might be. 'What'll happen at this meeting?'

'My team and myself will be there, along with Dr Fraiser and General Hammond - he's the one in charge of this base,' Jack explained, sensing the hostility coming his way and not knowing how to fix it. 'You'll be asked to tell us what happened back at Whitefish, and there will probably be some questions for you. I know it sounds a bit overwhelming,' Kerry looked at Jack in surprise, as he had just described how she was feeling, 'But it's not as bad as it sounds and if you need to take a break, then we can arrange that.' Kerry nodded at him, relaxing slightly, but not completely. Jack smiled pleasantly at her and took his leave.

***********

The next day Kerry was escorted through a maze of corridors and elevators, eventually arriving at some kind of conference room where she was shown to a seat on one side of a large table. Jonas was beside her, and on his other side was Teal'c. Directly opposite was Sam, with Colonel O'Neill next to her and Dr Fraiser near the top end of the table near a plump balding man who had been introduced as General Hammond. It seemed a rather odd room, Kerry thought to herself as she took a quick look around.

There was a large picture window taking up the entire side of one wall, but there was some kind of screen covering it. She had been brought in through a door at the back of the room but she could see a staircase in another corner of the room and she could hear a faint buzz of people talking and computers humming away. A guard was stationed at the top of these stairs and Kerry was extremely curious as to what she might see if she were to go down those stairs - whatever they were hiding behind that screen she was willing to bet. She shook herself as she realised General Hammond was speaking.

'Dr Fraiser tells me you're well enough for this, Kerry. Are you ready to begin?' His deep Texan voice was reassuring, and she got the impression that this was a man who got the best from his people by his understanding of them. Kerry nodded, her mouth too dry to speak just yet. She took a sip from the glass in front of her and waited for the General to continue. 'Would you tell us what happened to you, right from the beginning?'

Kerry went through what she had seen when she had returned to the homeless shelter, about being bussed off to the compound in the woods and the drugs they were all made to take and how she had stopped taking them, feeling that something was wrong about the whole situation and her subsequent escape and encounter with SG1.

'And the rest you pretty much know,' Kerry finished up, feeling uncomfortable at being the focus of attention.

'Thank you,' Hammond spoke up when Kerry stopped talking. 'Now, if you don't mind, we'd like to ask a few questions.' He said it so politely, giving her every opportunity to get out if she wanted, but now she was given the option, she found that maybe if she could get everything off her chest it would all be over and done with and she could get back to normality and nodded her acceptance of this.

'Kerry, you mentioned a couple of men who worked with Sar'ash, the ones with tattoos on their foreheads,' Sam asked the first question. 'Can you tell us any more about them - what they did or anything you might have overheard?'

Kerry thought for a few moments and was about to speak when a siren went off capturing the attention of those present.

'No-one's due back,' Hammond said crisply as he stood up, heading towards the spiral staircase in the corner of the room, closely followed by Janet and SG1. Jack turned back to Jonas who was behind him.

'Jonas, stay with Kerry,' he barked out making Kerry jump at the way he had spoken, before he disappeared from sight.