Chapter 2
"Eighteen days," Janet told Jack. "You had just returned from that mission to P3X-798."
"Delphi." Jack sighed and nodded. "Well, that was enough to give anyone nightmares." At her questioning look, he explained, "We were Apollo's prisoner for almost a week." Apollo was a minor-league Gua'old, one who had not even come to the attention of Anubis or the System Lords yet, a fact which did not make him any less evil or oppressive than his fellow Gua'old. "There were a lot of other prisoners in the holding cells, too. They were all in bad shape, but most of them had no real value to him. He just wanted to see him suffer."
According to what little Intel they had been able to garner from the other prisoners, Apollo had been hiding out on Delphi for years, along with another Gua'old who no one seemed to know anything about. By all accounts, life on Delphi was idyllic. Unless you happened to be one of the unfortunates confined to its prison camps. Those men and women were underfed, overworked, and denied all but the most basic necessities of life. It was obvious that Apollo and his Jaffa, did not consider dignity to be among those.
He shook his head before continuing. "He interrogated all of us which, according to the other prisoners, was pretty rare. Pretty nasty stuff all around. I can't tell you what he did to the others, but he tortured me..."
Janet nodded. She had patched them up after that abortive mission. The entire party had born cuts and bruises, none too serious although all had spent considerable time talking to the base psychiatric team. Sam had been scraped and contused and running a low-grade fever. That had passed within a few hours and there had been no other signs of infection, so Janet had released her and simply kept a close eye on her for the next few days. And, except for the nightmares, Sam was fine, perfectly healthy. Even the psychologists agreed on that.
But the nightmares were troubling to her and the psychologists. Janet had seen nightmares that severe only once before, in Jonas Quinn shortly before he had started suffering from a series of visions which could easily have ended in his death. Of course, Jonas was different. Sam had not been subject to Nirrti's tampering on nearly the same level and what damage had been done to her had been almost immediately corrected. Besides, there was no indication that Sam's nightmares were prophetic. She could not even remember them...
"You think that's what triggered her nightmares, then?" Janet asked.
"Maybe." Jack shrugged. "She's been through worse without getting nightmares. Well, nightmares that we know about," he amended. "But it could be what's causing them, yeah."
"She's been under a lot of other strains as well, of course," Janet said. "It's possible that mission was just the straw that broke the camel's back." She looked up as an airman entered. "Yes?"
"Uh, Colonel O'Neill wished to be informed if Major Carter returned to the base this week."
Jack shook his head. "Just like her," he muttered. "Thanks, airman." He glanced at Janet. "We can finish this later. I'm going to go drag her kicking and screaming from her lab."
"Good idea. Thanks, Colonel." Janet smiled and nodded at him, sighing as he left. It was indeed just like Sam to ignore a Doctor's order to take time off and come back to work. Too much time around Jack O'Neill, she reflected with a grin.
***
Work was actually the last thing on Sam's mind when she returned to the SGC that morning. She was, among other things, too exhausted to work. The dreams had returned in full force last night, and she remembered more than she had yet about them. Right down to putting a bullet into her Commanding Officer's chest three seconds before being shot in the head by him...
She signed in and headed straight for the infirmary.
"Sam," Janet greeted her with obvious surprise. So Sam had not come back to work, but to talk to her. That was immensely troubling. "Are you okay? What can I do for you?"
"I was hoping I could get some sleeping pills or something for a few days," Sam told her.
"Uh, well, sure." Janet nodded immediately, pulling a prescription pad from her lab coat. "One pill a night," she told Sam, writing out a prescription for Ambien. "I'll also give you a few Xanax for any daytime anxiety you might feel, and I'd like you to make another appointment with Doctor Mackenzie," she added, writing.
"Will that help?" Sam asked.
"It can't hurt," Janet pointed out gently. "How was your evening with the Colonel?"
Sam smiled faintly, wondering if Janet had been checking up on her or if the Colonel had. "It was nice. I don't think evil aliens or plots for galactic domination came up once."
"Well, that must have made for a nice change." She grinned at her friend, handing over the prescriptions. "What else do you plan on doing with your down time?"
"I don't know." Sam shrugged. "Get some gardening done, maybe."
"Sam, you have a brown thumb," Janet pointed out, grinning. She had seen her friend's attempts to garden and it was a wonder that the front lawn had ever recovered. Sam did try, but her talents definitely lay in another direction.
"Yeah, guess I do. Maybe I'll
catch up on some reading."
"Physics journals?"
"Maybe..."
"Maybe you could go fishing with me," a new voice contributed.
Sam turned to see Jack, lounging indolently against the entrance to the infirmary. "Sir..."
"Heard you couldn't stay away," he told her, shrugging. "Miss me that much?" he asked, grinning.
She smiled faintly, more amused by his words than she was by the fact that he had obviously been keeping tabs on her. As her CO, that was his prerogative, of course, but it was still annoying.
"Sam and I were just discussing her case, sir," Janet provided. "I think she was just going."
"Well, I need to run to the base pharmacy, first," Sam pointed out, glancing down at the sheets of paper in her hand.
"I'll walk with you," Jack offered.
"Oh, sir, that's really not necessary," she assured him.
"Hey, I don't mind," he answered. Taking her arm and nodding to Janet, she steered her from the infirmary before she could protest. "With you out of action, SG-1 doesn't have much to do," he explained as they walked. "Teal'c is visiting his son and Daniel's up to his elbows in artifacts."
She smiled faintly. "And you, sir?"
"Me? I finished all my paperwork last night, which means I have some time off, too. Want to come fishing?" he offered again.
"Oh, sir, I don't..." She hesitated. Excuses were getting harder to find.
"Your loss," he answered, shrugging. Maybe now was not the time to have her too far away from the SGC, and Janet, anyway. "Offer stands."
"Thank you, sir," she answered, smiling gratefully at him.
There was a time when she had been totally unsure of where she stood with him, a time when her status as a female and a scientist had left her as something less than an object of respect in his eyes. That was no longer the case, as his behavior and invitation showed. For that alone, she was grateful. Jack O'Neill was, without doubt, the best CO she had ever been privileged to serve under and his respect meant worlds to her. More than that, although she would never have confessed it, his friendship was important to her, in ways she could not have described.
"One of these days, Carter, I am going to drag you to my lake kicking and screaming," he informed her, amusement over the running joke that was his habit of inviting her to fish and her habit of making excuses not to coloring his voice.
"One of these days, sir, you won't have to drag me," she answered without thinking. She flushed and bowed her head, wondering if the response had been out of line. Or, rather, over a certain line that both were exceedingly careful never to cross...
"That's the spirit," he answered, pretending not to notice her discomfiture. It did not prevent him from feeling a little pang of regret over what could not be, but the regulations were the regulations and he was unwilling to risk her career by violating them. He, on the other hand, would have to retire eventually, and maybe then...
Sam smiled faintly at him, walking up to the pharmacy counter and presenting her prescriptions.
"It'll be about twenty minutes, ma'am," the pharmacy tech told her after glancing at the papers. Sleeping pills and nerve pills were probably the most common prescriptions he processed since his arrival at the SGC, and they always kept both in abundance.
"Thanks."
"Want to grab a cup of coffee?" Jack offered.
She smiled faintly at him, nodding. "I'd like that, sir."
"Great. Come on," he said, taking her arm and steering her towards the cafeteria.
***
Sam sipped at her coffee in relative silence, enjoying the company of her commanding officer and doing her best to shake off her uneasy feeling over the dreams. They were only dreams, she told herself firmly, although part of her mind insisted that they were something else entirely. She had read her Greek mythology in high school; she knew that Apollo was the god associated with prophecy. Could those awful dreams actually be prophetic?
It would never even have occurred to her if it had not been for the fact that there was a period of several hours during her 'interrogation' that she could not for the life of her remember. What if he had done something to her, as Nirrti had to Jonas?
Jonas...
If anyone could tell the difference between simple nightmares and actual visions of the future, it would be Jonas Quinn, who had firsthand experience with both. It had been a long time since she had seen the young Kelwonan, and she missed him anyways. Maybe a visit to his planet was in order. And she did have the down-time for it. Surely neither the Colonel nor the General could object to her visiting an old friend in that free time, even if the old friend in question was off-world. They all had friends and family off-world, after all, and they visited them as often as time allowed.
She nodded to herself, staring into her coffee. Jonas could at least tell her what a vision felt like, make a reasonable guess as to whether or not that was what she was suffering. She felt a little guilty that she had not thought about visiting him before now, but shook that off. She had been busy and Jonas, no doubt, had been twice as busy, picking up the pieces after a planet-wide war and trying to establish peace between three nations that had been at war with one another for time immemorial. That could hardly leave much time for social calls. Hopefully by now things were settling down enough for him to be easily able to see her.
"Penny for your thoughts, Carter?"
She looked up, startled. She had almost forgotten that she was not alone at the table. "Oh, I was just thinking of what I'm going to do with my down-time," she answered honestly. "I thought maybe I'd drop in on Jonas, see how he's doing..."
"Jonas?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow and regarding her curiously.
Sam and Jonas had always been close, and that left him feeling something he had no right to: jealousy. It was an ugly emotion under the best of circumstances, and no CO had a right to feel it where a subordinate was concerned. It clouded judgments and made impartiality difficult. It was the reason that relationships with people under your command were not allowed. Still, Sam had never shown that kind of affection for Jonas before, and Jack honestly did like the young man.
"It's been awhile," Sam answered shrugging and wondering at the emotions flashing across his eyes in spite of his obvious effort not to let them show. "Not like I have many friends on this planet," she added, grinning at him.
"Yeah. Guess for that you'd have to get off-base once in awhile," he answered, glancing down at his watch. "Your prescriptions should be done."
"They'll hold them. I think I'd like another cup of coffee," she told him, enjoying the opportunity to spend time with him that was not devoted to work.
"Okay," he said, pleased. Rising and grabbing the two empty cups, he wandered off to get more.
***
Hammond had been a little startled by Sam's request to visit Jonas, but he granted it readily enough after a few moments consultation with Janet. Sam had been faintly annoyed by that precaution, but she could not fault him for it, either. He was responsible for the physical and mental well-being of every man and woman on the base, after all, and he could hardly afford to take chances with one he knew for a fact to be suffering the effects of extreme stress.
Jack saw her as far as the Gate-room but did not, to her relief, offer to accompany her to Kelwona. Not that she would have minded his company -- she never did -- but she wanted to discuss her nightmares with Jonas in private, for a number of reasons. The fact that the nightmares involved Jack and herself killing each other was hardly the least of those reasons, but there were others. If the Colonel thought she was compromised in any way, he would pull her from active duty, plain and simple.
She would have done the same in his situation, if one of her people was potentially compromised, but she was not and she knew it. She was not sure how she knew it, exactly, but she did. As much as these nightmares scared her, worried her that she might be compromised in the very near future, she knew in her heart that she was not. Not at present, at least.
But if there nightmares actually were visions, then she would be, unless she could find a way to stop the events of the dreams from unfolding. She could not have begun to know where to start in that regard but, again, Jonas had some experience with such matters. If anyone could help her, it would be Jonas Quinn.
Her stomach gave an anxious lurch as the Gate started to spin, and she found herself wondering if she was doing the right thing or not. Jonas had inadvertently caused his visions to come true by trying to prevent them. What if she was walking into that kind of situation? But there were no Gua'old on Kelwona, so she could not possibly be infested by one there, either.
"I hate paradoxes," she muttered, shaking her head.
"What's that, Carter?" Jack asked, frowning curiously.
"Nothing, sir," she assured him, grateful that the Gate was so loud while dialing. It had effectively obscured her comment from him.
He frowned down at her for a moment before nodding. "Say hi to Jonas for me," he directed as the wormhole's event-horizon exploded into existence. "Tell him that offer to go fishing when he gets the time still stands."
Sam grinned and nodded at her CO, her anxiety effectively washed away by his flip comment. As long as Jack O'Neill was still a smart-ass, things could not be that wrong with the universe. Saluting smartly, she walked up the ramp and crossed the event-horizon.