DISCLAIMER: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-1, the goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of the people who made them up. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

A Snake In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush

Part six

Jack sat up abruptly. He'd been trying to sleep for hours but each time he closed his eyes he had an unsettling feeling that he was enclosed by water. Rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands he was startled to hear a voice next to him.

'Can't sleep either, sir?' Carter asked.

'Apparently not. How long have you been awake?'

'Off and on for a couple of hours. Each time I doze off I feel like I'm in water and it wakes me up. You know, for a while back there I really thought…' her voice trailed off and Jack gave her an understanding look.

'Anyway, I figured when you sat up you couldn't sleep either so I might as well give up trying for now.'

'Are the others asleep?'

'Yeah, I think so. Daniel appears to be sound asleep, Clare's been a bit restless but she seems to have settled again. What's that?' Sam exclaimed as a pale figure passed by the end of the bed.

'I would imagine that Clare is no longer sound asleep,' Jack told her. 'Or rather, she probably is sound asleep and is off for some more nocturnal exploring.'

'Nocturnal exploring?'

'It's Clare sleepwalking again,' Jack explained.

'Again?'

'Carter, will you quit doing that - anyone would think you were an echo. Daniel found her wandering the corridors in her sleep a couple of nights ago - looks like it's getting to be a habit. We're gonna have to post a guard on her to keep her from getting lost at this rate,' Jack said dryly.

Sam listened to this last part as she climbed out of bed and moved softly towards the silent figure so as not to waken her. Gently but firmly she turned Clare around and guided her back to her own bed, saw her safely settled and pulled the covers up around her again.

'My brother used to sleepwalk,' Sam explained in reply to the questioning look Jack threw at her. 'Well, I think I'll see if I can get some sleep now. Good night sir.'

'Night.'

************

Janet, arriving on duty the next morning, was surprised to find all her patients not only still in the infirmary but asleep as well. Thankful for small mercies she left them to wake up on their own.

As the members of SG1 woke, Dr Fraiser gave them all a brief check up and released them with orders to take it easy for a few days and to report back to her immediately if they suffered from any unexpected symptoms. Heaving a sigh of relief, she was left only with Clare and Robert Rothman. Robert was already showing signs of improvement but would be tied to the infirmary for another week at least. Clare was more of a puzzle. She was still sound asleep, not even stirring when her blood pressure and temperature had been taken.

Clare slept right through the day, only waking up towards the end of the afternoon. Not long after she had hungrily eaten the food brought to her she was surprised to see she had visitors.

'So, you've rejoined the land of the living,' Jack greeted her.

'How're you doing?' Asked Sam.

'Much better thanks. I still feel pretty tired but Doctor Fraiser says that should pass quickly. She wants to do some tests - find out what's going on in my head.' Clare pulled a face.

'Oh, we know all about Dr Fraiser's tests,' Daniel grimaced in sympathy. 'But I'm sure it'll be fine,' he hastily added on seeing her worried expression.

'Anyway,' Jack changed the subject. 'There's something I've been meaning to ask you two. When we left yesterday you were both in the infirmary, how come you got an early release to join the rescue mission?'

'Clare remembered what would happen when you got to the Temple,' Daniel explained. 'There was a code on the escape hatch that needed to be translated and I was the only one available. Dr Fraiser obviously thought my skull is thick enough to need more than a blow to the head to keep me out of action.'

'Ok, that I can understand, but what about Clare?' Jack couldn't figure that one out at all, with no off-world experience and suffering the after effects of being blended with a symbiote, why on earth had Hammond let her go along?

'There was something else which she couldn't remember until we actually got to the Temple - if she hadn't gone along we'd probably all have been dead. Hathor must have had a thing for booby traps,' Daniel added.

'Well, in that case,' Jack looked at Clare, 'Thank you very much for saving our butts.'

Clare smiled, a little embarrassed at being the centre of attention.

'Well, I'm glad to see you're feeling better,' Sam spoke up, seeing the yawns Clare was trying to stifle. 'I guess we'd better let you get some rest. We'll come and see you tomorrow. Good night.'

'But we only just got here,' Jack complained, suddenly understanding when Daniel jabbed him in the side with his elbow and glared at thim. 'And now we have to go. Good night.'

************

Daniel, visiting the infirmary the following day, was pleased to find Clare awake and alert, still looking a little tired but much improved.

'So…what you up to?' he asked.

'Waiting for more tests.' Clare sounded extremely fed up. 'I've been poked and prodded and had so much blood taken from me I feel as if there can't be anything left. Now they want to do a CAT scan and an MRI scan and a couple of others. I feel like a guinea pig.'

'Well, while you're waiting how do you feel about some company and some information?' Daniel offered sympathetically - he knew only too well how tedious the tests could be, and Janet always seemed to be inventing new ones to carry out.

'Sounds good to me - but won't Dr Fraiser object?' Clare asked nervously.

'She's already given me the go ahead - I saw her before I came in. So…where to start?'

'Well, I know some things already, in a fuzzy kind of way,' Clare helped him out. 'I mean, you call the Chappa'ai something else, but it's basically the same thing isn't it?'

'Right. And it is called Chappa'ai by a lot of people from other planets. Ok, I'll start at the beginning and you can let me know if anything sounds familiar.'

Daniel told her about finding the Stargate and getting it to work, about the first mission to Abydos where he'd met Sha're and stayed behind. How Jack and his teams had returned following Apophis's raid on the 'gate room. About the people they had met and the places they had visited and how they were fighting a war against the goa'uld, trying to make allies and acquire technology to help them protect the people of Earth who were not even aware of the existence of the Stargate and its capabilities or of the danger threatening them.

'Apart from the people in the mountain, and not all of them know exactly what goes on right down here,' Daniel had explained that the Stargate was 28 levels underground, 'Only the President and a very few of his advisors are aware of what we do.'

'Wow.' Clare had allowed Daniel to talk without interruption, fascinated by what she had heard but with scores of unanswered questions still.

Dr Fraiser arrived just then to whisk her away, Clare protesting that she still had questions to ask and not satisfied until Dr Fraiser agreed to Daniel returning later on during the afternoon when Clare would have had time to recover from the scans she would be undergoing. Seeing that further protests would not get her anywhere, Clare accepted her fate and began processing the information she had been given.

Daniel returned as promised, this time with Jack and Sam in tow. He'd asked Teal'c along as well but had been refused. 'Clare Dawson is not comfortable in my presence. I will wait until she is recovered,' Teal'c had told him. Jack's comment that 'Maybe it's because you shot her,' brought no reaction from him, instead he resumed watching his Star Wars video.

Clare was looking paler than she had done that morning but still appeared to be in fairly good spirits and barely waited for them to find chairs before she started firing questions, mainly at Daniel, but willing to listen to anyone who had the answers. Half an hour later Jack put a stop to the questions, concerned at Clare's flushed face.

'Enough, enough,' he pleaded light-heartedly. 'Can't we change the subject now? You know, talk about something important like who's gonna win the hockey game tonight?'

Clare, more relaxed now, smiled at his interruption and subsided. She knew pretty much everything she wanted to know and there would be chance to find out more another time.

The conversation moved on to hockey, dominated by Jack whose passion this was, ignoring the glazed looks that had come over the faces of the others. He was brought to an abrupt halt when he suddenly realised he had lost the attention of one of his listeners completely. Clare had fallen asleep.

'Now see what you've done,' Daniel teased him. 'Next time I can't get to sleep I'm going to ring you up and you can talk hockey to me.'

Jack glared at him but said nothing further, instead he stalked off to enjoy the game and a few beers.

***************

The following day Clare sat once again in the briefing room where she had first formally met SG1. Daniel had shown her around the base, including the gate room and control room and where they were in relation to the guest quarters she had been assigned, making it to the briefing room in plenty of time for the meeting with General Hammond, SG1 and Dr Fraiser.

'Dr Fraiser, can you tell us what you've discovered?' Hammond asked.

'Clare is using a significantly larger proportion of her brain than is customary in humans, similar to when Colonel O'Neill had the knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into his brain, but on a much smaller scale, and new neural pathways are being created. The hypothalamus has been altered, which would explain Clare's ability to keep up with the rest of the rescue mission.' Dr Fraiser paused, to ensure the others were following her. 'These extra functions only seem to operate when stimulated. I took two sets of scans. The first showed up the altered brain chemistry but nothing else. For the second Clare talked about what had happened during the rescue and her memories of the planet and it was quite clear that these changes were becoming active, although the normal, human parts of the brain were still in control of the situation. The alterations are some kind of enhancement.'

'So - what does this all mean?' Jack asked, having only understood about a third of what Janet had said.

'What that means, sir, is that while I can only recall some of Jolinar's memories, Qu'ilar's memories are part of Clare, waiting to come out when something triggers them,' Sam explained. 'She can also draw on physical strength when needed, but she retains control over this - I mean she won't go smashing the place up or anything.'

'Do you foresee any problems with this?' General Hammond queried.

'It's impossible to say sir,' Dr Fraiser replied. 'I've never come across something like this before. I do know there is no way of knowing or even controlling when or how a memory will surface. I also don't know if there are likely to be any side effects or long term effects. I will insist on daily visits to the infirmary however, to monitor any changes.'

'Thank you doctor. Any more questions?' Hammond asked.

'Er, yes.' Clare spoke up in a small voice, feeling that although they had talked about her, nobody seemed to be talking to her. 'What exactly does this mean for me?'

'What that means, I'm afraid, is that in the interests of National Security you will need to stay on the base until we can assess the impact of what has happened. Dr Jackson has informed you of our work here hasn't he?' Clare nodded. 'Then I hope you'll understand the situation. You've signed the non-disclosure documents so working with SG1 on the base will not be a problem. You will need to be escorted at all times as we do not know when or how a memory could be triggered or what side effects there may be.'

Clare accepted the explanation, almost thankful to have something to focus on again.

Hammond looked around for any further questions, then dismissed those present, keeping Colonel O'Neill back.

'Your team can handle this one, Colonel?' Hammond asked.

'Well, we seem to have gotten off to a good start, I think things will work out fine.' Jack replied. 'I'm gonna set Daniel and Sam on to her - they seem to have some ideas about how to use what's in her head. I just hope this isn't going to backfire on us. I know the snakes dead but…' he left the sentence unfinished.

'Just keep an eye on the situation - and make sure she's escorted at all times.' Hammond finished and left the room, hoping that this chance to learn more about the goa'uld would pay off and not give them any cause to regret it.

***********

That evening Clare sat in the room she had been given, her mind in a whirl. The rest of the day had been caught up with domestic details, surprising her as to how involved everything was. She had just returned from the mess hall where she had eaten with the others and she was glad to have chance to catch her breath for almost the first time since this all started, only a week ago.

Now she was alone, more than thankful for the solitude she enjoyed so much. She was a naturally reserved person, preferring her own company much of the time and since she had been brought here there had been very little time for her own thoughts. She changed into her pyjamas and curled up on the bed, staring into space.

She thought about what had happened to her over the last week: being taken over by an alien, then when it died, being left with its memories somewhere deep inside her head which could help the people here save Earth.

She thought of the people she'd met: General Hammond, firm but fair. Colonel O'Neill, not sure what to make of him, sometimes he acts like your friend, the next minute he comes over all air force. Dr Fraiser, friendly and doing her best to help out the people in her care, someone she could turn to if she needed. Major Carter, another air force person, you can tell by the way she 'sirs' Colonel O'Neill and General Hammond, but she's still human and approachable. Daniel Jackson, if she'd had a brother she'd have liked him to be like Daniel, the one person she felt comfortable with and who seemed to understand her. Teal'c. Here her thoughts stopped. She didn't know why but she was still uneasy around the big Jaffa, she hoped no-one else had noticed, but seeing as he had been the one person not to visit her in the infirmary she couldn't help but think that he at least was aware.

Deciding there was nothing she could do about for the time being, she got into bed and was soon asleep.