Author's Note: Okay... this chapter is long, and maybe a little boring.... But necessary!

The planet Teal'c gated to wasn't any different than many of the others he'd been to, both with the members of SG-1 and before, when he'd been First Prime. It was green and temperate, and uninhabited as near as they'd been able to tell. They hadn't been there all that long, though. Only long enough to make an initial contact, and to check for any kind of sign of civilization that might be close to the gate. When they hadn't found any, they'd searched a small radius around the gate, still hadn't found anything or anyone, and had decided to call it a day, and had returned to the SGC. The plan had been to send another group for a slightly longer stay so they could check things even more thoroughly. Now, however, that wasn't going to happen. Not with O'Neill so ill from the short visit they'd made.

Teal'c had a fair idea of where to start looking. He and O'Neill hadn't been together all that much on PYR-002. When they had come through the Stargate, O'Neill had teamed the Jaffa with Samantha Carter – Jack's way of making sure the Major had all the back up she needed while at the same time making sure that he could keep an eye on Daniel – who loved to wander off.

Since the two of them – Teal'c and O'Neill – were the only two to have the splinters, it was safe to assume that they had picked them up at the same time and that meant they'd have to have been in the same place. A place that Daniel Jackson and Major Carter hadn't been. Which left very few choices.

As soon as the gate disengaged behind him, the Jaffa hefted his staff weapon into a better grip, shifted the large pack on his back and headed for the closest of the two places that he and O'Neill had been the only ones to stand.

Looking as quickly as he could, but also thoroughly – and wearing special gloves Doctor Fraiser had provided him, since there was no sense exposing himself any more than necessary – symbiote or not – Teal'c started picking his way through the various undergrowth and bushes that he'd walked through only the morning before. He sort of knew what he was looking for, and it didn't surprise him at all that he found one of the plants almost immediately.

It wasn't a very impressive plant. It was tall and thin, sort of like a tree with odd-shaped leaves. But not odd enough that the plant had stood out from all the ones around it. Which didn't surprise Teal'c at all. He agreed with O'Neill; you've seen one tree or plant, you've seen them all. This one, however, was interesting to Teal'c, now. There were the tiny slivers, just like the ones that had been pulled out of O'Neill's wrist and Teal'c's own skin.

He made sure it was the same kind of sliver, although he didn't touch the plant or the splinters. He wasn't there to harvest the splinters; he was there to harvest whatever it was that might be found eating the plants. Teal'c settled back in an out of the way place, and sat quietly. He chafed at the fact that he had to wait, but since he hadn't been lucky enough to come up on something while it was eating the plant right away, he was going to have to wait and see if something eventually showed up. He just hoped it wouldn't take too long.

&&

It was a long, hard day all around. What normally would have been a relaxed day – it was Saturday, after all – was tense and trying for all the people who'd remained at the SGC for the duration of Colonel O'Neill's medical emergency. The medical staff were working their tails off, a handful of them searching through every medical textbook and reference book for anything that even looked similar to the illness that had brought Jack down so quickly. Another group working in the lab, carrying what little research they'd come up with on to the next stage with all sorts of tests, each of them hoping to find the one weakness that would break the hold the bacterium had on O'Neill's immune system.

Overseeing all of it was Janet Frasier, who was in the lab most of the day, but also spent a fair amount of time checking on O'Neill every half hour or so, sorting through lab results, test results, blood work results, and keeping track of his health – which was failing at a steady rate.

Sam and Daniel spent the day in Jack's room. Janet had lifted the one visitor only prohibition, and the remaining members of SG-1 maintained a constant vigil. Jack's temperature continued to fluctuate through the day – one minute he'd be so hot they were forced to put him back into the ice bath – something he never complained about, but that took more out of him every time it happened. He'd just close his eyes, and shiver – blocking out everything and everyone as he fought off demons that only he could see.

Then they'd pull him out, bundle him up and put him to bed, watching as his temperature – which always dropped in the ice bath – would slowly, but steadily, rise once more until they had to repeat the ordeal.

While he was in bed, Daniel and Sam hovered close, trying to reassure him that it wouldn't be long, and that Teal'c was probably even then on his way back to the Stargate with something that would help. They told him with words and expressions not to give up, and tried without success to get him to eat or drink. And watched as he grew more and more distant as his health failed the longer the long day wore on.

When he wasn't in the ice bath, and was a little less chilled, Jack tried – he did – but it was getting harder and harder for him to try and reassure his team. The longer the day stretched, the worse he felt. His throat was raw, and he was forced to stop talking – even at a whisper – and the expression in his eyes wasn't reassuring at all, no matter how many times he tried to force a smile. He'd pretty much given up – although he was trying to hide it. He'd never felt so lousy – well, yeah, he had, and as he recalled, he'd been cold then, too. He was almost waiting for the end, so he could stop being cold. Anything would be preferable to being cold as far as he was concerned.

The only problem with that were Sam and Daniel. They weren't leaving him alone for a minute – when one needed a break for something, the other would stay and talk to Jack, making sure – even if he had his eyes closed – that he was still fighting, still staying with them. No matter how much Jack didn't want to.

And so the day went... and it was a rough one.

&&

It was almost twelve hours before Teal'c finally saw something that might be what Janet Fraiser had sent him for. Twelve long hours of sitting still, and watching the small clump of plants, waiting for something to come and eat it. When something finally did, Teal'c had been watching for so long that he'd almost missed it at first.

A small creature, so well camouflaged in the green and brown grasses that surrounded the plants in question, that Teal'c had had to look three times before he decided that, yes, he was seeing something moving over there. He was about twenty feet away, and close enough that he could see the creature rather well once he managed to focus on it. It was small – about the size of a squirrel – and dully colored tan and brown, which was why it'd been so hard to spot. As Teal'c watched, the creature looked around carefully – the mark of a creature that was used to being hunted and not being a hunter – and then it used one arm to pull a plant down to its level, and started eating the leaves. Teal'c noticed that the small slivers on the stems of the plants – the ones that had wreaked such havoc – were in constant contact with the skin of the creature, and they obviously weren't bothering it at all. This was what he'd been looking for.

Deciding that this creature was too big to take back to the SGC – it wasn't all that smart to bring back creatures from other planets anyways, since you never knew what you might be unleashing onto the general populous if the creature were to manage to escape – Teal'c decided that he'd capture the creature and merely take a blood sample. After all, Fraiser had told him the blood was all they'd really need anyways. He couldn't use a drug to put the creature down since that would possibly contaminate the blood sample – so Teal'c had to catch it on the run. Which wasn't as hard as it might have been for someone of the Tau'ri.

The Jaffa's reflexes were good – even after twelve hours of sitting still – and he had been provided with a net that resembled one a butterfly collector might carry. He moved stealthily closer to the creature, getting within range, and simply threw the net at the small animal, tangling it up easily and immobilizing it.

Screeching its protests as the Jaffa unraveled the netting around it, the creature tried many times to bite Teal'c. Teal'c avoided the big teeth easily, and managed to immobilize the creature – despite the way it was wriggling in his hand – long enough to pull out the blood-drawing kit that Fraiser had given him and showed him how to use. He drew blood from it, carefully put the vial into a case to protect it, and then released the creature and watched as it scurried off, still calling back its protests at such rough treatment.

Teal'c put the case into his pack, retrieved his staff weapon and the rest of his supplies, and headed back towards the gate at a jog.