SG-1 was all gathered in the same room. Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were seated in various positions around O'Neill's bed, and were listening as Teal'c told them about the blood sample he'd brought back, and about the creature he'd taken it from. Jack was asleep – or passed out, Sam wasn't sure. He wasn't in the ice bath, though, so she was able to sit close to him, and even as she listened to Teal'c her hand was idly caressing her CO's hand.

"I didn't see anything like that..." Daniel said, once Teal'c had given them a description of the creature.

"It was very well camouflaged, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. "I, myself, did not observe the creature the first time we went to the planet." Meaning that if Teal'c hadn't seen it, there was no way Daniel could have.

"Janet thinks this creature can be the key to figuring out what's wrong with the Colonel?" Sam asked.

"It's blood may well be," Teal'c confirmed.

"That's good news..."

"Indeed."

Teal'c excused himself a moment later to go shower, and Daniel and Sam continued their vigil, watching as O'Neill's temperature once more started to rise.

OOOOOOO

"What did you learn from the blood taken from the creature on PYR-002?"

Hammond couldn't stop himself from coming down to the infirmary and asking for a report from Doctor Fraiser. He'd spent the day pretending to be working on his paperwork, and he'd purposely stayed clear of the infirmary, not wanting to distract everyone by having the base commander appearing and breathing down their necks and looking over their shoulders, but now he'd been unable to control himself. Teal'c had been back from the planet for several hours, now, and he had to assume that Janet Fraiser and her medical team had found something – hopefully something helpful – and he wanted some good news.

"The creature's blood is filled with all kinds of crazy antigens, Sir." Janet told him, looking down at yet another paper filled with lab results. She looked exhausted, but this time Hammond didn't send her to get some rest. He'd just come from looking in on Jack, who was failing faster. Fraiser had given him a few days to fight this thing, but it looked to Hammond – who admitted he didn't know everything and could have been wrong – like Jack wasn't going to make it through another night. Janet really didn't have time to rest, and she knew it. So did the people around her. They had stepped up the pace of their tests, working harder and faster, because unlike Hammond – who was guessing – they all knew how little time Jack had. No matter how much they tried to pretend he wasn't all that bad off.

"Good antigens?"

"Usable antigens," Janet said. "Right now we're isolating the one we need by testing each of them separately on the bacterium in Colonel O'Neill's blood. Once we have the one that destroys the bacterium, we'll begin to modify it for our own uses."

"Can't you just inject the whole thing into Colonel O'Neill's bloodstream and let it sort itself out in him?"

She shook her head.

"I wish I could, Sir. But some of these are toxic to humans, and we already know that. If we don't separate them, we could kill the bacterium, but also kill Colonel O'Neill. We have to isolate the one we need – and then modify it so it's not dangerous."

"How long, doctor?"

Janet looked over at the clock on the wall. It was Sunday, now, and she hadn't even realized it was so late.

"I'm not sure, Sir. A few hours. Hopefully less."

It'd be less if he let her get to work, Hammond knew. He nodded.

"I'll let you be so you can get back to work, Doctor. Keep me informed, please. As much as you can, anyways."

"Yes, Sir."

Janet went back into the lab, and Hammond went back to his office. He had briefly considered sending Daniel, Carter and Teal'c off to get some sleep – Daniel and Sam looked as tired as Fraiser had, and Hammond felt – but he didn't. They needed to be with Jack, in case the cure didn't come in time. Hammond knew this, and he understood it. Besides, O'Neill wasn't awake, but the General was sure he knew that they were with him, and he was sure he'd take some small comfort from that. Hammond wasn't going to make Jack be alone if he didn't have to be. He went to his office, and sat down once more at his desk. And waited.

OOOOOOOO

Finding the antigen wasn't so hard. It was easy enough to separate the various components of the blood- Janet and her team had been doing that all weekend with O'Neill's own blood samples, trying to figure out what was wrong with him so it wasn't any more complicated to do it with the creature's blood. The hard part was finding the way to keep the antigens from being lethal to the human body. The creature was from a completely different world, after all. There were no humans on that planet – apparently – and there was, as far as Janet could tell, no human friendly antigens in the creature's blood. Not all of them were fatal, but they weren't compatible, either, and Janet needed to trick them into being compatible before she'd dare to inject them into O'Neill. He was too weak from his illness to be able to fight off another infection caused by an antigen reaction.

She wasn't the doctor she was for nothing, though. And she had been surrounded with one of the finest medical staffs and researching staffs in the world. Between her and the others they'd find the solution, she was certain. It was just a matter of time. She just hoped it was time Jack had.