Sorry it took so long to get this part up...took a long time to come up with a plot device, and plus I was away, etc...Anyway, here it is!

------------------------------------

Another couple of days passed, with no more information gathered. Jack and Daniel were still sick. Janet said their symptoms were similar to 'flu, and if this were an alien strain, or something like it, they should improve soon. Jack, however, was unimpressed: he was bored of being sick, and hadn't felt any improvement yet. Daniel had been asking for his research for days, and Jack was starting to agree with him: They weren't getting better, but they weren't getting worse, either. What if they stayed this way forever? They needed to get to the bottom of this.

Sam had been awake for a full week straight, and if anything, she felt more active and hyper every day. She felt almost as though she had the Attenique armband on again—which worried her a more than a little. Teal'c had finally convinced General Hammond to let him go back to the planet and retrieve some more samples, but they hadn't revealed anything they didn't already know.

It was night-time, and Sam was in her lab, peering at the now endlessly familiar particles from PY1-486. She had nothing else to do, and Janet had confined her to the base so she couldn't go home and relax. She doubted she could relax anywhere right now: quite apart from her hyperactivity, she was worried about Daniel and the Colonel.

Sam sighed and rose, pushing the microscope away from the edge of the worktable. She meandered through the hallways, past the commissary, through the briefing room to see the 'gateroom and the door to General Hammond's office. Everything was silent and empty now, everyone gone home for the night. She went up a few levels to the officers' quarters, and passed Teal'c's room. She paused: there was flickering light coming from the base of the door. Sam carefully opened the door, to see Teal'c deep in Kel'no'reem. Sensing her presence, he opened his eyes, nodded serenely, and sank back into the calming meditation. Sam smiled and closed the door.

She passed the Colonel's room: empty now; he was in the infirmary. Daniel's home-away-from-home was his office: he slept there at least half the time he was on-world. Sometimes she thought the rest of it was spent in an infirmary bed. But they had all spent more than enough time in the infirmary.

Sam stopped at her own quarters, peeked in. She grinned ruefully: she hadn't spent much time in here in the past week. Her bed was still made from a few weeks ago. The sad part was, she hadn't been home in all that time.

Her room was near the end of the hallway, so she turned around. She retraced her steps until she got to the main corridor again, and went up another few flights. This floor was where her and Daniel's lab were. Having visited her own, she stopped by Daniel's.

She opened the door carefully: you never knew where Daniel would put his stuff, Sam thought. She peeked in, to see Daniel glaring at the door.

"Daniel!" she said, surprised.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to knock on doors before you entered them?" He glared at her from his desk. He had a thick book in front of him, as well as his notebook, and a pencil in his hand. His desklamp was on, but other than that the room was dark.

Sam grinned, and switched the light on. "Didn't your mother ever teach you that reading in the dark makes your eyes go bad? No wonder you need glasses." She walked over to him, and leaned over the desk. "Feeling better?" She raised her eyebrows. "Janet doesn't know you're in here, does she?"

"My mother was quite fond of reading, in the dark or otherwise, and foster parents don't really care. So I guess I never got that advice." He raised his eyebrows. "And no, Janet doesn't know I'm here, and she won't know if you know what's good for you. She's gone home, actually. General's orders. Apparently 'that's what nurses are for.'"

Sam smiled again, sitting in a chair on the other side of the desk from Daniel. "Well, they can't keep ol' Doc Jackson in line..."

Daniel smiled ruefully. "Yeah, well..." He sighed. "I'm tired of being sick, you know?"

"Understandable," Sam said wryly.

Daniel sighed again. "You know what I mean...we're not really getting any worse, but we're not getting any better either. If the translation is the key to this, I'm the only one who can help me, you and Jack. I mean...well, me and Jack at least. I dunno if you're...happy that you can spend more time in your lab, or what..." He grinned, ducking his head to hide the expression.

"I wouldn't go that far," she said. "I feel like I'm on a constant sugar rush." She shook her head. "Jittery, you know?" She smiled slightly. "So, you still haven't answered my question."

"And that would be..."

"Are you feeling better at all?" She looked hopefully at him. Maybe the disease was going away on its own. If he could manage to traverse the halls of the SGC...

"Mmm," he said, grimacing. "Not really in general... At night it's better, for some reason. Not as many people, maybe. The less people around, the better it is, at least that's what Jack says."

"Really?" Sam frowned. "Weird. I wonder—" She looked worriedly at Daniel. "Am I making you feel worse now?"

"A little." He shrugged. She got up to leave, but he stopped her. "No, stay. I was enjoying the company."

"If you're sure..." she said cautiously, sitting down again.

Daniel smiled reassuringly, and looked briefly down at the notebook he was working on.

"Found anything?" Sam asked, curious.

"Mmm...not much," Daniel replied. "I think it was a matriarchal society. Most of it's just pictures, so it's pretty open to interpretation..." he sighed. "They didn't like men much. That's all I've really found out." He frowned. "What's strange is the level of technology they seem to have had. According to the few bits of real writing I saw, they're pretty technologically advanced, but there's no evidence of it there. A little like Niirti, actually..."

Sam was alarmed. "Niirti's been there?"

Daniel looked up, surprised. "Oh, no. I mean, I doubt it. Those ruins are pretty old. I'm just saying she used sort of secret labs, secret technology. And although—as I said—there's evidence of technology in the writing, we didn't see any evidence of it."

"Do you think the...disease is another attempt to create a hok'tar?" Sam asked.

Daniel speculated. "Actually, that might be. But of three people who've been...infected, only you have shown any...signs of abnormality. Well," he amended, at her look, "any 'good' signs. I mean, I doubt a goa'uld would enjoy being in a host that's sick all the time."

"Do you think it affected me differently because I'm female?" Sam asked. "I mean, if it's got females as the dominant gender, that might make sense."

"Yeah, it would," Daniel said. "But the problem with our...theory here is, if the host had a goa'uld, it wouldn't matter if the host was sick, because the goa'uld could cure it, right? And if it didn't have to sleep, wouldn't it already not have to sleep—again, because of the goa'uld?"

Sam shrugged. "Maybe that's why the goa'uld abandoned the experiment."

"Yeah..." Daniel sighed. "I dunno. The female idea is good; I don't see how it could be anything different. But there's no evidence of goa'ulds at all."

"Well, if it was really a primitive race, they'd need to get the technology from somewhere."

Daniel shrugged. "Maybe it was just natural? Maybe the disease...or whatever it was just did this naturally, and it made the females seem strong and the males weak?" He sighed, and put his head in his hands, closing his eyes.

Sam caught the act quickly. "Headache?" She asked.

Daniel grimaced. "Yeah. What time is it? Usually it doesn't come back this early."

Sam glanced at her watch. "0600," she said, as surprised as Daniel that it was almost time for the day to begin. "You better go back to the infirmary if you don't want your butt chewed. And don't blame me, okay? It's not my fault you decided to take a little walk."

Daniel shrugged. "Yeah, I know. Do you think you could help me back? I seem to get dizzy a lot." He smiled in apology.

"Sure," she said, standing and walking around the desk to Daniel's side. She looked at the papers Daniel had been working on. Unnoticed by Sam, Daniel had been making notes during their conversation. Daniel followed her gaze, and smiled. "We do good work, Major," he said. She grinned at his rare use of her title.

They walked slowly, Daniel leaning on Sam some of the time, but mostly walking on his own. When they were almost at the infirmary, they saw Janet come out of it.

"Daniel!" she exclaimed. "I was about to put the base on alert. Where were you?" She glared at Sam, "C'mon, back to bed, Daniel."

"It wasn't Sam's fault," Daniel protested. "She was, um, looking for me. And she...found me in my office. And, um, convinced me to come back..."

The look on Janet's face told Sam she wasn't buying it, and Sam hovered, not wanting to get in trouble, but also not wanting Daniel to be at her mercy. 'He's already at her mercy, stupid,' she thought, but she stayed: she wanted to see the Colonel, if she was allowed.

Janet had taken the situation in her control. Daniel was sitting on 'his' bed, and Janet giving him a once-over, making sure his adventure hadn't given him any bruises or scrapes. "I'm fine, Janet," Daniel protested. Janet leveled a gaze at him, and he amended, "Okay, I'm as fine as I have been in the past week. Happy?"

"No," she said, smiling a little once she knew he wasn't worse. "Daniel, it's the Colonel's job to sneak out of the infirmary, not yours..."

"Actually," said Colonel said from a few feet away, "It's my job to corrupt the youth of America, whether by suggestion or example. Colonel O'Neill saves the day, and all that. Another successful mission; Daniel has discovered the delight of not obeying his doctor." Jack smiled cheekily under Janet's harsh glare.

-----------------------------

Please review!