Sam pulled up next to the curb in front of her house, glad to finally be home and able to rest even if it was for way too short a time. All she wanted to do was soak in a hot bath with a glass of wine beside her.
Maybe a few candles would be nice, too.
She let herself into her quiet house and flicked the light switch, illuminating the hallway and beyond into her cozy living room. She leaned down and untied her boots and tossed them in the corner. With a relieved sigh, she threw herself on the sofa and closed her eyes as she leaned her head back against the overstuffed arm rest.
She was so tired, so very tired.
So tired that a slightly unpleasant tingling sensation was running through her arms and her head had a faint buzz reverberating within.
She wanted a bath, but the effort of going to the bathroom and running the water was beyond her.
So she decided she would just lay down and close her eyes for a few minutes, just until she had rallied a bit.
Just a few minutes.
Just a...
Sam woke with a start, disoriented, in the dark of her living room.
The clock said 0500.
She'd slept all night on the couch, neck bent awkwardly on the arm rest, in her dusty fatigues, and now she had to be back at the SGC in two hours.
Feeling like she'd been gypped out of her free time, Sam rose groggily and went to the bathroom, looking regretfully at the antique clawfoot tub she had so been looking forward to lounging in, and crossed the black and white tiles to twist on the taps for the separately standing shower in the corner.
She was going off world again today, this time to visit the Tok'Ra and see her Dad for a few days, and that lovely tub was going to have to wait just a bit longer.
She rubbed at the nagging pain at the base of her neck, which seemed to have worsened since yesterday. She stepped under the water and let the hot needles bombard the painful area, but it didn't help much. With a sigh of resignation, she turned her attention to thoroughly scrubbing herself and washing her hair, feeling much better when she finished and towelled her now clean body.
It didn't take her long to make a cup of tea and grab the paper off the steps in preparation for a few precious minutes of relaxation before heading off to work. Never mind that reading the Wall Street Journal was relaxing to her.
As she climbed into her car at the curb and revved the motor, the pain in the back of her head sparked for a moment and she had to close her eyes until it passed.
Sam turned off the car and slapped the steering wheel in frustration, the first time she could ever remember feeling that she didn't trust her ability to drive. After mentally deliberating on it for a few minutes, she pulled out her cell phone.
"Colonel O'Neill?"
"Good morning, Major. Everything okay?"
She never called him at home.
"I was wondering if you could give me a ride in."
Sam hated having to ask him and she really didn't want to have to explain further.
"Car trouble?"
"No," Sam hedged.
"You okay?" Jack asked gently, hearing a subtle something in her voice.
"I've got a headache."
Bad enough to not want to drive, Jack mused in amazement to himself.
"Uhh, okay, no problem. I'll be there in about 30 minutes. I'm not actually out of bed yet."
"Oh. Sorry, sir."
"Hey, I needed to get up. Now I'll be a little less late than usual."
Sam smiled in relief as she hung up. Sam knew he was rarely late, but she appreciated his attempt to make her feel like she was doing him a favor rather than bothering him.
Heading back inside the house, she fixed half a pot of coffee, knowing Jack would appreciate a cup. Sitting down on a kitchen chair to wait for him, she began mentally reviewing today's planned mission to the Tok'Ra. She hoped that somewhere in the Tok'Ra genetic memory there would be some clue as to what the Furlings were and how they could be defeated.
Her brain felt muddled and achy as she tried to think through the facts they had already learned.
That the Furlings were possibly the ancient race from which the Goa'uld had developed and were back in this galaxy, bent on domination, after a millenia of banishment.
That they possessed other races by mind control from over a distance, not direct physical control as excercised by the Goa'uld.
Why did her head hurt so much?
That the Ancients had apparently been successful in driving the soul stalkers utterly out of their galaxy.
That they needed to somewhere find a memory, an artifact, any clue at all, as to how the Ancients had accomplished that feat.
Forget it. It was too painful to think about it, about anything.
The coffee was done, so she poured a cup and creamed it up the way she liked it, hoping the caffeine would work it's usual miracles.
"Carter?"
"Back here, sir."
"Is that coffee?"
"It is. There's a cup for you back here."
"Aahh." Jack had found his way unerringly to the steaming mug Sam had poured and was already tasting it.
"This will have to last a few days, you know, since we're going to see the Tok'Ra."
They both privately lamented the fact that coffee and tea, among other things that they both loved to eat and drink, were not on the Tok'Ra menu.
Turning the pot off and grabbing her keys, Sam followed Jack out to his jeep.
"Feeling any better, Carter?" Jack asked as they buckled up and he u-turned and then sped down the street.
"Yes, sir. Thanks for the ride, I really appreciate it. I feel a little.."
"Don't mention it, Carter. You're right on my way anyhow."
He swerved to avoid a pothole and then careened wildly onto the expressway, causing Sam to internally question whether she would have been safer just driving herself, headache or no.
"Hammond called me right after you did. The Tok'Ra are anxious to hear our news about our encounter with the Telepaths on P2X...something...something. Seems one of their operatives, hidden on a Goa'uld world not far from P2...whatever, has reported their world is under attack from beings that, quote, can possess both host and Goa'uld. End quote."
"That sounds ominous."
"Well, we leave at 1300 hours."
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing Dad again."
"Hey, what about saving the galaxy?"
"That's number two on the list."
Jacob was waiting at the Gate as they stepped off the ramp onto the barren planet where the Tok'Ra were currently based. Sam and Jacob hugged affectionately, both genuinely delighted to see the other again. Jack waited until they stepped back from one another to give Jacob a hug of his own.
Somewhere over the years, the relationship between the two had grown from a wary professional respect to that of a father and son, and both now really enjoyed being in the other's company.
Jacob gave Jack a fatherly pat on the back as they walked towards the ring platform, hidden under rock and dust.
Jacob told them what they had already been told by Hammond concerning the recently reported alien attacks on a Goa'uld world.
Then he told them something they didn't know: that a similar attack had just been reported on yet another planet in the same vicinity of space.
It would seem the Furlings were wasting no time in launching their assault, and just as the alien had threatened, the Goa'uld were no match for them.
The Tok'Ra proposed an alliance between themselves and Earth to find a way to stop this enemy before they gained a foothold.
"So the Tok'Ra need the T'auri now, is that it?" Jack whispered cynically in Sam's ear.
He had never quite forgiven them for brushing off Earth as they had so dismissively in their first encounter with the Tok'Ra.
Sam smiled at him in a way that said, 'you're right, and you're cute, but shut up.'
The Tok'Ra Council addressed Jack and Sam.
"We request that you allow the counsel to discuss the matters presented here privately now, and we will send notice when we are finished."
The Tok'Ra bowed, the T'auri bowed, Jack tried to bow but instead managed a movement that resembled a shoulder twitch.
They left.
"Okay, I'm ready to go home," Jack moaned grumpily, his hate affair with the Tok'Ra back in full bloom.
Sam stopped suddenly, closing her eyes and swaying a bit.
"Carter," Jack asked.
"I'm tired, that's all."
She allowed Jack to take her by the arm and they walked into her assigned quarters there on the base. Sam sat on the bed and rubbed her temples.
"You've had a headache ever since that mindsucker knocked you out back on the planet, haven't you?"
"Yeah."
"Did you tell the doc?"
"No... I just need to get some sleep."
"I'll just stay here and close my eyes for a few, okay, Carter?"
Jack was already propped in a chair with his feet on the end of the bed, eyes closed, looking amazingly comfortable for such a precarious position.
Sam lay down, glad he was staying for a while.
Neither one of them enjoyed the open layout of the Tok'Ra base, and it felt creepy to sleep alone in these cell-like rooms with no doors.
"Sir?" Sam said softly.
"Yeah," Jack grunted, almost asleep.
"Will you stay?"
Jack's eyes flew open. Did she mean all night?
"Your Dad might kill me, but sure, Carter, you're worth the risk."
"I didn't mean..."
"Well, I did. Move over, because this chair is going to bend me permanently in half."
Jack settled on the bed next to her and pulled her solidly against him.
"Now this is more like it."
"Maybe this isn't such a good..."
"Good night, Carter."
She was almost offended by how quickly he commenced snoring.
They woke abruptly in the dark, senses alert, not sure what had awoken them both at the same instant. Jack's arms, already wrapped possessively around Sam, tightened their grip as he listened for further disturbances.
Sam's eyes were suddenly wide with fright.
She clung to him and he looked questioningly into her eyes, asking her silently to tell him what was frightening her.
Sam tried hard not to cry, but tears slipped out anyway, and Jack's insides twisted as he saw and felt her terror.
"Jack! They're here!"
Instinct took over reason as suddenly Jack's only objective was to get Sam back to Earth through the Stargate. Those Furlings had done something to her, and her mind was still injured; he wouldn't risk the possibility of her falling under their power and torture, or worse, again.
Cries and shouts now filled the once peaceful base as the Tok'Ra were assaulted and easily overpowered by the telepathic beings infiltrating the base. Jack had the impossible task of not only trying to avoid the invaders, but avoiding Tok'Ra too, as they came under the control of the evil ones and their knowledge was siphoned and used against them.
One more passageway and they were at the rings, where Jack's heart sank to his shoes. The ring platform was heavily guarded by both Furlings and hypnotized Tok'Ra. It was their only means of getting to the surface where the Stargate was.
Sam was writhing in pain in his arms, too human to be overtaken and too alien to resist the Furlings all together.
In a flash of anger, something deep inside Jack began to glow red hot. Where he might have given himself up in the face of such hopelessness, he would fight to the death before relinquishing Sam.
Jack raged out to the ring platform.
Immediately, he was surrounded by several Furlings, tall and ethereal and horrible. They seemed to be unsure how to approach him. Then one reached out a cold ribbony arm and laid a hand on Jack's back.
What happened next astounded Jack as much as it terrified the Furlings. With an unearthly wail, the alien fell to the ground, shrivelling visibly and then becoming still, obviously dead.
In the seconds following, with the remaining Furlings temporarily stunned into inaction, Jack activated the rings and made his escape, Sam safely in his arms.
Sam woke fuzzily and painfully to the welcome sight of the SGC infirmary and a very familiar Colonel dozing in the chair next to her.
The memories of the attack came flooding back and she sat up.
"Jack?"
"Major Carter?" Jack responded pointedly.
They were on the SGC base.
"Sir, my father, the Tok'Ra..."
"Are safe now. It was touch and go for a while though."
"How?"
"You and Daniel were right about the Ancient genes. Every one of those butt ugly aliens died when we touched them."
"That's incredible."
"Only some of us T'auri have the zap power. SG teams 3,5,and 6 came through the Gate to help- and only about five of those guys had the right genes to help take these Furlings out."
"How did they find the Tok'Ra base so quickly?"
"Your Dad thinks they learned the location from the compromised Tok'Ra operative. This war's not over, far from it, but I think the odds are in our favor now."
"How's your headache?"
"Not that great. Did I get knocked out again?"
"Yeah, for the last 4 hours. Jacob wants to try the healing device on you, see if it helps the injury to your brain."
Her Dad had been standing there for a little while now, waiting for Sam to see him. He moved forward now, healing device in his hands.
"Let's give this a try," he said kindly, smiling at her lovingly.
She closed her eyes as the warming rays shot through her head, working their magic on her sore mind.
Jack was off world for a week with a team made up of those soldiers who had the crucial Ancient gene, assisting in several offensive strikes. Although the war wasn't over, it looked like it was just a matter of time before the Furlings would have to admit defeat again and leave the galaxy for good.
Sam had plenty of work to do, but she still was restless and unsatisfied not being able to go off-world.
But when she was completely honest with herself, it wasn't the off-world missions she missed; it was being off-world with Jack.
She had rarely been left behind since beginning her tour at the SGC, so she had never before experienced the mix of anxiety and loneliness she felt now as she waited for the return of the Colonel. She knew she was growing dangerously attached to him, but that fact didn't scare her at all, any more.
The klaxons announced the incoming wormhole with blaring sirens and Sam dropped what she was doing and ran down to the Gate room just in time to see Jack O'Neill and his special forces lope confidently down the ramp.
She waited in her lab, or just outside it to keep an eye on him, until he had finished his requisite infirmary visit before zeroing in on him as he walked tiredly towards his quarters.
He turned to look at her as she walked next to him.
"Welcome back, sir. I missed you."
The twinkle in her eye made him stop and turn his full attention on her.
"I missed you too."
He smiled at her, recognizing something was up by her ever so slightly mischievous stance.
"Jack."
His eyebrow went up.
She pointed to the supply closet just to his right, unable to suppress the evil grin breaking out on her lips.
Grabbing his arm, she dragged him towards the closet door.
"You said the next time I want some attention, to just drag you into the supply closet," Sam reminded him.
Looking up and down the hall, Jack took the initiative and she quickly found herself inside the closed supply room face to face with Jack, an unlit light bulb hanging just above her head, and a mop.
She chose Jack.