Freezer Burn - Part Three

"And how are we this morning, campers?" General O'Neill beamed at the faces around the table, ignoring their pained expressions.

He couldn't help being in a good mood. The eye test had been no problems – apparently he had the vision of a man half his age – and he hadn't had a headache for days. Everything was going well; his paperwork was up to date, there had been no sudden crisis, no teams stuck offworld, no sign of the system lords. Nothing.

And SG-1 was due back in an hour, right on schedule.

Even the prospect of sitting through a budget strategy meeting couldn't destroy his good humor. He'd taken the day off after his last headache, relaxed and felt all the better for the time at home. He'd gone for a walk, and done some gardening, only the eye appointment at the Academy Hospital breaking into the day.

Whatever the cause, the headaches were gone.

And he was a very happy general.

An hour later he was still happy, and his good mood had managed to infect the rest of the staff, everyone going about their tasks with what seemed to be extra enthusiasm. The announcement of an incoming wormhole was met with no undue concern, and when SG-1's iris code was received the General nodded and decided to greet them personally.

He entered the gate room just as the iris retracted and the event horizon burst forth, a sight that never failed to give him a feeling of awe even after all these years.

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SG-1 walked through the gate, Sam in the lead, with Daniel close on her heels, followed by Teal'c. They smiled at the sight of the General as he reached the base of the ramp.

"Hi there, kids. Have fun?" He came to a halt, and they could see the moment the headache hit, his expression changing from a smile of welcome, to a grimace and then to the sort of screwed up frown of someone trying to hold back pain.

"Sir?" Sam reached him before anyone else, just in time to try and control his slow descent to the floor.

"Medical team to the gate room."

They clustered around him, kneeling, bending over, crouching down, as he moaned and pulled his arm out from under himself, his hand wiping at his face.

It came away covered in the blood that ran from his ears and nose.

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"I have some good news." The doctor placed a file on his desk and wearily sat. "General O'Neill is resting comfortably, the bleeding has stopped and the pain seems to have diminished." He looked down, and turned the page. "However, the MRI has shown some surprising results."

"Such as?" Colonel Reynolds beat Colonel Carter to the question by a fraction of a second.

The two officers waited as the doctor clipped a series of images to his light board then began to point.

"See here, this part of the General's brain is showing signs of increased activity in areas not normally used."

"What!" Colonel Carter was on her feet and up, peering at the images before he had finished speaking. "This looks awfully familiar."

The doctor nodded. "I agree, Colonel. These scans show marked similarities to those in the General's file, taken after the Ancient repositories were downloaded, both the first and the second time. However…" He pointed to an area showing bright red, "this is different. Trouble is, I haven't been able to interpret its meaning as yet."

"Are you telling me that General O'Neill has had more Ancient knowledge put into his brain somehow?" Colonel Reynolds' tone of voice displayed his astonishment at the suggestion.

"The results aren't identical to the earlier scans." He pointed again. "See here, and here – these areas seem dormant and yet they showed the most activity in the previous MRIs. And these areas…" He pointed again, "Are showing activity where they previously weren't."

"But the headaches seemed to come and go – when the Ancient repositories were downloaded before, the General was constantly being affected by them. That wasn't happening this time." Carter sat again, thinking. "They began soon after we returned from Maybourne's planet. Could it be that contact with the Ancient's ship triggered them?" She looked back at the MRIs, shaking her head. "I think we need to get in touch with Thor."

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"Jack?" Despite Daniel's whispered greeting, O'Neill groaned. He had been in the infirmary for three days now, days that seemed to be nothing short of torture. One minute he was fine, ready to leap out of bed and take on the world, or worlds, the next he was moaning in agony as his head imploded and his blood was squeezed out his ears and nose. Having the nose bleed to end all nose bleeds was bad enough, but he was sure he was developing swimmers ear from the fluid constantly clogging them.

"Any word on Thor?" He couldn't help the second moan that escaped when the other man shook his head, and he felt the telltale warmth of fresh blood running down his cheeks.

"I'll get Doctor Shadbolt." Daniel made to turn away, but Jack grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

"Don't bother. It's not like he can do anything."

There wasn't any answer to that, so Daniel pulled the chair over towards the bed and sat, crossing his arms, settling in for the long haul. Jack shut his eyes, trying to quell the pounding going on inside his head.

He heard the soft tiptoe of footsteps, and then the tug of the IV as another cocktail of drugs was fed into his veins. The trouble was, nothing seemed to work anymore. He kept his eyes closed, knowing that if he opened them the nausea would be overpowering, and stayed as still as possible while the blood was cleaned and a new pillow was placed under his head. Even the gentleness shown by the nurse as she lifted his head wasn't enough to prevent the pain of movement.

He knew they were doing everything they could to not aggravate his condition, keeping the lights dimmed, speaking and moving as quietly as possible, but the pain still came and went with unpredictable irregularity. Carter and the doctor had explained they thought it had something to do with his contact with the Ancient ship.

He just knew Harry had to be to blame somehow.

"How is he?" Carter must have come to visit. He couldn't hear Daniel's whispered reply, but knew he hadn't pulled any punches when the Colonel's hand briefly brushed along his arm. She must be really worried. She didn't try and speak to him – they had established early on that any attempt at speech could send him into a downward spiral of agony.

There was one odd thing about that though. He never felt the pain when Teal'c visited, but then T's nature was to be quiet, and he didn't seem to feel the need to hold a conversation, just sitting, his comforting presence allowing Jack to sleep.

"You still haven't translated that inscription?" He could just hear Carter's murmured words as she spoke to Daniel.

"No, I've been carrying it around for weeks now, hoping inspiration would strike. Apart from it being of Ancient origin I haven't been able to discover any more."

Jack forced his eyes open, trying to see what they were talking about and only succeeding in establishing that the killer lights were back with a vengeance.

The heart monitor went into overdrive.

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