Chapter 26: Dangerous Realizations

"Get him to the infirmary, now!" Fraser yelled as she followed the medicalworkers out andleaving the rest of the team behind to be looked after by other medical personnel.

From the control room, General Hammond looked into the gate room with wide eyes. This was the first that he'd heard of the team since they'd left for their mission a few hours ago. When they'd left, they were fine, willing to go in and ready. Now, only short hours later, one of them was being rushed to the infirmary, while the others watched in what appeared to be confusion and shock. Apparently they hadn't seen it coming.

Hammond hurried down to the room where one of the team appeared to be better composed than any of the others and turned to him.

"General, it all happened so fast." The man replied, his voice was stunned.

"I want to know exactly what happened, report to the infirmary and we'll debrief in a half hour." Hammond said.

"Yes, Sir." The man replied and went to see to the others who had come through with him.

Hammond cast a final look over those who had just come through and went to the infirmary to see if he could get a status report on the man that had been taken into Fraser's capable hands.

He hurried into the infirmary and saw Fraser looking rather distraught, running her hands under scolding water and vigorously scrubbing her skin raw with soap to erase the stains that had taken over.

"Doctor?" Hammond asked, clearly wondering why she wasn't in with the patient that had just been brought in.

"There was nothing anyone could do, he was dead before we got here. All efforts to revive him failed. I'm sorry." Fraser said, her eyes frustrated.

Hammond stood in stunned silence for over a minute, then nodded slowly.

"I'll make the necessary arrangements. You should let Jonas know. I'll tell the team." Hammond said and walked slowly out of the room. Fraser's dark eyes followed him, and he felt her gaze boring into his back.

Fraser took a deep breath and made her way to Jonas's bed, dreading every moment as she went. Jonas was not going to like what she had to say.

"What! No, that can't be. I was talking to him a few hours ago. How did it happen?" Jonas asked, he was shocked by what Fraser had just told him, so much so, that his face was chalk white.

"Nobody knows exactly what happened, but he wasn't very lucky. The others escaped quite uninjured. General Hammond went to break the news to them." Fraser replied.

"They aren't going to take it well. They'll likely take it worse than anyone." Jonas said, taking a drink of water.

"I think that's a fair assessment." Fraser replied.

Hammond had just broken the bad news to them and none were taking it very well. At first, all of them denied that it had happened, they didn't want to believe that he was gone.

"Who will replace him?" Asked the highest ranking officer present.

"I believe that is for you to decide, Major." Hammond replied quietly.

"I can get you personnel files if you want, or you can just wait and see how things work out." The General said.

The Major nodded. "I think we all want to wait it out right now."

"Very well, you are dismissed. I'll let you know when memorial services will be." Hammond said and got up from his chair. He passed sympathetic eyes over the team in front of him and with that left them sitting where they were.

The alarms sounded and the voice of the technician reported and incoming wormhole. The Major saw Hammond pick up his pace and go down to the control room, and idly, as if in a trance went to the window which looked out onto the gate room below.

The team came through, and the Major's breath caught. The team that had just come through would be the hardest to tell what had happened.

"Incoming wormhole!" Yelled the technician. Hammond hurried into the control room in time to see the iris go up.

"Who is it?" Hammond asked.

"We'll know in a moment, Sir."

The computer screen flashed with a known code and the technician smiled. Behind him, he heard General Hammond exhale in relief.

"It's SG-1's code, Sir." The technician replied.

"Open the iris." Hammond nodded. He made his way down to the gate room, his face stony.

Jack was the first to step through, and he stumbled a bit upon exiting. From where he stood, Hammond could clearly see a cut on Jack's forehead. Moments later, SG-3, Teal'c, and Sam stepped through the shimmering horizon. All of them looked rather anxious.

Jack saw Hammond's face and the smile that was resting on his face fell. Hammond didn't look happy. He pulled the sample from his jacket and held it up.

"We got the sample, Sir." O'Neill replied, a cautious smile on his face.

"Good work." Hammond said, but his face didn't change.

"Did somebody die?" Jack asked, his voice teasing.

Hammond didn't reply.

"You should come to the infirmary with me." The General said. Jack's smile instantly vanished, something had happened, and by the looks of it, it wasn't something that any of the team would be happy about.

He walked behind Sam following her to the infirmary. She kept casting concerned glances over her shoulder. Jack's only thought was that something had happened to Jonas. Why else would Hammond be escorting them to the infirmary?

The infirmary was fairly quiet when they walked in, and there was definite negativity hanging in the air like thick clouds. Fraser was nowhere to be seen.

"Doctor Fraser?" Called Hammond.

"Here, Sir." Fraser called form the direction of Jonas's bed. SG-1 walked quietly over to where she had spoken from and sighed in relief when they saw Jonas was okay. Still, Jonas's face was pale and he looked visibly shaken. Fraser was in much the same shape, but with her it was harder to tell because she had put on a pretty convincing face that was determined to let everyone know that she was fine.

"What happened?" Jack asked slowly.

Jonas and Fraser turned to him, Jonas's eyes went wide and panicky, while Fraser got up quickly to go to him.

"What happened to you?" Fraser asked, leading Jack to a bed.

"Got on the wrong end of something sharp." Jack mumbled quietly. He pushed Fraser's hand away as she reached to probe the injury.

"What happened?" O'Neill asked again, a bit more sternly.

"A team came through earlier, and I lost a patient." Fraser said as though it happened all the time, which actually held more truth than it would seem. Doctor Fraser dealt with death all the time. Still, this particular death seemed to be bothering her.

"Who?" Jack questioned.

"The team was SG-8. Corporal McMullan had been badly wounded in an encounter with unfriendly natives. We did all we could, but it wasn't enough. He was dead before we got him down here." Fraser said, and Jack saw her struggling to keep control over her emotions.

He heard Sam draw in a sharp breath behind him, and heard Teal'c shift uncomfortably in place. Jonas's face had lost colour again, and Jack was quite sure that he felt his own face paling as well.

"How is his team taking it?" Sam asked quietly.

"Not well, I'm afraid, they're all pretty shook up. I had to treat them for symptoms of shock before the mission debriefing. I'm afraid they haven't accepted his death yet. It'll take them some time." Fraser replied softly. She reached for Jack's head again, but he pulled away.

"Sir, you have to let me look at this." Fraser said, her voice sounding harsh.

Jack turned to face Jonas, and the young man got quickly from bed and moved closer to O'Neill, his eyes shocked and worried. He launched for the alcohol on the bedside table and quickly removed the cap. His fingers shook as he did this. Before anyone could question Jonas's actions, he poured a good amount of the bottle directly onto the three cuts on Jack's forehead.

O'Neill recoiled in alarm, thrusting a hand up to protect his face from any further rubbing alcohol. The Colonel shouted a string of the most colourful language any of them had heard in a while, and pressed his hand hard against the cuts.

"Damn it, Jonas! What are you trying to do, kill me?" Jack exclaimed. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, and Jonas locked an alarmed gaze on O'Neill's face.

"Colonel, you've been marked. I have to get the poison out! It'll kill you, I saw it!" Jonas yelled, his voice quivering.

"Jonas, I'm fine. Look at me, Jonas! I'm fine!" Jack replied. Jonas was trying hard to avoid looking at the marks on the Colonel's forehead.

"I...I'm sorry, Colonel." Jonas stammered in disbelief.

Jack had a suspicious gaze focused on the newest member of his team, and he wasn't sure how to take Jonas's strange behaviour. Jonas looked like a caged animal, his face was pale, and his eyes were wide and panicked. To be truthful, Jonas's appearance shocked him a bit.

Fraser pulled Jonas quickly back to the bed and practically forced him into it. She then turned her attention back to Jack.

"Oh my God." Fraser said, her voice was strangely hollow, and her gaze was focused on Jack's forehead.

"What?" Jack asked.

Fraser said nothing, but drew closer to him and pulled his head down so she could get a better look at the bubbling cuts. Her eyes were puzzled. The skin surrounding Colonel O'Neill's cut was turning a charcoal grey, while brownish liquid bubbled instead of the usual white bubbling. She grabbed a nearby Q-tip and drew it over the broken skin.

Jack cursed loudly, and his face drained of all colour. His head felt as though it were cracking in two, and his entire body felt heavy. His vision blurred and kept shifting in and out of focus, his throat clenched painfully, and he found himself gasping for breath.

"Colonel!" Jonas shouted in surprise and he saw the older man's face lose all colour when Fraser drew the end of the Q-tip across the cuts. Within seconds, the grey colour had flooded down the entire left side of his face, and Jack was gasping painfully.

Jonas leapt from the bed, and felt red-hot pain slash through him, he cried out in alarm, and staggered back, his hip connecting with the edge of the bed. Several flashes of murder dashed across his line of vision, and he knew at once that the shadow creature knew of the telepathic connection, and he was making all attempts to sever it, and taking Jonas down with him.