The SGC briefing room, filled with personnel who each seemed to have their own theory on Sam's situation, was the last place Jack O'Neill wanted to be right now. All he could think about was Sam, alone, confused and afraid, several floors above them. As soon as General Hammond opened his mouth to utter the word, 'Dismissed', Jack anticipated him and was out the door, on his way to Detention Cell 4.
The SF on guard duty outside her cell unlocked the outer door to the room where Sam was being detained. Jack walked in and gazed at her through the bars.
"Hey," he greeted her kindly.
She looked up from her huddled position on the narrow cot, but then looked away almost immediately, frowning.
"C'mon, Sam. This isn't your fault. Talk to me?"
She sighed and turned towards him with misery written all over her face.
"How are you?" He asked lamely.
"My head aches. I can feel its presence, trying to take over my mind," she whispered. "Before, on the planet, I didn't even know it was there. I'm scared."
"We have contacted the Tok'Ra. They are a race of beings similar to the Goa'uld, but they're good guys. They can get it out of your head without harming you in the process."
"How soon?" Sam demanded crossly. She had endured about as much as she could take.
"Your father will arrive shortly."
"My father?"
"Sam, your father became a Tok'Ra several years ago. It's a long story, but the result is that the Tok'Ra are allies of Earth, and your Dad is the liaison between the two races. When he heard you'd been found, and that you have been compromised, he went to collect the equipment needed to help you. Your Dad won't waste any time getting here to help."
Sam stood and walked over to the bars and pressed her face between them. Jack watched, his heart aching for her, as she reached out a hand to him.
"Sam, I- I can't touch you, you know," Jack explained clumsily.
Her carefully maintained control broke and she bit back a deep, forlorn sob. Turning, she went back to lay on the cot and curled up in a ball.
"Go away."
"Sam, please," Jack pleaded. Receiving no response, Jack nodded to himself.
"Right." He blew out a loud breath and reluctantly left her to brood on her own.
Jacob arrived less than an hour later, visibly excited and agitated. Jack and George were there to greet him and escort him to see Sam.
"Jacob, she doesn't remember much of anything," Jack warned him as they walked in long strides down the corridors. "You should be prepared for that."
"Got it," Jacob said distractedly.
"Here we are," Hammond announced. The SF granted them entrance and then they were looking at Sam in her cell, staring at them through malevolent eyes.
"Sam, I'm so glad you're alive," Jacob cried out upon seeing his daughter.
"The human was weak," came the hissed response. Jacob pulled up short.
Jack felt a stab of fierce regret. During the time he'd left her alone, Sam appeared to have lost her fight of dominance over the symbiote. And she'd been alone. He could only guess how frightening that had been for her.
"Then, the sooner we get this show on the road, the better," Jacob retorted fiercely.
"I will kill the human if you try to kill me," the snake in Sam's head snarled through her vocal chords.
Jacob was ignoring the evil being, and was already setting up a curious device in the corner of the outer cell.
"Okay, bring her here," he commanded.
"SF's," O'Neill ordered to the guards outside. One of them opened the cell, and Jack and another SF went in, grabbing Sam by either arm and dragged her out, barely able to control the writhing, kicking, screaming woman.
"Don't hurt her," Jack said over and over through clenched teeth. Janet had arrived right on time, having been called to the scene by General Hammond. She injected Sam with a sedative. It slowed her down but didn't put her under.
"The Goa'uld is getting stronger," Janet observed.
"You will all die," Sam growled.
"Let's do it," Hammond ordered.
Jacob fastened a huge metal collar on the back of Sam's neck. The collar was attached to wires that ran down to a control console that Jacob began to dial. The humming noise that at once commenced grew louder as the seconds passed. Sam screamed, and her eyes closed.
"Okay, this part isn't pretty," Jacob warned. He reached into her mouth with a metal device. After a few more seconds of adjusting the machine's output, he slowly retracted a slimy dead Goa'uld from Sam's throat. The symbiote was small and obviously not fully grown. Janet offered a container at this point, into which Jacob stuffed the dead snake. It was rushed off for immediate analysis.
Sam remained unconscious as Jacob healed the back of her throat with a laser healing device. He sat back, finally finished, appearing to be unsure of the outcome.
"Jacob?" Jack questioned him.
"All we can do is wait. I have no way of knowing if the Goa'uld injected its poison into her before I killed it."
"Get her to the infirmary," Janet commanded the two orderlies who flanked her with a stretcher. Sam was carefully placed on the gurney and covered with a warm blanket before they took her away. Jack followed them.
"Colonel, I assume you'll be in the infirmary if I need you, and you too, Jacob?" Hammond guessed.
"Yes, sir."
"Right, George."
Jack and Jacob sat on either side of Sam's bed, watching for signs of consciousness, for the better part of the afternoon. While they waited, Jack filled Jacob in on how they had found Sam and their subsequent discovery that her memory was all but erased. Jacob seemed lost in thought when Jack's story came to a close.
"The Goa'uld might have been repressing her memories," Jacob speculated. "Or, her captors may have permanently erased her memory. They have that capability. But, right now, the bigger question is if she's been poisoned or not. She still might not survive." His voice cracked.
"She'll survive," Jack countered in a rough tone. "She has to."
Jacob actually smiled at that in spite of the gravity of the situation.
Jacob stood up and stretched. "You and I should get something to eat. C'mon, Jack."
"Yeah, I guess so," Jack agreed, although he moved with reluctance away from Sam's bedside. They walked stiffly to the commissary. Both were surprised to find it was late, and dinner was being put away.
"Hold up there," the two men cried to the cook. Both filled their plates and grabbed coffee and desserts, planning on eating enough to make up for the two meals or more they'd each missed during the crisis with Sam. Soon both were chowing down.
"Jacob, you gonna eat that baked potato?"
"Yes," Jacob barked defensively. "You should have got your own baked potato."
"You took the last one," Jack pointed out.
Jacob rolled his eyes and sliced the potato in half. "Here," he offered.
Jack grinned. "Yes," he breathed, devouring the vegetable. "Nothing much hurts your appetite, ay?" Jacob asked drily.
"Yours either," Jack mumbled through a mouthful of baked potato, gesturing at Jacob's mostly emtpy plate.
"General Carter, Colonel O'Neill," Janet's voice rang out as she entered the cafeteria and quickly came to their table.
"Sam's awake," she smiled eagerly. Both men jumped up and followed her to the infirmary, their food forgotten.
"Sam!" Jacob called happily as he and Jack crowded around her bed. She looked at him with confusion. She reached out for Jack and he slipped his hand into hers.
"Who are you?"
Jacob's face fell. "You still don't remember anything, do you?" he asked sadly. "I'm your Dad."
Jacob had to return to the Tok'Ra the next day. He was not a happy man, having to leave his only daughter in her present state. Jack and Hammond stood with him in the Gateroom as the wormhole engaged.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Jacob promised. "Contact me if anything changes."
"We will, Jacob," George Hammond assured the distraught man. "She's in good hands," he added.
"I know. Be well." Jacob walked up the ramp and disappeared into its swirling patterns.
Jack arrived back at the infirmary in time to hear Sam arguing vehemently with Janet. He stepped through the door only to be accosted by both women, both eager for him to be on their side.
"Colonel, please tell your subordinate that she is not well enough to leave this facility. Please tell her that my decision is final and over rides all other decisions on this base in medical matters." Janet was hopping from one tiny foot to the other, eyes flashing crimson.
"Sam, she's right. Doc's word is final."
"Jack, you said if I decided to go back to Rahad you would take me back. Well, I want to go back. I don't know anyone here, I don't know where anything is, I even had to ask directions to the bathroom this morning! I want to go back. There's nothing wrong with me now, except for a bunch of missing memories that aren't ever coming back."
"Look, Sam, maybe your memories will come back with time. And you were unconscious just yesterday. The Doc's right. You need medical care for at least another day or two."
"Promise I can go back in a day or two."
"If you still want to return to Rahad, if and when Doctor Frasier clears you to go, I'll take you. I promise." He said the words with his mouth, but inside he was determined to convince her to stay. He wouldn't lose her twice.
"Now, Doc, can I take Carter for a walk around the base? I won't let her out of my sight."
"For what reason?" Janet demanded harshly. She was still fuming and Jack found it kind of cute.
"I thought maybe seeing something familiar would help spark her memory. It's worth a try, right?"
"I will reluctantly give you permission, but you have her back here in one hour, Colonel, you got that?" Jack tried not to laugh at Janet who was still breathing hard and furiously.
"Yes, sir," Jack quipped. He grabbed Sam's arm and hurried her out of the infirmary before Janet could change her mind.
"Oh, I can't stand that woman!" Sam exploded as soon as they had turned the corner down the hall.
"She's your best friend," Jack countered gently.
"Rhmmpph," Sam exclaimed incoherently. "So, where are we going?"
"Just come with me," he answered mysteriously. She followed him into a large room that smelled like food, and her stomach responded automatically with a loud growl. How long had it been since she'd eaten?
Jack had eaten not long before, so he set about getting a plate of food for Sam, complete with a cup of coffee and a heaping bowl of blue jello. Sam was looking at everything with the eyes of a wonderstruck child. They sat down together at a table on the side of the room. Jack carefully slid the tray on front of Sam.
"I'll eat this," she said, pointing at the meat and mashed potatoes. "But that blue stuff is all wrong. How can that even be real food?"
Jack laughed out loud with delight. "I'm betting it's your favorite thing on the tray," he challenged her. "Now, eat. And then, you have to try that blue stuff."
"Yuck."
Sam ate several bites of the main course and drank the water, sniffing at the coffee but declining to try it.
Jack handed her a spoon with a flourish.
"Blue stuff."
Sam squared her shoulders and took a very tiny amount on the spoon.
"Now Sam, you can't even taste that. Here."
Jack grabbed the spoon from her and was now holding a huge, wiggling blue mass of the substance on the spoon for her. Her eyes widened in horror, but she gamely bit into it. Her expression changed from disgust to tentative surprise to an eager look of greed.
"Gimme that spoon," she demanded sharply.
Jack had rarely enjoyed anything quite so much as the sight of Sam Carter discovering blue jello all over again.
A/N: The next chapter will deal with the discovery that the symbiote removed from Carter is different. It will begin to explain how she lost her memories and whether there is anything that can be done about it. Once I finish writing it, that is.
