For notes, warnings and disclaimers see chapter 1
Author's note: in case anyone is interested, chapter 18 has been slightly revised (these changes don't affect its contents though).

Chapter 19: Drawing the Line
(Daniel's POV)

"So, I'm being 'prescribed' now?" I ask, somewhat teasingly, as soon as Janet enters the room.

"I know I should probably have asked you about it before suggesting it to the general, I'm sorry but..." she says before I cut her off.

"It's okay, I understand."

"It's just that it was either you or me... and it couldn't be me," she explains.

"Why not?" I ask, knowing that as a woman Janet would probably have been a more logical choice. I know Sam and I are close but still...

"A couple of reasons but mostly it all comes down to Cassie," says Janet. "She's barely starting to come to terms with everything she's been through in the past few weeks and I don't want to add this situation with Sam on top of everything else she's already dealing with. Besides, if Sam were to come stay with me for a few days she would probably insist on trying to protect Cassie and that would be a bad idea. Right now my top priority is to get Sam into an environment where she can let her guard down safely, not add to the stress she's under by burdening her with the need to protect a child. The bottom line is that I want her somewhere she feels she can fall apart, where there will be someone there to catch her if she falls. I want her with someone who can help her put the pieces back together again and under the circumstances I know it can't be me."

"You really think it will come to that?" I ask, feeling more than a little worried.

"I'm hoping it won't but there is a chance that now that she's no longer worried about keeping what happened to her a secret the things she's been trying to push back for months are going to come back to haunt her with a vengeance and it never hurts to have a safety net."

"That makes sense... of course, you do realize that getting her to agree won't be easy, right?" I point out.

"It's not going to be a request, Dr. Jackson. If she wants to remain a part of SG-1 she's going to have to comply with each and every one of Dr. Fraiser's orders," interrupts General Hammond.

"I see," I say before turning back to Janet. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"Just be yourself and be there for her... and I want you to promise me that while SG-1 is on stand down you will make sure she doesn't spend more than fourteen hours at a time here at the mountain. That's not a suggestion that's an order, by the way, do I make myself clear? I want her to rest and that means I want her to get as close to eight hours of sleep a night as she possibly can. In other words, since your main task over the next couple of weeks is going to be to keep an eye on her, I want you both out of here by 2200 hours and I don't want to see either one of you back before 0800... and she can't be working more than six days in a row. That means you will make sure she takes at least one day off per week, I'd say two but I know her and I'm aware that that may be too much to ask... and I also want you to try to make sure she eats three meals a day. In addition to that, seeing how she's already having trouble sleeping, I want her to try and cut back her caffeine intake."

"Come on, Janet, that's just cruel!" I say, knowing how well those instructions are going to go over with Sam.

"I mean it, Daniel. I want her to sleep as much as she can, and that means that her regular diet of coffee and blue jell-o is not an option," she insists.

"You are doing it on purpose aren't you?" I ask with a sinking feeling.

"I have no idea of what you mean," says Janet, but somehow I'm not buying it.

"I mean that you've been trying to get me to cut back my hours and my coffee intake for months and now you know that if you order me to look after Sam that will affect me too. That's not fair."

"Well, that's not exactly why I'm doing it but I won't deny that I consider it a really nice side-benefit. I mean, some good had to come out of this whole situation and this is my silver lining," she admits.

"In other words, you are not doing it on purpose but you are determined to enjoy it nonetheless?"

"Doctors, care to fill me in on what's going on here?" asks the general.

"Nothing, sir, it's just that Dr. Fraiser has been fairly vocal in telling me that I should cut back in the number of hours I spend here for a while and now she seems to be determined to use this situation with Captain Carter to achieve that goal," I explain.

"You are as bad as, if not worse than, Sam in that regard and you know it! I mean, doesn't the fact that you are complaining about having to cut your workday to less than fourteen hours a day tell you anything?" she asks, though I'm fairly certain that it is a rhetorical question. "I know the two of you and I know that if either one of you spends seven nights a month sleeping in your own beds that's a lot. On average you have two or three nights a week that you are off-world. Granted, that's not really your fault but then on top of that you usually spend another two or three nights a week here because you want to get a couple of extra hours working on one project or another and you feel that going home is a useless waste of time. Add to that one or two nights a month you spend in the infirmary and the fact is that I don't really know why either one of you even bothers to maintain a place off-base... you are both here almost as much as Teal'c and he actually lives here!"

"Well, it's not like I have much to go home to, do I?" I remind her, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice... and failing miserably.

"And now you do. Sam needs you," she insists. "You are one of her closest friends and you are the one who is in the best position to help her deal with this situation. Remember that, just like you, she moved here when she joined the SGC a few months ago, even if she came from another part of the country rather than from a different planet. The thing is that she hasn't really had much time to make friends outside the SGC and that means that most of the friends she has managed to make are military, just like she is... and that's a problem. Right now I need her with someone with whom she can be Sam Carter, not Captain Carter and you are it. Right now I want her with someone with whom she doesn't have to be a soldier. That's my top priority and in that regard my choices are rather limited."

"I know... and believe it or not I understand that much, it's just the part in which you want me to police her every move that I have some problems with. I mean, how am I supposed to be both her friend and her jailer?" I ask.

"You won't be her 'jailer' and as for most of the things I just told you you have to look out for, well, I'll be the one breaking the news to her about those so you should be in the clear," she says.

"I still don't think this is the way to go."

"I'm serious, Daniel. She needs to take better care of herself, in fact you both do, but that's not the main issue. The main issue is that if one of the primary objectives we are going to be trying to achieve over the next couple of weeks is to get Sam sleeping regularly again, then she needs to be in a position to go to bed at a reasonable time and she needs to cut back on her intake of chemical stimulants... and that is precisely what coffee is," she reminds me.

"Okay, we'll go home before 10:00 p.m. but she is an adult and I refuse to enforce a curfew. If she wants to go to bed then that's fine but if she wants to do something else that's her choice," I say.

"Fair enough," Janet agrees, though she doesn't sound particularly happy about that one.

"So, general, where do we stand?" I ask, turning my attention back to General Hammond and knowing that regardless of whether Janet and I agree or disagree, in the end this is out of our hands.

"As I said, SG-1 is on stand down for two weeks at Dr. Fraiser's request, for that time your top priority is going to be to try and help the captain as much as you can. I know she's been functioning just fine for the past seven months but I'm still worried about this whole mess. In two weeks I'll reevaluate the situation. In other words, let me make it abundantly clear that while I am willing to let the two of you take a shot at handling this your way, in return I expect Captain Carter to fully cooperate with you. If there's any indication that she isn't, or if either one of you feels tempted to cover for her, I'll immediately revise my decision. In that case she will be referred to Dr. MacKenzie and she will be pulled from active duty until he is satisfied that she is fit to be out there, as would have been the case if this whole thing had been reported when it should have been. Do you understand?" he asks.

"Yes sir," says Janet.

"Absolutely," I agree, knowing better than to try to argue.

"Good, now, once we are done here I'll talk to her myself and hear what she's got to say for herself. Even though I understand why she kept quiet in the first place that does nothing to change the fact that this was a serious breach of protocol that cannot, under any circumstances, be repeated. Would there be any objections from either one of you if I were to request that she present an updated and complete report concerning the mission to Simarka sometime within the next two weeks?" he asks.

"No, sir, though I'd suggest you give her some leeway as to how detailed she makes it," I say as Janet nods her agreement.

"Good. Now the next issue on the agenda would be for me to talk to Colonel O'Neill about this... I'm guessing there's no way I can get either one of you to volunteer to break the news to him, is there?"

"No, sir, sorry," I say, knowing that that meeting won't be an easy one... for either one of them.

"I was afraid of that, however, Dr. Fraiser, I'd like you to be present during that meeting. I'm sure he is going to have some questions and I need you to bring him up to speed on how you are planning to handle the situation. The last thing we need right now is to have him stomping out of here and making a mess of things. Now, I'm assuming that he won't request that the captain be pulled from his team, but if he does I am prepared to grant his request."

"Sir, I don't think he'll want her pulled from our team but if he does, could you still give us those two weeks to try and bring him around?" I ask, knowing that I'm pushing my luck here.

"Fine, you've got your two weeks," he agrees, "but that's the most I can do. I know you feel that remaining with SG-1 is the best thing for Captain Carter but I won't allow it if it can in any way jeopardize the team's ability to function effectively as a field unit."

"Thank you, sir."

"Dr. Jackson, have you given any thought to what you are going to tell Teal'c about any of this?" asks the general.

"With all due respect, sir, I haven't. Simply put, it's not up to me. I understand why you had to be told and I understand why you have to tell Jack but I think that what, if anything, Teal'c is to be told about this situation should be entirely up to Sam. As far as I know there are no chain of command issues there so basically I don't see how it could possibly be any of our business," I explain.

"You are right, at least in theory, but the fact remains that not telling him could easily fracture the team," he reminds me.

"I know, sir," I agree, "but it's still not my decision to make... besides, it's not so simple."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, sir, if Teal'c were from earth we would have an idea as to what his background is and how he is likely to react to the news, however the fact is that we don't have nearly enough information about Chulak to make even an educated guess as to how he is going to take this," I explain. "We don't know how rape is perceive in Chulak, how it's handled and that means that, based on the information we have available to us, there's no way for us to predict if he is going to be protective of Sam or if he may demand to go back to Simarka looking for vengeance... or even if he may actually blame her for what happened. Even though this last scenario is not one we are particularly comfortable contemplating, the fact remains that under the circumstances it is one that must most definitely be considered. It is certainly not something that's outside the realm of possibility. In the end it all boils down to what I was saying earlier about the fact that there are very few absolutes in cultural terms and that similar events may be perceived in very different ways by different cultures."

"I see," says the general.

"Anyway, right now I think our top priority should be Sam. With the team on stand down for two weeks she will hopefully have plenty of time to figure out what she wants to do about that particular situation and then I believe we should follow her lead, after all, she is the injured party here," I remind him.

"But you have an idea as to what you think she should do, don't you?" he prods.

"I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that I have an idea, but I do have something that could be deemed to be a starting point. As I said, one of the problems we are facing is the fact that there are too many question marks when it comes to this issue so I think maybe the first step should be to try to answer some of those questions before making any kind of decision. On a rational level I know ideally she should tell him as soon as possible, but it's not my call to make and we have to keep in mind that telling him could easily backfire. In other words, for the time being I don't think it would be wise for her to say anything. I mean, when all is said and done, it is bound to be easier to tell Teal'c about this at a later date than to try to untell him if his initial reaction represents a problem."

"Yes, well, that may work in the short term but what would be your advice for a long term solution?"

"I think that eventually he will have to be told. Long term I don't think there's going to be a way around that, but how and when he is told is something that should be handled carefully, especially considering that that is something that can be put off until we can be certain that a negative reaction won't hurt Sam. In the meantime we should probably try to learn more about how such a situation would be perceived in Chulak and go from there. I am hoping that it won't be a worst case scenario that would force us to have to choose between Sam and Teal'c remaining in SG-1 but the truth is that it may actually come to that if we run into a cultural taboo that he can't overcome here."

"Do you think that's a real possibility?" asks the general, sounding rather worried.

"Do I think that's a real possibility? Yes. Based on what I know about Teal'c, do I think it is a likely scenario? Not really," I reply.

"So what do you suggest we do? You said that the decision should be up to Captain Carter but going by your own words it is a decision that could cause her to get hurt and I'm not sure that's a chance we should be taking here."

"Well, sir, as I said, the decision is Sam's, but that doesn't mean we can't try to help her out here. With your permission I could try to gather some additional information to help Sam make something that is closer to an informed decision. With any luck Teal'c will dismiss my questions as simple curiosity, or maybe I could explain them away as being part of my research for the guidelines Sam and I are going to be working on over the next couple of weeks. That should provide us with an appropriate cover story and the fact that I would be the one asking the questions, rather than Sam, should serve to lessen the chances of him becoming suspicious in the first place. I know in the end this is not an ideal solution but then again what we are dealing with here is not an ideal situation."

"Thank you, Dr. Jackson, that will be all for now. Dr. Fraiser if you have a minute please?" asks the general as I head out.

"Yes, sir," I hear Janet say as I walk out the door.

Author's notes: Hi guys, first of all thanks for the reviews, they certainly help make my day. I'm really gald to hear you are enjoying this.

In one of the reviews a reader mentioned that there was very little feel for his emotional reaction. In a way that was actually deliberate because I kind of thought that, at least for the time being, his top priority would be to make a logical and professional presentation that could coonvince General Hammond... and that would require him to push his feelings aside.

Also, as I mentioned above chapter 18 has been slightly revised. The truth is that even last week I wasn't happy with how it sounded so I decided to go back and make some minor changes.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this week's update, even if it is shorter than most recent chapters.

Take care... and keep reviewing!

Alec