----
They were gliding along towards Peterson. Carter hadn't spoken since take off, letting Jack concentrate on his flying.
"I was planning to ask you tonight. I'd told the guys to come over at seven so you and I would have an hour before they arrived to talk." Carter looked at Jack. She was shocked and pleased.
"What were you going to ask?" Jack glanced at Carter as she spoke but quickly turned back to the large windshield.
"When I heard about Hammond's retirement I told the Joint Chiefs I'd only consider the job if I was able to hand pick my replacement. I had to be sure some NID puppet didn't end up in my office. They agreed yesterday. That was faster then I'd expected."
"They probably knew you'd ask." Jack glanced her way quickly.
"Probably." He nodded once to reinforce his agreement.
"That still doesn't explain what you were going to ask."
"If it was up to you would you rather I stay in Colorado as your CO or go to Washington as your..." Jack faltered as he searched for the right word.
"My?" Carter sighed the word, watching Jack's jaw flex.
"Boyfriend?" Jack squinted his eyes and flinched as he said the word.
"I'm not sure it should be up to me."
"I thought it would be up to us, you know one of those grown up conversations couples sometimes have."
"A couple. I like the sound of that." Carter grinned. Jack saw it out of the corner of his eye as he began bringing the ship down towards the SGC hanger at Peterson. The landing was smooth. Carter stood and stepped around her chair, moving towards the back. Jack reached up and grabbed her arm.
"I didn't want it to happen this way. I had a plan."
"A plan?" Sam's eyes softened as she smiled at him. Jack stood, trapping her between his body and the back of her chair.
"Something to let you know how I feel." Jack leaned closer to Carter.
"I think I understand how you feel." Carter's hands moved to his forearms.
"Really?" He looked down at her, maintaining full eye contact.
"Yeah, because it's how I feel." Carter fought the urge to lean closer.
"So Washington it is." Jack grinned. "That's what I'd hoped you say." He took one step back as Carter let go of his arms. She released a long held breath as he turned away from her. "Any chance you'd come and help me move in. Maybe stay a few weeks."
"Absolutely!" Her smile was cosmic. She followed him out of the ship. Two stunned airmen were shocked to see a General and a Colonel walk out of thin air. Three engineers ran over as soon as they appeared. Jack watched and smiled while Carter gave them technobabble orders. Thirty minutes later a car picked them up to return them to the SGC.
----
Teal'c watched Sam trying to get comfortable on the cot. She rolled from one side to the other and back again several times, sighing loudly with each roll. Finally she lay on her back and looked up at the cot above her.
"Are you ill?" Sam turned her head towards Teal'c.
"Yeah, actually, I am." She sighed again
"Is there something I could get for you that would improve your health?" Sam eyed him for a minute.
"I guess something for pain would be good." Teal'c inclined his head, went to the door, and spoke with a guard. He returned to his position in front of her cell and didn't attempt any further communication. A doctor arrived a few minutes later. He entered Sam's cell, under Teal'c's careful observation.
"Are you taking any medications or do you have any allergies?" Sam quickly answered no. He checked her blood pressure and temperature. The doctor pulled out a syringe of morphine and injected her. Sam thanked him as he left. She rolled over so her back was to Teal'c and, after about ten minutes, she fell sleep.
Daniel was waiting for Carter and Jack when they returned. He didn't notice any change in their demeanor, although Carter and Jack both felt like an electric field was buzzing between them. Jack managed to sit down behind his desk before Daniel started asking questions.
"Do you believe her?"
"I don't have any reason not to yet."
"Ok, I'll take that as a yes. Are you taking a job in Washington?" Jack's eyes glanced to Carter's before he answered.
"Yeah, I was planning to tell you guys at dinner tonight." Jack picked up a pen and began swirling it between his fingers.
"Ok, are ya' gonna wear a vest?" Jack's lips pursed and he purposefully didn't look at Sam or Daniel.
"I gotta think about it." Daniel stood as soon as the words left Jack's mouth.
"Think about it. She said you die Jack! What is there to think about?" Daniel leaned forward on Jack's desk and panted.
"I understand what she said but..." Jack's phone rang. He picked up the receiver, glad for the interruption. Daniel focused his outrage at Carter, trying to enlist her in his fight. She was on his side but she planned to use different tactics to get her way.
"We need to go down to the infirmary. Apparently the other Sam had some kind of seizure. She's unconscious and the doctor's concerned." Jack stood and walked out as he was speaking. Daniel and Carter trailed behind him, looking equally worried. They entered the infirmary to find Teal'c still watching over Sam.
"I do not know what happened. She was having trouble sleeping and requested pain medication." Teal'c inclined his head toward the unconscious Sam.
"Pain medication?" Jack looked down on the pale sleeping figure on the gurney.
"She did say she didn't feel well." Daniel got closer to the gurney as he spoke. Carter stayed further back, uncomfortable with seeing her other self looking so sick.
"The doctor came and provided her with morphine. She fell asleep. Later she began to convulse and I requested medical attention for her. She has been here, like this, since."
"I think I can provide some answers." A doctor O'Neill recognized but didn't really know appeared behind Teal'c. "I gave her the morphine. She told me she wasn't on any other medications but based on the blood work I just got back she has tretonin in her blood."
"Tretonin?" Jack was confused and looked over the man's shoulders, as if the readout was going to make sense to him.
"Would not a human end up without an immune system if they began to take tretonin?" Teal'c looked down at the doctor as he spoke. Daniel was pretty sure he saw the poor guy swallow twice before he was able to answer Teal'c.
"Yeah, and her immune system is all out of kilter?" The doctor glanced at Sam as he spoke.
"Kilter?" Teal'c frowned.
"He means it's not right, T. What can you do, Doc?" Jack kept his eyes on the doctor.
"I'm going to give her tretonin. It's just a guess but I think that'll help." Jack nodded and waved towards Sam, indicating his acceptance of the plan. The doctor stepped forward and injected Sam. They all stood around and watched her. It was over a half hour before she began to stir. Her eyes opened and she glanced around.
"Uhhhhhh, why can't I manage to stay out of this place?" Her hand came up to her head and she ran her fingers through her hair. "What happened?" The doctor placed his hand on her arm before he spoke.
"Morphine and tretonin don't mix well. You had a reaction and ended up with a seizure."
"Ah." Sam glanced towards the sheet covering her and lowered her hand.
"Why didn't you tell me about the tretonin when I asked if you were on any medications?" The doctor used his often-mimicked shame on you face.
"It's been a couple days since I ran out. I thought it was out of my system."
"Even so, it's a big detail to leave out of your medical history." The doctor crossed his arms and glared. "So let's fill in that gap and any others that might exist. Why have you been taking tretonin?" Sam grimaced and winced. She avoided looking at all of the room's occupants.
"I picked up an alien disease on M5X-832. It was beating my immune system so as a last resort the doctors suggested tretonin. It hasn't stopped the disease but it slowed it down."
"You knowingly brought an alien disease onto this base!" Jack bellowed in fury. All eyes wandered from the calm and withdrawn Sam to the furious Jack.
"I'll order a wildfire lockdown, sir." The doctor turned to leave.
"Relax." Sam looked up at the doctor's retreating back. "It requires a little effort to get infected. I promise not to do anything that would allow it to spread." The doctor turned back towards her.
"And I'm just supposed to accept that?" He pursed his lips and crossed his arms.
"What else do you want?" Sam shrugged. The doctor stepped closer.
"What type of agent are we dealing with? How is it spread? How did you get infected? Why did your doctor decide to try the tretonin? How long have you been on the tretonin?" The doctor's mouth was still open when Sam held up her hand.
"I get the point. I'm infected with a prion. It's spread through contact with body fluids. It's a fragile prion and doesn't survive well outside the body for long. It denatures at room temperature, which makes taking blood samples frustrating. Our inability to keep it active set back the research for several weeks." Sam looked around the group to gauge their reactions. The doctor was writing furiously. Carter was lost in her own contemplations. Daniel and Teal'c were just observing, although with different looks on their faces. Jack was analyzing her, probably trying to figure out if she was being truthful.
"If it's spread by body fluids and has to stay at body temperature then there are very few viable means of infection." The doctor didn't even look up from his chart.
"Yep." Sam twisted the sheet corner and avoided Jack's eyes. She focused her attention on the doctor and hoped he wouldn't make her say it. As her eyes bore into him Carter gasped, having made the realization that Sam had a sexually transmitted disease.
"You slept with an alien?" Carter's shocked voice was loud and accusatory.
"I wouldn't say there was much sleeping going on." Sam avoided all eye contact. She gave a stilt forced laugh.
"I guess we shouldn't be surprised, it's not like you haven't always had a thing for aliens." Sam grimaced at Jack's outburst but quickly hid it.
"WHAT!" The shocked and angry retort came from behind Jack, not from the woman lying on the gurney in front of him. "Is that really what you've thought about me all this time?" Jack ran his hand over his face, flexed his jaw and turned towards Carter.
"No, of course not. I was just caught off guard. I wasn't expecting..." He gave her a pleading looking, in the hopes that she'd understand that his mouth had worked faster then his brain. The doctor decided this was good time to change the subject.
"What are the symptoms of this disease?" Sam, Daniel and Teal'c refocused their attention on the doctor. Carter was still sending imaginary daggers into Jack with her eyes and Jack's eyes were pleading for mercy.
"It causes necrosis, tissue death. It's attracted to neurotransmitters, which means it spreads all over the body following neural messages. It loves the brain. It collects between neurons, in neuromuscular junctions, and at other neural receptor sites. The neurons and the receptor sites either degrade over time or the prion fills up the space between the receptor and neuron, preventing the neuron from sending a message. The patient becomes unaware of their surroundings and the muscles stop responding. The prediction was that death would occur when the diaphragm stopped responding but the patient's essence would be lost long before that." Jack and Carter lost interest in their starring match as they listened to Sam's description. Daniel shuddered.
"Is the necrosis because the immune system is trying to eliminate the prion?" The doctor was still taking notes. His overly clinical attitude was making Jack and Daniel uncomfortable.
"Yes, that's why the doctor's decided to try tretonin. They thought a 'new' immune system might not react the same way, giving me more time. It worked. I'm still dying, just slower." Jack glanced back at Carter. She saw how the thought of having her die briefly showed across his face. She began forgiving him in that instant, although she wasn't ready to admit it yet.
"How long have you been taking the tretonin?"
"Sixteen months."
"When was the last time you took some before today?"
"It's been...eight days since I ran out." The doctor nodded, still scribbling furiously.
"One container has enough tretonin for over a month, in case a Jaffa is separated from his supply for a long period of time. Why did you exhaust your supply so quickly?" Teal'c joined the conversation.
"I only had five vials of tretonin with me when I left the Jaffa. I stretched it to last eight months. My intention was to arrive here, warn Jack and die. It never occurred to me that someone would figure out that tretonin would help me.
"You came here to die?" Daniel question was full of disbelieve and a bit of disgust.
"Yes, if you hadn't given me the tretonin I probably would have remained comatose or at least vegetative until I died, quietly. I can't survive this and I don't want to be kept alive without really having a life. I request that no more medical interventions occur that will prolong my life, including tretonin injections." Daniel's eyes widened. The doctor let his arms hang loose, with the chart barely secured between his fingers. Carter looked stunned and Jack shook his head.