As I promised another update before I get cut off for two weeks, or thereabouts. I hope it won't be that long, but who knows how long these things will take? I'm already getting serious withdrawal symptoms now...maybe it's just the thought of not getting my usual fix of reading and writing about Stargate. I am sooooo gonna miss you guys... LOL!

Thanks again for your wonderful reviews. If I'm lucky I may get to read my e-mails but will not be able to respond to them.

Danger Zone.

By Lingren.

Previously:-

Sam stood by, stunned rigid as Janet prepared to start CPR.

"Get me some help in here Sam! Now! He's crashing!"

Chapter 18

"How is he?"

Hammond had abandoned his busy schedule just to see how Jack was. He approached the group in front of the door, behind which Janet and her staff were working hard to keep Colonel O'Neill among the living. Once more!

Sam shrugged, looking up at Daniel to answer because she was unable to trust her voice into not betraying her inner most feelings right now.

"Janet's still working on him," Daniel sighed unhappily. "We're not quite sure what happened yet. Teal'c and I have only just gotten here ourselves. Sam was with Jack when..."

"Major Carter?" Hammond expected an explanation.

Sam sniffed back the tears that were threatening to choke her and straightened her back. She could do this. She was a Major in the USAF and her CO needed her input.

"A nurse, I didn't recognise who she was, but that's nothing new here at the SGC sir," she began. "She injected something into the Colonel's IV, saying that Janet had ordered some medication for him. We didn't question her orders sir, but when Janet came in a little while later, she denied all knowledge of it and... and the Colonel was already crashing," she said, gulping back the fear of losing Jack again when he seemed to be doing okay.

Now it seemed that someone was still after taking him down. But who? She clasped her hand over her jaw to hold herself together; the other arm, tightly clamped round her waist gripping her elbow with such ferocity she actually winced. It felt good to hurt because it took her mind off what was happening in that room.

Daniel moved in and wound his arm around her, pulling her into an embrace which comforted her, and Teal'c moved to take up a position on the other side, surrounding her with his strength. She nodded and pulled away from the younger team-mate, sucking in a fortifying breath.

"I'm okay," she sighed, thanking them with her watery smile. "We have to find out who did this sir. I don't think Colonel O'Neill is safe even here! I thought...at least, we all thought..." she let out an exasperated sigh and shrugged in defeat. "It just doesn't make any sense sir." She floundered at a loss to understand the logic behind the attack. "Why are they doing this?"

Hammond patted her shoulder, more like a father to her than her commanding officer.

"We'll do everything we can Major. I already closed up the mountain, as soon as I heard what had happened. Whoever did this won't get out of here, and believe me, people, we will find her."

The door behind them opened and two of the infirmary staff wheeled away some of the equipment they had been using. There was no more need to hurry and Sam was desperate to see passed them into the room.

Janet soon followed, blocking the sight, a small smile on her lips, but her eyes were hard with anger but also suspiciously moist. Sam's heart filled with lead, not wanting to hear the bad news.

"Doctor?" Hammond demanded quietly, needing to know the worst.

"He's still with us sir," she stated tiredly, letting her professional mask slip into place, while her personal emotions were still running high. Jack was a good friend as well as a senior officer, and that someone should try to kill him under her nose was an affront of the highest order. "It was touch and go there for a while, but we got him back, and he seems to be stable again for now. I think we caught him in time sir."

"So what happened?" he persisted.

"We're working to find out just what it was in the syringe sir, but I have my suspicions that it was a cocktail of drugs. We believe it was meant to make the Colonel fall into a coma that he wouldn't recover from. I won't know exactly what those chemicals were until we get the full results back from the lab, but I'm guessing some of the drugs would be of an alien origin sir."

"How can you be sure of that Doctor?"

"I've never seen results like this before sir. Whatever this was, was slow acting, and I believe, meant to give whoever was responsible, time to escape before the alarm was raised."

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"It's hard to tell sir. As I said, he is stable for now, but with an unknown quantity like this, it's hard to say if he won't react to it again later."

"Very well Doctor. I'll have a guard posted at the door and I take it as a definite, that you three will want to stay too?" Hammond said, directing his question at the three team-mates.

"Yes sir. At least one of us will be here with him at all times," Sam said, despite the fact that this audacious attack was carried out with her in the very room, which only made her feel incredibly guilty; so she wasn't about to let anything else happen to him, not on her watch!

"And I, myself will administer any medication should the need arise General. No-one else will need to get near him."

"Alright. Keep me posted, Doctor."

Hammond nodded his dismissal, his gaze drifting in through the little window of the door to rest on his pale, recumbent 2IC. All of this was making him feel older than his years and left him wondering why he hadn't retired when he should have done. He was too old to play at this game.

Without another word, he spun on his heel and walked away, his shoulders drooping slightly under the heavy burden of responsibility.

OoOoOoOoO

"You're an idiot. Do you know that?"

The voice was angry, very angry.

"What the hell made you think that this would help?"

He sighed and resigned himself to the censure. It was like water of a duck's back. He had no time for this. He'd wanted O'Neill out of the way and things were taking too long, so he'd upped the stakes, moving on to plan B. Of course, it didn't matter whose toes he'd trodden on in the process, he had a personal axe to grind with the officer in particular so it had helped to be included in the plot when he'd been approached.

He wasn't going to stand back and watch the man recover, he knew too much and he needed to silence him once and for all.

"Are you listening to me?"

Actually, no, but carry on if it'll do you any good.

"Yes sir. I hear you!" he dutifully replied, lying through his teeth.

"If she is caught, then it's your head that will roll. You're on your own there. I will not be responsible for this. And don't even think of taking me down with you, because I have friends in high places that will cover my ass and hang yours! Don't think for one minute that you will be safe even inside, or your family for that matter!"

Bastard! I don't care what he says. If I get caught, he is sooo gonna pay for it. I won't go down without a fight. If I can take that SOB out too, I will, then we'll see whose friends are real or not!

"Did you get that?"

Oh, I got it alright!

"Perfectly sir."

The phone went dead and he dropped it back in it's cradle. Moving to his computer, he made three copies of everything he had and popped each disc into a plain padded envelope along with a note he'd just typed and printed off, then sealed it with instructions for them to be delivered should anything happen to him. This was his insurance. His way of getting back everything he wanted.

It wouldn't absolve him from any blame, but it would bring down the entire network. He was sooo not gonna fall on his own. He'd go down fighting.

OoOoOoOoO

A small gasp from the man lying comatose in the bed was all the warning they had that Jack O'Neill was waking up.

His eyes shot open with sudden clarity that he'd been drugged. Again. It had a familiar feel to it. This was the same drug they had used in Washington, only he'd woken up feeling better than that time before.

He turned his eyes towards the small figure standing to his left.

"Doc."

"Colonel. How are you feeling?" she asked, then shone that ever present pen light into his eyes, satisfied with his reaction when he flinched away.

"Ouch!" he complained. "I was okay, but now all I can see is bright spots!" He pouted and Janet smiled, knowing her patient so well, seeing him at his worst far too often for her liking.

"I was drugged wasn't I?"

Janet nodded sadly and released a sigh of frustration.

"Yes sir. Someone posing as one of my staff administered a cocktail of alien drugs into your IV. We almost lost you."

"They were the same."

"What?"

"The drugs. They gave me them in Washington. I remember feeling like crap just afterwards...only this time I'm guessing it was a lethal dose, right?"

He shifted in the bed, wincing when his injuries reminded him of why he was there. He was sore, and now his chest hurt.

"Yes sir. We managed to catch it in time though. If I hadn't come in to check on you when I did, well..." she left off the rest of the sentence, knowing he would get the gist of her meaning.

"I'm glad you did Doc. Thanks." Now he knew why he hurt, and was truly thankful for her determination to keep him alive.

She smiled down at the officer. He was more than just another senior officer; he was a good friend, despite the fact that he could be the most infuriating and exasperating patient on the face of the earth when he was sick or injured. She had to give him his due though; he knew where his limits were and knew hers too. He would never push her beyond her patience and always thanked her or her staff when his life had been on the line. It was what made him more human than most men she had attended in her time. He had a quality about him that set him above the average bureaucratic and 'by the book' officer of her experience.

He looked around the room, seeking his team, but they were nowhere to be seen. Janet guessed what, or rather whom he was looking for.

"Sam's outside sir, along with the rest of SG-1. Shall I send them in? Are you up to having visitors?"

"Sure Doc. Send 'em in!"

A moment later, he was greeted by his team, but what sent his pulse racing was the huge beam sent his way by a certain Major of whom he was exceedingly fond.

He smiled back and didn't object when Sam took her place at his side, and gripped his hand as if she didn't want to let go. He lay back and allowed himself to relax, surrounded as he was by his friends.

TBC