General Hank Landry stood in the control room of the SGC. It was late. Insanely late. Too late for him to be working, but there he was. He was staring at the image of Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell on the monitor in front of him.

"I think it might be some sort of reaction to something they ate. We were all drinking the same thing, but there were so many different foods, there's no way to know."

"And how long have they been out?"

Mitchell looked at his watch. "About an hour now, sir. They've both been taken to Velon's house and put into the guest beds. One of their healers is with them, but I'd rather have one of our own look at them."

Landry nodded. "I'll send Doctor Rush with a HazMat team. Just in case you've been exposed to some local bug."

Mitchell nodded. "So far, Daniel and I haven't had any symptoms, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious."

Landry nodded. "Keep me informed. Landry out."

Elora sat next to Teal'C's bed and wiped his forehead with a cool, damp sponge. She looked up to see her father in the doorway of Velon's second guest room.

"Elora, you must return to your home," he commanded softly.

"No, Father," she said, looking back down.

"Elora," he hissed. "This is not done. This man is a stranger and there you sit like he was family or, or, more familiar."

Elora's eyes darkened as she looked up. "This man is a friend, Father. Not a stranger. He found me in the forest and stayed with me until almost dark. Then he carried me to your home without thought of payment. He is just like the parable, Father. You know the one about kindness for kindness sake? How can we not do the same for him?"

"If you stay with him, people will say---" he paused at her sharp look. "things, Elora."

Elora smiled, darkly. "Let people say what they will. I am beyond marrying age anyway. They will say nothing I have not already heard; only this time I will be helping a friend. Go home, Father, and tell Mother that I am well, but I will stay to care for Master Teal'C and his friend."

Galoren turned around to see Cameron Mitchell standing there. He nodded curtly and left.

"Thank you," Cam said to her. "You don't have to stay if---."

Elora's eyes were snapping again. "I don't have to do anything, Master Colonel, but I choose to stay with Master Teal'C. He didn't have to stay with me but he did. It is the least I can do."

Cam held his hands up in a surrender motion. "Whoa, there, missy. I didn't mean to get your hackles up," his blue eyes narrowed. "I was trying to say thank you."

Elora looked back down at Teal'C, unconscious on the bed in front of her. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "You must be concerned about your friend."

"I am. Both of them."

She nodded. "Master Daniel is in the next room with Mistress Samantha and Geta, the healer."

Cameron nodded. "Has she been to see Teal'C?"

"Not yet, she went to see Mistress Samantha because a woman's constitution is usually less resistant and more can go wrong."

Cameron's eyebrows went up with a glimpse of a smile. "I don't know how to take that exactly."

Elora's eyes narrowed as she examined his face. "You choose humor? Your friends--!"

Again, Cam's hands went up. "It's a defense mechanism, sister. Relax. I'll be right back."

Cam didn't actually go anywhere. He moved two feet to the left and looked into the room where Sam lay unconscious with Daniel at her side.

Geta, the female healer, was washing her hands and heading out on her way to Teal'C's room.

"Geta?" Cameron asked.

"Yes, Master Colonel? I'm afraid I cannot give you any news. Perhaps when your own healer arrives…all I can tell you is that it is not an illness I have seen before. Perhaps it is something common on your planet?"

Mitchell shook his head. "She might be able to tell you that, but not me," he said gesturing towards Sam. "One of our doctors is on her way. Maybe she can tell us something."

Geta nodded. "Well, I am not so proud that I cannot admit that I need help. As for right now, Mistress Samantha does not seem to be in any immediate danger. She is unconscious, yes, but her heartbeat and breathing are strong and steady. Now let's have a look at Master Teal'C." She moved into Teal'C's room and Elora quickly vacated the chair where she was sitting.

Mitchell didn't fail to notice the pain that flickered across Elora's concerned face as she stepped quickly on her injured foot, but the woman did not make a sound. Geta clucked at her. "Sit back down, child, before you reinjure that ankle."

To Mitchell's eye, Geta's examination seemed thorough, but he wasn't a doctor. She looked more concerned when she looked up from Teal'C.

"His breathing and heartbeat are strong, but he has a fever, something Mistress Samantha doesn't have. Elora, you are doing the right thing to keep him cool, but we will need to get him in as few clothes as possible. Turn away, Elora. Master Colonel, help me get his clothing off."

"It's Colonel Mitchell, ma'am. Or Cameron. No Master."

Geta's eyes examined the younger man. "Well, then Colonel Mitchell, or Cameron. Please move your vlerusht and help me."

Mitchell didn't need to know the word to know what it meant. It was not long before Teal'C was stripped down and covered waist down by a thin blanket.

Geta turned to Elora and looked at her, fiercely. "I take it you are determined to be his nurse?"

Elora nodded, defiantly, her eyes challenging the older woman.

"Then you will need to keep him cool. Use the sponge as you have but you must include his neck, chest and arms. If you can, use your fingers to drip a few drops into his mouth every now and again. Perhaps his reflexes will cause him to swallow and we won't have to worry about him becoming parched."

Elora nodded and moved back into the chair beside his bed and began to dip the sponge into a bowl of water.

Geta frowned. "I want to check Mistress Samantha again, Colonel Mitchell. Please stay here with Elora and Master Teal'C while I go next door. The room is too small for many people. Three is enough."

After Geta left, Elora said, without looking up. "She wants you to be the chaperone."

Cameron's eyebrows rose. "Excuse me?"

"According to our customs, it is highly improper for an unmarried woman to be alone with a man for any length of time, and more so when the man is," she looked at Teal'C's chest and blushed.

Cameron nodded. "So she's watching after your honor. Or Teal'C's."

Elora looked up quickly to see a quirk in Cameron Mitchell's lips. The smile did not reach his eyes and now, Elora understood his earlier words. "Perhaps, you're right." She nodded, solemnly.

Teal'C struggled against the heat and fought to clear his mind. He could not move and it infuriated him. He wanted to strike out at whatever restrained him. He tried to cry out, to rage at that which held him captive…

Dr. Rush was on her first off-world mission since completing medical school and beginning her work as a doctor – instead of a nurse – at the SGC. Her first mission and she was in full HazMat gear. She was nervous about this being SG1 she was treating, but she was confident of her abilities and knew that this wasn't her first time treating them. She and her four-man team had been met at the gate by Lt. Colonel Mitchell and an older man named Velon. The worry etched into Mitchell's impossibly light blue eyes made her more nervous and more resolute.

Elora sat on the edge of Teal'C's bed. "Propriety be damned," she pronounced crisply when she'd decided to move from the chair to the bed so that she could reach him better. She could see from his face that this 'sleep' he was in, was not a restful one. This both concerned and soothed her. She was concerned that he would use what precious strength he possessed to fight and would only make himself more ill. But she was soothed by the knowledge that he would not succumb to this illness willingly. She hummed slightly as she bathed his face, neck, shoulders, arms and chest with fresh cool water. She wanted to sooth him so that he would use his strength to get better.

He heard a sound from far away. It sounded like faint music. He paused in his struggles to listen, to try to decide where it was coming from…

Cameron Mitchell had to smile at the sight of Elora leaning across Teal'C. This woman hadn't left his friend's side. She was a loyal one. It was her presence (and Daniel's persuasive words) that convinced him to go to the gate and hasten the doctor here himself. "Here they are, Doc," he said softly. "Teal'C's here and Sam's next door."

Geta came out of Sam's room. "You are the Tau'ri healer?"

"Dr. Rush," she said. "You are Geta?"

Geta nodded. "I hope your medicine works better than ours," she said grimly. "Mistress Samantha remains unconscious, but other than an hour or so last night, has had no signs of fever." Geta motioned to Teal'C's room. She frowned at Elora, but continued to speak to Rush. "Master Teal'C, however, has been with fever all night and is still. Neither of them has awakened for even a moment. We've tried our best to keep them comfortable."

Rush nodded. She moved in to look at Teal'C.

Elora jumped when she saw this creature in a large orange suit and a human face enter, but the face smiled. "I'm Doctor Rush. I need to examine Teal'C."

Elora stood and moved to the side. "He does not rest." She glanced up at Cameron, then back to Rush.

Rush looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"It isn't as though he sleeps. If it were a sleep, I would say that his dreams trouble him. He fights; his breathing is labored, like a struggle. He does not rest."

Rush nodded and began her examination. Teal'C's fever was high and he was fighting dehydration as well as whatever demon was chasing him. She started an IV drip and took blood samples. Then she moved to Sam.

Sam was clearly suffering from the same illness, but without the fever. Rush took blood samples from her as well and connected an IV to stave off dehydration.

When Rush came out of the rooms, Cameron Mitchell met her at the door. "I'd like to get samples from you two as well." She said as he asked, "Well, Doc?"

She shook her head and followed Cam to a chair where he exposed his arm. "They both appear to be stable. Suffering from some sort of infection, whether it is viral or bacterial, I won't be sure until I run some tests. Did they eat anything out of the ordinary?"

"We were at a feast on an alien planet," Daniel Jackson said from behind her. "I think that if it had been the food or the drink, we would all be sick. I can't think of anything they ate that Cam and I didn't."

Rush nodded and finished with Mitchell, indicating that Daniel sit. "Did you guys stay together the entire time you were here?"

"Yes, of course," Mitchell said.

"So we can rule out surroundings," Rush started as she drew blood from Daniel.

"This is not true," Elora said softly from behind Mitchell.

The three humans turned to look at her. She stood up straight. "Forgive me for listening, but Master Teal'C was alone in the forest when he found me."

Daniel looked pointedly at Mitchell as he stood. "And Sam went with him into Elora's house when he came back."

Elora's eye widened. "You can't think that my family, my Mother's home, could be the cause of this!"

"No," Daniel assured her. "No, it's not that. It's…it's just the only time they weren't with us. You see, if Teal'C had been the only one to get sick, then we could assume it had something to do with the forest – which it still could," he added quickly. "But because Sam was only away from us when she met you and Teal'C in the courtyard and went with you to your home…"

Elora studied him. After a long moment, she nodded. "At any rate, it must be ruled out as a precaution." She took a deep breath. Then she looked at the Doctor and then Geta. "Could my family be in danger?"

Rush shook her head. "It could be something that you are all immune to."

Daniel nodded. "Like the Native Americans who were the first to meet the first Europeans in the Caribbean. They did not have the immunities that the Europeans had built up and subsequently died of diseases that would only make one of the explorers nauseous."

Mitchell shot Daniel a look.

Daniel looked at him, askance. "What – oh! Not that Teal'C or Sam are in any danger of –"

"Not if I can help it, Dr. Jackson," Rush said. She looked at the case that held the samples. "I'm going to take these back to the lab myself. My team will look around the town and take samples."

"Hey, Doc," Mitchell called out. "If it's this immunity thing that Jackson's talking about, why don't we have it?"

She shook her head and held up the sample case. "I don't know. Hopefully, this will tell us."

He was weary of fighting…the song was there in the distance…he could not find the singer…he wanted to sleep…

Elora had sat with Teal'C for seven straight days. The samples Dr. Rush had initially taken did not yield any results and the doctor's teams did not find anything that would explain this mysterious illness. Now Doctor Rush and several different teams of scientists and doctors were testing everything from woodland flowers to local cuisine, even the dust from the road, to find an answer.

Daniel and Cameron were the only ones who could convince Elora to leave for a few minutes. They'd both instructed her to stop referring to them in the formal despite her protests about propriety (to which Daniel pointed out she was spending time alone with an unmarried, half-naked man, making her laugh). She left long enough to bathe and change her clothes, perhaps to eat something, but she took most of her meals in Teal'C's room. She'd sat with Samantha a few times while Daniel and Cameron talked with Dr. Rush in Teal'C's room, but Samantha, while still unconscious, had never developed the fever and seemed to rest peacefully.

She sat singing, softly to him, when Daniel walked in and sat in the chair at the end of the bed. She looked at the handsome man, whose face was drawn with concern over his friends.

"You and Teal'C are good friends," she said. She'd never tried to talk to him about his relationships with Teal'C or Samantha.

Daniel nodded. "He's like a brother to me. Just like Sam's like a sister. I didn't have any siblings growing up…they're the most family I've ever really had."

Elora felt his sadness. She remained silent knowing nothing she said could make him feel better.

"I—it's frustrating, you know?" he said after a long time.

She nodded. "Not knowing."

He nodded. "Not knowing. It's the worst."

She smiled, sadly. "You and I may be of the same fabric, Daniel. I never had any patience with the unknown. I always needed to know the answers and if someone couldn't tell me, I would find other ways to get them…My father went gray before my twelfth year."

Daniel nodded. "I was the same way. Always digging for answers…" he chuckled at some inner joke.

Elora looked at him, waiting, not understanding but offering a small smile, nonetheless.

"Thank you," Daniel said suddenly.

She frowned. "For what?"

Daniel looked at Teal'C. The entire time they'd been talking Elora had been bathing his chest and arms with the sponge, in a soft rhythmic pattern. "For this. For staying. For singing to him."

She breathed a small chuckle. "I'm not sure you could call what I do singing, but I try to make a happy noise."

Daniel's smile, this time was genuine. "It's beautiful. Hopefully, it will guide him back."

She nodded. She opened her mouth.

"DANIEL!" Cameron yelled from next door.

Daniel looked at her and she nodded curtly, then he sprinted out, knocking over his chair, in the process. He disappeared into Sam's room. Cam then sprinted out and the front door slammed.

After a minute, Elora stood and moved to look into the door. "Daniel? Do you need…?"

Daniel's eyes glistened as he smiled up at her. Mistress Samantha was sitting up in bed, fully awake.

Dr. Rush and Geta followed Cameron Mitchell into the house, quickly. Elora moved out of the hall, back into Teal'C's room as they approached.

"Your friend is awake," she told him. "Such a strong man and a woman has overcome the same illness faster, tsk, tsk," she chided. "I guess my mother was right. Men are really big babies." She resumed bathing him in cool water. "I wish you would wake, too, Teal'C. I miss your eyes." She sighed. "I don't know if you noticed but all the women in the village noticed you first when your team walked into the village. Even my mother admired you."

She smiled to herself. "I miss the way you smile without actually smiling. I'd never seen someone do that before. You are so reserved; quiet strength and your friends need that strength, even if you need to lean on them." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "You could even lean on me, Teal'C, though I'm not much."

She settled back and hummed as she began to move the sponge down his arms.

He wanted to fight…he needed to…he was just so tired…

Sam was up and sitting in the room with Teal'C. She felt tired and didn't remember anything from the seven days of unconsciousness. She worried about her friend and worried about Cameron Mitchell and Daniel, too. She felt guilty that she'd put them through any pain.

Elora was watching Sam. "Are you feeling better?"

Sam looked up from Teal'C and gave the woman a meager smile. "Yeah. I wish Teal'C would wake up."

Elora nodded. "I told him that."

Sam smiled knowingly. "I thought I heard you talking."

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you—"

Sam shook her head. "No, it's not that. I'm glad. Maybe this is like a coma and he can hear us, or at least sense that we're he—what's wrong."

Elora's face had suddenly darkened with concern and she stood. "Daniel! Cameron!" she shouted.

Sam stood. "What is it, Elora!"

"He has stopped breathing!"