By the time they reached the room, Janet Fraiser had already propped Ian into a chair and was checking him out.
"How is he?" Jack asked, coming over to stand by Shawn, who was hovering anxiously nearby.
"Did it work?" one of the Asgard asked at the exact same moment, moving over to the stasis pod.
Jack gave him a dirty look, clearly ready to tell him what the priority was, when Ian spoke up.
"Close that thing up and leave it alone for a while."
Thor looked at him.
"Why?"
Ian lifted his head, his face pale and his eyes mirroring his exhaustion.
"Because we need to give it time to take hold, and you can't fuck with it while it's doing it, or you'll mess up everything I did."
"Did it work?" the Asgard repeated, closing the stasis pod.
"We'll know in a couple of days…"
He was really drooping, now, and even the Asgard realized it, now.
Fraiser, of course, was already moving.
"Let's get him into bed…" she said, moving out of the way and imperiously gesturing to Teal'c and Jack to take care of doing that. "You can talk to him more once he's had a chance to rest."
"But-"
"He's not going to do you any good if he falls on his face," Jack told the Asgard, draping one of Ian's arms over his shoulder while Teal'c did the same on the other side. They hauled him bodily to his feet and pretty much dragged him out of the room.
Thor turned to Sam.
"Is that normal?"
She nodded.
"It takes a lot out of him."
"The Ancients could heal without exhausting themselves," one of the other Asgard said.
"Ian's not an Ancient," Sam told them, firmly. "He does things differently than they did – and it has a different affect on him."
"What do we do now?" one of them asked.
"We wait and see if it was successful," Thor said.
"We could run tests on the-"
"Ian said not to touch it," Andrew interrupted. "If he doesn't want you to touch it, you better not."
"We know what we are doing."
Andrew frowned.
"You screw with it and ruin what he did, and there's very little chance you'll be able to convince him to try again."
Try a snowball's chance in hell.
"We can wait to see if the changes work," Thor told everyone – especially the other Asgard. "I would not want Ian Brooks to wear himself out on our behalf again if it were not necessary."
The other Asgard didn't look all that happy at that prospect, but they didn't argue.
"We will return in two days," one said, vanishing in a beam of light – along with the others. All but Thor, that was.
"I will remain close by," the little alien told them. "Someone will need to see to the research we have left, and besides, I would not leave until I am certain Ian Brooks is unharmed."
Feeling a little gratified that at least one of them seemed to care, Sam smiled.
"We should probably just leave the research alone until we know for certain Ian's through with it," she said. She looked over at Hammond, questioningly. "We could probably put a guard on the door to make sure no one accidentally gets into it…"
He nodded.
"See to it, Major. Are you going to remain on base?" he asked Thor.
The little alien shook his head.
"I shall return to my ship. Shawn and Andrew both have a signaling device should you need to contact me."
Hammond nodded, and Thor vanished in a brilliant flash of light as well.
"So I guess we just wait, huh?" Andrew asked.
"We should probably get you home…" Sam said. "Your mom's been pretty good about not wondering what you're doing, but…"
"Aw, Sam… she won't mind," Andrew said, quickly. He didn't want to miss anything going on at the SGC, and knew if he left that something exciting would happen and no one would think to call him and let him know about it. "It's summer time…"
Hammond looked at Sam, who shrugged.
"I guess we could put them to work here…" she said. There was always some project she could use a little help with – and it would give Shawn and Andrew both something to do. Besides, if she could keep an eye on them, at least she'd know they weren't off getting into trouble or anything.
As if he were reading her mind, Hammond nodded.
"Just keep them out of trouble. I'm going to go home."
He'd been at the SGC long enough, and had personal things that needed to be taken care of – and since he knew that he'd have at least 24 hours before anything might happen, he'd take the opportunity to do them while it was quiet.
Sam nodded.
"Yes, sir."
"Unless you feel the need to stay, you should go home, too," Hammond told her. "I can make it an order if you need me to…"
Shawn turned his head to hide his smile, but Andrew saw it and echoed it. Sam spent too much time at the SGC, too, as far as Shawn was concerned – and she wouldn't always listen to Jack when he said it was time to leave.
Sam hesitated, almost certainly ready to argue, but then she shook her head.
"No need, sir. We'll go home tonight."
It would be nice to sleep in her own bed after several days of being in the VIP rooms – and Jake would do better at home, even though he was doted on by everyone around him when he was on base and everyone was a willing babysitter. Except Ian, of course, who would watch him only as a last resort.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then."
"Yes, sir."
Hammond left, and Sam turned to the boys, who were still smiling.
"Why don't you go see if the cooks in the commissary can use a couple of dishwashers?"
Both of them immediately lost their amused grins.
