AN: Woohoo! We're through with Argos at last! Yay! But, despite that, I thought the chapter break proved my Authorial Evilness ... quite nicely.(Cue evil laugh. Why, no, that's not a persian cat I'm petting. ;) ) And now, back to the SGC:

Jack looked around anxiously for Sam as he came through the gate, but she was nowhere to be seen. The one time he'd talked with her over the radio she'd seemed fine, but he'd been married for too many years to use one public voice-only conversation to gauge her mood. His team wasn't there, either. In fact—

"Colonel?"

He turned his attention to the petite brunette with the caduceus on her collar. What was her name? "Doctor Frasier," he said.

"I'll need you to come with me to the infirmary right now so I can run some tests, and confirm that all the nanites have shut themselves down and are being purged from your system," she said, guiding him towards the doors. "It's good to see you, sir, but we want to be sure that all risk to the base has been eliminated."

"Okay," he said, allowing himself to be led. That would explain why the Gate room was empty except for the team that had turned off Pelops' device and escorted him home, and the medical team that had met them.

Once in the infirmary he was scanned in an MRI or something, and then put in an isolation room like the one Kawalsky's surgery had been in, with the wide observation windows. His team was up there, as was Sam. She and Daniel sat watching, Teal'c standing behind them with his hands clasped behind his back. Sam gave him a smile, which he returned; it seemed like a good sign. Teal'c gave him that trademark solemn nod, while Daniel wrinkled his forehead at something Sam said before waving at Jack. Jack waved back at them.

His attention was caught by a movement at his side that turned out to be a male nurse with a big syringe. "What's that for?" he asked as he rolled up his sleeve.

"Doctor Frasier needs another blood sample to check on the nanites," the nurse replied as he swabbed a piece of Jack's arm with alcohol.

"Y'know, they sent several samples through to the SGC before they let any of us come home," Jack pointed out.

"I know." He jabbed him with the needle. "We need to do some more tests over a period of time to make sure they really are dead."

"How much blood is Frasier going to want?" Jack asked.

"You'd have to ask her that, sir." He took the needle out and put it away. "I'd say she's going to want a lot, though."

"I knew it," Jack said, playing to the guys in the observation lounge. "All docs are vampires."

That garnered a bit of a laugh from the peanut gallery; evidently the room was miked for sound. Daniel leaned over to a microphone near him. "Be nice, Jack. Janet did more than anyone else besides Sam to figure out what happened to you and get you home."

"I'm always nice!" Jack protested mock innocently. "Hello, sir," he said to Hammond, who had just entered the observation room.

"Colonel," Hammond returned. "It's good to see you back, son."

"It's good to be back, sir, but," Jack gestured down at himself, "right now it looks like I should be the one calling you that."

"Maybe, but not for long."

Jack glanced over at the door to the isolation room. It was open, and Frasier stood there with a file folder in hand. Like the nurse who had just left, she wore gloves and a mask, but she pulled the mask down as she stepped further into the room.

"I have some good news," she said to the observers. "As far as we can tell, the nanites are flushing themselves out of his system at a rapid rate. We'll want to keep him for observation, and keep running blood work to keep track of it, but I can't see any cause for concern at this point. Also," she turned to Jack, "from the scans we've taken, the alterations in your body seem to be mostly cosmetic in nature—wrinkled skin, white hair, stooped posture, etc. There does not seem to be any permanent effect on your internal organs, and I don't believe the cosmetic changes will be permanent, either."

"Bottom line, doctor?" Hammond asked over the intercom.

Frasier cocked her head. "The bottom line is that while we'll want to keep him here for observation until this process is completed, Jack should end up the same age he was when he arrived on Argos. I doubt the actual Argosians will regress in age."

"That would make sense," Sam broke in. "They've depended on the nanites for their growth since birth, which means the alterations would have been much more than cosmetic alone."

"Exactly." Frasier nodded.

"How long will it take for Colonel O'Neill to return to normal?" Hammond asked.

"Well, I couldn't say, exactly." Janet put a hand in the pocket of her lab coat. "But at the rate things are progressing, probably about a week."

"So," Jack said, fighting down his annoyance that they'd all been talking about him rather than too him, "bottom line is that I need to pack all my annoying old fart stuff into the next week?"

Frasier gave him an amused smile. "Basically, yes, sir," she replied. "After that, you won't have any excuse."

"Damn," Jack said. "And I was so looking forward to it!" He felt his face split wide in a grin and bounced on his toes a little bit.

A snort from the observation lounge drew his attention back. Daniel's smile looked as wide as Jack's felt. "As if you need an excuse to be annoying," the archaeologist said.

Jack made a face at him, but couldn't muster anything crankier than that at the moment. He looked to Sam, locking eyes with her. God, she looked gorgeous. Her eyes were bright with moisture, but she was smiling back at him. Suddenly shy, he shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. She'd never looked at him that intensely before. Sara used to, back when they were first together, but even the thought of his ex-wife couldn't dampen his spirits at the moment.

"How long does he have to stay in isolation, Doctor?" Hammond's question broke the moment, and Jack tore his eyes away from Sam. From the amused look, his CO had caught the googly eyes.

"I'd say a couple of days, sir," Janet said, "just to be on the safe side. Especially given Captain Carter's condition, we don't want to take any unnecessary risk.

Jack practically growled at the thought of Sam being stuck behind glass for that long. He hadn't seen her for a while, he'd thought he was going to die, and ok, yeah, he knew it was just near-death nerves and hormones, but he really wanted to see his girlfriend face-to-face, dammit!

"Thank you," Hammond replied. "It's good to have you back, Colonel." He nodded to Jack, glanced at Daniel and Teal'c, and left.

"Well, I think that's all I need from you for now," Janet said briskly. "If you have any problems or concerns, colonel, you can use the intercom to call for help. In the mean-time, I'll be studying these samples." She gave him a smile and tuned on her heel. He watched her leave, bemused.

"Jack, if you need anything let us know, okay?" Jack turned back to see Daniel standing. Teal'c gave him a slight bow, and the two left together. As they moved out of his line of vision Jack looked back at Sam; she was still watching them go. After a bit she turned back to him.

"I smell a conspiracy," Jack said mock suspiciously.

Sam raised her eyebrows at him. "Do you care?"

"Well, now that you mention it, no," Jack said with a slight laugh. "So, how're you doing?" he asked. "How have things … been while I've been gone?"