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Chapter 3
Jack walked out of the tent, this was a nightmare, how can a mission that had started so well turn into one of the worst experiences of his life, not only was he faced with losing Sam but now Daniel as well. He had watched as Janet and her med team had stripped him out of his biohazard suit and started hooking him up to various machines. Teal'c wanted to stay with Daniel so Jack had left him there; one of the nurses had informed him that Sam had been moved into her own tent. Jack walked into the tent and what he saw made his breath catch in his throat and he was sure his heart had stopped beating. Sam lay in a bed covered in a white sheet that just highlighted how pale she had become, there were wires all around her and all he could hear was the regular beeping of the heart monitor. Tears began to fill his eyes and it took all of his strength to hold them back, the last thing he wanted to do was cry especially in a biohazard suit, he walked over to her and sat in the chair next to the bed.
It was 2 hours later when Janet came in to check on Sam, she started checking her vitals and Jack couldn't help but notice how tired she looked, he doubted she had stopped since she got here and that was almost 3 hours ago.
"I just checked on Daniel"
"How's he doing?" he asked
"Same as Sam he's still unconscious, Teal'c hasn't left his side" Jack could hear the pain in her voice, he knew that if she could she would be spending every second at Daniels side, much as he had with Sam. He had noticed Daniel and Janet become very close over the last year, Sam had noticed it too, she had mentioned it too him a couple of times, she was Janet's best friend and that must only be making thing harder for her. Janet finished checking on Sam and put a gloved hand to her head before looking at Jack
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay, so far"
"Good, Teal'c seems okay too, we should be able to get the results from your blood tests soon"
"How are you?" Jack had to ask the question though he already knew what her answer would be and that it would also be a complete lie.
"I'm fine" Jack looked at her with a disbelieving face and knew she understood
"It's hard, I want to stay with them but I have all these tests to run and I have to check on some of the villagers"
"How's it going?"
"Slowly, which normally wouldn't bother me so much but the timeline you gave us earlier means we only have 54 hours before both Daniel and Sam…" she trailed off unable to bring herself to actually say it but Jack heard the unspoken word and nodded to her showing that he understood and saving her from having to force the word out, but it kept ringing in his head 'before Daniel and Sam die".
Janet nodded back and left the tent, Jack watched her go before returning to Sam's side, he looked at her and the terrible realisation suddenly hit him so hard he couldn't breathe. In 51 hours he might lose her, in 51 hours he might lose the woman he loves.
Janet walked back into the research tent, she stood at the entrance for a moment and watched the members of her research team busily hurry around the tent performing various tasks, mostly set up; it had taken this long for the equipment and personnel she had requested to get here and set up. She sat at her station and reached over to the microscope slides she had made earlier, she took the slide from the top and read the small white label she had stuck on the end, it read, Major. S. Carter. She put the slide under the microscope in front of her and took a deep breath, this was the first blood sample that had been looked at, everyone had been busy tending to the sick villagers and setting up the tents and equipment. She looked through the microscope and focused it in on the blood sample, that's when she saw it, she pulled back and blinked then looked again, it was still there, it looked like a small tadpole swimming around in her blood, there were 6 of them in that sample alone. She called a few of the doctors to come and look at it and help her collect samples whilst ordering another doctor to finish checking her blood samples. Now that they knew what they were looking for they could identify who was infected and try and find a cure.
Teal'c was sitting next to Daniels bed watching him, but he still had not awoken, according to the timeline Colonel O'Neill had got from Dalton it would probably be over an hour before he did. However Major Carter was due to wake up any minute, he wanted to know how she was doing, he thought about going to find out but he couldn't leave Daniel alone, what if he woke up early? Teal'c wanted to make sure Daniel didn't wake up alone. Colonel O'Neill was with Major Carter if anything happened he would inform him. He sighed, one of the more human traits he had picked up during his years on earth.
Sam began to stir and Jack practically flew out of chair and moved to her side, he used his gloved hand to brush some of her hair away from her face, damn biohazard suit would be the first thing she would see when she woke up. Her eyelids fluttered open to reveal the beautiful blue eyes he had fallen for. A look of fear and worry crossed her face almost instantly and she instinctively tried to sit up and get away, realising she couldn't lift her head more than a few inches she settled back against the bed.
"It's okay, stay still"
"What happened?" her voice was weak, very weak and it tore him apart to hear.
"We were on a mission to P4X 287 we had dinner with Dalton and his wife and they told us about the sickness, do you remember that?" she hesitated a moment as if trying to recall before she nodded her head slowly in response "Well when we were leaving you collapsed so we brought in a medical team, you have the 'sickness' you've been unconscious for 4 hours"
"What about the others?"
"Teal'c and I are both fine but Daniel collapsed about an hour and a half after you did, he's still unconscious, he and Teal'c are in another tent" he watched Sam's eyes widen as he told her this and decided to lighten the mood a little. "You should see Teal'c, Janet's making him wear biohazard suit and he's not happy about it, it's a real Kodak moment" she relaxed and smiled at him before wincing in pain and putting her hand to her head "Are you alright?"
"My head hurts and I feel kind of sick"
"I'll go get Janet, she wanted to know when you woke up anyway and if you're lucky I'll get Teal'c on the way back so you can have a good laugh at him" She smiled again and he turned and left the tent.
A few minutes later Jack walked back into the tent followed closely by Teal'c who really did look amusing in a biohazard suit and Janet who immediately started checking her vitals.
"How are you feeling Major Carter?" Teal'c asked
"I'm okay, I feel a little sick and I have a headache but I'm okay" her voice sounded so weak and she knew it gave her away but it took all of her strength just to make herself speak. Janet turned to her and handed her some pills and a glass of water "Here, this should help with the nausea and the headache"
"Thank you" she took the pills and smiled at Janet who looked exhausted, Sam knew how worried she must be about Daniel, she had confronted her numerous times about her feelings for him and she always deflected it by turning the conversation back on her by bringing up her feeling for Jack.
"I am going to return to Daniel Jackson, I don't want him to wake up alone" Teal'c put his hand on hers arm as he said this "I hope that you feel better"
"Thanks Teal'c, say hi to Daniel for me when he wakes up"
"I will" Teal'c left the tent and Sam turned to Janet who had walked over to stand next to Jack.
"So what is this thing? How bad is it? And no lying"
"It's a virus, we've never seen anything like it, we've started doing tests but so far it seems to be adapting to whatever we throw at it"
"How long do I have?" she watched the look on Janet's face change to despair and look at Jack as if to tell him she couldn't bring herself to answer the question, Jack obviously got the message as he turned to her and answered the question.
"As of now 50 hours" Sam couldn't believe what she was hearing, she might be dead in 50 hours.
"Have you contacted my father?" Janet's head dropped and Jack once again answered her question
"We've been trying to contact the Tok'ra since this thing started, we've had no luck"
"I have to get back to work, just call me if you need anything okay?" Sam nodded and Janet reluctantly left leaving her alone with Jack.
"So how bad is it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on I've known you two for years I can tell when you're hiding something from me and from the look on your face right now I'd say I'm right" It was the longest sentence she had put together so far and it took a lot of effort but she had to know, she watched Jacks face fill with pain as he answered her.
"It's gonna get bad, painful" Sam could only nod her head and return his gaze
