Walter stretched and listened contently as his back popped several times; he rarely worked the night shift but sometimes it was just nice to have an uneventful shift. Of course, around here, even the graveyard shift wasn't guaranteed to be boring.
He looked over at the young airman sitting next to him; the kid had spent the last six hours telling him how much all the techs looked up to and respected him and that was after two hours of silent staring. Walter was sure that his head was at least a couple cubic inches bigger than it had been at the start of the shift. The kid was a bigger fanboy than Mitchell had ever been. It was nice though, considering how under-appreciated he was by certain other people on the base.
"I'm going to get some coffee, would you like some?"
The kid swallowed loudly, "um, no thank you, Sgt. Harriman, sir."
"Ok, well, she's all yours," Walter gestured expansively to the control room. He managed to make it out of the room before snickering at the kid's barely contained meep!.
He paused briefly as he passed the elevator banks and decided to take the stairs instead; one could only sit for so long without performing some form of physical activity. He listened carefully upon entering the stairwell to make sure he was alone, before he closed his eyes and began humming the cha-cha. The woman he'd recently started seeing was an avid ball room dancer, and somewhere along the line he'd realized that doing the cha-cha on the stairs was actually a great way to learn it.
Walter's eyes snapped open when he nearly fell headlong into the wall after trying to take a step up where there wasn't one. An inert form on the far side of the landing instantly drew his attention.
"Col Mitchell?"
Walter took in the visible bruises and the small pool of blood beneath his head even as he checked for a pulse. Feeling a strong, steady beat beneath his fingers, he jumped to his feet in search of the nearest security phone.
After placing the call he bounded back up the stairs to Cameron's side; he was pleased to see the man stirring. "Col, lie still, you might be injured."
"I won't say I'm fine, but I am ok to move." Cam groaned as he pushed himself into the sitting position. One hand dropped to his knee while the other wrapped tightly around his ribs when pain flared in both locations.
Walter nodded uncertainly, "do you know what happened?"
"Someone hit me, hard."
STARGATE: SG-1
Carolyn could feel the other nurses eyeing her and she knew that the night shift must have passed on the news that she and Cameron left the base together. The smile that wouldn't leave her face didn't do anything to dissuade the thoughts that were most likely running rampant through their heads.
"So…."
Carolyn turned to see Lt Jessica Rush staring at her expectantly, "so what?"
Rush laughed appreciatively, "well Doc, I can tell you that if I went home with a man like Col Mitchell, there would definitely be a 'so'."
Her face fell slightly when she thought about the man she'd had that was very much like Mitchell; but that had been three years ago and he was back on his home world now, hopefully still alive and fighting the Ori.
"He's my friend and he needed company; there's no 'so'," Lam ducked her head slightly to hide the blush that had crept up into her cheeks. It had taken her an extremely long time to fall asleep knowing that Cam was curled up on her couch all alone.
Carolyn had been trying to think of a good way of broaching the relationship issue with Cameron for the last couple weeks, but something always seemed to come up. First he'd disappeared for two weeks, then all the other SG-1's showed up- it had been very interesting to learn that she was married to him in more than one reality-, then his friend had died, the list went on and on.
"MEDICAL TEAM TO LEVEL 27, SOUTH STAIRWELL!"
Carolyn grabbed her kit and took off for the specified location, trusting her staff to be right behind her with a stretcher. She bounded down the stairs, careful not to slip and fall herself, only to stop in her tracks when she saw the object of her recent musings sitting against the wall with a very dazed expression and blood coating the side of his face.
"Cameron!"
It took a couple of seconds, but Cam finally responded to his name, "Hey Carolyn, I'm-"
"Don't you dare say you're fine." She knelt in front of him and quickly flicked her pen light in his eyes, confirming her spot diagnosis of a concussion. "Other than your head, where's it hurt?" Carolyn gave him a look that dared him to try and hide anything from her.
"Right knee, left ribs and shoulder. My neck and back are fine, and I'm sure the others are just bruises."
"Why don't you let me be the judge of that." Lam nodded as she gently palpated the areas he'd specified; she mentally cataloged the number and severity of his winces in each location. Thankfully there didn't seem to be any major damage; he'd most likely cracked a couple ribs, but his knee and shoulder were moving well.
She turned towards the orderlies that were waiting patiently behind her, "help him to the infirmary please; I'm assuming you're going to decline the stretcher?" She knew the answer to that question without even looking at him.
Cam smiled, "you got that right, but is there any chance I can just go back to my quart-" he stopped abruptly when her patented 'say-it-and-die' look was turned on him full force, "never mind." Mitchell bit his lip against the pain as the two men helped him to his feet and they started up the stairs.
Carolyn watched them go before turning to face Walter, "the rest of his team is going to want to know about this."
Walter simply nodded before heading off in search of the other three fourths of SG-1.
Fifteen minutes later Mitchell was stitched and lying beneath the x-ray machine.
"You know, you take any more of these and I'm going to start glowing in the dark." His head was killing him and he was sick of being poked and prodded; Cam really just wanted to be left alone.
Carolyn ignored him as she set up the last x-ray of his knee.
Cameron took the slight in stride and realized that he'd probably been a bit too short with everyone lately. He decided to savor the silence, knowing that as soon as the team got a hold of him, peace and quiet wouldn't be an option for a very long time.
Sure enough, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c, and strangely enough General Landry were waiting for him back in the main infirmary. Mitchell suppressed a growl and schooled his face into a look of appropriate respect, "sir, guys, I'm fine."
Landry nodded, accepting the blatant lie for now, "What happened Col?"
"Sir, all I remember was getting tapped on the shoulder, then a fist hitting my jaw. I never saw his face."
"I've got Col Reynolds reviewing the security footage as we speak, hopefully he can come up with something. In the mean time, I'm placing you under protective guard, and no arguments Col."
"Yes sir," he murmured, trying to ignore Sam's 'told you so' look.
"Cam, can you think of anyone with any reason to hurt you?" Carter was definitely not happy with this turn of events, and she knew everyone else felt the same way; locking Cameron in his room could easily have been a practical joke, but there was no mistaking the intent behind this attack.
Mitchell watched silently as Carolyn wrapped a brace around his knee, "your guess is as good as mine, Sam. Hell, we've been off-world for most of the last three weeks."
"The problem is that we don't know who we can trust," Daniel shoved his hands in his pockets, "it could have been almost anybody on base. So, it looks like you're stuck with us until we get this taken care of."
Cam closed his eyes as his head dropped back to the pillow, and he thought they had hovered the last few days. "Fine, then lets get this taken care of, why don't you guys go help Reynolds go through that tape." He saw their dubious looks at leaving him alone, "no one is going to risk coming after me in here, not with Dr. Danger over there lurking around."
Carolyn blushed knowing that he was referring to her black belt in Tae Kwon Do, "I'll keep an eye on him, he's going to be in here the rest of the day anyway."
They all ignored Cameron's dramatic groan.
STARGATE: SG-1
Teal'c's face remained impassive as he continued to stare at the screen, but a small tick was starting to develop in the corner of his eye. The last week had been nothing but dead ends; they'd managed to narrow their list of suspects to a whopping fifty-seven base personnel based on general body type and their duty roster.
Basically, they'd gotten no where.
Mitchell had gotten fed up with the process an hour ago and stomped off toward the commissary, mumbling promises to stay in populated areas. Teal'c could understand his frustration, they were men of action; better at reading people than computer screens and numbers.
The big Jaffa rose to his feet with a quiet growl, "I will go check on Col Mitchell."
Daniel and Sam shared a look, surprised that the other two men lasted as long as they had. They were all frustrated, they wanted justice; but this guy was good, who ever he was. Hell, they didn't even know what color hair the guy had, let along who he was.
Teal'c wasn't all that surprised when he didn't find Cam in the commissary; when it came to men like them, frustration was rarely dissipated by eating. The only way to get rid of it was with physical activity. So he headed for the gym, and while he'd known that Cameron would be there, he hadn't expected to find the man sparring with the new kid from Reynolds' team.
"Col Mitchell, are you sure that is wise?"
"Ah hell, Teal'c, it's been a week, I'm fine." His statement was immediately belied by a wince as he swept the staff in a downward arc toward his opponent. He continued the fight even as he watched Teal'c with his peripheral vision, "the others send you down here to make sure I was behaving myself?"
Teal'c cocked his head, giving the younger man a look that could only be interpreted 'yeah right'. "They did not; I grew wary of the research."
Mitchell swept the marine's feet from beneath him yet again, before leaning heavily on the staff and smiling at Teal'c. "I can dig that. You want in," he nodded to where the kid was slowly making his way off the mat.
Teal'c couldn't help but smile with pride; Cam had progressed well since his time with the Sodan and Teal'c knew that was in part thanks to him. Even still on the road to recovery, Mitchell had wiped the floor with the young soldier.
"I would be honored."
He took careful note of the brace surrounding the Col's knee and the bruising along his shoulder and ribs that peeked from beneath his tank top with each movement. Teal'c knew that they both had some energy to burn, but he would not risk hurting Cameron further. He took a staff off the wall and began the almost dance-like movements of the Sodan fighting style.
They fought several rounds before Teal'c called a halt; he hadn't missed the way Cam's movements had become slower and less forceful as they progressed.
STARGATE: SG-1
From across the room another pair of eyes watched the Col's movements like a hawk; trying to discern any weakness there.
Mitchell had blatantly ignored his ultimatum over the last week, stalking around the SGC like he owned the place and everyone in it, and it was time for him to pay. He would have put his next plan into action much sooner, but the Col was rarely out of the company of at least one of his team.
He had no desire to hurt the other members of SG-1, but he would not allow them to stand in his way. A new plan slowly began to formulate in his head as he watched the two men exit the gym.