A/N: Sorry about the wait!! I had this written about a week ago, but my beta actually has a life besides editing my story (gasp!) Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it!

Thank you Aria-wolfstar for taking the time to beta this!

Ch 4: ...

Sam made her way to the infirmary, regretting every step she took. She loved Janet to pieces, but she hated the infirmary. Everyone did. But most of them weren't in there as much as she and the rest of SG-1 was; well, except for maybe Siler.

She knocked quietly on the door, not wanting to disturb anyone from his or her likely precious sleep. She pushed it open and found Janet walking over to her. "Hey," Sam whispered. "I uh-"

"How's it going with the kid?" Janet asked, turning on the closest light before looking at Sam. "Is she- oh my god. Did she do that to you?" She switched from friend to doctor in a split second. "Sam, sit."

Sam walked over to an empty bed and sat down. "It's nothing, Janet, just an accident. I'm fine," she protested, even though she knew it would get her nowhere.

"Yeah, I've heard that one before." Janet muttered, pulling out the bandages.

Sam looked down. "Did Colonel O'Neill come in?"

Janet stopped what she was doing and turned to her. "What? Why? Did something happen to him as well?"

Sam turned away guiltily. "He… he was… when we were trying to bring the girl into Daniel's office… she… bit him."

"She bit him?" Janet roared. "I want to see him as soon as I am done with you. She's an alien girl and not all her tests have come back yet. For all we know, she could have some disease that we haven't picked up on, or cant pick up on!" With a huff of dissatisfaction Janet began to wipe up the blood around the wound. "You're lucky, this almost needs stitches. But I think we'll stick with a butterfly this time, sound okay to you?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

Janet quickly finished up with her, strapping a small butterfly bandage to her cheek. "Sam, tell Colonel O'Neill I want to see him, right away."

Sam hung her head as she walked out the door, and mumbled a slight acknowledgment. He was not going to be happy…, she thought with a cringe.

----

Jack sat in Carter's lab, twiddling around with something he shouldn't be. He didn't understand why Carter liked all this stuff; he found it rather boring himself. "Caaarter… where aaare you?" he said in a singsong type of voice, his patience slowly slipping out of his grasp.

"Sir?"

Jack jumped off his chair, causing the object to fly out of his hand and crash onto the floor. "Carter! I was just… waiting for you." He followed his focus to the shattered device. "Oh. Sorry about that. Hope it wasn't too important." It might have sounded cold, but what else could he say?

Sam cast him a wry glance, and, disgruntled, she walked over to the mess and picked up the broken pieces of the crystal Daniel had brought back for her on his last dig. "Sir, what are you doing here?" she asked, throwing the useless pieces into the garbage with a regretful sigh.

"I don't know. What did Hammond say?"

"About?"

"The girl? Was he mad at me for bringing her here?"

"No, sir. He seems to think you made the right decision." Sam turned to him. "Sir, not to sound rude, but would you mind not messing with my stuff?"

"What do you mean? I never mess with your stuff. Okay, so there might have been a time or two…but I've never broke anything."

"What about-"

"So you let the doc check out your cheek," he said, interrupting her thought process hurriedly. "Good, I was wondering if I was going to have to drag you down there myself."

"No sir." Sam sat down. "But Janet does want to see you, right away."

"What? You told her? Why? I was going to see her… later." Jack shoved his hands into his pockets, cringing at the thought of another prick of a needle.

"Sorry, sir."

Jack nodded slowly. "I suppose if I just simply forget to go, she'll call the guards in after me…"

"That's what she did last time."

He heaved a sigh. "I guess I'll see you later then, after I've been poked to death," he said. "Oh, and by the way, Daniel couldn't help. She's asleep in the VIP room."

"Thank you, sir."

Jack nodded and walked out of the room…

----

Janet finished dressing Jack's wound, satisfied with her results, she didn't find anything out of the ordinary, besides the teeth marks in his shoulder of course. By the time she let him go, the sun was already up. Of course being so many levels under the ground, they couldn't see it.

Jack groaned as he rolled over to his other side, trying to get at least an hour of sleep. But it wasn't coming easy tonight - morning, not that it ever did… "Damn it." He threw his pillow across the room in frustration.

He wasn't ready to get up, but he didn't have much of a choice; there was no way he could fall asleep now. He was wide-awake; he had missed his chance. He sat up and rubbed his chin, thinking, he could use a shave.

Grabbing his shirt he quickly tossed it on and headed towards the men's room…

----

Sam didn't sleep either. She stayed up all night trying to finish her reports she had gotten behind on. Only two more to go and she would be done. She pushed her chair back sighed. She needed coffee and a shower to keep her up. She glanced at the clock; the commissary would be putting on a new pot right now.

She made her way to the commissary, ignoring all the stares she received due to the gash covered by the butterfly band-aid on her face. "Hey, June, do you have any of your special coffee?" she asked, walking up to a lady who had been working there the day the Stargate program opened.

June flashed a smile. "You know I do." She said. "It's on in the kitchen, I'll be right back."

Sam smiled and nodded. June was an elderly lady, she tended to be overly friendly sometimes, and she was nosey about SG-1's personal lives, but over all, she was a very nice lady.

"Here you go." June said, returning with a steaming mug in her hands. "I take it you and Colonel O'Neill didn't get much sleep last night…" she smiled, showing her crooked old teeth.

"What?" Sam asked, turning around to find Colonel O'Neill at the table behind her. How did she miss him? She turned back to June. "No, we didn't."

June's smile grew larger. "It's about time you two kicked those regs into the river."

Sam's eyes widened immediately, and she choked back a surprised curse. She knew exactly what the elderly woman was talking about. June tended to mention rumors to people about Colonel O'Neill and herself, and she certainly didn't want this one going around the rumor mill.

"No. No, no, no. Nothing like that at all." Sam assured. "You see, we- Colonel O'Neill found this child and I-"

"Mmm-hmm. You always have an excuse, don't you?" June straighten her cap. "Well, lucky for you that you work here, where anything can happen. You'll never run out of them."

Sam glared at her, took her coffee, and prepared to storm off when she heard her CO's voice calling after her.

"Hey! Carter?"

She sighed to herself, this was not the day she wanted to be seen with him, people will think that rumor was true, if they didn't already… "Yes sir." She turned around and flashed a small smile at him.

"Join me?" He held up a doughnut, as if it would be a deciding factor to lure her to his table.

Sam nodded. "Yes, sir." She said, and she walked over to him and took the seat across from him.

Jack looked around, trying to find the person for her discomfort. "You do know that was not an order, right?"

Sam nodded. "Yes sir." She took a sip of her coffee, paused, and then stuck out her tongue and pulled out a piece of hair. For a moment, she stared at it closely. "Junes." She confirmed, pushing away the coffee.

Jack grimaced at his and did the same. "Well, she is getting a little old I guess. What do you think, she has to be what, sixty?"

Sam shrugged. "Could be older."

Jack chuckled. "Could be." He bit into his doughnut and quickly spat it back out. "They really need to learn how to cook." He muttered, pushing the plate away as well. "What story did she come up with today?"

Sam looked up. She knew that June bugged Jack as well, about the accusations between them, but they both never talked about it before, and frankly, she wasn't sure she ever wanted to. "Umm… nothing, really."

"Really? That's why you hesitated before accepting my invitation for breakfast?" Jack asked, with a smug look.

"No, I hesitated because I wasn't sure I was ready to eat partially eaten doughnuts." She grinned. "Sorry sir, but it doesn't sound to appetizing to me."

Jack chuckled. "Fine. Have it your way. When do you think Daniel's going to be here?"

"Am I wrong or did I hear someone mention my name?"

Jack and Sam turned to find Daniel sliding into a seat next to them, with a tray of pancakes and the 'special' coffee June only made for SG-1.

"Good morning. Manage to get any sleep last night?" Sam asked.

"Nope." He reached for his fork and began on his pancakes. "I was to busy searching the Internet for ways to communicate with a deaf children. I just don't know if any of them will work, because she's not from here…"

"Yeah. We kinda already got that part." Jack said.

Daniel rolled his eyes and reached for his coffee. Jack and Sam didn't bother to tell him about the hair Sam had found in hers, but knowing Daniel, he probably would drink it anyways, just to be polite.

"So, what do we have planned for today?" Jack asked, clapping his hands together.

"The mission to 397 is canceled until we figure out what we're going to do with the girl." Daniel said, looking up at the pairs of eyes. In response to the curiosity that radiated from them, he continued. "I just finished talking with General Hammond."

Sam grimaced and looked away. "I don't see any reason for us all to stay here. I mean, you two should definitely stay, but Teal'c and I could go tag along with SG-9 to that abandoned planet."

"Why should I stay?" Jack inquired, staring suspiciously at his 2IC. "You don't want me to 'tag' along with any of you?"

"No! I mean, I wouldn't mind. However, the girl only seems to trust you, sir. And I'm not so good around kids." She remembered the few days she had baby-sat for her brother. Things hadn't gone so well…

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. "You're excellent with kids. What about Cassie? Are you saying you weren't good around Cassie? Because if my ancient memory serves me right. I think she liked you. Wait, actually, I think you were one of the few people she did like." Jack turned to Daniel. "Right?"

Daniel was preoccupied with pulling a long gray hair out of his mouth, causing him to gag slightly.

"Yuck." Jack muttered.

"Sir. I don't have to go anywhere, if you think you'll need me. I just thought I might be more use to SG-9… but, if you need me…"

"Well, it's not so much the 'needing' part. It's more I'd like to have you here, and not billions of light-years away. I mean what if something happens and we need you? What if she turns out to be an extremely intelligent robot?" Jack asked. "Who knows? Siler might be here this minute and tell us that-"

"Colonel O'Neill."

Jack froze, he was afraid to turn around, he knew by the voice who it was, Siler. "Yes?" he slowly turned to face the man.

"It's the child sir. She-"

"Let me guess. She's a extremely intelligent robot," Sam said, a grin spreading across her face.

Siler turned curiously to her, and blinked, not understanding her last comment. "No, ma'am. I was going to say, the girl is going crazy. She woke up and the airman outside the door went in to see if she needed anything. And she went nuts, she shoved him against the wall and is hiding under the bed as we speak."

Jack, Sam and Daniel were on their feet before he could go on. They hurried to the VIP room, only to find it swarmed in air force officers. Three were helping the guard up and the other three seemed to be trying to coax the girl out.

"What are you doing?" Jack snapped, taking control of the situation at once. "You three, get that man to the infirmary." Although he was sure the man was unharmed, he needed any excuse to get rid of some of the crowd. "And you three, get out of here, you're only making things worse."

The airmen nodded, and quickly left the room without a word.

Sam glanced carefully at Jack, before lowering herself to her knees. She pulled up the bedspread and immediately spotted the girl. She was curled up as tight as her small body would allow her, and she seemed to be crying, but Sam couldn't be sure.

"Hey," She said in a soft voice. "I know you can't hear me, but…" she reached forward and barely touched the girl's arm.

The girl pushed herself backwards as much as she could in what small space was allotted to her. She barely glanced up at the person responsible. Resignation washed over her face, she seemed relieved.

Sam gave her a comforting smile. "Hey, you." She gave a slight wave. "What are you doing under here?" she glanced around, the SGC was a well-cleaned base, but apparently no one bothered to dust under the bed recently. "Dusty under here, isn't it?"

Jack couldn't help but find himself taken aback at the way Sam was dealing with the small girl. Maybe she didn't think that she was a child person, but he didn't know if there was someone else who could handle this kid like her.

Daniel also seemed surprised, and although he wanted to butt in, he restrained himself, and let Sam handle the situation in her own way. There was no point in dragging the kid out, as that would only upset her and take hours to gain her trust back. Which…would be hard…seeing how they didn't have her trust anyway.

The girl blinked slowly at Sam. Her grip around her knees loosened.

Sam smiled. "Do you mind if I join you, huh?" She laid on her back and slid under the bed, next to the child, well aware that the girl slid further away. "That's better." She let out a long breath. "I can see why you like it under here. It's… nice."

The girl stared at her, puzzled.

"I'm not going to hurt you. You know that right? I only want to help you. And I don't know how well I can do that from under a bed. So, as much fun as this is, do you think we could take this on the bed?" She didn't know why she talked to the girl. If she was deaf, it wouldn't be helping at all.

"Carter."

Sam pushed her head out under the bed. "Sir?"

"Is it working?" He asked, impatient already from earlier that night.

"I'm not really sure, sir. Since she doesn't understand me I highly doubt it. But, this way she may come out on her own will. And we won't have to fight with her."

Jack nodded. "Okay. Yeah. I like that idea. No fights, good."

Sam smiled. "Yes, sir." She pushed herself back under the bed. "Sorry, had to talk to my CO… commanding officer."

The girl seemed to lose interest in Sam; she stared at something above her, squinting her eyes as she did.

"What's wrong?" Sam scooted closer. "Oh. Do you like spiders?" she asked as she stared at the daddy-long-leg who had made a home under the bed.

The girl's eyes seemed to be glued to the spider. She didn't blink, didn't flinch in the slightest.

"Hey? Are you okay?" Sam hadn't seen anyone lay so still before, well, she had, but not someone so young…

The girl's eyes widened as the spider lowered itself down, coming closer and closer to her face. The girl let out a petrified scream and scrambled out of the bed in record time. She backed into the corner of the wall and threw her arms around herself, to protect her.

Jack was already making his way over to her as Sam pulled herself out from under the bed.

"Hey," he said as he kneeled before the girl. "Hey, are you okay?"

The girl was to shaken up to even look at him. She buried her face into her hands and cried quietly.

Sam moved over to the crying girl's side, not getting too close, scare she didn't want to scare the kid anymore then she was now. This girl was on another planet, billions of light-years away from home. She was scared. She didn't know what was going on around her. She was trying to protect herself. And Sam wasn't ready to make that worse.

Jack looked up at Sam. "Did the spider scare her?"

Sam nodded. "Yes."

Jack sighed. "Okay then." He sat on the opposite side of the child, not caring if he got to close. He touched the girl's shoulder, and this time, she didn't back away, or even look up to glare at him, she just cried harder.

"Hey, it's okay." Sam said. She hesitated before putting her arm around the girl. "Don't cry. It's okay, it's not going to get you." The girl buried her head into Sam's shoulder. "It's gone now."

Daniel watched his two friends try to calm the child down. And they seemed to be doing a pretty good job. He moved over to the bed and bent down, spotting the spider now climbing up a wall; he squished it with his shoe.

The girl looked up at the noise, seeing the dead squished spider seemed to comfort her. Her crying began to cease, and she pulled away from Sam and Jack before quickly wiping her tears away.

Sam didn't mind this time that she pulled away again. She was just glad the crying had stopped. She didn't like seeing children cry, not even if for some dumb reason.

"Are you hungry?" Jack asked. He touched her shoulder to get her attention. "Hungry? Food?" He mimicked a person eating something. "Want some food?"

The girl blinked confused at first, before slowly nodding her head.

"Okay then. I'll go get something." Jack stood up on his feet. "What do you think she'll like?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know, sir. Just bring a tray with everything, and we'll find out."

Jack nodded. "Okay. I'll be back in a minute..."

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