18
They stayed for lunch at the White House, though Sam did not eat anything, she was looking even paler than in the morning, but she was no where near as sick as before. Maybe the charcoal was working?
Thor took them back to his ship afterwards and Jack zoomed into 'cabin' in the corner of the master bedroom, and then he zoomed to the Nevada dessert to 'Sam' at the place she had moved to last week, he had just had Thor add that when Sam said "I aren't living there when my children are at the springs, she said, "take the point to my Lab and Jack can take me to work every day".
Jack looked at her, they had not discussed what they were going to do once everything was settled, but she seemed to have the same hopes he did, he just had not wanted to push her into anything. "We need a house close to the mountain" she said "and you can set the point when we have one, but for now we will use the infirmary, or even my old quarters." Jack agreed delighted that she was going to move in with him and the kids, though if he had thought about it he realised that she wouldn't have done anything else.
They asked to be taken back to the SGC and Thor sent them to the corridor outside the nursery, Jack turned his shield on and did Sams as well and they went in to see the children.
Dr. Cook was almost at his wits end. The tests on Jacob and Tilda were showing signs of reaching dangerous levels. Jack heard a noise outside in the corridor again and two more pods were pushed in by Balinsky returning from the toilets. The babies were laid in them and the lids closed and they were pushed over against the far wall.
There was only George and Janet left!
He sat Sam in a chair and went over to the whiteboard, all the questions he had asked had been answered, and there was no answer! There was absolutely no difference between George and all the others. The results on the stomach contents were back and revealed nothing either. Jack gave the go ahead for Janet to be given charcoal, something easier said than done. They tried mixing it with milk instead of water but she would not drink it, in the end Dixon sorted it by mixing it with baby blackcurrant juice, by the time she had taken half an ounce she looked like something from a 1960s horror movie, black gunk running all over her lower face as she spit it out. Testing her after an hour showed no difference, they decided to give it a while longer. Sam held George and cried a lot. It was enough to break the hardest heart, she was not one for crying, always being the good solider and not showing weakness but this was an attack through her children and she could think of nothing to help the situation. She was also feeling a little ill herself, though she was still not hungry, and the doctors were getting worried for her health if she continued not to eat.
Should she try and eat, and risk getting a build-up of whatever it was, and maybe slip into a coma again? Or should she not eat and risk … death by malnutrition?
Thors hologram appeared in the room "O'Neill! The craft has appeared on the other side of the asteroid belt, we are going to try to capture them and communicate"
"Good luck buddy!" Jack said, maybe they were getting somewhere after all?
It was a tense five minutes before something happened and it was not what they expected. All of a sudden there was complete and utter silence! The machine that had been monitoring Janets heart stopped beeping quietly, the pods all slowly drifted to the floor until they settled, the very slight background hum they emitted silenced.
They couldn't even hear the air conditioning, and that noise was always, ALWAYS there in the complex. Then a white beam of light filled the room and when everyone could see again, Sam and all the babies had gone!
Jacks cry of anguish was something primitive and full of pain, and it took Teal'c Dixon and Daniel to hold him as he started thumping his fists into the wall in frustration. Dr. Lyman gave him a mild sedative until he calmed down, trying not to knock him out.
Thor appeared minutes later to say that the ship he detected had been an illusion, a projection, he was astonished to hear of the disappearances and saying he would investigate he disappeared himself.
He was back within the hour with Hermiod who asked to see Jacks shield. They consulted with each other and then Hermiod turned to the humans.
"This was something I did not expect. I apologise for not considering it. A scan of the facility shows a narrow, accurate EM pulse was directed specifically at this room, every piece of electronic machinery in a direct line vertically has stopped working. This includes the personal shields everyone was wearing AND the shield up on level 18."
All the computers in the room that had been Daniels lab were fried, as a result of the EM fields 'leaking' a little. Luckily nothing of vital importance to the survival of the staff had been hit, though individual AC machines needed replacing. Some medical equipment would never work again, but luckily there was no one in need of a heart/lung bypass or a dialysis machine at the moment.
It was obvious that whoever had done this had known that Thor would go after the ship he detected. And they had also worked out how to neutralise the Asgard technology.
It was now a little over an hour since Jacks whole family had disappeared and he still could not think straight when a nurse entered the room to say that General Landry wanted them to call him. She pointed to the phone, evidently the light box was no longer working and Siler had disabled the ring. Daniel picked the receiver up and listened to the other end, his face brightening. "Jack! Come on" he said sharply and rushed to the door. He ran into the infirmary linen store and picked up and armful of blankets and ran back out.
"The control room had just received a message to make a comfortable place for the babies in the 'gate room, and they will be returned. He ran towards the elevator, 2 doctors, SG13, 3 nurses, Jack and Teal'c and himself all managed to squeeze into the car together.
At '28 they could see field kits from SG9 being spread out, their sleeping bags unzipped and their field blankets already spread, they had been just about to go offworld when the message came into Waters machine. Daniel dumped his load and '9 started to make a nest type arrangement until all the blankets were used and they stepped back, waiting for… something.
Jack went into the control room and read the message on the screen, it was simple and to the point "Make a suitable, comfortable place for the children to lay on, in the centre of the floor in front of the gate" Everyone was watching the pile of blankets, over 5 minutes passed and Jack was just beginning to think they had been played when the bright light filled the room and there in the middle of the 'nest' was Sam, looking as though she was asleep, surrounded by children. Jack had never seen a lovelier sight in his life!
He ran down just as the first baby started to cry, soon all of them were crying, he had never heard any sound so welcome to his ears. Sam sat herself up, and looked around then she gathered two of the children in her arms and kissed them, put them down and moved to the next two, until she had done it to all of them. Jack dropped to his knees and did the same. '13, Daniel and Teal'c all had massive smiles on their faces but the doctors were trying to tell everyone to move and to let them through.
Jack stood, dragging Sam to her feet along with him and turned to the 'babysitting squad' and told them to get the kids and he told everyone to head for the infirmary. He swung Sam into his arms and like a mother duck followed by her babies he lead the way to the elevator and then down the corridors to the nursery.
They had to make two cars at the elevator as they did not want to squash the babies, but eventually Clan O'Neill was back in the room they had been in for the week.
Tests were ordered and bloods taken, Sam said she felt 100 fit and she too was tested. She also said she felt hungry and had a craving for protein so Jack sent an order to the commissary for whatever meat they had on the menu, when it turned out to be meat loaf he dispatched a guard to buy 14 steaks from O'Malley's, and he used the silent phone to call Hank to come get one once they arrived.
Everyone was laughing all the time, it was as if they were drunk with joy! Siler fixed the phone, Walter contacted the president, and Jack kept trying to get in touch with Thor but was getting no reply.
A couple of hours later, all staff fed the best cooked steaks in town, the results of the babies bilirubin tests came back and were well down into 'normal' range, between 9 μmol/L and 7 μmol/L . The 'substance' in Sams blood was no longer present and she insisted she felt fine.
It was about time for bed, it had been a long day for everyone. Jack spent a few minutes with each baby telling them how much he loved them and the he and Sam spooned together on the bed that was back in the corner of the nursery and went to sleep fully dressed again facing the room.