SSgt. Tanika Jenkins watched as Lt. Ortiz checked Jonas Quinn's vitals. She had not seen the alien since she and Major Carter had found him sitting outside a concrete escape hatch on the western flank of Cheyenne Mountain. She knew from reports that the man was getting better, but still she had been shocked at how pale and thin he seemed.
She no longer felt Quinn was a threat to the base. While she and Carter had awaited the arrival of the Med-Evac team, she had gotten a good look at how the Major felt about the man. She had been surprised when the first to get to them had been Col. O'Neill and Teal'c, both of whom had shown a good deal of concern over the Kelownan.
A few days later, the entire base security team had attended a seminar run by SG1. A lot of things were made clear at that time concerning not just Jonas Quinn, but all of their alien allies. It had opened Jenkins' eyes.
When Major Webster had advised the team that Teal'c was giving them one more chance to guard the Kelownan, Jenkins had been the first to volunteer. The Jaffa had looked over the many volunteers, and had chosen Jenkins and five others. The rest he thanked and dismissed.
Jenkins was proud to have been chosen and felt a fierce determination not to fail in guarding, no, protecting Jonas Quinn. She watched the nurse move to a desk at the far side of the room. Within a minute, the nurse, Lt. Ortiz, was back with a tray.
Jenkins watched as the woman prepared to give the sleeping man an injection of some sort. The nurse's movements were so natural, that it took Jenkins a moment to realize something was wrong. She pulled her sidearm and snapped off the safety.
Ortiz looked up at the slight sound and her eyes went wide at the gun pointed at her. Jenkins ordered, "Step away, Lieutenant."
"What?"
"Step away from Mr. Quinn. Do it now." Despite the nurse's obvious shock at the sight of the gun, Jenkins never wavered. In her briefing with Teal'c, she had been told that the only one to administer medication was Dr. Frasier. Under no circumstances was anyone else to give Quinn so much as an aspirin.
"Tanny, what are you doing? This is just his medication. He has to have it every four hours," Lt. Ortiz said in bewilderment.
Jenkins found the use of her given name annoying. She practically snarled. "The only one to give medication is Dr. Frasier."
Understanding seemed to come into the nurse's eyes. "Oh, I see. Didn't you get the memo? Dr. Janet changed that. She was so exhausted from having to be here every four hours that Dr. Warner ordered her to go home and get a full night's sleep."
It was reasonable, but Jenkins refused to be persuaded. "All right, Lieutenant. You put the syringe down, and we will check for this memo."
The nurse nodded her agreement, and turned to put the syringe on the tray at the bedside. Jonas chose that moment to wake up, taking in the scene with widening eyes. He pushed himself up on his elbows, asking sleepily, "What's going on?"
Ortiz moved faster than Jenkins would have thought possible, grabbing the Kelownan around the neck, half dragging him from the bed, she held the syringe poised over his jugular vein. In a voice like ice, she ordered, "Put the gun down, Tanny."
Jenkins held her aim rock steady. "Not going to happen. Drop the syringe or I put a bullet between your eyes."
"Okay, you need to listen to me." Ortiz kept her grip on Jonas and the syringe. "We are at war. We need every advantage we can get in fighting the Goa'uld. Stargate Command hinders finding those advantages as much as it helps. The naquadria from Kelowna may be our best chance to build a weapon to protect this world and everyone on it, including you and me. But the people here just don't get that, and they insist on squandering the few pounds we have on defense shields and spaceships." Ortiz said the words with loathing. "The Kelownan government has agreed to give us more naquadria. All they ask for is the corpse of a traitor. One death in exchange for the lives of billions."
Jenkins curled her lip in disgust. If it hadn't had been for the earlier seminar, she might have fallen for Ortiz' line. It wouldn't have changed her duty, but she could have believed Quinn's life was worth less than a pile of rocks.
It also infuriated her that Ortiz would betray the SGC. This was the nurse who had been so caring several months earlier when Jenkins had snapped her forearm in a training exercise. It was hard to equate that smiling compassionate person with the monster in front of her.
"I will give you one more chance, Ortiz. Drop the syringe." Jenkins watched the woman for any indication of her intention.
Neither woman paid any attention to Jonas himself, who seemed almost too weak to do anything but lie passively in Ortiz' grip. It was hard to say who was more surprised by the Kelownan's sudden move, twisting out of the nurse's hold, falling out of the bed to the floor below.
For a split second, the two women froze, looking down at Quinn, struggling to get his feet under him, then Ortiz struck like a snake, slamming the syringe into the man's unprotected shoulder. Jenkins fired an instant too late, her shot taking the nurse through her down-turned head, slamming her back into the wall in a spray of blood.
