The Change

He woke up to a cold hand pressing against his forehead. It pulled away and he heard the scratching of pen on paper right by his ear. He groaned quietly as he became more aware of his body, every sound he heard—every murmur, every tap of a footstep—seemed to pound a nail through his head.

"Colonel?" Doc Frasier's voice came from right beside him. Yep, he should've known it was her cold hand.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and squinted against the bright lights, grimacing as it sent a throb of pain through his head. He blinked a couple times to get rid of the blurriness and then turned to look at the Doc.

"How long?" he said noticing his voice sounded hoarse and tired. He cleared his throat.

"Over three hours. How are you feeling?" she turned slightly and put the clipboard down on a nearby table. That movement brought to his attention the fact that this was definitely not the place he had fallen asleep in.

"Oh, the usual: headache, sore muscles, tired…" he paused briefly and she glanced at him. "Where am I?"

"Sorry, sir, we moved you into an isolation room. I'm afraid you have a virus," she answered distractedly as she picked up a needle and cleaned his arm to take another blood sample.

He sighed frustratedly. "I'm guessing it's not the flu?"

"Uh, no sir." She paused as she pulled the needle out and pressed cotton to his arm. Then she sighed as well and put a cap on the needle, before turning back to him. "I've never seen anything like it. It's not only almost completely evading your natural defenses, but it seems to be altering parts of your genome. Mutating and even bonding with specific nucleic acid sequences."

When she stopped, he looked at her expectantly. "And?"

"It's changing you, sir! I don't know how or why or into what. And… and I don't know how to stop it," she said the last part softly and apologetically.

"Great, I'm a mutant." He lifted his head off the pillow and tried to prop himself up on his elbow, he wasn't feeling as bad as before and had had enough of lying flat on his back. Frasier got the message and hit the button that adjusted the bed into a sitting position. He leaned back against the pillow again now that he was sitting up and glanced back at the Doc.

"Not yet, sir. It's spreading rapidly, but we're bringing a specialist in. They should be here tomorrow morning." She hesitated and he jumped in asking the question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to.

"Is it contagious?"

She was silent for a second and then shook her head slightly. "I don't think so, sir. It's not airborne, anyway. It's seems to have gotten in by way of the bite." She gestured to his still bandaged arm. "Whether it got in after the bite or the animal transmitted it, I don't know. The rest of SG1 are being tested now."

"So… everyone's okay then? No viral infections, headaches, fatigue – that sort of thing?" he asked casually of the three people in front of him. He already knew the answer, Frasier had told him, but he still felt a little relieved when the answer came back negative.

"No sir, we're fine," Carter answered for the group with a slight smile. "How are you?"

"Oh, good, good – fine," he paused for just a second, for effect of course, then continued on sarcastically, "Other than the fact that I'm a mutant!" He was feeling a bit better since he'd woken up, though still lacking in energy, his headache had gone down to a dull throb and he could deal with the sore muscles.

"Jack, you're not a mutant, we're still not sure what's happening to you."

"Daniel," he said in his best look-at-the-obvious voice, "a virus is mutating my insides, therefore making me a mutant." He allowed a tense pause to prove his point before diffusing it.

"Do you think I'll get special powers?" That did it.

Carter smiled at him. "I'm sure you will, sir."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed with a slight tilt of his head, "and should you gain powers, I could not think of a worthier candidate."

"Why thank you, buddy. I'm honoured you think I'm worthy of special powers. Really," he added when he realized that he probably sounded sarcastic. He nodded to Teal'c who bowed his head slightly back.

"Yes, Jack, we all think you should have super powers," Daniel said in a tone of mock resignation to the majority.

Carter grinned. "Oh, come on, Daniel. Don't you think it'd be cool to have super powers?"

"Yeah, 'leap tall buildings in a single bound', lift up a car with one hand," Jack added on.

"To be able to crush the enemy as though they were insects," Teal'c also added to the sentiment.

Daniel looked sceptically around at the three of them and sighed. "Yes, of course, very – cool."

"What's cool?" Doc Frasier asked as she walked into the room.

"Oh you know, super powers," Jack said casually and dismissively. "Found a cure yet?" he asked the same question as he did every time the Doc or one of her nurses came into the room.

"Not yet, sir," she answered back automatically as she checked the machines he had recently been hooked up to, to make sure none of his vital organs decided to stop working, mainly his heart—which he could hear beeping along just fine.

"Anyway, sir, I should get back to work," Carter said, getting up from the stool she had been sitting on.

"Uh, yeah, me too," Daniel added, standing as well. "Jack." He nodded.

"Daniel."

"Take care, sir. Bye, Janet. Are you coming Teal'c?"

"I shall stay," the Jaffa announced taking the seat Daniel had vacated—which was more out-of-the-way then where he was standing before—as Carter and Daniel left.

"So… do anything interesting today?" Jack asked Teal'c after a moment's pause, as Frasier pick up a clipboard and started scribbling stuff down on it.

"I did not; it was a most uneventful day."

"Feeling better, Colonel?" Frasier cut in, clipboard still in hand.

"Yep," he answered truthfully.

"That's good." She wrote something down.

"So, can I go then?" he asked in his most hopeful voice.

"Sir, the way your body is reacting to this virus, I can't imagine you having any energy at all to do a lap around this room, let alone wonder around the SGC. I'm sorry sir, but until we find out exactly what it's doing to you, I can't let you out of this room." She glanced at him apologetically before writing something else down.

"I just knew you were gonna say that."

She was right, though, he had no energy; it was just this damn room was starting to get on his nerves. There was nothing to do… Okay, so he had a tv that had some channels, but still, he'd been in here for hours. The least they could do was bring him his Play Station; which, by the way, they hadn't yet for some reason. He'd have to talk to someone about that. He just wasn't sick enough at the moment to keep himself preoccupied.

Okay, so the rest of the day wasn't that bad. Carter stopped by before she left the base as did Daniel a bit later. General Hammond stopped by as well at some point, talking about what was happening on base and what not, the missions and how they were going. Teal'c stayed for the rest of the afternoon up until about an hour ago when Frasier forced him to leave to go have something to eat, which was about the same time as his Play Station arrived.

Frasier had been reluctant for him to have it for some reason, but using his finely honed diplomatic skills, he managed to convince her that it would be very good for him—and everyone else—if he had some sort of distraction, something to keep him occupied. It worked of course. So now, he was sitting relatively comfortably on the bed playing a street racing game.

Suddenly, he felt something like a shiver run through his body. Pausing the game, he glanced around the room, which only revealed that he was alone. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back against the pillow and sighed tiredly. Behind his eyelids he could visualize the darkening sky out side, the many stars slowly becoming brighter as the sun steadily disappeared. He could see the moon in his mind somehow, it was low in the sky and becoming more visible, rising higher, as the sun's light faded. He could sense it, like he just knew that that was how the sky outside looked.

He felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and could feel his heart begin to beat faster, hammering against his chest as though he'd just run a mile with an army of Jaffa hot on his heels. Damn it, he thought as he sat up feeling a surge of restlessness. Pulling off the sensor-things that were taped to his chest, he got out of the bed and headed for the door of the isolation room. He had to get out, the room was too small. He needed the sky and the forest to be above and around him.

He reached the door. And stopped. Why the hell did he need that? He grimaced as he fought back the powerful urge that somehow didn't feel like it was coming from him or at least wasn't his own. He took two steps back, away from the door, and then three. He turned sharply around and became still, all his energy focusing on overpowering the instinct that was clawing at him. He could leave, it wasn't like there was a guard on him or anything, but what the hell for? To run around in a forest? Right.

He didn't notice the door to the room slide open as he felt an immense pain run through him. He could feel it even through the adrenaline. Like his body was being filled with acid and searing his insides. His knees buckled beneath him and how hard he hit the floor he didn't care; he was barely aware of himself as he curled up. Abruptly, everything around him disappeared. It was only him, the pain, and oddly, visions of the night sky behind his eyes again.