Warning: mentions of nudity.
The Arrival
Dr. Fraiser sat in her chair trying to focus on the files in front of her, but becoming more and more aware as time went on, of the small bandage attached to her calf, just above her ankle, and the fact that the search for O'Neill was still going on. They had started to go through the security tapes but they all knew that would be a while.
She had already briefed Hammond and the rest of SG-1 on what had happened last night. Immediately afterward, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c had started to help with the search. That briefing was four hours ago. She sighed.
They were all still waiting for… whomever it was supposed to come through the 'gate. She was too tired to remember the name. She was too tired to read. Hell, she was too tired to do anything but sit here. She sighed and pushed herself away from the desk, leaning back in her chair. Throwing an arm over her sore eyes, she wondered what would happen if she just fell asleep right here. Probably nothing, she concluded. Even if someone important walked in on her, she doubted if they would say anything.
She had an excuse. She hadn't gotten very much sleep last night, between the medical emergency—which luckily wasn't too severe: a few burn wounds and a broken arm—and later running tests on herself, trying to find out whether she was infected or not. The scrape really wasn't all that deep and it was only about 1½ inches long. It was hard to say whether or not enough of the virus had gotten into her to infect her and of course the tests were inconclusive.
She wondered how long the virus stayed dormant naturally before it activated. She had no idea when the virus in the Colonel's body had become active since she hadn't even been aware of its existence, plus it seemed reasonable to assume that the virus had been stimulated prematurely, his body didn't seem properly prepared for the physical transformation.
Forcefully, she shoved the whole train of thought from her mind and concentrated on keeping her mind blank, which surprisingly worked, sort of… until she fell asleep.
Jack groaned as woke up. His body was sore. Kind of like he had worked every individual muscle to exhaustion. It hurt to move, so he didn't, for a few seconds anyway. It didn't take long though, to realize something wasn't quite right about his situation.
The first thing he noticed was that he was completely naked. Completely naked, lying on his side in what felt like a box – a hard, cold box that had the same texture as laminate flooring. He could feel the wall behind his head, and against his back… and if he just stretched his legs out a little… yep, there was a wall at his feet as well. Reaching up, against the complaints of his muscles, he found a low ceiling.
His eyes had adjusted quickly to the near pitch black of the box, and he reached out in front of him, placing his hand next to the sliver of light that ran vertically down the wall—which was obviously a door, he concluded—and was about to push it open when a noise on the other side made him stop.
It sounded like a door opening and a few people entering.
"Okay, what did he say we were supposed to get?" a male voice asked in an irritated way.
"Uh, I've got the list right here… um, somewhere. Hold on," a mousy sounding woman answered back.
"Hey, this is where it went," another woman commented quietly, "I thought I lost it."
"What's that?" the same guy asked as he walked around the room.
"Oh, it was just part of that particle dampener we were working on a couple months ago," the quiet woman answered.
Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. Yeah, it would be just his luck to be stuck in a cupboard, naked, with a room full of scientists. And what the heck was there an empty cupboard doing in a science lab?! Weren't they always complaining about not having enough room?! What the hell was with that? He'd be mentioning this to someone once he got out of here.
And about getting out of here… He thought about just staying there until they left, but it was only briefly. He had to get out of here. He had to find out why the hell he was in a cupboard, and he was very much not in the mood to care about anything at the moment. Least of all the fact that he was naked. So, groaning quietly at the effort it took and the resulting pain, he pushed open the doors and crawled out into the bright and painful light.
He pushed himself up into a sitting position once he had cleared the cupboard, his arms trembling at the effort. Quickly he raised a hand to his eyes covering them as he let out a string of curses.
"Um, are – are you okay?" the quiet woman asked him after the second of silent surprise. He could hear her rush over to him and then felt her place a gentle hand on his back as she crouched down beside him.
"Colonel O'Neill?" the mousey voiced woman asked before he could answer—not that he was going to. The voice did sound vaguely familiar but at that particular moment in time, he couldn't care less who it was.
Slowly he removed the hand from his eyes and blinking a couple of times to allow his eyes to adjust, he was relieved to find that they no longer hurt. More slowly the other two scientists walked over to him, crouching down beside him.
"Give me a damn lab coat and help me up," he snapped trying to concentrate on gathering as much energy as possible. The situation really wasn't helping very much.
Both the women glared at the guy scientist for a minute before he sighed and took off his lab coat. He made an impatient gesture at the two other scientists for them to move before he helped Jack get the coat on and do up the three buttons on the front.
Slowly, Jack got up off the floor with minimal help, shrugging the hands off him. The pain had already began to subside a little and he wasn't feeling quite so bad, therefore he took a few steps forward on his own before his body forced him to stop as his legs almost gave out on him. Suddenly, the quiet woman was underneath his arm holding it firmly on her shoulder.
"Don't be stupid," she commented blatantly.
"I know," he replied, grateful for her help.
"Brian, get over here and help me with him. We have to get him to the infirmary," she threw over her shoulder at the guy scientist.
Brian made a sound like he was getting severely put out by the request but he walked over anyway and together they helped Jack walk out of the room.
The Colonel ignored both scientists as he focused all his attention on keeping the nausea that had suddenly arisen at bay. And being quite proud that so far he was successful.
A few minutes later—ha, if a few minutes took that long, he'd shoot himself in the toe—they were walking down the home stretch, the last hallway before they reached the infirmary. At this point though, he was wishing he had stayed in the cupboard and just had a nap.
Suddenly, Carter appeared from the door just ahead of them and with a distinct look of relief, she made her way over to them. "Colonel, we've been looking for you for hours. I'll go get Janet." She turned on her heel and went back through the door.
They had just gotten inside when the Doc met up with them. "Lie him down over there," she said to the two scientists holding him up.
They did as she asked quickly, helping him up onto the bed before the quiet woman dragged Brian hastily out of the room.
"Hey Doc," he said before she could ask him any annoying questions, "you look like hell."
"Right back at you, sir," she said. "And look, our clothing even matches." She smiled at him.
He rolled his eyes. "It was the only thing available," he said with a groan.
The klaxons abruptly came to life, bringing a halt to there conversation/banter. Doctor Fraiser looked up at the announcement that it was an unscheduled off world activation. And she wondered if it was the alien they were expecting.
But then put it out of her mind as the alarms stopped, she'd find out soon enough if it was. "So, where were you?" she asked curiously.
"A big cupboard," he answered a little relieved that she hadn't started into the medical questions. "I woke up in a dark cupboard in a room full of scientists," he said, irritated.
She held back a laugh at that, though the smile she wore screamed of amusement. "Really?" she asked as her smile grew steadily wider.
"Yeah, for a second I thought I'd died and that was my punishment for eternity," he said groaning emphatically.
She laughed lightly.
"Open the iris!" General Hammond ordered when they discovered who was trying to contact them. It was the people from Phelan. He left the control room and entered the 'Gate room just as the wormhole disengaged. He walked up to the single person that stood on the ramp.
"You are General Hammond?" She asked before he could say anything.
He nodded as he answered. "Yes I am."
She kneeled down before him her head bowed and her fingers laced behind her back. "I am sorry that we could not keep our promise of sending Reshna to help your friend. I have been sent to you as compensation as Reshna is urgently needed on our world. I also must inform you of the situation that has arisen."
General Hammond nodded absently. "Alright, uh," it was a little strange talking to someone when they were kneeling.
"Airsha?" Daniel's voice asked from the doorway. Three members of SG-1 entered the 'Gate room and made there way over to the General and the female werewolf.
She glanced briefly up at them, but didn't say a word.
Not five minutes later, Hammond, the three members of SG-1 and Airsha were seated around the Briefing Room table. She spoke in a quiet, controlled voice as she explained the reason for her being there.
"Reshna was needed, as I said I am to be compensation for our broken agreement."
"Why was Reshna needed?" Daniel asked trying not to sound nosy and succeeding.
"We have fallen under attack. Not just Iryshrow, but all of Phelan. Iryshrow is our world's first line of defence because of our position. We fell under heavy attack through the Stargate more than a day ago. We were able to get to the Controller and halt the invasion before it became too much. We forced the enemies to submit, but we have word that more will arrive shortly by ship. We are gathering our allies now. Preparing for the battle."