AN Thanks for all reviews. I got at least one reviewer who was excited by this mysterious plastic bag so to avoid too much disappointment, I'm telling you now it's nothing interesting. Anyway, things finally start to happen in this chapter so off we go.

Chapter 8 – Slim to None

Jack gave Teal'c a quick nod, but the big man was already off, moving swiftly down the descending ladders toward the now safe floor of the hall. Jack watched Teal'c reach the ground before any of the other occupants of the room and was once again struck by how lucky they were to have him on their team. In anything Jack needed, Teal'c was reliable. He had the strength and determination to do whatever was necessary, without question and Jack could concentrate on other things knowing that Teal'c was on the case.

Upon reaching the floor, Teal'c snatched up the plastic sack and opening it, removed a handful of tough plastic packets, which he zipped inside his jumpsuit before starting up the ladders again. Jack reached out of his pipe to pat Daniel on the shoulder.

"Yo, Danny boy, breakfast's up!" His only reply was a muffled groan as Daniel shifted slightly. He looked up at Sam, whose concern was written clearly on her face.

"Daniel?" Daniel groaned and rolled over. He was pale. Sam quickly glanced at Jack and hauled herself out of her pipe, clambering with practiced grace over the top of Daniel's to crawl in alongside him. It was a tight squeeze but they had fit all four of them in one pipe before now; but that had been sitting with their backs against the sides as they discussed their situation late into the night and always came up with a sore neck and nothing that could help them get out of here.

Now, with Daniel laying sprawled across the foam mat, and his glasses to avoid, there was barely room for her. She checked his pulse and laid her hand against his forehead. A scalding heat met her skin.

"Sir, he's burning up." The colonel didn't get a chance to reply before Teal'c arrived and noticed Daniel's unusual colour and the anxiety obvious from the two officers. Sam tried again. "Daniel!" She shook his shoulders firmly. "Daniel, can you hear me?" By now, the usual breakfast chatter had lessened somewhat and people were beginning to creep across the pipes to get a closer look at the spectacle. Jack noticed this and it put him immediately on edge.

"Carter." When she looked up, he nodded his head toward the pipes outside their little square and she got the message, as did Teal'c, moving to block as much of Daniel's pipe from the onlookers as possible. Sam pulled back Daniel's sleeves, to reveal raw swollen arms. Jack felt sick, like he'd been kicked in the gut. His face hardened in anger. This was his fault, he should have got them out of here by now. Sam was bending low over Daniel, her hands on his face, repeating his name in low tones. After a few more tense moments, Daniel's eyelids fluttered. He drew a sudden breath, which gave rise to a coughing fit. Sam, turned him onto his side, rubbing his back until he got his breath back. Solemnly, Teal'c pealed the top from one of the food packs and passed her the water container from inside it.

After having some of the liquid tipped down his throat, Daniel improved. His eyes were partly open but he did not speak.

"He hasn't had his medication since we left Earth. Considering the number of products we've tested over the last three weeks, it's amazing his allergies haven't caused him problems until now."

"Acute rhinitis." Teal'c and Carter both looked sharply up at Jack. He shrugged "Fraiser called allergies that, one time."

"It is and it's made him very weak, very quickly."

Teal'c decided it would fall to him to be the voice of doom. "If Daniel Jackson is not well enough to work, he will be killed." The Marshals were not paid to be sympathetic. Testers who didn't work were quickly persuaded otherwise and testers who couldn't work were shot.

Jack needed to punch something, preferably the long haired weasel responsible for this.

"Yeah well, that's not gonna happen."

"Indeed."

Sam looked nervously between the two men.

"What can we do?"

Jack gazed back at her, without answering her question for a minute. He missed her. A lot. Since she had reappeared the night they had arrived, they had said little to each other that was not strictly necessary. He felt like they were simply colleagues and no longer friends. He wondered if it had anything to do with what had happened to her while she was missing, she hadn't said anything to him or, as far as he knew to Daniel or Teal'c. He cringed at the thought of what could have happened to her, but he was sure that it hadn't been anything too horrific or he would be able to tell...wouldn't he?

Still, it wasn't as though he had gone out of his way to make conversation with her. He had been so terrified from the moment he realised she wasn't with him, until she was safe asleep in her pipe and the strength of feeling had scared him. That coupled with the guilt he felt every time her caught sight of her pale thin face had given him good reason to avoid her. It was dangerous for him to be so...emotional. He knew it was wrong but it had become startling more obvious with each time he nearly lost her, that the idea of living without Sam Carter made him want to eat a bullet and it was the tough times like this, when usually they were closer than ever that made him remember why she was such a great addition to the team. She calmed him; kept him grounded and her gentle friendship kept the small parts of his heart that had been left after Charlie, alive. Why was this time different? Why were they not comfortable with each other? He wasn't sure but guessed that it was because usually, they had some kind of idea of how to get out of whatever life threw at them. This time, he had nothing. He'd had three weeks and still: zip, nada, squat - and Daniel was dying. He sighed, looking past Sam to Daniel as he answered.

"We'll get him as awake as we can. We don't have time to do anything drastic now, the marshals will be here in minutes. Just keep him on the inside of the group- out of sight as possible. He may improve by tomorrow. If not we'll have to come up with something else. Keep an eye out for any opening. Anything we could have missed up till now. " He paused and knew that Sam and Teal'c were thinking the exact same thing. If there was any way out of here they'd have found it by now and the chances of Daniel improving looked slim to none.

Jack grabbed a meal pack and threw one to Carter. He peeled back the lid and shoved the 'food' into his mouth. He chewed hard on the flat cracker that tasted like cardboard and watched Sam playing with her food. Goddammit she needs all the food she can get!

"Eat it Carter!" Teal'c and Sam both stared at their commanding officer as though he had grown a second head and jack almost kicked himself for how harshly the reprimand had come out but what was she thinking? Dicking around with her food when they had less than a minute to eat one of the two pitiful meals they received a day.

Sam bowed her head muttering a hurried "Yessir." and started chewing on the edge of the cracker, going back to her previous thoughts. "When you are tired and ill, you need only tell the marshals that you have changed you mind, and perhaps I will consider extending my generosity again." Hyden's words echoed in her head and she hated him even more. At the time she had known that no matter how tired or ill she got, she would never go crawling back to him but now it was Daniel...

Trying to hide the hurt her CO's hard attitude had caused her and the fear she felt for Daniel, she reached over and took hold of her sick friend's hand while forcing the last of the food down her dry throat.

Moments later another horn sounded and Teal'c hurriedly took the water the colonel thrust at him and poured the cold liquid over the archeologist's face. Daniel spluttered and managed a small sound of annoyance.

"That's my boy." Jack helped Teal'c maneuver Daniel out of the pipe and onto the ladders. Still blinking water out of his eyes, Daniel woke up enough to hold onto the rungs. Jack eased him down, with Teal'c below to catch his feet when they slipped from the rungs and eventually they had him standing propped between the two other men as Sam stood behind, with a supporting hand on his back. The other testers ignored them as they arranged themselves into lines, falling into silence when the door opened and marshals entered to shepherd the population of the institute out for another day of hard work and pain, with a semi-conscious Daniel in the middle of them.

AN So, things start to go...well, even more wrong than they already have. Not a happy chapter. Loving the reviews! I want to update soon, cause it's getting tense, but no promises. Reviews make me write faster so tell me what you think. Please - prometheus