AN I struggled to decide what to do with this chapter. I felt like it needed a transition chapter with nothing going wrong AGAIN but that sounded like a waste of a chapter so I did this...hope you like.
Chapter 16 – Growing Pains
The next morning, the team and Roan sat huddled against their protective rock discussing their plan for the journey ahead, not having had the opportunity to stop and chat during their escape from the city.
If they travelled during daylight hours, they made themselves easily visible to any of Hyden's goons who may have been sent to find them. But, moving at night in unfamiliar territory, which would become less and less hospitable, once they got further into the mountains, was inadvisable at best - plain stupid, at worst.
Jack favoured daylight, because he thought Hyden more likely to use his 'nifty trucks' than to spend a week or two jaunting through the mountains.
"Carter, don't suppose you could figure out how those things work could you?" Sam shook her head at him.
"No sir, not without a few weeks and I'm pretty sure the technology was integrated into the trucks rather that at the points it travels between, like the Stargate. I'm sorry sir, I don't see that we have a choice about going through the hills."
"Yeah, that's what I figured...so then, through the hills it is." He grinned around at the group. Daniel and Sam both smiled back, glad to see their colonel back to his usual humour. Teal'c looked impassive and Roan looked confused. "How long do we reckon then? Week and a half?"
"At least." Jack raised an eyebrow at Tealc's scepticism.
"T?"
"Temperatures were low during the night O'Neill." Teal'c gave Jack a piercing look, meaning that just because nobody had mentioned how closely the two air force officers had slept during the night, didn't mean nobody had noticed. "Perhaps you were not aware..." Jack glanced at his 2IC who, despite trying to hide inside her jacket, looked a bit flushed.
"Sure I noticed. What of it?"
"It is colder now, than the morning we arrived on this planet. I believe it to be nearing winter. We are likely to face difficult conditions."
"Yeah, I wish we'd brought our heavier jackets." Daniel agreed, wrapping his more tightly around his shivering torso. The cold was bad for is already sore lungs and he longed for his own living room, with the big couch and gas fire.
Sam noticed his discomfort.
"You ok Daniel? You should probably have some more meds." She grabbed her vest from where it lay on the ground and began removing thing from the pockets. Daniel waved off her concern.
"Don't worry about it Sam, I'm fine."
"Daniel, I really think--" Jack stepped in.
"Daniel, I want you to take something. We need to cover some ground today."
Sam passed him the painkillers and antihistamines, which he swallowed quickly, swigging from his canteen.
"OK then!" said Jack, clapping his hands. He was determined to keep the mood up, despite the lousy weather. "We stick to the trees as far as we can. We're gonna move a bit higher to try and avoid any unwanted attention on the lower ground and we'll stick to this side of the valley. There should be a pass a few days in that direction." He gestured vaguely toward the gap between the mountain they were on and the one opposite them. "Think you can keep up Roan?"
The little man nodded seriously.
"Yep." He smiled, using a word picked up from Daniel's wide vocabulary.
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The next couple of days passed uneventfully. Teal'c invariably took point;followed by Daniel and Roan, who talked constantly about a number of topics: Earth, SG1 and their adventures; Hyden's people. On several occasions Jack, walking behind the pair, with Carter, had stopped Daniel short of revealing some need-to-know piece of information.
Jack and Sam brought up the rear, talking occasionally but mostly watching their surroundings. The scenery was spectacular:the higher they moved, the wilder it became and late in the afternoon on the third day, they left the trees behind to see acres or moorland, stretching upward. It was covered in thick gorse, with tough, rocky ground underfoot and a smattering of snow.
They stopped and squinted in the suddenly bright light of the sun reflecting off the snow on the higher slopes.
Sam bent, her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. The colonel glanced across at her concerned. It's not like Carter to get worn out.
"Carter?"
"I'm fine sir. Probably just ate too much at lunch. She laughed half heartedly at her own comment. Each meal consisted of two thirds of an energy bar,each. They had some more substantial meals but were saving them for potentially colder, steeper climbing.
Her CO smiled and turned back to the view, apparently convinced. Sam turned away, closed her eyes tight and focused on breathing through the sharp pain in her abdomen which had been growing worse for the past few hours.
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They stopped that night in a ditch that would have been muddy if it weren't frozen. It was somewhat sheltered from the bitter wind but Jack sent Daniel and Roan to fetch thick branches from nearby bushes to cover themselves with during the night, since a fire was out of the question in their exposed location.
Sam took each of their packs from them as they separated. Teal'c went to scout the area with a scowl ('to scare the rabbits,' according to Daniel) and the colonel announced his need to water the local greenery.
While he was gone, she sat as still as possible, her knees pulled up to her chest to relieve some of the pain, keeping her breathing as even as she could. She was furious with herself. Trust me to get cramps like this when I'm hiking through a mountain range. I can't believe I'm letting this affect me so much. Work through it Sam for God's sake! Scoffing at herself she stood quickly, ignoring the stab to her stomach and began unpacking food.
"There's a nice spring over there aways, if you fancied a dip Carter. Bit chilly though."
"Is that a hint Sir?" he grinned at her.
"Don't worry Carter, you probably smell the best of all of us." She laughed, feeing better and climbed out of the ditch.
"I'm might do that sir. How cold exactly?"
"Well, I don't know the exact figures but don't pull a face, cause it'll freeze."
He watched her go. Should he have gone too? To watch her back? They had seen no sign of any pursuit and Jack was beginning to feel optimistic that Hyden would do exactly as they had suspected and be waiting for them at the gate. Besides, she was armed.
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Sam stripped down and sank into the icy water, bending her knees so her shoulders were at water level. The colonel was right, it was bitingly cold. Her skin erupted in goose pimples but she stayed still. Just standing here soothed the pain in her stomach and it was worth the cold, so she stood half crouched in the freezing water, her breath misting in front of her face until her fingers were wrinkled and her teeth chattering.
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When she arrived back at their 'camp', the guys were glad to see she looked better and less tired than she had over the last couple of days.
She sat down, as Jack passed out trail bars. Taking her food, she glanced at it, feeling bile rise in her throat at the thought of eating. Swallowing, she forced the whole thing down in a couple of bites and watched the others eat with similar looks of distaste. Not the only wrong who doesn't feel like eating. There's nothing wrong with you! But part of her still harboured a growing concern. The pain should not be getting worse, though it was. She was not usually a victim of bad cramps and she never balked at the sight of food. She felt weaker but that was probably from a lack of comfortable sleep.
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The nights had been colder and even the more touch-sensitive members of the group had taken to sleeping back to back with somebody else for warmth.
As soon as the others were asleep, Sam moved quickly to put several feet of space between herself and the rest of her team, beside Daniel, who was now well enough to take watch and was currently patrolling the downhill side of the ditch.
Shuffling close to the surrounding gorse, she knelt with her head in the bush trying to figure out if she was going to be sick. At this point, it would probably help, if she had eaten something that disagreed with her.
After several moments of kneeling with nothing happening, she sighed and rolled back onto the hard ground to try and sleep, only to bolt upright again as her stomach lurched and threatened to empty itself. Several moments of deep breathing later...still nothing. She wanted to yell. What's wrong with me!? After half an hour of repeatedly laying down only to sit back up again, sure that she about about to hurl, she turned her back on the bush and curled into a tight ball, wanting to cry. This sucked.
Suddenly, her stomach gave an almighty heave and she threw herself toward the bush to be violently sick for several minutes until she was dry-heaving. Shaking, she wiped her face on her sleeve and sucked a deep breath into her shuddering lungs, muttering.
"God, that was horrible." She moved back slightly toward the group but only far enough to grab one of the bushy branches to cover herself before finally falling into a fitful dream. Unknown to her, both Daniel and Roan had heard her quiet sob and saw her shivering as she fell asleep.
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AN Well, what think you? Like it? What do you think is up with Sam? I'm not gonna tell you yet. If you take a guess and want me to tell you if you're right, then I will do so. I think people who have been through it will guess, but most people are hospitalised before it gets much worse than Sam is now. SHE IS NOT PREGNANT! That would be way to pointless. It's a great storyline in some stories but not this one. I'm not going down the 'OMG she's pregnant (somehow!)' plot. Tell me what you think, please.
prometheus246