Here we go again...Chapter 7, everyone!!!

my review supply is running kinda low, i think i only got ONE solitary review for my last chapter!!! i mean, i dont want to sound whiny or anything, but ive seen stories that have literally hundreds of reviews, so i think that after 7 chapters i'd like a few more than 22...is that all fair and reasonable??? (urgh, see what you've reduced me too? im QUOTING MY ART TEACHER!!!)

anywho, id like to thank those of you who have reviewed, i appreciate it soo much :)

as always, i dont own sg1, just my plot :)

Happy Reading!

Jack sat restlessly in the briefing room, clicking the pen in his hand so quickly that it sounded almost like one continuous sound. One continuous sound that Teal'c seemed to find extremely irritating, for after a few minutes of awkward silence other than the clicking he promptly took it out of Jack's hands and snapped it in half.

'Your inked inscription device appears to have malfunctioned, O'Neill.' Daniel let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh, and Janet hid a surreptitious smile with her hand. Jack glared at Teal'c for a moment, but seemed to notice that he was definitely going to lose any staring competition he may enter into with Teal'c, so he merely snatched the two halves of the pen back and began to twirl one half in his fingers. Now satisfied that Jack's method of fidgeting was not going to create irksome sounds, Teal'c relaxed back into his chair to await the arrival of General Hammond

Jack, Teal'c Daniel and Janet sat in silence for a few minutes more, before General Hammond opened his office door and joined them at the table, carrying an armful of yellow manila folders in his hands. As he sat down he slid four of these folders at each person at the table, keeping one for himself. Expecting to see the standard debrief folder before him, Jack was surprised when he saw the words TOP SECRET stamped across the top of the folder in bright red ink. Flipping open the folder, he saw a report of a very different format to the normal debriefing sheet.

'General, aren't we being debriefed?'

'Yes, but in conjunction with a briefing about the NID.'

'You know about that?'

'Yes, colonel, I do know. I am in charge around here, after all.' General Hammond's voice was tainted with mirth, and his eyes were twinkling mischievously. If it was anyone else, Jack would have shot back any number of witty, if not slightly rude, comebacks but seeing as he was addressing his superior, he bit back his retorts and replaced them with a question.

'So what are we going to do about it, sir?' At the question, General Hammond flipped open his folder and looked down at the information there.

'It has been decided that we are to send Daniel and Teal'c to Washington. Once there, you two will go and…negotiate with the NID to get the medicine here as soon as possible.'

'What do you mean by "negotiate"?'

'Well, lets just say that we do not want you coming home empty handed, and you are authorised to do anything to make sure that that is the case.' Teal'c gave a stoic nod, and Daniel, although he didn't look overjoyed about his new mission, also nodded his consent.

'But before I really go into that, I think we should start with the debriefing. Colonel, would you like to explain what happened?' Inwardly cursing the General for picking him out of all his team members, Jack cleared his throat and began to explain.

'When we arrived at the planet, we noticed that the streets were unnaturally deserted of people and were overrun with rodents. We were making our way along the route designated during our briefing before the mission, when we were interrupted by a little boy. He asked for our help with his parents, who were sick. Not getting very much detail about what the illness was, both Carter and I thought that we may as well see what was wrong, and if we could help at all. When we got there, Carter went over to examine the parents…' Jack trailed off, not sure how to continue, or whether or not he would be able to. Noticing his friend's distress, Teal'c stepped in.

'Major Carter examined the two parents when we arrived at the dwelling of the child. She first deduced that the mother was no longer alive, before examining the father. As she was conducting her assessment of his health, he beseeched her to leave. Not understanding why, the father showed her the buboes on his body, which Major Carter immediately recognised. After this, we abandoned the mission and returned to Earth as soon as we could.'

General Hammond nodded, and turned to Daniel.

'To me this sounds very similar to the Plague experienced by medieval Europe. Would I be right in making this assumption, Doctor Jackson?'

'Both the culture of the planet and the disease are very similar to that of medieval England circa the 1300s, down to minute details such as the red crosses on the doors of infected homes. Whether or not the disease is exactly the same as the ones found on Earth, I couldn't tell you…' Daniel looked at Janet, inviting her to continue.

'The tests that we are conducting on the bacteria that we found in Sam's blood are still inconclusive, but at this point, I'm sorry to report that it looks as though it may be a mutation of the disease.'

An uneasy silence overcame the room for a moment while everyone else digested this unwelcome turn of events, before General Hammond recomposed himself.

'How is it mutated?'

'Well, as I said, the tests are not as yet conclusive, so we'll need to wait for them to be finished to be sure. It could be anything really, from two combined forms of the plague, to an amalgamation of the plague and another disease we haven't encountered before. Over time the plague bacteria may have fused with other microbes of…'

Janet continued to talk, but Jack stopped listening after the first couple of words of her medical jargon. He quietly rose from his seat and made his way over to the water jug that was sitting next to the coffee dispenser against the back wall of the room. Filling a plastic cup with the cool liquid, he moved over to the large glass window overlooking the gate room. He stared down at the gate for a moment, before noticing something was amiss. No security guards were in the room, but the gate was beginning to activate.

Normally there were at least two SFs in the gateroom at all times, but it was written protocol that there must be at least four if the gate was activating. Jack frowned, also realising that General Hammond wouldn't have scheduled a briefing at the same time as an off-world departure. Behind him, Janet had stopped speaking, and all of the other people in the briefing room were looking curiously out towards the gate.

'There aren't any scheduled missions on at the moment, General, are there?'

'No, there aren't Doctor Jackson.'

'Then why is the gate being dialled?'

'I have no idea…' General Hammond moved swiftly into his office and called down to the gate room, trying to contact someone who might know what was going on. As it rang, the gate spun smoothly around towards its second symbol. The phone was suddenly picked up, and all General Hammond could hear at the other end of the line was ragged breathing intermingled with gentle sobs.

'Who is this?'

'I'm…I'm so sorry, General, but this is what I have to do. Tell my dad I love him…and tell my team that...that they mean more to me than they could ever know.' Promptly the voice hung up, leaving the line silent except for the dial tone. General Hammond ran back into the briefing room, where all of the people being briefed were now looking out the window to the gate room with concern.

'Who was it, General?'

'I…I think it was Major Carter.'

'What? But she's supposed to be down in my infirmary, under medical lockdown…' Janet trailed off as she saw the blast doors slide open and Major Carter stumble through. She shut the door immediately after she entered, before slowly making her way up to the gate ramp. The fifth symbol on the gate was lighting up.

'What the hell is she doing?' Jack stared down at Sam confusedly, but his head snapped up when he heard Janet gasp.

'What?'

'The Plague- it can make people delusional. She has been showing symptoms of depression over the last few days, and if she has convinced herself that since she doesn't have any medicine coming here way…' Horrified understanding flooded each of the men's minds: Sam was trying to kill herself in the least horrific way she could think of, in the energy vortex created by activating the Stargate.

Jack bolted down the stairs, with all the other occupants of the briefing room not far behind him. They reached the control room, seeing the reason why no one had stopped Sam so far. All the technical staff lay unconscious near the back wall, and the gate room SFs lay in a clump near the dialling computer. A zat gun lay discarded on the floor near the stairs that lead down to the gate room, still left in its activated form. Jack bolted past the scene, barely recognising it in his haste to reach his suicidal Major. Yanking his card from his belt, he swiped it through the sensor, and the door began to open painfully slowly. As soon as there was a large enough gap, Jack shoved himself through the opening and into the gate room.

His stomach dropped as he saw the final symbol almost in place, and as he saw Sam standing near the top of the ramp, looking over to him. She was freely crying, but her feet were planted firmly in place on the ramp. The final symbol began to glow, and Jack made a bolt for Sam. The last symbol locked just as he reached the bottom of the ramp, and as the wormhole activated, Jack made a dive for Sam. Knocking her off her feet, Jack landed protectively atop his Major, trying to block out both the cries of pain coming from the woman in his arms and the throbbing pain which sang out from his knees. Just as he landed, the wormhole activated and the vortex flew forcefully out over their heads. Jack desperately ducked his head, covering as much of Sam as he possibly could. He felt the vortex retract and reform as the rippling event horizon, but he still lay protectively over Sam. They stayed perfectly still for a single moment, looking into each others eyes. Then Sam burst into tears, burying her face into Jack's chest.

Pushing Sam and himself upright, Jack pulled his Major onto his lap, cuddling her close to his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around her. Sam's arms were wrapped just as forcefully around him, making it impossible to let go of her, even if he had wanted to. Her body shuddered in his arms, both from the despair she felt and the automatic shock her body was going into. Jack's grip on Sam tightened, holding her as close to him as he possibly could. Officers, scientists and doctors alike were streaming into the gate room, and the gate was deactivated behind them, but Sam and Jack were oblivious to everything but each other. The people around them quietened, until the only sound to be heard was the ragged breathing of Sam, and the murmured comforts flowing out of Jack's lips.

Soon the quiet became awkward to everyone but the pair still sitting on the gate ramp, and after a meaningful glance from Janet, Daniel approached Sam and Jack. He cleared his throat loudly. He got no response. He glanced back at Janet with a mildly desperate look on his face, not sure what to try next. She shrugged, and then mimed poking someone on the shoulder. Daniel turned back and attempted Janet's suggestion, and received no more of a response than with his first attempt. With an exasperated sigh Janet walked over to the group, gently pushing Daniel out of her way. She bobbed down next to Sam, and placed a gentle arm around her shoulder.

'Sam, honey? You're gonna need to get up; we need to get you back to the infirmary.' Sam slowly looked up and then nodded. Jack immediately helped her to her feet, even offering Janet a hand to get her back upright. The trio walked down the ramp, leaving a slightly stunned Daniel on the ramp. Janet shot a smug smile over her shoulder at her partner, before quickening her pace to keep up with the couple before her. Just as she reached the door, she turned back to the room, her eyes searching for General Hammond.

'Sir, would you mind calling over the intercom for people to evacuate the halls between here and the infirmary? I'd prefer not to risk anyone else's health until I've had a chance to vaccinate the entire staff.'

'Of course, Doctor.' The three paused at the door as the General made his way swiftly over to the intercom system on the wall and made his announcement. Just before they left the room, Janet extracted a surgical mask from her pocket and gave it to Sam. The woman stared at it for a moment, before looking up at Janet with dubious expression on her pale, worn face. Janet gave her an apologetic smile.

'Sorry, just in case?' Janet turned her instruction into a question, trying to make Sam feel a little more in control of the situation, which she hoped might make her more likely to do as she was asked. With a small sigh, Sam tugged the mask over her mouth and walked out the door.

'Carter, you sure you're right to walk by yourself?' The look Sam gave Jack would have caused a weaker man to run in the opposite direction, even in her severely weakened state.

'Just because I've got the Plague, sir, doesn't mean I can't walk by myself.' The tone of her voice made Jack believe every word that she said until, after a couple of strides, her legs wobbled dangerously underneath her, causing her to stumble sideways into the wall.

'Whoa…trippy…' she muttered under her breath as her two companions dashed to her side. Jack wordlessly snaked his arm around Sam's back, taking most of her weight, and helping her down the hallway. He could feel the large lumps that were the buboes through the thin hospital gown that she was wearing, and it took all his effort not to shudder and the sensation. A moment later, he remembered hearing about how tender the buboes were supposed to be, and noticed how painful this position must be for the woman beside him. A quick glance at the grimace now tweaking Sam's features confirmed his suspicions. He promptly stopped walking, and without even bothering to get permission, scooped the slight form of his Major into his arms, ignoring the protests of his knees. She gasped a little from the unexpected movement, and the sudden intake of breath made her start to cough. Jack continued to walk, holding her tightly as she convulsed in his arms.

Both Janet and Jack could hear the liquidy edge to her cough, and this made the Doctor look even grimmer. Jack noticed, but chose not to mention it in Sam's presence. As they entered the elevator, Sam finally stopped coughing, and sank exhaustedly into Jack's arms. Resting her head against his chest, Sam's eyes fluttered closed, and within moments she was asleep.

Janet leaned over and pulled the mask off Sam's face to let her breath easier, and gasped when she saw the fine spattering of bloody sputum staining the inside of the mask. She searched in her pocket for a moment, before pulling out a small yellow plastic bag with the contaminated materials label stamped on its side. She dropped the mask in there and sealed it tightly, ready to be disposed of once back in the infirmary.

Jack walked quickly but gently back to the medical centre with Janet close behind, walking straight past the nurse at the desk near the door and putting Sam straight back into her bed. Pulling the blankets up over her, Jack gazed down at the pale face of his sick Major. It was slowly but surely tearing his heart apart, watching Sam go through this. He gently stroked the back of her hand, swallowing hard to stop the tears he felt in his eyes from falling.

As a single tear slid down his cheek and fell onto the soft skin of her hand, Jack made a fierce promise to himself: that he would do everything in his power to stop this from happening, whatever it took. With a final glance at Sam's unconscious face, Jack turned back to the exit, his face set and stern and with no signs of the tears he had just shed. He was the tough-as-nails military Colonel Jack O'Neill once more, and he was on a mission to save his Sam.

I hope you liked it :)

was it too over the top???i couldn't tell... was it realistic?

id like to hear your thoughts/likes/dislikes/typos i may have missed/ANYTHING AT ALL :)

please review, by now you should know how much i love it :P