A/N - Once again, I apologize for the delay. Work is really getting in the way of my writing! I love getting feedback, so please keep it coming...

Chapter 3

The moment Sam and Jack walked into infirmary, Sam felt her level of apprehension rise. She unconsciously moved closer to Jack. The place was bustling with activity, the doctors and nurses working quickly to prepare for the refugees from the planet. In a far corner, Daniel and Teal'c sat on the edge of their beds as Dr. Janet Fraiser spoke to them in hushed tones. Daniel looked over Janet's shoulder and acknowledged the officers with a nod and a smile.

Just as they began to make their way toward their teammates, Sam was approached by a nurse she did not recognize who attempted to lead her to a different room. "This way, Major," she said insistently, when Sam made no move to follow her.

Before she fully appreciated what she was doing, Sam grasped Jack's arm, having no desire to be parted from him. He looked down at her and gave her a soft smile before placing his hand over hers and giving it a squeeze. Instantly, she remembered where and who she was, and she immediately released his arm. "Sorry, sir," she mumbled and ducked her head.

Sam closed her eyes and swore silently. She couldn't believe she had slipped like that in the middle of the SGC infirmary. She had to be more cautious about her interactions with Jonah - no, Jack. Sensing someone watching her, she glanced up, only to see Daniel quickly look away, pretending not to notice her blatant breach of decorum. She wondered for a moment whether he and Teal'c knew just how close she and Jack had become on the planet.

"I think we'd prefer to stay in the same room, doc," Jack said to Janet as she walked their way.

Janet, having witnessed the exchange, agreed without hesitation. "That would be fine, Colonel. You can take these beds here," she said, indicating the beds nearest Daniel and Teal'c. "I can't tell you what a relief it is to have you back," she continued. "You had us worried."

As the two officers situated themselves on the beds, the petite doctor approached Sam first, significantly concerned about her gaunt appearance. She began to question her under the watchful eye of her commanding officer.

"How are you feeling, Sam?" she asked as she moved her penlight from one eye to the other.

Dr. Janet Fraiser, Sam thought to herself. The base's chief medical officer and her best friend. "I'm fine, Janet," she replied.

Janet smiled. "You remember my name. That's a good sign. How's the rest of your memory?"

"Spotty," Sam admitted. "But it's starting to come back."

"Good. Can you take off your jacket?" Sam complied, and Janet had to stifle a gasp. Even though her shirt, she could tell that Sam was emaciated. "Lie back," she instructed softly. Once Sam was prone and she lifted her shirt, Janet could see every one of her ribs. She began palpitating her abdomen. "You've lost a significant amount of weight, Sam. Did you eat?"

Sam shrugged. "The conditions there were pretty harsh. I don't think any of us got a lot to eat."

"Carter had the worst of it, doc," Jack volunteered from the opposite bed.

Sam shot him a warning glance. "Sir..."

"Don't let her convince you otherwise," he continued. Jack looked down at his hands. Damn it, he thought. She was skin and bones. He should have made sure she ate enough.

oOoOoOo

11 Days Earlier

Kegan watched as Brenna and Thera spoke together outside of Brenna's office. She was too far away to hear what they were saying, but she had a pretty fair idea. Ever since she got here, the tall blond had been sucking up to their foreman, offering crazy ideas for improving their performance and worming her way into the boss' good graces.

Thera and Brenna ended their conversation, and Kegan kept her eyes glued to the engineer as she walked down the steps from Brenna's office and onto the plant floor, finally passing by Kegan's workstation. Thera kept her gaze straight ahead, not even so much as glancing her direction. But then, Thera didn't bother to interact with any of the operators, save one. Kegan continued to glare at her as she smiled at Jonah, who watched her exit with a bemused look on his face.

Kegan rolled her eyes and turned back to her work. "She needs to watch herself," she grumbled.

"Who?" Karlan asked, keeping his eyes on his gauges.

Kegan whirled around to face him. "Thera," she replied vehemently. "She thinks she's better than the rest of us because Brenna listens to her. And that kind of thing doesn't go over well here."

Karlan suspected that Kegan's real problem with Thera was that she had found a problem with one of the valves Kegan had supposedly repaired, and Brenna had made her work double shifts to fix it.

Karlan shrugged. "Maybe she's just shy. I didn't talk to many people when I first got here."

He knew that introversion was often mistaken for arrogance. Like Thera, he had also found it difficult to fit in with the other workers when he first arrived. Fortunately for him, Kegan had befriended him and shown him around, introducing him to others and providing the companionship he had so desperately been missing. Under other circumstances, Karlan wondered if he and Thera might be friends, but given the level of disdain his closest friend had for her, he doubted he would ever find out.

"Trust me, you're nothing like her, Karlan," Kegan spat.

Recognizing the need to disarm Kegan before she became even further agitated, he gave her a wide grin. "Well, I was lucky enough to meet you."

Kegan smiled and took a quick look around before leaning in and giving Karlan a quick kiss. "I wish we had time for more," she whispered seductively.

Karlan returned her smile, but he knew they would have to wait until much later, when they could sneak away from the plant. After all, their supervisors had made it very clear that personal relationships were strongly discouraged among the workers.

oOoOoOo

Thera waited patiently in line for her dinner, but let out a groan when she saw who was doling out the food tonight. For some reason unknown to her, Kegan seemed to hate her, though she had no idea what she could have done to offend the young woman. Sure enough, by the time Thera reached the front of the line, all of the bread had mysteriously disappeared.

"Any more bread, Kegan?" she asked.

"Sorry, we're all out," she responded coolly.

Thera took a deep breath. "You know, it seems highly unlikely that you would happen to run out of bread three days in a row, just as I reach the front of line."

"Are you calling me liar?" Kegan snapped.

For a split second, Thera was tempted to respond in the affirmative and have it out with woman once and for all. She was fairly sure she could take her easily in a fight, though she sensed that their exchange was being scrutinized closely by the other workers. Better to let it go for now, she thought, though she resolved that if it happened again, she wouldn't hesitate to take the bread by force if necessary.

She stalked off and looked for a place to sit down and finish her meager meal. As her gaze swept the room, she realized she didn't know any of these people. "Just like the new girl in the school cafeteria," she mumbled to herself, though the memory attached to the words was fleeting.

She shook her head to clear it, and that was when she finally saw someone she recognized. She smiled and made her way toward the handsome worker.

"Is anyone sitting here?" she asked Jonah.

He looked up from his bowl, momentarily startled by her unexpected appearance. He grinned and gestured to the open space beside him. "You are." Thera sat down and began eating. After a moment, Jonah spoke. "Did you talk to Brenna?"

"Yes." Thera wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. "They caught the guys, but she's pretty sure they're only a small part of a larger group that's been causing trouble throughout the facility."

"Well, you should still be careful then," he replied. "No more late nights."

His last statement came out like an order, and Thera couldn't resist teasing him a bit. "Yes, sir!" she replied, but his look told her that he was not amused. Before he could protest further, she held up both hands. "No, you're right. Sorry." She sighed. "It's too bad, too, because I think I'm close to figuring out a way to increase overall efficiency in the plant."

"Oh?"

"Yes, it's really fascinating." She sat forward a bit, warming to her subject. "I've determined that if we set up an automatic release valve on each of the stabilizers in sections 243 and 256, we could vent the excess pressure in those sections. You see, we could then control the flow of steam to the upper vents and..." she trailed off, realizing that his attention had wandered. "You're not really listening to me, are you?"

He snapped his head around to face her. "Oh yeah. Sure I am. Fascinating."

Immediately, a vision of the two of them seated at a small table in a large, bright room flashed in her mind. They were wearing strange clothes and eating food off of trays. She was holding a spoon over a glass full of some blue substance, and she remembered a feeling of fond frustration with the man sitting across from her. As quickly as the vision popped into her head, though, it was gone.

She furrowed her brow. "You know, something about this seems familiar."

"What seems familiar?" he asked, scraping his bowl clean.

"Us. Talking like this over a meal." Thera leaned forward and lowered her voice. "Can I ask you a strange question?"

"Um, sure," he replied, though he didn't look very certain.

"Have you ever seen blue food?"

Jonah laughed. "You mean it comes in a color other than beige?"

Of course there was no such thing as blue food, thought Thera. And yet the memory seemed so real, particularly her emotions concerning the man sitting next to her. "You know, it's strange...I just feel like I know you already, that we've done this before."

"Well, you came from the mines, right? I used to work there, too. Maybe we met and just don't remember," Jonah suggested.

"Maybe..." Thera replied, but she wasn't so sure. They were quiet again for awhile, and Thera finished the last of her food.

"So do you have any family?" Jonah asked.

It occurred to Thera that she must still be suffering the effects of the night sickness, because she couldn't immediately remember her parents, though she did know that they were no longer in her life. "Um, my mother died when I was little. My father didn't hang around much after that."

"Sorry."

Thera shrugged. She missed her parents terribly, but she had made peace with the situation long ago. "How about you?"

Jonah was completely unprepared for the level of emotion that overwhelmed him. He couldn't explain it, but he knew with absolute certainty that he had no family, and that fact was unbelievably painful to him. "No. No family."

"There's a lot I can't remember about my life before I got here," said Thera, as though she had read his mind. "I got night sick right after I transferred."

Jonah furrowed his brow. "That's weird. I was night sick, too."

"Well, for all we know then, we might have been best friends back at the mines, and we just don't remember."

"Just friends, huh?" he asked suggestively, before he could stop himself. Thera blushed, making Jonah grin, though the thought that they might have been on more intimate terms at some point brought all kinds of illicit images to his mind. Realizing that he needed to get back into safer territory, he gestured toward her empty plate. "Didn't you get some bread?"

She looked slightly uncomfortable. "Oh, no. I didn't get any."

"Not hungry?"

"No. It's, um...Kegan doesn't like me." She shrugged again.

"Well, I can't understand why not. I like you." Realizing how that sounded, he tried to recover. "I mean, I like - like you, like a friend." Real smooth, he thought.

But Thera now had a twinkle in her eye. "Just a friend, huh?" she teased.

And he was back in dangerous territory once again. Jonah cleared his throat and stood up quickly. "I'm gonna get you some bread."

"No, wait, Jonah," she pleaded. "Please. It's not a big deal."

"It is if you're hungry."

She tugged on his jacket. "It'll only make things worse."

Reluctantly, he sat back down. "Here, take mine then." He held out his last piece of bread to her.

"Are you sure?"

"You need it more than I do."

As he passed her his bread, her fingers brushed his. She looked into his eyes, and the tenderness she saw there almost made her heart stop. It also confirmed her suspicion that there was far more to him than good looks and a sharp tongue.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

He smiled. "You're welcome."

Looking at her, he suddenly felt something much deeper than physical attraction, something he couldn't place, and he wondered if maybe they really had been more than friends in some other life.

TBC...