AN: Nothing really to say. Just another chapter in the journey.
Her head throbbed violently, the pain unlike anything she had felt before. She felt hot and cold at the same time. Sweat slicked her palms as she brought her hands up to try and keep her head from cracking into a million pieces. If the gesture helped at all, Sam was beyond noticing. All this eclipsed the roiling nausea, though it was a beast in its own right.
These sensations were the only thing her mind could begin to process at that moment.
The blood pounding in her ears masked any sounds. Not that she was actively listening. Really, she couldn't care less what was happening around her. Not when the simple act of existing hurt so much. Her face was wet with tears she didn't realize she was shedding.
If this wasn't real, then why did it have to hurt so much?
Sam remembered the conversation she had heard before the sensations rolling through her body had thrown her back into unconsciousness. This was their method of interrogation. These delusions, hallucinations, whatever the hell they were, were telling her captors information about Earth and its inhabitants. Then they must know that SG-1 were who they claimed. But that still left the question of what they might plan to do with this information.
"Do you really think that they can be allowed to live when we are finished here?"
Whatever it may be, they didn't intend on her and her team to be alive to see it.
She drifted in and out of semi-consciousness. The throbbing in her head slowly receded to a more manageable level. Still miserable, but now able to take some interest in the situation around her. That is, figuring out what the situation was, and what to do about it. Sam was reluctant to open her eyes, not sure what she was hoping to see.
"Major Carter?" Teal'c's hand rested on her shoulder, a response to some movement or sound she must have made. It brought her no comfort, and she stiffened. Because they had fooled her once already. There was no way she'd let it happen again.
His hand left her. "Be calm, Major Carter, you are among friends."
Sam opened her eyes to see their original cell. Teal'c kneeled beside her. Around him, she could see Jack and Daniel beginning to stir. Sam closed her eyes again. Against the light, and against the liklihood that this was just as fake as the last time.
"Carter?" Jack's voice was right next to her now. She didn't have to open her eyes again to know that he and Daniel had scrabbled their way beside her. It's just the reaction she would have expected. She felt her pulse throb in her head as she contemplated her position.
"Come on, say something, major," Jack continued after some silence.
Sam sighed. "Not so loud, sir."
"You all right, Sam?" Daniel chimed in.
Sam finally let her eyes open again. "Been better."
"Sit rep?" Jack asked.
She only pondered it for a moment. If this was real, they needed to know what was going on. If it wasn't... then she'd be doing nothing more than wasting her breath.
"They drugged me. I don't know if it was a hallucination exactly or what. I thought we had escaped, it all played out real enough."
"So what stopped it?"
"I started to wake up. I think."
Jack eyed her dubiously. He pieced it together in his head. "You don't think this is real, either."
"I can't discount the possibility." The likelihood.
"Well, Talquin did look pretty upset when they brought you back," Daniel said.
He had certainly been upset in the conversation she had overheard. Something had gone wrong. Were they giving her a chance to recover some before trying again? All she had were questions and nothing that resembled a good answer for any of them. Sam just hoped she had some idea of what was what when the time came to act.