Chapter 2 - "Saturdays at the SGC"

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just playing with them for a little while.


As was their custom when returning home from an off world mission, the team headed straight to the infirmary.

What was out of the ordinary was that General O'Neill was leading the way.

Walter Harriman watched from the control room, opening his mouth to ask but quickly closing it as O'Neill and Carter picked up the pace and ran down the corridor towards the elevator.

Daniel Jackson and Teal'c entered the control room to Walter's right. "Doctor Jackson? What's going on?" Walter asked.

"We …" he trailed off, then pinched the bridge of his nose, just under his glasses. "We don't know," he finally replied.

Having an answer for everything, Teal'c was more specific. "Colonel Carter and General O'Neill both claimed to have been infected with an alien presence off world. We should report to the infirmary, Daniel Jackson."

Jackson nodded at him, then glanced back at Walter as they began to walk out. "Let's not get everybody riled up about this until we know something definite.

Don't say anything.

Walter understood both messages. "Of course."

As the remainder of SG-1 left, he hung his head and sighed. "Here we go again."


"Well, according to every test I ran, you both are perfectly healthy."

Jack groaned. He was already aware of the fact, yet Janet Fraiser had still run every imaginable test in her book. When will doctors start realizing that I am telling them the truth?

Someday.

On the bed facing him, Carter frowned as she reached for her jacket. "You're sure?"

"Carter, trust the doc. She's been doing this long enough."

Janet shot him a beady glance of mock indignation, then smiled. "CAT scan didn't pick up anything. Your blood work is normal, save for the protein markers in yours, Sam. Otherwise, I don't have any physiological explanation for what you felt on 482."

Jack leaned forward tentatively. "So, no reason to keep us for observation?"

Janet shrugged. "I feel comfortable releasing the two of you. But as always, if you notice anything else, come see me immediately."

As Janet walked away, the general glanced over at his second in command.

Carter was leaning forward dejectedly, her elbows resting on her thighs. Her hands were clasped under her chin as she thought. She almost looked disappointed that Fraiser had found nothing.

"This still doesn't make sense," she finally voiced, blue eyes looking up and meeting his. "There should be traces of something."

"Carter, if you wanna go research it later, fine. But for now, if the doc says we're healthy, I'm gonna accept that. Even if she did threaten me with the big needles for no reason," he muttered under his breath.

She cracked a brief smile. "Yes, sir," she acquiesced, then stood up from the bed.

Daniel chucked his thumb behind them. "Well, if it's all the same to you, Jack, I kinda wanna head back to 482."

Jack nodded. "Teal'c?"

Standing silently by the entrance with his arms behind his back, he returned the nod. "I do not believe my presence is necessary at the SGC for the time being."

"You wanna go explore, too?"

Teal'c nodded with a gracious yet smug smile. He already knew that Jack would let him go.

"All right, campers, have fun."

As Daniel and Teal'c vacated the room, the remaining member of SG-1 stood stationary next to a monitor. With an understanding sigh, Jack walked over to her and stood shoulder to shoulder. "Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Blood work, CAT scans. Anything that could give us a clue about this. It's just, they seem too similar to the life forms that we encountered four years ago on M4C-862—"

"Carter…"

"Sir."

Jack blew out a breath. "It's late. Go home."

"Sir—" she protested, turning to face him.

"Sam," he replied firmly, grasping her shoulders cautiously. "Let Doc Fraiser worry about this for now. That's her job anyway." He pulled his hands back slowly, finding her eyes and smiling at her. "Besides, according to my watch, your vacation started five minutes ago."

Carter pressed her lips together, then nodded in acceptance. "Okay," she replied in a whisper, staring down at her shoes.

Jack tilted his head, suddenly concerned. This wasn't like Carter. Normally she would nod her head and go on to the next thing. But whatever this was, it was getting to her.

And he didn't like stuff getting to Carter.

"You want a ride home?" he asked softly.

"No, I'll be fine. Guess I just … need some sleep."

Jack nodded, content with her answer. "All right. Then I'll see you in a week. Have fun."

As she nodded good night and walked out of the infirmary, leaving Jack standing there alone, he started to wonder if she was onto something. Their respective scans were still lit up on the monitor, and he took a moment to admire the one on the right. He was no scientist, but he swore, chuckling lightly to himself, that more areas of her brain were lit up than his.

He narrowed his eyes, almost squinting, then backed up as he blinked rapidly. "Yep. Same here," he grumbled, turning as he left the infirmary as clueless as he was when he walked in.


The soft yellow paint on her bedroom walls, lit up to a brilliant orange as the morning rays blazed through her windows, was what awakened Sam the next morning, not the alarm clock that usually suffered a beating.

She groaned, then stretched. Despite being on vacation and O'Neill all but ordering her to lay off, she had stayed up well after midnight, pouring over the data that Janet had collected the evening before. It still yielded no results for her, and she was starting to get a little frustrated – disappointed, even – with herself.

Laying her forearm over her eyes, she groaned again. She felt ridiculous now. She had whined to Daniel about everything that she could do on vacation, and now that she had no obligations this morning, all she wanted to do was lay in bed.

Yep. Something was definitely wrong.

Then she wondered if this was how normal people took a vacation.

She allowed herself a small smile, then pushed herself out of the bed, bare feet pressing against the cool hardwood floors on her way to the kitchen.

She gathered the ingredients for the protein shake that she had made for herself each morning for the past couple of days. With a quick glance over the containers in her pantry, she chose strawberry.

Then her stomach lurched.

Sam's eyes widened as her hands pressed against the edge of the countertop, the only thing holding her upright at the moment.

She had felt this before. Very recently.

What she hadn't felt for a while was the sudden rise of vomit that was about to pass her gag reflex.

She barely made it to the bathroom in time.

The remainder of last night's dinner now resting in the toilet bowl, she leaned back on her knees, dry heaving, as she reached for a wad of toilet paper to wipe her mouth.

She groaned, throwing it away and leaning against the wall. The fact that she never threw up was disturbing enough. But having felt that same stomach pain yesterday, just after the light disappeared through her, was unsettling.

She shook her head. Maybe she was just overreacting. Not a very typical Carter move, but it happened. Once in a while. Occasionally.

Never.

Letting out a sigh as her normal breathing pattern resumed, she considered the phone on the cradle just inside her bedroom. Maybe she should call Janet. Then again, she thought as she contemplated the questionable food from her fridge that she had eaten last night, maybe this was just food poisoning.

She quickly compared the choices. Food poisoning, or alien parasite?

She chose food poisoning.


Jack turned on the lights inside his office and, seeing the pile of paperwork, quickly turned them off.

It was a Saturday, for crying out loud. He wasn't sure how he had ended up working today, instead of being at home, watching the college games with a cold beer in his hand. He groaned as he walked through the ready room, then down the stairwell into the control room. There were days he didn't like being "the man".

"How's everything going down here, Walter?"

The sergeant looked up at O'Neill through his glasses. As he spoke, Jack wondered if he ever went home. "Right on schedule. We have a dial-in from SG-9 in a few minutes, and then SG-5 is heading out at 0900."

"Glad I'm not the only one who's stuck working Saturday," Jack replied with a lilt in his voice.

Walter chuckled. "Yes, sir."

Jack patted his shoulder. "Well, looks as though you've got things here covered. I'm going for a stroll on the lido deck."

Walter nodded, then turned his attention back to the computer.

Just as he neared the doorway leading out of the control room, Jack paused and did a double take at Walter. He conjured an image of him, appearing as Radar from M*A*S*H with the green army cap and the earphones covering his head.

Jack smiled, then shook his head, erasing the image.

His slow walk around the corridors and an elevator ride unconsciously led him to the infirmary. He stuck his head in the door, noting that the good doctor sat in her office without any patients around.

"Doctor Fraiser."

Janet Fraiser looked up from a report she had been perusing with a weary smile. "General. To what do I owe this visit?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "No particular reason. I was just out walking around, thought maybe I would … drop by."

She flashed a quick smile. "Well, while you're up here—"

"Ah!" he replied quickly, raising a hand. "My physical is next month. You'll just hafta wait until then to torture me."

Janet chuckled. "Actually, I wanted to ask if you had been experiencing anything unusual lately."

"Well, there is a certain pain in my rear."

Fraiser tilted her head. "No, I had something more specific in mind. Nausea, vomiting, light-headedness? Anything?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," he replied. Upon seeing a slight headshake from the petite doctor, Jack slipped his hands into his pockets. "Why, what's wrong?"

"Sam called me, just a few minutes ago. Said she started throwing up this morning. She thought maybe it was something she had eaten."

"Carter's got an iron stomach," Jack remarked with a frown. "That doesn't sound like her."

"I agree. Which is why I asked her to come in." Fraiser looked at him with concern. "If it isn't food poisoning, and it has something to do with your incident on 482, we may need to reschedule your physical, General."

"Don't tease me like that, Doc," Jack replied with a smile as he turned, preparing to walk away.

He heard a slight pounding, one that he knew all too well as the sound of running on the floor, and Carter appeared at the door, holding her arm in front of her mouth. "Excuse me," she said, pitching her body towards a nearby garbage can, making it just in time as she vomited.

Jack's brown eyes widened in concern. "Carter, you okay?"

"I … I don't know," she said, reaching for a towel and wiping her mouth.

Janet ran quickly around her desk and touched Carter on the shoulder. "Sam, how many times have you vomited so far?"

She shook her head. "Just twice. I felt nauseous on the way over but it didn't hit me until just now."

"Did you have any breakfast?"

"Protein shake, that's all. I've had one each day for the past week and I've never had any problems."

"Let's get you into the scanner, just to be sure. Calloway," Janet called to a passing nurse, "I want to get blood work started on Colonel Carter."

"You just did our blood work," Jack replied evenly. "Would anything really change that much in twenty four hours?"

"We won't know until we do it. Might as well hang around, General. You're up next."

Jack grimaced, then took a seat on a bed.


Next: what startling news does Sam receive?

… Like y'all don't already know!