Season 6 Episodes 5 & 6 - Nightwalkers & Abyss

Episode summaries:
Nightwalkers - A small town has been taken over by Goa'uld, who can only take control of their hosts at night. Dr Flemming contacts Carter and is subsequently killed, SG-1 (minus O'Neill) are sent to investigate. They discover the Goa'uld are building a spacecraft. As they get closer to the truth, they are attacked by the Goa'uld infested townsfolk, and on a hunch Sam injects herself with Dr Flemming's mystery drug. She is implanted with a symbiote, which then dies - Flemming's mystery drug killed it. She fakes being a Goa'uld and saves Teal'c and Jonas, and then apprehends the Goa'ulded NID agents - who had been monitoring the town. The townsfolk are saved, and the ship sent to Area 51.
Abyss - Jack, who accepted the Tok'ra symbiote Kanan as a means to save his life following being infected with a deadly Ancient virus, is abandoned by Kanan during a failed rogue mission, and is captured by Ba'al. Ba'al tortures him until death repeatedly, each time reviving him with a sarcophagus. Daniel appears, and offers Jack the chance to ascend, to break the cycle and escape. Jack is resistant, and Sam, Jonas and Teal'c eventually manage to pull off a rescue.

Jack had almost gone to General Hammond's July 4th party. He knew he ought to put in an appearance, being 2IC of the SGC, but … he was still technically on medical leave until Monday, so he figured he could beg off. Ultimately the thought of facing that many people, who all knew he'd just been fighting off a nasty sarcophagus addiction, was more than he was quite ready to deal with.

Instead he had a bottle of whisky, and a box of Simpsons DVDs. He put on some sweatpants, and settled in for the long haul.

He should have known really, that he wouldn't get away with it.

The knock on his door came halfway through the fifth episode, and at the beginning of his third whisky. He contemplated not answering, but decided that while he could justify avoiding the party, hiding from whoever was at the door would mean he had crossed the border into cowardice. That wasn't a town he wanted to live in.

He sighed and got to his feet, padding through the house to the front door in his socks, sweatpants and t-shirt. He peered through the peephole first, in case it was someone for whom he ought to be a bit more dressed.

It was Carter.

Jack opened the door. She smiled tentatively at him, and he was struck by how … pretty … she looked. Carter didn't usually do 'pretty'. Hot, frequently. Beautiful, often. Pretty? Not so much.

Today though, she looked like a girl, from her styled hair and flowery sundress right down to her painted toenails peeking out from her high heeled sandals.

"Carter." He said by way of greeting, waving his whisky tumbler vaguely. A little spilt over the side, and he glared at it. He wasn't drunk already, was he?

"Sir. I noticed you weren't at the party, and I thought I'd just stop by to say hi." She said. "I brought some party food."

He noticed the basket she was carrying. "You stole food from Hammond's party?"

"He gave it to me to give to you."

"Ah, so Hammond sent you to check on me." He said.

Sam rolled her eyes. "He just thought one of us might run into you in the next couple of days, that's all. I'm here of my own free will."

"But quickly losing that will, I'm guessing."

Sam cocked her head, frowning at him. "Sir? Are you alright?"

Jack sighed. "What do you want, Carter?"

She looked a little hurt by the question. "I just wanted to make sure you were ok." She said quietly. "Here, take the food, I'll leave you in peace."

She handed over the basket, but he grabbed hold of her wrist before she could withdraw it.

"Wait – I'm sorry for being an ass. Come in for a bit."

She looked at him carefully. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." He released her wrist and opened the door wider.

Sam walked past him, her heels clicking on his floor, stopping in the living room when she saw the drawn blinds, bottle of whisky and paused Simpsons episode.

"Sorry about the mess." He said, opening the blinds and turning off the TV. "Wasn't expecting company."

"It's fine." She said.

"Sit." He said, putting the food basket down on the coffee table and flopping down into his previous position on the couch.

Sam perched on the chair opposite, still looking at him warily.

"How was the party?" He asked, when she didn't say anything.

"It was good. Lots of people came." She said. "Cassie was there too – she was asking after you."

"I'll go visit her next week, after I'm back at work."

"I'm sure she'd like that."

There was another long moment of awkward silence. Eventually Sam blew out a frustrated breath and looked him in the eye. "Sir, I'm sorry, there's something I want to talk to you about and I can't think of a good way to segue into it."

He raised his eyebrows. "Ok. Shoot."

"Did you agree to take a Tok'ra symbiote because I asked you to? Or was it because you knew you had to survive because of the future we saw in 2034?"

Jack felt the question like a body blow, and leaned his head back on the couch. "Geez Carter. There really wasn't any way to ease into that one, huh?"

"I'm sorry sir, it's just I haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened, and it's driving me crazy. I need to know."

"Why? So you can blame yourself for Kanan body-snatching me and Ba'al's little shop of horrors?"

Sam gestured uselessly. "I don't know."

He groaned. "Ok. If I'm honest, it was a little of both. If I hadn't known about the future and you hadn't been there asking me to do it, I probably wouldn't have. But I did know, and you did ask, and I agreed. That doesn't make what happened afterwards your fault though."

Sam looked a little crushed. "I just wanted …"

"I know."

"You were going to die."

He watched as she looked away from him and visibly pulled her emotions back in check. "I mean it, Sam. It's not your fault. I'm not blaming you."

"Yes sir." She said.

"And hey, I'm back, I'm alive, and we're still on track for 2034."

"Yes sir." She said again, toying with the hem of her dress.

He studied her for a moment, noticing the stress lines around her eyes. "You know Carter, it occurs to me that since I got back I haven't asked how you're doing."

Her eyes shot up to meet his. "Sir?"

"I'm not the only one who got snaked recently."

She flinched, and he winced in self-recrimination at his choice of words.

"I'm fine sir." She said with a blank expression.

"You wanna try that again with some feeling?"

"Honestly sir, it only had control for a few minutes, before Dr Flemming's poison killed it."

"Still … must have brought back some stuff." He prodded sympathetically.

"I guess. But I am ok, really. McKenzie cleared me for active duty after one session, and when I had my physical a few days ago Janet said the symbiote has been completely broken down now. It's gone."

"Well, good. I'm glad." He thought for a moment. "How is it that we've both been infested twice and yet you've now got two protein markers while I have none?"

"Because both times the symbiote died in me and got absorbed by my body, while both of your times the symbiote left you before it died." Sam said.

"Still … weird."

"Yes sir." She chuckled ruefully. "There is almost nothing about this that isn't weird."

He smiled at her, and she smiled back, and for the first time since he'd been infected with the Ancient plague and got snaked, he actually felt ok.

He cleared his throat. "By the way … I should probably tell you … I saw Daniel."

Her eyes widened almost comically. "What?"

"Between sessions in Ba'al's fun house. He dropped in to try to convince me to opt for the Oma Desala fan club rather than a never ending cycle of torture, death, sarcophagus … etcetera."

"He wanted you to ascend?" She asked, perplexed.

"I know, right? Talk about barking up the wrong tree."

"So … he's ok? He is out there somewhere?"

"He's fine. And … I may have mentioned something to him about 2034."

Sam's jaw dropped open. "You told him?" She said slowly.

"I know I shouldn't have, but I was pretty out of it by that point. I wanted him to understand why accepting death and ascending to a higher plane of existence wasn't an option for me."

"Did you tell him that he's alive and not ascended in the future?"

"I think so."

"You think so?" She repeated incredulously.

"Like I said – I was out of it."

"Sir, my older self specifically said not to tell anyone. If you've told Daniel, it could affect what he does, what decisions he makes, for the next thirty years."

"So, bottom line, I may have just screwed up the timeline."

Sam sighed. "I don't know. Maybe."

"How much damage could it really do, if Daniel knows? He can be discrete."

Sam raised her eyebrows.

"No, you're right, he can't." Jack said resignedly. "But … once he's back in the land of the living, we can talk to him. Explain about the importance of not screwing anything up, for the sake of his kid."

"Oh no, we can't tell him about Serena." Sam said quickly. "That could really mess things up. No, we don't tell him – or anyone else – anything else, other than the bare minimum to keep Daniel in line, if and when he's back with us."

Jack nodded. "Ok."

"I just hope that him knowing doesn't change things so that he doesn't come back." Sam said worriedly.

Jack felt himself growing pale. "Oh God, have I stopped Serena from being born?"

Sam shook her head. "There's no point panicking about it yet. For all we know this was supposed to happen and everything's still on track."

Jack looked at her grimly. "Let's hope."