AUTHOR: Nicky Chevalier
EMAIL: [email protected]
CATEGORY: Adult, Jack/Sam romance, sequel
SPOILERS: Hmmm... I think we're pretty safe here.
RATING: NC-17
CONTENT WARNINGS: Sexual situations.
SUMMARY: Sequel to 'Divide and Conquer 1: Bridging the Divide'. SG1 take a trip through the stargate that ends up putting Sam in a coma.
STATUS: Complete
ARCHIVE: Heliopolis, Sam & Jack, whoever else wants it. ;) I'd love it
if you'd let me know where it goes though, just so I can visit.
DISCLAIMER: Like anyone reads these things anyway... Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story was written for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. (Who'd buy it? ;) No copyright infringement is intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hi! Okay, as a sequel to 'Bridging the Divide', which by now is practically ancient, this was supposed to be finished a *long* time ago. But real life got in the way, and as a result, it's been sitting uncompleted on my hard drive. But, finally, here it is. My second attempt at fan fiction. You know, I thought this one would be easier to write and a whole lot less scary to post... boy was I wrong. ;) I cannot thank enough those who sent me feedback for D&C1, you don't know how much your encouragement meant to me. :) Whether or not there'll be a part 3, I guess is up to you.
Sam glanced up at the distance storm clouds as they gave another warning rumble of thunder, and then returned her gaze back to the lake in front of her. She'd come to the realization an hour ago that the chances of actually catching anything were extremely slim, but she held the rod anyway, enjoying the warmth of the setting sun on her back and the coolness of the water lapping at her feet.
"Jack, you do realise that there are no actual fish in this lake, right?!" She voiced her thoughts to the man sitting beside her, humor lacing her words.
"They're in there," he replied nonchalantly, "they're just a little hard to find."
"Uh-huh", she nodded and rolled her eyes at him, clearly disbelieving.
A second later Sam shrieked in surprise as a wave of cool water hit her chest, instantly saturating her white shirt into transparency.
"I'll get you for that." She promised lightly, casually turning to face him. Grabbing the neck of his shirt, she pulled him roughly to her for a passionate kiss, waiting until he'd let his guard down and relaxed into her arms before leaning back and easily tipping him sideways into the water. This utilizing the enemy's weakness stuff was fun.
"Hey!" he protested futilely when he surfaced, but got his revenge when he reached up and grabbed her by the wrist, easily pulling her down with him.
Laughing, Sam wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in to kiss him, waiting until her lips were less than a millimetre away from his own before dunking him swiftly under the water and swimming away in hysterics.
Surfacing quickly, Jack was immediately after her, chasing her into the middle of the lake and pulling her back to rest against his chest, his arms around her middle, his hands tracing slow patterns on her stomach under the water.
"You don't fight fair, Carter." he grinned and shifted his hands to her waist, tickling her unmercifully. She squealed and squirmed from his grasp, diving out of sight and surfacing again a moment later out of reach of his attacking fingers.
"Neither do you." She laughed and moved aside as he lunged for her, smirking as his arms grabbed nothing but water. He growled and ducked under, locating her underwater and resurfacing inches from her face, his arms encircling her waist as he pulled her to him again.
The rain pelted at their already saturated forms as they made their way back into the cabin, the frequent, jagged streaks across the sky serving to light their way.
Sam jumped, startled, as the door swung violently back into its frame, propelled by the harsh winds she could see bending the trees outside the window until she thought they might be uprooted with the force.
Mentally shaking off the fright of the door's sudden slam, she quickly changed into dry clothes and settled in with Jack to watch the storm. She sat contentedly in his arms, wrapped in a blanket he'd produced from the tiny closet, and they watched the natural lightshow above them.
Jack watched, mesmerized, as a brilliant bolt of lightning flashed sharply against the darkness of the room. He saw it light up the relaxed face of the woman in his arms before they were once again plunged into darkness, only to be broken again moments later by another zigzag of electricity.
Silently, he pressed a kiss to her hair, tightening his arms around her middle to draw her even closer. Much like the storm, he thought, which, judging by the sound of the thunder, was almost right on top of them now.
Breathing in the faint scent of her shampoo, he smiled. "One, two..." he began counting softly at the next streak of lightning. She turned her head up to face him, giving him a quizzical look as he lightly kissed her nose.
"What are you doing?"
"When I was a kid," he explained, "I was told that if you count the seconds between the bolts of lightning and the thunder, you could tell how far away the storm was."
She nodded and rested her head back onto his shoulder to look up at the sky again. "That's because lightning heats the air around it to as much as 60,000 degrees, producing sound waves by the quick expansion of the heated air. Since light travels at 186,000 miles per second, but sound, including thunder, travels only about a mile in five seconds near the ground--"
"Carter," he broke in, admonishing her with a playful jab to the ribs.
"Sorry." She gave him a sheepish grin and he rolled his eyes at her.
"You're fine, Daniel." Janet told her patient as she replaced the stethoscope around her neck. Although, she thought wryly, whoever came up with the word 'patient' had obviously never met Daniel Jackson, who was being everything but.
"You're seratonin levels are back to normal," she continued, "and your MRI shows nothing unusual. You're free to go."
~Finally~, thought Daniel as he jumped from the bed. As much as he enjoyed Janet's company, four days of staring at the walls of the infirmary had made him eager for a change of scenery.
"Thanks Janet." He told his friend as he all but ran for the door, only to find his exit halted abruptly as he stopped to narrowly avoid crashing into the General.
"Just a second, Dr Jackson." Hammond told him as he turned to face Janet.
"Doctor Frasier, is he okay to go back to work?"
She nodded. "Clean bill of health, General, he's perfectly alright."
Hammond turned back to Daniel, who was looking at him questioningly.
"Is there anything wrong?" He asked worriedly.
"No, but I'd like you to call Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill and get them back here. I'm sorry to cut your downtime short, but I have your next mission. We sent a probe through to P3Q982, and from what I've seen, it looks like a planet SG1 is going to want to take a look at. I've scheduled the briefing for tomorrow at 0900, that should give them both plenty of time to get back to the base."
With that, he turned and strode out of the room, leaving the archeologist and his doctor to wonder exactly what was going on.
"Sounds intriguing." Daniel commented, and then smiled wryly. "Jack is *not* going to be impressed about having his fishing trip cut short."
Janet bit back a grin. Somehow she didn't think Sam was going to be ecstatic either.
"C'mere." Sam told him softly, tilting her head up to bring her lips to his. Jack's hand left her waist to bury itself in her hair, holding her to him as he explored the taste and texture of her mouth with his own.
She moaned softly in approval as his tongue followed suit, exploring her mouth as he intended to explore her body- thoroughly.
Eventually he broke the kiss to catch his breath, instead trailing his lips down her neck as she tilted her head to the side to give him better access.
She moaned again as, one hand still lost in her hair, he moved the other up and under her shirt, finding the hardened peak of one nipple and teasing it mercilessly.
Moving from behind her, he gently pulled her backwards, lowering her to the floor as her form was lit up again by a brilliant flash of lightning. Her sigh was drowned out by the clap of thunder that echoed around the room as he lowered himself over her, pulling off her shirt in the process.
He undressed her slowly, pausing every few moments to kiss the skin he uncovered, finally returning his lips to hers once there was none of her clothing left for him to remove.
What he wore soon followed, her eyes roaming hungrily and unashamedly over his body as he quickly discarded his shirt and shorts. Her hands soon followed the path set by her eyes as he came back to lie over her, holding his weight on his forearms.
"Now, Jack."
"Ooh, is that an order, Major?" He couldn't resist teasing.
"You bet your ass it is" She told him playfully, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"That's insubordination, Major Carter." He admonished in his best colonel's voice.
"What are you going to do, report me to General Hammond?" She laughed.
Not needing to be told twice, he let her guide him inside, allowing her time to adjust before he began moving with an easy, gentle rhythm, the pace teasing.
"For crying out loud, Jack, I'm not going to break."
He smiled at her use of the phrase, and dropped his head to take her bottom lip between his teeth, nipping, sucking, before releasing it with a swipe of his tongue.
Her throaty moans encouraged him to quicken the pace, until he could feel his own body nearing the edge. The moment he felt her clench around him he followed, the lightning highlighting her face as he watched her, their hoarse cries mingling with the sounds of the fading storm and Sam's cell phone ringing shrilly from it's place on the bedside table.
"Told you not to bring it," Jack said breathlessly as he stood up and retrieved the offending object a moment later, throwing it to her and plonking himself down on the unmade bed to listen to her end of the conversation.
"Carter" she answered, "Oh, hi Daniel, what's up?... What!?... Tomorrow, why?... no, it's alright, I'll be there... have you spoken to colonel O'Neill?... he's not?... Did you leave a message?... well, I'm sure he'll get it... okay, bye."
"Er, Jack?" She began when she'd hung up the phone. She didn't need to finish the sentence; he simply groaned his protest and pulled the blankets over his head.
"These are the images the probe sent back from P3Q982," The general was saying when Colonel O'Neill mentally shook himself out of his reverie over Sam's lips, and forced himself to concentrate on the meeting.
"General Hammond," broke in Teal'c, "I am familiar with those coordinates. I believe it is a Goa'uld forbidden world."
Carter turned to her friend in interest. "You mean like P3X974?"
"Indeed," Teal'c answered with a nod of his head.
The major hid her smile as her C.O. looked at her with his usual 'I-don't-have-a-clue-what-you're-talking-about' blank expression.
"Wait, I know this one," he told her with his trademark sarcasm, "P3X974..." he shrugged, "nope, drawin' a blank..."
"Cimmeria, the planet where we found Thor's Hammer, Sir." Carter explained. "Teal'c, do you think there could be another Asgaard protection device on P3Q982?"
"I don't think so Major Carter," interrupted Hammond, reclaiming control of the debriefing. "At least, not one with the same outcome as the device used on Cimmeria. The probe images show definate signs of the Goa'uld." He indicated to the images he was displaying. "Lots of dead Goa'uld."
"How did they die?" Spoke up Daniel.
"That's what I want you to find out." General Hammond told his team. "Whatever, or whoever, did this, could be an invaluable ally. We haven't seen any other signs of life on the planet, and the probe images don't show any signs of external injury to the Goa'uld."
"A disease?" Asked the major.
"Or chemical warfare," suggested Daniel.
"None of the data we got back suggested anything that could be harmful to humans," Hammond told them, "but even so I don't want to take any chances, I want all of you in level four decontamination suits. We can't risk bringing anything back to the base."
"When do we leave?" Asked O'Neill, standing to face the General.
"As soon as possible, Colonel, but there's one more thing," replied the generally, reluctantly turning to face the typically stoic Jaffa seated across from Jack. "I'm afraid you're going to have to sit this one out, Teal'c."
Everyone looked to the General for an explanation.
"General Hammond," spoke up Teal'c, "I wish to accompany SG1. I believe I could be of assistance."
Hammond nodded his understanding but didn't back down. "I'm sorry Teal'c, but we don't know what this is. Whatever killed those Goa'uld did it fast and effectively. If this is a weapon against the Goa'uld, you're symbiote puts you at risk, and until we know what we're dealing with here, I can't let you go. I'd like you to accompany SG5, they leave at 0300 to explore what we think is an abandoned Goa'uld homeworld. They could use your expertise."
Teal'c didn't like it, but simply frowned and nodded his acceptance of the General's decision.
"Dismissed."
"What, no welcome party?" Jack quipped, his gun held steadily in front of him as he cautiously surveyed the landscape of P3Q982 through his contamination suit.
Apart from the bodies of the former Goa'uld that littered the dusty looking ground, O'Neill noted nothing particularly out of the ordinary, the planet could have been any one of the hundreds they had visited.
~More trees~, he thought wryly as he descended the stone walkway leading from the Stargate.
Crouching beside one of the bodies, he gingerly examined the female Goa'uld for anything that might give a clue as to the cause of death. Upon finding nothing, the Colonel stood and nodded to his 2IC to start taking samples.
"Daniel, help Carter, I'm going to check this place out."
Sam looked up, concern evident on her face.
"Alone sir, are you sure that's wise? We don't really know what's out there. We don't even know for sure that all the Goa'uld on this planet are dead."
Jack nodded, the edges of his mouth curled up in a slight smile. "Don't worry mom, I won't go too far."
She nodded solemnly and turned back to her work, pulling a needle from her pack to draw a blood sample from the recently deceased corpse in front of her.
He couldn't have wandered more than fifty metres when he heard Daniel's shout.
"Jack!"
Whirling around, gun already raised, he looked for their attacker.
Instead, all he saw was Sam slumped over in Daniel's arms, apparently unconscious.
"Sam!"
Breaking into a run, he was at her side in seconds, shaking her by the shoulders as he yelled for her to wake up. Giving up, he handed Daniel her pack and hoisted the major easily up and into his arms.
"Dial us up Danny, let's get her to Dr Frasier," he ordered, his expertly forced composure a weak cover for the fear lacing his voice.
Daniel was at the DHD in seconds, concern for his friend quickening his movements as he dialed the Earth coordinates.
At the other end of the wormhole, both Teal'c and General Hammond stood stoically behind the glass windows of the control room.
"Receiving IDC. It's SG1, sir."
"Open the iris." They'd barely been gone ten minutes. Not a good sign.
"Medical team to the gate room," he barked into the microphone as he watched the leader of his best team stride down the ramp, 2IC in his arms.
The general followed Teal'c down into the gateroom and was at their side a moment later, Janet Frasier close on his heels.
"She's out cold, we don't know what happened," Jack answered their unspoken question.
"Okay, let's get her to the infirmary," Janet told him, her calm voice only slightly reassuring.
Jack sighed frustratedly and threw off the covers, accepting the fact that sleep wasn't going to come. Throwing his clothes on haphazardly, he left his quarters and made his way silently through the darkened halls of the SGC to the infirmary.
She looked so pale. White, almost. Less than forty-eight hours earlier she'd been standing at the sink in the tiny kitchen of the lakeside cabin, dressed in one of his hockey jerseys, laughing and splashing water at him while he dried the breakfast plates.
Now here she was, lying unmoving on a hospital bed. Drained of all colour, the white sheets that should have been a contrast instead almost matched the pallor of her skin.
Janet had said she'd have results by morning, but it already felt like days to him.
~You're a colonel in the United States Airforce for cryin' out loud, get a grip,~ he reprimanded himself, but it did no good.
"You have to wake up, I'm losin' it here," he said quietly to the still motionless woman in front of him. Squeezing the hand he now held firmly in his own, he continued, "I'll make it an order if I have to. C'mon Sam, you gotta wake up for me, okay?"
Nothing. She didn't move, the only sign of life was the beeping heart monitor next to her bed. Pulling up a chair, he tenderly brushed a stray lock of blonde hair out of her eyes.
"I should be handling this better," he whispered, squeezing her hand between both of his, "but I'm just barely holding on here, Sam. I know it's not like we've never been here before, I've seen you fight for your life more times now than I want to remember."
He sighed. "But it's different now. We pretend that it's not but it is. Sure, when we're working, we still do the Colonel and Major crap, and I'm still your commanding officer, but even then it's different. Ranks, BDUs and a machine gun don't change the way you look at me. And I love that." He moved, resting his forehead on the bed next to their hands.
"That's why you have to wake up. You can't give that kind of love to someone and then expect them to do without it. Don't ask me to be without you, Sam."
Jack sat up abruptly as he was jarred awake by the door opening behind him, cringing as his neck painfully protested the sudden movement.
"Doc," he acknowledged the woman in the doorway, his voice sleep- roughened as he moved his head slowly from side to side in an effort to stretch out the kinks. "What time is it?"
"It's after six," she looked at him questioningly, "how long have you been here?"
He shrugged off the question, instead turning to regard her seriously as he asked the question she'd known was coming.
"What's wrong with her?"
The doctor glanced at her patient, switching instinctively into clinical mode. "It's like nothing I've ever seen, Colonel. Her bloodwork..." she trailed off, shaking her head in what looked to Jack like amazement.
"Janet?" He quietly urged her to continue.
"There are thousands of microscopic parasites feeding on the naquada in her blood. My guess is, they're somehow attracted to it, that's why you and Daniel didn't get sick too. And why the Goa'uld on that planet did."
Jack looked over at his 2IC, willing her again to wake up. "So what do we do?"
Janet paused, struggling to keep up the guise of clinical detachment as she glanced over at the motionless body of her friend. "I don't know, Jack."
It was over an hour later when Jack finally left. Having been chased out of the infirmary by Janet, he stood expressionless behind the thick glass of the control room window, wondering how long the tests would take so he could go back.
He watched without interest as the stargate sprung to life in the gateroom, then turned to the general when he heard the technician tell him "It's the Tok'ra, sir."
"Open the iris." Hammond ordered, he and Jack both making their way out of the control room as Jacob Carter emerged through the event horizon.
"We contacted them this morning," the General explained as they descended the stairs, "I thought they might be able to help."
Jack nodded and held out his hand to shake Jacob's.
"Where is she?" was the Tokra operative's worried greeting.
Hammond shook his head apologetically. "You know you can't see her, Jacob."
He eyed the General as though he'd grown another head. "She's my daughter, George."
Hammond sighed. This was not going to be easy. "Whatever infected her, did it through a level four decontamination suit, and it did it fast. I'm sorry, Jacob. I know she's your daughter. But your symbiote makes you susceptible. You know I can't let you see her."
Jacob sighed irritatedly, but didn't argue. Instead, he simple shook his head in resignation and looked questioningly at the general.
"I suppose you want to talk to Selmak?"
General Hammond nodded. Let's go up to the briefing room, Teal'c and Doctor Jackson should already be there."
When it came to meetings, Jack had a relatively short attention span at the best of times, let alone with little sleep and the woman he loved in a coma.
He knew he should be paying attention. He also knew that what Selmak was taking forever to explain, when you got right down to it, was that the Tok'ra knew not much more than Janet did about what was wrong with his major.
He let his mind wander, his thoughts jumping from one memory of Sam to another. He remembered the first night they'd spent together, at his place the night before they'd left for the cabin.
It seemed a long time ago now; the way she'd looked then, arguing good-naturedly over a late-night game of scrabble, was a long way from the sick woman now fighting for her life in the infirmary.
"Hey!," she'd protested his triple word score, "'zixalace' is not a word, Jack."
He'd smiled guiltily. "Sure it is, it... comes from the Japanese word meaning--"
She laughed. "Don't make me call Daniel."
He'd sighed dramatically, pulling the letters off the board one at a time. "Well, if that's not a word, then neither is 'hysteresis'".
"Hysteresis is when the magnetization of ferromagnetic substances lags behind the field due to a varying magnetic... what?" She'd feigned innocence.
His answer was to throw a pillow at her, which she easily caught and tried to whack him with, only to find him off the couch and running towards the kitchen. She was up and after him in less than a second, their laughter echoing down the hallway as they reached the bedroom. He'd let her catch him then, falling onto the bed as she fell onto him.
The laughter had died down after their lips met, the playfulness taking on a more passionate edge as he undressed her. He'd kissed her slowly, tasting the wine they'd had with dinner on her lips. He decided it tasted better this way, mingling with the unmistakable taste of Samantha Carter.
After he'd kissed her sufficiently breathless, he let his lips trail further down, along her neck and between her breasts, pausing to claim a nipple, and down further, until his tongue found her in a way that left her clutching at the sheets, the pillow, Jack, anything she could grasp onto.
After he'd taken her to the edge and then left her hanging frustratedly for a third time, she'd decided it was past time to turn the tables. Flipping him easily onto his back, she'd pinned his hands at his sides and began her own particular brand of torture, only stopping when she heard his breathless entreaty.
"Sam, please. Now."
Their sighs had mingled as he felt her guide him inside, part of him wanting to just let go, part of him wanting to make this last as long as he humanly could. But all of him wanted to touch her.
He'd rolled them over again so she was under him, where he could wrap his arms around her and breathe in the scent of her hair, and whisper in her ear as she'd called his name.
"I could get used to this." He remembered telling her afterward, while they lay contentedly in each other's arms.
"Sounds like a plan to me," came her tired answer.
"Jack. Jack? Jack!"
He looked up at Daniel's questioning face as he was brought abruptly out of his trance and back to the meeting.
"Hello, earth to Jack O'Neill..." Daniel joked, not having the slightest clue as to where his friend's thoughts had just been.
"Sorry Danny, I guess I zoned out for a second there," he explained apologetically. His friend waved off the apology.
"It's okay, doesn't matter."
Jack wondered briefly what Daniel had said to him, but the thought was quickly forgotten at the sound of Janet quietly clearing her throat in the doorway.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Sir. I just thought you should know..." she trailed off with a glance at Jacob, visibly struggling to maintain her professional exterior.
"Yes, doctor?" General Hammond's voice was gentler than usual, and she realised for the first time how hard it must be for him, watching his people so frequently battle for their lives. She straightened, a desperate attempt to regain control of her emotions, trying to bury them again under the facade of clinical detachment.
"Major Carter's condition is worsening. We lost her for a few minutes, but we managed to get her stablised..." she trailed off again. This was the only part of her job that she truly hated.
Jack felt himself shatter into a billion pieces. Like that nursery rhyme, some delirious part of his brain mused as it went into shock, the one with the egg on the wall... Charlie had loved that...
He sat in the briefing room until his mind cleared, at least enough to think somewhat coherently, and then moved to follow the others to the infirmary.
His mind having cleared a little, the initial shock having worn off just a bit, Jack sat vigilant by her bedside. He didn't know how long he'd sat in the breifing room, in a daze, just staring at the wall and not really thinking anything, but when he'd arrived here everyone had gone, with the exception of Jacob, who paced anxiously out in the corridor.
Teal'c hadn't been aloud in either, and Daniel had left with the excuse of a bad headache and the need to lay down. Jack knew the real reason was simply that he couldn't stand seeing Sam in her current condition.
Now that he was here he found to his surprise that he was not so much sad as he was... angry. He guessed the sad would come later. One more thing to look forward to.
The heart monitor beeped annoyingly again and Jack wanted to kick it through the wall. It, and the wires, and the tubes, they weren't meant to be there. None of that was supposed to be attached to Samantha Carter.
He took a deep breath, trying to look calm. He didn't want the doctor to kick him out. Lifting a hand to her forehead, he brushed away a stubborn lock of hair and cupped her face in his hand.
"Janet, can't you do something to bring down her fever? She feels so hot."
The doctor looked up from the chart in her hand and walked over to stand at Jack's side. "It's normal for her to have a fever. Her immune system is still trying to fight the parasites in her bloodstream, and a high body temperature is one of the body's defenses against--" she stopped abruptly, a thought hitting her full force.
She picked up the phone, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of it sooner.
"This is Doctor Frasier, Get me two nurses in here, stat."
Jack managed to look confused, worried, and annoyed at the same time.
"Janet, what is it? Tell me what's wrong."
She either didn't hear him, or chose to ignore him, instead turning to the nurses walking briskly to stand in front of her. "We need to get her into an icebath, now."
The doctor sent a silent prayer to whoever was listening that her plan would work as she checked her patient's vitals.
Sam's pulse was thready, and then it was gone. The shrill flatline tone of the heart monitor sent the room into an organised turmoil as more nurses came crashing through the door, all focusing immediately on Sam and ignoring Jack's alarmed questions.
"She's in v-fib. 200 joules. Clear!" yelled Janet as she charged the defibrillator paddles and applied them to her friend's chest.
Jack watched in silent terror as Sam's lifeless body jerked violently with the electric current and then slumped back to the bed.
"No pulse, no resp.," announced one of the nurses.
"300 joules," yelled the doctor urgently, "and I want Epinephrine, one milligram, IV Push, now! Clear!"
Her body lifted again, higher this time, and then fell ungraciously back to the bed once more.
"I've got a pulse." announced a nurse a second later as the monitor started to beep again. Jack thought he'd never heard a more beautiful sound in his life.
His eyes closed in a mixture of fear and relief, Colonel O'Neill silently started to breathe again.
Janet lowered her head briefly into her hands and then stood straight to address her colleagues, ever the professional.
"Now where's that ice bath?"
"Jack?"
The voice was so soft that at first Janet thought she'd imagined it. But as she turned to regard her formerly comatose patient, she saw Sam's eyes start to flutter open weakly.
"Sam," she answered quietly, squeezing her friend's hand.
"Janet, what happened?" was Sam's weak reply.
"I'll explain later, right now I'm going to get the Colonel and tell General Hammond the good news," the doctor smiled.
The room was already crowded with people when Jack arrived, so he stood in the doorway unnoticed, content for now to simply watch Sam talking animatedly with Janet, looking thin and pale but otherwise healthy.
"So how did you know that lowering my body temperature would kill the parasites in my blood stream?" she asked.
"I didn't," admitted Janet, "I just realised that something about your immune system, your fever, must have been slowing them down, since the infected Goa'uld died within hours. It took the parasites longer to adapt to your body temperature because of your fever, so they probably have a slightly smaller temperature range to ours. I had to lower your body temperature almost to the point of risking brain damage to kill them. Basically, we were lucky."
Sam nodded. "But they're gone now, right?" she asked with a concerned glance to her father.
Janet nodded. "I checked twice. A couple of hours after we raised your body temperature again, they started to disintegrate into your bloodstream in the form of naquada. There's no trace of them now, and you have about the same level of naquada in your blood as you did before your mission to P3Q982."
Sam nodded and turned to where Daniel and Hammond were standing on the other side of her. "Where's Colonel O'Neill?" she asked casually.
"Right here, Carter. Welcome back to the land of the living."
"Thankyou, sir." The major smiled. Their eyes locked and held, conveying what couldn't be said in their present company. It was a minute before she realised Daniel was speaking, and her gaze flickered from Jack to Daniel and back before she reluctantly tore her gaze away from the colonel and concentrated on what her friend was saying.
"...and so I think that adaptation is what enabled them to infect you through the decontamination suit," he finished. Sam just nodded, she'd ask him about it later.
Jack kicked the apartment door shut so hard he thought it might have fallen off its hinges, if not for Sam's back being pressed intimately against it as he held her off the ground.
"God, Sam, it's been too long." He moaned and buried his face in her neck, trailing his tongue hungrily over the skin there while he worked impatiently at the buttons on her shirt.
"Hmm...way...too...long," She agreed between kisses, her legs now settling firmly around his waist, "but we've got a whole week to make up for lost time." she grinned, silently thanking the general for the week of downtime he'd given them.
Throwing the shirt behind him, Jack quickly dispensed of her bra and wasted no time closing his lips around the hardened peak of one nipple, coaxing a breathless moan from the lips of the woman he held in his arms.
Momentarily distracted from her task of getting the shirt he wore to join hers in the growing heap on the floor, she arched against him, her slender arms twining around his neck to hold him to her.
Moaning his approval, his lips left her breast to meet hers for a hot, hungry kiss before he pulled her away from the door and carried her to the bedroom, knocking the phone off the hook before he deposited her on the bed.
She reached for him, pulling the material of his shirt up and over his head so she could trace the muscles of his chest. Jack quickly rid them of the rest of their clothes so they were skin to skin, her hands running up and down the length of his spine, relearning the contours of his back as he moved over her to rest in the cradle of her hips.
He paused then, the heated anticipation in his eyes mingling with the love she always saw reflected there when he looked at her.
"I thought I'd lost you." He whispered, his hand reaching up to trace her jawline.
"Never," was her only answer as she pulled him to her for a deep kiss, their tongues dueling as he rolled onto his back and moved her to sit astride him.
She moved with a renewed urgency, her fingers playing over the muscles of his chest as he reached up to play with a nipple. She exploded around him in a matter of minutes, pulling him with her as she tumbled over the edge.
"You, Major Carter, are going to kill me one of these days," Jack quipped dryly when he'd regained the ability to speak.
"Well," she laughed, her hair tickling his chest, "at least you'll die with a smile on your face."
Jack grinned. He couldn't argue with that.
*** end ***
Okay, I've done my part, now it's your turn. ;) Pleeeeeaaaaase send me feedback. I'll beg if you want me too.
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