"So, Carter, you really leaving?"

"Yes." She smiles at his hurt look. "I'll be back before you realise I’ve gone."

"I miss you already."

She freezes, turning to look at him in shock, seeing no sign of humour in his expression.

She blushes slightly, completely at a loss for how to reply, so she settles for a small smile before entering the elevator, her hands shaking slightly as she pushes the button for the top floor.

Her eyes lock with his as the doors close, and for a split second they bare their souls to each other, before the door breaks their view of each other and she collapses onto the side of the elevator.

He watches the doors, half expecting them to open and for her to walk past, smiling at him, telling him that she was only joking about leaving for a month to help Area 51 with some artefacts.

Sighing as the doors open to reveal Siler he turns and strolls back to his office, finding himself at her lab, resting his head against the door as he looked over the quiet room. No Carter curled over an experiment, not noticing him watching her, no half complete doohickey spread over the bench, a note on the top telling him to leave it alone and that she'd be in the commissary taking a much need break.

"Hey Jack, what are you doing here?"

He turns to see Daniel, coffee cup in hand, looking at him in confusion.

"I just wanted to make sure she hadn't left anything switched on, it's amazing how much power the base gets through."

"I can image," Daniel mutters, slipping past him and heading straight towards one of the filing cabinets.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for some photographs of an artefact SG-9 brought back last week, Sam was going to try and work out what the machine was and give them back to me before she left. I guess she never got the chance."

Jack nods, watching him for a few minutes before leaving quietly; Daniel too absorbed in the folder he was hunting through to notice.

He has just reached his office when the sirens go off, so he changes direction, running down the stairs to the control room.

"Report"

"It's SG-5 General, apparently Major Lee collapsed, they're bringing him home now."

"Get a medical team to the Gate Room, now," Jack orders, already half way out of the room, jogging the short distance to the Gate Room.

He watches as SG-5 appears, carrying Major Lee on a stretcher.

"What happened?"

"We don't know Sir. We had been scouting the area, found what appeared to be ruins, as soon as Major Lee entered he collapsed, the rest of us were unaffected. We brought him back immediately."

Jack nods, signalling for the rest of them to go with the nurses that weren't helping Doctor Ashley treat Major Lee. He waits until they have all left the Gate Room before moving, finally making it to his office, collapsing into his chair, his hand instantly going for the picture of Sam he keeps hidden in a drawer.

He holds it in front of him, his thumb stroking her face. "I do miss you already, a whole month without you? Not sure I could last an hour." He laughs to himself. " I haven't lasted an hour... I just wonder if you feel the same."

He replaces the photograph, covering it with a pile of folders, mainly reports from her on doohickeys that he will never read but doesn't want to file away until he has. Needing to read what she wrote, how excited she became, the way her sentences would become longer, more complicated, just like when she would try and explain it to him in person.

Slamming the drawer shut he stands up, locking up any feelings before strolling out of the room, appearing completely in control.

He shows up at the infirmary just as SG-5 are given clean bills of health.

"They all appear to be fine General, I’m releasing them now. Major Lee however, his symptoms resemble that of the flu, but it’s the most extreme version I have ever seen."

"So is it or is it not the flu?"

"Considering that he had no symptoms before the start of the mission, and how suddenly it appeared to affect him I’m guessing there was something on the planet."

Jack sighs, "Is it contagious?"

She shakes her head, "none of the others have shown symptoms, so whatever it was targeted Major Lee specifically."

Jack runs his hand through his hair, wishing that he could have had at least a few days to adjust to Sam leaving before problems arose.

"What’s his prognosis?"

"Not good. His symptoms are getting more severe by the hour, if we don’t find a way of treating this soon…"

Jack glances over to SG-5, gathered round the unconscious Major, before back at the Doctor. "How long?"

"At best 24 hours. But that’s assuming his symptoms continue to progress in the same manner…As I have no idea what is wrong with him I honestly couldn’t say what could happen next, so he may not have that long."

Jack nods slowly, receiving an almost pitiful look off the Doctor before she heads towards her office.

Taking a deep breath he walks towards the team, clearing his throat as he approaches, causing them to turn around, startled.

"General O’Neill Sir!"

"At ease."

They relax, casting worried glances at their team-mate while trying to pay attention to the General.

"I won’t ask you to go to the briefing room for a debrief, so we’ll do it here. I need to know exactly what happened on the mission, as much as you can remember, Major Lee’s life may depend upon it."

"We arrived on the planet, there were no signs of life so we headed towards the ruins that had shown up on the UAV."

"It looked like a basic ruined building. I was taking photographs of some of the inscriptions, Major Lee went to clear inside the building."

"I went with him, he didn’t touch anything, he just stepped into the room and collapsed."

"Did you go into the room?"

"Yes, I went inside to check his pulse."

"We all went in there, trying to identify if there was any threat."

"Alright. You’re on downtime for the next few days until we sort this all out."

They nod, turning back to the infirmary bed as Jack slowly walks away, memories of times he’s been stood like that around one of the beds, or even in it, flashing before his eyes. Shaking his head he clears the images, giving them one last look before walking out of the infirmary.

-------------------------------------

Teal’c raises his eyebrow as Daniel mutters yet another Goa’uld curse word under his breath, too busy with the translation to realise what he is doing.

They are sat in Teal’c quarters, Photographs of the ruins spread over the floor, Daniel curled up against a wall, alternating between chewing the top of his pen and scribbling down possible translations. Teal’c had given up on being any use to his friend hours previous, choosing instead to meditate as he worked, only now he finds it impossible due to the mutterings.

"Have you made progress Daniel Jackson?"

"Almost there, just need to translate this last bit of text." He feels around on the floor, grabbing a pile of papers and almost throwing them at Teal’c, who catches them gracefully, moving to sit cross-legged before looking at them.

He scans the translation, finding that it sounds vaguely familiar. "With what are you stuck?"

Daniel looks up in surprise, silently turning the photograph to show him, pointing at a row of symbols. "These, none of the translations I come up with make any sense."

"That is because it is a title."

"It is?"

"Indeed. It refers to a group of the Tau’ri who were found to have special powers, they could manipulate devices that others had no control over, this building is in fact a method of detection, it affects only those with that ability."

"That sounds a lot like the ancients."

"That is who I believe they were referring to."

"Major Lee must have the ancient gene, that’s why it affected him. And why it didn’t affect the other team members. I guess we can tell Jack that we’re all safe, as long as people that have the ancient’s gene don’t go near the device there shouldn’t be any problems."

" I would not be so hasty Daniel Jackson. Under Aphophis’ rule I was fortunate enough to study one of these devices, I also witnessed an experiment in which a member of a village was purposefully exposed then sent back, to see whether it would affect others. We returned after several days to find not a single survivor."

Daniel jumps to his feet, looking at Teal’c in fear. "You mean it’s infectious? We have to warn Jack, he’s got the ancient gene."

The older man simply nods, his eyes betraying the fear he feels for his friend.

---------------------------------------------

Turning the radio up further, Sam hums along to it as she drives towards Area 51.

She had stopped briefly at her house to pick up a few files and change of clothing, wanting to make sure everything was secure before she left. Area 51 had requested her help on a specific artefact that they believed she might be able to fix. But she had known as soon as she read how long they were requesting her for that they were going to use her for as much as they could, so she wasn’t expecting to see her house any time soon.

She can’t get his words out of her head; ‘I miss you already’. She has analysed them, re analysed them and then once more but she won’t believe what her heart keeps telling her, that he feels the same way she does.

"Get a grip on yourself Sam, there’s no way he misses you already, he’s probably enjoying the silence. Just think, he won’t have to listen to your techno-babble about doohickeys for a whole month."

She laughs quietly, remembering her conversation with Pete the night before. He had been upset to find out that she’d be gone for so long, but he had accepted that it was part of the job. "Happy that I’m not off world anymore so can’t get killed, " she mutters, realising that he never said he’d miss her. His last words to her had been ‘Love you, get in contact as soon as possible’ but nothing about missing her. And yet somehow she found Jack’s word more intimate than Pete’s.

She curses as her mobile starts ringing, disrupting her from her thoughts. Sighing, she reads the caller ID. "Daniel, what have you done now?" She mutters under her breath as she slows down.

She answers, swerving the car to the side of the road when she hears the panic in Daniel’s voice.

"Daniel, calm down, tell me what happened?"

"It’s Jack Sam, he…he caught some kind of virus that targets people with the ancient gene, we can’t find a cure Sam, I think…. I think he’s going to die."

She drops the phone in shock, taking deep breaths to stop herself from being sick, she had only been gone a few hours, and now he was dying. She rests her head against the steering wheel, a lone tear falling down her cheek; only just able to make out Daniel’s worried shouts.

Reaching down to the floor she searches around for her mobile, grabbing it and bringing it to her ear. "I’m here Daniel, tell him to hold on, I’m on my way back now."

She ends the call, quickly turning the car around and heading back, the rain starting to fall, crying tears she cannot bare to.

------------------------------------------------------

Jack slowly opens his eyes, the beeps on the machines instantly recognisable to him as the infirmary.

Squinting he can make out two figures stood at the end of the bed. Guessing that it must be Daniel and Teal’c he moans loudly, and they turn to him as one.

"O’Neill it is good to see you awake."

"Hey Jack, how are you feeling."

"Like I’m dying." He laughs harshly, but the worried glances they swap sober him. "Which from the looks on your faces is true."

"You caught the virus Major Lee had. We managed to translate the text but by then you’d already collapsed in the commissary."

"The virus Major Lee had?" He sighed, knowing what that meant. " He died. Which means I’m dying too. How long?"

"Come on Jack, its not…"

"Not going to happen? Daniel don’t mess with me, I want to know how long I have."

"Doctor Ashley has given you less that 12 hours. However Daniel Jackson has already contacted Colonel Carter and we have been trying to contact the Asgard, so I have much hope that we will find a cure O’Neill."

"You called Carter? Why?"

"Because she should be here Jack, she’d want at least to be able to see you before …everything, if not find a cure."

"She won’t."

"She might, Jack, please, don’t give up."

He sighs, closing his eyes in exhaustion, images of her running through his mind. ‘Just let me see her’ he begs silently, ‘let me tell her I love her before I die’.

Daniel and Teal’c watch in silence as he falls back to sleep, moving away from the bed before talking quietly.

"I do not believe he will regain consciousness, even if Colonel Carter does make it here in time."

"I know. But she’ll make it, she has to. It just seems so stupid that it’s a virus that kills him, it should be out on a mission, in a Jaffa fire fight, doing something he loves."

"Death often comes when we least expect it, most people expect to die of disease or old age, yet they are things we hardly consider. We believe death on the battle field is to be expected."

Daniel doesn’t answer, instead looking over to his best friend, knowing that it may be the last time he sees him alive, the thought scaring him yet also bringing about a sense of relief. Thinking, ‘If Jack is dead he doesn’t have to suffer through the woman he loves marrying someone else’ is the only way he can justify the feeling that perhaps it is Jack’s time.

He looks back at Teal’c who only nods, no words needing to be spoken. They leave the room in silence, walking to Daniel’s lab, working silently on translations as the time slowly ticked by. Each time the phone rings they hold their breath as Daniel answers, sighing in relief when it’s not someone from the infirmary.

---------------------------------------

Jack gasps in pain, his eyes opening as he cries out.

"Just relax, the pain will fade soon."

He complies, a smile gracing his features as he recognises Sam’s voice.

"I was hoping to see you before I leave, there’s something I have to tell you."

She laughs, "You’re not going anywhere Jack, it’s over."

He sits up, surprised when he feels no pain. "It is?"

"Yep."

He grinned, his face creasing into a frown as he realises what she said. "You cured me? You called me Jack?"

"No and Yes."

"Oh, so who cured me?"

She looks down at the floor, and he finally looks around, spotting Daniel and Teal’c in the far corner of the infirmary. Jumping off the bed he walks towards them, Sam following silently, watching him.

He freezes in shock as he hears their conversation, his eyes flicking to Sam, who only nods for him to keep listening.

"I just can’t believe it Teal’c, we arrived this morning expecting to say goodbye to Sam and planning what we can do at the end of the month when she returns, and expecting a slightly moody Jack, now they’re both dead."

"It is most distressing, yet we should take comfort from the fact that O’Neill died peacefully in his sleep and Colonel Carter was killed upon impact with the lorry. They did not suffer a long painful death, and I am sure that they are at peace now."

Jack moves to look at the bed they are stood at the end of, recoiling in horror as he sees his own body lying there.

"I’m dead?"

"We both are apparently."

"Impact with lorry?"

Her eyes fill with tears as she thinks back. "I don’t really remember, I was racing to get back to see you, it was raining, I just remember seeing headlights and then everything went black. When I woke up I was just in time to see them pull my body from the wreckage. I was scared, wished that I was here and then I was. I watched as you died, as they tried to save your life, and then you appeared on the bed over there so I went to meet you."

"So what happens now?"

"I have no idea, but I’m glad you’re here."

She starts to cry and he pulls her into a hug, kissing her on the top of her head. "It’s ok Sam, whatever happens you’re not alone."

The End

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