Teal'c lay perfectly still, allowing the medical staff to think he'd fallen asleep; he didn't want anyone intruding on his thoughts right now. Cam's final statement had served to remind him that his easy going manner could often be deceiving; Mitchell was not a person that would allow himself to be stepped on. Cameron had been right, he needed to get this figured out so that just maybe he could prevent it from happening in the future. It was always during times of high stress, yet he never seemed to have a problem keeping his aggression under wraps when it came to the others in similar situations. So what was so different about Cam? He had the same level of respect for the Col as he did for the others, based on his thoughts and beliefs as much as it was on his abilities. He considered them all close friends. Even Vala, as unpredictable as she could be, had grown on him. But his bond with Mitchell was different; it had to be as much time as they spent sparring together. It was a relationship in which they were both instructors; Cameron was one of the few people left in the galaxy that knew even the basics of the Sodan fighting style. By teaching Teal'c what he knew, he was ensuring that the knowledge would be passed on to another generation of Jaffa. In return, Teal'c was slowly but surely teaching him the other fighting styles of the Jaffa. Their relationship was more Jaffa to Jaffa than human to Jaffa.

And suddenly Teal'c had his answer, he thought of Mitchell as a Jaffa warrior, albeit a young one in need of much training. But Cam wasn't a Jaffa, he was a human; he had a human outlook, human beliefs, and human emotions. Now all he had to do was remember that.

He resurfaced from his thoughts as he heard Dr Lam issuing orders. He opened his eyes when she laid a tentative hand on his arm.

"Teal'c we need to move you to the main infirmary, SG-7 picked up a flu bug off world and we want to keep them in isolation for awhile." She moved out of the way as one of the nurses began unhooking the various lines connected to Teal'c.

"That is fine; will SG-7 be alright?" Teal'c's main thought was that this new development would delay the continuation of his conversation with Mitchell. It wasn't exactly something he wanted an audience for.

"I'm sure they'll be fine; the symptoms are similar to our flu, but I don't want to take any chances." She stopped fussing with his IV when a thought struck her, "I'll even put you next to Cam-Col Mitchell so you can finish your chat from this morning; he mentioned some unfinished business."

"Col Mitchell is in the infirmary?" Teal'c closed his eyes in resignation, knowing exactly why he would be in there. Cam hadn't exactly been his usual self that morning, but he hadn't appeared injured either.

"Yeah, he managed to slip a concussion and a couple fractures by one of my staff yesterday, so I'm punishing him with a night in the infirmary." Carolyn laughed softly, "there are times I think that man would sell his Grandmother's secret recipes to get out of having to stay in here." Might be worth it, she thought to herself as she remembered the taste of his homemade chili and cornbread.

"Somehow, that does not surprise me." He picked up his head a bit higher as they entered the infirmary. Sure enough, Cam was passed out on a bed at the far end of the room, his right forearm encased in a soft cast, his left slung across his eyes. "His arm?"

"A couple of hairline fractures in his ulna, he has a couple of fractured ribs as well; Arkad's men really did a number on him. However, knowing him, he'll be up and running around by morning, not that he wasn't already today." When she had Teal'c's bed situated to her liking, she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I have to go check on SG-7, get some sleep, ok?"

Lam stopped one of the medical staff on her way out the door. "How many did it take," she asked, inclining her head toward Cameron.

"He refused to take anymore than two, said he had better things to do than sleep for the next two days."

Lam sighed, it wasn't as long as she would have liked, but it would have to do. "Ok, thank you Lt., that should keep him down for at least twelve hours."

STARGATE: SG-1

Sam poked her head into the room and smiled at the sight of Daniel and Vala bent over a translation, their heads nearly touching. "Hey guys, I see we all took that order for a day off seriously."

Vala couldn't hide her smirk, "what else were we going to do? I'm still not allowed off base alone, and you two have no life."

"Hey!" Carter and Jackson shared a look at their combined outburst, but it only took them a second to admit to themselves that she was right.

"Anyway, I just wanted to see if you guys were up for an early dinner. I was looking for Cam too, usually he would have been in my lab twice by now, bugging me to eat something, but I haven't seen him since this morning." Sam was starting to get worried; he hadn't been at any of his usual haunts, and he hadn't looked good yesterday, physically or emotionally.

Daniel worried his lip for a second, "last time I saw him, he was on his way to report to Dr Lam. Maybe we should check with her."

Vala laughed out laud, taking the other two by surprise. "Oh, I'm sure he was 'reporting' to her," she knew it was the perfect time to use the air quotes Cameron had taught her.

"No… this time I think he actually was." Daniel stopped for a second, wondering how much he could tell his teammates without betraying Mitchell's confidence. "I ended up driving him home last night, T-Arkad's men did more damage than he let on yesterday. I think Carolyn got wise to it when he went to visit Teal'c this morning." It had been agreed before they came back through the gate that nothing of Cam and Teal'c's fight would be mentioned on base.

Sam dropped her head; leave it to Cam to do the self-sacrificing thing. He didn't want them mad at Teal'c and he didn't want Teal'c feeling guilty, so he pretended that he was fine. "Well, let's go see if she knows where he is then. We can see if she's hungry too."

Daniel and Vala nodded, they set their translation aside and followed her toward Lam's office. Vala stopped them when they passed the door to the infirmary, "look."

Mitchell and Teal'c sound asleep at the end of the room was actually a rather comforting sight.

"Let that be a lesson to all of you." They turned to see Carolyn standing behind them with her arms crossed decisively.

"Huh?" Very eloquent Jackson.

"He hid a couple of injuries from my staff yesterday, so I punished him with a night in here." Her eyes drifted to her patients, silently willing both of them to have a dreamless sleep.

Vala tried to lighten the somber mood, "I guess lunch is out then." She turned her attention to Lam and wasn't surprised to find her staring intently at Cam, "unless you're hungry?"

Carolyn flushed at the invitation, pleased that they were making an effort to include her. "No thank you, after hanging around SG-7 for the last hour, I don't think I'll get my apatite back for at least a day. Alien flu bug," she clarified at their curious look.

They cringed collectively, glad they weren't in her shoes. "Understandable, let us know if you need any help keeping those two in line."

Daniel was stopped from following Sam and Vala out when Lam put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for taking care of him last night. I wanted to be there, but-" she waved a hand in Teal'c's direction. She sniffed back the tears that were threatening to fall; it had eaten her up inside that she couldn't be there for him when she knew he was hurting.

Jackson enclosed her in a friendly, comforting hug. "That's what friends are for." He gave her one more quick squeeze to make sure that she was ok before turning to catch up with Sam and Vala.

A sound behind her had her turning around to see Cam tossing in his bed; so much for a dreamless sleep. She quickly made her way there and pulled the curtain around his bed. What she was about to do was extremely inappropriate to do while they were at work, but she'd be damned if she was going to let him suffer through another nightmare. She gently lay down beside him, one hand on his chest, the other rubbing his forehead. Almost immediately, he quieted down and turned into her touch. This wasn't the first nightmare he'd had since they'd been together and she had quickly learned the best way to calm him. They always seemed to be worse when something happened to one of his teammates. Frankly, she was surprised he'd gotten any sleep at all when both Daniel and Sam had been missing. He'd told her about some of them, but mostly he preferred to deal with them on his own so he didn't add to her burden. She lay there for a few more minutes before planting a final kiss on his forehead and returning to work.

STARGATE: SG-1

Mitchell stretched expansively before really thinking it through and winced at the pain it caused. He nearly groaned aloud when he caught sight of his watch, 3 am. Perfect, he had at least four more hours before Carolyn would even consider releasing him and there was no way he could fall asleep again since that was all he'd done for the past fourteen hours. He sat up and ran a hand over his face.

"Col Mitchell."

In the relative dark of the room he hadn't even noticed the figure in the other bed. "Teal'c, how are you feeling?" He tried to ignore the nagging voice reminding him of how he'd left their last conversation.

"I am well, Dr Lam has stated that I will be released in two or three days." Teal'c fervently wished he could match Cameron's posture; this was not the type of talk to have while lying on your back.

"Look Teal'c, about our talk earlier, I'm sorry I yelled at you, its-"

Teal'c could see the Col fidgeting nervously, "I am not. Your directive inspired me to explore the reasoning behind my recent actions. I believe I have found the answer to your question."

"Really," he tried to keep the surprise out of his voice, "what'd you come up with?"

Teal'c was suddenly glad he'd rehearsed this conversation in his head, but he hadn't anticipated how hard it would be with those earnest blue eyes looking straight into his. "I view our relationship as that of Jaffa warrior to Jaffa warrior."

"You do?" This time he let his surprise show. "Teal'c, buddy, that just might be the biggest compliment you've ever given me." He paused, "that was a compliment, right?"

Teal'c nodded, "it was. However, I must also remember that you are human and therefore view certain actions differently than a Jaffa would. Keeping this in mind, I will endeavor to control my actions and emotions better in the future."

They sat in silence while Cam digested that bit of information. The longer he thought about it, the more he realized that another Jaffa wouldn't have thought twice about the fight. "You know, I thought I was going to have to work a lot harder to get you to talk about this, but I don't want you to keep your anger bottled up. If our enemy of the week is around I would prefer you go after them; but if not, I'd rather you come find me than take it out on yourself, Daniel, Sam, or Vala. A little heads up would be nice though."

Always the consummate leader, Mitchell was still willing to do whatever it took to protect his team, even from themselves, "agreed. I must also thank you for your help after I was injured in the explosion."

Cameron furrowed his brow, "Teal'c, I didn't do much of anything besides sit and watch."

"It was your presence and moral support that helped the most. Knowing that you had been in my position and succeeded gave me strength."

Cam smiled around a yawn. "Glad I could be of service then. Hey, you up for a game of chess? I'm horrible, but I hear that you're a pretty good teacher."

Teal'c inclined his head, "I would be honored to beat you in a game of chess. However, I do not believe it would be wise for you to get caught while acquiring a board; Dr Lam appeared most upset with you earlier."

"You let me worry about her." Cam threw a smile and a wink in his direction before stiffly getting to his feet and sneaking toward the door.

"Cameron Frank Mitchell, back in bed now!" Carolyn's voice had a hard edge to it.

"Ah hell," he tried to ignore Teal'c's 'I told you so' expression as he slumped back toward the bed. "You knew she was in her office, didn't you?"

Teal'c's grin grew wider, "I did."

"Traitor," Cam lay back with a smile of his own; at least he didn't have to worry about that particular nightmare anymore.

Yea, its finished! I'm going to apoligize for Teal'c's voice in this, I've never really written more than two words from him. As to the Cam/Carolyn relationship, I'm pretty much pretending that "Bounty" never happened, because we all know he's way to good of a guy to cheat. Thanks to Blaney and Loozy for the relationship ideas.