Chapter Ten: Glacial

A/N: Thank you everyone for sticking with me through his harrowing and, at times, laborious experience! Your support and readership mean everything to me. This show has touched so many lives and it's such an honor to be able to do even a fraction of the good that SG-1 did and will continue to do for years to come.

Enjoy!

"And she just collapsed?" Daniel stood over Sam's prone form, opposite Jack.

"Yes, Daniel." Jack rubbed his hands over his face, muffling his answer. They'd been over this a hundred times. "She stopped walking, grabbed her head, and then…" He let the sentence trail, gesturing at the proof positive lying on the hospital bed before them.

"Did she saying anything?" Daniel glanced at Teal'c for support, knowing Jack was quickly losing patience.

"No, Daniel." Jack took a deep breath. "Wait, yes. She said no."

"No?"

"No."

"She didn't say no?" Daniel frowned behind his glasses.

"Yes, she said no. For Christ's sake, Daniel, what does it matter?" Jack tried to swallow the anger that was quickly building. His second in command had been neutralized, not to mention thought to have been dead until recently, and Daniel was fixating.

"How did you know where to find her, Jack?"

Jack's eyes snapped to Daniel's. Was that suspicion in the younger man's tone? "I—what does that matter?"

"Nothing. Just trying to see if you were compromised." Daniel shrugged, his voice casual.

"Of course." Jack rolled his eyes then stared expectantly at the other man. "And what have we concluded?"

"That you're still your grumpy self." Daniel looked down at Sam and felt Teal'c relax beside him. The Jaffa had been tense since they'd gotten into the infirmary, but now apparently felt confident that Jack was indeed Jack. "Has Mackenzie seen her yet?"

"Yeah. Took some blood and hurried off to do whatever he does."Jack took another deep breath as he looked down at the woman before him. She looked thinner than usual, exhaustion lines evident on her face. What had happened to her on that planet?

"Well, general, sir, you were right. That is Colonel Samantha Carter in the flesh." Mackenzie announced as he came back in to the room.

Even though Jack had already known that, hearing the doctor's conclusion sent a wave a relief washing over him. Suddenly exhausted, he sat heavily on Sam's cot. "So what the hell is going on here? The doc is the doc and Carter is Carter."

"Well…" Mackenzie looked down at his chart as he trailed off.

"Well?" Daniel raised his eyebrow at the doctor's hesitation.

"After running Colonel Carter's labs I took the liberty of retesting Doctor Frasier." Mackenzie frowned as he looked up, eyes meeting first Daniel's, then Teal'c's. "She shows signs of someone who has recently suffered a stroke. Her brain waves are slightly abnormal, but we have no way of knowing the extent of potential damage until she regains consciousness."

"Okay…" Jack waved his hand in a 'continue' motion.

"The change occurred after Colonel Carter's collapse. My best guess is whatever was altering Doctor Frasier's personality is gone, some sort of self detonation. It caused the false stroke pattern and her continued sleep-state." Mackenzie flipped to another page in the chart. "The more worrying find is in the colonel's blood. She has a protein marker."

"Jolinar." Jack cringed even saying the name. "Six years ago, Carter was host to a Tok'ra."

"Yes, general." Mackenzie took a deep breath, his features looking suddenly drawn. "We isolated that marker as well."

"As well?" Jack slid to his feet, his full height towering over the doctor.

Mackenzie, for his part, stood his ground but a slight pallor had taken hold of his complexion. "Yes, sir. It seems Colonel Carter was a host for a second time."

"Was?" Teal'c finally stepped forward, his arms held tensely behind his back. "Is she no longer?"

"We think so. But, to be completely honest sir, I can't be sure. Her scans were all clean and with prior experience we do know that deceased parasites leave a marker in the blood. But, that's not to say there is something in there that I just can't detect." Mackenzie managed a sympathetic smile. The three men in front of him were so used to being able to fight the enemy, but they looked so lost given this information.

An enemy they couldn't see.

An enemy they couldn't face.

"So, what? We wait?" Jack looked incredulously from the doctor to his Colonel.

"I'm afraid I don't know what else to do, sir."

"Fine. Okay." Jack scrubbed his hands over his face. He was tired, exhausted even. The last few days had been hell and the last few hours hadn't helped. He glanced down at the woman lying before him. But maybe, just this once, they'd get lucky.

Maybe just this once, everyone would be okay.

"Mackenzie, good work. You're dismissed, but I want hourly checks on the doc and Carter." He turned to Teal'c as the doctor left the room. "T, relay this to the control room: the base is no longer on lockdown, all non essential personnel can go home." Teal'c bowed before reaching out to gently squeeze one of Sam's hands. His expression softened for a moment before he turned and headed for the door. "Oh, and tell Walter I want that planet locked out of the dialing system." Teal'c nodded once and disappeared.

"And then there were two." Daniel rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Three." Jack pressed his lips together and let his fingers fall onto the mattress beside him.

"Three." Daniel quietly corrected. "Look, Jack, I'm sorry. None of this would've happened if I had just-,"

"It's fine, Daniel." Jack tapped his fingers once before shoving his hand in his pocket. "You can only apologize so many times. Especially for something that didn't really happen."

Daniel closed his eyes briefly and nodded, but Jack couldn't read the younger man's expression. "She's going to be okay, right?" His eyes fell on the heart monitor pulsing to the beat of his friend's heart.

Jack was silent for a long time. "Why don't you go check on Frasier? The doc's going to want a friendly face there when she wakes up."

"I wasn't talking about-,"

"I know." Jack smiled crookedly. "Go Daniel. I'll stay here." He waited for Daniel's nod before he turned to pull his chair closer to the bed. By the time he had sat down, Daniel was gone. For just a moment, he let himself look at Carter, really look at her. It felt like years since he'd seen her, talked to her. "Looks like it's just you and me, Carter."

Just you and me.

…

Three Days Later

Sam rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she sat up and stretched. The infirmary lights were dim, so it must still be early. Yawning, she debated whether she should go back to sleep or start on the pile of paperwork she had asked Daniel to bring down for her. Being dead was apparently not an excuse for not turning in her reports. She briefly considered throwing a pen at Janet, who was snoring softly two beds down, but decided against it.

Patient or no, she was still first and foremost a doctor and she wouldn't take too kindly to Sam being awake and active.

But she felt fine. Physically, at least. Sam rolled her head on her shoulders and sighed as she recalled the last few days. She couldn't remember anything from being on that planet, just the horrible feeling of knowing that she was going to die and then the infirmary.

No, that wasn't true.

Sam squeezed her eyes shut as a hazy image flooded her mind. Darkness, a sudden light, and then…sadness. She made a noise in the back of her throat and shook her head, trying to get rid of the sorrowful image. When had that happened?

"Carter?" The voice startled her, but something clicked in her mind.

"This is where I went…you're you…"

"General!" Sam sat up straighter, not sure for a second if he was really there or if she had conjured him from her memory. "Sorry, sir, I didn't see you there." She cleared her throat and lowered her voice, throwing a surreptitious look at her still sleeping roommate.

"Not to worry. You've had a few trying days." Jack strolled across the room and plopped himself down in the chair that had been permanently at her bedside since she had woken up.

"Trying?" Sam smirked slightly and was rewarded with an eyebrow raise in return.

"Don't go getting all high and mighty just because you died."

"Alleged death, sir."

"Yeah, yeah." The corner of his mouth quirked up. It was so good to hear her voice, so good to hear her joke. Especially now that he knew what the world would feel like without her in it.

Sam watched the smile drop abruptly from his face and she knew where his thoughts had turned. Everything was still too fresh, for her too. Time to change the subject. "You snore, y'know."

She would have laughed at the shock on his face if she weren't worried about disturbing Janet. "What?"

"Snoring, sir? Surely you've been told." She, in fact, had known that he snored having had shared a tent with him on several missions over the years. She, Daniel, and Teal'c would always try to top each other's "Jack's snoring woke me up and I thought we were being attacked" stories.

"I do not." Jack fought to keep the grin from spreading across his face. Her face had color in it again and her eyes were clear, so different than when she'd come through the gate like a wild animal. Again, all humor was wiped from his expression.

Sam's smile faded as she watched him wage an inner battle. She'd been hurt before, killed before…but she'd never seen him like this. His emotions were so close to the surface and Sam couldn't help but wonder if time had simply worn them down. After this last close call, maybe the pretenses just weren't worth it anymore.

"Sir?" His eyes rose to meet hers and Sam studied his face, looking for a crack in his exterior. "How did you know?"

Jack considered her for a long moment, wondering how much was wise to tell her; especially given their surroundings. Finally, he looked away from her inquisitive stare and fiddled with her sheets. "After…Edora." Five years and the name still choked him. Long buried feelings of despair tried to surface, but he shoved them down, reminding himself that that was far behind him. "I was…overwhelmed. The base was," He paused, searching for the right word. "Suffocating."

Sam watched him closely, feeling the pain and fear his absence had caused. Janet had asked her once, years ago, what the worst thing to ever happen to her had been and Sam had only needed to think about it for a minute before answering. Edora. Always Edora. Though the Antarctica incident a few months ago could now rival it.

"I needed a place that didn't have any particular meaning to me. Someplace no one would look for me." Jack pulled at a loose thread as he continued. "So I hid in the damn closet."

Despite herself, Sam let out a peal of surprised laughter. She had known where the story was going, but he still managed to surprise her.

"But, I was wrong. How could I possibly have thought the smartest woman in the galaxy wouldn't find me." He lightly nudged her with his elbow.

"To be fair, sir, you told me where you were going."

"So you remember?"

"Evidently, better than you do." At his quirked eyebrow, she smiled softly recalling that incredibly strange day. "You were kind of in a daze and you were certainly more fidgety than usual. Finally, I asked if you were okay and you just said, "I'll be in the closet," before walking down the hallway and entering said closet."

"I did?" He asked incredulously, trying to remember that exchange. "I always just kind of thought you used that brain of yours to figure out where I was. I feel cheated."

Sam chuckled again. "If it helps, I probably would have found you eventually."

"I'm sure you would have." As Jack let the silence between them grow he was suddenly aware of how much neither of them was saying. "But that's how I knew you were you. The closet." He shrugged, trying to ignore the tension that seemed to suddenly fill the room.

"I think we need a better name." Sam tried for levity, but she knew it was cheap. This was a conversation they needed to have some other time…maybe even some other life.

"We need something, Carter." He looked up and Sam felt her heart rise into her throat. His expression was unreadable, but Sam could feel that something was different, something had shifted. "Get some rest." He stood abruptly and Sam frowned up at him. "I'll be back in a bit with bells and whistles on. Those bells and whistles being Daniel and Teal'c, of course."

"Sir…" He turned back to look at her, a small smirk on his face.

"Get some rest, that's an order." Then he winked and was gone.

"Hot damn, he's going to do it." The incredulous voice startled Sam and she twisted to face Janet. The other woman was leaning on her elbow watching Sam with knowing eyes.

Despite herself, Sam smiled. "You think so?"

…..

Six Months Later

"Hey, do you ever wonder about that protein marker?" Daniel's eyes were glassy and his cheeks flushed. The beer gripped loosely in his fingers dangled dangerously over Jack's wood floor. "I mean, do you ever wonder if whatever left it there is still there?"

"Shut up, Daniel." Janet shoved the man next to her and he jerked sideways, barely managing to hang on to his bottle. "That was months ago. Sam's fine. I checked her myself." Janet touched her bottle to her chest proudly.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "It just seems a little convenient, don't you think?"

"Yes." Sam's voice was quiet and neither Daniel nor Janet heard her; they were too busy shoving each other and laughing. She knew they didn't mean any harm and that Daniel's tongue could get very loose when he'd had one too many…but it was uncomfortable to talk about. Because he was right. There was no real way to tell.

Yes, she'd been through the gamut of tests—CAT scan, EKG, EEG, every blood workup imaginable…nothing. So that should mean that everything was fine, whatever had been inside her had come into too close a proximity to whatever had been posing as her dead body and self destructed. The same way the thing inside Janet had.

Teal'c had said that the creature used to trick everyone at the SGC was called a tel'hak, or a ghoul. It was supposed to prevent anyone from looking for the sacrifice and as a secondary purpose, used to prevent the escape of a sacrifice. When Sam had come through the gate, the ghoul's secondary initiative was activated and it tried to stop her, but when that became impossible, poof. It self destructed.

They'd seen it before.

There was no reason to think otherwise. But she couldn't help but wonder…

"Hey." Jack's soft voice was close to her ear as he leaned over. Jerking his chin slightly towards the door to the porch he continued, "Got a sec?"

Sam tried for a smile, but she wasn't sure she succeeded. She silently got up and moved past the now snoring Daniel and Janet. She hadn't seen Teal'c in hours, but she knew he was in the back guest room kel'no'reeming. He seemed to spend less and less time with the group at these gatherings and Sam couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with Ishta. Daniel had Janet and Jack had her in a way…maybe he simply missed having an other half.

Sam's thoughts were interrupted when Jack gently clasped her shoulder. "What's going on?"

Sam had to resist the urge to look around when he touched her. Technically, they were no longer doing anything wrong; the regs that had bound them had been mysteriously disbanded days after her release from the infirmary. But they were taking it slow…glacial even.

Despite the tension that had ebbed into her body, she let out a short laugh. It seemed both their professional partnership and their personal one would begin with a glacier, literally and figuratively respectively.

"What?" Jack grinned as his hand reached up to tug on a short strand of hair.

"Nothing." Sam smiled up at him in the dusty moonlight. All of the doubts and dark thoughts that had overtaken her were slowly ebbing away. Looking up at the man in front of her she couldn't help but marvel at the sheer effect he had on her.

"Now, Carter. I've known you long enough to know that that is just not true." He quirked the side of his mouth and let out a long suffering sigh when she just continued to stare up at him. "C'mere." He gently turned her around so she was facing out towards the backyard, her hands resting on the porch railing. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he laid his chin on her shoulder, standing so his body was flush against hers.

They stood in comfortable silence for a long time, listening to the crickets and the occasional frog. Sam shivered in contentment and felt Jack tighten his hold on her. "This is nice."

"Mmhm." His breath tickled her neck and Sam scrunched her nose as she smiled.

"We should've done this sooner."

"Yes, well, let's not dwell." She could hear the smile in his voice and it made her heart soar.

She wiggled around until she was facing him. "Jack?"

"Carter?"

Sam rolled her eyes. The name thing would take awhile to get used to. Though she had always liked the way he said her last name…

"Do you think I'm me?"

A frown briefly creased his features. "Daniel said something, didn't he?"

"That's not…The point is, do you think I'm me?" Sam reached up and ran her fingers along the lining of his jacket.

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

Jack smirked. "I just do. Gut feeling." He gently tapped her chest with two fingers.

"That's not where your gut is." She tried to remain serious, but a smile threatened to break through her veneer. He tapped against his own chest, his smirk growing. "No, that's not your gut either."

"Well, you know what I mean." He shrugged and pulled her even closer. "You're you, Sam."

Her breath caught in her throat and instead of trying to speak, she just nodded. For a man a few words, he sure knew how to pick them. Reaching up, she threaded her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck. Standing up on her toes, she brushed his cheek with her lips.

"Close." He murmured. "But I don't think I'm the only one who needs help with anatomy." Cupping her face, he brought her lips to his. Sam felt the shudder in her whole body. Warmth and love and every other cliché in book and she just felt filled with them.

And all it took was for her to die.

They were quite literally the definition of glacial.

END

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading!