Title: Crossing the Divide 1/2

Author: Mary Kleinsmith (BUC252@aol.com)

Spoilers: Broca Divide

Rating: PG13 - Adult situations, S/J romance - sort of

Summary: Dr. Fraiser, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c try to keep Colonel O'Neill

and Captain Carter from killing themselves while under the influence of the

virus.

Disclaimer: Nobody here belongs to me, and I'm just borrowing them. Forgive

me, and please don't sue.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Kelly (SierraGolfOne) for the very speedy beta.

Author's Notes: This is my very first Stargate SG1 story, coming as I have

from a background in X-Files. Feedback would be greatly appreciated - I'd

love to know if I'm on the right track!

Title: Crossing the Divide

Author: Mary Kleinsmith (BUC252@aol.com)

The shrieking resounded through the halls of the SGC, sounding like nothing

Daniel or Teal'c had ever heard before in their lives. There was little

doubt from where it was coming, so they followed the sound until coming to a

stop outside a room Dr. Fraiser had commandeered for the expanded quarantine

unit. She approached from the other end of the hallway.

"Tell me that isn't just Jack in there," Daniel entreated, nodding to the

room where the shrieking continued.

"I'm afraid so, Dr. Jackson. He's been at it so long that I've had to

increase the rotation on the orderlies and guards. It's just too stressful."

"Dr. Fraiser," Teal'c spoke, his voice level and respectful, as if you'd see

a mountain full of military personnel going insane every day. "Do you not

have medication you can give him to calm him?"

"A sedative?" He nodded. "I've tried everything I know of. This disease or

whatever it is, seems to build up their resistance to drugs. I give him a

shot, he's quiet for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then it starts all over

again. I'm afraid I'll overdosing him."

"No, we wouldn't want that," Jackson said distractedly.

"The number of affected individuals is approaching fifty percent of

Cheyenne's personnel, including NORAD. We're in lockdown on my orders. The

Guards will refuse exit to anybody trying to leave, just in case this is

communicable."

"Do you think it is?" Daniel asked, his head snapping up suddenly.

"It definitely appears so. It's already spread beyond just those who visited

the planet, and some of those weren't in or near the gate room when the team

returned. The only possibility is that it can pass from person to person."

"Well, that certainly was the fact with Jack and Sam. How is she, by the

way?"

"We've got the women isolated in a different section of the base," Janet

informed him, leading them from Jack's room. They walked silently for a

while, turning a corner, and then another, until the grunts and growls they

heard were higher in pitch. "She's in about the same condition as the rest

of the victims."

Peering into the window, it was hard to imagine that this wild-eyed creature

was Dr. Samantha Carter, Air Force Captain and theoretical astrophysicist.

Her brow was more pronounced, her gait as she paced the interior of her cell

hunched, nearly Neanderthal-like. Her eyes, searching for an escape, caught

them, and she rushed the door, pressing her face against the window bars with

a series of grunts.

The three of them stood, their glances moving from the door to their feet,

none of them willing to look at each other. Dr. Fraiser forced herself to

observe the distorted face of the Captain. But all heads shot up when the

wall speaker nearby came to life.

"Dr. Fraiser to Colonel O'Neill's room, stat!" The voice rang from the hall

speakers, spurring them to instant action.

"Now what?" Janet muttered as they dashed through the halls to Jack's cell.

They could hear the pounding from a hundred yards out, and the impact didn't

sound particularly inhuman, like a bed or a chair. In fact, it sounded very,

very human.

Opening the tiny window in the cell door, the first thing that struck them

was the blood. On the bars of the window, its edges, and, once they peered

in, many of the surfaces inside the cell.

"He's going to do permanent damage to himself," Janet said, aggravated. She

turned to a nearby member of her medical team. "Do you have any sedative

with you?"

"Yes, but doctor, it's too soon," the woman said, more a question of concern

than any kind of questioning of Fraiser's medical abilities.

"It can't be helped. He'll kill himself." She turned to O'Neill's

teammates. "You two seem to be immune. Are you up to helping me restrain

him?" she asked. Teal'c and Daniel both nodded with determination. The

woman handed over the injection, to be replaced by another man, rushing up to

her, panting.

"Doctor, it's Captain Carter."

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

"It's like she's gone nuts. She was out of control before, but nothing

compared to now. She's banging around in there like she's out to kill

herself, and her screaming is disturbing the entire series of cells."

"Are any of the other patients acting out to this extreme?" She addressed

the entire hallway.

"Negative, Doctor. It's just the Colonel and the Captain."

"Perhaps the others will begin to show the same symptoms at a later date.

Let's get these two sedated, then we can observe for awhile."

The orderly returned, handing Janet a filled hypodermic. "You ready?" she

asked Daniel and Teal'c.

"Yes, Dr. Fraiser," Teal'c responded seriously.

"Why don't you stay out here until we have him under control?" Daniel

suggested. "That way, nothing will happen to you or the needle. I'd hate to

see it broken, or stuck into the wrong person," Daniel smiled uneasily.

"Thanks for your concern," Dr. Fraiser answered with a wry smile.

"I didn't mean . . ."

"I know, I know. Just get in there, okay? I need to get to Captain Carter."

They slipped between the door and the frame, keeping it open a minimum.

Teal'c went first, and if the view they'd gotten through the tiny window had

been anything, it was a minor preview of what was going on inside. How could

this wild creature possibly be their team commander?

With the aid of Teal'c enhanced strength, they were able to subdue the

colonel long enough for Janet to jab the needle into his shoulder, closer to

his neck than was ideal, but she'd take what she could get. Jackson and

Teal'c laid O'Neill's unconscious body on the bunk.

"Let's get to Sam," Daniel suggested as they left, none of them noticing the

twitch in the patient's face when they'd mention the captain's name.

The trio marched through the halls to Sam's chamber, like soldiers going to

war. In a way, they were just that, since they were fighting for their

coworkers' lives. Drawing up sharply in front of the door, Dr. Fraiser

demanded the medic's attention.

"What's the problem?" she asked, noting that the inside of the room was

quiet.

"I can't explain it, Doctor. When I called you, she was shrieking and

banging around in there like she didn't care if she lived or died. A few

minutes ago, no more than five, she shouted something incoherent, grabbed her

shoulder, and she's been quiet ever since. What could it mean?" He asked.

"I don't know, but Captain Carter is due for a sedative anyway. We should

probably give it to her while she's still quiet. This can't last."

No sooner were they through the door than the blonde woman launched herself

at the trio, screaming and scratching at them. Formerly well-manicured,

reasonably short nails, now ragged and torn, could do damage on flesh,

leaving Daniel with a scratch down his forearm and Teal'c with one on his

bicep before they finally restrained her.

"Hold her!" Janet said again, coming to the men's rescue with the

ever-present sedative. It would be a miracle if they got through this crisis

before running out of the precious substance.

As they laid Carter on the bunk as they had Jack, Daniel tried not to notice

her over-grown brow. It was frightening seeing his friend looking like the

savage she'd become. In trying to distract himself from her forehead, he

took in her widely-dilated blue eyes and redder-than-normal lips. He wasn't

a scientist for nothing; he recognized the signs, remembering papers he'd

read associating the origins of eye makeup and lipstick in ancient Egypt.

The pieces clicked into place.

"Doctor, we need to talk - out of here," he specified.

They made their way out of the hallway, and Janet drew up beside him in the

hall. "Why do I get the feeling you have an idea, Dr. Jackson?" she asked.

"Because I do," he admitted. "But we can't talk about it here. Your

office?"

"Okay." They began to walk away, when Daniel noticed an absence by his side.

"Aren't you coming, Teal'c?" he asked the figure still standing guard on

Samantha Carter's door.

"I was not sure that my presence was required or welcome, Daniel Jackson," he

stated in his typical succinct manner.

"Of course you're welcome. This involves Jack and Sam - they're your

friends, too."

"Thank you," he said in his deep baritone, the look communicating that he was

trying to make certain he'd used the right Tau'ri euphemism.

"That's the right one, don't worry," Janet said, correctly interpreting the

look. Teal'c fell into step beside them. They tried to ignore the noises

coming from the chambers as they walked by. Despite everything, they didn't

seem as loud as either Sam or Jack had been.

Finally, they closed the door to Janet's office behind them. "What's this

about, Dr. Jackson," she asked. "I have patients to see."

"I think I've got this figured out!" Daniel said excitedly.

"Do you believe you know of a way to cure this disease, Daniel Jackson?"

Teal'c asked with all the confidence of somebody who really didn't know what

they were dealing with.

"If you do," Dr. Fraiser said, " don't hesitate to speak out. I'm certainly

out of ideas."

"No, no, no, no, no," Jackson said, trying to clear up the misunderstanding.

"I don't have any idea how to cure this. But I think I have an idea why Jack

and Sam seem affected so much worse than the others."

"Well, Dr. Jackson," Fraiser said, her teeth gritting. "Don't keep us in

suspense?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "I got the idea when we were helping Sam just now.

We've seen more and more of the SGC fall to this disease, and all of them

have become exceedingly violent as a result of this . . . infection. Jack

and Sam were different, though. Before the violence, there was . . ."

"There was what?"

"Her attempt to seduce him."

"Oh, my God," Janet said, stunned, realizing at least partly where he was

going with this. "I should have noticed. . . ."

"Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. She was showing obvious signs of arousal

just now - reddened lips and dilated eyes. And did you notice how she calmed

when Jack was sedated?" He waited for both Janet and Teal'c to nod.

"Somehow, there's some kind of connection. They feel each other over the

distance. And I think they're acting as badly as they are because . . ."

"Because what?"

"Because they're separated. They want to be with each other. They'll do

anything, no matter how harmful to themselves, just to get to . . . to their

mate. It's an animal instinct among species who are known to mate for life."

"And you feel Captain Carter and Colonel O'Neill are mated, Daniel Jackson?"

Teal'c asked

"I think it's pretty likely. And they're not exactly appreciative of being

kept apart."

"That doesn't help us too much," Dr. Fraiser said exasperatedly. "They're

going to kill themselves banging around in their cells, but the alternative

is putting them together."

"Why would that be a bad thing, Dr. Fraiser?" Teal'c asked.

"Are you nuts, Teal'c?" Daniel exclaimed, looking at his friend and teammate

incredulously. "If we were to put them together . . ."

"They would mate, would they not? Instead of hurting themselves."

"Yes, but . . ."

"Daniel Jackson, you have already observed that they are 'mated' in their

minds. So why can they not be mated in their bodies as well."

Said just so simply, their position was hard to define, and never had Teal'c

seemed quite so alien. Daniel stammered, looking to Dr. Fraiser for help and

meeting a gaze that said that this particular explanation was all his.

"Look, we all want to be happy in our lives. And if Sam and Jack were to end

up spending their lives together, nobody would be happier than I would. But

right now, they're not in their right minds - not in full control of their

faculties. They wouldn't be acting out of a freedom of choice, and this is

something that, once done, can't be taken back. We can't let them make this

decision with anything but clear heads. Do you understand?"

Finally, softly, Janet stepped in. "He's right, Teal'c," she added. "What

they're feeling now isn't love. It's just animal attraction."

"How can you know that, Dr. Fraiser?"

"Well, they . . . I mean you . . . they can't . . . their minds are not

capable of higher reasoning at the moment. They'd need to be in their right

minds to make a conscious decision to break regulations."

Teal'c nodded, but they still weren't sure he fully understood.

"Which brings us right back to where we were. What do we do?" Daniel

questioned

"Maybe we don't have to put them in the cell together," Fraiser suggested.

"Maybe just being in proximity would work. To calm them."

"It can't hurt to try. How do we do it?"

Janet seemed to think for a bit, her face finally lighting up. "I've got it!

Level six in NORAD has several old-fashioned bar-type prison cells. I

considered them for the quarantine problems, but they weren't able to be used

because one cell is not isolated for the next. If we put them in adjoining

ones, it might do it."

"Do you really want to take them so close to the surface? If they were to

get free . . ."

"Then we just have to make sure that they don't."

"Will the sedative you just gave them last long enough to move them, Dr.

Fraiser?" Teal'c asked. "I have confidence that we can move them more safely

in that state."

"So far, it's been impossible to predict how long each shot lasts. It's

varied significantly since the onset of the disease. I don't want this move

to endanger them, and would suggest waiting until the next cycle to be

absolutely sure they're out when we move them."

"That makes sense. And it gives us some time to check out their new home."

Daniel seemed thoughtful for a moment. "Think we should run all this past

the General?"

"I'd very much like to, but he came down with the last group of victims. I'm

not even sure who the ranking officer is who's still sane."

"I guess that makes it up to us, Doctor."

"Yes, I guess it does."

**

An hour later, Jack required another shot of sedative - if this kept up, she

was going to have to put him on an IV, Janet thought to herself. Sam was

violent and uncontrollable thirty minutes after that. It seemed that her

shots were becoming almost as frequent as Colonel O'Neill's, but Fraiser was

grateful. She thumbed the switch on the radio they had commandeered from the

supply room, knowing that two of its mates were in Daniel and Teal'c hands.

"Dr. Jackson, Mr. Teal'c, this is Dr. Fraiser. We are a go. Please report

to isolation room 19."

Only a few minutes had passed when the two men arrived together. "The cells

are ready," Daniel reported. "We've padded everything we could and taken out

anything that wasn't permanently fastened down."

"That's probably for the best. I felt we should start with the Colonel and

then take Sam when he's in place. She was more recently sedated, as well as

not being quite as strong or violent."

"Sounds like we're ready."

"Yes, I believe we can now proceed," Teal'c echoed in his own unique way.