Title: Bringing Out the Animal
Author: cgb (luberluber@yahoo.com.au)
Web: http://appelsini.tripod.com/Christine
Category: f/f slash (mild), Sam/ Janet, AU
Spoilers: The Broca Divide
Rating: PG - 13
Archive: Sure
Disclaimer: Bongo, bongo, bongo I don't want to leave
the Congo...
Summary: "She's more comfortable when she's in control
than when she's not."
So who else wanted to see Janet do the Cavegirl thing
in "The Broca Divide", huh?
This one's for Suz, 'cos she encouraged me. I don't
usually need encouragement but I enjoy it.
*
It's her first real emergency in the Cheyenne Mountain
complex, and as far as emergencies go it lacks the
immediacy she's familiar with. Air Force Doctors in
peacetime see more accidents than epidemics, so she's
surprised at the relative calm of the infirmary as the
initial outbreaks are brought in.
It doesn't last of course. The disease escalates on a
parabolic curve, moving from chronic to critical fast.
Suddenly she's firing demands to all within earshot.
She's ordering more sedative from the man in the
square framed glasses and she's not even sure she's
seen him before. Not that's it's relevant.
She's amazed at the way she can open her mouth and
speculate on the complexities of a disease she can't
understand, while everyone looks at her with barely
concealed panic. Even the General can't help raising
his voice when he's issuing orders.
She's the focal point in the emergency, and it should
be frightening but she's more comfortable when she's
in control than when she's not. That's why she's here.
The lab is the centre of the storm. All available
technicians are scanning read outs from P3X797, hoping
for something SG1 might missed.
Janet leans over the shoulder of a tech in front of a
computer screen, flicking through MRI scans.
"There's no sign of trauma," the tech says, but they
can both see that. "It's just preferencing one area of
the brain."
Janet 'hmms'. "Go over the blood work ups again. Try...
try everything." She briefly places a hand on the
shoulder of the tech and moves on.
She encounters Colonel O'Neill at the entrance to the
infirmary. He's escorting a snarling woman, pinning
her arms behind her back. It doesn't seem to stop her
from lashing out with her teeth.
"Dr Frasier, this is Captain Carter," O'Neill says.
"Captain, say 'hello' to the new Doctor."
She's heard about the famed Captain, but this isn't
how she pictured their first meeting. She had wanted
to say something along the lines of "you're an
inspiration" but she waived the idea in favour of a
sedative to the arm.
The Captain calms down, her breathing slowing to
small huffs.
"And you would be the alpha male?" she says to
O'Neill, smirking.
O'Neill rolls his eyes and drags the Captain to a bed.
"She'll need restraining," he grunts.
When he's gone she sits by the Captain's bed and
watches her for a while. In a previous position at the
Pentagon she advised the Biological Warfare Department
on infection containment and defence. Anything that
spreads this fast is a dangerous weapon. Class A. At
the Pentagon they would have sweated profusely if this
sort of thing appeared in a populated area.
She runs a hand along Captain Carter's forehead, wipes
the hairs out of her eyes. The sedative has knocked
her out for the time being.
She crosses her arms and shakes her head. She needs a
sample.
The Colonel goes down next, then the General, then
three quarters of the SGC are locked up or in the
infirmary. Teal'C's Goa'uld provides him with
protection from almost everything, but it doesn't
explain why she and Daniel Jackson and a handful of
other assorted personnel are unaffected.
She sends Teal'C and Daniel back to P3X797 while she
takes samples from the unaffected. Two techs assist
and one begins shift impatiently next to her. She
glances at him quickly, while the warning sirens begin
to sound in her head.
And then he makes a leap for her, grabbing her by the
shoulders and pushing her against the wall. She
crashes her knee into his groin and he doubles over,
howling in pain. The other tech gets him with a
sedative in his thigh and he falls to the ground.
"Too bad Neanderthal girl didn't have those moves,"
she says.
*
Teal'C returns with the sample but without Daniel. She
would be concerned if only she had time. As it is, she
heads straight for the lab, holding the sample to the
light as she goes.
And as she compares the cells under a microscope in
comparison to her own, she realises that it's all so
simple. A sample from all the unaffected members of
the SGC would probably have told her the same thing.
Histamines. She bites her lip and considers this for a
moment. She had antihistamines approximately seven
hours ago. The histamine level is her blood is no
doubt rising once more, and if it rose above...
She tries to recall the number she had delineated as
the determining point. It won't come.
She's sweating. She lifts a hand up to her forehead
and finds it damp. How did she get so hot? It's all
the excitement. She's must be pulsing with adrenalin.
She looks at the microscope on the lab bench. It looks
unfamiliar. Alien. What was she doing?
She's thirsty. She needs a glass of water.
She takes off her lab coat, looking around for someone
to place it and then letting it fall to the floor.
There's a water cooler in the hallway and she drinks
letting the water splash up on to her face. It feels
good. She runs wet hands through her hair, down her
neck. She tugs at her necktie, fingering it, trying to
loosen it.
She finally struggles free of the constricting necktie
and throws it to the floor. She shakes herself all
over. She feels better. She feels...
Hungry. Ravenous. She needs to eat. And there's food...
there's food somewhere. She knows there's food
somewhere...
She wanders the halls. They're mostly empty and she
wanders alone. She looks in rooms, looking for
something... something familiar.
This room. She remembers this room.
Inside there are two figures, a man and a woman,
bending over a screen. They are talking in low voices.
She listens for a while. It's nothing. Nothing she
wants.
She sees Captain Carter strapped down. She is awake.
She struggles against her bonds, he eyes going wide
and her teeth gnashing together. And then she goes
slack, exhausted.
It's not fair, Janet thinks. Not fair to keep her tied
up like that. Not fair to hold her down.
She approaches Captain Carter's side.
"Shhhh..." she says.
Carter snarls. They lock eyes.
"Shhhh..." Janet says again, and Carter goes quiet,
seeming to understand.
Janet releases the bonds.
Captain Carter is untrusting for a moment. She eyes
Janet, warily.
Janet holds out her hand. Carter looks at it, sniffing
and growling, and then tentatively reaches out,
grasping the hand, holding it up against her face and
brushing the fingers against her skin.
*Yes, my friend. We are the same, you and I. We
understand each other...*
Captain Carter raises herself off the bed, still
holding Janet's hand. Janet grasps her tighter and
gives her a gentle tug.
*Let's go.*
Suddenly they are moving, racing for the door.
"Hey!" someone calls after them, but they are gone,
into the halls, into the corridors, and away from the
people who would tie them up and keep them apart.
They run. Running into closed doors, empty rooms. And
then they're sniffing the air. Janet smells it first.
She creeps forward and looks through a doorway.
There's food in that room. Food and not a white coated
figure in sight.
They run inside. Captain Carter leaps the dispensary
and investigates the kitchen. Janet scrambles after
her.
There's a man in the kitchen. His eyes go wide at the
sight of them.
"Dr Frasier!" He says. Captain Carter throws him
aside. He hits the ground hard. A smaller man burst
through the door at the back of the kitchen.
"What the...!" Sam snarls and he turns around and flees.
They raid the stores. They find ham, cheese, bread.
They devour the ham and sniff the cheese. Janet finds
a jar of pickles and feeds one to the Captain. The
Captain screws up her face in disgust. They throw the
pickles on the floor.
Janet scratches her neck. Her collar is irritating her
neck. She wrenches herself free of her uniform, and it
tears in her haste to be rid of it. It lies in a pool
of vinegared pickles.
When they are satiated they play with each other's
hair, picking at bits of food and investigating each
other, until Carter sniffs the air again and becomes
agitated, crawling around the floor and looking into
hard to see places. Something is coming.
And then they are there in a blur of white coats,
white eyes, and hands held out. "Come on Dr Frasier,
we don't want to hurt you..."
Carter shrinks back against her. Janet clings to
Captain Carter's side, trying to make herself smaller,
trying to make them both smaller, as if they could
disappear and not be seen.
Sam growls. It's low and long. Janet growls back.
*We can take them...*
They pounce forward on an unspoken signal. Sam first,
Janet following close. She tears at the white coat of
the first one, feeling cloth ripping under her
fingers. She bites at exposed flesh, her teeth sinking
in, breaking the flesh. She tastes blood...
And then she feels the pain in her shoulder, the floor
coming toward her and the world going black.
*
She feels the hardness of the floor against her face.
Her eyelids are heavy as she opens them slowly. She
tries to remember, tries to think.
*Can't move, can't...*
She moves her neck back and sees Captain Carter on the
floor beside her. They were... they were together. They
were the same.
Things are different now. Something is different.
She forces herself to move, shifting herself along the
floor until she is next to Captain Carter. She throws
an arm over her shoulder, and grasps her, pulling her
closer so that her head is against Janet's chest.
*Poor Captain.* She strokes Sam's hair. *Poor, poor
Captain.*
She hears someone say, "She's awake!" and two figures
come through the door. "I gave her a full shot - she
should be lucid by now."
"Dr Frasier?" one of them says. It's a man, someone
familiar, she should know the name...
"Dr Frasier, can you hear me?"
She tries to speak. She wants to say, 'yes' but her
mouth won't form the word. She nods instead.
"Dr Frasier, what happened to the blood sample that
Teal'C gave you? Do you remember?"
She closes her eyes. She tries to think through the
fog, through the heavy blackness in her head. She had
something important to say, something she needed to
tell them.
"Teal'C said he could go back through the gate - but
they weren't exactly welcoming last time..." the other
figure says.
"I don't know what else to do - if we all go down, I
don't know what will happen."
"Hisss..."
They turn toward her again. "What is it, Dr Frasier?"
"Hisss-da- meein..."
"What is she saying?"
She closes her eyes. She so tired, so weak.
"Hiiiisss-da-mnn..."
"Hizzdammen?"
She pulls the Captain closer and rests her cheek in
her hair. It feels good like this. The Captain murmurs
contentedly in her sleep.
*Oh, go figure it out yourself...*
Fin.