By Biltong

" Well, that was a complete bust, a complete, dirty miserable bust."

I looked at Daniels dispirited posture and said nothing; after all, he was only being truthful.

We had arrived on PG7 H42 all full of enthusiasm, back from a weeks break and raring to go. The MALP had just come back from surveying the planet and things really did look promising, the ground was nice and flat for miles around the stargate, and far in the distance was a pyramid. But not just any pyramid, but a huge honkin’ pyramid complete with what looked like gun ports built into the sides.

When the infrared readings come back negative, I was alongside Danny begging to go.

Gun ports meant that whoever owned that pyramid had a means at one time or another to defend themselves. How accurate anything would be stuck halfway up a sloping pyramid was debatable, but I was aching to find out. 

If there had been a whole regiment of Jaffa around I still would have begged to go, something I think General Hammond suspected. 

Thank goodness it didn’t come to that.

" Okay SG1 you have a go." Sometimes I really love that man.

…………………

Our problems started the minute we arrived. The reason why the ground was so completely flat was because it was a swamp. Sometimes I really wish that the ancients hadn’t built such ornate steps leading down from their stargates.

If we had a slope, the MALP would have picked this up, easy.

" O’Neill, I will lead."

I wasn’t going to argue, the big Jaffa was the best tracker I had ever seen, besides Bra’tac, who wasn’t with us, thank goodness. His type of smug I could do without for a while.

" Feel free Teal’c."

The man looked uncertain for a moment, and then nodded his understanding.

Despites his best efforts, we all arrived at the pyramid dirty and exhausted, only to encounter the next problem. The big, no, make that huge ornate door was hanging half ajar.

" Daniel?" I asked, although deep down I knew what his answer would be.

" Grave robbers." His face was set into a scowl. Ignoring the strange writing on the door he carefully stepped inside, the rest of us warily following behind.

He was right as usual. 

The place was gutted, whatever treasures it use to house long gone.

Daniel was swearing slowly and vehemently what I believe were quite a few languages, something that would have been entertaining at any other time, if we hadn’t known that he only swore when absolutely pissed off.

Carter was trying to mollify him, to no avail. Our eyes met, both showing the same exhaustion and humour. Them’s the breaks, something Danny still hadn’t got used to.

" C’mon Danny Boy, let’s go home. I was tired, my knee was aching and we were due back at the SGC in less than an hour, a deadline I knew that we were destined to break.

Two torturous hours later a completely exhausted SG1 arrived back at the gate, only to encounter problem number three. 

" Sir, the DHD is covered in some type of slime," Carter said, a look of distaste on her face. 

And so it was.

Carefully I prodded at the viscous liquid. 

"Looks and feels like motor oil."

I rubbed the liquid between my index finger and thumb, feeling how easily my fingers moved together. 

" Hmm, I think that we had better take back a sample. This could be a very important discovery."

Seeing as I was already standing in front of the DHD, I dialed home,carefully avoiding Carter as she carefully scraped a small quantity of the oil into a sample container. My last thought before going through the wormhole with the rest of my team was to wash my hands as soon as I arrived.

……………..

I knew something was wrong the minute I stepped through the gate and back into the SGC. The room was beginning to spin around sickeningly, causing me to stagger and sit down with a thump.

" Sir?" I saw Carter’s blond head lean down close to mine, her eyes concerned, but I was incapable of answering her.

It was weird. It was as if my brain had separated into two halves. One side of me was icily sane, wondering frantically what was happening, the other side was rapidly turning insane. I knew what I was going to do, but was completely unable to stop myself.

" Son, are you alright?"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a concerned General Hammond start down the stairs from the control room, and I tried to warn him, to no avail. 

It was like being taken over by a Gua’old. 

I was helpless to say a word.

Slowly I unclipped the Armorlite, allowing my hands to lovingly run over it. They deserved to die. They all deserved to die, especially those khaki dressed soldiers that hadn’t yet been told to stand down.

My sane half watched in horror as I raised my weapon in one swift motion and aimed it at the first soldier I saw.

" Die."

" Colonel O’Neill. What in tarnation are you doing?"

I wish I could tell him that I was no longer in charge, but it was impossible to do so. Slowly, lovingly my finger tightened. Any minute now…I could taste the anticipation in my mouth. I wanted him dead so badly …

Then as if from a great distance I heard a crack as something collided with my head. As I spun around in a half circle before collapsing in a heap, my sane half cheered at Teal’c and his bloodied staff weapon.

==========================================================

Dr Janet Fraiser.

" Strap him down."

I never thought that I would have to use those words on Colonel O’Neill.

We waited impatiently as my nurses obeyed my order before daring to approach the bed. Despite having been hit quite hard on the head by Teal’c, the Colonel was raving incoherently and straining against the nurses as they struggled to buckle the wide leather straps around his body.

Keeping an eye on the wildly bucking man, I turned to the rest of SG1, asking a question that I’m sure the stunned looking General Hammond wanted answered as well.

" What happened?"

Sam answered for them.

" The DHD was covered in an oil like substance. Colonel O’Neill came over to investigate it and ordered me to scrape some up whilst he dialed us home."

She blindly gave me a small white container, her eyes never leaving the Colonel’s snarling form.

I was immediately all action.

" Steve, get this analyzed post haste." My chief nurse nodded and sped out with it. Hopefully we could get to the bottom of the mystery as quickly as possible, for the Colonel’s sake as well as our own.

I had never seen him lose it so violently before. It frightened me. What if we couldn’t get him back?

My nurses and I cautiously approached the man, only to have him swear and spit at me incoherently, his eyes rolling. 

What the hell was in that oil?

It took a nurse and myself over ten minutes to get a blood sample, so deranged was he. Despite the thick leather straps, he threw himself at us, again and again, as if completely oblivious of the fact that he was tied down. 

Eventually, both of us close to tears, I simply knelt on his arm, pinning it down for a vital moment.

Now we could analyze his blood, and see if a sedative could be given. I prayed to God that one could. Colonel O’Neill couldn’t stand much more of this.

===========================================================

Jack O’Neill

I could not believe this was happening to me.

It was like I was a prisoner in my own body. 

Hell, I was a prisoner. 

I lay curled up in the far corner of my brain, far away from the controls, and watched in horror as my mad side tried to kill us. Typically, the pain centers were in my side of the brain. I was in agony as my body was repeatedly thrown against the straps that held me, tearing ligaments in my back.

I was beginning to feel desperate.

" Please doc, find a solution fast."

I tried so desperately hard to get this message through, but my insane side was beyond caring.

It was then that I saw a distraught Dr Fraiser talking to my favorite in house enemy, the shrink, Dr McKenzie. Oh no, she wouldn’t, would she?

It was as if my insane half knew what they were discussing. The strap holding my left arm broke like a gunshot, allowing my arm to flail around wildly. My suddenly freed arm immediately connected with the bed railing, breaking it with a sickening crack.

To my distress, neither Doctor noticed.

=========================================================

Janet Fraiser.

" You can’t handle this from up here, and deep down you know this."

The man’s voice was cloying, persuasive. " He needs intensive professional care in a room where he can’t hurt himself."

I frowned unhappily, aware of McKenzie’s orderlies standing at the door, one carrying a straight Jacket. He was right, unfortunately. My staff and I weren’t cut out to deal with such a patient.

I gave a huge sigh. If only it wasn’t Colonel O’Neill, probably the most in control person on the entire base…

The analysis on the oil was slow in coming, or maybe I was just impatient. I hadn’t had the blood work back either yet, so that was probably it. 

My heart broke as a drooling and clearly insane Colonel O’Neill started throwing himself against the straps again.

Suddenly a strap snapped with a loud noise, making us all jump.

" Do it."

Feeling like a traitor I stepped back, allowing McKenzie and his men to rapidly stuff Colonel O’Neill into the straightjacket and haul him onto a gurney.

It was for his own good, I kept telling myself, but I knew that the rest of SG1 weren’t going to think so.

===========================================================

Jack O’Neill.

If I could have screamed in agony, I would have. The men, McKenzie’s men weren’t precisely gentle about things. 

Not that I blamed them, after all, I had tried to kill that young SF in the gate room, but still…

Deep inside my brain I screamed as they shoved my broken arm into a sleeve, my other arm in the other sleeve and tied both to my body, completely immobilising me. 

Then they strapped me down to a gurney and took me down to the insane asylum.

Not that it’s actually called that, they prefer to call themselves the

Mental Health Clinic, but nobody’s fooled. Any place with it’s own rubber room is known as an insane asylum, a place to be avoided at all cost. 

Usually once you are bought here you can consider your career finished.

The orderlies, under orders from that toad McKenzie, unbuckled and threw me into that white rubber room, where they just left me. The bastards didn’t even take the straitjacket off. Okay, I was trying to bite them as they unbuckled me from the gurney, but still…

I could have cried when I saw Carter, her face white. If she was there, then the rest of SG1 were as well. I didn’t want them to see me like this.

 I still had some pride left.

I could have screamed in frustration. I could tell them to leave, if I was able to retake control of my lunatic half of my brain. Believe me, I tried. 

It was if there was one of those nifty Gua’old force fields separating my sane half from my insane half. As I had said earlier, the problem was that all the controls like speech and movement were on the wrong side, leaving me helpless to do anything.

I couldn’t prevent myself from crawling to my knees and throwing myself repetitively at the tiny window, shouting deranged obscenities, drooling like a madman. All I could do was try to absorb the pain as my nose broke, and pray to God that Doc Fraiser knew what was wrong with me.

==========================================================

Janet Fraiser

" Rabies?"

I looked at my chief nurse, a thrill of horror crawling up my spine.

" Dear God, Rabies?"

He nodded sympathetically, "Almost as pure a strain as you can get."

Dear God. I sank down into the nearest chair, my legs feeling like limp spaghetti.

Dear God, no wonder he went insane.

" Anything else Steve?" I asked huskily.

" You need more?" His guttural New York accent was comforting, giving me back my strength.

" We need rabies vaccine from…"

" Already being flown in as we speak." Bless him; he didn’t make captain by being stupid.

" What do we do now?" he asked.

Turning, I saw a plainly distraught Sam and Daniel push open the infirmary door.

" We don’t." I said hurriedly. " This is after all Colonel O’Neill we’re talking about. He’s ex black ops, and at this moment is totally crazed. If you go near him he’ll try to kill you. Rather we wait for the medication and go in with Teal’c."

His face was serious. " Hopefully we’re not too late."

" Too late for what?" Sam scowled at my hesitation. " Janet?"

Shit, there was no easy way to tell them this.

" Colonel O’Neill has rabies."

" Rabies?" As usual, it was Daniel who spoke first. " How in the hell can he have rabies, it’s not like he was bitten by a mad dog or anything."

" The liquid." Sam stared at both us as horror dawned. " It was in the liquid coating the DHD wasn’t it?"

When I nodded she groaned. " This is my fault."

This caught both Daniel and I by surprise. " How so, Sam?" I asked.

" I had been wearing gloves. I called him over to have a look. He had been wearing those silly fingerless gloves he loves so much. If I had just ignored the substance…"

" Then it would have been me that had rabies, Sam," Daniel said gently. " I was on my way over to you but Jack beat me to it. " He looked spooked.

"I had no gloves on at all."

I was beginning to get impatient. " People. This has got to stop. The Colonel needs your help, your support, not your self-recriminations. He needs to see that you care, okay?"

Daniel looked morose. " Fat lot of good that will do."

" Your wrong." I said angrily. "One of the more unfortunate side effects of rabies is a completely lucid brain. He knows what is happening to him, he’s just totally powerless to prevent what he’s doing."

" Like a rabid dog," Daniel murmured.

" Precisely like a rabid dog." I stood there for a moment, watching the emotions play over my two good friends faces. " Go to him," I said gently.

"Let him know that we know what the problem is and are working on getting a cure."

I sighed deeply as the door swung behind them, my eyes meeting the eyes of my head nurse, who had made himself invisible on the far side of the infirmary.

" I couldn’t tell them, Steve." I said miserably. " How do you tell your friends that the cure has to be administered within the first twelve hours for it to be successful?"

He was by my side in an instant, leading me to an empty bed. " There may yet be time. This is after all, an alien strain we’re dealing with." 

His eyes were steady and reassuring, making me regret for the umpteenth time that he was happily married. " Sit for a moment, allow me to make you a cup of coffee. Things always seem clearer after a good caffeine dose."

" Trish is lucky to have you."

He laughed. " I know."

===========================================================

Jack O’Neill.

I couldn’t take much more of this. All I wanted to do was sleep, I was that exhausted, but no, the insane half of Jack O’Neill was quite content to throw my body against anything it could see, which was plenty of soft white foamy stuff, not rubber at all. I made a mental note to ask Daniel if it was this soft when McKenzie had him in here when he was infected with those Marchello thingies.

It would be wonderful to sleep on if only I could relax, but noo, not Colonel Insane O’Neill. I was getting sick to death of my insane half screaming, ranting and raving. That was unless I saw the smug face of McKenzie, which was often. Then I joined in whole-heartedly. 

" Jack." The shouted voice sounded like Carter’s voice, but the thick door muffled it, making it hard to tell for sure.

" Jack?" Yep, definitely Carter. " Hang in there, Janet has a cure."

Daniel joined in. " We know that you can understand us." He hesitated, then, " You have Rabies."

I had…what?

Oh for crying out loud, barking mad.

I was barking mad. I would never be able to live this down, assuming that I lived at all of course.

I really was beginning to have my doubts. 

=============================================================

Janet Fraiser.

" Here sir!"

Steve was closest to the door, the first one the exhausted airman saw. The man shoved the packet and collapsed on the nearest chair, uncaring in his exhaustion about procedure when entering a room of superior officers.

Looking at his panting form I realized just how much esteem Colonel O’Neill had on this base.

He was approachable. 

Anybody could have his ear, from the greenest airman to the most grizzled veteran. He always listened to both stories, without judgment which was swift, and always fair.

And he was going to die if we didn’t get this series of injections started immediately.

I snatched the packet out of his hands. " Call Teal’c!"

He was on the phone as I flew out the door, yelling at people to get out of my way. Everyone knew. The SGC grapevine was working just as effectively as usual, making people flatten themselves against the wall as I rushed past, allowing me to reach the open lift in record time, my precious cargo firmly gripped in one hand.

===========================================================

Jack O’Neill

I was spending some quality time growling quietly to myself when I heard a commotion outside the door. This enraged my insane half to such an extent that he screamed and rushed the door. Just as he got there, the door was opened and Teal’c had me in a strong grip.

Well, at least he tried. My training took over. Dammit, after all these years surely the rest of SG1 realized that I worked on instinct? Nobody used their brain when it came to close combat training. If they did, then they were already dead and just didn’t know it yet. My arms were immobilized, no so my feet and insane as I was, I knew what to do. Hooking him behind the knees, I had the giant man fall. Within seconds I had wriggled up his torso and had his head between my thighs. One slight move and… 

I never even heard the gun shot.

=============================================================

Janet Fraiser.

" Doctor McKenzie, what have you done?"

I looked horrified from my limp patient to the neat doctor, smiling slightly as he slowly put the still smoking gun back on the table.

" Would you rather he killed Teal’c?"

Teal’c spoke before I could formulate a reply, his face thunderous.

" Shrink McKenzie, that was unnecessary. I have seen O’Neill do that particular move in the field countless of times, and could have easily avoided its conclusion."

This first injection was far more important than any wound he had, and that included what the good psychiatrist had done to him.

" Teal’c. Please come over here and hold him, this will be extremely painful."

I could see that he wasn’t happy to leave McKenzie, but after a moments hesitation he followed my orders, kneeling next to the profusely bleeding man.

" I have to inject straight into the stomach wall, so please hold him as still as possible."

" I believe O’Neill is incapable of moving in any case, Dr Fraiser," he said dryly.

Teal’c was correct as usual. Colonel O’Neill was completely docile. Whether it was from the lack of blood, or from the shock of the gunshot wound was hard to tell, whatever it was, it made it easy for me to inject the vaccine.

Then, ignoring the righteous-looking Dr McKenzie, I used the phone to summon Steve and a gurney. My patient was not staying down here one minute longer than necessary.

===========================================================

Jack O’Neill.

I felt fuzzy. Scratch that, I felt…really weird.

My body felt heavy and try as I might, I couldn’t open my eyes.

I groaned in frustration, only to stop in astonishment. I groaned, me.

Not the insane part of me, but the cool logical part. If I could have yelled my joy to the world, I would have.

" Colonel?" Carter’s concerned voice came from somewhere above me.

Colonel, can you hear me? Speak to me."

Another voice spoke, Doc Fraiser, sounding resigned.

" Don’t count on it, Sam. He still has a long way to go before he starts making any sense.

She was wrong. The insane side was dead, the force field down. I don’t know how she had done it, but she had. 

Now, if only I could tell them. 

" Carr…" Not much, but she heard.

" Sir?"

I felt both women’s presence next to my bed, and tried again.

" Carter…" It was difficult to use rusty speech centers but I managed.

" Attaboy Colonel!" I could hear cheering from somewhere, making me want to smile.

I slept instead.

===========================================================

Janet Fraiser

It had been a long thirty-six hours.

The Colonel had been returned to the infirmary in a critical condition. Not only had he lost a lot of blood from the gunshot wound to the shoulder, he had also lost blood from a broken nose, and upon removing the straitjacket, we found heavy bleeding from a compound fracture above his left wrist. He was in urgent need of an immediate transfusion, followed by plenty of fluids.

We were incredibly lucky that he didn’t arrest on us before all of this could be accomplished.

Throughout all this, we kept up the sequence of rabies injections I was actually glad that the Colonel was out of it, believe it or not. If he saw the size of the needle we used to inject the vaccine into him twelve times a day we would be peeling him off of the ceiling.

For a man who can face death head on, he sure is squeamish.

Then, we were finished. Now it was up to Colonel O’Neill.

Now we waited. It was now entirely up to him. He would either recover, or die. Rabies was an absolute; you either recovered or you didn’t. There were no gray areas.

For two days he just lay there, comatose, non responsive to any outside stimuli at all, making me fear the worst.

Then during Sam’s shift, he groaned.

" Colonel? She gently took his wrist; careful of the IV lines, and held his hand in hers. 

" Colonel, can you hear me? Speak to me."

She was being too optimistic. The Colonel wasn’t looking good, and I feared the worst.

I told her not to rely on him answering. 

And of course, just to prove me wrong, he did.

I don’t think that I have been that happy before in my life. I just sat down and cried. I do have other patients that come and go, but none had been this gravely injured before, and lived to tell about it.

In my heart I knew that he still had a long way to go, that the people crowding me in, from my nurses to SG1 and the General, would still have to wait days before he would recover enough to be coherent, but recover he would.

Which made being CMO of the most challenging base in the world all the more worthwhile.

===========================================================

Jack O’Neill

I know that I’ve been to hell and back. I can feel it in my bruised body and see it in my friend’s faces.

This time I almost didn’t make it.

Such is life. No one lives forever, although I’m glad that I had my time extended.

It would have been so easy to let go, especially after that bastard McKenzie shot me.

I would have, but something held me back. Carter did. She and Janet Fraisier did. 

They all did. I found myself unwilling to give up anymore. I was alive as long as I could draw breath, assisted or not.

I have been asleep for a long time; I can feel it. But the time had come to open my eyes and face the world again. 

When Doc Fraiser came to check up on me, I opened my eyes sleepily.

" Hey."

" Heuff." Well, I tried.

She poured some water and carefully held the glass to my lips. 

" Can you swallow?" she asked quietly.

It was painful, but I managed a few gulps.

Pushing away the inviting water, I stared up at her. " Did…did anybody get…the license number?"

It was worth all my discomfort just to hear her laugh. 

" Are you going to stay alive now?" Her voice still carried a hint of laughter.

" Got to," I said seriously. "Somebody has to court martial that bastard McKenzie for shooting a superior officer."

She sat down on the edge of my bed. 

" How much did you comprehend?" she asked quietly, looking spooked.

I stared up at her, thinking hard. " Most of it, I guess."

She reached forwards to push my fringe away from my forehead like she always did when she thought I was in need of comfort, but I grasped her wrist instead.

" That young SF Soldier I tried to kill, I’d like to apologize."

She smiled and easily pulled her wrist free from my weak grip as she stood.

" You will, when you feel better, which is not today. I felt her fiddling with my IV line and sighed deeply as I felt the warmth suffuse my veins.

" Is the nightmare finished?"

She laughed and ruffled my hair.

" It’s finished, I promise."

*Einde*

BETA Tested by CIGIK

*****Reader's RAVES*****

Biltong,
           Was scouring the new stories on helio and come across a load of yours - and I'm so glad I did! I love 'Rabies' (it has gone in my favourites folder), and the others, 'Ignorant travellars' 'Africa' and some shorter ones that I forget the names of. They were really well written and I really enjoyed them, superb hurt/comfort and really great characterisation. I'm a writer too - a member of the Jack Fic egroup and a self confessed Jack-Whumper, so I really loved your fics and I hope there's more to come!
Keep writing and thanks for sharing,
Camilla :)
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