Love Shakes My Heart 7

Closer

by K. Sylinia

URL: http://area52hkh.net/ask/ksylinia/lovesh07.php
Summary: The tables are being turned, but instead of changing Sam's mind, it might put Janet in more danger than she bargained for.
Info: I can only apologize for how long this chapter was in the making. Feedback is still greatly appreciated, and I hope you still look forward to the forthcoming final chapter!

Janet recognized the room, recognized the people moving about and in and out of it, data on their clipboards, worried expressions on their faces. She recognized the little girl on a gurney, eyes small and afraid, sitting in the middle of the bustling movement. The unnatural lighting and equipment cast a sickly hue on the already pale girl, and made the passing staff appear even more otherworldly. Janet knew, though, that this was earth, that it was the SGC. It was the night that they had almost lost her, the day that Sam had agreed to take Cassandra down into the lower levels, to die.

Standing in the observation deck, watching the people scurrying about, Janet finally noticed herself among the ant-like movement of people. Her past self was giving frantic orders, even as she tried to work on the problem herself, still trying to keep her future daughter calm at the same time. Pieces of her dark brown hair were coming out of her usually neat bun, and her eyes looked tired, her expression worn and nearing desperation. It had not been one of her better days.

The scene played on for another minute or so before present-day Janet began to grow tense. Sam, past or otherwise, was still nowhere to be found. If memory served her, she was sure that the major should have come in shortly after that last conversation she'd had with a subordinate.

Janet continued to wait, but was beginning to think she was wasting her time. Maybe she had been wrong; maybe she could be in Sam's memories independent of her, and Sam was off destroying other memories while she stood there, staring down at something she could do nothing to alter. She held her breath, terrified that she had failed before she'd really been given the change to try.

Then she saw her.

Janet watched from above as the blonde head emerged, pushing through the big, heavy doors. The only reaction to the major's entering was a few glances, but everyone immediately returned to their work once they saw who it was. Janet swallowed nervously as she watched Sam's reaction.

Carter paused and regarded the eyes upon her suspiciously, then took a nervous breath, but continued into the room. She moved slowly, cautiously, looking around her as though expecting an attack at any moment. Her black combat boots moved awkwardly but stealthily, and Sam looked like a cat poised to pounce at the slightest off motion. The movement around her continued, though, exactly has it had when the time, place, moment had been real. Sam continued, though, to be on her guard.

When she spotted the past Janet, she was hunched over a table full of pages upon pages of readouts and information. Sam's pupils dilated, perhaps with anger, but then Janet opened her mouth, rattling off information so specific and correct that it could only be the memory. The real Janet herself had to admit that she didn't remember half of the things she had said during that conversation; only Sam would remember such odd details.

Sam seemed to realize this too, and when she had decided that it wasn't really Janet, that it was just the memory, she relaxed, though only slightly. All of the players were moving correctly through the game, but Sam didn't understand why she was playing. She looked confused, pale eyes scanning the room, knowing that she was missing something. She knew that Janet had to be there somewhere. And if she wasn't in the immediate room...

For a moment, she stared into nothing, her eyes distant. She thought quickly, instinctually.

Then her eyes suddenly flicked up, pinning Janet with her piercing stare. She almost snarled, her nostrils flaring in anger. Sam lifted her hand, and Janet flinched; she was going to erase this one? If even this could not stop her—her hand dropped. Janet searched the immediate area for something that had caused Sam to stop. By the look on the Major's face, she hadn't exactly had a change of heart. Sam's eyes were wide and as confusion-ridden as Janet's were. What had stopped her?

"Doctor Fraiser."

Janet spun on her heels, involuntarily responding, even though she knew it was only a memory. Teal'c was standing before her, arms folded behind his back.

Janet didn't know what to make of him. He was just standing there, letting his arms fall unnaturally to his sides, looking as though he wasn't very glad to be there. Janet hadn't seen him look especially happy to be anywhere, but at the moment he looked particularly uncomfortable. His standard issue pants were pulled slightly above his waist, his pale shirt tucked in, starchy and smooth. The bland colors seemed to fade into the background of grey in the room, and his dark skin stood out, alien to his clothes and the landscape. Janet blinked, trying to focus on his face. There was something very odd about all of it. She didn't remember him looking like this, here. She didn't remember this part of that day. In fact she...she was still...according to Sam's memory...

She looked back down to the observation room and saw herself, still talking at the unresponsive Major. Sam was staring up at her, equally at a loss. Why were they still there? Why hadn't Sam moved on to the next memory? She didn't look as though she wanted to be there... A thought occurred to Janet, and her heart leapt; something was stopping Sam from erasing this memory! But...what? And why?

"Teal'c!"

Janet excitedly turned to him, and he regarded her with suspicion evident in a raised eyebrow.

"Teal'c, it's really you," she said, relieved and excited. "I mean, not the memory you, but you you."

Janet had no idea what she was saying, really, but it didn't really matter. Teal'c did not indicate that he understood, but she knew he knew what she was saying. Whatever he was doing had stopped Sam's progress, and Janet was glad for it. She had to jump on the second chance she had unexpectedly been given.

"Teal'c, how could you let her do this?"

It was the first that came to her mind, the first thing out of her mouth, and the last question in the world that would help the situation, but she needed to understand that before she could move on.

The tall ex-jaffa looked down on her and tilted his head, confused. Janet had to resist the urge to stand on tiptoe, to challenge the superiority she felt in the air.

"I do not understand," Teal'c said, honestly, though there was a harshness to his voice that he could not deny being there of his own volition. "I am only doing as Samantha Carter wishes," he explained, "and I do not recall her permitting you entrance to her memories."

His eyes were remarkably cold as he spoke, darker than Janet had ever remembered seeing them before. Though Teal'c had always been intimidating, there had been a warmth in his eyes, which Janet hadn't realized she had grown accustomed to it, which had allowed her to become comfortable with the very large, very imposing ex-jaffa. Without that warmth, he was just a big, brawny man, staring down at a tiny, tiny woman.

She blinked, but did not look away from his perceptive gaze. He was searching her, even now, trying to understand why Janet had betrayed his teammate and friend.

Loyal to a fault, thought Janet, her bitterness softened by Teal'c's ironically child-like innocence. He really believed that this was the best option Sam had. Even with all of the pain she was pushing down to do so, Janet tried to understand. Teal'c was just doing what Sam wanted. He was doing what he thought was right: helping his friend, the only way he knew how. But Janet knew that Teal'c didn't know the whole truth.

"You're right, she didn't invite me, and she would probably stop me if she could. She's done a pretty good job so far," she admitted, a hint of sadness in her voice. Teal'c's interest was piqued, but he tried to appear neutral. He was very good at it, Janet thought, but if she was good at anything, it was reading people. She had a chance.

"I came here to stop her. I came here to tell her the truth."

That's it, she thought. Don't tell him everything at once. Let him ask for the truth.

Teal'c took a deep breath, his broad chest widening. He seemed dubious.

"And this truth," he said, his brow practically hitting his non-existent hairline, "What would it mean to Major Carter? I believe she has already made her decision. I am merely doing what I can to aid her in her choice."

She could have anticipated that response, but the coldness she could hear in his words, she would never have known to prepare for. Janet cringed; what terrible things he must have thought about her to really think that Sam was better off forgetting everything about her, everything that had ever happened between them.

"Teal'c, you may not believe me," she said, trying to control how insulted and angry she felt, "and she may not believe me," she added, gesturing down through the glass, "but I know myself." She pointedly pressed her fingers straight into her chest, hard. "I know what I feel. I love her, and I will do anything to stop this."

"If you love her, you will let her go."

Janet was taken aback.

"What do you mean?"

Teal'c approached her then, and for the first time, Janet was afraid of him. He stood over her, imposingly, just a foot or so away. The pale green shirt was suddenly a monstrous color, and Teal'c himself seemed the stubborn ogre, unyielding, and now, angered.

"She has suffered much because of you," he said, sounding disgusted. His face was mere inches from hers. As he spoke, Janet found it very hard to keep the tears at bay. "I will not allow her to be hurt anymore."

Janet backed up into the glass, wanting to disappear through it.

She turned away from him, pressing her face to the glass, and her pleading eyes found Sam's angry ones. Her eyes tried to communicate what Sam would not allow her to say, but Sam just looked away, unable to allow herself to even consider the emotions behind those eyes.

"How dare she," Sam said aloud, turning away sharply from those sad brown eyes. "She comes into my memories..." Sam paused for a moment, hands gripping the hard sides of a small table. She fumed, indignant.

In the observation deck, Janet tried desperately to reason with Teal'c.

"Teal'c, you don't understand. You don't know everything that's going on here."

Janet had turned back from Sam, her drive renewed. Something she had seen in Sam's eyes, it told her that all was not lost. She knew that the only thing stopping her now was Teal'c.

Teal'c backed away, and Janet immediately capitalized on the space he'd given to press her case.

"Teal'c, nothing I say to you is going to change your mind, but if you let me talk to her..."

"No," he said, seeming definite. Janet tried again, undaunted.

"Teal'c, please. Sam is doing this because she thinks I don't love her. But I do, Teal'c. I love her more than anything, more than my life. I almost did lose my life for her, and I will do anything, anything to save her now."

Teal'c turned away from her slightly, but Janet did not take this as a bad sign. He only did that when he was thinking seriously about something, and Janet could only hope that was the case now.

Regardless of what Teal'c was thinking, Janet had realized fairly quickly that he was obviously in control of what was going on with Sam. Although Sam decided which memories, Teal'c had to make it possible for her to erase them. Teal'c's presence in this memory was probably stopping Sam's progress, but it was also keeping her in this memory. If Teal'c was keeping Sam from erasing not only this, but other memories, Janet had to believe that he obviously felt something Janet was saying was important. She had her foot in the door, now all she had to do was open it far enough to step inside.

"Teal'c... you know me, well enough... to know that I never wanted to hurt Sam..."

She approached him slowly, choosing her words carefully. Her lab coat swayed around her legs, the cool air touching her calves softly. Janet stopped short a meter of Teal'c and watched him. His breathing had changed, sped up a bit, and his eyes searched the floor with uncertainty.

"What I said... what I did was wrong...but I'm here to fix it."

Teal'c's mind was conflicted. On the one hand, he had seen the pain Major Carter had gone through. He knew that Doctor Fraiser was the cause of this pain. He had offered assistance, which had been eagerly accepted. This was, he had thought, the best course of action.

However, he also now knew that Major Carter had obviously hurt Doctor Fraiser. She had not needed to allude to things he did not know; Teal'c knew that Major Carter had been angry, he had simply assumed that she had not done anything about that anger. He had obviously been wrong.

In spite of the pain Sam had inflicted upon her, Janet was here now, trying to save Major Carter. He now knew that things were not as he had thought when he had first offered his help.

The grey floor did not hold the answers he had expected. Teal'c breathed heavily. He was no longer sure that what he was doing was right.

He turned to the doctor, and found that she was watching the floor intently.

"What is your plan, Doctor Fraiser?"

Her small head tipped up sharply and she wiped at her eyes with small, quick motions. Teal'c stared back at her, wondering why she did not speak, but he knew that people could sometimes act very oddly and so he gave her a moment to compose herself.

Once she decided that she had heard correctly, Janet relaxed herself, pulling herself back, hands folded in front of her.

"Well, I had a thought, but I need to know something about how this... works."

She turned away to the glass, staring down at Sam, finding those blue eyes still furiously watching her. Her fingers intertwined, tensely, as she watched her, Sam's distress gradually increasing. She didn't understand what was happening, and it was making her loose that sharp edge, Janet could see that just from her eyes.

Teal'c grunted behind her, and Janet broke the gaze.

He pursed his lips, then folded his arms firmly across his chest.

"What is it you wish you know?"

Janet smiled sheepishly.

"Teal'c, can you access more than just memories?"

------

The slightly cold dampness of the room was starting to get to her. Sam intermittently glanced up to the observation loft, finding herself both relieved and infuriated when she saw that Janet was still there. Usually, she could only see her back, the white lab coat mocking her, the thick glass smudged slightly where Janet had touched it. Now and then, Carter would look up and Janet would be looking down at her from the small observation deck, soft brown eyes piteously wide and saddened, fingers touching the glass, extended hesitantly, as though she were resisting the urge to touch Sam even from that distance. Each time Janet dared to search for her, Sam would reward her with a contemptuous glare. Then Janet would turn away and resume speaking to someone that Sam couldn't see, and her skin would tingle with a flare of frustration.

What the hell was happening? Sam tried to think beyond her anger, but it was too difficult. She was constantly having to resist the pull of the memory, her lips trying to open and pronounce the words that were so familiar and natural to her. Even her body was against her, taking her around the room as the memory dictated, though with slightly less care and with a different kind of distress and tension then she'd had then. Then, she had been stuck in her own thoughts, unable to find an answer. Now, she was literally stuck in her own head, unable to find a way out.

"Come on Carter," she said to herself, trying to gain control over her own thoughts. She was not going to let Janet get the better of her in her own mind!

Sam sat down in a chair next to Cassie's bed, where the memory conveniently placed her, and she tried to shut out the chaos around her. Slowly, she began to tune it out, one element at a time, until she was left with nothing but the knowledge in her mind.

Sam played the facts over and over in her head. Everything that Teal'c had told her, everything she knew about her own memories, gathered up like little fireflies of data, wisps of light in her mind's eyes. Unconsciously, she selected the pertinent information, putting it all together as only her mind was capable.

The only logical explanation that Sam's now unclouded mind could come to was that Janet was somehow affecting the process with her presence. She could be doing it on her own, but Carter guessed that Teal'c was probably with her. Either way, she was succeeding in stopping her.

"S...Sam?"

Her eyes snapped open in surprise at the sound of her name, and she searched for the source, expecting it to just be an accident, the memory acting around her. When she realized who it was that was speaking to her, Sam had to swallow firmly.

"Sam? What... what's happening?"

Cassie was sitting up in the bed, her eyes wide and frightened. Her long hair was falling in soft waves over the white sheets, the small wires and chords around her far too serious to be connected to so little a girl. The nature of it all was too much to bear for so small a child, and she looked at Sam, her distress transparent in her face. Sam knew that she waiting for an answer and, even if Sam did not respond now, she would continue the dialogue as Sam remembered it, and nothing Carter could do (or not do) would stop it.

Sam bit her lip sharply. When she had cleared her mind to think, she hadn't realized that she would be letting her guard down.

"Sam?"

Cassie looked at her, confusion and fear radiating off of her in waves. She was watching Sam and responding as though Carter was actually speaking to her, and though she wasn't saying them now, Sam remembered every single word that Cassie was "hearing".

She had searched for the right things to say to the poor girl to make her feel better, when she could possibly be facing death, and Sam remembered how frightening the whole thing had been for her. She couldn't imagine how much harder it had been for Cassandra.

Sam promptly shut her eyes tightly, trying to force the tiny, pleading voice from her mind. Every word was landing like a hard footfall in her mind, and every syllable echoed painfully. Perfect memory, she found, was not so perfect.

"Shut up... shut up..." She put her hands up over her ears, trying to drown it out with the increasingly louder, frantic noise of her own voice. The louder she got, though, the more prominent Cassie's voice became in the black forefront of her mind, saying words that Sam didn't remember.

"Why don't you love her?"

Sam didn't remember... those words... not... not like that...

"Why don't you love her, Sam?"

She didn't say that... not like that... not here...

"She loves you."

"No, stop it... STOP IT..." She pressed her hands as hard as she could against her head, but she couldn't block it out.

"She loves you, Sam!"

"STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!"

And suddenly, it stopped.

In the sudden silence, her own panting breath was unbearably loud and shaking. She struggled against the pain in her chest, finding full breaths difficult. Her head pounded, her ears feeling swollen beneath her sweating palms. Her eyes were shut so tightly that the pitch black was shot through with a blinking horizontal glow, a visual stutter. It all made her feel like she was going to be sick.

She waited for a minute in the quiet, not trusting it yet. She swallowed and tried to slow her breath, but the calm she was searching for was coming very slowly. When it was still silent after a few more minutes, Sam slowly and reluctantly let her hands come away from her ears.

The lack of pressure from her hands lessened the pain in her head significantly, reducing it to a throbbing instead of pounding. Even that began to fade as she eased her scrunched forehead and relaxed her eyes.

Sam rubbed around her eyes firmly, massaging away the cramped pain. She blinked, opening her eyes more widely each time, until she could see the deep red color of her sheets. She passed a hand through her hair and stopped at the back of her head, rubbing gently.

"What?"

Sam looked down at herself, suddenly realizing that she was naked.

"What the..."

"Hello Sam."

Sam looked up sharply, but she couldn't make out the silhouette just beyond the foot of bed. She squinted, but she couldn't see beyond the bed in the low light.

From what Sam could see, she was in a canopy-sleigh bed, made of deep cherry wood. Velvet curtains were pushed back, tied at either side of the headboard. The sheets were a rich, blood red, soft and silky to the touch and toasty warm to be underneath. Her skin tingled with the slightest movement, the fabric sliding over her body smoothly. And there was a distinct scent of musk and oil in the air. It was exquisite, she allowed, but the sudden movement of the person at the foot of the bed made her disregard her comfort. She tensed and scrambled to sit up against the half-dozen or so lush pillows behind her.

Sam pulled the covers over her chest, still managing to peak over the side of the bed and note the many, tiny white candles on the floor, winding around the bed. Beyond the bed was darkness.

As the person tiptoed delicately through the sea of soft candlelight, Sam realized that those shadowed curves were most definitely feminine. Her hips swayed as she came near, and Carter found herself entranced by the slow, almost exotic motion. So much so that everything else in the room vanished into the black background.

The woman reached the left side of the bed and Sam shut her eyes. She could feel the bed being pressed down on that side, the woman's weight moving across the foot of the bed. There was a pause, and Sam breathed in sharply, audibly, and held that breath until she felt movement again.

Her breath became short, quick, shallow. A hand pressed between her legs, another beside her left hip. A rich perfume flooded her as she inhaled, and, when she felt the gentle caress of a soft hand against her cheek, she froze.

Despite the sensory overload, Sam was panicking inside because, insane as it was, this all familiar to her.

"But this isn't a memory," she managed, the words barely passing through her lips as another pair brushed her own. The brief contact shot a tiny bolt straight through her body, down to her toes, rendering her immobile and helpless.

She opened her eyes to a curtain of dark hair, casting a black shadow over a soft face. Candlelight illuminated tan skin, shoulders, hips, thighs, glowing softly, oils making every inch shimmer like gold. The waves of dark hair fell over the woman's shoulders, onto her back; Sam could barely keep her eyes from sliding down the curve of the small of her back.

"Ja... Janet?"

Sam's voice was small and pale, like Cassandra's. Clutching the covers to her chest, she could feel her heart beating against her hand. The woman leaned forward, her lips almost grazing Sam's, and she whispered into her mouth, tongue pronouncing the words luxuriously.

"It's me, Sam. But not the Janet of this fantasy," she said, nipping Sam's bottom lip gently. Sam shuddered all over, her chest seizing as she tried to stay focused. Janet's gentle ministrations to her lips, however, made this virtually impossible.

"Then who... who..." She struggled as Janet kissed down her chin, along her jaw line, and down the side of her throat until she was sucking gently over her collarbone. At this point, Sam lost all control of her vocal chords. She whimpered, and Janet progressed lower and lower, Sam's breathing becoming a mere panting hope for a breath.

The room was swimming, swirling, and Sam's entire body was tingling. She shut her eyes, allowing the sensation to swallow her.

"Mommy?"

Sam's eyes snapped open, and her mind whirled to gather what had happened. Suddenly she was, as far as she could tell, sitting on a park bench. A little girl was pulling at the cargo shorts she was wearing, and repeating herself.

"Mommy, can I have some juice?"

The little girl looked to be perhaps five years old, was blonde, and dressed in a lavender sun dress. Her bright blue eyes were startling, and Sam couldn't help but wish she could do as the little girl asked.

"Sweetie?"

A soft breeze threw Sam's hair in her face, and she tried to push it aside, but a gentle hand beat her to it.

"Janet?"

The smiling face of the doctor came closer, until she pecked Sam on the cheek. She grinned at Sam, then turned to give the little girl an apple juice.

Sam watched in disbelief as Janet bent over, her clearly pregnant belly making it difficult for her to bend over to give the girl the juice box. Her collared white maternity shirt covered her stomach entirely, but Sam knew that she had to be well into the third trimester. Sam looked past her to the little girl reaching for the juice box, a brilliant smile on her face, and Sam couldn't stop from smiling herself.

"Why don't you sit down and drink that, then maybe Mommy will push you on the swing." Janet turned to Carter, pushing her hair back behind her ears as the wind picked up. "Won't you mommy?"

Sam blinked in surprise, and both of them were gone. She blinked again, and the park was gone. Once more, and everything went black.

Sam waited for something to happen, waited to be thrown into the next place, waited for any sort of change. When nothing happened, she simply waited.

"What, Sam, don't remember what happens next?"

Sam turned around involuntarily, and with a sudden flare of light she was in a hospital room, her hand in Janet's, who was screaming and nearly breaking her hand off as she squeezed. There was a doctor between Janet's legs, coaching her "one more Janet, you're doing great!", a nurse at the head of the bed, patting Janet's head with a damp cloth, and a few other people scurrying about, trying not to get in the way but still get things done. The artificial light in the room flickered, and Sam blinked, dizzied by it all. Janet moaned through clenched teeth, and Sam thought she actually would snap her hand in two.

"It's coming," the doctor said, "Almost there!"

Janet opened her mouth, shut her eyes, squeezed Sam's hand, and screamed.

Then silence.

"What is going on?!?"

Sam had gotten bizarrely used to being plunged into sudden darkness, but it wasn't the darkness that frustrated her, it was the scenes that she kept being flung back into. These weren't her memories, these weren't even dreams that she remembered having; these were fantasies, the hopes and dreams that had filled Sam's mind when she had allowed herself to think about being with Janet. She knew what they were, but how was she getting into them?

"I'm taking you into them."

Sam expected the light to come again, and braced herself for the next scene, but she remained in darkness. She swallowed, and tried to release her balled fists. She recognized the voice, and it reawakened the tension in the very core of her. Falling back on her basic training, Sam resigned herself to listening and remaining ready for anything.

"I know what you're thinking," she heard, footsteps pacing very near her. She turned, but she wouldn't have been able to see even if she was there.

"Don't try to anticipate it," she said. "If I'm in your mind, then there's nothing you do that will be ahead of me."

Sam tried not to be distressed by this, but she had to admit the prospect made her anxious. If she was in her mind, Sam could only guess what else she could do. She suddenly felt like she was being hunted.

"What do you want?"

The moment the question was out of her mouth, the light flared unexpectedly, as it seemed to as a rule, and Sam waited to take everything in as she had before. All she saw, however, was white. White everywhere, white, white, white, an abyss like the blackness only... white.

Sam blinked, trying not to feel frustrated. Whatever she wanted to throw at her, she would take. She was tired of running. She would wait. Then it came.

"Sam."

She didn't need to turn around to know where she was. Her ears were keen enough, but it was more a physical, tingling sense that told her that Janet was approximately six steps behind her.

"Janet."

She heard one step. Two. Three, four, stopped.

Sam waited. She refused to turn around this time. If Janet wanted her, she was there. What was she waiting for?

"What is this about, Janet?" she asked, finally.

She heard her breath in, and it sounded like she was going to say something, but she hesitated. Looking at Carter's back, knowing that she was choosing not to turn around, unnerved her.

"Sam...please..."

Carter didn't want to react to the emotion in her voice. She would listen to what Janet had to say, and that was it. Then it would be over.

"Say what you want to say, Janet. You've certainly done enough to get here, so you'd better get on with it."

Sam heard her take a step back, but she wasn't proud of herself for it. She wasn't happy about it. Her head titled forward and she tried to mask the tears that started streaming down her faces. She knew Janet heard her, and she just... didn't care anymore.

"Sam I--"

"What do you want from me," she asked, finally turning to face her, and Janet almost wished that she hadn't. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her bright blue eyes even more brilliant from the tears. She was oddly beautiful like that.

Janet stood there, dumbfounded. She was back in the very clothes she was wearing in the real world, and so was Sam. Janet noted that Carter's clothes were particularly disheveled, and she knew exactly who she had to blame for that. Guilty as she felt, she had to remember what she was doing, and why.

Sam stood there, not looking at Janet, waiting for an answer, and although Janet thought she had one, she couldn't get her mouth to open, couldn't make herself say it. She was too afraid of what would happen.

Finally, Sam threw up her arms in exhausted frustration and turned away from her again. Janet couldn't wait any longer; it was now or never.

"Everything you saw, all of those fantasies... they didn't mean anything to you?"

Sam chocked on a sob, but did not respond. Janet continued, her hope wavering.

"The thought of us having children together, of being together, of... of making love...it all meant... nothing to you."

Janet turned away, trying to compose herself. This wasn't working out exactly how she had planned. She had thought Sam would keep things moving on her own, that when she got to this point, things would be easier. Janet brushed away her matted hair, feeling hot all of a sudden.

Sam swallowed, feeling nauseous. Something about this place was making her feel sickeningly...hot...

They slowly turned to each other simultaneously. They knew what the heat meant.

"I'm coming out," Sam said. "Teal'c, I need to find Teal'c," she muttered, trying to remember what he had told her about leaving.

"S..Sam..."

Janet looked at her hands, and her fingers were flickering in and out of the whiteness. She looked to Sam, her eyes wide and afraid.

"Sam, what does this mean? Teal'c... Teal'c said that if this started happening, that I... I might not get back into my own mind...I... Sam, I'm scared."

Sam watched Janet carefully, and her heart jumped in her throat as Janet's forearm, shoulders, chest, torso, and even her legs began to flicker in and out of existence. She had to make a decision, and fast. From what Teal'c had told her, she had approximately five minutes left when she started feeling her body in the real world again.

She could save Janet, or erase her.

Janet looked at her pleadingly, terrified, and her entire body flickered once, twice.

Then she was gone.

Next: Where I Want To Be