OT3 fic--Little Problem part 4
Title: Little Problem
Author: elfcat255
Pairing: my OT3
Rating: R
Spoilers: none
AN: no beta
AN2: yes, there is more...but right now my brain is foggy and I decided to give you all what I have so far before I messed with it anymore..bleh.
The smell of brewing coffee greeted the doctor as she shuffled her way into the kitchen. Flipping on the light, she made a beeline to the mugs and choosing the largest one they owned, poured a steaming cup of the dark liquid. She sat down on one of the barstools and blew across the hot drink before taking small sips, letting the caffeine seep into her still groggy system. She hated going into work this time of the morning but it was her rotation for the early bird shift of five a.m. To make matters worse, she hadn’t slept very well considering the person she loved the most in this world wasn’t in their bed but downstairs, sleeping on the sofa in the office.
“I hate going to bed alone and upset,” the doctor grumbled as she took another sip of her coffee.
“You’re not the only one,” a raspy voice commented from the doorway.
Janet’s head shot up and her eyes locked with those of Sam. Her partner leaned against the doorjamb of the kitchen, her clothing all rumpled and wrinkled, running a hand through mussed up hair. The teenager yawned and made her way across the kitchen floor straight for the coffee machine. The doctor was silent as the younger woman fixed her morning drink. It wasn’t until Sam sat down across from her that Janet began to speak but a raised hand from the blonde stopped her.
Taking a large drink from her cup Sam sat it down and then spoke, “I owe you a huge apology. Just because I’m in a younger body doesn’t mean I have to actually act its age. What I did last night was stupid and irresponsible and I know it scared you. Instead of talking things out with you I stormed off like a brat. Can you forgive me?”
The doctor didn’t answer right away. She slowly moved her mug back and forth between her hands, not fast enough to spill the liquid though. She just needed something to focus her gaze on other than Sam at the moment, at least until she gathered her thoughts. It wasn’t often that they fought or even argued and she wanted to make sure her reply really sank in with her partner.
“Janet?” When the doctor failed to answer Sam continued. “Maybe I should go back to the office and give you a little more time alone,” the blonde said in the silence permeating the kitchen.
When the doctor failed to answer Sam took it as a yes and began to move out of her seat. Janet stretched an arm out across the distance between them and caught hold of her partner’s elbow before she could take another step. “Sit back down, Samantha, please,“ she said in a soft voice.
Doing as asked, Sam sat back down on her stool. Pulling her arm slowly away from Janet’s grasp until their hands met, she held onto the slim hand, stroking the doctor’s fingers with her thumb.
Taking a deep breath Janet released it and began to speak, “I’m not mad at you. Yes, I was upset last night and yes, you did act like a brat. We’ve never gone to bed angry with each other,” the doctor said and watched as Sam’s eyebrows rose. “Okay, it’s been a long time since it last happened,” she added.
Sam chuckled softly and said, “Although the making up part usually happened in bed if I recall correctly.”
The doctor gave her a wry look and continued, “As much fun as that is I don’t think it would have worked this time, Sam. All of this is just too new and confusing to me. What little sleep I did get last night was plagued by dreams of what if…how would we go on if you can’t return to your old body?”
“Hey, I’m not old,” Sam remarked in a hurt tone.
“Sweetie, you know what I mean,” Janet said with a chagrinned look at the blonde who wore a small pout on her face now.
Sam gave her a wink and then spoke, “I’m sure we won’t have to face that, Janet. Knowing the team, they’ll tear that complex apart trying to find a solution. Hell, Vala has probably already found who knows what that we overlooked on our initial sweep of the building.”
Janet stood up from her seat and still gripping Sam’s hand moved towards her partner. She tugged the younger woman closer until they could hold each other in a loose hug. “And I have every confidence that they will find something but we don’t know if this is reversible or not, Sam. Until then, I need you to try and at least act your real age, for my sanity’s sake, please,” the doctor replied.
Squeezing the woman in her arms Sam nodded. “Okay, I’ll behave. Can I sleep upstairs tonight?” she asked, pulling back some to gaze into warm brown eyes.
Letting her head fall forward to rest on the blonde’s shoulder Janet responded, “Please, I don’t think I can take another night of tossing and turning without you in the bed next to me.”
“Okie dokie,” Sam remarked with a slight grin.
Janet looked up upon hearing the tone in Sam’s voice and saw the grin. “No funny business, at least for right now, Samantha. That’s just a little on the weird side for me at the moment,” the doctor told her.
With a heavy sigh Sam nodded her head. “Okay, I understand. But I still get kisses, right?” she asked, batting her eyelashes at her partner and making a kissy face.
Janet snorted a laugh out. “Yes, kisses are fine,” she replied and sealed the statement with a kiss on the blonde’s lips.
“Yay,” Sam joked when Janet moved back some. Slapping the slightly taller woman on the arm Janet released her hold on her partner and picked up her cooling mug of coffee.
“I need to finish getting ready for work. Are you coming to the base with me?” she asked then took a sip of the lukewarm liquid.
“Nah, I can wait until you come home for lunch and go back with you then. I want to work on some stuff here for awhile, might as well catch up on some emails and such,” the blonde responded.
“Okay, I’ll see you at lunch then,” Janet said and poured her wasted coffee into the sink then moved past the blonde towards the kitchen doorway. Just before she made it through Sam spoke.
“Hey, you,“ the younger woman said stopping Janet in her tracks. The doctor turned back to face the blonde and raised an eyebrow in response.
“You’ll still love me no matter what I look like right?” the blonde asked shyly.
Janet smiled at her partner and replied, “With all my heart, Samantha Carter, no matter what.”
“Okay, just checking. Now go get changed before you’re late for work,” Sam said with a smile of her own.
The doctor gave the blonde a wink and then disappeared from the doorway on her way upstairs to finish dressing; leaving Sam to sit back down on her stool and stare at her coffee mug. “Come on guys, find a way to fix me, please,” she murmured softly as she picked up her mug. Swallowing the cold coffee in two big gulps she then stood up to put the empty cup in the sink and headed back to her office to begin catching up on her emails.
**
On the distant planet where Sam’s problem had originated the team reached the complex after a few hours of walking. After taking a small rest to catch their breath they split into two teams; with Daniel and Cam heading east and Teal’c along with Vala taking the western section of the building.
Teal’c followed along behind his female teammate as she proceeded to search every inch of the dust filled rooms they entered. When he tried to help by looking over a few consoles Vala would quickly inform him that she’d already checked that out and then walk on to the next room leaving him to stare after her retreating form. After several hours of searching they found themselves in the room where Sam had been transformed, with the machine which caused it sitting in the center of the floor. While Teal’c looked over panels that had been surveyed already, Vala went over the nooks and crannies of the room once more, trying to find anything they’d missed from earlier.
“Wasn’t it you who turned on the lights in here?” Vala asked the Jaffa as she poked around under a console.
“Yes, after Colonel Carter deciphered which panel controlled them,” Teal’c answered.
Vala rose from her prone position under the console and dusting her hands off on her pants spoke, “Well find that panel and turn them off.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at the order. “What purpose does that serve?” he asked.
Shrugging her shoulders Vala replied, ”I don’t know yet but it’s the only thing we haven’t tried. You never know maybe things look different in the dark around here.”
Teal’c thought for a moment and then with a slight nod towards her moved to the panel controlling the lights, touching a series of switches which doused the room in darkness. He then stood beside the wall and watched as Vala moved around the room; her form lit from the light bleeding in from the hallway as she ran her hands over the consoles and panels on the walls. Soon she ended up next to the machine that had changed Sam and stood staring at the far wall. Teal’c began to say something to her but before he could speak she exclaimed, “Yes!”
“What have you found?” the Jaffa asked, moving towards her.
“There, around the edge of the far wall; don’t you see it?” she said pointing with an outstretched arm.
Letting his eyes adjust to the lower level of light in the center of the room the warrior could see a faint glow from the corner of the room where the two walls intersected. ”It appears we have discovered a hidden room,” the Jaffa remarked.
Vala bounced on the balls of her feet and then grabbed hold of Teal’c, hugging his broad frame. “I knew there had to be something we were missing,” she said in an excited voice. Releasing her hold on the Jaffa she moved towards the wall and ran her hands around the seepage of light. “Now, I have to find out how to open it. Turn the light back on,” she told Teal’c.
The warrior held his tongue from commenting on the order, realizing that Vala was only worried now with finding a way into the room behind the wall. He quickly moved to the light switches and turned them on then swiveled back around to see Vala kneeling on the floor, rummaging through her backpack. The Jaffa walked up as she began pulling objects from the bag. Raising an eyebrow he watched as a multitude of various objects emerged from their hiding places in her pack. She looked up and seeing him standing there handed him one of the objects.
Teal’c looked at the furry toy shoved into his grasp and inclined his head to the side. “Why do you carry this with you?” he asked.
Vala gave him a grin and reached up, petting the small stuffed giraffe. “It was a gift and I like to think he brings me luck,” she told him and then went back to searching through her pack.
Teal’c placed the animal under his arm and asked, “What do you search for?”
“This,” Vala answered, holding up a small box. She opened it to reveal several sleek picks and other tools used for gaining unlawful entry into things. “Daniel took them away from me after I came back the second time but I found where he hid them and took them back,” she commented with a grin.
“Of course,” Teal’c said with a slight upturn of his lips.
Vala stood and moved to the wall covering the hidden room. She closed her eyes and began passing her hand over the row of colored panels. Teal’c watched for several moments and was about to comment when she stopped her movements and pressed a red button. A small opening appeared as a green panel slid open below her and the dark haired woman knelt down to access it better.
“Should we not inform Daniel Jackson and Colonel Mitchell of our find?” the Jaffa asked.
“You can radio them but I’m not waiting for them to get here,” Vala remarked as she chose two of the tools from her little black box and began to poke around in the opening.
Teal’c reached a hand up to his shoulder and clicked his radio on. “Colonel Mitchell, we have located a hidden room where Colonel Carter was transformed and Vala is attempting to gain entry,” the warrior stated.
Mitchell’s voice crackled over the frequency, “Well tell her to stop! Jackson and I are on our way.”
Vala heard the response and remarked, “I’ll have it open before they get here.” As she completed the sentence there was a whir of motors from some hidden machine and the wall began sliding open. Vala stood as the wall moved and stuck her picks back in their case; she turned to Teal’c and flashed him a huge smile. “See, I told you so.”
Before she could step into the newly revealed room Daniel and Cameron rushed through the doorway. They came to a sliding stop next to Teal’c and Mitchell gasped out, “I told you to stop her.”
Vala interrupted the warrior’s reply with a wave of her hand. “Pish posh, I’ve been opening hidden doors since I was five, boys,“ she said with a smirk and blew across her knuckles then rubbed them on her chest.
“Still Vala, how were you to know if there was a trap set to go off when the wall opened?” Daniel asked as he recovered his breath from the mad dash to the room.
“It was a chance I had to take, Daniel. The answer to helping Sam could be in that room,” she said and took a step towards it.
Teal’c grabbed the back of her vest, stopping her forward momentum and stated, “I shall enter first.”
Vala began to protest but a raised eyebrow from the Jaffa stopped her and she made a pouting face instead as he moved past her and into the room. She eyed the other two men and when Daniel motioned for her to follow the warrior she quickly did so. Inwardly she hoped they found the answer they sought, for Sam’s sake.
**
Janet was in the middle of conducting physicals when the alarms went off and Walter’s voice sounded over the loud speaker, “Unscheduled offworld activation. Security teams to the embarkation room.”
She quickly finished taking the blood pressure of the huge marine sitting on the gurney and informed one of her nurses she was going to the control room. She prayed inwardly that it was SG-1 returning with information about Sam’s transformation or even a cure for her partner.
The doctor reached the control booth overlooking the gate room just as the iris opened and soon four figures emerged; it was the team returning from the planet. Vala practically bounced down the ramp and when she reached the bottom looked up, catching Janet’s eye. She gave her small lover a huge smile and thumbs up gesture which made the tension leak from doctor’s body; they had found something. Janet noticed that Daniel was carrying a very large book in his arms and she quickly moved down the stairs to meet the team as they exited from the gate room.
“Well, did you find something?” she asked, a little out of breath from her hurried travel.
Daniel gave his friend a smile. “Vala found a hidden room containing more of the machines and I found what appears to be a manual on their operation,” the archeologist informed her.
“He has to translate it but I’m sure there is an answer for fixing Sam in it,” Vala spoke up as she came to stand beside the doctor.
“It’s a bastardized form of Ancient. It shouldn’t take me long to figure it out, Janet. From what I could tell though I may need your help with some of the medical jargon it contains,” Daniel added.
“I’ll do anything I can to help you out, Daniel. I need to call Sam and let her know what you’ve found,” the doctor told them.
“We need to brief the General on our findings,” Daniel returned and then added, “Give us an hour and I’ll meet you in my office.”
The male team members moved past the doctor and headed towards the stairs leading to the briefing room leaving Vala and Janet alone. The dark haired woman placed an arm around her lover’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “See, I told you we would find an answer, Jan,” Vala told her.
“We don’t have an answer just yet, Vala, but there’s hope,” Janet remarked. “Instead of calling Sam, I’ll just take an early lunch and go pick her up from the house. You hurry along after the guys and get de-briefed then we’ll meet you and Daniel in his office.”
Vala nodded in agreement and after placing a kiss on Janet’s temple and giving her shoulders another tight squeeze left the doctor to head to the briefing room. Janet watched her walk away and then made her way to the elevator; she needed to tell her staff she would be occupied for the rest of the afternoon with the translation.
**
A little over an hour later Sam rushed into Daniel’s office. “Janet said you found something. Where is it? Are there technical specs for the machine?” The blonde teenager asked in a rush of questions as she skidded to a stop next to the table where Daniel stood along with Vala who was looking at the book.
“Slow down some, Sam,” Daniel said trying to stop a grin. “I just started my translation.”
“But are there blueprints?” she asked again. “I can go over them if you want me too.”
“I’m not sure if there are any. So far I’ve found out the machine was used to cure medical problems. Albeit a strange way of doing it but I guess it worked for them,” Daniel told her.
“Let me look,” Sam said as she moved to squeeze between Daniel and Vala who at that moment was trying hard not to burst out laughing at Sam’s exuberance.
“Samantha!” Janet exclaimed walking into the office. “Back up and let Daniel work,” the doctor ordered her younger partner.
Vala spoke at this moment, “Come on, Sam. Let’s go find something to burn off all that youthful energy so Daniel and Janet can work.”
Both Sam and Janet shot her an incredulous look and the dark haired woman laughed. “Get your minds out of the gutter. You’re a little on the young side for my tastes at the moment, my dear. We have to wait until you’re back to normal for that kind of energy burn.”
Daniel cleared his throat, reminding the three women they weren’t alone and Sam blushed as she met his eyes. “Umm, yeah, okay, let’s go spar or something,” the blonde remarked and moved away from the table. “We’ll check back on you guys in a little while.”
The trio watched Sam walk out of the room and Vala gave the doctor a smile.
“I’ll keep her busy, you two figure out what you can,” she told the pair.
Janet mouthed a “thank you” and watched as Vala followed after Sam. She then turned to Daniel and spoke, “Okay, tell me what you’ve found so far.”
The archeologist/linguist launched into what he had discovered while waiting for his friends to show up.
**
A few levels up from Daniel’s office, Sam entered the base gym followed closely by Vala. She headed straight for the wooden staves Teal’c used in the lessons he taught during his spare time. She grabbed two, turned and tossed one of them to Vala, who juggled the slender weapon in her hands, and took up a ready stance with her staff held out before her.
“I know I said we were going to burn some energy but Sam, come on, I’m not that good with these things,” Vala told her blonde lover.
Sam twirled the six foot piece of wood in her hand and shrugged her shoulders. “The General basically put me on leave; I can’t work on any of my projects or start new ones. Janet doesn’t want me to get in their way and you were the one who suggested we do something to burn off my excess youthful energy,” she remarked with a smirk.
“When you mentioned sparring I thought we’d do a little hand to hand,” Vala replied batting her eyelashes at the blonde.
“What happened to I’m too young for your tastes, my dear,” Sam pointed out as she moved towards Vala.
The woman backed away from the approaching teenager and laughed nervously. “A little judo never hurt anyone.” she joked.
“I’m a walking hormone right now, Vala. It was bad enough I had to sleep apart from Jan last night and now you want to wrestle around with me on the mat? No, I think this is much easier way to vent my frustration at the same time getting rid of nervous energy,” Sam stated in a serious tone and swung her staff towards her lover.
Vala squeaked and brought up her staff, catching Sam’s as it came downward. “Are you going to be like this until you get your old body back?” the woman asked as she blocked another quick blow.
“I am not old!” Sam growled and tried to sweep Vala’s feet out from under her.
“Whoa!” Vala yelled, jumping into the air and avoiding the staff. She landed and moved to the left, trying to feint a blow to the blonde’s side. “I hear a hint of anger in your voice, Samantha,” she commented as the staff in her hands reverberated from Sam’s block to her feint.
“Really, I don’t know why,” Sam replied sarcastically and whirling around planted a solid blow on Vala’s upper arm.
The dark haired woman dropped her staff and grabbed her arm. “Ow…that wasn’t nice!” she exclaimed and stared at the blonde in shock.
Sam’s breath came in heavy gasps and for a moment she almost continued the attack but the look on her lover’s face snapped her to her senses. The blonde threw the staff to the ground and ran towards the doorway; leaving Vala to stare after her retreating figure.
“Crap!” Vala muttered. Still rubbing the spot where Sam had struck her, the dark-haired woman took off after the teenager.
**
“This is fascinating, Janet,” Daniel said as he translated another passage from the book they’d found.
The doctor sat beside him on a stool and was busy transcribing what Daniel translated. She could understand his fascination with the culture. So far they had discovered that the machines were mainly used to cure diseases associated with age. They had already discovered the process was reversible. In fact, the change wasn’t meant to be permanent; the subject usually was switched back to their older self within a few hours after initial transformation with no sign of their ailments.
“There are many things this could be used for, Daniel. Many forms of arthritis, organ failure, and even Alzheimer’s could possibly be cured using this device,” the doctor said in an excited tone.
“I think there’s a catch here though, Janet,” Daniel informed her and read aloud from a new paragraph. “There is a time limit; it says here that any transformation longer than forty-eight hours risks permanent damage,” he read.
“Damage…what kind of damage?” the doctor asked in a worried voice.
Daniel continued reading, “A breakdown of the body’s cells since they weren’t designed to revert and possible brain damage could occur,” he translated and then looked up wide-eyed at his friend.
Janet jumped off of her stool and rushed to the phone. She picked up the receiver and pressed the intercom, speaking into it, “Colonel Carter and Vala Mal Doran, please report to the infirmary…stat!” She repeated herself two more times and then slammed the receiver down. Turning back to Daniel she ordered, “Find the instructions on reversing the machine. Sam is pushing that forty-eight hour mark, Daniel!”
“I’ll have it for you in a few minutes, what are you going to do?” he asked, flipping pages in the book.
“I’m going to meet them in the infirmary and run a physical on Sam to test for any changes. As soon as you find the instructions we need to get her back to that planet,” Janet told him and not waiting for him to respond, ran from the room on her way to the infirmary.
**
The elevator doors opened on Level twenty-one and Janet stepped into the hallway. She hurried towards the infirmary doors and as she entered found herself running into Vala’s taller form. Both women took a couple of steps back and then simultaneously asked, “Where’s Sam?”
“I thought she was with you?” Janet replied in a questioning tone.
Vala shook her head and answered, “She was until she got all upset and ran off.”
As Janet slipped past the taller woman and on into the infirmary she asked, “Upset? What happened?”
Vala followed and explained what had occurred during the sparring match while the doctor busied herself with grabbing one of the emergency medical packs and checking its contents. “I heard you call us here while I was searching for her and thought maybe she would answer the summons,” the dark haired woman finished.
Grumbling under her breath Janet muttered, “Damn it, Sam. Now is not the time to run away from us.” The doctor tossed the pack at Vala and spoke, “Let’s go; we need to find her and be quick about it. She doesn’t have much time left.”
Vala gave the doctor a confused look and as Janet began walking quickly towards the door she began telling her lover what she and Daniel discovered. The pair quickened their pace as they neared the elevator and as the doors opened Vala remarked, “I already checked with the guards up top. She didn’t go past them.”
“There are other ways to get topside, Vala. She’s used them before when not being seen was called for,” Janet stated.
“The access tunnels?” Vala asked and the doctor nodded her head.
“And I have a feeling I know where she is right now,” Janet added.
Soon they reached the top and not bothering to stop, ran past the guards stationed at the entrance to the elevators and out into the parking lot used by personnel not wanting to park underground. Janet spotted a jeep driven by one of the security personnel and waved him over to them. “Out of the vehicle soldier,” she ordered.
The young man began to protest and Vala spoke up, “She out ranks you and conducts your physicals. I think I’d move quickly if I were you.”
He swallowed and turned a pale shade of white but stuttered a “Yes, Ma’am” as he climbed out of the jeep allowing Janet to take the driver’s seat. Vala hopped into the back with the medical pack in hand and the doctor gunned the engine, causing tires to squeal, as the vehicle sped out of the tunnel leading to outside.
With wind blowing in her face Vala leaned closer to the driver’s seat and asked in a loud voice, “Where are we going?”
“Just hold on!” Janet yelled over the motor’s noise and turned the jeep off of the main road onto a dirt track. Vala did as told as Janet maneuvered the jeep through washed out spots and huge ruts, never decreasing the speed of the small vehicle. The dark haired woman kept quiet and held on for dear life as the jeep bounced its way over the trail. Soon the road smoothed out and they came into a clearing where Janet slammed the brakes on, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. She killed the motor and stood up in the seat, looking around the clearing as the dust settled.
Vala coughed a few times and waving a hand in front of her face remarked, “Sam had to have taught you how to drive like that.”
“Actually no, that was all me,” the doctor replied. “Come on, it’s this way,” she added and jumped from the jeep followed by Vala who scrambled to catch up with the fast moving smaller woman.
Janet weaved her way between trees and the overgrowth of small bushes. “Sam! Answer me! I know you’re out here!” the doctor called out in her loudest voice.
The doctor pulled up short and Vala stopped herself from plowing her down by grabbing a nearby sapling and spinning around. “What?” she asked.
Holding a finger to her lips Janet motioned for the woman to be quiet and she called for Sam once more. They both listened carefully and Vala heard a sound coming from their right. “I hear something,” she said.
The pair moved in that direction and soon stumbled upon the entry hatch for one of the bases’ access tunnels. Not far from it curled up in a ball on the ground lay the teenaged Sam. Janet rushed to her partner’s side and gently rolled her over onto her back. “Samantha? Speak to me, sweetie; what’s wrong?” the doctor asked as she noted the pained look on the young woman’s face, her pale coloring and her body was drenched in sweat.
“Hurts…all over…so…cold,” Sam gasped and whimpered as her body shook with chills.
The doctor took the pack from Vala and began digging through it. She pulled out a thermal blanket and shoved it into her lover’s hands. “Wrap her in this but leave me an arm free so I can get some fluids into her,” Janet ordered.
Doing as told, Vala wrapped the teenaged Sam in the shiny blanket and smoothed away the sweat soaked hair plastered to her forehead when the blonde whimpered again. “It’s okay, Sam. We’ve got you now,” she said softly.
Janet quickly inserted the needle into Sam’s arm and stood up, holding the bag of fluid as she shouldered the pack. “You’re going to have to carry her back to the jeep, even at this size I can’t pick her up,” the doctor told Vala.
With a nod, Vala knelt next to her shaking lover and threaded arms under Sam’s knees and behind her arms. Taking a deep breath she stood, lifting the teenaged woman from the ground. Shifting the blonde slightly in her grasp so as not to be overbalanced, Vala held onto her as Janet checked her vitals again before they moved; with a grim look up at the taller woman Janet turned and motioned for Vala to head back to the jeep with her precious load and the doctor followed behind, keeping the IV line from becoming snagged on the vegetation.
Reaching the jeep, Janet climbed in the back and helped Vala to place Sam on the seat. Holding onto her partner while Vala climbed into the vehicle, the doctor reached between the driver’s and passenger seat, grabbing the radio kept there. Once Vala had a hold of Sam, and positioned where she could keep her steady, Janet moved to the front of the vehicle and clicked the radio on. “This is Doctor Fraiser; I need a medical team and a stasis pod at the guard station…topside elevator…Stat! I’m on my way there now with critical patient…over.”
The doctor received an acknowledged reply and she cranked the jeep, looking over her shoulder at Vala she said, “Hold on tight, I’ll try not to knock us around too much on the way back but we have to hurry.”
“I’ve got her, just drive,” Vala replied, tightening her hold on the teenaged woman in her arms.
Janet eased the vehicle forward and with a determined look on her face she increased her speed along the bumpy trail back to the main road, going as fast as she could without throwing the pair in the back around. Sam was in enough trouble she didn’t need to add broken bones to the equation.
**
Author: elfcat255
Pairing: my OT3
Rating: R
Spoilers: none
AN: no beta
AN2: yes, there is more...but right now my brain is foggy and I decided to give you all what I have so far before I messed with it anymore..bleh.
The smell of brewing coffee greeted the doctor as she shuffled her way into the kitchen. Flipping on the light, she made a beeline to the mugs and choosing the largest one they owned, poured a steaming cup of the dark liquid. She sat down on one of the barstools and blew across the hot drink before taking small sips, letting the caffeine seep into her still groggy system. She hated going into work this time of the morning but it was her rotation for the early bird shift of five a.m. To make matters worse, she hadn’t slept very well considering the person she loved the most in this world wasn’t in their bed but downstairs, sleeping on the sofa in the office.
“I hate going to bed alone and upset,” the doctor grumbled as she took another sip of her coffee.
“You’re not the only one,” a raspy voice commented from the doorway.
Janet’s head shot up and her eyes locked with those of Sam. Her partner leaned against the doorjamb of the kitchen, her clothing all rumpled and wrinkled, running a hand through mussed up hair. The teenager yawned and made her way across the kitchen floor straight for the coffee machine. The doctor was silent as the younger woman fixed her morning drink. It wasn’t until Sam sat down across from her that Janet began to speak but a raised hand from the blonde stopped her.
Taking a large drink from her cup Sam sat it down and then spoke, “I owe you a huge apology. Just because I’m in a younger body doesn’t mean I have to actually act its age. What I did last night was stupid and irresponsible and I know it scared you. Instead of talking things out with you I stormed off like a brat. Can you forgive me?”
The doctor didn’t answer right away. She slowly moved her mug back and forth between her hands, not fast enough to spill the liquid though. She just needed something to focus her gaze on other than Sam at the moment, at least until she gathered her thoughts. It wasn’t often that they fought or even argued and she wanted to make sure her reply really sank in with her partner.
“Janet?” When the doctor failed to answer Sam continued. “Maybe I should go back to the office and give you a little more time alone,” the blonde said in the silence permeating the kitchen.
When the doctor failed to answer Sam took it as a yes and began to move out of her seat. Janet stretched an arm out across the distance between them and caught hold of her partner’s elbow before she could take another step. “Sit back down, Samantha, please,“ she said in a soft voice.
Doing as asked, Sam sat back down on her stool. Pulling her arm slowly away from Janet’s grasp until their hands met, she held onto the slim hand, stroking the doctor’s fingers with her thumb.
Taking a deep breath Janet released it and began to speak, “I’m not mad at you. Yes, I was upset last night and yes, you did act like a brat. We’ve never gone to bed angry with each other,” the doctor said and watched as Sam’s eyebrows rose. “Okay, it’s been a long time since it last happened,” she added.
Sam chuckled softly and said, “Although the making up part usually happened in bed if I recall correctly.”
The doctor gave her a wry look and continued, “As much fun as that is I don’t think it would have worked this time, Sam. All of this is just too new and confusing to me. What little sleep I did get last night was plagued by dreams of what if…how would we go on if you can’t return to your old body?”
“Hey, I’m not old,” Sam remarked in a hurt tone.
“Sweetie, you know what I mean,” Janet said with a chagrinned look at the blonde who wore a small pout on her face now.
Sam gave her a wink and then spoke, “I’m sure we won’t have to face that, Janet. Knowing the team, they’ll tear that complex apart trying to find a solution. Hell, Vala has probably already found who knows what that we overlooked on our initial sweep of the building.”
Janet stood up from her seat and still gripping Sam’s hand moved towards her partner. She tugged the younger woman closer until they could hold each other in a loose hug. “And I have every confidence that they will find something but we don’t know if this is reversible or not, Sam. Until then, I need you to try and at least act your real age, for my sanity’s sake, please,” the doctor replied.
Squeezing the woman in her arms Sam nodded. “Okay, I’ll behave. Can I sleep upstairs tonight?” she asked, pulling back some to gaze into warm brown eyes.
Letting her head fall forward to rest on the blonde’s shoulder Janet responded, “Please, I don’t think I can take another night of tossing and turning without you in the bed next to me.”
“Okie dokie,” Sam remarked with a slight grin.
Janet looked up upon hearing the tone in Sam’s voice and saw the grin. “No funny business, at least for right now, Samantha. That’s just a little on the weird side for me at the moment,” the doctor told her.
With a heavy sigh Sam nodded her head. “Okay, I understand. But I still get kisses, right?” she asked, batting her eyelashes at her partner and making a kissy face.
Janet snorted a laugh out. “Yes, kisses are fine,” she replied and sealed the statement with a kiss on the blonde’s lips.
“Yay,” Sam joked when Janet moved back some. Slapping the slightly taller woman on the arm Janet released her hold on her partner and picked up her cooling mug of coffee.
“I need to finish getting ready for work. Are you coming to the base with me?” she asked then took a sip of the lukewarm liquid.
“Nah, I can wait until you come home for lunch and go back with you then. I want to work on some stuff here for awhile, might as well catch up on some emails and such,” the blonde responded.
“Okay, I’ll see you at lunch then,” Janet said and poured her wasted coffee into the sink then moved past the blonde towards the kitchen doorway. Just before she made it through Sam spoke.
“Hey, you,“ the younger woman said stopping Janet in her tracks. The doctor turned back to face the blonde and raised an eyebrow in response.
“You’ll still love me no matter what I look like right?” the blonde asked shyly.
Janet smiled at her partner and replied, “With all my heart, Samantha Carter, no matter what.”
“Okay, just checking. Now go get changed before you’re late for work,” Sam said with a smile of her own.
The doctor gave the blonde a wink and then disappeared from the doorway on her way upstairs to finish dressing; leaving Sam to sit back down on her stool and stare at her coffee mug. “Come on guys, find a way to fix me, please,” she murmured softly as she picked up her mug. Swallowing the cold coffee in two big gulps she then stood up to put the empty cup in the sink and headed back to her office to begin catching up on her emails.
**
On the distant planet where Sam’s problem had originated the team reached the complex after a few hours of walking. After taking a small rest to catch their breath they split into two teams; with Daniel and Cam heading east and Teal’c along with Vala taking the western section of the building.
Teal’c followed along behind his female teammate as she proceeded to search every inch of the dust filled rooms they entered. When he tried to help by looking over a few consoles Vala would quickly inform him that she’d already checked that out and then walk on to the next room leaving him to stare after her retreating form. After several hours of searching they found themselves in the room where Sam had been transformed, with the machine which caused it sitting in the center of the floor. While Teal’c looked over panels that had been surveyed already, Vala went over the nooks and crannies of the room once more, trying to find anything they’d missed from earlier.
“Wasn’t it you who turned on the lights in here?” Vala asked the Jaffa as she poked around under a console.
“Yes, after Colonel Carter deciphered which panel controlled them,” Teal’c answered.
Vala rose from her prone position under the console and dusting her hands off on her pants spoke, “Well find that panel and turn them off.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at the order. “What purpose does that serve?” he asked.
Shrugging her shoulders Vala replied, ”I don’t know yet but it’s the only thing we haven’t tried. You never know maybe things look different in the dark around here.”
Teal’c thought for a moment and then with a slight nod towards her moved to the panel controlling the lights, touching a series of switches which doused the room in darkness. He then stood beside the wall and watched as Vala moved around the room; her form lit from the light bleeding in from the hallway as she ran her hands over the consoles and panels on the walls. Soon she ended up next to the machine that had changed Sam and stood staring at the far wall. Teal’c began to say something to her but before he could speak she exclaimed, “Yes!”
“What have you found?” the Jaffa asked, moving towards her.
“There, around the edge of the far wall; don’t you see it?” she said pointing with an outstretched arm.
Letting his eyes adjust to the lower level of light in the center of the room the warrior could see a faint glow from the corner of the room where the two walls intersected. ”It appears we have discovered a hidden room,” the Jaffa remarked.
Vala bounced on the balls of her feet and then grabbed hold of Teal’c, hugging his broad frame. “I knew there had to be something we were missing,” she said in an excited voice. Releasing her hold on the Jaffa she moved towards the wall and ran her hands around the seepage of light. “Now, I have to find out how to open it. Turn the light back on,” she told Teal’c.
The warrior held his tongue from commenting on the order, realizing that Vala was only worried now with finding a way into the room behind the wall. He quickly moved to the light switches and turned them on then swiveled back around to see Vala kneeling on the floor, rummaging through her backpack. The Jaffa walked up as she began pulling objects from the bag. Raising an eyebrow he watched as a multitude of various objects emerged from their hiding places in her pack. She looked up and seeing him standing there handed him one of the objects.
Teal’c looked at the furry toy shoved into his grasp and inclined his head to the side. “Why do you carry this with you?” he asked.
Vala gave him a grin and reached up, petting the small stuffed giraffe. “It was a gift and I like to think he brings me luck,” she told him and then went back to searching through her pack.
Teal’c placed the animal under his arm and asked, “What do you search for?”
“This,” Vala answered, holding up a small box. She opened it to reveal several sleek picks and other tools used for gaining unlawful entry into things. “Daniel took them away from me after I came back the second time but I found where he hid them and took them back,” she commented with a grin.
“Of course,” Teal’c said with a slight upturn of his lips.
Vala stood and moved to the wall covering the hidden room. She closed her eyes and began passing her hand over the row of colored panels. Teal’c watched for several moments and was about to comment when she stopped her movements and pressed a red button. A small opening appeared as a green panel slid open below her and the dark haired woman knelt down to access it better.
“Should we not inform Daniel Jackson and Colonel Mitchell of our find?” the Jaffa asked.
“You can radio them but I’m not waiting for them to get here,” Vala remarked as she chose two of the tools from her little black box and began to poke around in the opening.
Teal’c reached a hand up to his shoulder and clicked his radio on. “Colonel Mitchell, we have located a hidden room where Colonel Carter was transformed and Vala is attempting to gain entry,” the warrior stated.
Mitchell’s voice crackled over the frequency, “Well tell her to stop! Jackson and I are on our way.”
Vala heard the response and remarked, “I’ll have it open before they get here.” As she completed the sentence there was a whir of motors from some hidden machine and the wall began sliding open. Vala stood as the wall moved and stuck her picks back in their case; she turned to Teal’c and flashed him a huge smile. “See, I told you so.”
Before she could step into the newly revealed room Daniel and Cameron rushed through the doorway. They came to a sliding stop next to Teal’c and Mitchell gasped out, “I told you to stop her.”
Vala interrupted the warrior’s reply with a wave of her hand. “Pish posh, I’ve been opening hidden doors since I was five, boys,“ she said with a smirk and blew across her knuckles then rubbed them on her chest.
“Still Vala, how were you to know if there was a trap set to go off when the wall opened?” Daniel asked as he recovered his breath from the mad dash to the room.
“It was a chance I had to take, Daniel. The answer to helping Sam could be in that room,” she said and took a step towards it.
Teal’c grabbed the back of her vest, stopping her forward momentum and stated, “I shall enter first.”
Vala began to protest but a raised eyebrow from the Jaffa stopped her and she made a pouting face instead as he moved past her and into the room. She eyed the other two men and when Daniel motioned for her to follow the warrior she quickly did so. Inwardly she hoped they found the answer they sought, for Sam’s sake.
**
Janet was in the middle of conducting physicals when the alarms went off and Walter’s voice sounded over the loud speaker, “Unscheduled offworld activation. Security teams to the embarkation room.”
She quickly finished taking the blood pressure of the huge marine sitting on the gurney and informed one of her nurses she was going to the control room. She prayed inwardly that it was SG-1 returning with information about Sam’s transformation or even a cure for her partner.
The doctor reached the control booth overlooking the gate room just as the iris opened and soon four figures emerged; it was the team returning from the planet. Vala practically bounced down the ramp and when she reached the bottom looked up, catching Janet’s eye. She gave her small lover a huge smile and thumbs up gesture which made the tension leak from doctor’s body; they had found something. Janet noticed that Daniel was carrying a very large book in his arms and she quickly moved down the stairs to meet the team as they exited from the gate room.
“Well, did you find something?” she asked, a little out of breath from her hurried travel.
Daniel gave his friend a smile. “Vala found a hidden room containing more of the machines and I found what appears to be a manual on their operation,” the archeologist informed her.
“He has to translate it but I’m sure there is an answer for fixing Sam in it,” Vala spoke up as she came to stand beside the doctor.
“It’s a bastardized form of Ancient. It shouldn’t take me long to figure it out, Janet. From what I could tell though I may need your help with some of the medical jargon it contains,” Daniel added.
“I’ll do anything I can to help you out, Daniel. I need to call Sam and let her know what you’ve found,” the doctor told them.
“We need to brief the General on our findings,” Daniel returned and then added, “Give us an hour and I’ll meet you in my office.”
The male team members moved past the doctor and headed towards the stairs leading to the briefing room leaving Vala and Janet alone. The dark haired woman placed an arm around her lover’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “See, I told you we would find an answer, Jan,” Vala told her.
“We don’t have an answer just yet, Vala, but there’s hope,” Janet remarked. “Instead of calling Sam, I’ll just take an early lunch and go pick her up from the house. You hurry along after the guys and get de-briefed then we’ll meet you and Daniel in his office.”
Vala nodded in agreement and after placing a kiss on Janet’s temple and giving her shoulders another tight squeeze left the doctor to head to the briefing room. Janet watched her walk away and then made her way to the elevator; she needed to tell her staff she would be occupied for the rest of the afternoon with the translation.
**
A little over an hour later Sam rushed into Daniel’s office. “Janet said you found something. Where is it? Are there technical specs for the machine?” The blonde teenager asked in a rush of questions as she skidded to a stop next to the table where Daniel stood along with Vala who was looking at the book.
“Slow down some, Sam,” Daniel said trying to stop a grin. “I just started my translation.”
“But are there blueprints?” she asked again. “I can go over them if you want me too.”
“I’m not sure if there are any. So far I’ve found out the machine was used to cure medical problems. Albeit a strange way of doing it but I guess it worked for them,” Daniel told her.
“Let me look,” Sam said as she moved to squeeze between Daniel and Vala who at that moment was trying hard not to burst out laughing at Sam’s exuberance.
“Samantha!” Janet exclaimed walking into the office. “Back up and let Daniel work,” the doctor ordered her younger partner.
Vala spoke at this moment, “Come on, Sam. Let’s go find something to burn off all that youthful energy so Daniel and Janet can work.”
Both Sam and Janet shot her an incredulous look and the dark haired woman laughed. “Get your minds out of the gutter. You’re a little on the young side for my tastes at the moment, my dear. We have to wait until you’re back to normal for that kind of energy burn.”
Daniel cleared his throat, reminding the three women they weren’t alone and Sam blushed as she met his eyes. “Umm, yeah, okay, let’s go spar or something,” the blonde remarked and moved away from the table. “We’ll check back on you guys in a little while.”
The trio watched Sam walk out of the room and Vala gave the doctor a smile.
“I’ll keep her busy, you two figure out what you can,” she told the pair.
Janet mouthed a “thank you” and watched as Vala followed after Sam. She then turned to Daniel and spoke, “Okay, tell me what you’ve found so far.”
The archeologist/linguist launched into what he had discovered while waiting for his friends to show up.
**
A few levels up from Daniel’s office, Sam entered the base gym followed closely by Vala. She headed straight for the wooden staves Teal’c used in the lessons he taught during his spare time. She grabbed two, turned and tossed one of them to Vala, who juggled the slender weapon in her hands, and took up a ready stance with her staff held out before her.
“I know I said we were going to burn some energy but Sam, come on, I’m not that good with these things,” Vala told her blonde lover.
Sam twirled the six foot piece of wood in her hand and shrugged her shoulders. “The General basically put me on leave; I can’t work on any of my projects or start new ones. Janet doesn’t want me to get in their way and you were the one who suggested we do something to burn off my excess youthful energy,” she remarked with a smirk.
“When you mentioned sparring I thought we’d do a little hand to hand,” Vala replied batting her eyelashes at the blonde.
“What happened to I’m too young for your tastes, my dear,” Sam pointed out as she moved towards Vala.
The woman backed away from the approaching teenager and laughed nervously. “A little judo never hurt anyone.” she joked.
“I’m a walking hormone right now, Vala. It was bad enough I had to sleep apart from Jan last night and now you want to wrestle around with me on the mat? No, I think this is much easier way to vent my frustration at the same time getting rid of nervous energy,” Sam stated in a serious tone and swung her staff towards her lover.
Vala squeaked and brought up her staff, catching Sam’s as it came downward. “Are you going to be like this until you get your old body back?” the woman asked as she blocked another quick blow.
“I am not old!” Sam growled and tried to sweep Vala’s feet out from under her.
“Whoa!” Vala yelled, jumping into the air and avoiding the staff. She landed and moved to the left, trying to feint a blow to the blonde’s side. “I hear a hint of anger in your voice, Samantha,” she commented as the staff in her hands reverberated from Sam’s block to her feint.
“Really, I don’t know why,” Sam replied sarcastically and whirling around planted a solid blow on Vala’s upper arm.
The dark haired woman dropped her staff and grabbed her arm. “Ow…that wasn’t nice!” she exclaimed and stared at the blonde in shock.
Sam’s breath came in heavy gasps and for a moment she almost continued the attack but the look on her lover’s face snapped her to her senses. The blonde threw the staff to the ground and ran towards the doorway; leaving Vala to stare after her retreating figure.
“Crap!” Vala muttered. Still rubbing the spot where Sam had struck her, the dark-haired woman took off after the teenager.
**
“This is fascinating, Janet,” Daniel said as he translated another passage from the book they’d found.
The doctor sat beside him on a stool and was busy transcribing what Daniel translated. She could understand his fascination with the culture. So far they had discovered that the machines were mainly used to cure diseases associated with age. They had already discovered the process was reversible. In fact, the change wasn’t meant to be permanent; the subject usually was switched back to their older self within a few hours after initial transformation with no sign of their ailments.
“There are many things this could be used for, Daniel. Many forms of arthritis, organ failure, and even Alzheimer’s could possibly be cured using this device,” the doctor said in an excited tone.
“I think there’s a catch here though, Janet,” Daniel informed her and read aloud from a new paragraph. “There is a time limit; it says here that any transformation longer than forty-eight hours risks permanent damage,” he read.
“Damage…what kind of damage?” the doctor asked in a worried voice.
Daniel continued reading, “A breakdown of the body’s cells since they weren’t designed to revert and possible brain damage could occur,” he translated and then looked up wide-eyed at his friend.
Janet jumped off of her stool and rushed to the phone. She picked up the receiver and pressed the intercom, speaking into it, “Colonel Carter and Vala Mal Doran, please report to the infirmary…stat!” She repeated herself two more times and then slammed the receiver down. Turning back to Daniel she ordered, “Find the instructions on reversing the machine. Sam is pushing that forty-eight hour mark, Daniel!”
“I’ll have it for you in a few minutes, what are you going to do?” he asked, flipping pages in the book.
“I’m going to meet them in the infirmary and run a physical on Sam to test for any changes. As soon as you find the instructions we need to get her back to that planet,” Janet told him and not waiting for him to respond, ran from the room on her way to the infirmary.
**
The elevator doors opened on Level twenty-one and Janet stepped into the hallway. She hurried towards the infirmary doors and as she entered found herself running into Vala’s taller form. Both women took a couple of steps back and then simultaneously asked, “Where’s Sam?”
“I thought she was with you?” Janet replied in a questioning tone.
Vala shook her head and answered, “She was until she got all upset and ran off.”
As Janet slipped past the taller woman and on into the infirmary she asked, “Upset? What happened?”
Vala followed and explained what had occurred during the sparring match while the doctor busied herself with grabbing one of the emergency medical packs and checking its contents. “I heard you call us here while I was searching for her and thought maybe she would answer the summons,” the dark haired woman finished.
Grumbling under her breath Janet muttered, “Damn it, Sam. Now is not the time to run away from us.” The doctor tossed the pack at Vala and spoke, “Let’s go; we need to find her and be quick about it. She doesn’t have much time left.”
Vala gave the doctor a confused look and as Janet began walking quickly towards the door she began telling her lover what she and Daniel discovered. The pair quickened their pace as they neared the elevator and as the doors opened Vala remarked, “I already checked with the guards up top. She didn’t go past them.”
“There are other ways to get topside, Vala. She’s used them before when not being seen was called for,” Janet stated.
“The access tunnels?” Vala asked and the doctor nodded her head.
“And I have a feeling I know where she is right now,” Janet added.
Soon they reached the top and not bothering to stop, ran past the guards stationed at the entrance to the elevators and out into the parking lot used by personnel not wanting to park underground. Janet spotted a jeep driven by one of the security personnel and waved him over to them. “Out of the vehicle soldier,” she ordered.
The young man began to protest and Vala spoke up, “She out ranks you and conducts your physicals. I think I’d move quickly if I were you.”
He swallowed and turned a pale shade of white but stuttered a “Yes, Ma’am” as he climbed out of the jeep allowing Janet to take the driver’s seat. Vala hopped into the back with the medical pack in hand and the doctor gunned the engine, causing tires to squeal, as the vehicle sped out of the tunnel leading to outside.
With wind blowing in her face Vala leaned closer to the driver’s seat and asked in a loud voice, “Where are we going?”
“Just hold on!” Janet yelled over the motor’s noise and turned the jeep off of the main road onto a dirt track. Vala did as told as Janet maneuvered the jeep through washed out spots and huge ruts, never decreasing the speed of the small vehicle. The dark haired woman kept quiet and held on for dear life as the jeep bounced its way over the trail. Soon the road smoothed out and they came into a clearing where Janet slammed the brakes on, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. She killed the motor and stood up in the seat, looking around the clearing as the dust settled.
Vala coughed a few times and waving a hand in front of her face remarked, “Sam had to have taught you how to drive like that.”
“Actually no, that was all me,” the doctor replied. “Come on, it’s this way,” she added and jumped from the jeep followed by Vala who scrambled to catch up with the fast moving smaller woman.
Janet weaved her way between trees and the overgrowth of small bushes. “Sam! Answer me! I know you’re out here!” the doctor called out in her loudest voice.
The doctor pulled up short and Vala stopped herself from plowing her down by grabbing a nearby sapling and spinning around. “What?” she asked.
Holding a finger to her lips Janet motioned for the woman to be quiet and she called for Sam once more. They both listened carefully and Vala heard a sound coming from their right. “I hear something,” she said.
The pair moved in that direction and soon stumbled upon the entry hatch for one of the bases’ access tunnels. Not far from it curled up in a ball on the ground lay the teenaged Sam. Janet rushed to her partner’s side and gently rolled her over onto her back. “Samantha? Speak to me, sweetie; what’s wrong?” the doctor asked as she noted the pained look on the young woman’s face, her pale coloring and her body was drenched in sweat.
“Hurts…all over…so…cold,” Sam gasped and whimpered as her body shook with chills.
The doctor took the pack from Vala and began digging through it. She pulled out a thermal blanket and shoved it into her lover’s hands. “Wrap her in this but leave me an arm free so I can get some fluids into her,” Janet ordered.
Doing as told, Vala wrapped the teenaged Sam in the shiny blanket and smoothed away the sweat soaked hair plastered to her forehead when the blonde whimpered again. “It’s okay, Sam. We’ve got you now,” she said softly.
Janet quickly inserted the needle into Sam’s arm and stood up, holding the bag of fluid as she shouldered the pack. “You’re going to have to carry her back to the jeep, even at this size I can’t pick her up,” the doctor told Vala.
With a nod, Vala knelt next to her shaking lover and threaded arms under Sam’s knees and behind her arms. Taking a deep breath she stood, lifting the teenaged woman from the ground. Shifting the blonde slightly in her grasp so as not to be overbalanced, Vala held onto her as Janet checked her vitals again before they moved; with a grim look up at the taller woman Janet turned and motioned for Vala to head back to the jeep with her precious load and the doctor followed behind, keeping the IV line from becoming snagged on the vegetation.
Reaching the jeep, Janet climbed in the back and helped Vala to place Sam on the seat. Holding onto her partner while Vala climbed into the vehicle, the doctor reached between the driver’s and passenger seat, grabbing the radio kept there. Once Vala had a hold of Sam, and positioned where she could keep her steady, Janet moved to the front of the vehicle and clicked the radio on. “This is Doctor Fraiser; I need a medical team and a stasis pod at the guard station…topside elevator…Stat! I’m on my way there now with critical patient…over.”
The doctor received an acknowledged reply and she cranked the jeep, looking over her shoulder at Vala she said, “Hold on tight, I’ll try not to knock us around too much on the way back but we have to hurry.”
“I’ve got her, just drive,” Vala replied, tightening her hold on the teenaged woman in her arms.
Janet eased the vehicle forward and with a determined look on her face she increased her speed along the bumpy trail back to the main road, going as fast as she could without throwing the pair in the back around. Sam was in enough trouble she didn’t need to add broken bones to the equation.
**