Chapter Text
Stargate Day Prompt: Tollan/Tokra
(I’m taking this prompt as either Tollan or Tokra… rather than both…)
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Sam’s Lab
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“What is this?” Colonel O’Neill asked.
"Mm," Sam mumbled distractedly without turning around. She was knee deep in her most recent calculations, and only vaguely aware of what her commanding officer was doing. It wasn’t until, out of the corner of her eye she saw him touch the Tok’ra device on her bench that she finally snapped back into focus.
She leapt to her feet and grabbed his arm, intending to pull his hand away but she was just a fraction of a second too late.
It was a strange sensation; a pulsing kind of buzz ran through her body, and she felt as though she were frozen to the spot, unable to remove her hand from the Colonel’s arm.
“Ah, Carter. What’s happening?” He asked. She noted that he had yet to remove his hand from the device. She tried to gather her thoughts which all of a sudden seemed to be scattering like leaves in the wind.
“I don’t know.” She replied worriedly, still trying in vain to clear her mind. She looked down at her hand, squinting as she focused on removing her hand from his arm, one finger at a time.
The moment her hand was free and back under her control she felt her mind sharpen once more. “Sir, you need to take your hand off the device.” She stood beside him but was careful not to touch him this time.
“I’m… trying…” he replied through gritted teeth.
“Okay, so, focus on your hand. Just think of each finger as an individual and lift them one at a time…”
If the situation wasn’t so serious, she would have laughed at the sudden fierce, almost constipated look of concentration on his face. It took what felt like forever, but finally, he managed to remove his hand.
He cradled the hand that had been on the device in his other hand and stared down at it wide-eyed. While he recovered, she hurriedly switched the device off and turned back to him, eyeing him carefully in case he was injured in some way, but he just seemed to be in shock.
“What in the hell is that thing?” He pointed at the device.
“We don’t know. It’s of Tok’ra design, that’s all we know. It was abandoned on a planet and brought in by SG-5.” She hesitantly touched his arm. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. I felt like… it felt like an electric current was running through me.”
“I know, I felt it through your arm.” This seemed to surprise him.
“You felt it through me? Weird.”
“Yeah, I have no idea why or what it does… we should probably go down to the infirmary and get checked over just in case.”
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Infirmary
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Sam felt an odd thrill of fear run through her and shivered. Janet was about to take blood from Colonel O’Neill, and she saw his lips pressed together as he glared down at the needle. She continued watching, and to her utter surprise, as Janet pressed the needle into the vein of his right arm, she felt a pinch in her right arm!
She yanked up her sleeve and inspected the crook of her arm, but there was no mark. She frowned down at it before returning her gaze to the Colonel. He was looking at her, his eyebrows raised in question, clearly having seen her odd behaviour.
She decided to remain quiet until after Janet had drawn her blood. Maybe she was just over-tired, she hadn’t been sleeping well recently.
When the doctor returned with a fresh needle Sam held out her left arm and chose to look at her CO, rather than look down at the needle. She had never had much of an issue with needles, Colonel O’Neill and Daniel both hated them with a vengeance.
As the needle pierced her inner arm, she saw Colonel O’Neill yank up his left sleeve and peer down at his arm and she nearly jerked her arm out of Janet’s grip in surprise.
“You felt that… didn’t you?” Sam asked the Colonel. He didn’t answer, simply looked up at her in bewilderment and as Janet pulled out the needle, she felt the Doctor’s curious eyes on her too. “This is going to sound crazy,” she started and placed her finger on the cotton bud on her inner arm. “I felt you putting the needle into Colonel O’Neill’s arm.” She told Janet, choosing not to mention the fear that was not her own that she had felt prior to the needle. She wasn’t even sure if she had felt that apprehension or just imagined it anyway.
“I felt your needle, too.” Colonel O’Neill looked thoughtful for a moment, then horrified. “Wait, does this mean I’m always going to get double jabbed?”
Trust him to say something like that, Sam thought, biting her lip as she tried not to laugh.
“This is very strange. I want you two to stay in here for observation, I’ll go run these bloods.” Janet told them brusquely and spun on her heel.
“Great,” Colonel O’Neill retorted sarcastically and flopped back onto the bed with an overly dramatic sigh.
Sam pulled the pillows forward and made herself a seat and settled in for the wait. She had just thought she might be thirsty when the Colonel suddenly sat upright. He was staring at the pitcher of water that sat between their beds.
“You’re thirsty.” He told her, meeting her eyes, looking worried.
“How do you know that?” She asked, confused.
"Because I just drained an entire bottle of water before entering your lab, I'm can’t be thirsty yet therefore I must be feeling your thirst."
"Okay," she drawled, trying to wrap her head around his words. "So, you think you're currently feeling my need for water?"
“I don’t… ack!" He rubbed a frustrated hand over his face. "Maybe you’re thirsty but I’m thirsty because you are thirsty.”
She couldn’t help it, she giggled. The situation was of course concerning, but he always made tough situations a little easier, it was a talent of his… plus this was kind of ridiculous.
“How do we differentiate between what are our own feelings, and what are shared feelings?" She asked. She rose to her feet and poured them both water into the little plastic cups the infirmary supplied.
“You’re asking me?” He snorted. “C’mon Carter, you’re the one who works these things out, not me.”
“Well, I suppose we will just both have to drink.” She handed him one of the plastic cups and settled onto the cot next to him.
She didn’t have a clue what was going on. SG-1 had come across a great many strange devices over the years, but she didn’t really know what was happening. She was feeling his… feelings? Or emotions? But not all of them, just some… and he was feeling hers? This had to be one of the more bizarre situations they had ended up in.
"What did that device do to us?" He asked and took a sip of water.
“I don’t know sir; this isn’t like anything we have come across before.” She shrugged and reached across him to put her empty cup on the table beside his bed. As she did her arm brushed his and she felt an odd little buzz of electricity and a jolt in her lower belly. She slowly shifted back to her original position and gazed at him curiously, trying to read his expression. “Did you feel that?”
The embarrassing part was, she didn’t think this particular buzz had anything to do with the device. She couldn’t remember a time when Colonel O’Neill touched her and she didn’t feel some kind of thrill. She tried to reign in this particular train of thought and refocused her attention on her CO.
“The buzz or, ah," he started, awkwardly. "The buzz…?” He fiddled with the blanket beneath them, clearly uncomfortable, she suspected he was feeling the same thing as she was.
“It was different from the machine, right?” She clarified, but without waiting for a response she continued. “Do you think it’s intensifying? I mean, so far we know if I feel something, you feel it and vice versa." Then she had an epiphany, one she wasn't sure she liked. "Or maybe if we both have the same emotion or reaction, or whatever - the response or the feeling is amplified?”
She knew what she was admitting and felt her face heat up. She wasn’t even sure if he was attracted to her, she had an inkling he was… but what if this was one-sided. What if only she was attracted to him! This had the potential to be humiliating.
“Let’s be honest here Carter,” he chuckled but didn't look any happier than she did at the realisation. “It’s not the first time you’ve felt that… er... the buzz of electricity… when we accidentally touch, right?”
She squirmed beside him, suddenly wishing she had stayed on her own cot. On one hand, she was relieved this was not one-sided - on the other hand, how much did she admit?
“Yeah, I guess.” She shrugged, but hurried on, eager to change the topic. “So, we’re feeling each other’s feelings? This is going to make things…” she trailed off.
“Really awkward.” Colonel O’Neill finished for her.
“Yeah,” she agreed, giving him an uncomfortable smile. “I’m just gonna…” she pointed to her cot and got up. As she did, she could almost feel his gaze on her six and the heat in her cheeks intensified.
Yep, things were about to get very weird around here.
TBC.