Disclaimer – MGM/Gekko/Double Secret own them.
Very short episode addition for ‘Nightwalkers’. Spoilers for ‘Frozen’ and ‘Nightwalkers’.
My apologies, but Jonas suddenly seems to have turned into a dog – and I *like* the guy.
*
She really didn’t need to stay on the phone any longer.
She’d received Janet’s verbal analysis on the liquid in the syringe, had actually made a written note of it – which would later be destroyed, of course – just because her hands wouldn’t stop moving.
Wanted something to do.
That never happened to her. That had always happened to...
Janet spoke, breaking the silence over the telephone line. “How’s it going over there?”
Even though she couldn’t see her, Sam shrugged. Standing up from the chair in her motel room, she lifted up the edge of the curtains, wincing at the light. “Creepy little American town. What else is there to say?”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
Yeah, she did know. And she also knew that it wasn’t because Janet doubted her abilities. “Okay. It’s okay. It’s actually...it’s kind of nice, actually.” Sam felt vaguely guilty for saying that, her gaze dropping to the floor.
“Getting to boss everyone around?” Janet queried, humour warm in her voice. “I can see why. How’s Jonas doing?”
The man in question drew her attention to him. He’d gone out a few minutes ago to ‘get some of this fantastic air’; though Sam knew it was as much to get closer to the food as anything else. She’d been keeping half on eye on him ever since.
Right now, he was hovering on the edge of the parking lot, frequently looking between the motel room, and main street.
Where the food was.
He’d never come right out and ask to go, though would he?
Or at least, not yet. But he was getting there.
“Pretty good,” Now he was hopping from one foot to the other. “It’s scary how much he reminds me of Daniel sometimes. Or...at least how Daniel used to be.”
“I know.” And she did. Janet understood everything.
“Although I don’t think Daniel ever let food get in the way of his research.”
A chuckle made it’s way to her ear. “That boy’s metabolism is quite something, let me tell you.”
There was something in her tone of voice...for the first time that day, Sam grinned. “Janet, is that a crush I hear developing?”
“Sam...”
“Come on, I can practically hear it growing as we speak.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Though she really didn’t sound like she was arguing about it. “You should know better than anyone how those rumou...that those kind of things get discussed all the time on base. Doesn’t mean it’s true.”
It was too late, of course. She’d tried to change what she’d been saying, but not soon enough.
And as Janet had been the one to bring ‘that’ subject up, Sam finally found the courage – and God, why did she need to find it anyway? – to ask the question she’d been avoiding:
“How is he, Janet?”
There was no long pause as Janet figured out who she was referring to, and no long pause as she hesitated to give an answer. There was no need. “Better, though there’s still a lot of work to be done. We estimate it’ll be another couple of days until he’s fully healed.”
Despite herself, she closed her eyes. “Why is it taking so long?”
“That virus did a lot of damage, Sam. A lot. Kanan isn’t Ayiana – it can’t just ‘suck’ the damage out of him. And let’s not forget that the symbiote itself was probably a little weak when it first went into him; it’s last host had been severely injured before he died.”
Yeah. Yes. All very good points. “Has he woken up again?” A flash of memory – the Colonel, groaning, gasping, fingers digging into the skin of her forearms. The skin she deliberately put under his hands.
She still had the marks.
“A couple of times, from what your dad tells me.”
“Dammit, I should have been there.” She should have. She knew better than anyone what this was like for him.
But she really hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
“Sam, you have to keep doing your job. He knows that. You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”
There was a lot she knew. Like, the night Richard Flemming had called, she’d only been at home because Janet had forced her to go. And just maybe because General Hammond had ordered her to go, too.
“Any sign of a new host yet?”
Now came the hesitation. “No. Not yet.”
“He’s not going to be happy,” Sam felt like laughing. “But then, we knew that from the start, right?” The one thing he always swore he’d never let happen to him.
“It was either accept the symbiote or die, Sam. I know which one I’d choose.”
But Janet wasn’t the Colonel. “I know that, Janet. But you’re not-”
“I know I’m not him, Sam. I also know I’m not you.”
What? “I-”
“You were the right choice.”
“The right choice for what?” She was definitely confused. As the Colonel would no doubt point out – had be been around – that didn’t happen very often.
Someone knocked on the door.
Sam jumped, peeking out through the window again and sighing in relief. She was supposed to be keeping an eye on him... “Look, I’d better go. Teal’c is still kel’no’reeming, but if Jonas doesn’t get breakfast soon things are going to get seriously ugly around here. I’m talking...Exorcist spinning-of-the-head stuff. And I do *not* want to clean up all that green pea soup.”
No response.
“Janet?”
She was amused when she responded. “Sorry. I’ll speak to you later...*Colonel*.”
And then she hung up.
Confused, Sam hung up her own phone, before grabbing her jacket from the back of the chair. Opening the door, she shoved her jacket on and nodded to Jonas.
“Come on. Let’s get you some breakfast before your stomach goes into shock for not digesting anything for...” She made a show of looking at her watch as she made her way through the parking lot. “...ooo, all of twelve minutes.”
Jonas frowned, then happily bounded after her.
~FINIS