"Bravo-7," Daniel guessed.

"Miss," Mitchell's voice came over the radio. They had talked Dr. Lam into giving them short-range walkies so they could at least talk to each other. At some point hours later they had started up a game of Battleship that turned into a tournament.

"No way."

"It's a miss, Jackson. Delta-2."

Daniel frowned at his hand-drawn game board. "Hit," he admitted reluctantly. "Bravo-6." He knew Mitchell's cruiser had to be somewhere in the area.

"Hit."

"Ha!" Daniel marked his grid. "Found you, you bastard."

"Foxtrot-niner," Mitchell guessed.

"Seriously?" Daniel asked the isolation room, before speaking into the radio. "Did you hack the security camera or something? " He glared at the camera suspiciously.

"A hit, then?"

"Yes."

"It's your patrol boat isn't it?"

"I'd be impressed, except I'm mad at you," Daniel shot back. "Alpha-6."

"Hit," Mitchell allowed. "Hey, someone's here. I'll be right back."

"Sure."

Daniel put down the radio and examined his previous game boards, looking for any pattern in Mitchell's ship placements.

"Keeping busy?" Dr. Lam smirked at him from the doorway.

"It's something to do," he answered carefully. No one had been around to check on them for hours, and no one had dared enter the room. "Does this mean you have a cure?" he asked.

"Not yet, sorry."

"Well, don't think I'm complaining, because you are infinitely better company than Mitchell here," he wagged the radio in his hand. "But I'd like to get out of here eventually."

"We do have an idea. Now that the female mice are pregnant the pathogen is mutating again," Dr. Lam told him.

"I'm already uncomfortable with where this is going," Daniel sighed.

With an apologetic, yet mischievous grin, Dr. Lam held up a specimen container. "Do you want a magazine?"

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sam arrived at the biology lab hopeful, and a little sickened.

"Col. Carter. We're doing the final control test," Dr. Bandler greeted her as Dr. Lam handed him a syringe. "What we've got is…"

Sam put up her hand. "I don't want to know whose is whose. Frankly, I don't like that I know what is in there."

"It's just the mice."

"I have to draw the line somewhere. I have to work with these guys."

Dr. Lam shrugged. "Fair enough. We're working with…. Mouse A." She reached into a cage. "This is one of his females. We let nature take its course with the mice and once the female fell pregnant it effectively neutralized the pathogen."

"I have no intention of taking maternity leave over this," Sam said flatly.

"We think we have the next best thing," Dr. Bandler assured her. "This serum should have the same effect without anyone having to suffer the indignity of a baby shower. "

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mitchell looked up from the tower of cards he was building when the door to the isolation room opened. The last time it'd opened things got very personal very quickly and he wasn't looking forward to round two.

"How come you got sprung?" he demanded when Daniel walked in flanked by Dr. Lam and Sam.

"This isn't healthy for my self-esteem, but," Daniel put his arm around Sam. "No one is attracted to me anymore."

"He's just a big dork again," Sam confirmed elbowing her best guy friend in the ribs.

"Never thought you'd be excited to be ignored by the ladies, did ya, Jackson?"

"Enjoy it while you can. You're about to be nothing special yourself."

"What 'cha got, doc?" Mitchell turned his attention to Dr. Lam.

"Don't ask," Sam and Daniel said at the same time.

"Well, now I have to know."

"The flower you brought back with your was more of a fertility drug than an aphrodisiac," Dr. Lam said, preparing the injection site. "The only way to deactivate the spores is for the female to get pregnant. When the female's hormones change that signals the spores to deactivate and basically die off."

"You're injecting me with pregnant lady hormones." Mitchell's first instinct was to pull away, but it was too late, the needle already pierced the skin.

"Not exactly," Dr. Lam corrected him. "That is the concept. We had to match it up to you specifically and the proteins in your…"

"Sample," Daniel interrupted.

"You're injecting me with pregnant lady hormones and my own…"

"Sample," Daniel interrupted again.

"Sample," Mitchell agreed.

"It's more than that. Each strain was specific to the host…"Dr. Lam trailed off at Mitchell's strained expression and sighed. "Yes. Pregnant lady hormones and seamen."

"Sample," Mitchell and Daniel corrected her.

"Told you not to ask," Sam chided them.

"Are we done here? Cause I got an urge to go do something very manly to off-set what just happened to me." Mitchell rolled down his sleeve again. "Build a car, boxing, push-ups… something."

"We have to make sure the spores have been rendered inert before I can clear you to leave."

"How do we know when it's worked?"

"When you start striking out again," she told him.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

48 hours later everything was back to what passed for normal at the SGC. With the host spores convinced they had done their job there were no negative side effects but general embarrassment for all those affected and Col. Mitchell's uncharacteristic inability to look most people in the eye.

"So the one thing I don't get," Mitchell said as SG-1 gathered at their usual table in their favorite bar. "Is we were all there. How come Teal'c didn't end up with a harem?"

Daniel chewed on a buffalo wing thoughtfully. "And how did I end up with so many more groupies than Mitchell?"

"It's spread through touch," Sam explained. "Teal'c keeps to himself physically, Mitchell has regulations dictating his actions, and you're a big teddy bear who likes hug everyone."

"I do not," Daniel protested just as their usual server came by with a tray of drinks.

"You guys look like you've had a hard day," she said, putting out an assortment of glasses on the table- drinks they hadn't ordered yet.

"Thanks, Mel, you read my mind," Daniel said at the sight of drink delivery. After nearly a decade of frequenting the same bar, the entire staff knew SG-1 and their habits.

"What a refill on the fries?" Mel asked, leaning up against Daniel who put his arm around her. "Or should I just get the next round ready?"

"I want more wings," Daniel glanced around the table looking for the rest of the order.

"I vote cheese fries," Sam spoke up.

"I second that and go ahead and get the next round going, too," Mitchell chimed in.

"You got it." She turned and went to put in their order.

"You really can't keep your hands to yourself, can you?" Mitchell asked as soon as Mel was out of earshot. Sam snorted into her beer.

"What?" Daniel asked. All three of his teammates were staring at him.

"You were hugging her," Mitchell told him.

"Was not."

"You had your arm around her, Daniel," Sam confirmed.

"Did not."

"Indeed you did, Daniel Jackson."

"Are you telling me I hug people so frequently I don't even realize I'm doing it?" Daniel asked.

"Not necessarily hug," Sam allowed. "But you do the arm around the shoulders thing."

"And the half elbow to the ribs/shoulder bump thing," Mitchell added.

"Hand on the back when you come up behind someone."

"The shoulder squeeze of encouragement."

"And the hugs," Sam concluded.

Daniel didn't have a comeback, witty or otherwise, so he passed around the drinks instead. Club soda and lime for Teal'c, car bomb with whiskey chaser for everyone else.

"Okay guys, bottom's up." Daniel took his shot glass of Bailey's and waited for Sam and Mitchell to catch up.

"I propose a toast," Mitchell said. "To surviving yet another day as us."

"Hear, hear," Daniel and Sam chorused, toasting.

"Jackson doesn't move," Mitchell ordered.

"What?" Daniel asked, freezing mid-toast.

Mitchell looked down at his right shoulder where Daniel's hand rested, a friendly and significant gesture. "Ya see? Shoulder squeeze of encouragement."

Daniel looked down at his own hand, completely unaware how it had gotten there. "I…." he trailed off, no excuses coming to mind.

Mitchell rolled his eyes and looked at Sam. "We're going to have to work on that."

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

That's it! Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following! I appreciate everyone's feedback and support. Thank you for your patience with my typos, as this is un-betated and full of my own mistakes. I try to reread at least twice before I post, but I know I still miss stuff. I've had a great time writing for your guys and hope to be back with a new story soon!