Disclaimer Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

There's a lot of clichés in this world. And oddly enough, a good portion of them are true. The early bird does get the worm, little pitchers really do have big ears and beauty IS only skin deep.

I'm familiar with everyone on this base, some more than others. I can tell with a glance if Siler's sciatica is acting up, or if that rash is back on Johnson's leg. As much as he tries to hide it, I know when Colonel O'Neill's knee is acting up or when Jonas has eaten something that doesn't agree with him.

Every one of my charges are unique, every one different in their own way. But when you get right down to it, they're all identical too. Peel away their skin and ignore their quirks and you get the one thing that unites us all.

Blood.

That almost mythical fluid that is the one thing every single one of us have in common. It's hot and red as it flows through veins, rushing enthusiastically from beating hearts, feeding and nourishing, spreading life as it goes.

Every body's blood is a little different. There are different types and compositions. Sam's is tainted with an alien metal while Teal'c's and Jonas' are virtually awash with foreign bit and pieces. The colonel's is astonishingly ordinary, while the general's is forever marked by a run in with malaria several decades before.

It courses past injuries, both old and new, repairing damage as it goes. It carries with it sustenance for the body, food and oxygen. If you cut the supply off for too long, things begin to fail. They grow cold and still, lifeless.

Most people think of blood as a single substance, but it's not. In fact, it is only as good as its components. Too much of one part or another and it can do more harm than good. It needs to be in balance, the life carrying red cells with the life defending white, the proteins with the plasma.

Blood is vital to a body, just as people are vital to this base.

If you look at the surface, all you see is an endless stream of blue coursing up and down the halls, radiating out from the control room to the fartherest reaches of the concrete entity we call the SGC. But if you look closer, you see the details that makes this place work.

Techs maintain and repair the damage of day to day life. Soldiers stand ready to defend the base from invasion, to protect their home.

If you take away the people, the base will die. It will become cold and still, barren and abandoned. Without someone to maintain it, it will degrade and start to fall apart.

We need balance to keep the SGC running, the proper mixture of defenders and maintainers, brawn and brains.

We all share the substance of blood, just as we all share the common cause of defending our planet and our base. We are united, working together as we live our separate lives.

Odd alliances and partnerships are formed, separate entities meshing and becoming one unit. People are no longer seen as individuals but as parts of a whole, interdependent and vital to the smooth running of the group.

We're all linked, siblings under the skin and in our hearts. People say that 'blood brothers' is a cliché, a throwback to a bygone era. I say they're wrong, for us, blood brothers and sisters, is a way of life.

~Fin~

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