None of them had said a word for the past fifteen minutes. There wasn't in a sound in the infirmary but their own breath, and the soft hum of the lights, and the steady, reassuring beep of the monitors. Sam Carter lay in an infirmary bed like some marble replica of herself---her still features drawn, her skin pale and slick-sheened with a thin layer of sweat. Only the occasional faint twitch of her lips, the slow rise and fall of her chest under the thin infirmary blankets, disturbed that illusion.
The monitor screens flickered, striking dull pewter glints off a bent gray head. O'Neill had pulled a chair up alongside the bed for his usual vigil. He'd folded that long, lean body of his into a familiar attitude: shoulders slightly hunched, his elbows braced on his thighs, his hands toying with some small object.
Janet Fraiser wasn't exactly sure when things had changed. At the start, it had been the four of them watching Sam Carter---a miraculously no-longer-lost-in-space, impressively concussed Sam Carter---sleep. So when, exactly, had it become a matter of the rest of them watching Jack O'Neill watch Sam Carter sleep?
Dammit. Janet caught her breath in one sharp sigh.
Daniel looked up from his perch on the next bed over, the reflections of the infirmary lights skittering across his spectacles. He and Janet stared at one another, mouths twisted in identical expressions of wry awareness. Then he looked away, a quick flick of his eyes towards Jack, and up to Teal'c.
Teal'c inclined his head slightly. Rising, the two men began making their way toward the door. O'Neill looked up.
"Headin' out?'' He spoke in a voice one step above a whisper.
"For a while.'' Daniel laid one hand, briefly, on the older man's shoulder. "You're staying?''
O'Neill nodded, his eyes already drifting back to Carter's face. Daniel sighed, and followed Teal'c out the door.
"Sir?'' Janet, too, kept her voice low. "She's out of danger now.''
"Good.''
"Sir, you should sleep.''
"Later.''
"When she wakes up, you mean", Janet thought wearily. "You'll wait until she wakes, and then go."
Story Notes: SUMMARY: Spoilers for Season 7 episode "Grace"
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