Racing toward the stargate as fast as her tired legs could carry her, Sam was nearly at the foot of the steps leading up to freedom when a blast of energy from a blast staff blew the ground out from beneath her. Luckily, the Jaffa who wielded the weapon had bad eyesight, otherwise Sam would have been quite dead. Scrambling across the energy scorched ground Sam searched frantically for some type of cover. There, on the other side of the stargate platform was a solidly built home. Gathering her courage about her like a shield, Sam prepared herself for the most important sprint of her life.
Another blast shot just over her head, so close that she could smell the stench of burning hair. Ducking lower to the ground Sam pulled her pack and her empty automatic close to her chest and breathed a quick prayer of deliverance. She then surged to her feet and ran as if the hounds of hell were on her heels, which, in a sense, they were.
She heard the crackling of the energy blast milliseconds before it hit her. With a last surge of adrenaline, and ignoring the excruciating pain that lanced through her with each running step, Sam fell headlong into the very building that she had hoped would protect her. She nearly blacked out from the pain, however she had the presence of mind to pull herself out of the doorway before losing consciousness.
~*~
He saw her take the shot and something inside of him went berserk. Standing to his feet Colonel Jack O'Neill held his rifle at waist level in one hand and his hand gun in the other. Walking toward the two Serpent guards left standing, he opened fire. The first Serpent guard never knew what hit him. He fell to his knees, then over onto his face as if in slow motion. His last remaining act of violence was to release a round of energy into the ground, causing the area around him to be electrified.
As if he had known what the guard was up to, Jack stepped around the blue-white static on the ground and continued to fire his weapons. The second guard went down, but not without firing a last salvo toward Jack, just barely missing his shoulder. The closeness of the energy blast caused Jack's jacket to catch on fire, but he ignored it for the moment until he was assured that his enemies were indeed dead. Satisfied, after checking them both, he holstered his hand gun and slapped at his jacket as he ran toward the building where Sam had crawled.
"Carter!" Jack called, knowing that it wouldn't be in his best interest to just barge in on someone with a loaded weapon in her hands. Especially when that someone was wounded and trained in combat. "Carter, I'm coming in!" He shouted as he neared the doorway. He cringed when he saw the amount of blood there in the sand. She didn't answer him. Hesitating at the open doorway Jack debated whether to dive inside, or just walk in hoping that she wouldn't shoot him.
Diving into the door, Jack hit on his shoulder and rolled over onto his stomach. "Carter, it's me. Colonel O'Neill." He was momentarily blinded from coming into the dark building from the bright sunlight outside, so he couldn't see where Sam was at. "Sam? You okay?" He asked as he closed his eyes in an attempt to adjust them to the darkness. She still didn't answer.
Suddenly, Jack heard more gunfire and scrambled over to the door to take a quick look outside. Teal'c and Daniel were still out there, pinned down in a ravine by three Serpent Guards. Sam and Jack had somehow managed to draw the other five guards away in hopes that they would splinter off from the group. Divide and conquer, Jack thought with a wry smile. It sure didn't work this time. Worried for his other team members took second place in his mind when he heard Sam moan from the other side of the doorway.
Crawling furiously across the sandy floor, Jack's eyesight was clear enough that he found Sam, though he couldn't assess her injuries at this time.
"Carter?" Jack called as he knelt beside her. Reaching out toward her, his hand came into contact with Sam's cheek. Running his hand down her cheek to her neck, he quickly checked her pulse. He didn't like what he found. "Carter, wake up." He gently shook her shoulder.
"Oh, God. NO!" Sam screamed as the blessed numbness of unconsciousness left her and the full impact of the energy weapon burn hit her. Writhing in pain, she resisted the strong hands that tried to hold her down. With a surge of strength she tore her wrists out of Jack's grasp and struck him in the nose with her fist. Feeling her captor's hold suddenly released, she dragged herself as far away from him as she could. The wall stopped her painful retreat and she brought her weapon up.
"SAM! NO!" Jack shouted when he looked up to see that Sam had him in her sight. "It's me, Jack." Ducking his head down and covering it with his arms he waited for the bullets to strike. When, after several seconds of indecision and no other sound from Sam, Jack raised his head slightly to see what had transpired.
Sam sat slumped over, her back against the wall, and her rifle in her hands pointing directly at Jack. With a heavy sigh of relief Jack hurried over to carefully remove the weapon out of her hands before she could react. Placing it aside he gently laid her unresisting body on the ground he pulled a flashlight out of his pack. Turning to the side, thereby blocking the light beam from being seen by anyone passing by, he trained the beam on Sam. Jack nearly dropped the flashlight.
The cloth of Sam's B.D.U.'s were burned just below her hip. From what Jack could see, the still-smoking blast burn went from the left side of her hip and around to where he couldn't see. Gently turning her over onto her right side, Jack gasped in shock. Not only was the burn still burning her flesh, now there was sand and grit imbedded in the wound as well. Dropping the flashlight in his haste to grab his canteen, Jack wasted precious time grabbing up the flashlight and uncapping the water container. With his hands shaking so badly that he nearly lost the flashlight again, Jack finally gained control enough to pour the entire contents of his canteen over the hot wound. Jerking instinctively away from the smell of burning flesh, Jack's stomach knotted when the wound practically sizzled as it was cooled by the water.
Sweat broke out on Jack's forehead, though the temperature was anything but hot. He had to get Sam back through the stargate without delay. Tossing the empty canteen to the floor, Jack stowed their equipment in the dark corner of the building. Lifting Sam carefully into his arms Jack carried her to the door and immediately leaped back when a blast of energy shot bits of wood and thatch in his face. Scrambling into the corner of the building, Jack gently laid Sam there, piling the packs in front of her least a random shot enter the building and hit her. Picking up his weapons, he reloaded quickly, then hurried back to the doorway.
Crawling on his hands and knees to the doorway, Jack quickly removed his cap and put it back on his head, the bill to the back. With a grimace for what he had to do next, Jack took a deep breath and poked his head out in an attempt to see where his enemy was located. As he knew would happen, an energy blast spat sand into his eyes. Ducking back against the wall, Jack blinked his eyes rapidly in an attempt to clear the sand from them.
Another shot of energy illuminated the interior of the building, lighting up the corner where Sam was unfortunately stirring.
"Carter, get down!" Jack hissed to her. However, the room quickly grew dark again and he didn't know if she had heard him, or not.
Taking his cap from his head, Jack tossed it out the door, then followed it with a rolling tumble to the base of the stargate. Scrambling just ahead of the shots aimed at him, Jack brought up his own weapon and threw a few rounds toward the two Serpent Guards standing across the clearing from him.
"Where are you, Teal'c?" Jack muttered as he ducked down to avoid the answering salvo from the Serpent Guards. Hoping that his friends had managed to outwit their own guards, Jack worked his way carefully around the stargate's base in order to come up on those watching him from behind.
Jack crawled around to the end of the base and came face to face with Teal'c. Freezing his finger on the trigger just before he shot his friend, Jack dropped his head onto his hand for a moment in order to collect his wits. "Doggone it, Teal'c. Let a man know when you're comin' up on him, will ya?" Jack growled when he could speak without his voice betraying the fear he felt.
"I did not know that you would be here," Teal'c answered, one brow lifted in confusion at Jack's words.
"I know, Teal'c. Sorry." He looked around Teal'c. "Where is Daniel?"
"I left him with the DHD," Teal'c said, looking back over his shoulder toward the device.
"Then what are you doing here?" Jack inquired, wondering what had become of the Serpent Guards that had him and Carter cornered.
"I heard gunfire coming from this direction and I knew that you, or Captain Carter would be here. I came to tell you that the guards have been eliminated." It was Teal'c's turn to look over Jack's shoulder. "Where is Captain Carter?"
"She's back in that building there," Jack said, pointing over his shoulder, then realizing that they were lying on the ground behind the stargate when there was no reason. Standing to his feet he headed back to the building. "She's been injured."
Following Jack, Teal'c switched on his flashlight as soon as he entered the building. Training the beam around the darkened interior, he found Sam in no time and joined Jack by her side.
"Hey, Teal'c!" Daniel called from outside. "I'm dialing home. Let's go."
Teal'c held the flashlight steady as Jack lifted Sam into his arms once more. Picking up the packs from the corner, Teal'c followed Jack from the building.
"Hi, Jack," Daniel greeted cheerfully when he saw Jack come out of the building, then he noticed that Jack was carrying Sam. With worry in his eyes, Daniel started to hurry toward them. "What's wrong with Sam?" He began, only to be interrupted by Jack.
"She's hurt, Daniel, otherwise she wouldn't let me carry her, now would she?" Jack snapped as he walked over to the DHD. "Finish dialing, Daniel," he ordered in a no-nonsense voice.
~*~
As soon as Jack's feet touched the ramp in the gateroom, he was off and running with Sam to the infirmary. Pushing passed General Hammond as if he weren't standing there with his mouth open to ask what they were doing back so quickly, Jack was out of the room before the general's words could be formed.
"What's wrong with Captain Carter?" General Hammond demanded of Daniel and Teal'c, stepping in front of them when they tried to avoid him. "I want an answer from you two before you leave this room." Standing before them, his arms crossed over his barrel chest. He was there to stay until he got some answers.
"Teal'c, debrief the general," Daniel said swiftly, then skittered around the general to race from the room.
"Teal'c?"
Holding his blast lance like a lifeline, Teal'c stood before the general and informed him of SG-1's shortened excursion on R27331.
~*~
Jack burst into the infirmary shouting for Dr. Janet Frasier. The woman ran from her office, where she'd been writing in her latest patient's chart. It was a slow day and she had sent her assistant's home. Skidding to a stop in front of Jack, she quickly guided him to lay Sam on an empty exam table.
"What happened, Colonel?" She barked as she began removing Sam's utility vest. Taking a pair of shortened scissors from her lab jacket pocket, Dr. Frasier quickly cut the cloth around the wound on the front of Sam's leg. Cutting the material from the front to the back, she ordered Jack, who was still standing beside her, to help her move Sam onto her side.
With Jack holding Sam onto her right side Dr. Frasier was able to remove the remainder of the pant leg with very little effort. Jack cringed away slightly from the sight of Sam's wound in the harsh fluorescent lighting of the infirmary. It was worse than he had originally realized.
Dr. Frasier tried to clear the fact that this was her good friend lying on the table and become clinical about the wound before her. "Colonel, I'm going to need an assistant. Would you please recall Mary Holter to the infirmary?"
"Where is she?" He asked, confused that the doctor was all alone here.
"I sent them home. How was I to know that the only team off-world would come back with casualties?" Dr. Frasier gently pulled as much of the burned poly-cotton material away from the wound as she talked. "This wound needs immediate attention and I don't have time to explain my reasoning at this time."
"I'll help," Jack said quickly, then swallowed convulsively when Dr. Frasier took a pair of tweezers out of her pocket and began picking out pieces of the material from within the wound. She looked up into Jack's pale face and smiled slightly.
"Are you certain?" She asked as she returned to her work.
"Yeah... sure," Jack stammered, turning his eyes away quickly as the doctor reopened the seared wound as she removed a piece of material that had melted to the skin.
"Okay, then glove up," Dr. Frasier ordered as she tossed a pair of latex gloves his way. As soon as Jack pulled the gloves on, she gave him a nod toward Sam's feet. "Get those boots off of her."
~*~
Jack had never faced such a challenge in all of his years in the military. Sweat rolled down his face to be wiped away with an impatient swipe of his sleeve. Holding a collection container out for Dr. Frasier to drop bits of cloth and dead skin into, Jack thanked the good Lord several times that he hadn't had anything to eat in the past 3 hours as he watched the doctor painstakingly debride Sam's wound.
"Why..." Jack began, then had to swallow back the bile that rushed to his throat as Dr. Frasier paused in her procedure to look up at him for a second. "Why do you have to do... that?" He asked when he managed to control his stomach.
"The skin I'm removing is dead," Dr. Frasier explained carefully. "Sam... Captain Carter's wound will heal much quicker this way." Returning to her work she said, "Colonel, just tell me when you need a break."
"No, I'm fine, really."
When Dr. Frasier had begun to work on Sam she had asked Jack to help her in undressing Sam, then she'd remembered that she wasn't talking to an assistant. She had Jack step out of the room while she removed the rest of Sam's clothes and redressed her in a surgical gown. When she had called Jack back in, Sam was reasonably clothed, with the exception of the wound area, which was strategically draped with a sterile field. Dr. Frasier had warned Jack not to touch anything except the collection container. To begin with, Jack had felt better with Sam under the doctor's care, but it seemed to be taking an unusually long time.
"How much longer?" He asked Dr. Frasier in concern.
"I'm done," she said as she dropped her instrument into the container that Jack held in his shaking hand. Cleaning the wound with betadine solution, she placed gauze bandages over the wound and carefully taped it in place. At one point the sterile field slipped down Sam's hip and Jack reached out, instinctively, to stop it from sliding to the floor.
"NO!" Dr. Frasier cried when she saw what he was doing. "It's still sterile," she explained as she pulled the sheet up herself. She looked up at Jack and noticed his blanched features. "Colonel, you'd better sit down before I have two patients to take care of."
Jack sat abruptly in a chair by the bed, holding his head in his hands.
"Are you okay?" Dr. Frasier asked when he remained in the chair long after she was finished with the bandages. Stripping off her gloves she tossed them into the biohazard bag, then donned another non-sterile pair with which to clean up. "Colonel?"
"I'll be fine," Jack lied as he mulled in his mind what he'd seen when the sheet had slipped off of Sam's hip. It was a simple, small mole right at the base of her spine. What had Jack so flustered was the fact that he couldn't figure out why he had had the overwhelming desire to kiss that little mole.
"Sir?"
Jack looked up into Dr. Frasier's confused face. "What?"
"I'm sorry, you said something about a mole?" Dr. Frasier nearly lost control of her smile when she saw Jack's face flame a deep, embarrassed red. Whether the pair was aware of it, or not, nearly everyone else at the SGC knew that there was something between the two of them.
"No, Doc. Sounds like you're making a mountain out of a mole." Jack muttered as he stood to his feet and made his way out of the infirmary.
"Mole hill, Colonel," Dr. Frasier corrected him as soon as he was out of earshot. "Mountain out of a mole hill, is the correct phrasing, I believe." She walked back over to Sam's side and finished cleaning her surgery area with a smile on her lips.
The End
Story Notes: Hi all,
This is my contribution to the challenge tossed to the list. I hope it meets with approval. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, this story is not for the squeamish. Happy reading and bring on the next challenge!
Sherrill
"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Phil. 4:13
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Stargate SG-1, the characters and the plot lines all belong to MGM/UA, Showtime Entertainment, Gekko Worldwide, et al. This story is a figment of the author's imagination and is not intended to infringe on any copywritten material belonging to the aforementioned production companies. Please do not archive, or otherwise post this story without the authors express permission. Comments are welcomed by the author and may be addressed to: bosco4@gte.net
This is my contribution to the challenge tossed to the list. I hope it meets with approval. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, this story is not for the squeamish. Happy reading and bring on the next challenge!
Sherrill
"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Phil. 4:13
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Stargate SG-1, the characters and the plot lines all belong to MGM/UA, Showtime Entertainment, Gekko Worldwide, et al. This story is a figment of the author's imagination and is not intended to infringe on any copywritten material belonging to the aforementioned production companies. Please do not archive, or otherwise post this story without the authors express permission. Comments are welcomed by the author and may be addressed to: bosco4@gte.net
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]