Captain Samantha Carter sat trembling on her bed. Drawing her knees up to her chest she wrapped her arms tightly around them and sat rocking slightly back and forth. Placing her fingers on her lips she smiled sadly as she recalled the last mission she and the rest of SG-1 had endured. The mission that caused Colonel O'Neill to be in the infirmary right now. Picking up her pillow she hugged it to her chest as her mind traveled back to a week earlier...
~*~
It had started out as a normal, run-of-the-mill intelligence mission. Gate in, check out the local flora and fauna and see if there was any intelligent life to contact. What the SG-1 team had not counted on was serpent guards waiting in ambush. As soon as the SG-1 team stepped through the gate Teal'c had felt as though something was wrong and they had all learned the hard way not to disregard the Jaffa's instincts. On guard for any eventuality, Colonel O'Neill had led his team only a few kilometer's into the arid desert surrounding the stargate.
The attack came when the team was split, Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter were exploring an interesting bank of unusual flowers and the resultant fruit, and Daniel Jackson and Teal'c were checking out the area closest to the gate. As if on signal, staff lances began firing, knocking Carter off her feet as the first blast tore a chunk of the bank out from beneath her. She went pin-wheeling down the embankment, her weapon instinctively clutched tightly in her hands.
Crawling quickly back up the embankment Carter did a quick assessment of their situation and wasn't very happy with the outcome. As near as she could tell there were at least ten serpent guards, complete with staff lances, advancing on their position. Peeking over the ridge of the embankment she caught a glimpse of Col. O'Neill before sand was blasted into her eyes by another close shot. Ducking quickly behind the bank, she clawed at the sand in her eyes. She prayed that they didn't know she was temporarily blinded. Uncapping her canteen she quickly rinsed her eyes out as best she could and gained some small relief. Slipping her sunglasses over her eyes to prevent another blinding she scampered sideways across the bank to where she figured Colonel O'Neill would be.
"Colonel? Are you okay?" She hissed as loudly as she dared, hoping that he would hear her.
"Yeah," he answered just as quietly. "Can you see where they are?" He maintained his somewhat precarious position behind a clump of the unusual plant.
"Yes, sir," Carter called. "Teal'c and Daniel are caught behind them. But, they're close to the gate. The serpent guards are just below you and to the right."
"Can you take them out with a grenade?" He asked, shifting his position so that he could peer out between the large leaves of the plant.
"Maybe one section of them, but the others are too widely spaced to have any damage done by the first grenade and I'm sure we won't get a second chance." Carter chanced another quick look over the top of the bank and nearly got her head blown off for her troubles. She actually felt the searing heat of the blast singe her hair.
"Damn," she exclaimed as she hit the dirt.
"What is it?" O'Neill practically demanded in a choked whisper.
"Oh, nothing, sir. I just had a quick haircut, courtesy of a serpent guard." Sam quickly pulled a cap out of her pocket and covered her frizzed hair. At least the olive drab color would be harder to spot over her yellow-blonde hair.
"Cover up, Carter!" O'Neill snapped, angry that she had come close to being killed and even angrier because he didn't know why it had scared him so much.
"Done. Colonel, I'm thinking that I should toss a grenade into the biggest group of them, perhaps that will confuse them enough to get you off that bank."
"Carter, don't try anything heroic," O'Neill ordered, though he knew that his only chance of getting out of his current situation, would only be with Carter's help.
"Not heroic, sir, just hit and run. Trust me." Carter pulled a grenade from her utility belt and slipped the pin out. Holding the release clip down she shuffled back across the bank to a safer distance from the Colonel and jumped to her feet, yelling at the top of her lungs, and threw the grenade with unerring ability, right in the midst of the small group of guards. They raised their weapons to fire at her and realized, too late, that they would not get the chance to use them. Sand blew thirty feet into the air and Carter quickly ducked back behind the bank before the other guards could locate her.
"Carter!" O'Neill called from her side of the bank. Scrambling to his side she saw that he had received a glancing blow from a staff lance and her heart constricted.
"Sir, are you okay?" She asked worriedly as she reached out toward his smoking sleeve.
"Nothing that won't wait. We have got to get off this hill." He took a quick look over the ridge and just as quickly ducked back when a hail of lance fire shot over his head. "What on earth are Daniel and Teal'c doing?" He muttered to himself.
"Sir, I hope they've gated back home," Carter answered his question, even though she knew he hadn't asked her.
"Me, too," O'Neill said, then added, "But, you know Teal'c isn't one to leave a good fight."
"Sir, we might try following this ridge to the west and hopefully come out behind the enemy." Carter looked down at the Colonel's arm, blackened by the shot from the staff lance. She'd seen the damage before, to the point of frying a man to death if the wound went unchecked. "Sir, at least allow me to clean your wound and field dress it," she added when he caught her looking at his arm.
"No go, Captain. I told you it's fine. I'll have Dr. Fraiser look at it when we are safely at home." O'Neill shifted his arm so that Carter couldn't see it. "Now, let's try out your theory."
Sliding five feet down the embankment, Carter stood to her feet and hurried as fast as the shifting sand would allow, glancing back every now and then to assure herself that her commanding officer was coming with her.
Just as they rounded a bend they were met by two serpent guards, lances aimed. O'Neill slammed into Carter's back when she suddenly stopped, sending them both tumbling to the ground. The action probably saved both their lives as the staff lance shots went over their heads.
Scrambling to her feet, Carter grabbed O'Neill's injured arm and practically threw him back the direction they had come.
"CARTER!" O'Neill shouted, warning her of impending doom. Throwing a quick round of shots toward their rear attackers, Carter was glad to hear the Colonel's weapon being discharged. Back to back they stood on the side of the bank and shot at their enemies, knowing that they could not win this battle.
"Out of rounds!" Carter cried out as she pulled her pistol out of her holster and began taking quick, accurate shots at the swiftly moving targets in front of her. She felt the Colonel sag against her back and wanted nothing more than to turn to see what had befallen him, but she knew that to do that would be to sign their death warrant.
"Carter, drop and roll," O'Neill snapped.
"Sir!" Carter protested, though she knew better.
"DROP AND ROLL!" He snarled, turning to push her to the ground.
The angle of the hill where they stood was such that when Carter dropped she lost her footing began to tumble, head over heels down the bank, to land in a heap at the bottom of the hill, the breath knocked out of her. She lay, unable to move, though she could see the horrible scene unfold above her.
Colonel Jack O'Neill, in a last-ditch effort, pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed the grenade behind him at the advancing guard there. He then dropped to his knee and opened fire on the guard advancing to his front. His plan would have worked had he not run out of ammunition for his rifle. With all of the bravado of a commando he threw the empty rifle at the three guards and then himself, drawing his knife and using it in hand to hand combat against them all.
The first guard slashed down toward O'Neill's head with his staff lance, too close to fire accurately. O'Neill ducked just in time to avoid having his head severed from his body, but did not avoid the blow entirely as it struck his shoulder. He quickly struck at the guard with his knife and the guard went down without a sound. The other two merely stepped over their fallen comrade and reached for O'Neill, one held a zat gun and Carter regained enough oxygen to squeak out a warning to the Colonel, too late. The electrical blast, at close range, sent a surge of energy through him that caused his body to spasm uncontrollably. Shaking so much that he fell out of their grasp and tumbled down the embankment. O'Neill didn't know what had hit him when his head came in hard contact with a stone. Carter heard the sickening thud from where she lay.
Realizing her unprotected position, she looked up into the eyes of death as both serpent guards lifted their staff weapon lances and aimed them her way. Closing her eyes against the searing pain that was sure to come, Carter waited, and waited, then peeked one eye open to find both guards lying, dead on the hillside. Lifting her eyes she saw Daniel and Teal'c standing at the top of the ridge.
"Sam! Are you all right?" Daniel called.
Scrambling to her feet Carter waved that she was okay. Running toward the area where she had seen the Colonel fall, she nearly tripped over his inert body lying in the foliage. Falling to her knees she gently brushed away a leaf that obscured O'Neill's face and gasped at the laceration on his temple.
"Daniel. Teal'c. Get down here, quickly!" She shouted as she checked Colonel O'Neill for broken bones. Finding his left arm broken in at least two places she quickly strapped makeshift splints to the arm, then continued her examination without moving him. The head wound worried her, but, she kept reminding herself, head wounds always bleed more. Opening her back pack she removed the first aid kit and quickly cleaned the head wound and placed steri-strips over the bleeding cut, then placed a pad of gauze over that and taped it as best she could. She was just checking for back injuries when Teal'c and Daniel stumbled to her side.
"How is he?" Daniel asked sincerely, kneeling by Carter's side.
"I'm not sure. He got a close range hit from a zat gun, so I don't know about internal damage," she assessed, then continued with her examination.
"Captain Carter," Teal'c said in a very serious tone, though it wasn't much different from his normal voice. "I am unsure of the number of serpent guards remaining in this area. We must return to the stargate immediately."
"I don't want to move him until I'm sure he doesn't have any spinal injuries," Carter explained as she gently prodded O'Neill's neck.
"Ah, Sam, I think he stands a better chance of survival with a broken neck than he does if he gets hit with another shot from a zat gun," Daniel worried as he stood to his feet and glanced fearfully around him.
"Daniel Jackson is correct," Teal'c said, as he leaned down and lifted the Colonel onto his shoulder with one smooth action.
"Move out, Daniel," Carter said, as she attempted to hold O'Neill's broken arm steady. As they struggled up the embankment, Carter grabbed an undamaged staff weapon and used it to gain the top of the hill. There were no other serpent guards in sight. Which, under the circumstances, didn't mean a lot, Carter thought to herself.
"Teal'c I'll lead off, you stay in the middle and Daniel..."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll take drag." He held his rifle at the ready and swept the area with a thorough glance. "Lead on, Sam," he suggested.
Trotting across the wide expanse between the hill and the stargate, Carter kept a close eye on the surrounding area. Reaching the DHD she quickly dialed home and punched in the code to their remote device for the iris back home.
"Go!" She ordered Teal'c and Daniel. Watching their backs, she only headed for the shimmering stargate after the three of them had disappeared. Backing into the cool Naquida liquid of the stargate, she felt the cloying sensation of the stuff melting into her body as she gated back to earth.
~*~
As soon as she stepped into the gateroom in the SGC, Carter ran to the gurney where Teal'c was gently placing Colonel O'Neill.
"People, what in the world happened?" General Hammond barked as soon as he cleared the doorway leading into the gateroom and saw his number 1 team battered and bruised.
"Serpent guards were waiting in ambush, sir," Carter said, as she gently wiped at the blood trickling down O'Neill's cheek with her sleeve.
"CLOSE THAT IRIS!" General Hammond shouted urgently. "Get these people to the infirmary," he ordered. "Captain Carter, debriefing in one hour." Turning on his heel he quickly left the room.
A small woman, just over five feet tall, came running into the gateroom, her white coat flapping behind her. She began snapping orders that solicited an immediate response. Soon Colonel O'Neill and the rest of the team were whisked out of the gateroom and down the corridor to the infirmary.
"Sam, how are you?" Dr. Janet Frasier asked the woman as they hurried behind O'Neill's gurney.
"I'm fine, Janet, I can wait," Sam assured her friend. "Take care of the Colonel first, please."
"Teal'c. Daniel?" Dr. Frasier asked.
"It'll wait, Doc," Daniel said as he limped after them.
"I have no injuries that would require your immediate attention, Dr. Frasier," Teal'c said quickly.
"Tough bunch, aren't we?" Dr. Frasier said beneath her breath as they entered the infirmary, then she became all business. "Teal'c, Daniel and Sam, go into the exam room and wait for me there."
"You," she said pointing at the men pushing the gurney. "Take Colonel O'Neill into the O.R. and get him cleaned up."
"Watch the left arm, I suspect it's broken in at least a couple of places," Carter called after the swiftly departing men.
Hurrying after the gurney, Dr. Frasier began ordering x-rays, EKGs, CT's and any other test that she thought might be appropriate. The room was soon buzzing with efficiency.
~*~
Teal'c pushed away from the wall where he'd been standing, his staff weapon still held securely in his hand.
"Um, Teal'c, don't you think you should check your weapon into the armory?" Daniel asked the Jaffa quietly.
Looking down at the lance, as if just noticing it for the first time, Teal'c cocked an eyebrow and left the room.
"Daniel, where were you and Teal'c?" Carter asked as she opened a cold pack and, after activating it, applied it to a bump on the back of her head.
"Well, it seems that we were engaging the enemy from behind, taking them out one by one. It was Teal'c idea," Daniel said quickly when he saw a look of shock flash across Carter's face.
"It was brilliant," she said. "I thought the Colonel and I were goners for sure when the two of you appeared on that hilltop. Thank you."
Embarrassed, Daniel was saved from having to say anything when Teal'c returned.
"Have you heard anything from Dr. Frasier?" He asked as he stood in the doorway looking toward the operating room.
"No, Teal'c. It'll probably be awhile," Carter said as she shifted the ice pack to a more comfortable position and glanced in the direction of the O.R. herself.
"Hey, I feel fine," Daniel said into the silence. "I don't see why we can't just go to our quarters and get cleaned up."
"Because Dr. Frasier told us to come here and await her further orders," Teal'c informed Daniel.
"Ah," Daniel said nodding his head at the seeming logic of Teal'c's words. Settling against a pillow, he propped his hands behind his head and was soon asleep.
Glancing across the room at Daniel's sleeping form, Teal'c walked quietly over to stand before Carter.
"Captain Carter, you seem to be most concerned with Colonel O'Neill's condition," he said softly. "Is there more to his injuries than you alluded to on PXT4948?"
Sam looked at Teal'c for a full minute before answering him because she knew that he was truly worried for Colonel O'Neill. "Teal'c, I believe that the Colonel may have internal damage from the zat gun, and from his fall down the bank, not to mention his other visible injuries." She turned back toward the O.R. "Yes, I'm concerned, especially since Janet has been in there for so long."
Sitting on the edge of the bed beside Sam, Teal'c did something that he had never done since she'd known him. He placed a reassuring arm around Sam's shoulder. She felt the fatigue build up, but flatly refused to give in to it. Then Teal'c reached out and gave her a gentle squeeze, then dropped his arm quickly when Dr. Frasier bustled into the room a few minutes later. Sam had fallen asleep, her head on his shoulder.
"Teal'c, lay her down on the table," Dr. Frasier said softly as she approached the two. "You all must be exhausted."
"I am fine," Teal'c insisted as he gently lay Carter on the exam table and stepped out of Dr. Frasier's way. "I would ask your permission to seek General Hammond for the debriefing he requested."
"If you're sure you have no injuries..."
"I am sure." Teal'c quietly left the room.
"Janet?" Sam's sleepy voice called to her friend. "How is Jack?"
Quirking an eyebrow at Sam's use of her C.O.'s first name, Dr. Frasier smiled encouragingly down at the tired woman. "He's going to make it," she said cryptically.
"Can I see him?" Sam asked, a big, jaw-popping yawn catching her off guard.
"No. Right now you need to concentrate on sleep, then we'll talk about visiting the colonel when you're well rested. Now hold still while I examine your injuries."
"'s 'kay," Sam mumbled as she brushed weakly at Dr. Frasier's hands examining the back of her head.
"Go to sleep, Sam," Dr. Frasier ordered, then grinned when Sam did exactly that.
~*~
Teal'c had debriefed the general, who had immediately called for more guards to the gateroom, just in case the serpent guards would be foolish enough to attempt access to the facility through the stargate. After leaving General Hammond, Teal'c checked on his friends in the infirmary and then went to his quarters to rest.
~*~
The lights had been dimmed and the Cheyenne Mountain facility was on night stand down. Guards roamed the corridors at intermittent intervals while most of the inhabitants slept. In the infirmary Daniel mumbled in his sleep, then turned over to hug his pillow. Carter opened her eyes at his movement and blinked several times to dislodge the scratchy, remaining grains of sand. Sitting up, she slipped her legs over the edge of the table and slid quietly to the floor. Padding barefoot from the room, she approached the room where Colonel O'Neill was being tended.
Watching the attendant until he left the room to secure some supplies, Sam slipped into the room and hurried over to Jack's bedside. She stood watching him as he lay sleeping. The entire side of his face was thickly bandaged. Lifting a trembling hand she gently brushed an errant strand of hair from his forehead.
"Excuse me, Ma'am," the attendant said from the doorway, his low voice startling Sam. "You aren't supposed to be in here."
"I know," Sam said softly. "I just needed to make sure he was all right." Sam turned to leave, only to hear Colonel O'Neill murmur her name.
"I'm here, Colonel," she said, patting his hand gently.
"Did we make it?" He asked, his voice barely heard over the monitoring device's beeps and buzzes.
"Yes sir, we made it," she assured him with a smile, though he hadn't opened his eyes to see her.
"Where is...?"
"Teal'c and Daniel are fine. They're resting right now, just as you should be doing." Sam turned to leave, but something held her back. Leaning over the railing, she softly kissed his cheek. "Go to sleep, Jack," she whispered for his ears only. She heard him sigh, then he seemed to relax as he fell back to sleep.
Leaving the room, Sam headed to her quarters for some much needed rest.
~*~
One week later...
Sam stood to her feet, tossing her pillow back onto the bed as she stepped up to the mirror, the only decoration in her room, and took a good look at herself. I look horrible, she thought as she picked up her hairbrush and ran it through her tangled hair. Frustrated with just sitting and waiting, she grabbed her bathrobe and a towel and charged from the room in search of a very hot, very long shower. When she reached the locker room, however, she found that someone of the opposite sex had beaten her to it. In a fit of frustrated anger she punched the concrete wall beside the door leading into the locker room, earning herself a very painful set of knuckles. Muttering a curse beneath her breath Sam turned on her heels and headed back to her room to continue waiting.
"Hey Sam!" Daniel's voice stopped Sam in her tracks.
Turning around she anxiously watched him as he practically skipped up to her. She didn't have to wait too long before Daniel told her what he was so excited about.
"Oh, did you get to take a shower?" He asked, pointing down at the towel and robe in her arms.
"No, Daniel, someone else is using all of the hot water," she practically snapped at him.
He looked offended. Then, like a duck shaking off water, he shook his head and did a short jig around her. "Guess what?" He asked her excitedly.
"Daniel, I'm not exactly in the mood to play guessing games," she warned him as she started back down the corridor after seeing an airman leaving the locker room. "You've got from here to the shower to tell me what is going on."
"Okay, that's not much time..."
"Daniel!" She growled in frustration.
"Right... Okay, well, General Hammond is sending us on a short mission," he said quickly before she disappeared through the door of the locker room. As he'd figured, Sam popped her head back out into the hallway.
"WHAT?" She asked in disbelief.
"A mission to P279921!" At her blank look he took a step closer to her. "You remember, the planet that appeared to be all jungle, until we sent the UAV unit in to gather info a little farther from the gate?"
"Oh, yeah, P279921," Sam said without the enthusiasm that Daniel was hoping she would exhibit.
"This could be a monumental discovery," Daniel told her, barely managing to contain his excitement of the coming adventure.
"Daniel," Sam said quietly, as if pondering something. "Who is General Hammond going to assign to head the mission?" She was thinking of Colonel O'Neill and the fact that he was still not fully recovered from their last mission.
"Um... you, I think," Daniel said quickly, then launched into the probabilities of why only the area around the stargate on P279921 was a thriving rain forest when the remainder of the planet was desert. Sam shut the locker room door in his face. "I'll go tell Teal'c," he said, not in the least offended by her actions.
Leaning back against the cold, steel door, Sam closed her eyes and wondered how she could manage to get released from this mission. Heading slowly into the shower area, she tried to come up with some valid excuses for not going. By the time she had showered, dried her hair, dressed and was back in her quarters, she thought that she had come up with the perfect excuse. Taking extra care with her clothing she tucked her B.D.U.'s into her boots, flipped off the light and left the room with a definite goal in mind.
~*~
"Crosby, I want to cut back on Colonel O'Neill's sedative," Dr. Frasier said as she lifted one of Jack's eyelids and flashed her penlight quickly across his iris. "The last M.R.I. showed that his internal injuries are healing nicely, though his separated shoulder is not mending as quickly as I had hoped." She gently prodded the shoulder, which illicited the normal response from her drugged patient. Jack took a swing at her with his other arm, wrapped in a plaster cast. Catching the arm in both of her hands Dr. Frasier gently settled Jack back down with a whispered word.
"One day you're going to forget and not be able to duck," Crosby warned her as he adjusted the drip on Jack's IV.
"It would serve me right," Dr. Frasier said as she pulled the blanket up to cover his casted arm. A slight shuffling at the doorway made her turn to look that way. "Oh, Sam, come on in." She was worried for Captain Carter's health. Lately Sam had been sporting dark circles beneath her eyes,along with intense irritability.
Stepping into the room, Sam approached Jack's bed slowly. "How is he?" She asked quietly.
"You don't have to whisper on his account," Dr. Frasier told Sam. "He's sleeping soundly."
"I am not," Jack voice rasped from the bed. "How can a man get a decent night's rest with all of this blathering going on around him?"
"Colonel O'Neill!" Dr. Frasier exclaimed as she hurried to his side. "I'll have you know we were just discussing your condition."
Jack opened his eyes long enough to give Dr. Frasier a black look, then his eyes closed of their own accord.
"Okay," Dr. Frasier said with a smile. "So he's not asleep."
"Colonel?" Sam called softly as she came to stand by his bed.
"Doggone it, Carter," Jack snapped. "You don't have to yell. I've got a splitting headache."
Dr. Frasier watched in stunned silence as Sam jumped away from the bed as if Jack had suddenly revealed that he was carrying a Goua'uld larvae. She could have sworn that tears had sprung to Sam's eyes before the woman wheeled around and practically stormed from the room. Jack began coughing and Dr. Frasier hurried to his side, giving one quick glance after her friend.
~*~
The stargate was fully activated as a modified SG-1 stepped up the ramp to embark to P279921. The team was made up of Daniel Jackson, who was eagerly carrying an extra backpack of instruments, Teal'c, his staff weapon firmly in hand, Lieutenant Carly Ohler, a member of SG-5 who happened to be a botanist major and Captain Samantha Carter. Standing at the head of her team, Sam held her rifle at the ready and stepped through the gate, her team right on her heels.
As usual, the gating procedure took her breath away as she felt her molecules being dismantled, then they were bound back together just as quickly as she reached the other side of the wormhole.
Stepping through the other side Sam took a deep breath of the moisture-leaden air. Keeping an eye out for attack, she waited the few seconds it took for her body to adjust, then moved aside as the others stepped out of the stargate behind her.
"Wow!" Daniel exclaimed as he hurried down the steps leading up to the stargate, eager to investigate.
Sam shook her head. He looked like a little kid set loose on a cosmic playground. "Daniel," she warned. "Don't go any further than we can see you." Why, Sam thought with irritation, did I just invision my mother saying the exact same thing to me when I was a girl? Shaking her head again, Sam stepped down the ramp leading to the stargate.
"Okay." Daniel quickly disappeared into the lush foliage surrounding the stargate.
"So much for his listening to me," Sam muttered to herself. Turning to Teal'c she gestured with a nod of her head for the big Jaffa to follow Daniel. Without a word Teal'c was off the ramp of the stargate and had disappeared into the jungle after Daniel.
"Sir, would you like for me to stick with you?" Lt. Ohler asked, clearly wanting to follow the others into the jungle.
"No, I think that you would be better utilized by observing the vegetation," Sam instructed, then smiled wryly when the woman practically ran after the other members of the team. Shaking her head Sam moved over to a large leafed plant and reached out a hand to touch it. The leaves curled gently around her fingers, startling her so much that she jumped back and tripped over a rock in her way. Landing on a soft tuft of grass she was suddenly engulfed by a wave of dizziness. She felt so tired that when she closed her eyes to blink it was an effort to open them again.
Struggling to her feet, disoriented for a moment, Sam stumbled toward the jungle of bushes and trees that seemed to be beckoning her forward. A huge, man-sized, leaf dipped its furry self toward her as she approached and gently enfolded the befuddled woman and lifted her from the ground as if she weighed nothing.
~*~
Running a hand through her mussed hair, Captain Carter stepped out of the lush forest and up to the DHD in front of the stargate. Looking around she didn't see her team at all. Turning toward the area where she'd last seen them, Sam walked over and stood at the forest's edge.
"Teal'c!" She called, knowing that the Jaffa would answer her summons before Daniel, or Ohler would. She heard nothing. Calling again, a little louder, she began to worry, but for some reason she was very reluctant to step into the forest.
Unsheathing the machete that hung on her utility belt, Sam took a deep breath and stepped into the bush, swinging the large knife to clear the way. She stopped suddenly upon hearing a low, keening sound that seemed to emanate from the plant she had just severely decapitated. Shaking her head and telling herself that she was being ridiculous, she continued on into the forest.
After fighting her way through the undergrowth that seemed intent on tripping her up, Sam stepped through the outer fringes of the forest and onto the sand of the desert beyond. Following the perimeter of the jungle Sam searched for any sign that the rest of the team had been here. There were no footprints, nor any other sign of anyone, besides herself, having been there. Turning back into the forest Sam found her way easily back to the center.
Tired and frustrated she dropped her backpack and sat on the ground. Rummaging through it she came up with a MRE, complete with plastic fork glued to the top. Opening the can she ate the questionable meat in gravy sauce without much interest. Following the meal with a long drink of water from her canteen, Sam looked around the small area and made her decision. She would just have to gate back to earth on her own and send a search team back if Teal'c and the others weren't there. Tossing the empty MRE can into her backpack to dispose of later she shrugged the pack onto her back and walked over to the DHD.
Tripping over a vine that she hadn't noticed being there minutes ago, Sam righted herself and began dialing home. She quickly punched in her identification code on the remote switch for the protective iris covering the home stargate. The center of the gate exploded in a wave of shimmering blue Naquida and, when it settled into a smooth surface across the expanse of the gate, Sam stepped up and through, disappearing from sight. She didn't see the vine that had tripped her as it receded back into the jungle from whence it came.
~*~
"Come on, Doc," Jack said again when Dr. Frasier came within hearing. "Tell me what's going on."
Shaking her head, she busied herself with adjusting the bank of monitors beside his bed. "It's a need-to-know situation, and right now, you don't need to know," she informed him, parroting what General Hammond had told her to say to the Colonel, who was sure to know that something out of the ordinary was going on.
"Doc, I know something is up," Jack insisted, though his voice was growing weaker by the minute. "If I have to get out of this bed in order to find out what it is, I will."
Slowly turning to face her patient, Dr. Frasier bit her lip to keep from smiling at the very serious-looking man lying on the hospital bed, barely able to keep his eyes open. "Colonel, if you tried to get out of that bed you would fall flat on your face."
Jack raised up slightly, as if to put action to his words, then fell back to the bed with a groan of pain. He opened one eye and glared at Dr. Frasier.
"No, I'm not going to say 'I told you so,' "she said sweetly as she picked up his chart and began writing in it.
"Dr. Frasier?" Daniel called quietly from the doorway of the infirmary.
"Daniel!" Jack cried, raising his head slightly in order to see his friend. He was puzzled when Daniel remained standing in the doorway instead of coming into the room and speaking with him.
With a quick glance at Jack, Dr. Frasier hurried across the room and took Daniel's arm in her hand and practically dragged him from the room.
"I left specific instructions to call me on the phone if you needed me," she said in exasperation as she pulled Daniel into her office. "I don't want him more suspicious than he already is."
"Sorry. General Hammond wants you in the gate room, pronto." Daniel then took her arm and began to lead her out of the office.
"Whoa! Wait a minute. I've got a very sick man in there. I can't just leave him alone." Pulling her arm out of Daniel's grasp she hurried over to the phone and punched in some numbers.
"Gail, I need you to keep an eye on Colonel O'Neill for a while." She hung up the phone with a smile. She knew that Gail had a huge crush on Colonel O'Neill and that it would be no hardship for the woman to come and fuss over him. She heard a noise at the door of the infirmary and looked down at her watch in surprise. Gail had beaten her own personal time in getting to the infirmary when the Colonel was there. Grinning, Dr. Frasier placed a hand on Daniel's arm and pushed him toward the door. "Let's go, looks like the Calvary is here." She took a quick peek around the edge of the door to the Colonel's room and overheard Gail asking if he wanted his sponge bath now. Shaking her head Dr. Frasier followed Daniel down the corridor to the gate room.
~*~
"Oh, good, Dr. Frasier," General Hammond said as he and Teal'c broke up their meeting and turned to face them as she and Daniel walked into the room.
"I had to get the Colonel settled," she reminded him before turning to face the shimmering stargate. "Is someone injured?" She asked, confused as to why she had been summoned.
"No," General Hammond informed her matter-of-factly. "I requested your presence here to see if you might have an opinion as to how Captain Carter's remote code was sent to open the iris, yet no one has come through the gate. We've exhausted all possible answers."
Dr. Frasier looked around at the assembled men with their assorted weaponry, all aimed at the stargate. "How long has the wormhole been active?" She asked.
"Only about five..." As soon as Daniel opened his mouth, the shimmering bubble across the stargate disengaged. "... minutes," he concluded needlessly.
Teal'c stood perfectly still, a look of alarm crossed his face and he began to shake. General Hammond and the others weren't looking toward him, but at the stargate, so they missed his unusual behavior.
"Nothing came through?" Dr. Frasier was saying.
"Not that we can tell." General Hammond closed his mouth so quickly on his words that his teeth snapped together with an audible pop. "Rhi'tu!" He exclaimed, turning to shout orders to the army surrounding him.
"You don't think...?" Dr. Frasier began as she watched the soldiers of the Special Forces hurrying to obey General Hammond.
"They came here once before," he growled. "Close the iris!" He shouted to the control room, then turned to make sure the iris closed properly. "I'm not taking any chances on them gaining the upper hand on us again." Turning on his heel General Hammond called for Teal'c and Daniel to follow him. Dr. Frasier fell into step with the trio as they headed to his office.
Once seated, they all turned to face the General as he paced in front of them. "Daniel, I want you and Teal'c to send out a signal to the Tok'ra to come as soon as possible. I want to know if we've, unwittingly, endangered this world again."
"General Hammond," Teal'c interrupted urgently. "I must speak."
Nodding his head for Teal'c to go ahead, General Hammond tried to cover his shock that the Jaffa had interrupted. It just wasn't like him to do so.
"When we were in the gateroom, and just before the stargate disengaged, I felt a peculiar sensation... as if..." Teal'c stammered to a halt.
"Teal'c is it similar to your reaction from the rebel Rhi'tu attack before?"
"Similar in that my symbiot became very agitated at one point."
"Sir, we still have the Transphase Eradication Rods that Selmak left," Daniel said quickly. "We can use them to detect a Rhi'tu on the base."
"I've already ordered special squadrons to begin the search." General Hammond stopped pacing and stood looking down at the mahogany table, as if deep in thought.
"Sir? Should we alert Sam's father of her disappearance?" Daniel asked quietly.
"I'm sure Jacob will be the emissary the Tok'ra send," the General said as he began pacing the floor once more. "When he arrives, send him directly to my office and I will inform him of Captain Carter's situation." Hammond looked up suddenly, an intense gleam in his eye. "Be sure to stop by the armory and retrieve a T.E.R., and Teal'c," the General added. "Keep me informed if your... symbiot is in distress again."
Lowering his head in agreement, Teal'c and Daniel jumped to their feet and exited the room posthaste, leaving Dr. Frasier behind.
"General Hammond?" She called in an attempt to gain his attention. When he seemed to ignore her, she cleared her throat loudly and opened her mouth to speak louder, only to have the general look up at her with a very serious expression on his face.
"You wanted something Dr. Frasier?" He asked politely as he sat at the tabel and picked up a file folder lying there.
"Sir, about Captain Carter," she stated, moving closer to the desk.
"What about her?"
"Shouldn't we send a rescue team back to P279921?" She inquired logically.
"Not until we find out what came through that stargate," he said stiffly.
"But, sir..."
"Doctor Frasier," Hammond intoned with a bit of anger edging his voice. "I am not in the habit of explaining my actions, however, I cannot allow the iris to be open for even a millisecond until I am reasonably sure there have been no unauthorized persons... er, beings on this base. Until such time that I am assured of the security of this mountain, then, and only then, will I send someone else through the gate."
"So how are the Tok'ra to gate in?" She asked softly.
"Jacob has the remote we gave him," General Hammond said.
"Yes, but so did Sam," Dr. Frasier reminded him as she walked from the room.
~*~
Stepping through the stargate in Cheyenne Mountain, Sam looked around at the number of personnel that had been gathered. They all had semiautomatic weapons aimed at the stargate as she stepped lightly down the metal ramp. She was so involved in the armed welcoming committee that she didn't notice that her feet made no sound on the usually very noisy ramp.
"Hey guys!" She greeted her fellow servicemen and women. "What's with all the ordinance?" She grew puzzled when no one acknowledged her arrival. She watched as General Hammond strode into the room and, looking right through her, stared at the stargate as if awaiting someone else to arrive. "Hey! I'm here!" Raising her hand in the air she waved it in front of General Hammond's face. He didn't even blink.
Reaching out to touch the general's shoulder, Sam watched in horror as her hand went right through the man and out his back, throwing her off-balance. Stumbling a couple of steps before she righted herself she didn't see Teal'c as he stepped up beside General Hammond and began to speak to him in a low whisper. The entire time he was speaking with the general he held a hand over his abdomen.
"Sir, Captain Carter's code was used to open the iris," Teal'c informed the man. They both turned toward the stargate and waited anxiously for Carter to appear through the gate. When nothing came through Teal'c exchanged a puzzled glance with the general.
"Explanations, or theories, people," Hammond called out to the assembled guards and gateroom personnel.
"Perhaps Captain Carter was delayed from entering the gate on P279921," Teal'c suggested, though he knew, without a doubt, that Captain Carter would not activate the stargate and enter her remote code if she knew that she may endanger her world.
"Teal'c, you and I both know that Captain Carter would not do that," the general reminded quietly.
"Sir," Sergeant Siler spoke up from the edge of the gate where he had been working when the stargate was activated. "Perhaps a malfunction?"
Hammond shook his head. "No, there's no indication of a malfunction."
"Not with this gate," Siler reminded.
"Send for Dr. Frasier," the general called, to no one in particular. Daniel, who had just stepped into the gateroom after hearing of the stargate having been activated off-world, quickly turned on his heel and practically ran to the infirmary to inform the doctor that she had been summoned.
"Teal'c! I'm here!" Sam cried as she reached out to the Jaffa and grabbed his shoulders, or at least attempted to do so. She watched in fascination as fear shot across his face and he shivered spasmodically. "What is going on here?" She muttered to herself as Dr. Frasier and Daniel hurried into the room.
"Oh, good, Dr. Frasier," General Hammond was saying as the physician walked right through Sam and stepped up to where the general was standing.
Frightened beyond words, Sam quickly edged out of the gateroom. Running down the corridor she was suddenly aware of the number of personnel in the hallways. Keeping to the wall she barely avoided the direct beam of a T.E.R. as it was swung haphazardly toward her. Her skin seemed to tingle from the energy that the T.E.R. produced. Ducking into the first door she came to after her close encounter, Sam found herself in the infirmary. She heard Colonel O'Neill's voice and naturally headed to his bedside.
"Colonel O'Neill!" She cried out as she entered the room, but she was stopped short just inside the door by the sight of his bare chest and a nurse who appeared to be enjoying her job of sponging him clean a bit too much. Standing on her toes Sam looked around the woman and was relieved to see that Jack seemed to be out of it. "Excuse me," Sam said sternly to the nurse, walking over to stand by her side. Just as the others did in the gateroom, the woman ignored her completely.
Sam turned to the colonel and froze. Concern filled her as she gazed at his exposed upper body. Reaching out a trembling hand she touched a scar on the colonel's right shoulder, tracing her finger gently along the two inch scar. Her eyes ventured to another, more recently healed injury on his right bicep and she visibly cringed when she remembered the arrow that was sent through the stargate as a warning that, had the blast glass in the SGC control room not averted its trajectory, would have killed him. Remembering his reaction to the wound made Sam smile, for Jack had merely shrugged his shoulder and said that "alien's were always trying to poke him full of holes."
Re-wetting the cloth she was using to wash the colonel, Gail moved around to his left side, a bit miffed that the man had fallen asleep on her. Scrubbing a little harder than was necessary on his left arm, Gail was rewarded with a groan from her patient. Feeling guilty for having caused him pain, she gently smoothed the cloth over the offended area.
"Listen, sister," Sam growled menacingly when she saw what the woman had done. "If you hurt him again you're going to have to answer to me." Sam reached out and softly patted O'Neill's arm.
"Gail, you should have been done by now." Dr. Frasier walked into the room and came to stand beside Sam.
"Almost," Gail stated almost angrily.
"That's enough, Gail," the doctor ordered as she bent over her patient and placed the stethoscope over his heart and listened for a moment. Apparently she was satisfied with what she heard for she removed the earpieces and looped the stethoscope around her neck. "Has he awakened at all?" She asked just as Gail was leaving the room.
"No, ma'am. Nothing out of the ordinary has occurred since you left." Gail quickly left the room before Dr. Frasier could find the red area on Jack's left arm.
"Yeah, nothing out of the ordinary," Sam muttered as she walked around Dr. Frasier and assured herself that the redness was nothing more than a temporary discoloring of the skin. Satisfied, she looked up at Dr. Frasier who was suddenly frowning and looking right at Sam.
"Janet?!" Sam said, hoping against hope that her friend could see her.
Dr. Frasier finally shook her head, as if attempting to dismiss a thought, and moved to the bank of monitors and began to study them.
Running her hands through her hair in frustration and making it stand on end, Sam slapped the Mayo stand out of her way. It clattered noisily against the wall. Standing in shocked silence, Sam was startled by Dr. Frasier when the woman ran to the entrance of the infirmary and slapped a red alert button on the wall and the quiet room was suddenly filled with earsplitting klaxons and flashing red lights. The doctor ran to the left side of Colonel O'Neill's bed and stood between him and whatever had moved the tray.
By the time Sam had recovered from the shock of having moved the tray at all, the room was suddenly filled with armed men.
"Dr. Frasier, move out of the way!" Sergeant Siler ordered the woman as he aimed his T.E.R. in her direction.
"I can't leave the colonel open to attack," she insisted, throwing her slight weight against the wheeled bed in order to push it closer to the wall of monitoring instruments.
"We can't locate the Rhi'tu with you standing in the line of fire," the man warned her.
"You can't shoot over him, either," she countermanded.
"Then get him out of there."
Dr. Frasier began to quickly remove the EKG leads from O'Neill's chest.
"Hurry, Doc," the soldier hissed, training his weapon on the only area that hadn't been swept by the T.E.R., just beyond the colonel's bed.
"I'm hurrying. I'm hurrying," she snapped as she quickly removed the IV bag and placed it on O'Neill's chest. "Help me get this bed out of the way." Two soldiers hurried to assist her.
"NO!"
Every head turned toward the doorway as a blond-headed little boy bounded into the room and ran across to the corner. He threw his arms around... something, and held on tight. Sam's father, Jacob Carter, followed behind the boy at a slower pace.
"Charlie! You can see me?" Sam exclaimed as she hugged him furiously, tears streaming down her cheeks. She hadn't realized just how frightened she'd been to know that no one could see her.
Looking up at Sam, Charlie gave her a puzzled frown. "Why wouldn't I be able to see you?" He asked.
Sam shook her head. "It's a long story, but no one else seems to be able to see me," she explained sadly.
"Oh."
"Charlie, step away from the corner of the room," Dr. Frasier called to the boy as he stood apparently in deep conversation with the wall.
Siler lifted the T.E.R. and took a step to the side to avoid shooting near the doctor and her patient, taking a careful aim over the boy's head, he squeezed the trigger. However, unlike the Rhi'tu, Sam was not exposed by the T.E.R.
Screaming in pain from the energy expelled by the T.E.R., Sam fell to her knees taking the little boy with her.
With tears coursing from his eyes Charlie scrambled to his feet and stood to protect Sam with outstretched arms.
"STOP!" He cried when Siler took aim once more. "You're hurting her!"
"Charlie," Jack's weak voice sounded loud in the sudden stunned silence. "Who are you protecting?"
"Sam," Charlie responded quickly, glancing down at the woman who had befriended him not so long ago. She had fallen to the floor, writhing in pain. "She's hurt."
"SAM?" Dr. Frasier ran over to stand before Charlie. "Where is she?"
"There," Charlie said as he turned to point directly behind him. "She fell on the floor."
Kneeling on the floor, Dr. Frasier reached out in a futile attempt to touch her friend. "Sam? You've got to help me," she whispered desperately, sweeping a hand across the floor in the area that Charlie had gestured to. Jacob came over to stand beside her, fear for his daughter evident on his face.
"Doctor, what is going on here?" He asked, only to be ignored.
"Charlie," Sam gasped, now curled up in a fetal position, her legs drawn up to her chest. "Tell her that I feel like I'm on fire inside."
Relaying Sam's message, Charlie shot a quick glare at Siler as that man quickly holstered his weapon.
"Get General Hammond in here on the double," Dr. Frasier ordered, then turned back to gaze down at the infirmary floor in frustration. "Sam, you need help, but I am unable to see you."
"What's going on here?" General Hammond demanded as soon as he ran into the room saw the armed soldiers and Charlie standing beside Dr. Frasier.
"Charlie says that Captain Carter is in this room," Dr. Frasier said as she turned to face the general without leaving her invisible patient. "She was injured by the energy from a T.E.R., apparently pretty seriously." She turned to Charlie, placing a gentle hand on his arm. "Charlie, could you do me a big favor?" She asked softly.
"Okay."
"I need you to take this stethoscope and place it against Sam's heart and then give the earpieces to me. Can you do that?"
"Sure," Charlie said as he did as she requested. He sat on the floor beside Sam and holding the end of the stethoscope against Sam's chest. He held her hand in his.
Placing the earpieces into her ear, Dr. Frasier audibly gasped as she listened intently. Shooting a worried glance over at the General, Dr. Frasier quickly stood to her feet and ran over to her supply cabinet. Uncapping a bottle she inserted a hypodermic into it and drew out a measure of the liquid. She then returned to Charlie's side.
"Charlie, I'm going to have to ask you to do something that you've probably never done before." Dr. Frasier held Charlie's small shoulder gently with her hand. "Do you think you could insert this into Sam's upper arm and hold it for me to inject the medicine?" She asked nervously.
"Sure." Taking the syringe carefully in his hand Charlie looked down at Sam and whispered something that only she could hear, then plunged the needle into her upper arm. Sam didn't even budge from the needle stick as the pain in her abdomen was so intense. "It's in," he gasped.
"Hold her arm still," Dr. Frasier instructed when the hypodermic that was floating in midair suddenly jerked to the side. She then pushed the plunger and injected the medication into her invisible patient. "Sam, the sedative will be taking effect soon. I need you to get into bed before this happens since we can't see you to lift you."
"'Kay," Sam said, though her friend couldn't hear her.
Another bed was brought into the room and placed beside Colonel O'Neill's bed. Charlie helped Sam to her feet and they stumbled across the room to the bed. She had a bit of trouble climbing onto the bed, so Charlie quickly slid a chair over to the bedside and held it while she climbed up on it and then collapsed into the bed. Pulling the blanket up over his sleeping friend, Charlie jumped down off the bed and walked over to stand beside Dr. Frasier and General Hammond.
"Are Sam and Jack going to be okay?" He quietly asked the doctor when she knelt beside him and put her arm around his shoulders.
"Colonel O'Neill will be fine, as soon as we get these people out of here and let him rest," she told him in a voice meant to carry to the others in the room. Then, looking at the bed where Sam was supposed to be, she shook her head. "I don't know what I can do for Sam, but I'll do all I can."
"People, let's clear out," General Hammond ordered as he herded everyone out of the room He then returned to Captain Carter's bedside. "Dr. Frasier, I'm open to any suggestions you may have in solving Captain Carter's problem." General Hammond exchanged a worried look with Jacob.
"Sir, I'm at a loss. I have never before encountered a problem of this magnitude," Dr. Frasier said as she and Charlie came over to stand beside the general.
"Well, there has to be something on that planet that caused this," he suggested.
"Yes, but why didn't it affect the others?" Dr. Frasier pondered as she dropped a comforting hand on Charlie's shoulder. The boy leaned against her side, keeping his eyes on Sam's sleeping face.
"That's what I intend to find out. Jacob, care to join me?" General Hammond pivoted on his heel and they were out of the room within seconds.
"Well, Charlie, it looks like it's just you and me," Dr. Frasier said as she separated herself from the boy and began to reattach Colonel O'Neill's EKG leads.
"Will Sam be all right?" Charlie asked as he followed the doctor and watched her every move very carefully.
Dr. Frasier stopped and stood in deep thought for a moment, then smiled down into Charlie's worried face. "Sam is a very strong woman, Charlie. She will be fine." Dr. Frasier quickly turned back to the EKG machine and began to adjust things that didn't need an adjustment so that she didn't have to look into Charlie's trusting eyes again. She prayed that her words were true, but without being able to actually see her patient, she had no way of knowing whether she was in any danger, or not. She would have to rely on Charlie to tell her.
"Tell you what, Charlie," she began as she picked up a chair and placed it between Jack and Sam's beds. "Why don't you sit here and keep an eye on Sam? You need to tell me when she wakes up, okay?"
Charlie, relieved to be doing something to help his friends, nodded his head and quickly sat in the chair. He reached up to the bed and placed one hand atop Sam's and the other on Jack's. Dr. Frasier smiled as she moved to the nurse's station across the room and sat down behind the desk to write in Jack's chart.
~*~
"Okay, team's, listen up, keep in close contact with each other, and I mean close. I don't want anyone to wander out of sight of the others. Check out all the vegetation and any machinery that may have been covered by vegetation." General Hammond stood at the end of the ramp leading to the shimmering stargate as SG-5 and 2 stood awaiting his go-ahead. "Keep your eyes open out there," he reminded them. Then at their nods of agreement, said, "SG-5, SG-2, you have a go." He stepped back and watched as his men and women were swallowed up by the Naquida, then the wormhole disengaged, the bubble burst and they were gone.
Jacob had opted to travel to P279921 in order to find the cure to his daughter's problem. He vowed that he, and his symbiot, would not leave until they found out what had caused his daughter's invisibility.
Turning on his heel, General Hammond swiftly left the gateroom on his way to his office to inform the President of the current situation inside Cheyenne Mountain.
~*~
"Charlie," Jack called softly to the sleepy boy holding his hand.
"Jack!" Charlie exclaimed loudly, jumping to his feet to move closer to his friend. In moving he'd jarred Sam, who awoke, disoriented.
"Shh," Jack warned, looking across the room to see if Dr. Frasier had heard them. She appeared engrossed in her report of the day's events and didn't even look up. "Listen, is Sam really here?" He wished to take the question back as soon as he saw the crestfallen expression on Charlie's face.
"I wouldn't make it up, Jack," Charlie stated in a hurt voice.
"God, I know it Charlie. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." Jack lifted his hand slowly and rubbed at his eyes. "I just... well, I needed to be sure that she was.. is... all right."
"Charlie," Sam called softly from her bed. "Ask him why. But, don't tell him I asked."
"Why?" Charlie asked Sam, but Jack misunderstood and looked at the boy with something akin to fear.
"I care about my team," Jack said quickly, too quickly.
Charlie stared into Jack's deep brown eyes with such an intense look that Jack felt uncomfortable for a second, then the boy smiled, his face lighting up. "You love her, don't you?" He asked in childhood innocence, having read Jack's thoughts precisely.
"What?" Sam cried, sitting up in the bed so fast that her head began to swim and the room began to spin crazily.
"What?!" Jack exclaimed as he tried to sit up and only managed to cause himself more pain.
Dr. Frasier, upon hearing her visible patient cry out, came running across the room to skid to a halt at his bedside. "What is it?" She demanded as she began to gently prod and poke at him.
"Gesh, Doc!" Jack cried out when she cautiously touched a tender area over his ribs. "Go easy on me, will ya?" Sucking air through his teeth he began counting backward from 100 in order to endure the searing pain her gentle touch created.
"I'm sorry, Colonel," she apologized as she listened to his hammering heart through her stethoscope. "What has you all riled up all of a sudden?" She asked, perplexed.
"Jack's..."
"Charlie!" Jack snapped, his words unintentionally curt.
Charlie's eyes filled with tears and he turned away from Jack to climb up on the bed with Sam. He sat enfolded in her arms as she comforted him by holding him close and rocking him gently.
"Charlie, I'm sorry," Jack said, then stammered to a stop when he realized that Charlie was sitting about five inches off of the bed and was moving in a rocking motion. Tears streamed down his cheeks, but seemed to be wiped away occasionally by an invisible hand.
"Sam?" Jack's wondering voice made Dr. Frasier turn around.
Ignoring Jack completely, Sam lay back down on the bed and cuddled Charlie to her side, their backs to the others and began whispering comforting words for his ears only. Of course no one else could hear what she had to say, but it made her feel better to not have to watch them. She was still trying to come to terms with Jack and Charlie's conversation. The idea was ludicrious, after all, that would be against the rules... Wouldn't it?"
Exhausted, Charlie fell asleep in Sam's arms. Leaning her head against his she stared up at the ceiling and eavesdropped on Jack and Janet's conversation.
"Doc, do you think she can hear us?" Jack asked worriedly.
"I can only assume so," Dr. Frasier stated as she glanced over to see that Charlie had fallen asleep.
"Aw man," Jack muttered cryptically before closing his eyes.
All of a sudden Sam's situation was more than she could bear. Frustration filled her as she moved off the bed in order to not awaken Charlie. Slipping out of the room she headed to her quarters.
~*~
Lying in her bed, Sam wondered what would happen to her if she was never cured. She had been laying in the bed for hours trying to come up with a solution to her situation. Nothing came to mind and depression weighed heavily on her mind. She struggled against its darkness. Sam's mind sought any refuge from the sadness threatening to overwhelm her and she began to think about Jack's words to Charlie. She groaned. That was the last thing she needed to dwell on. Rolling over onto her stomach she propped her chin on her bunched up pillow and sighed.
"Ah, Jack," she muttered quietly, though she didn't know why she was being so quiet. "What have you done? Now you've made a complicated situation even worse." Punching the pillow into shape Sam flipped over to her back and stared up at the ceiling. "What am I going to do now?" She asked herself in frustration, then giggled hysterically when she realized that she was carrying on a conversation with herself. Then the reality of her situation returned and she sobered very quickly.
~*~
"Doc?" Jack had been lying quietly in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, when he suddenly called to the doctor.
Walking over to his side, Dr. Frasier stood looking down at him, for the first time noting the amount of gray hair at his temples. She smiled reassuringly at him when his brown eyes turned her way. "What is it, Colonel?" She asked.
"What's going to happen if a cure isn't found?" He didn't have to tell her about whom he was speaking.
"Colonel... Jack, I don't even want to think that far ahead. I want to believe that the search team will bring back Sam's cure," Dr. Frasier averted her eyes and Jack nodded his head.
"You don't give it much hope, do you?" He asked as he raised a hand to the bridge of his nose and rubbed it in agitation. "You got any aspirin, Doc?" He growled beneath his breath, clenching his eyes shut against a painful headache.
"Jack, you have enough pain killers on board right now that a little aspirin isn't going to touch a headache." Adjusting his IV, she gave him a bit more of the pain medication, but not enough to render him unconscious. "Jack, I'm going to order another round of x-rays and an MRI, so I don't want you to go to sleep, okay?"
"Sure," he muttered as he squinted up at her. "Could you turn the lights down?"
Moving to the wall switch Dr. Frasier turned off all but the essential lighting and left the room to find someone to help her with Jack.
"Charlie?" Jack called to the sleeping boy. He wondered why Jacob had brought the boy with him and wanted to ask him a few questions. "Charlie!" He called louder.
"What?" Charlie said, keeping his back to Jack. He was still upset that Jack had snapped at him.
"Uh, is Sam still here?" He asked softly.
"No."
"Oh. Where did she go?" Jack questioned, looking around the room as well as he could from his prone position.
"I don't know, but she seemed pretty mad when she left. She didn't think I was awake, but I was. I think you hurt her feelings." Charlie sat up in the bed and turned accusatory eyes toward Jack.
"Hey, I'm sorry. You just... well, you shouldn't just blurt out things that are no one else's business," he attempted to explain, though from the expression on Charlie's face, it didn't help and his next words confirmed it.
"I don't understand, Jack. You said that you loved her."
"Now, I never said..."
"You never said what?" Dr. Frasier asked quizzically as she and an attendant walked into the room. "Oh good, you're awake, Charlie," she said. "General Hammond and Jacob would like to talk to you."
Charlie slipped off the bed and trotted from the room after one last, knowing glance toward Jack.
"Now, about what you never said?" She stood there, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for him to answer.
"It's nothing," Jack countered, then said, "Hey, time for that MRI, huh?"
Dr. Frasier grinned, willing to let him have the upper hand this time. "Yes, we'll just have to see if there is really a brain in that punching bag you call a head. You know, you've really got to stop using it to open doors, run into walls, stop fists and things such as that."
Jack shrugged his good shoulder. "Somebody's gotta do it," he said regally.
"Let's get him to x-ray."
~*~
Stepping through the stargate onto P279921 on this trip was not as exciting for Daniel. This time he wasn't eager to investigate the possibilities to be found on this planet. Now he felt that he was in a race with time.
Colonel Albright, of SG-5, stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to the stargate, waiting rather impatiently for Daniel to stop daydreaming and join the rest of them gathered there. When Daniel hurried down the stairs Colonel Albright nodded his head slightly and turned to the others.
"Okay, people, we have a goal here. We've been sent to find whatever it is that made Captain Carter invisible. I don't want anyone to wander off alone." He stopped here and gave Daniel a long, silent stare, then continued. "Now, I've paired you up into teams. Keep in constant visual contact with each other and don't leave anything to chance." He looked around at his combined team. "Are there any questions?"
"Sir?" A young lieutenant spoke up, her long brown ponytail bouncing with any movement of her head.
"Yes, Lt. Sawyer," the Colonel said.
"If we find something of note, do you wish to be notified immediately?" Someone behind her snorted softly at her question and she turned to see who it had been. Finding no one who looked suspicious she turned back to the Colonel.
"Sawyer, if you find anything... and I mean, anything, you are to come to me posthaste." He looked around at the teams. "Is that understood by all of you?" At a chorus of "yes, sir" he turned to pick up his backpack. "Then let's get at it." Shouldering the pack he and his teammate headed into the forest.
At five foot intervals the rest of the teams split off and stepped into the forest as well. Soon the only sound within the area of the stargate was of the chirping of forest insects and the sighing of the wind in the trees.
~*~
Daniel, teamed up with Lieutenant Sawyer, swung his machete with expert ease. Lt. Sawyer, on the other hand, apparently had never handled a large blade before in her life, for her machete would continually snag on a vine, or bush. Several times Daniel had to backtrack in order to assist her with a problem.
"You know," he stated sarcastically as he removed the lieutenant's machete blade from a vine as thick as a man's arm. "We're supposed to keep within eye contact at all times."
"Can I help it if you're taller and longer legged than me?" She groused as she accepted the machete without a thank you.
"No," Daniel agreed. "But, you could at least try to keep up with me."
"These vines don't grab at your machete like they do mine," she snapped as she pulled her hand sharply away from a curling vine, and nearly decapitated Daniel in the process.
"Hey! Watch it with that thing," he yelled as he ducked the lethal blade being swung at his head.
"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly.
"Why don't you sheathe your machete and I'll walk a little slower so that you can keep up with me and walk in my cleared path?" He asked quietly.
"Okay." Placing the big knife back into its sheath, she smiled up at Daniel for the first time since they had met in the gateroom.
"My name's Tommie," she introduced herself, holding out a hand to shake.
Daniel stood staring at her, as if waiting for her to admit that she was joking with him. However after a long, uncomfortable moment of his staring at her, Tommie withdrew.
"You aren't kidding, are you?" He asked in surprise. Then was even more perplexed when she appeared to not understand what he was referring to. "Sawyer?"
She nodded her head, her ponytail bouncing wildly.
"Tommie Sawyer?" He continued and again she set her hair to bobbing with a nod of her head. "Doesn't that name ring a bell with you?"
"Well, yes. It is, after all, my name," she wrinkled her forehead in confusion at his nonsense. "Why?"
"I'm guessing that you don't read a lot, do you?"
"Books, you mean?" She asked, then grew angry when he snorted and turned on his heel to continue the trek into the forest. Hurrying to catch up with him she said, "Sure I read books. What about it?"
"Ever heard of a book called 'Tom Sawyer'?" He inquired as he stopped and began whittling at a particularly thick vine that blocked their pathway.
"No, really. There's a book by that name?" She came up beside him and watched his slow progress with the vine. "Do you suppose that's why my mom named me Tommie?"
Daniel, worn out from chopping away at the vine that seemed to get him nowhere, looked down into the grinning face of his companion and realized that she'd known all along about her name and was putting him on. He grinned and shook his head.
"This vine's too thick to chop, we're going to have to squeeze beneath it." Being the gentleman that his mother raised, he held the soft leaves of the vine aside so that Tommie could slip through. Something seemed to bite his hand and he dropped the leaves he was holding and lost visual contact with her for a brief second. Ignoring the burning sensation in his hand he took his machete and began hacking away at the thick undergrowth and leaves beneath the vine. When he had managed to make a small hole in the lush foliage he slipped through just in time to see Tommie being enfolded in a very large leaf and lifted off the ground. Running over to the vine that the leaf was attached to, he took one swing and the leaf holding the lieutenant fell to the ground with a thud and a grunt of pain from Tommie.
"Tommie!" Daniel cried as he tore at the tough leaf with his bare hands, afraid to use the machete least he injure the woman inside. "Tommie, talk to me!" He shouted.
"Daniel, I'm so sleepy," Tommie's muffled voice called from within the leaf.
"Stay with me," Daniel begged as he managed to uncover her legs. He attempted to pull her from within the leaf, but stopped when she cried out in pain. Tearing at the remainder of leaf around her upper torso, he discovered with sickening dread, that she was slowly disappearing from his sight. With renewed vigor he tore at the leaf and managed to open it enough to see that she had stopped breathing.
"Help!" He shouted, hoping that the thick vegetation around him would not deter the others from hearing his cries.
Pulling the last of the leaf from around Tommie's face, Daniel dragged her faded, lifeless body from her soft tomb and laid her on the hard ground. Slapping her cheeks gently, he attempted to shake her into breathing. When that didn't work he quickly put his rusty rescue breathing to work. Covering her mouth with his he gave her two full breaths of air. He turned his head to watch as her chest rose and fell with each breath. Placing his fingers along the carotid artery in her neck he checked for a pulse and sighed in relief when he found a very weak one.
Now breathing on her own, Tommie began to re-materialize right before Daniel's eyes. Lifting her into his arms Daniel began the arduous trek back to the inner clearing. He was sure of what to do now in order to bring Sam back and he didn't waste any more time in getting back. Leaving the packs and his machete where they lay, he practically ran back the way they had come.
Colonel Albright paced the small clearing like a caged lion. He and the other members of the search team had returned to the clearing as planned. Daniel Jackson and Lt. Sawyer were thirty-five minutes late and the colonel was not happy.
"Sir, do you think that we should send another team..." A brave member of SG-7 began, only to stammer to a stop when Colonel Albright shot a glare at him.
"I want your people to stay here," he ordered He then headed into the forest by himself, stopping short of a large, leafy vine when the same, brave member called out to him.
"Sir, you said we aren't to go it alone," he reminded the colonel.
"Son, are you telling me how to run this mission?" Colonel Albright growled. "You're with me." Turning on his heel he raised his machete to chop at the vine in his way, only to stop short when Daniel staggered into view, carrying Lt. Sawyer in his arms and tripping over vines and other obstacles in his way.
"Soldier, get in there and clear a path for them," he ordered as he continued to chop away at the vine before him.
Soon Daniel and Tommie were in the clearing and surrounded by the rest of the team. Looking up at the colonel, Daniel sat back on his heels after he lay Tommie on the ground. "Sir, I think I have Captain Carter's cure," he gasped, completely out of breath from his experience.
"Let's get the lieutenant back to SGC and medical attention, then you can debrief with the general." Gesturing for four of the others to lift the lieutenant, Colonel Albright quickly ushered them back to the stargate and ordered Daniel to dial home.
"Oh, God, sir!" Sergeant Bookman cried, pointing a shaking finger to the rear of their company. All eyes turned to see what she was she was pointing at. Almost as one they ran for the stargate and quickly disappeared through the shimmering Naquida. Daniel was the last to step through because he was mesmerized by the sight of a thousand, thick green vines snaking their way across the clearing toward the stargate. The last thing he saw was a large, soft-looking leaf as it hurled itself toward him, then the wormhole took him away and his thoughts shut down completely.
~*~
"Daniel!"
Stumbling into the gateroom from the stargate, Daniel's face was as white as a sheet.
"Son, what is it?" General Hammond questioned upon seeing the young man's face.
Daniel turned haunted eyes on the general and pointed back toward the stargate that was just now disengaging. "Shut the iris," he muttered, then trembling, he turned to face the blast glass that separated the gateroom from the control room. "Shut the iris!" He shouted, then turned to assure himself that the iris was, indeed, closed. When it quickly snapped together he sank to his knees in relief.
"Get this man into the infirmary," General Hammond commanded and two soldiers handed their weapons to their companions and hurried over to obey. Taking Daniel carefully in hand they escorted him from the gateroom.
"Colonel? What went on out there?" The general asked as he saw fear on each and every face that had come back through the stargate from P279921. The first wave of searchers had included Lt. Sawyer and had already been dispatched to the infirmary without question. Now the general wanted answers.
"Sir, permission to debrief in twenty," Colonel Albright said as he stepped up to stand before the general.
Surprised that he had been effectively put off, General Hammond stared at the colonel. "Care to give me an explanation?" He asked a bit sarcastically.
"With your permission, sir, I would like to take care of my team first," Albright stated.
With a nod of his bald head, General Hammond watched as the rest of the search team filed from the room. Shaking his head in confusion, General Hammond strode from the room as well, headed for the infirmary where he was sure that he would get some answers from Daniel Jackson.
~*~
"It was weird, Dr. Frasier," Daniel was saying as she poked and prodded at his back, searching for any cuts or contusions. "This huge leaf just wrapped itself around her and lifted her off the ground as if she weighed nothing."
Shining a penlight in his eyes Dr. Frasier nodded her head where she thought was appropriate. She was sure that Daniel was suffering from some mental lapse, or heat stroke.
"Then, when I was finally able to get that thing off of her, she was almost faded away."
Dr. Frasier's hand stopped in midair. "What?"
"I'm telling you that Lt. Sawyer was nearly invisible, but I could touch her." Daniel shook his head, as if he were now finding it hard to believe himself. "She had stopped breathing and I had to perform rescue breathing on her until she began to breathe on her own again. Then she began to re-materialize right before my eyes!" Daniel didn't wait for the doctor to dismiss him when he jumped down from the exam table in excitement. "We've got to find Sam. Do you know where she went?" He asked, looking around the room for Charlie and hoping that the boy could tell him where Sam was at.
"I don't know where Charlie is," Dr. Frasier said as she watched Daniel pacing the room in excitement.
"Well, we've gotta find him," Daniel declared as he practically ran from the room.
Shaking her head in amusement, Dr. Frasier walked over to Lt. Sawyer's bed and began to examine the sleeping woman.
~*~
Daniel was nearly running down the corridor when he practically knocked General Hammond to the floor. If it hadn't been for the general's quick thinking, he would have landed in a heap in the hallway with Daniel charging on his way. As it was General Hammond had been reaching out to stop Daniel when they collided. Grabbing onto the younger man's arm, the general managed to keep his feet and Daniel, too.
"Son, don't you slow down at all?" General Hammond questioned when Daniel attempted to shake off the general's hold and continue on his breakneck race down the corridor.
"Oh, General Hammond, good," Daniel stated, as if just now noticing whom he had blundered into. "Where are Charlie and Sam?"
"Charlie is with Jacob in the debriefing room and I have no idea where Sam is. As you may remember, she is invisible," the general wryly reminded Daniel, though his sarcasm was lost on the anthropologist.
"Not for long," Daniel said cryptically, then grabbed Hammond's arm and attempted to drag the man along with him, but the general was having no part of that.
"Daniel, would you mind telling me what is going on?"
"Sure, just come along with me so I don't have to repeat it twice." Daniel dropped the general's arm and trotted on down the hall.
Seeing no recourse but to give in and follow, General Hammond was overheard muttering beneath his breath, "When did I lose the upper hand here?" He followed along in Daniel's wake.
~*~
"Doc, what's going on?" Jack asked as soon as Dr. Frasier came into the room.
"The search team is back and Daniel thinks he knows the cure for Sam," she explained with a relieved smile. "I sure hope it's true," she added worriedly, knowing Daniel's penchant for exaggeration.
"Where is Sam?" He asked since the extra bed had been removed from the room.
"I'm not sure. Daniel left to find her and Charlie."
"When are you going to let me get out of this bed?" Jack complained as he hitched himself a little higher in his propped up position.
"When you can get out of it without falling flat on your face," she reminded him with a smile.
"Could you at least get me a wheel chair so that I can see what's going on?" He pleaded.
"No. You would only have a relapse and then I would have twice as long to listen to you complain." Dr. Frasier grinned to herself as she quickly turned away from his incredulous expression.
"Complain? Me?" Jack squeaked in disbelief. "I've been the model patient!"
Dr. Frasier snorted, then covered her unladylike behavior by clanging some instruments against the tray where she was working. Beneath her breath she muttered, "The Lord save me from model patients."
"What did you say?" Jack called out when he thought he heard her say something.
"Oh, nothing," she answered, then pushed the Mayo tray against the wall and began to walk from the room.
"Where are you going?"
"To check on my other model patients," she threw over her shoulder as she stepped out of the room.
~*~
"I'm telling you, at first she was nearly invisible, then, after she regained the ability to breathe normally again, she began to come back." Daniel was pacing around the conference table where General Hammond, Colonel Albright, Charlie and Jacob Carter were sitting. They were all watching him, swiveling their heads around in order to follow his progress around the room.
"Son, why don't you pull up a chair. I, for one, am damned tired of trying to keep up with your pacing around the room," General Hammond said with some irritation.
Daniel sat in his chair, for a moment, then he was up and pacing again. "Charlie, do you know where Sam is at this moment?" Daniel suddenly stopped and asked the small boy.
"No."
"What? Why not?" Daniel said in frustration, grabbing the boy by the arm and shaking him sharply.
"Daniel, that's enough," Jacob warned, then, when Daniel continued to hold onto the boy, Jacob's symbiot, Selmak, spoke. "You will unhand the boy immediately."
Daniel dropped Charlie's arm as if it was on fire and began his pacing once more. "Okay, then we've got to find her," he continued as if he hadn't stopped to harass Charlie.
"And how do you propose we do this?" Jacob asked as he gently patted Charlie's arm.
"We'll have to search the premises, of course." Daniel shot Jacob a frown.
"Search for her, how?" Sam's father reminded the excited man. "She's invisible, remember?"
"Oh, yeah," Daniel seemed to lose steam right before their eyes. Sitting in his abandoned chair once more, he propped his elbows on the table and his forehead on his doubled up fists.
"Does this facility have an intercom system?" Jacob asked suddenly, his eyes alight with an idea.
"Not that will reach to all of the areas of the base," the general said with a shake of his head. "But, we can broadcast a summons for the captain into the areas that we do have access to." Picking up the telephone at his elbow, General Hammond proceeded to do as he'd proposed.
"Captain Samantha Carter, please report to the debriefing room ASAP," he said into the phone, and over the speaker system in the room.
Daniel turned to Charlie with an apologetic smile. "Charlie, I'm sorry if I hurt you a minute ago. I need you to tell us just as soon as Sam comes into the room, okay?"
Nodding his head, Charlie turned his eyes toward the doorway and eagerly waited for Sam to appear.
After thirty minutes of waiting impatiently, Daniel jumped to his feet and walked over to a large red button on the wall beside the door. Slapping his hand against the alarm, he clapped his hands over his ears when the earsplitting klaxon resounded in the closed room.
"What did you do that for?!" General Hammond yelled in order to be heard over the noise. Getting to his feet he hurried over to insert the key that would turn the klaxon off. The room was so quiet, so suddenly, that he was afraid that he'd lost his hearing.
"Sorry," Daniel apologized as he peered out the doorway and nearly got his head shot off for his troubles. Ducking back inside the room he shot an embarrassed grin at the general. "There's someone out here to see you."
~*~
Sam sat bolt upright in her bed, awakened from a fitful sleep by the clanging of the alarm klaxon. Jumping to her feet she ran as fast as she could to the infirmary and Jack's bedside. She didn't know the nature of the alarm, however she intended to protect Jack any way she could. The alarm abruptly stopped as soon as Sam entered Jack's room. Moving over to his bedside she watched as Dr. Frasier raced into the room, slamming the door behind her.
"What's going on?" Jack demanded as he struggled to sit up.
"Nothing," she called absently as she began to remove the leads from his chest.
"If it's nothing, then why are you taking those off?" He asked, wincing when she ripped out a good bit of chest hair in the process of removing the taped leads.
"I'm not going to let you be caught in the middle of a Rhi'tu rebel shoot-out like before," Dr. Frasier stated. Removing the last lead, she quickly tossed the lines onto the counter beside Jack's bed and began pushing his bed into a corner of the room.
"Can't you just get me that wheelchair?" He growled, not at all comfortable laying flat on his back in the bed when his friends might be facing an imminent attack.
"Jack, if we try to move you, that cracked rib may just shove itself right through your lung," she snapped as she glared at him. "Now, do you still want that wheelchair?"
"No, ma'am," he said softly. Having never seen her this way before, he decided not to push the issue any further. "Can you at least get me a weapon?"
Walking over to a locked cabinet across the room Dr. Frasier unlocked the door and reached inside. She brought out a pistol, expertly checked to make sure there were live rounds in each chamber, then re-locked the cabinet door. Walking back to the colonel's side she handed him the weapon.
"Thank you," he said as he placed the gun beneath the covers at his side.
"I've got to make sure the other patient's are being cared for," she told him as she left his side. "I'll be right back."
As Jack watched her walk away he was filled with deep respect for the normally docile woman. Feeling the cold steel of the pistol against his side, he knew that he would never underestimate Dr. Frasier again.
~*~
Sam watched in wonder as her friend and colleague walked out the door, closing it securely behind her. Sam had known that Janet was a first class sharpshooter, but had been sworn to secrecy about her knowledge. Though General Hammond was fully aware of Dr. Frasier's credentials, he hadn't deemed it necessary for everyone on the base to know. Sam shook her head and smiled. She knew, without a doubt, that the colonel would have something sarcastic to say if he knew. Turning back to look down at him, Sam felt a sudden wave of dizziness that caused her to fall against the side rail of the bed, jogging it slightly. Grabbing hold of the railing she closed her eyes as the room began to spin and sway around her. Bright spots of color danced before her eyes and she fell to the floor, striking her head against the side of the bed frame making the bed move.
"DOC!" Jack yelled, having felt the bed move the second time.
Dr. Frasier came racing back into the room, her white coat flapping in the breeze behind her, her eyes wide with fear. "What is it?" She cried out as soon as she slid to a stop at his side.
"I think Captain Carter is in the room!" He explained.
"You think she's here?" Dr. Frasier said, looking around the room. "How?"
"I felt the bed move," Jack said slowly.
"Oh?"
"Well, actually I think it moved twice. The first time I'm not too sure of, but the second time, it felt like something bumped against it and jostled... it..." Jack stammered to a halt. He knew it sounded crazy, but somehow, he just knew.
"I'll get Charlie," Dr. Frasier said. Hurrying from the room she wondered if the colonel had sustained more head trauma than his MRI showed.
"Sam!" Jack called to his invisible friend. "Hang in there a little while longer. Dr. Frasier's going to bring Charlie."
~*~
Lying on the floor beside Jack's bed, Sam gasped for breath as the cut on her head bled profusely. She heard Janet come into the room and a bit of the conversation between her and Jack, but consciousness was quickly fading.
"Sam!" She heard Jack calling out to her and managed to fight the darkness of unconsciousness back. "Hang in there a little while longer," he encouraged. "Dr. Frasier's going to bring Charlie." Sam grew hopeful that she could be helped and struggled to breathe and wait.
~*~
Charlie ran into the room, trailing an entourage of people behind him. "SAM!" He cried, running over to the side of Jack's bed and falling to his knees. Reaching out toward Sam he gently lifted her cold hand in his. "What happened?" He asked as he grabbed a corner of the sheet hanging off of Jack's bed and held it against the cut on her temple.
"I... I... can't breathe..." She gasped. "I fell... and hit my head."
"Talk to us Charlie," Jack urged the boy. "Tell us what's going on."
"She can't breathe," Charlie informed them. He held the sheet away from the cut and Dr. Frasier gasped when the edge was soaked in blood. "She hit her head and it won't stop bleeding."
"Keep pressure on it," Dr. Frasier ordered, then ran across the room to grab a handful of gauze pads. Returning to the boy's side she handed it to him. "Here, hold this against the wound." Turning to the others in the room she began to order them about. "Daniel, you and General Hammond, move Jack's bed back across the room."
Without even thinking about an inferior officer ordering him about, General Hammond jumped to do her bidding. It wasn't until Jack quirked an eyebrow at him did he realize what had been done. He simply shrugged a shoulder, after all Dr. Frasier had superiority over him when it came to medical emergencies.
While they were moving Jack's bed out of the way, Dr. Frasier was gathering supplies. Moving back to where Charlie knelt on the floor, she reached out and gently held his trembling chin in her hand.
"Charlie, you're going to have to help me here," she told the boy, smiling softly at his quick of understanding. "I need to insert a tube down Sam's throat so that I can help her breathe better."
"Okay, what do you want me to do?" He whispered after looking down at the floor, as if listening intently.
"First, guide my hand to her mouth."
Taking Dr. Frasier's hand and placing it directly over Sam's mouth. Dr. Frasier was surprised when she was able to feel Sam's face. Inserting the tube with a minimum of effort, Dr. Frasier quickly attached the ambu-bag and began to rhythmically squeeze it.
"Jacob," she called over her shoulder to Sam's father. "Could you grab a sheet off the shelf over there and spread it over Sam?" She'd had an idea and only hoped that it would work.
Doing as he was ordered, Jacob hurried to cover his daughter with the sheet. To everyone's surprise as the sheet floated to the floor it draped Sam's body perfectly.
"Good," Dr. Frasier said with a sigh of relief. "Now, Teal'c, lift her carefully and we'll put her..." She looked around the room and realized that there was nowhere to place her.
"Here," Jack said as he moved over as far as he could in his bed, the side rail digging into his bruised back. "Put her here."
"Let's go," Dr. Frasier ordered.
Teal'c walked over to the sheet-shrouded body and gently lifted Sam into his arms. She felt as if she weighed nothing. Carrying her to Jack's bed he carefully laid her at his side, exchanging a quick glance with the man before stepping aside.
Placing her stethoscope against Sam's sheet-shrouded chest, Dr. Frasier listened intently.
The occupants of the room held its collective breath.
"I don't have a heartbeat," she cried, then called for the crash cart. "Jack, we've got to get you out of there."
"Do it," Jack ordered.
"Jack, if I shock her, you're going to get feel it too."
"Do it," he insisted. "Please. We don't have time to argue."
"Teal'c," Dr. Frasier called to the Jaffa. "Get him out of that bed."
"God, Doc. Just do it, or she's going to die," he pleaded.
Preparing the paddles and adjusting the amount of electricity, Dr. Frasier waited impatiently for Teal'c to do as she asked.
Reaching for his friend, Teal'c gave him an apologetic glance before lifting him from the bed and carrying him from the room.
"Teal'c! Take me back in there," Jack snarled as soon as he saw that Teal'c was removing him from the room. Then his voice was cut off completely when he felt a sharp pain in his ribs and he gasped for breath.
Seeing that his friend was in distress, Teal'c quickly placed him on the closest empty bed and called for an attendant to assist him.
~*~
Positioning the primed paddles directly over the sheet covering Sam's chest, Dr. Frasier called for everyone to stand clear, then pressed the button's on the paddles. The sheet, and the body beneath, jumped as the electrical charge surged through Sam. Placing the paddles back on the cart, Dr. Frasier placed the stethoscope over Sam's heart and listened. Grabbing the paddles once more she again shocked Sam's heart.
"Dr. Frasier!" Daniel exclaimed. "I can see her!"
Stepping back, Dr. Frasier saw what the others were seeing. Very faintly she could make out Sam's face and the still-bleeding gash on her left temple. Listening again with her stethoscope, she was relieved to heart a steady heartbeat and with each heartbeat Sam's features became clearer.
Removing the ambu-bag and the tubing from Sam's throat, Dr. Frasier watched in fascination as her friend began to re-materialize right before her eyes. Inserting an IV needle into a vein on the back of Sam's hand, Dr. Frasier smiled when her friend opened her eyes and looked at her.
"Welcome back," Janet said softly.
"You can see me?" Sam's voice came out sounding raw and raspy.
"Yes, but don't talk now, you've had a pretty rough time lately. Rest now."
Sam closed her eyes briefly, then they shot open again, looking frantically around the room. "Jack! Where is he?"
"Teal'c took him in the other room. Why?" Janet asked in a whisper, hoping that Sam would realize that she was being very personal with a superior officer.
"He is in trouble, Janet," Sam croaked out. "You've got to help him, please."
"Okay, calm down. I'm sure Teal'c would have come to me if it was anything serious," Dr. Frasier reminded her agitated friend.
"Please," Sam pleaded.
"All right, I'll go check on him." Leaving her distraught patient, Dr. Frasier hurried from the room and straight into chaos.
"What's going on here?" She shouted in order to be heard over the din. A mixture of patients and nurses stood around a bed and Dr. Frasier pushed her way through to see Teal'c standing over an attendant who was trying, without much success, to insert a chest tube into Jack's collapsed lung. "Get out of the way!" She ordered, grabbing a pair of gloves and shoving people aside. "Teal'c get these people out of here. Take the ambulatory into the hallway. Move the others as far away as you can."
"Lisa, what on earth were you trying to do here? Kill him?" Dr. Frasier pushed the sobbing attendant aside with her hip and took her place at Jack's side. "Get me a drape and drag Dr. Reddy out of bed," she ordered as she held a gauze pad over the open wound that Lisa had cut in Jack's side. "How deep did you go?" She asked the shivering woman.
"Not very," came the noncommittal answer.
A glare from Dr. Frasier was all it took to turn the woman on her heel and race from the room to awaken the anesthesiologist.
"Okay, let's get him into the O.R.," Dr. Frasier ordered, kneeling on the edge of the bed as Teal'c and another attendant wheeled the bed from the room.
~*~
Several days later...
Sam lay in her bed, looking up at the cold gray ceiling and wondering where everyone was at. She'd been informed, rather reluctantly, that Jack was finally out of danger, but was being kept in ICU just in case. She didn't want to think what else could go wrong, so she closed her eyes and sighed in relief that everything appeared to be over.
"She's asleep," Charlie whispered from the doorway.
"Let's go on in and wait for her to wake up, then," Jack's raspy voice encouraged. Sam's eyes flew open upon hearing his voice.
"I thought you weren't supposed to be out of bed," she chastised Jack in a raspy whisper as Charlie pulled the wheelchair over to Sam's bedside.
Jack had the nerve to look guilty, then he smiled when he realized that Sam was awake and alert.
"It's good to see you, too," he told her with a grin. "And I mean that literally!"
She couldn't resist his grin and returned it. "It's good to be seen!"
He laughed at her joke and quickly regretted it as he began to cough, which caused his ribs to hurt. Grinding his teeth against the pain, he looked up to see the worry on Sam's face.
"Jack! Are you all right?" She cried. "Charlie, go get Janet!"
The boy ran from the room, which was just what Jack wanted. He reached out suddenly and took Sam by the hand, holding a steadying arm against his aching ribs. "Sam," he said softly, gently rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand as he spoke. "I thought that I would never see you again, that you were lost to us... me... forever."
Sam could only sit in stunned disbelief as Jack got unsteadily to his feet and leaned across the side rail. Removing his hand from hers he captured the side of her face instead and gently, sweetly kissed her trembling lips. Leaning back to look into her wondering blue eyes, he called himself all kinds of a fool for thinking that she would return his kiss. Then it was his turn to be shocked when she lifted her hand and placed it on his neck, pulling his lips back to hers. When she was done he knew that he didn't have to worry that she didn't feel something for him.
"Ahem."
Jack straightened as if he'd been shot, giving his ribs and healing lung quite a jolt. Grunting in pain he turned to see Dr. Frasier standing in the doorway, an arm slung across Charlie's shoulder. Both were grinning broadly.
"Should we come back at another time?" Dr. Frasier inquired sweetly.
"That would be nice," Jack muttered as he took his seat in the wheelchair once more. "But, I'm not feeling very well right now." He looked up into Sam's worried face and winked. "I'll see you later," he told her softly. Holding an arm tightly against his ribs he allowed Dr. Frasier to wheel him from the room with a minimum of complaining.
"Charlie, can you stay for a while?" Sam asked the boy who had walked over to stand by her bed.
"Sure, but Jacob said that we've got to leave in a little while." Charlie climbed up on the bed and sat cross legged beside her. He took her hand in his and sighed, then looked her directly in the eye. "You love him, don't you?" He asked after a short silence.
Sam smiled sadly. "Yes, Charlie, I do, but it won't do me any good."
"Why?"
"Because he's a colonel and I'm a captain," she said, as if that was the end of it.
"So?"
She looked at him quizzically, then grinned. "Yeah. So?" She threw her arms around Charlie and laughed in delight when he squealed that she was strangling him.
THE END
Story Notes: Hi all, I sent this one out to be beta'd over a week ago, but my beta-er hasn't gotten back to me that she'd finished it, soooo, I'm going to send it on to you all. I'm sure any grammatical errors will be overlooked (hope, hope) and that you will enjoy the ride.
Sherrill
"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Phil. 4:13
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
This story is written entirely for entertainment and is not intended as an infringement against the copy written material that belongs solely to Showtime, MGM/UA, Gekko Films, et al. I'm only playing with their characters and will return them as soon as the story is finished. The following story is the property of the author and is not to be copied, or published without the express, written consent of the author.
All comments are welcomed at: bosco4@gte.net
Archives: Helipolis, Sam and Jack Relationship, all others please ask.
Sherrill
"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Phil. 4:13
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
This story is written entirely for entertainment and is not intended as an infringement against the copy written material that belongs solely to Showtime, MGM/UA, Gekko Films, et al. I'm only playing with their characters and will return them as soon as the story is finished. The following story is the property of the author and is not to be copied, or published without the express, written consent of the author.
All comments are welcomed at: bosco4@gte.net
Archives: Helipolis, Sam and Jack Relationship, all others please ask.
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 ]