O'Neill sat at his desk for a long time after Carter had left. He was finding this really hard to accept. Not only had they gone through a terrible ordeal in the gate room, but now they had to contend with this ability to communicate wherever they were. Leaning forward, he rested his head in his hands. He began to think back to the last few weeks, while they had had this ability. //'Did I know?' // He asked himself. //'This is going to make it so hard, I don't know if I can hide my feelings any longer.' // Then he sat bolt up right. Suddenly realising that Carter might be able to hear him. //"Carter, are you listening?"//
//"Yes Sir."//
//"How long?"//
//"About three seconds, Sir."//
//"What did I say?"//
//"Sir?"//
//"What did I just say?"//
//"You asked me if I was listening?"//
//"Sir?"//
//"Yeah."//
//"Did you want something, Sir?"//
//"What?"//
//"Were you about to tell me something?">
//"Me, no nothing…nothing."//
//"OK Sir…Have a good night."//
//Yeah, you too, Carter."//
With a big sigh of relief, //'maybe we can't hear each other's private thoughts.'// O'Neill leant back in his chair and closed his eyes. Once again his mind began to drift back over the past few weeks, going over what had happened.
He remembered back to when he was in the sarcophagus. He knew he couldn't feel Carter's emotions then. Thinking really hard he tried to work out when he first noticed them. First of all, he only could feel her emotions when they touched, but that was before Carter had died in the gate room. Then he remembered, after they were zatted by the sarcophagus, when he pulled Carter up off the floor. That must have been the beginning, but he was still suffering from the after affects of Tolgarth's torture. He had thought all those emotions were his. It wasn't until Carter had grabbed hold of his arm in the infirmary, when he had seen into her soul…it had scared him. No one ever knew what he was really feeling. He had always made sure of that. With a sigh, he leant forward in his chair and rested his head onto his hands.
//"This is going to be difficult."//
O'Neill looked up with a start. //"Carter? Is that you?"//
//"Sir?"//
//"You spoke."//
//"Did I? Sorry, Sir, didn't mean to."//
//"That's ok, Carter."//
O'Neill ran his hands through his short hair in frustration. //`Yes, it is going to be very difficult', // he thought to himself.
Suddenly a memory came unbidden into his mind. On the day that Janet had them testing the effects of the blue light. He remembered seeing the raw emotions of Carter. It wasn't just forgiveness or security she had felt for him, there had been more. Something that he knew was going to cause a lot of difficulty for both of them, now they had these abilities. //'At least we can't see into each other's emotions anymore.'// He thought with relief.
^^^^^^
It took quite a while for Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter to come to terms with `think talk', as they liked to call it. At first it was a bit of a novelty, O'Neill always knew where Carter was and vice versa. If O'Neill wanted a report on how any of Carter's projects were progressing, he just had to ask. But after a while, they both began to find it irritating. Carter could be right in the middle of a difficult problem and O'Neill would interrupt, making Carter lose her train of thought.
It hadn't taken them long to differentiate their thinking patterns. They could both close off their private thoughts and even their surface thoughts. It wasn't unless they specifically spoke to each other in `think talk', that they were able to hear each other. They also couldn't read each other's minds, of which they were both very thankful. What was the most annoying thing was the fact that the entire base assumed they were each other's answering service. They were expected to pass along messages and devulge each other's location at any given moment.
After a while they managed to come to a compromise. First of all, unless it was General Hammond asking, they refused to pass messages on to each other. Secondly, Carter tried to convince O'Neill to leave her alone when she was in her lab, of which she was not very successful. And thirdly, they tried to leave this `think talk' at the base. This third one they found the hardest. Carter would suddenly come up with an idea that she wanted to talk over with O'Neill and instead of waiting until the following day, she would like to discuss it there and then. During the first few weeks, they had discovered something else. They always knew when the other one was asleep, as it went quiet. It's not that they could hear each other thinking, but it was more like a background noise that you only noticed if you really concentrated.
When they were off world, they still used the radios because they were trying to be very careful not to exclude Jonas and Teal'c too much. They weren't the only ones trying to come to terms with this new development in their team.
Fortunately, through this time the system lords seemed to have kept very quiet. The Tok'ra had managed to establish themselves on several different worlds without any interference from the system lords. O'Neill was very suspicious of the unnatural quiet. He was relatively sure that something was brewing.
^^^^^^
~The sky was clear blue. There was a slight warm breeze that made the skirt of her pale blue dress billow out and swirl around her bare legs. Sam knew exactly where she was going. She started to speed up her walking, as she was anxious to reach the brow of the hill. She knew that once she had reached it she would see the beautiful meadow of flowers. When Sam stood on the hill and looked down onto the meadow, she wasn't disappointed. The summer flowers were as beautiful as she remembered. Quickly she made her way down to the blooms. The fragrance intoxicated her. She bent down and started to pick the flowers. It was hard to know which ones to choose, as they were all lovely. Small insects were buzzing around the delicate flowers. Sam stood there for a while and watched them, fascinated by their antics. She looked up. There he was and he was walking towards her. Flowers forgotten, Sam started making her way through the flowers. This time she wanted to reach him and nothing was going to stop her. She knew who this was. Her destiny. The one person she could trust with her life. Finally they reached each other. Jack held out his hands to Sam. Suddenly he leant forward and grabbed her round the waist, lifted her up off the ground and swung her around him in a circle. As he placed her feet on the ground he reached down to kiss her. ~
^^^^^^
Sam wasn't sure whom to blame this time. It was the middle of the night. Something had woken her and she had no idea who or what it was. She automatically listened to see if the Colonel was awake, but it was silent. "He must be asleep." She muttered to herself. Climbing out of bed Sam decided to get herself a drink, maybe some camomile tea. Hopefully she would be able to get back to sleep. Pulling on her dressing gown against the cold, she padded out to the kitchen. She switched on the light and put the kettle on to boil. Looking out at the night sky, she decided that she would like to see the stars. So she reached across to the light switch and turned it off. After a while her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could see the stars. It always amazed her that these stars were the ones that she had visited on her travels as they were so far away.
"Don't move." A hand had come round and clamped over her mouth and Sam could feel the cold metal of a knife touching her neck.
"Do as I say and I will let you live."
Sam immediately relaxed her body. If she could lull this man into a false sense of security she could overpower him.
"I don't think so, Major Carter."
//'Oh no. He knows who I am and what I am capable of doing.'// She thought to herself.
The assailant released his hand over her mouth and pulled her hands back behind her. Before she realised what was happening she felt the cold steel of the handcuffs against her wrists. //'I'm moving too slowly. What is happening? I'm trained to get out of situations like this!'// Just as she finally decided to act, she felt the muzzle of a gun placed against her head. The assailant roughly dragged her over to the lounge and threw her down into one of the chairs. That's when she noticed that there was more than one man in her house. //'Quick, think. How am I going to get out of this?'// She asked herself.
"What do you want with me?"
"Shut up! We wait. You will find out when he comes."
Sam sat there for a while. One of the men had tied her feet together while the other held his gun on her. She was certainly in a no win situation. She listened for Jack, but he was still asleep and neither of them had tried to wake each other up with `think talk' before. She tried yelling in her head as loud as she could, but it didn't work. Sam tried a different method. She gathered herself up and threw herself at one of the men. They reacted in exactly the way she thought they would. The one with the gun hit her across the face. Stars exploded in her head and for a moment everything went black. She thought she had overdone it. If she were rendered unconscious she would never be able to contact Jack then.
//"Whoa! Sam what's happening? Are you all right?"//
//"Colonel, listen very carefully."//
She then proceeded to tell him her situation, who and how many that were in her home. That they were waiting for someone.
By the time she had finished telling him everything she could think of that would help, he was in his truck and half way to her house. Jack called up the SF's at the base. They most probably would get there too late, but it would be good to have some back up.
//" Sir, the lights are out."//
//"Are you OK? Are you hurt bad?"//
//"Yes, I'm fine, just a bit sore. It was the only way I could think of to wake you up."//
//"Well, it worked."//
O'Neill stealthily crept up to the back door of Sam's house. Fortunately he had keys to her house, just as he had had keys to Daniel's. With what they had to deal with from day to day, it was a precaution that they couldn't ignore. Sam guided Jack through the door by telling him exactly where the men were and where they were facing.
//"Carter, I want you to distract them. Be noisy, so they won't hear me."//
Sam immediately started to ask them what they wanted. When they ignored her, she started to shout at them to leave. They were so focused on keeping her quiet they didn't hear or see Jack come up behind them. With two swift blows to the back of their necks, they were both lying unconscious on the floor. Immediately Jack searched them, finding another set of handcuffs and some more rope. He then made sure they wouldn't be any trouble by tying them up.
He had found a set of keys for the cuffs when he had searched them. He moved over to Sam and released her. Reaching over he put the lamp on beside her. Quickly he checked her injuries and without thinking he pulled her into an embrace. Neither of them said a word to each other as they held each other tight. When they broke apart Sam looked at Jack. He was looking at her just the way he had in her dream. Her heart began to pound; time seemed to stand still as she looked into his eyes. As he started to lean towards her, he reached up with his hand, resting it on her cheek. Unasked feelings flooded through Sam; relief, worry and tenderness. It felt just like it did before when the blue light affected them, but more so. Just at that moment, light from a moving vehicle flashed across his face. She quickly stood up and moved away from Jack. The SF's had arrived. Jack hesitated a moment, then stood up and went to the door and let them in. Switching the lights on in the process.
"What took you so long? They are in here. We need to take them back to base to find out what they were up to."
Turning round to Sam. "Major Carter, you had better come too. You need to see Dr. Fraiser."
"Yes, Sir."
Sam slowly walked into her bedroom to get dressed. As she came out, she noticed that the Colonel wasn't dressed properly. He had his jacket on with no shirt, tracksuit pants and boots without any socks. The journey back to the base was very quiet. The intruders had gone with the SF's and Sam was travelling with Jack in his truck. The atmosphere in the vehicle was very uncomfortable. Sam didn't know what to say, they had nearly crossed the line. She realised that for the next few days, things were going to be very awkward between them.
O'Neill spent to whole journey back to base kicking himself. //'What on Earth got into me?'// He asked himself unsuccessfully. He wasn't sure who he was angry at the most: himself, for putting Carter in the difficult situation, or angry with Carter for taking them out of the situation.
The following day, they hadn't found out much from the intruders. All they said was that they had heard Major Carter had something of value. That they were to enter her house and hold her hostage until their employer arrived. They had no idea who he was or what he wanted. As far as the authorities could ascertain, that was all they were ever going to find out. Afterwards it was suggested that Major Carter should stay on base for a while until they found out more. They had their suspicions that NID were involved, but until they had more Intel, they would just make the necessary precautions.
^^^^^^
Teal'c was first to be aware that things were beginning to deteriorate between O'Neill and Carter, when he had walked into Carter's lab and had heard them arguing. It wasn't their normal way of arguing, because it was quite heated. Teal'c had never heard Major Carter talk to O'Neill like that before. She was on the verge of insubordination. Teal'c was surprised that O'Neill hadn't pulled rank and put her up on a charge. But as soon as Teal'c entered the lab, they stopped talking.
"What do you want, Teal'c?" O'Neill asked roughly.
"I was wondering what film we were going to view tonight, O'Neill. But I see you are busy. I will converse with you later." Teal'c turned around and started to walk out through the door. Before he went through he looked back at O'Neill and Major Carter. It was obvious by their body language that they had resumed arguing, but not out loud.
Three days later, Sam was totally fed up with Colonel O'Neill. She had specifically informed him that she was going to finish off the calibration of the latest piece of technology she had been putting together. She knew they were meant to be having down time, but she really needed to get this finished. It was delicate work. She needed a steady hand and to be able to put all of her concentration into this. And he, Colonel Jack O'Neill decided to go and play ice hockey with some of his buddies. Why couldn't he just go fishing? The worse she would have to contend with would perhaps be a fishhook in the finger. Not being slammed into the side of the rink every ten minutes and whacked around the legs with a hockey stick. All right, so she wouldn't have the bruises or the lasting pain the Colonel would get, but it still hurt initially and it ruined her concentration. After the fifth time she felt the force of being slammed into the side of the rink, she gave up. She decided to go and find Janet and see if she could come up with something that might stop the Colonel.
"Janet, are you busy?"
"Oh, hi Sam. No, I'm free for a moment. Hey, you look awful. What's wrong?"
"The Colonel is playing ice hockey again. I'm sure he just does it to annoy me." With that comment, Sam doubled over in pain. She slowly straightened up, ran for the toilet and promptly threw- up. "Serve him right… I hope he's broken some ribs." Sam gasped and then leant back against the wall and looked at Janet.
"Is he all right? Do I need to go down there?"
"Hang on I'll ask him."
//"Colonel, what on earth are you doing? Are you all right? Janet wants to know."//
//"Well at the moment lying flat on my back, while paramedics prod and poke me. As to knowing if I'm all right? At this time I have no idea, as everything feels numb."//
//"Well you are lucky, because I certainly don't feel numb. Shall I come and get you?"//
//"Yep! Try Memorial Hospital. They seem to think I need an ambulance for some reason."//
By this time, Sam had come out of the bathroom area and had washed her face and hands.
"Janet you had better bring your bag. We have to make a visit to the Memorial Hospital."
Janet groaned, took off her coat and reached for her bag. Not that she would need it, as the Colonel should have been patched up by the time she got there.
As Sam and Janet drove out of the gate, Sam tried to find out more from the Colonel.
//"Colonel. Colonel? What is happening? Jack will you answer me please?"//
Sam looked worriedly at Janet. "He's not answering me, but he's conscious. I can sense it."
"Keep trying him, Sam. Maybe he's talking with the doctors and can't talk with you right now."
Sam nodded and continued to keep trying to contact the Colonel. All signs of pain had gone now. She was worried. It wasn't the first time that the Colonel had ignored her, but he hadn't done it when he knew that they were concerned about him. Finally she smiled; he had spoken back to her. The smile didn't last long on her face though.
"Janet, we have to get there fast. The hospital wants to do a brain scan on the Colonel and then they will find the white mass."
Janet immediately reached for her cell phone and rang the hospital. After a few conversations with different members of staff, she was able to stop the scan from going ahead before they arrived. "Tell the Colonel what's happening, will you?"
When they arrived at the hospital, Sam led the way, as she knew exactly where O'Neill was. As they walked into his room, they saw that he was sitting on the side of a hospital bed with his shirt off. He had been strapped up around his chest with bandages and he had a black eye, which was beginning to close up. Sam could see the bruising beginning to show below the bandages across his abdomen. Snorting to herself, she could see the reason why she vomited.
"Well Sir. With respect, serves you right!" With that she walked straight back out of the room.
Janet moved over to the Colonel and without saying a word proceeded to examine him. When she had finished, she stood back. "You are lucky that I know a few people here, or you will have ended up being the latest unexplained experiment. Come on, you can sign out and we'll take you back to the base."
Several hours later back at the base, Janet was having a quiet word with O'Neill.
"Well your scan came back OK, no permanent damage. What is it with you and Sam? You knew she needed to get her work done and apart from that, when you do something that hurts you, it hurts Sam as well."
O'Neill shifted uncomfortably on the bed.
"OK, lecture over. You will be in here for two days. Those ribs don't need to be jostled around. No!" She held her hand up. "You promised to do as I said." Referring to her trick with the note. "No arguments, you will stay here until I say so." As Janet walked away she thought to herself //`Maybe Sam will be able to get her work done now.'//
^^^^^^
Three weeks later, Sam was discussing her nightmares with Janet again. They had got worse in the last three weeks. She was also finding that her headaches had increased.
"I've tried asking the Colonel about the headaches, but he just shrugs his shoulders and walks away. As for the nightmares I haven't even approached him with those. I know he suffers from them too, because it is obvious when we are off world." Sam sat dejectedly for a while. Janet stayed quiet and waited for Sam to continue. "Do you think the headaches are connected?"
"You know I can't discuss the Colonel's medical condition with you. It is confidential."
"Well Janet, if he won't talk to me about it and you can't talk to me about it, I will give you permission to talk to him about my headaches. Maybe that will help. Will it Janet?"
Janet gave a small smile, handed Sam some more painkillers and told her to go and get some rest.
^^^^^^
~Sam was standing in a hallway of a house. The walls of the hallway were made of a light coloured timber. It was mid summer and warm. She had never been here before. There were pictures on the walls and a skateboard leaning up against the staircase. A woman came out of one of the rooms and walked right past Sam. She looked familiar, but Sam couldn't quite place her. The woman hadn't seen her standing there, which Sam thought was strange. The woman went to the front door, as she pulled it open, she went outside, leaving the door open. A young boy came rushing through the door. He raced past Sam and shot up the staircase. Sam frowned. The boy looked familiar too, but she couldn't work out where she had seen him before. Soon after, Sam heard a shot come from upstairs. Uncharacteristically shocked, Sam stood still. Just then a man came in through the door. It was Jack. He was a lot younger and his hair was still brown. Sara his wife followed him closely. They ran up the stairs calling out to their son. Sam couldn't move. She wanted to follow them, even though she knew what she would find. The next thing she knew she was standing in the bedroom. Jack had lifted up his son, yelling at Sara to call 911. Sam turned her head away as she didn't want to watch this tragedy. She looked over to her right and she looked straight into Jack's eyes. Not the Jack of several years ago, but the Jack of today. He had been crying. He took one menacing step towards her. "How dare you? What are you doing here? This has nothing to do with you! This is my private hell!" All the time he was walking towards her, she was frightened. Sam started to back away as she didn't like the look in Jack's eyes. Now this would be a very good time to wake up. ~
^^^^^^
Sam sat bolt upright. She could feel the tears on her cheeks and she quickly wiped them away. She thought over what had just happened and she realised that she had been living one of Jack's nightmares. Maybe that is what she had been doing all the time, the nightmares weren't hers, they were his. Sam quickly checked to see if Jack was awake. When she realised that he was, she decided to leave him alone. If he wanted to talk to her, he would. Sam didn't really want to talk to him anyway at the moment. He had really scared her.
The following day Sam was busy working in her lab when the call came through to attend an emergency meeting in the briefing room. She hadn't managed to speak to the Colonel yet and when she had tried to `think talk' he had ignored her. With a small amount of trepidation she walked to the briefing room. She was surprised at the Colonel's reaction when she walked in. He acknowledged her with a small nod. But she wasn't surprised at what followed, because after that nod he completely ignored her. Sam sat down next to O'Neill and looked at General Hammond.
"Good you are here, Major. We have just heard from SG-9 and SG-4. The two teams are in serious trouble. They were overdue, so we sent a MALP through. We had a few moments of communication before it was destroyed. They are being attacked by an unknown force of Jaffa and are trapped. In one hour, SG-4 will launch an offensive on the Stargate. This will be our window for you to go through the gate. SG-9 are trapped inside a building, 8 miles from the Stargate. SG-4 are concealed near the Stargate, but haven't attempted to get through as they didn't want to leave SG-9 behind."
"Do they have any idea at all who we will be dealing with?"
"No, Colonel, what I've told you is all the information I have. Be ready at 1055 hours in the gate room. Dismissed."
Before Sam got a chance to speak to the Colonel, he had risen from the table and walked out of the door. Sam looked across the table at Teal'c. He had been watching her. Teal'c bowed his head in acknowledgement and followed the Colonel.
SG-1 were standing ready in the gate room. Dead on 1100 hours General Hammond gave them the go ahead. They walked purposefully up the ramp through the Stargate. As soon as they reached the other side, they could see five Jaffa lying on the ground. Sam immediately recognised the insignia on their foreheads. The Jaffa belonged to Tolgarth. She glanced quickly at O'Neill //"Uh Oh!"// He nodded back in agreement; he had seen the marks too. Moving swiftly they joined SG-4 in the trees. Two of them were injured badly.
"Major Keating. I want you to send your injured men back through the gate. The rest of you come with us. Major McDonald needs our help."
Soon, SG-1 and half of SG-4 were silently moving through the forest towards where SG-9 were holed up. As they approached, they could hear the sound of weapon fire and blast weapons in full battle. O'Neill directed Teal'c, Carter and Jonas around the back of the building that SG-9 were in. Major Keating, his lieutenant and O'Neill came around from the front. Because O'Neill was communicating with Carter all through this, they were able to attack exactly at the same time, taking the Jaffa totally by surprise. O'Neill burst through the door of the building. They found SG-9, but Major McDonald and Lt. Grogen were injured.
"Quick, we won't be able to hold them off for long. You," pointing to Lieutenant Andrews, "come with me."
//"Carter, get everyone out of here and send Teal'c down. I'll need him."//
//"He can't, Sir. He's injured. Nothing too serious though."//
//"OK, get going. We will be right behind you."//
Carter could hear the sound of weapons firing and then she saw SG-9 and SG-4 come racing around the side of the building. The others supported the two men. She knew that Lt. Andrews was with the Colonel. So Carter and Jonas supporting Teal'c between them, started back towards the Gate.
When they arrived at the Stargate, they could see the death gliders come swooping down firing at them. Carter quickly dialled the coordinates to Earth. //`Where on earth has Tolgarth managed to get death gliders from and why is he away from his planet?'// She thought it was very strange. Soon everyone had gone through the gate except Teal'c and herself. They crouched down by the DHD and waited for Colonel O'Neill. She knew he wasn't far away. She looked across at Teal'c and noticed that he was already beginning to heal. She never ceased to be amazed at how quickly the symbiote could heal him.
"Not long now, they are nearly here. They are just behind that ridge." As Carter started to stand up, she doubled over in pain and let out a cry. After a few seconds she looked up at Teal'c with horror in her eyes. "They've been hit. I've got to go back for them. You need to stay here, Teal'c.
Teal'c nodded. "I will keep the Stargate open, Major Carter."
"Thank you."
Sam immediately got up from her crouched position and ran back towards the ridge. Zig zagging across the uneven terrain; she hoped that the death gliders wouldn't be able to hit her.
As she reached the ridge, she bent down and lay on the ground. Inching along slowly she carefully looked over the top. The death gliders had left the ground pock marked with craters, she could see Lt. Andrews lying beside the nearest one to her. She couldn't see the Colonel though. Carefully she slid down the side of the ridge. She didn't want to draw any attention to herself and put them into further danger. Eventually she reached Lt. Andrews. It was obvious that he was dead. Just to make sure she checked his pulse. Finding no pulse, she pulled off his dog tags and placed them in one of her pockets.
//"Sir, where are you? I can't see you."//
//"I'm not sure, Carter. I can't see you either."//
Sam slowly stood up and searched the area. Then she saw Jack about fifty yards away. Some rocks and dirt half buried him. Quickly she ran over to him. Sam didn't like the look of him. His face was ashen in colour and his breathing was laboured. She quickly cleared the debris away from Jack's legs. He was lying on the ground with his hands clutched to his abdomen; blood was oozing through his fingers.
"Hi Sir, what have you been doing to yourself?"
Pulling his hands away, she grabbed some field dressings and started to pack the wound. As she lifted away his jacket, she saw the extent of his injuries and it didn't look good.
The front of his chest was bleeding and blood was coming from his abdominal area far too fast. She had to stop the bleeding. Just then a blast from a death glider hit the ground just above them. Sam quickly laid herself over Jack to stop all the dust and debris from hitting him. When the small stones and dust had settled, she leaned back. Jack's blood had started to pool on the ground beside him and she could feel it soaking into the knees of her trousers.
//"Sam, get out of here. Leave me. You can't do anything for me."//
"No Sir, I will not leave you. Remember, we don't leave anyone behind."
Pulling out more field dressings, she replaced the old blood soaked ones. She knew this was futile but she had to try.
"Sam?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"For being such an idiot."
"It's all right, all is forgiven."
Sam had placed her hands on the wound to try and staunch the flow of blood, but it wasn't working. Sam was holding all her emotions in, but it was hard. She could feel them rising up through her. Jack reached out his right hand and grabbed hold of Sam's jacket and pulled her towards him.
"Leave me." His voice was strained.
Sam reached up her hand and touched his face. "No. I won't." As she held his face in her hand, she could feel Jack's emotions. With this final surge of external emotion, she was unable to hold hers at bay any longer. "I can't, I love you too much Jack." She knew this was the right thing to say, before Jack even spoke to her.
"I love you too Sam." Jack replied very weakly.
Bending down, Sam kissed him. Jack's hand caught hold of the back of her neck and held her there. A great feeling of anguish filled her inside. Up until that moment, she hadn't felt any of Jack's pain, except when he was first hit. Now the full force of the excruciating pain hit her, as Jack let all of his emotions flow out to her. She knew then just how much this man really loved her. As quickly as the pain had come it went. Sam could feel his hand sliding down her shoulder as she felt the essence of Jack fading. It was silent, like when he was asleep, but he wasn't. Moving back away from him, she studied his face. His eyes were closed and he looked at peace. Scrubbing the tears away, she left blood and dirt smeared over her face. Sam then carefully bent down, lifted Jack's head and removed his dog tags. Clutching them tightly in her fist she slowly stood up, not caring if the death gliders saw her. Taking the dog tags, she carefully placed them over her head and tucked them into her shirt.
All this time everything had been silent to her. She couldn't hear the bombing and the firing from the death gliders. Then the crackle of her radio broke through the silence. It was Teal'c.
"Major Carter, O'Neill, come in."
"Here, Teal'c."
"The Jaffa forces are increasing and they are coming your way. You must hurry."
"On my way, Teal'c."
Sam took one last look at Jack and then started running, dodging the weapon fire. The tears were pouring down her face and she couldn't stop them. She couldn't believe that he was gone. She hadn't run far, when a large explosion landed behind her, throwing her to the ground. Looking behind her as she got up, she could see that if she hadn't left when Teal'c contacted her, she could have been caught in the explosion. Sam ran up to the Stargate yelling at him to go through.
"Where are O'Neill and Lt. Andrews?"
Sam shook her head at Teal'c and motioned him to go through the gate. Teal'c started back towards where Sam had just run from. Reaching out with her hand, she caught hold of Teal'c's arm to stop him.
"They are dead. The Colonel and the Lt. are dead."
Without wasting anymore time, Teal'c spun around and pushing Carter in front of him ran through the gate.
"Close the iris," yelled Carter as they arrived at the SGC.
Just then a staff weapon blast followed them through the Stargate and hit Teal'c on the shoulder sending him careering into Carter and they both fell crashing down the ramp.
^^^^^^
In the infirmary, Dr. Fraiser was having trouble controlling her emotions. Sam was covered in blood lying on a hospital gurney. The nurses were furiously cutting her clothes off to find out where she was injured. Dr. Warner was looking after an unconscious Teal'c, but otherwise he looked like he was going to be all right. Dr. Fraiser could see the large contusion on Sam's forehead and had already started to see to that, but the quantity of blood was what worried her. It was all down the front of her jacket and had soaked into her trousers. After Sam's clothes had been removed, she felt an almost overwhelming relief, as it wasn't Sam's blood. There wasn't any sign of an injury, only the bump on the head.
"Doctor! Look at this." One of the nurses held up the two sets of dog tags. They were covered in blood.
"Whose are they?" With a feeling of dread, Janet reached over and took the dog tags from the nurse. Wiping each one on a cloth, she then started to read them. The first one was Sam's the second was Colonel O'Neill's. Janet looked down at Sam's face and saw the tearstains smeared over her face. She now knew whose blood this was on Sam's uniform.
"Nurse, take these clothes to the lab. I want an analysis on them to determine whose blood this is. Tell them to look for Colonel O'Neill's, Major Carter's and Lt. Andrews, ASAP."
"Yes, Doctor."
In the briefing room, Dr. Fraiser was talking to General Hammond. "Teal'c is going to be all right, as his wounds are being healed by his symbiote. Major Carter has only suffered a head wound and she is still unconscious. We still aren't sure exactly what has happened to Colonel O'Neill or Lt. Andrews, but the tests came back positive. 95% of the blood on Major Carter's clothes was Colonel O'Neill's. There is no way he would have survived that amount of blood loss."
"And the other 5%, whose is that?"
"A mixture of Lt. Andrews', Teal'c's and Major Carter's. Leaning to most of it being Teal'c's."
"Thank you, Doctor. How long will it be before Major Carter will be able to talk to us?"
"I don't know, Sir. She should have come to by now, but she seems to have shut down. This is going to be very hard for her with the telepathic connection; it will be a big loss for her. General Hammond watched Dr. Fraiser leave his office. After she closed his door he let out a large sigh. It was full of sadness. He was going to miss Colonel Jack O'Neill very much.
Two hours later, Janet was sitting in her office catching up on her paper work. She had written the reports on the team members of SG-4 and SG-9 that had been injured and she was just waiting on Sam's and Teal'c's. She couldn't even start on Colonel O'Neill's and Lt. Andrews' until Sam and Teal'c had woken up.
Janet quickly got up from her seat. She had heard a scream. She rushed out into the infirmary and she saw Sam half way out of her bed calling out Jack's name. Janet rushed up to Sam and caught hold of her arms.
"Sam! You are safe. You are here." Sam opened her eyes and looked at Janet. "He's dead. I couldn't save him." Tears had started to roll down Sam's face. Janet reached over and pulled the curtains closed. Then she sat on the bed and hugged Sam tight. "I know, Sam. I know." She murmured quietly to her.
^^^^^^
To be continued – Part 7 – Moving On
Please let me know what you think. arrietty39@hotmail.com
Story Notes: Author's Note: This is part six of a nine part series. You will need to read the previous parts first, or this will not make much sense. All thinking is shown by italics and by the symbols . Dreams are shown by italics and by the symbols ~ Of course a thank you goes to each of my beta readers, DJ and Vicky. Thank you Mel, for the research.
FEEDBACK: Absolutely, would be muchly appreciated. J
FEEDBACK: Absolutely, would be muchly appreciated. J
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 ]