AUTHOR: DebiC

EMAIL: dcole6@satx.rr.com

CATAGORY: POV Angst and a bit of humor (in the end).

SPOILERS: None

SEASON/SEQUEL INFO: Fourth season, no sequel

RATING: PG one bad word (Jack has such a mouth!)

SUMMARY: Carter leaves the guys alone and they get into trouble.

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

NOTES: Thanks to Kelly Crashtomcat for the beta read.

Major Samantha Carter shifted restlessly in the uncomfortable plastic chair that she was sitting in. Janet Fraiser, friend and physician, kept promising (threatening) to by a Lazyboy lounger specifically for SG1, but it hadn't appeared yet. Sam had been hoping that the chair wouldn't be necessary for a while, but...well, things hadn't worked out.

She leaned back in the offending piece of furniture and sipped from her cup of cold coffee. It was cold in here. Why were infirmaries always cold? Maybe it was for the computers and other monitoring devices. Heaven knows there were enough of them in here. Her life seemed full of the electronic marvels lately. The SGC survived on them, using them to activate the Stargate, to monitor the MALPs and UAVs, to store the information that they gathered on other worlds, to keep their team members alive.

She put the cup of cold coffee down and reached over to the bed she was sitting beside. His hand was cold. She wanted to rub it to help warm the hand, but the IV needle in the large vein on top limited what she could do for him. It was a large hand; calloused and scarred, capable and skilled, giving definition to the man it belonged to. The fingernails were cut square but had chips in them, one torn unevenly to the nailbed. She often watched these hands during briefings. They were nervous hands, seldom quiet. They would point out, exclaim, examine, and probe. They had rescued, supported, and guided them, and yet never failed them. The hands were quiet now as they lay on the stark white sheets of the hospital bed. She shifted again in the chair, trying to stretch her lower back muscles. She heard a soft popping noise as the muscles released their stress. Finally, Carter stood up and walked around the hospital bed to stand at the door, staring down the empty hallway. She stayed there for several minutes then turned back into the room.

She circled back to the chair and turned it in the other direction, to the other bed. The pale face was completely relaxed into unconsciousness. The clear plastic oxygen mask was slightly fogged over, but did nothing to hide his features. The skin was fair to begin with; now it appeared almost translucent, the fine blue veins lying just beneath the skin. The lines of care around the eyes from a life of loneliness had smoothed, giving the man before her an almost childlike appearance. The eyes were closed now, the soft skin of the eyelids with their fringe of golden brown lashes protecting the windows of this soul so precious to them. Those eyes which had seen so much pain and unhappiness in such a short time were of a particular blue. A blue that could change to the dark blue of thunderclouds in anger, the unfathomable blue of the sea in sorrow and the sparkling blue of sapphires in joy. The only thing those eyes couldn't do was lie a friend.

They had been sleeping like this for two days, since their retrieval from a planetary survey that had gone terribly wrong. There could have been three beds, but thanks to his symbiote, Teal'c was allowed to recover in his quarters in Kel No Rem. Junior, as O'Neill had dubbed the goa'uld larva, was doing his best to heal his Jaffa. They didn't need the intensive care that humans did in medical situations. Only Daniel and Jack needed it. But even the indomitable warrior was weak; too weak to explain, to give a reason why this had happened. So she waited and wondered to know what had befallen her three men and how this had happened to them.

She hadn't been there. She had to go to a seminar that only she could teach; only she was qualified for, only she would do. And she had gone eagerly, leaving behind her men. She had admonished them to stay out of trouble, to take care of each other and she'd be back soon. She had smiled at the three as she left the Mountain five days ago. They had laughed and called out for her to have a good time and to bring them 'something' back from DC. Three days into her trip, the General had recalled her. There was a problem, they were missing, could she come back early? There had been no question of that. Apologies had been tendered and the red-eye return flight had brought her back to the Mountain to this.

They had gone to investigate some ruins that been recorded on a planet survey by UAV. She knew the drill; the three had gone without her. The Colonel had groused about trees or the lack thereof, the Archeologist had enthused about the possible importance of the discoveries, and the Warrior had escorted them quietly, listening to the verbal sparring of his companions, guarding against the unknown. Then nothing for 48 hours, four check-in times missed and a search team dispatched by a concerned SGC. They had been found together, in a defensive position. The Colonel in front of the Scientist shielding him with his body, the Warrior guarding them from behind. There were no signs of their attackers, any weapons or clues for a reason behind the attack. Only the three, unconscious and lifeless, left alone on the field of battle.

The SAR party had immediately radioed back, the medics dispatched, and the limp forms recovered. But still no answers to the riddle, no reason for the act. Had they encountered a war already being fought, had they inadvertently violated some unknown taboo, or had they run afoul of an old enemy. They had a made few in the past several years, some false gods, some aliens, and a bounty hunter or two. So nothing was impossible, not for her three men.

A tap on the door warned her of company. Dr. Fraiser came in to stand next to her friend. She laid her hand on Carter's shoulder "Hey, how are you doing?"

She tried to smile up at Janet but it wasn't very credible. "Any test results with answers?"

The Doctor returned an equally unconvincing smile. "Nothing yet. But they are beginning to narrow down the suspects. It was some sort of force weapon, which's why they haven't woken up yet. The brain is a wonderful organ but it doesn't rouse quickly. The best we can do is support them while their bodies do the work."

Sam looked down at her lap. Her own hands were clasping each other with enough force to turn her fingers white. "Brain damage?"

"We won't know until they wake up. Hopefully not, but..."

She nodded, accepting the non-answer. "How's Teal'c?"

"He's strong. The symbiote is doing the work for him. But he's still asleep. I can wake him but I'd rather not."

"No, don't wake him." She replied. "He needs to heal too."

Janet nodded watching her friend as she watched the others. "Sam, you're tired. Why don't you go and get some rest." She laid her hand on the other woman's shoulder.

"I will in a little while. I can't sleep now." She looked up at her physician friend, hoping to find understanding there.

She did. "OK, honey. But don't put it off much longer. You won't be able to help them if you make yourself sick."

Sam nodded again, looking back down at Him. Dr Fraiser patted her on the shoulder and left, closing the door to the private room behind her.

Carter woke up to the feel of someone stroking her hair. She opened her eyes to see him looking at her, a gentle smile on his face. "How ya doin' Carter?"

She sat up from where she had laid her head and arms on the bed. "Sir...?"

He looked over at the other bed. "Five bucks, Daniel."

She turned around to see Jackson watching her. The oxygen mask gone and the blue eyes open. "Daniel? Hi."

"Hi to you too." He said softly with a small grin.

She turned around again and saw Teal'c sitting in a chair at the foot of Col. O'Neill's bed. "Good Morning Major Carter."

"Good morning!" She put her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes, yawning. "How is everyone?"

Janet, who was standing at the foot of Daniel's bed with a clipboard in her hand, replied happily. "Everyone's awake and accounted for, now." She came around to Sam's side and patted her on the shoulder, repeating the action she had done just hours ago. "And apparently just fine."

"Well, someone tell me what happened." She demanded. "What happened to you guys, anyway?"

O'Neill took a deep breath. "Well, the natives were friendly enough at first but then Daniel had to touch the Holy Rolling Pin and..."

"Jack, it wasn't a Holy Rolling Pin; it was an icon to their primary deity." Daniel made a face at him. "Besides, it wasn't me touching it...You wouldn't marry the chiefs daughter!"

"Which he wanted me to do in payment for you touching the damned rolling pin!" Jack looked up at his Second in Command. "And she was ugly! Oooh!" He made a shivering motion.

"It wasn't a rolling pin, Jack." Daniel protested. "And I didn't touch it!"

"Major Carter, it was a combination of many elements in the local social structure, which led to our leaving the village in haste. We were pursued and overcome by a large number of natives."

Daniel took up the story next. "Yea, because when Jack said no the headman's daughter, he wanted Teal'c to marry her."

Jack started in again. "So we ran, they caught us and zatted us."

Carter and Fraiser were both giggling by now. "Zatted you!"

To which Teal'c replied. "It was not a Zatniketel, but a weapon of similar design."

After the two women recovered their composure, Janet convinced them by her medical authority that they all needed to rest, Jack and Daniel here and Sam and Teal'c in their respective quarters. As they and Teal'c were leaving the room, Sam turned back to her commander "Sir?"

"What is it, Carter?"

"What did you mean earlier, when you said five dollars to Daniel?"

Teal'c replied. "Col. O'Neill had bet DanielJackson that the first thing you would say upon awakening was 'Sir'. He won the bet."

O'Neill had a guilty look on his face for a moment, then grinned tiredly at her. "I won in the end, didn't I?"

"Yes, sir you did." Sam stepped aside to allow the diminuitive Doctor back into the room with two hypodermic syringes. "But I'm not the one getting the shots." She closed the door behind her and smiled up at Teal'c. "In the end."