Teal'c stepped through the gate. In his arms lay a bloody unconscious Cassandra.
The gateroom fell silent for a moment, then commotion resumed. "Get Dr. Lam down here" "Medical team,stat!"
Slowly Teal'c walked down the ramp, careful not to jostle the young woman in his arms anymore then he had to. He stood at the foot of the gate ramp only a moment before the medical team came rushing in, Dr. Lam right behind them. Behind her Daniel was running,too.
Teal'c lowered Cassandra onto the waiting stretcher. "Rebel Jaffa attacked the settlement. I am afraid she was hit with a staff blast. She hit her head when she fell." he explained to Dr. Lam.
She nodded in acknowledgement and followed the team back into the infirmary to care for her new patient.
"Teal'c!" Daniel exclaimed, noting the blood, Cassandra's blood, across the front of his friend's shirt. "What happened? And where's Mitchell?"
"We were attacked by a band of rebel Jaffa. Colonel Mitchell held them off so I could bring Cassandra through the gate. I must go back and help him."
"Teal'c, what happened with Cassie?" Daniel asked.
Teal'c bowed his head and then looked up. "While we were under fire, I am afraid Cassandra Fraiser took a hit from a staff blast. She was wearing a vest but still fell from the impact and hit her head. I could not stop the bleeding from the wounds. That is why Mitchell stayed behind, so to distract the rebels from our escape. I must go back and help him."
"Stand down, Teal'c." General Landry's voice came over the intercom. "I want to send a team with you."
"Very well. Ask them to hurry, Mitchell may need our assistance quickly."
"I so do not want to be the one to call Sam and Jack about this," Daniel muttered, moving out of the way of the assembling SG team. "Good luck, Teal'c!" he called out.
"Thank you, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c stepped back through the gate, the SG team following.
Daniel headed down the hallway toward the infirmary. He was thinking of how he should tell Sam and Jack when he bumped into Vala.
"Oh, hi!" she said brightly. "I've already been to the infirmary to see your little friend, Cassie, is it? She's doing just fine, the doctor is stitching her up now. I just couldn't stay for that, you know. Needles poking in and out of flesh, how awful. Luckily the girl is still sleeping so I don't think she minds too much but I do."
"Vala!"
"Yes. Oh, I was talking too much again, wasn't I? I'm sorry, Daniel, that is just the way I am."
"Will you please move out of my way?" They stood in front of the infirmary.
"Well, I can but I told you what they're doing in there." Vala made a face and moved out of his way.
Daniel stepped into the room. Nurses were rushing around the room in an almost perfect ballet. In the middle, seemingly center stage, Dr. Lam worked on her patient, her hands almost doing their own dance as they worked swiftly to close the wounds on Cassie's head, and another smaller but deeper one from the staff blast on her arm. She looked up when she sensed him approaching.
"Cassie will be fine. It wasn't a direct hit, but still got her pretty good on the upper arm.
What about her head?" Daniel gently stroked Cassie's long red hair.
"She hit it hard. We've done a scan, it's a concussion, a bad one, but I still expect her to wake up in a couple hours. There's no internal bleeding that I can see. Most of the external bleeding was from the head, but I've stopped it."
Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good news, I can call Sam and Jack with that."
"They're still going to be here on the next flight out of Dulles." Dr. Lam remarked.
"True. But I was really dreading having to make the call. Now I'm going to start off with the good news."
"Good idea." Dr. Lam agreed.
"She'll be all right for a few minutes while I make the call?"
"Yeah. I'll page you if she wakes up and you're not here. I don't think she will for a while though."
Daniel nodded his thanks and ducked in the hallway. He thought it would be best to make the call in his office so no one else would need to hear Jack shouting into the phone from two thousand miles away.
________________________________________________________________________________
The phone rang just as Sam and Jack were sitting down for a late lunch. Jack started to ignore it then saw the caller id. "It's the SGC," he told Sam before answered. "Hello?"
"Jack?" Daniel said.
"You did call my house, who else would answer?"
"I was kinda hoping Sam would." was the muttered answer.
"You can talk to her if you like. You also could've just called her phone instead of mine."
"Jack, this is important. It's about Cassandra."
"Cassie? She's off with Teal'c, practicing her newfound medical skills on some poor Jaffa."
"No, Jack, she's not." Daniel took a deep breath. "Maybe you should get Sam on the other phone, so I don't have to repeat myself."
"Already done." Sam joined the conversation. "What's up with Cassie?"
"Daniel took another deep breath. "She's going to be fine. In fact, she should wake up in a little bit and you can talk to her yourselves."
Silence from the other end. Then, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHEN SHE WAKES UP?!" Jack's voice thundered into Daniel's ear.
"Daniel, what happened?" Sam demanded, sounding close to tears, Cassandra was like a daughter to her after all.
"Teal'c and Cassie, along with Mitchell, were out on PXR-245, in a remote free Jaffa village when the rebels attacked. From what I understand when they came under fire they made a run for the gate. Cassie got hit," he stopped when he heard Sam begin to cry, "She's fine! It wasn't a direct hit! It hurt her arm and she hit her head when she fell but she's fine! Dr. Lam said she'll wake up soon with not much more then a headache and a sore arm."
"We're coming." Jack stated. "When she wakes up, tell her we're on our way." he hung up.
Sam remained on the line. "Is she really all right, Daniel?"
"Dr. Lam seems to think so. Just a concussion, it's a bad one, but the doctor seems sure it's not going to be a problem. Her arm was hit, but not a direct hit. It's painful but not life threatening. You don't need to worry." Daniel tried to reassure her.
"I'm going to anyway. Janet would've so I'm doing it for her,too. Stay with Cassie til we get there, will you?"
"Of course. Vala's in there now, I think. Cassie won't wake up alone, Sam."
"Thanks. We'll be there as soon as we can."