Author's Note: I'm sorry if this feels incomplete, but there will be a companion piece published within the next couple of months that wraps it up. The title and quote come from a song of the same name from the musical "Next to Normal".

"What happens when the cast, at last, comes off?

And then you find the break

Was always in another bone?"

The groan from the room below her caused Dr. Janet Frasier's head to snap up from her paperwork, looking to see if she'd heard correctly. A second groan caused her to abandon said paperwork and race down the short flight of stairs through the door on her left. Hastily, she slid her keycard through the reader on the big door, squeezing into the room before it was even halfway open. "Colonel O'Neill?" she addressed the man in the bed.

"Doc?" The question was followed by another groan. "Where'm I?"

"You're back at the SGC, sir," Janet soothed as she checked his vitals. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Gate malfunctioned. Spat us out on some ice ball. Couldn't get the gate to work again, so I sent Carter…" His eyes, which had been at half mast, snapped wide open. "Where's Carter?"

"She's in Iso Room Two. She's fine. How are you feeling?"

"Warm."

"How's your chest?" Janet pressed. "Your leg?"

"Fine," he brushed off the question. "How's Carter?"

Janet suppressed a sigh. She'd been on the base barely six months, but she'd learned within her first six days that Colonel Jack O'Neill was one of the most exasperating patients she'd ever had. "She's fine, sir. Aside from hypothermia, her worst injuries are some rather impressive cuts and bruises." She paused, wondering whether to tell him the next part. "She's been asking about you.

Jack's ears pricked up at the doc's last statement. Carter had been asking about him? "What have you told her?"

"That your ribs will take about a month to heal, and the same for your leg. I also told her that her splint was textbook perfect." The twinkle in the healer's eye told Jack that someone, likely Carter, had related his displeasure with the captain's splinting abilities. At the time, Jack had been in too much pain to notice how the other officer took his comments, but now he felt bad about how he'd spoken to her.

A wave of tiredness washed over him, and suddenly he had to fight to keep his eyes open. The doc noticed. "Get some rest, sir," she told him, gently patting his shoulder.

Jack meant to nod his head in acknowledgment, but found that, once he'd inclined his head, it was extremely hard to lift it back up. His eyes closed of their own free will.

He was at his cabin. It had to be fall, because he was cold enough to wear a long-sleeved t-shirt with his jeans. Instinctively, he looked around for Charlie before remembering that his son was dead. The thought sent a wave of pain through him, and he didn't even bother to turn around when he heard the door of the cabin open and shut behind him. She'd know where to find him.

Sure enough, less than a minute later he felt a pair of arms encircle him, and she placed a kiss on his neck. He didn't want to talk, so when he heard her take a breath to speak he turned and captured her mouth with his own. Somehow, during the kiss she moved around to straddle him, wrapping her arms around his waist while he ran his hands through her short, blonde hair. Finally, the need for oxygen forced them apart. Jack opened his eyes, meeting her blue-eyed gaze…Wait a minute! Sara's eyes were green.

With a jolt, Jack realized that it wasn't his ex-wife sitting on his lap.

It was Captain Samantha Carter.

Jack abruptly returned to consciousness, breathing hard. "Crap," he muttered, scrubbing his face with his hand. The first time he'd had that dream had been just after he and Carter had been stranded in Antarctica, almost two years ago. Once again, he was in the infirmary, this time because that snake Hathor had tried to deep-freeze him. This time, however, he wasn't in an isolation room.

Turning his head to the left, he took in Daniel, stretched out and snoring in his own bed. There was a nasty-looking cut just above his right eyebrow where that damn memory device had been implanted, and Jack knew that the doc had had to bandage up Daniel's leg, but other than that the archaeologist was relatively unscathed. Physically, anyway; Jack hated to think what seeing Hathor again had done to Daniel mentally.

Just beyond Daniel's bed, Teal'c sat cross-legged on the floor, deep in kel'no'reem meditation. Several candles burned around him; Jack smirked as he remembered the original discussion between the Jaffa and Dr. Frasier about the safety of open flames in the infirmary. Eventually, Carter had helped Teal'c convince Janet that two or three candles should pose no threat.

Speaking of Carter… Jack turned his head to the right until he could see her sleeping form. She, too, bore the mark of the memory device, but unlike Jack and Daniel that was the only injury she'd received. Jack figured that she'd endured more psychological torture, however, especially having to see him get implanted with a symbiote.

But she'd come back for him. She'd come back for him, he'd saved her from Hathor, and then they'd hugged.

Jack closed his eyes, savoring that memory. Physical contact with Sam was all too rare, due to their respective ranks and the regulations that governed their behaviors. But somehow, despite that, he'd grown to love her.

The first time he'd had the dream about her, he'd assumed that it was because of their recent shared experience; after all, it wasn't everyday that you froze to death. But then he'd dreamed of her again following their stint in the naquadah mine on Shyla's planet, after the whole alien-time-capsule-spear-in-the-shoulder thing, the arrow through the same shoulder when they'd angered the Salish spirits, the time when the knowledge of the Ancients was downloaded into his brain…Basically, any time in the last year and a half that he'd been injured, thinking and/or dreaming of Sam had helped him get through his recovery. It had come as a shock to him at first; for the preceding decade or so it had always been thoughts of Sara that had gotten him through the tough times. But he'd apparently, finally, moved on.

Which now left him with the problem of being in love with someone sixteen years younger and three ranks junior.

Oh well. Given the type of danger they faced on a daily basis around here, it was doubtful it would be a problem much longer.