AN: So don't ask me what Daniel's contraption looks like, how it works, or where they got all the materials because I just don't know. I suppose they MacGuyvered it or something. This is a piece of team dynamic more than anything else. I'd say it's set S3/4 but it doesn't really matter :) Unedited as yet.
Summary: Sam falls down a hole and is injured. Daniel has devised a way of getting her out using a contraption from Abydos. No details, just the lift from the bottom of the large animal trap to the top. Light-hearted one-shot, team-fic, fluff. K plus.
HOIST
Sam was having second thoughts. "Daniel, are you sure this is such a good idea?"
"Yeah sure it is, just try and sit still." he peered at her over his spectacles. "You do trust me to do this don't you?"
"Of course." she answered automatically.
Jack knew her too well. "No she doesn't. Here let me." he grabbed the pipe from Daniel's hands.
"Sir?" Carter attempted to straighten up again.
"What so you trust me even less than you trust Daniel?"
Sam froze, this was potentially dangerous territory. "No of course not Sir, it's just that, well, when it comes down to it Daniel is the only one who has actually done this before."
"Yeah once, with Sha're's supervision!"
"It's still more times than you've ever done it Jack."
Sam closed her eyes and tried to still the overactive beating of her heart. "Guys please, you're not filling me with a lot of confidence here."
Jack and Daniel both stopped and looked at the injured Major. "Sorry." they mumbled simultaneously.
"It's okay, just...are you sure there's no other way?"
Jack sighed and looked straight up. "No Carter there really isn't, we need to get you out of here and this is the quickest and easiest way."
"But not the safest." Sam reiterated. She did not like this at all.
"No it's not." Daniel told her honestly, "but it will work I promise. You're a physicist, you do the math."
"Daniel she doesn't want to do math, her leg is broken!"
"No Colonel, I actually might."
"Now see what you've done?" Jack thumped Daniel's arm solidly. "You've gone and got her all nervous and over-thinking."
"It's not possible to over-think physics, Sir."
"See!"
Daniel scowled at Jack's angry stare and rubbed the dead-arm he had just been given. "If she does the math, she'll see I'm right."
"Yeah and what if she doesn't agree with you, what then?"
"I'm injured not deaf, can you not talk about me like I'm not here?" Sam blurted. The pain in her leg was making her temper shorter by the moment.
Once again they had the grace to look contrite. "Sorry Sam." Daniel offered "I guess we're just worried about you."
"Yeah and determined to have a pissing contest over who gets to rescue me. Neither of you are Mario and I'm not the Princess you know." Oh boy was she really ticked off. Daniel and Jack had been butting heads way to often these days. That was how she had fallen into the animal trap and broken her leg in the first place. If they hadn't been arguing and dragging her into it she would have been looking where she was going and none of this would have happened. "Just shut up with the arguing and get me out of here!" she snapped.
Jack let the highly insubordinate lip slide, his 2IC was clearly in a lot of pain...and probably right to be glaring at them like that. "Okay. So Daniel, how about we work this thing together then?" He raised his eyebrows in question.
"Oh, yeah that'll work. Probably even better."
"Good, you take that side." Daniel moved round to Sam's other side and waited for instruction. "On three. One..."
"Wait, wait, wait." Sam cut across the Colonel's countdown.
"Carter!" Jack was getting frustrated. He wanted to get her out of this hole and back to the SGC.
"Just one more thing Colonel. Daniel?" she made solid eye-contact. "Can you please assure me that never once did you see a bag of grain fall off this Abydonian pulley system of yours."
"No, never once." He shook his head with vigour.
Sam was not wholly convinced he was telling the truth but at the end of the day she trusted him, him and the Colonel and they were both there with her and Teal'c would be manning the ropes at the top, besides it was only seven feet. "Okay." she agreed and briefly shut her eyes. "Let's do this."
Jack once again tested the tension and nodded.
On his count both men pulled on the rope and Carter felt herself being lifted off the ground a few inches. The pain in her now slightly moving limb was immense. "Arg!" she called out despite her best efforts.
"Now Jack." The Colonel manoeuvred the pipe into place and Daniel clicked the makeshift latch. "There, that should hold it."
"Will hold it Daniel, it will hold." Jack stated confidently as Sam looked hurriedly from one to the other.
"Of course, no doubts at all. You ready Sam?"
"Just get on with it." Sam forced out through gritted teeth, the morphine only helped so much. Sometimes she hated Jolinar and her stupid protein marker, she might as well have been taking Asprin.
"Teal'c?" Daniel shouted and looked up. "Anytime now would be good."
"As you wish Daniel Jackson." came the voice from on high.
The contraption slowly started hoisting Carter off the ground. "That's good Teal'c, keep it steady." Daniel called.
"Carter, you okay?" Jack was worried, Sam's face had just turned the colour of chalk.
"M'fine Sir." she forced out, the pain was making her feel ill. "Just my leg."
"I understand Major, but at least there's no splint on it, right?" Jack did his best to smile as Carter's head came up level with his face, her perch beginning to sway a little.
"Yea-" Sam knew she couldn't form full words, every tiny movement was causing the fractured bone to dig into the nerves under her skin.
"Keep your eyes open Carter." O'Neill warned. "You gotta stay conscious to hold onto that thing."
Sam nodded and brought her concentration level back up to where it needed to be.
"Halfway there Sam, not much longer, I promise." Daniel told her as he eyed the wooden frame that supported her weight, something did not look quite right but it was all strong enough to hold for the last half of the journey, but just in case he shouted up. "Slower Teal'c. You should be able to see her soon. Don't forget to stop at the top so we can get out and help you with the last bit."
"I shall not, Daniel Jackson." rumbled the disembodied voice.
Sam hissed when the ropes jerked over a knot in the piece of tree branch above her head. "Just a few more feet." Jack assured her and she held on tighter, her knuckles turning white.
"Okay, stop Teal'c." Daniel shouted. "Jack, give me a hand."
O'Neill ducked under Sam on her 'swing' and easily boosted Daniel up out of the narrow hole. Daniel then reached down and hauled Jack up over the edge.
"I'll take this side." Jack calmly told Daniel from behind Sam's back. Silently he indicated the huge crack that was appearing along one of the natural veins in the piece of wood that Sam sat on. Daniel nodded and quickly moved into place, that was why the angle was off.
"Anytime Teal'c, just a little at a time, we need to move back this way, towards us." Then he turned his attention to the woman in front of him. "Alright Sam, I'm sorry but this is going to be bumpy for a couple of seconds, you are going to feel it. Grab onto me if you need to, it won't affect what I'm doing, okay."
Sam nodded at her friend, glad that he was being clear about what was going to happen. It made her feel a little less apprehensive.
"On three." Daniel said. "One, two, three."
Slowly they moved the contraption back and away from the hole. It juddered a little and Sam cried out, grabbing Daniel's arm. "Stop, stop." she called knowing they wouldn't.
"Almost there." Jack breathed as he struggled to keep as much of her weight off the broken piece of wood as possible.
"That's it, were clear, down now." Daniel called and Teal'c gently set Major Carter safely back on terra-firma.
"Oh thank god." Sam whispered.
"Yeah."
"Yep."
The boys said for a different reason. Jack and Daniel looked at each other. That had been close. No way they were ever doing that again. "Okay Major, let's get you onto a real stretcher and get you home." The Colonel sighed.
"You know they really should invent some kind of stretcher that fits into tiny holes and awkward spaces." Daniel said, trying his best to take Sam's mind of the pain as she manoeuvred herself across and lay down more fully.
"They have Da-Daniel." Sam answered distractedly as she settled herself down and tried to relax while the Colonel strapped her in. "They just aren't part of our equipment list, but you did good though."
"Yeah well I can't really take the credit it's an Abydonian construct." He smiled at her.
"Okay people, lets move out." Jack ordered and with Teal'c taking the front and both Daniel and Jack manning the back they easily carried their injured team-mate back towards home where they knew Janet would fuss over her for a while and be able to heal her good as new.
When they did get Sam back and safely tucked up both Jack and Daniel came independently to see her with a promise. "No more bickering." each man had vowed.
'Yeah right.' thought Sam, like that was ever going to last!
END
AN: I don't know about you but I think Sam was pretty brave there.