Recuperation

Just after the Stargate: Atlantis Season 4 episode "Trio"

Sam sat in her bed with a sigh. She hated recuperation. Especially when the only thing that wasn't up to snuff was her leg.

"Colonel Carter, we have a communication from Earth." Chuck Campbell announced over his headset.

"Oh?" She asked, tapping her headset. "What's going on? Isn't Colonel Sheppard up there?"

"Yes, Colonel, I'm here." John assured. "But it's General O'Neill. He asked specifically to speak with you."

Her heart warmed a little. "Oh..." She said, managing to hide the smile on her lips. "Well, I'll be up there in a few minutes."

"He's on a live video feed. We're sending it to your personal computer."

"Thank you." She said, somewhat embarassed as she wondered what the team was going to think of her commanding officer's special attention.

She reached for her laptop which rested on the nightstand. In a moment, she had pulled up the video feed.

"Sir!" She said with a grin as she saw her favorite gray-haired man looking around the room as he waited for her response. "It's good to see you."

He turned back to the camera somewhat surprised. "Yes, well...modern technology and all that...jazz..."

She grinned.

"So..." He sighed. "I read your report..."

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I guess it's true what they say."

"What do they say?"

"There's a first time for everything." She teased.

He rolled his eyes as he chuckled. "Well, they also say that what goes around comes around."

She looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"You splinted my leg, and Keller had to splint yours."

She laughed. "That was ten years ago!"

"And I still remember it hurt!" He insisted.

"Yes, sir." She acknowledged. "I'm sure it did. My experience was more recent after all."

He sobered, and she could see the lines of concern in his face. "Did you have to ignore McKay's warnings?"

"Sir..."

"I'm not saying that I actually like the guy. I mean, he's the definition of awkward whenever he's around you, but..."

"But..."

"He wrote in his report that he warned you against going up on that box."

"I was six inches from the top."

"And you were twenty feet off the floor."

"You would have done it if you were in my position." She pointed out.

"That's different..."

She raised an eyebrow. "I was the only trained airman on the team, sir. What was I supposed to do?"

"Skip straight to Plan E."

She rolled her eyes. "Jack..."

He smiled as she finally gave in to calling him by his first name. "Carter, I thought that as a commander, you'd be safer than you were on SG-1."

She bit the inside of her cheek. "After what has happened to Elizabeth over the years, isn't that a little unrealistic?"

"One can still hope." He said with a shrug.

"I'll be careful." She promised.

"I think that's what you said when you got the job. And now, you're laid up with a broken leg."

"And I'll be back at work the minute I can get up the stairs to my office." She said, seriously. "I'm not dead."

He sighed. "Just come back after I retire. Preferably uninjured."

"I'll do my best." She promised.

"Still like the job?"

She grinned. "Yeah."

"But..."

"But there are some wonderful things on Earth too. And I miss them all." She said, somewhat cryptically. "Some things more than others."

"Me, maybe?"

"No. Teal'c." She teased.

He chuckled for a moment before she saw the twinkle in his eyes reemerge. "So, McKay actually set a fire trying to use a grappling hook?"

She laughed. "Yes! He did!"

"Are you kidding? Not even MacGyver could do that if he wanted to!"

She chuckled. "Well, he did have the help of a compressed gas container."

"We'll give him that one." Jack chuckled.

"I should get back to recuperating so I can take the city back." She said after a moment.

"Yes." He said, nodding. "And I should get back to...reading McKay's reports..."

"Do you want the cliff's notes version?" She asked with a smile.

"If you have the time..."

"Rodney thinks he's better than Zelenka, he thinks that I should run the city topless, and..."

"Not a bad idea if I do say so myself." Jack said, unable to keep from teasing her.

She looked at the screen with a chuckle. "Not you too."

"What's a guy to do?" He laughed.

"Anyway...Rodney also wants a hundred thousand more ZPMs."

"Yep. Sounds about right."

"And he's going to pin all of the problems on Zelenka. Or, in the case of this last fiasco, me or Jennifer Keller."

He laughed before he looked behind him. "Looks like the 38 minute window is letting up..."

"I should let you go."

He nodded. "Maybe I can come visit."

"In an official capacity?"

"Unfortunately...that's probably going to have to be how it happens."

"I'd love to see you anyway." She assured.

"Great. You come up with some sort of intergalactic emergency that requires my attention, and I'll be there in an official capacity."

She laughed before sobering. "Good-bye, sir."

"Bye, Carter. Take care."

"You too."

The connection died, and she sighed. She missed him more than she wanted to admit to herself, but like she'd admitted to Jen, work was her default, and it was going to be hard to change that after so many years denying herself the love of her life.

Still, she loved that man, and she couldn't deny it anymore.

She sighed. Now, she had to get back to recuperating.