C is for Compound Fracture

The last thing he remembered, he was chained at the ankle to the other members of his team, sprinting through the forest of a wooded planet, eluding the forces of Heru'ur. They'd been ambushed and captured a few days previous and managed to make a haphazard getaway, only to be discovered. In their frenzied rush toward the gate, they'd made it through the thickest part of the forest, burst through a thicket of brush, and, suddenly they'd been falling fast, the thicket obscuring their view of a steep incline. He remembered hearing the pain-filled grunts of his fellow teammates before finally coming to a stop in a heap at the bottom of the ravine as an explosion of agonizing pain erupted from his left thigh.

As far as he could tell based on the cold, wet feeling beneath him, the stale, damp taste in the air, and the lack of breeze, he was no longer lying in the ravine. Keeping his eyes closed and his breathing even so as not to alert anyone to his return to consciousness, Teal'c reached out with his senses, trying to determine his present location and the condition of his teammates.

"…That's a bone. That's 100% a bone. There is a bone sticking out of his leg. Right there."

"We know, Daniel."

"Well, what are we going to do about it? It's his femur. That's important."

"Well, he's not losing a lot of blood. That's a good sign. I don't think he's nicked an artery or anything."

"Excellent, Carter. Way to be positive, unlike Danny Downer over here."

"Hey! I'm just pointing out the obvious. It's not like he's easy to carry and right now we're holed up in a random, wet cave with god knows how many Jaffa on our tail, cutting us off from the gate. And he's seriously injured. He needs help."

"We know, Daniel."

"It's a bone!"

"You're acting like you've never seen a compound fracture before, Danny Boy. Cool it before you work yourself up and pass out again."

Teal'c cracked one eye. They were indeed sheltered in some sort of very wet cave. The lighting was poor, but he could make out the other members of his team sitting a short distance away. O'Neill was facing away from him, staring out into the falling curtain of rain at the mouth of the cave. Though he seemed tense, he appeared unhurt. Captain Carter, also visibly unhurt, was sorting through what remained of their supplies and tearing strips from a shirt. As a cold splash of condensation slipped from a stalactite above and hit him square on the sternum, Teal'c realized the shirt she was ripping must have been his. Daniel Jackson was slumped against the cave wall, looking much paler than he had earlier in the day with the exception of a dark bruise encircling his forehead and right eye. His eyes were particularly unfocused which explained the slight slur to his speech.

"I'm fine. He's not. We have to get him back to the SGC."

"Oh, for crying out loud! Will you quit moaning already? He's a Jaffa. He'll be fine. And we would be back in the infirmary already if you'd been looking where we were going. You're lucky you're concussed so I don't have to hit you."

Teal'c closed his eyes again and mentally took stock of his body. His own head felt unharmed, as did his neck, back, arms, hands, and torso. His right leg felt fine as well, but the excruciating pain pulsating from his left leg set his teeth on edge and clouded his thinking. Teal'c focused on controlling his breathing and listened to his teammates' continued bickering.

"He's got Junior."

"A symbiote can't set a bone."

"Well, for all we know, Daniel, it might be able to. We've never come across a Jaffa with a compound fracture."

"It's sticking out."

"You've established that, Daniel. We know."

"It's his immune system. Your immune system can't set your bones."

"It's more than just his immune system, Daniel. Try to rest. We'll figure this out."

A series of drips from the stalactites above dropped suddenly in rapid succession onto his chest. Teal'c tried to shift slightly away from the cold, wet onslaught and was instantly overcome with pain.

"Teal'c? Easy. Try to breathe." Captain Carter was kneeling next to him, her hands on his shoulders. Teal'c tried to do as she commanded, battling the gray at the edges of his vision and the urge to scream.

"How're you doing, T?" O'Neill was next to him now, too. Teal'c waited a minute before answering, making sure that his response would be something other than an anguished groan.

"I am in great pain. My leg is broken." Teal'c closed his eyes. The act of speaking took more force of will than he was willing to admit. He could not recall a time he had been in greater pain.

"We hear you, Teal'c. Hang in there." He felt O'Neill squeeze his shoulder in an attempt at reassurance. The attempt was much appreciated.

"Teal'c, you have a compound fracture. That means your bones are misaligned to the point that one end of one is sticking out. Will Junior repair that? I mean, will it put it back in place?" Teal'c had seen such a wound before on the field of battle, a fellow warrior with his arm bent to such a degree that the bones of his forearm jutted out like twigs. Bra'tac had bound the arm to stop the flow of blood and straightened the limb as much as he could, but, though the symbiote did it's best to repair the damage, the warrior had always had a curved forearm from that battle onward.

"It will not." Eyes still closed, Teal'c felt Daniel Jackson sit next to his head, the damp knees of his BDU pants brushing his ear more roughly than he knew the man intended.

"Easy, big guy. Don't kick him." Without opening his eyes, Teal'c knew the expression Daniel Jackson was sending O'Neill and the thought was enough to ease some of the pain.

"My symbiote will repair the broken bone, but it will not move the bones back into position. We must move them back ourselves." Teal'c opened his eyes to meet the concerned gaze of his teammates.

"Well… that's going to hurt." Up closer, Daniel's facial bruising looked even more impressive. His forehead looked slightly swollen like a faint reminder of the virus of the Touched and his right eye was a deep purple-red and nearly swollen shut. What little Teal'c could see of his right eye and his left were clearly quite unfocused and the bruising and abrasions stood out prominently against his pallor. Teal'c wondered if the injury was a result of the force of Daniel's own body during the fall or whether he had fallen upon Daniel's head.

"You think? Carter, any ideas?" Captain Carter looked around them at the damp cave walls and then back at the supplies she had spread out in a lone dry patch.

"Well, sir, I have one idea, but I'm not sure it will work and I'm pretty sure Teal'c's not going to like it." Teal'c took a deep breath and willed himself to relax. There were a lot of things about his current predicament that he did not like. Pain he could deal with, having a limb that was forever curved, however, was not an option he chose to pursue.

"And that idea is?" The drips from the stalactite that had been falling on his chest now fell on O'Neill.

"Traction, sir… I saw it done for a soldier in a field hospital once. I think I can rig something similar with the supplies we have." Captain Carter was fiddling with the inside of her lip.

"There's a but. I hear a but happening, Carter, what's the issue." O'Neill wiped the second series of drips away from where they slithered down the back of his neck.

"Traction, at least from my limited understanding, is usually a long, slow process with weights where the bones are carefully pulled back into alignment. It can take days, weeks, even months…" Carter mumbled before being cut off by O'Neill.

"…and Heru'ur's Jaffa will be here by nightfall. Is there a way to speed things up?" Captain Carter looked at Teal'c with a guilt-ladden, sympathetic expression.

"It's really going to hurt." Teal'c closed his eyes.

"So, just to be clear, our options at this point are to drag Teal'c back to the gate as is while avoiding the herd of Jaffa that are out there hunting us down or to cause him excruciating pain by resetting the leg and hoping that it heals in enough time to get ourselves out of here before Heru'ur finds our cave?"

"Yeah, Daniel, that sounds about right." Teal'c sighed and opened his eyes again, looking at O'Neill. There was no way he would allow himself to be a burden in such a way. If this did not work, he would rather be left behind than allow his teammates to be recaptured at his expense.

"Do it." With another reassuring squeeze of his shoulder, O'Neill nodded once to Teal'c and once to Captain Carter. Teal'c closed his eyes again and tried to kelno'reem.

When O'Neill awoke him a short time later with a gentle shake of the shoulder, Teal'c was immediately aware that his leg was bound in ropes. Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson sat at his feet, blank expressions hiding guilt at his anticipated pain.

"Alright, Teal'c, this is how it's going to go. I'm going to hold you by your armpits. Carter and Daniel are going to pull really hard on your leg until the bone slides back in where it needs to be. I need you to try and stay as still and quiet as you can. Moving will make it harder to put the bone back in and we don't know how close the search party is. Are you okay with that?" O'Neill's face was similarly stoic. The memory of his friend's screams as Bra'tac bound and straightened his arm flashed in Teal'c's mind. Unsure of his voice, he nodded.

"Okay. Ready? On three: one, two, three…" Teal'c felt his shoulders first, O'Neill's firm grip digging into his armpits and pulling his body towards him on the cold, wet cave floor. Then, the sensation of the ropes started. He felt them tightening around his knee and calf and then pulling, stretching taut rope, skin, and muscle around grinding bone. Teal'c could not breathe, let alone scream. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. The pain was worse than anything he could imagine. He heard the voices of his teammates talking to one another, urging each other on as the ropes and hands pulled tighter and tighter and tighter and then suddenly in a climax of indescribable pain, Teal'c felt a popping crack. Without opening his eyes, he knew that either it had worked or his leg had been ripped off.

"Teal'c? Teal'c, are you with us?" Captain Carter was up by his head, tapping him on the face. Teal'c wasn't sure he wanted to open his eyes, mind running wild with images of himself with only one leg. The sound of someone vomiting shook him from his fear-driven delusions and Teal'c opened his eyes a crack. O'Neill was supporting Daniel Jackson at the far edge of the cave, the younger man bent double and swaying.

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked. Captain Carter brushed a wetness from his forehead that Teal'c wasn't sure was sweat or cave drips and smiled.

"He'll be fine and so will you. The bone seems to have set. Do you think you can kelno'reem? How long will it take for your symbiote to heal the bone?" Teal'c watched O'Neill help Daniel back from the edge of the cave to where he had been sitting when Teal'c first came to, lowering him till he was curled up against the cave wall.

"I do not know." Carter nodded and drew a blanket he did not remember being covered in closer to Teal'c's chin.

"Take the time you need. I think we're safe here for now." He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and focused, entering the healing state of kelno'reem.

It was many hours later when he awoke. What little light had lit the cave earlier was gone, though the twinkle of unfamiliar constellations through the cave entrance signaled the end of the rain and clear skies. Through the wordless communication with his symbiote that kelno'reem provided, Teal'c was aware that, while the rest of his body had returned to its typical stamina, his left leg remained injured. The surrounding tissue around the broken bone had reformed, that much was done, but the break itself was incompletely healed. Frail figments of bone had begun to knit back together with the help of the painful setting, but any movement was likely to break the tentative union or result in misalignment and even more likely to be extremely painful. Reaching out once more with his senses, he tried to determine what had compelled him to awaken while still incompletely healed.

In the dim starlight, he could make out the shapes of his teammates. Daniel appeared asleep or unconscious a few feet away and both O'Neill and Captain Carter crouched by the mouth of the cave, heads together, whispering.

"We don't know how long this could take, sir. It could be minutes, hours, days… He's been out for close to four hours at this point. From what I can see, the skin itself is healed, but we have no way of knowing what's going on inside, whether it's set correctly, or whether it's healed… and then there's Daniel, sir."

"I know, Captain, but we've seen both of them in rougher shape before. We'll find a way home. Heru'ur's an ass, but they haven't found us yet. I figure we can hole up here at least until he wakes up which is hopefully soon. We'll have better luck dragging the two of them to the gate in the cover of darkness."

"I've managed to splint Teal'c's leg pretty well, but I'm not sure he should put any weight on it and I'm not sure Daniel's going to be able to get to the gate under his own power. He was pretty unsteady last time he was conscious."

"You know what they say, Carter, we'll burn that bridge when we cross it." Despite the uninspiring subject of their dialogue, Teal'c could see his teammates' grins glinting in the starlight. He closed his eyes, centered himself, and returned to kelno'reem, hoping that another hour of healing might strengthen his leg enough to put up a fighting chance.

The second time he awoke the reason for his alertness was more obvious. Captain Carter was crouched by his head, shaking his shoulder.

"Teal'c, we need you to wake up." Teal'c internally assessed his healing progress. The splint he could feel around his left leg seemed adequate to hold his femur in place and the bond between the broken bone fragments felt sturdier than the threadlike filaments he'd felt earlier. Testing his leg, he dragged himself into a seated position, flexed his ankle, and shifted his hip. It would hold.

"How are you doing?" In the still dim starlight, Teal'c could see that Captain Carter's face was covered in cave mud. Beyond her, O'Neill was crouching by Daniel Jackson, applying a similar cover to the sleeping man's visage.

"My leg will hold. What is the state of Daniel Jackson?" Carter turned to look over her shoulder at Jack and Daniel.

"He's not feeling too hot at the moment, but we think this is our best bet to make it to the gate. It's been dark for a few hours and we estimate a few hours until dawn. The colonel thinks cover at the gate should be lower. Do you agree?" Teal'c nodded.

"Indeed. Heru'ur will assume we have taken cover somewhere in the forest and are awaiting the dawn. There will be guards at the stargate, but fewer now than in the daylight." Captain Carter nodded.

"We figured as much. The colonel's going to help Daniel. I'm with you. What do you need?" Teal'c took stock of his body, judged himself to be capable of standing, and, pushing up with his good right leg, came to a standing position in the cave. Captain Carter gripped his bicep, steadying him. He slowly eased weight onto his left leg, thankful when it did not buckle or crumble beneath him. Wordlessly, Captain Carter shifted so that his left arm ringed her shoulders and together he shifted slowly forward, advancing the distance to O'Neill in an uncomfortable, but bearable shuffle.

"Nice. Go, T." O'Neill stood up from the mud-covered and groaning Daniel to clap Teal'c on the back.

"I scouted out the gate. We've got three of them watching for us at the moment and it's about a half a mile away." Teal'c nodded, steeling himself for the trek.

"I want you and Carter to take the lead. I'll cover our six with Daniel, here. Somehow I think you guys are going to be faster." Jack crouched back next to Daniel, helping him to sit up before hauling him into a similar weight-bearing position, the younger man slightly limp against him and mumbling incoherently.

"Go. We'll be right behind you." At the colonel's command, they took off. This time the rush toward the gate was far slower and their steps more plodding than frenzied, but the three-legged race type motion was humorously identical to the morning's escape.

As silent as they could, Teal'c and Sam progressed through the underbrush, the twinkling stars and crescent moon providing the dimmest of light. At last, the gate appeared ahead of them in a clearing, three shadowy figures silhouetted by its base and next to the DHD. Taking his arm back from Captain Carter, Teal'c leaned against a tree and plotted the best course of action. Despite grabbing their packs, they had been unable to gather any weaponry when they broke free from capture that morning and, while he knew they were both skilled in hand to hand, he doubted his prowess in his current state.

As he pondered the optimum approach, the colonel and Daniel Jackson appeared behind him. Jack lowered the younger man against a neighboring tree and he curled up in a ball, hands wrapped around his head, breathing shallowly. He looked in considerable pain, but more conscious than before.

"Alright, here's what I'm thinking. Carter and I are going to grab that one by the DHD and take his staff, which we'll use to get Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Teal'c, I need you to stay with Daniel here in case there's anyone we can't see waiting to surprise us from behind. Capiche?" Shifting his weight and hobbling over to stand above Daniel Jackson, Teal'c nodded. Captain Carter and O'Neill nodded back and disappeared silently into the undergrowth. Listening to the pained breaths of his injured teammate and the surrounding night noise of the forest, Teal'c watched as the Jaffa by the DHD was silently incapacitated, four arms reaching out of the darkness of the bushes and drawing him in without a sound before the fire of a staff weapon took deadly aim and downed both guards. Teal'c was impressed. The two remaining members of his team were at his side again before he could blink, victorious grins on their faces.

"Alright. Let's move out. Got you a present, Teal'c." The colonel was holding out a big stick and the staff weapon and looking more pleased with himself than the small canine Cassie kept upon similar offerings. Bowing his head in thanks, he took the offered makeshift crutches and hobbled forward, making space for the colonel and the captain to pull Daniel to his feet. Teal'c crutched along to the DHD, entering the symbols and the IDC code before moving as quickly as possible behind the rest of SG1.

The bright lights of the SGC were a harsh contrast with the darkness of the forest, but, as his eyes adjusted and the medical team descended upon the four of them, Teal'c was glad for the safety, warmth, and support they represented. From the depth of a cave to the bowels of a mountain, Teal'c was glad to be home.