Ch4

The blinding white light. His rough hands on her body. The Sharp pain of the knives puncturing her skin. Fading. pain. Fading still. Blackness. The blinding white light.

He heard her breathing hard and her slight whimpers. Bad dream. He should know, he had his fair share of them from, most recently, Ba'al. He got up from his chair and walked over to her bedside. The pain and anguish played across her features. He hated seeing his strong-willed Carter like this. He reached out and placed a hand on her fore arm, he instantly regretted it when she jumped off the bed and started screaming backed against the wall with a terrified look in her eyes. "Whoa! Whoa there! Carter its me calm down!" Once he said her name she stopped screaming but she was still breathing pretty hard and standing on the other side of the bed.

Her heart was thumping out of her chest. But why? He's gone now. He can't hurt her. It was just jack. Oh god she flipped out on jack! "Oh god, I'm so sorry sir!" She balled her hair in fists and slid to the floor, bawling. She pulled her knees to her chest and made herself as small as possible between the bed and the curtain, separating her from a no doubt startled infirmary. She fled into herself like she had all those times in the torture chamber. She didn't even flinch when Janet came running up to her and checked her arm where she had just ripped out her IV. Or when Jack lifted her up and put her back into bed. A worried Janet tried to shake her out of the stone cold stare but Jack Thankfully told everyone to let her cope with it on her own terms. After a while she actually drifted off to sleep on her own for the first time in over four months.

"Jack what happened I heard she woke up and started freaking out, the whole base heard the screams and is talking about it." Jackson came running in with his fresh coffee and new set of books gripped tightly in his hands.

"SHHHH She just went to sleep." He jumped up from his chair, took Jackson's books and plopped them down on the chair next to his before ushering the frazzled doctor into the hallway. "It was another bad dream. But I made the mistake waking her up and she flipped out. I got her calmed down but she shut down. She just stared like no one was home. I just don't know Daniel I don't know if she's gonna come back from this one. Whatever happened must have been something so horrendous that no one should ever have to go through it. I mean she's a seasoned officer for christ's sake and she is shutting down like that." He was clearly frustrated as he ran his fingers through his hair

"She'll pull though, It's Sam. It might take a while but she'll pull through."

"That's just it. It's Sam. We should have found her earlier. We should have done something other than sit on our collective ass's while she went through hell."

"Jack we couldn't have done anything and you know that. We just need to focus on the fact that the Tokra got her back at all."

"Well they sure took their sweet time about it."

"Well can you blame them? they blew a mission that they have working for nearly 30 years."

"Well they should have been quicker about it! They could have saved her at least a week of that hell!" Jack was yelling at this point drawing the attention of passerby's

"Jack you know Damn well it won't make a difference now complaining about it! She was gone for 136 days! That's what happened! What's best for her NOW is to move on and help her heal as much as she possibly can and if the outcome is even a fraction of the Sam we once knew, we'll be lucky. I know its hard to hear, but it's the truth Jack. She endured more than any regular person could have. Dr Mckenzie said the psychological trauma alone might be crippling."

"Screw Mckenzie." He yelled but in a more submissive tone he added "And I know but Daniel, IT'S SAM. I can't even imagine going through the gate without her." He slumped down into a chair along the wall.

Daniel slumped down next to his defeated friend. "I Know."

"Cant you do anything?" Jack said as he paced back and forth in the observation room, wearing a hole in the floor. The sound of Sam's screams coming from the next room.

"I'm sorry Coronel but she has to do this by herself if we keep her sedated she won't get over the effects of the sarcophagus." They all flinched as another blood curdling scream came from the iso. room.

"Do you at least know how much longer it will last?"

" There's just no way to tell with these things. Certain people get over it faster than others, but I can tell you its gonna be a while there's no way of knowing how many times she was in there, but from the way she talked it was probably a lot."

The small group thought in silence flinching every time a scream came from the still frail Samantha Carter in the other room.