~#~ (Chapter 10)
Sam awoke after a couple of hours and, upon opening her eyes, was momentarily confused as to why she was lying on the ground, plastered against the warm body of her team-mate. Raising her head to look at Daniel she immediately caught sight of the bandage around his head and her memories came rushing back to her.
Carefully she extracted herself from Daniel and sat up. Her right thigh was throbbing dully and she checked the bandage that she had placed around it earlier that day. She was glad to see that only a minimal amount of blood had soaked through the bindings and that what was there was quite dry so had obviously seeped through a fair amount of time ago. She decided to leave the bandage in place and not risk disturbing her wound when it was clearly sealing itself up as it was.
Looking at her watch she realised that a few hours had passed since she had fought to keep stop Daniel moving and had eventually been forced to sedate the archaeologist. She knew that he'd sleep for a while longer due to the sedatives and she made the decision to set his damaged shoulder back in place, while he was still unconscious.
With that decision made, she raised herself onto her left knee, mindful of the damage to her right leg. As soon as she was vertical she realised that she really needed to pee. She knew from her earlier examination of the clearing that there were no large sticks for her to use to support herself so settled for carefully dragging herself towards the nearest trees on the edge of the clearing.
When she reached the tree-line she reached out to the first tree that she reached and pulled herself upright. The trees were quite closely packed together here and she had little problem moving a short distance into the trees, making sure that she could still see Daniel's inert form at all times.
She soon found herself a stout branch to use to support her weight and, looking around for any sign of life - human or otherwise, she carefully went about relieving herself.
Once she was finished she made her way back out of the trees. The going was much easier now she had the branch to aid her movements. She was glad to feel that the throb in her leg remained at a manageable level and that her movements had not restarted the bleeding.
When she got back to the DHD, Sam retrieved her pack from where she'd discarded it earlier and rested both it, and Daniel's pack against the back of the Dial Home Device. She rummaged through hers, pulled out her first aid kit and placed it on the ground next to Daniel's one. Looking at the kits, she thought back to the time that Colonel O'Neill had first insisted Daniel carry extra medical supplies - in addition to the standard field kit that Sam carried on every mission. It had started out as a bit of a joke with Daniel grumbling good-naturedly about it taking up space in his pack so he couldn't fit as much research material in. Jack had countered by saying that it took up less space than one of Daniel's massive books and certainly weighed less than one as well. He then pulled rank on the civilian and reminded him, "Danny, Danny, what am I going to do with you? I'd like you to remember that I am in charge of the health and safety of the whole team - you're all my responsibility. I'd also like to point out that you do tend to get injured way more than the rest of us."
Daniel had started to disagree but Teal'c had intervened and agreed with the Colonel saying, "Indeed, DanielJackson. I believe that O'Neill is speaking the truth. You do have a propensity for becoming injured, and usually in the most unusual of circumstances."
Sam sat on the ground and smiled slightly to herself. Daniel had continued to grumble about the extra kit for a couple of missions until it proved to be a life-saver when Sam's kit was buried under a rock-fall. Had Daniel not been carrying 'his' first aid kit then it would have been a distinct possibility that Jack would have not made it back from the mission. The Colonel's leg had been crushed by falling rock when he'd thrown himself at Daniel. The archaeologist had been moving out of range of the falling rocks too slowly for his CO's liking so Jack had taken matters into his own hands.
When they'd all scrambled to safety and it was discovered that Sam's pack was missing the contents of Daniel's kit had been used to clean up and bandage Jack's leg. The wound had been full of dirt and grit and the Colonel had been in serious risk of developing an infection because of it. Jack had been dosed up with antibiotics and pain relief and the dirty, sweaty team had eventually stumbled back through the gate to safety.
After that mission, Daniel had never complained about carrying the kit again. Sam was more than grateful for that now, with the pair of them injured and stranded. She knew that they potentially had a lengthy wait for rescue and the extra medical supplies would be more than welcome during their time on whichever planet it was that they had ended up on.
She gathered together the supplies that she would need to reduce Daniel's dislocated shoulder. Unsure whether a muscle relaxant would be necessary being that Daniel was out cold she erred on the side of caution and used it anyway.
Sam took her knife and carefully slit up the arm of Daniel's jacket. She then continued the cut across the shoulder seam and allowed the clothing to fall to the ground where the unconscious man lay. This gave Sam unrestricted access to work on the affected area.
Tentatively she turned his arm so the palm was facing the sky, wincing when she felt the crunch of broken bones in Daniel's forearm. She stopped with a grimace as she realised that Daniel had been lying on the arm when she examined the rest of him and that she'd not thought to check it over before starting the shoulder reduction. Mentally chastising herself on her lack of forward thinking she had a sudden thought that she was so glad Daniel was currently unconscious. She didn't like to imagine the pain that she'd be causing her team-mate as she manipulated his broken arm to reduce his shoulder. Colonel O'Neill had never let her live down the pain she caused him when she'd set his broken leg. The pair of them were stranded in Antarctica at the time and Jack had refrained from mentioning that he also had broken ribs and since they were rescued he'd always claimed he wasn't willing to risk Sam trying to set them like she'd done to his leg. Underneath the joking exterior Sam knew that Jack realised that he was dying in the ice-cave where they were trapped - he had tried his hardest to persuade her to leave him there. He had wanted to save her the pain of watching him slowly succumb to both his injuries and the cold. She knew she had tried her hardest to follow his orders but once she found there was no escape from the icy wastes that they'd found themselves under she had returned to his side to die with him.
Shaking herself from her memories, Sam scrubbed her hands over her face, took a deep breath and restarted the process of putting Daniel's shoulder back in it's correct position. Very slowly she brought his forearm towards her body then carefully rotated the arm in a clockwise motion, before bringing it down and resting it on his chest.
Breathing a sigh of relief that the procedure had gone smoothly Sam then set about setting Daniel's broken arm. Careful not to disturb the newly reduced shoulder she wrapped a flexible splint along both sides of the insentient man's arm from his wrist to his elbow and curved them lengthways around the arm to make them rigid. She tied bandages snugly around the arm to hold both splints together and then with as little movement to the arm as possible she folded a sling around it. Cautiously she raised Daniel's head from the ground and tied the sling around the back of his neck before lowering him gently back to the ground.
Looking down at her team-mate Sam was worried that when Daniel awoke he would immediately move and jar the arm like he had done earlier that day. After thinking for a moment, she pulled Daniel's bedding roll out of his pack, got hold of a long bandage and paused for a moment. Steeling herself for the pain that the manoeuvre was going to cause her, she carefully lifted up the top part of Daniel's torso and tucked the bandage over his left shoulder and under his right, slung, elbow. She then delicately lowered him back to a prone position, placing the bedding roll under his head as she lay him down.
Sam sat back down and gingerly extended her wounded leg in front of her. She leaned over Daniel and patted the various pockets of his BDUs until she located the archaeologist's not-so-secret stash of Tylenol. Quickly she grabbed her canteen, swallowed down a couple of tablets and simply sat there for a couple of minutes, breathing deeply while the pain in her leg gradually subsided.
Once the pain had abated, Sam turned her attentions back to the man on the ground beside her. She got both ends of the bandage that she'd just placed around him and tied them together. This effectively pinned Daniel's arm to his chest and would severely restrict any movement that he may try and make before he became completely cognisant of his surroundings.
Now that she had done all she could do in regards to Daniel's arm and shoulder, Sam turned her attentions to his head. She tentatively peeled back the bandage from his scalp but the blood immediately started to flow freely from the wound so she quickly replaced it with a fresh one and tied it back into place.
Sam wrapped the space blanket back around Daniel's torso, aware that his jacket was no longer up to doing it's job. It was only really covering his left arm and the left side of his chest, the rest of his body was only covered by his T-shirt and the sling.
When she'd finished she took stock of their belongings. She dragged the contents from the packs and set them on the ground beside her. Between them they had the two first aid kits and enough MREs to last about a fortnight - with careful rationing - Sam thought they could possibly stretch them out to last three weeks. She knew that Daniel carried a stash of powerbars in the pockets of his BDUs - as she herself did - but left the injured man in peace. Just knowing that the bars were there gave Sam some peace of mind in regards to nourishment for the coming days. Both team-mates had a couple of changes of clothing and a bedding roll each but unfortunately neither was carrying a tent - Colonel Mitchell carried the tent that he and Daniel shared and Teal'c always carried his and Sam's one. Daniel was, as usual, carrying a lot of books - he had both reference material and notebooks as well as his ever-present journal.
Weapons wise, they had Sam's zat, her knife and her P-90 with half a clip of ammo remaining. Sam retrieved Daniel's Beretta from the holster on his leg and sent thanks to the heavens that they still had spare bullets for it. She thought for a moment and realised that - apart from covering fire from Colonel Mitchell - both she and Daniel had effectively been at the mercy of the Jaffa once he'd holstered his weapon. She shuddered as she remembered vague flashes of their headlong flight into the vortex of the wormhole.
Continuing her inventory she noticed that her radio was missing. Mentally she kicked herself when she realised she hadn't even thought to try calling for help earlier when she had been searching for Cam and Teal'c.
Reaching over, she grabbed Daniel's radio and immediately tried to contact either of her team-mates. She waited a few moments before she tried again but there was no reply and with a sigh she resigned herself to the fact that her and Daniel were alone. Had either Cam or Teal'c been on the planet with them then they would have surely made contact by now, in some way or the other.
Sam theorised that whatever had happened to cause them to overshoot Earth by about three million light years must have happened after Cam went through the gate, but before Daniel and herself entered the wormhole. At least she optimistically hoped that it did, that gave Sam at least some hope that Colonel Mitchell had got home safely. She assumed that the massive energy surge required for such a trip must have culminated in the gate on this planet and therefore must have caused the explosion inside the Dial Home Device.
Digging deep to the bottom of Daniel's pack she checked that his zat was still in it's usual hidden spot. No-one could ever understand how the peace-loving archaeologist could wield a Beretta with flair but refused to use a zat. The gentle man always claimed that he was more in control with his side-arm and very rarely aimed to kill. He was adept at shoulder shots - both to disarm and immobilise an opponent - and also leg shots to take the enemy soldiers out of action. Sam left the Goa'uld weapon where it was hidden, knowing that it could be vital if her and Daniel were discovered by hostile forces at some point in the future.
Looking over at her dead-to-the-world team-mate she knew that they were sitting ducks should anyone challenge them at the moment. There was no way she could move Daniel in his unconscious state. Even on a good day she would have had trouble moving her much-bulkier friend - and this was definitely not a good day.
Slowly she packed everything back into the packs so that it was easier to transport once Daniel was back in the land of the living.
Once everything was safely stowed away Sam scooted closer to Daniel. She removed one of the powerbars from her BDU pockets and broke it in two, putting the still-wrapped half back in her pocket. Nibbling warily at the piece in her hand, in case it turned her stomach, she washed it down with a little water from her canteen.
After a couple of minutes, Sam was relieved to find that the small amount of nourishment stayed where she'd put it. Not having anything else to do, the young woman fussed over Daniel's bandages for a short while and tucked the space blanket tighter around him. As an after thought she carefully rolled her team-mate onto his 'good side' and deposited both packs behind his torso so he couldn't turn onto his back again. Once she'd settled him in a position she felt would be most comfortable for him once he awoke, she took a moment and ran her fingers through Daniel's messy hair. The tender gesture would have surely embarrassed the archaeologist had he been awake at the time, but Sam found herself gently separating the grubby strands while he couldn't object. The action proved to be soothing to Sam herself but also got the young woman wondering just what sort of a state her own hair must be in at that moment.
Sam's mind was wandering - she knew it and shook her head in an attempt to clear it. Her military training told her that she should be staying alert and watching out for hostile forces, the civilian part of her mind however realised what a futile gesture this would be with herself injured and Daniel in the state that he was now. Eventually she lowered herself to the ground next to her team-mate and settled herself down with her face close to his. Lying this way she could rest her leg, conserve her energy and watch for any signs of Daniel waking up - all at the same time. She rested her head on her arm and resigned herself to waiting for as long as it took for Daniel to regain consciousness.