Still in Heroes. This chapter is mirrored in More Than Friends: Chapter 28.

He was settled nicely on his couch, watching some sport he had recorded during his most recent mission and he was enjoying the few days of downtime to catch up on the world. A beer was on one side of him and a freshly emptied pizza box on the other. It was the perfect night in, especially after a long mission to a dirty, grimy planet where mining was the order of the day. At least there had been no native Unas on the most recent planet, Major Evan Lorne chuckled to himself as he finished his first beer of the night. Ignoring the empty pizza box, Lorne got up from his comfy position to claim his second beer of the night. He was not expecting company so the cleanliness of his home really did not matter. Neither did his attire which was why he was comfortably dressed in his favourite team's jersey and loose fitting trousers that were his perfect trousers for a night in. Lorne was quite looking forward to his perfectly planned night.

As he let the door to his fridge close, Lorne thought he heard a noise, but was then distracted by something on the television. Slowly walking back towards the couch, mesmerised by the recorded game that he probably already knew the score to, Lorne took another mouthful of his beer and moved to settle back down on the couch. There was another noise, a banging, and this time Lorne definitely heard it. Placing his beer down on the floor next to the couch, Lorne went to his front door and opened it without checking through the peep hole. What was standing on the other side shocked and confused him.

"Nicola?" he questioned, immediately moving a step aside and allowing her to walk past him. She stepped a few steps into his home, motionless other than the mechanics of stepping and silent. In her off world gear, Nicola looked bulkier than normal and Lorne was concerned as to how and why she had appeared at his home without changing her clothes. "Nic, how did you get here?"

"Driver," she mumbled, still refusing to move. Or perhaps she was unable to move, he considered.

"A driver?"

"Took me home, I walked from there."

"You walked all the way from yours? Nicola, what's going on?"

Her dark eyes met his and he saw the pain and tears fighting to be controlled. Her face was smudged with dirt and she did look as if she had come straight from a mission. "I…"

"Have you been on a mission?" he asked her as he moved closer, raising his arms and slowly undoing her jacket. "Let's get this off…" His voice and hands froze as he saw what was underneath her jacket. "Nic," he whispered. Forcing his hands to continue, he finished removing the jacket and discarded it to the floor. Cupping her face with both hands, Lorne forced her to look at him. "Is this your blood? Nicola, are you hurt?"

It happened in slow motion, he saw it millisecond by millisecond as her face, her demeanour, her eyes all completely crumpled and she began sobbing into the air. There was a doubt within him that she was hurt, as there was no way that Fraiser would allow her to leave the base injured, however, he had never ever seen Nicola in the state she was.

Releasing her face, he held her around the shoulders and shook her very slightly. "Lieutenant Carpenter, report!"

"I'm not…" she managed in between sobs. "It's not my … blood."

"Who's is it?" he asked, the concern returning to his previously authoritative tone. "Nicola, talk to me, please."

"Doc… Janet. Janet's dead." Her eyes met his again as yet more tears flooded down her face and Lorne felt pain within him. Without a second thought, he pulled her towards him and hugged her, allowing her to sag against his own form. After the longest time, she shifted in his arms slightly and then abruptly pulling away, stared at her hands. He began to question what was wrong, but then he saw what was on her hands. They, like her clothing, were stained with blood. Guiding her slightly, he made her sit on the floor, on her haunches and he sat in front of her keeping his hands on her as comfort. "My first deployment," she whispered and Lorne wished that he was able to make it over to the television to quieten it as a large cheer erupted from the recording. "I was with my best friend. We'd met during our first week at the academy. She'd been caught up in a drinking game with second years and near passed out on the street. I dragged her back to our quarters and we became inseparable." She paused to allow fresh tears to fall and he said nothing, merely waiting. "On our first deployment, she… I…" Holding up her hands to show him her blood stained palms, she shook them slightly at him. "It was Suzie's blood then, Janet's now."

"Hey, shush," he whispered, hugging her again as she sobbed against him. It was then that he realised she was shaking, either from shock or being cold. "Come on, you need a bath." He stood up and pulled her up by the hand, ignoring how the dried blood felt in between their hands. Dragging her to the bathroom, he turned on the faucet and then turned back to her. Without either of them saying anything, he began to strip off her clothes. Every once in a while as they each shifted position, their eyes met and they would both pause before Lorne snapped out of it and continued on with his task. When he had her down to what he expected to be the plainest mission ready underwear she owned, he turned around and turned the faucet off.

"Finish undressing and get in the bath. I'll be outside. There's a towel there." He pointed to a towel and she nodded her head. "I'll sort you out some clothes and leave them in the bedroom opposite this room, okay?" She nodded again, her arms wrapped around her body. "I'll be back through there." Again, he pointed and she nodded. As he moved past her, she stopped him with a slight touch to his arm.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Smiling at her, Lorne carefully closed the door to the bathroom behind him and let out a long sigh. Ever since their joint mission to P3X-403, Nicola Carpenter had started to become a good friend to Lorne and he hated seeing her in the state that she now appeared to be. He had no idea exactly what she had been through since her time on SG-1, but he had heard the rumours about how she was aloof and distant from pretty much everyone else on the base. Lorne also knew that the Nicola he frequently had swimming contests with and had spent many evenings socialising with, was not the Nicola he heard of in rumours. She had recently opened up to him, admitting what happened during her incarceration by Osiris. There had been an initial attraction to her that was still there, but it was masked beneath the friendship.

It was not simply that he hated seeing her in such pain, clearly there was more from her past that she was not saying, but it was also the realisation that Doctor Janet Fraiser was dead. It would be difficult, if nigh on impossible for the base to ever get over her loss.

Forcing himself away from the closed door, Lorne went into his bedroom and found a clean set of clothes – an old academy t-shirt and baggy trousers – that would be suitable for Nicola to wear. He left them on the edge of the bed, clearly visible from the doorway and left the light on for when she left the bathroom. Slowly, Lorne then went back to his couch and turned the television off, his desire to watch a recorded sports match was long gone. He also tidied up the pizza box and almost full beer, putting both in his kitchen to be dealt with later. Sitting in silence, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees, Lorne heard the bathroom door open and then the bedroom door then close. He did not move. He did not seek her out or move from his position. Nicola would come back out if she wanted to. Eventually he heard a noise and then a voice.

"Hey," she said.

Turning, he smiled at her and stood up. "Feel a bit better?" Nodding, he indicated she should sit and he moved away. "I'm going to get you a drink. Alcoholic or not?" It was her choice. If it were a male lieutenant sitting in front of him, in the same shock, he would have brought out the whiskey straight away, but she was not just a lieutenant to him anymore.

"Not. Please. Something hot?" He made her a cup of tea and added in a sugar without asking, passing it to her as he sat down next to her after the few minutes it took to make. She sipped it almost immediately, wrapping her hands tightly around the cup. "Sugar?"

"For the shock."

"More used to passing out whiskey or rum?"

"A bit."

"I don't drink in circumstances like this." Deciding that there was nothing else needed to be said in the moment, Lorne settled back again finding the silence strangely comfortable. Lost in his own internal thoughts, the next thing that Lorne knew, Nicola was placing her empty cup on his coffee table next to where he had put his feet up. She then settled back next to him and he felt her yawn so, moving his arm, Lorne put it around her shoulders and pushed her down onto his side. Snuggling against him, Nicola relaxed against him and Lorne, too, soon felt his eyelids growing heavy.