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O'Neill was sitting in the kitchen, sipping Laura's cure for hangover. He wasn't feeling particularly bad, at least not because of how much he drank, but he figured it couldn't hurt. And it gave him something to do since Laura kicked him out of the infirmary. He knew he was distracting her, but he couldn't help himself. It had been approximately twenty hours since Carter was sedated and he needed answers.

So Laura promised to keep him updated if he went away and got something to eat. To be honest he didn't feel like eating. He didn't feel like anything, he just wanted to find out what had happened.

"I thought I told you to get something to eat?" Laura's voice startled him.

"I ate so much yesterday, I'm probably set for a few days..." He could see that she wanted to reply, but stopped herself.

Walking towards the fridge, she grabbed a juice for herself and a bottle of water. Putting it in front of him she told him to at least drink enough liquids. "I don't need more patients to worry about."

He took the bottle, unscrewed the lid and took a few sips. "So?" He said, impatiently.

"My tests revealed that the poison that's responsible for Sam's condition binds very well to alcohol molecules. Her sobering up sped up the process of her body flushing out the poison which resulted in something akin to phenomenon like racing thoughts. She was probably overwhelmed by all the memories that had suddenly become available to her." Laura took big sip of her drink and closed the lid of the bottle. She looked very tired, dark circles under her eyes.

"So the cure for her condition is to get her drunk? I like the sound of that!"

"Yeah, well, there are still some tests running."

"I sense a 'but' coming."

"I honestly don't know how she'll be when she awakens. The levels of the poison are significantly down everywhere in her body. Hopefully her eyesight will return soon. As to her memories, I can't even begin to guess."

"About that. Do you think it's possible that in her state she might mistake some of her dreams for what actually happened?"

"Maybe. I mean, I'd have to know more to properly judge that. What kind of memory and what kind of dream?"

"Doesn't matter." He waived it off in a seemingly nonchalant gesture, but Laura narrowed her eyes at that. "So what's the plan?" He quickly asked.

"I plan to lower the dose of the sedative very slowly until she awakens."

"How long will that take?"

"Hard to predict. Depends on her vitals." She threw her leg over the other and then smirked. "I put the rest of the food from yesterday into the fridge, you know? The rest of the cake and everything…"

"That's nice." He said, smiling sadly. Avoiding her gaze, he turned his attention to the photos from last night that were lying on the kitchen table. One showed him with his hand around Laura's waist. He still couldn't believe he was a father again. He had an adult daughter he was just getting to know. The wanted to distract himself from thinking about the woman lying in infirmary, but these thoughts didn't calm him down either.

He worried that he'd disappoint Laura. She nursed them back to health and went above and beyond with everything. It just made him feel inadequate. The insecurity about what she expected from him didn't help. They both agreed the attention had to be on helping Carter, so they avoided a lot of the possible awkwardness. But he had to step up at some point.

"Everything alright?" Laura asked, this time a little louder, because the first time he didn't react.

"Yeah, sure."

"She'll be okay."

The general nodded, still looking at the photos. Recently everything got so complicated. Carter not being able to see and not remembering much, Laura being his daughter. He couldn't help but wonder how Daniel is faring back at Earth. Hopefully it will be nice change for Carter to be someplace other than this ship. Who knows?

In the end, he warmed up two slices of pizza before gulping down a big cup of coffee and returning to the infirmary. Teal'c and Laura were standing next to Carter's dome.

"That's definitely a good sign." Laura said, just before he made his presence known.

"What is?"

"Sam's eyes are almost completely clear of the poisonous substance. And her brain scans are better, too."

"Brain scans? I thought the poison didn't get into her head?" O'Neill frowned, hating that Carter was again in the medical dome thing, looking so fragile and sick.

"It probably didn't, but the scans showed disruptions during her panic attack episode earlier today. Now it's back to normal. I already began lowering the dose of the sedatives."

"When will Colonel Carter wake up?" Teal'c asked, beating the general to it.

"At least a couple hours."