I do not own anything. If you recognize it, it is not mine.
Hope you are OK. Wow, chapter 60, people!
Please review!
In response to kenn. davis. 56: I do have this story planned in quite a lot of detail. All I will say at this point is that there will be quite a lot of travelling on the Asgard spaceship and on at least one mission humans will be joining Laura.
In general response to reviews: yeah, I know I am mean, but Sam was really hurt, people. It will take time.
"You comfortable?" O'Neill asked Carter as he carefully helped her into the wheelchair.
"Yes, thank you. You know, it's not necessary. I can walk to the mess by myself."
"Ah! Let's not have this discussion again."
"Yes, sir." Carter said, smiling at how much he worried about her. Although she definitely didn't have all of her memories, she remembered more about how close SG-1 was. It was nice to know someone cared about her. Of course, they did care before, but then it mostly scared her because she had no idea how and if she'd ever remember. At least now there was some notion of how her memories would come back and that it was possible she might get them all back. Maybe she'd even find out who gave her the diamond ring. Although if no one said anything about her being with someone, it probably didn't end well, right? She sighed, not wanting to think about that anymore.
"Everything alright?" O'Neill investigated, leaning in to study her face. Her long blonde hair was framing her face, giving her very unofficial non-military look. He very rarely saw her like that. The thing her regretted most was that she needed the sunglasses, because that meant her beautiful blue eyes were hidden away from him. He always loved to look into them.
"Yeah, I just thought about how hungry I am."
"Good." He grabbed the wheelchair handles and started wheeling her out of the infirmary. "Then let's get going. I'm sure Laura prepared all kinds of delicious stuff for you."
The journey to the kitchen seemed really long. At least for Carter. She thought about all the things she remembered and wondered what she could discuss with the general. There were some she deemed too difficult.
For example the second time they had visited Cimmeria, being informed that Goa'uld knew the world was not off limits for them. When the Hall of Thor's Might didn't turn out to be of any strategic benefit and their hiding place had been discovered, they had been forced to surrender in order to save the remaining Cimmerians. When pondering their options she saw the then colonel looking behind them, seeing a frightened child gripping the leg of his father. Carter could remember the anguish in his eyes like it'd been yesterday. In one way it meant her memories were probably all intact, but it also left her hesitant about which mission she could talk about. Of course she knew what happened to his son and how much he still hurt.
"We've reached our destination!" O'Neill proclaimed, ripping her from her thoughts.
"Oh!" She was amazed she missed the opportunity to see how the inside of this Asgard ship looked, but the whole time she was too much wrapped up in her head to notice anything.
"Anything specific I should be looking for?" O'Neill offered.
"Not really. I mean, I would love a cup of coffee, sir."
"You and me both. Alright, I'll start with that before Laura tells us you cannot drink it."
"Okay." Carter giggled and tuck one rogue strand of her hair behind her ear. She watched the general moving around the room, putting the coffee grind into the machine and then wiggling with a few buttons. It seemed like it was quite difficult.
"I didn't make it too strong on purpose. Don't want to see you sick anymore…" After the machine beeped, he extracted a coffee pot and poured it into their two cups. Walking swiftly to the table, he put Carter's violet cup before her and then sat next to her, drinking from his.
She thanked him and he said that it was nothing.
"What do you think we could get to eat? There's some soup or chicken with rice or sweet potatoes, pizza or apple pie."
"Maybe some chicken would be nice. What will you get?" Carter said, taking another gulp of her coffee.
"I was actually thinking about the chicken too." He admitted, a frown appearing on his forehead. "But I don't know if I prefer sweet potatoes or rice, so you can decide that one."
"Let's go with the sweet potatoes, a little celebration is in order. Although you still look a little greyer than usual."
"Well, I'm not twenty anymore, Carter." He chuckled at what she said. "But I'm glad you can see anyway."
"No! That's not what I meant, sir." She said quickly, her cheeks blushing.
"Relax, I know!" He laughed again. "Apparently it will take some time for the poison to leave your eyes completely."
"I know." Carter said, looking down into her cup.
It was hard to notice, because she still had her sunglasses on, but they weren't so black they'd tune out her eyes completely. But he wasn't able to see the amazing blue color and he missed that.
"I'll heat up the food." O'Neill offered, getting up from the table. "Want more coffee?" He stretched his hand toward her to grab her cup if the answer was yes.
"Still have some, thanks."
She heard the fridge door opening and closing and soon the room was filled with quiet buzzing of the microwave or something similar. She wasn't looking in that direction when he turned it on, so it startled her a bit.
"You're awfully quiet, Carter." He said, when he sat down again.
"Yeah…" She said, absent-mindedly, not looking at him.
"Anything I said?" He asked, trying to get her to talk.
"I have a memory of an artifact that pinned you to the wall." She didn't get into the details that came to her, like how he grabbed Teal'c in desperation when his body was dangling in the air without any support. How he yelled at the Jaffa to shoot the alien artifact, even though they didn't know what consequences it would have back then. He must have been in so much pain.
Watching from the observation room, you were still able to notice his body shaking, to see how hard it was for him to breath and how he was biting down hard to prevent himself from screaming in pain. His temperature was so high, he had only hours of consciousness left. Not that it mattered if they couldn't beat this thing. When they turned on the UV units and she saw the organism flowing towards O'Neill and through his body into the surrounding wall, her heart almost jumped out of her chest. And it got worse from there. The whole base was infected, literally the people and the base alike, and the antibiotics were running out.
She was the one that suggested they stop giving O'Neill his medication and let the organism grow to see if it tried to communicate through him. She knew it was the right choice, since it was the only thing they hadn't tried. But that didn't mean it was easy to announce to the then Colonel what they planned to do. Or to watch Teal'c blast the artifact with his weapon again and again.
Not that she wasn't sure that O'Neill would want to try it. She knew he wouldn't hesitate to put his life on the line to save others. But when he squeezed his hand, telling her it was okay, her chest constricted at the thought of losing him. SG-1 was a great team!
"You okay, Carter?"
She looked at him, her brain still somewhat surprised she could see. Her instinct to turn to a source of sound never went away, she wasn't blind for so long, but it was still very strange to be able to see. He was looking at her with those warm brown eyes, his eyebrows raised.
"Yeah…" She answered slowly. "It's still a bit hazy, but there's this general feeling of dread I remember as we were desperately scrambling to understand the situation. It's very disturbing."
"Not one of my favorite days either." He said with a smirk, sighing afterwards. "Oh, guess the food's ready."
She didn't mention she remembered feeling for his pulse and failing. For all intents and purposes he was dead before the organism took over. Looking at him back then, seeing his body slumped against the wall with that stupid organism shining blue on his skin, piercing the darkness all around them was difficult, but she couldn't turn away. That would make it final. She still hoped for some miracle, which in a way she got.
His head shot up, but when he greeted them, it was in that thing's voice. She smiled when she saw him move, but worried if he would survive this or was lost forever even if the organism surrendered. She knew he had to pass psych evaluation since he was taken over an alien entity and didn't have control over his body for some time, but he never shared anything like that with her. They never talked about this. Still, she imagined it couldn't have been pleasant.
He was definitely shaken when she finally reached him after he threw the orb through the gate. Daniel and Teal'c were already kneeling next to their commander, looking him over all worried. When she touched him in effort to persuade her brain that he was actually alive and well, she felt him trembling violently. But she didn't draw attention to it, he just went through considerable trauma after all and was going to have to enjoy Janet's big needles anyway.
A delicious smell made her way to her, so she turned to her superior officer, who was walking toward her with two plates. Hot steam was rising from both of them and she suddenly realized how incredibly hungry she was.
"Dug in, colonel. You need to get your strength back."
"Colonel?" She met his eyes as he laid both plates on the table, careful not to spill anything. "I said major is my rank when Laura asked me." She chewed on her lower lip before reaching for the knife and fork.
"The last thing we need is you fainting again from all the memories that resurface. So actually it's good that it's going slowly."
"I guess, sir." She cut a small piece of chicken and tasted it before trying one of the sweet potatoes.
"You'll remember, Carter, don't worry. Now drop the sir and eat."
"Yes, s-…" She stopped herself, embarrassed at her mistake. Her cheeks began to blush again, she could feel the heat rising from her neck up her face. It sucked being a blonde sometimes.
He rolled his eyes at her, but then he smiled. "So what else did you recall?"
"Rescuing Rya'c. Trying to find a way to reverse the brainwashing. And travelling with you somewhere."
"Yes, well, given the description of our job, I think that's a given, Carter." He laughed between eating his chicken.
"No, I mean just the two of us." She explained, taking another bite herself.
His breath hitched, wondering what actually she remembered. He locked his eyes with hers, well as much as he could with those sunglasses of hers.
She noticed his odd reaction, but deciding to ignore it since she wasn't quite sure what it meant and since he didn't say a word.
"And on Earth, maybe D.C. or somewhere similar. We were in our dress blues, sir."
He decided to forgo reminding her to stop calling him sir, even though he hated it more and more. I guess it made sense she knew their working relationship etc., but it still got on his nerves. "Yes, we got a medal. Originally the president should have presented it to us, but at the end Hammond gave it to us because of some increased security risk at the time."
"Okay." She said, evidently surprised.
"And that's not the last one you got either." He told her, swallowing a few sweet potatoes chips at once. And he got the most beautiful smile in response. Yes, the spark in her eyes that usually accompanied her smiles was dimmed by her sunglasses, but he still saw enough to get a warm fuzzy feeling.
"Guess it wasn't all for nothing, then." She turned her attention back to her meal, leaving him to wonder what she meant by that.