511 Desperate Measures

He came to save her and she found him face down in the basement.

What bothered her the most was not all the whining about needing arms on his bulletproof vest but the fact he didn't get to his feet. He didn't even try to sit up. Sam was somewhat relieved when O'Neill groused "I've been shot." She almost laughed, it must have been nervousness. His arm was bloody but it didn't seem too serious. So why was he still down? She felt his body looking for other wounds and he didn't object. Why didn't he tell her what hurt? It couldn't be he was enjoying her hands all over him, could it?

When the EMTs arrived he still didn't stand. He let them carry him out on a stretcher. That was not like O'Neill at all. Something was definitely wrong. Sam knew a round had hit his vest. Hammond saw that his people were equipped with the best, could a round have gone through his vest and she missed it. Sam followed the stretcher and insisted on accompanying O'Neill in the ambulance.

Carter was at the local real hospital. The colonel had been whisked off to be evaluated while she had her blood drawn. She had been given a once over and was getting dressed in clothes Daniel had thought to bring with him. Her next stop, as well as the Colonel's, was a plane ride to the SGC and the capable arms of Doctor Fraiser, for extensive tests due to her peculiar physiology. Sam sincerely hoped the Colonel would be on his feet by then.

Maybourne slid behind the curtain and asked as he stared at her. "You decent? How's Jack?"

"You... how do you have the nerve to show here after what..."

"I swear I didn't shoot him. Honest. Shoot Jack and not kill him, you gotta be kidding me. Anyway we put vests on together."

Carter wasn't buying Maybourne's line.

"I'm a better shot than that, if I wanted to kill him he'd be dead, look for someone else. Anyway I like Jack." Maybourne said.

Carter seemed to calm down, maybe this was making sense.

"You know it's really all your fault." Maybourne said.

"What the hell?" Sam couldn't believe what Maybourne was saying. How dare he think she would put the Colonel in jeopardy. Wasn't she the one who was kidnapped? She was the one who had been tied to a gurney and drugged out of her mind. She was feeling bad enough, the colonel had to come to her rescue and got hurt in the process.

"He took this whole thing pretty bad. He came to me, me, for information to try and find you. Jack was really worried. You... ah" Maybourne made a face trying to find the right words "distract him. Getting distracted in the field is going to get him killed one of these days. You have him by the … I was going to say balls but it's his heart. You tug on that enough and it's not just gonna break, it's gonna rip apart."

Sam was too nonplussed to even respond.

"There are worse things than getting shot. Some things hurt worse than bullets. You know, Major Carter, he's just a guy."

Maybourne slipped away while Carter stood there dumbfounded.

O'Neill was annoyed. He wasn't getting any information from the doctors here. Fraiser, the one doctor he trusted, wasn't here yet. And he was numb from about mid chest down. This was not how he envisioned leaving his military career.

He tried to get up but his body refused to respond. It wasn't that he had no sensations, he lacked control. The toes of his left foot twitched but not of his own volition. He couldn't swing his legs over the side of the bed.

First thing, they patched up his arm which hurt and he could move his arms. That was good. But not good enough as he tried to bat away the nurses as they approached with a catheter. He did bully them into retreat.

When asked he couldn't turn over so the doctors could examine his back.

An orderly flipped him over. He found it humiliating.

The doctors inspected bruising to O'Neill's back directly over his spinal column where a round had hit his vest. They also inspected lab reports and x-ray films.

They 'ahhed' and 'hmmed' and muttered among themselves. He experienced some pins and needles, mostly their needle sticks and pin pricks. One of the doctors poked him down one side of his body and up the other. And yeah, he felt it.

One of the doctors told him not to worry as the gaggle of them retired to the other side of the curtain. He heard the consult.

"If it was an armor piercing bullet or a few inches higher we'd be looking at a corpse."

"It did enough damage."

"But all in all he's a lucky bastard."

At the moment he didn't feel lucky. And didn't these idiots know curtains weren't soundproof. From what Jack gathered, there was bruising to his spinal column which might or might not leave permanent damage.

The curtain on the other side parted and Jack scowled as he expected more poking and prodding.

"Colonel."

"Carter." He was pleased to see her up and about but not happy for her to see him flat on his back, immobile. However there was some tingling, which could be caused by the nearness of a certain Major.

"How are you sir?"

He scowled and grunted. Obviously he didn't want to talk about it.

He glanced at her and realized she looked as though she had been through the mill. In truth she had endured much more than him.

"You okay?" He asked.

She, like him, brushed it off, then said "I spoke to Maybourne…"

O'Neill rose half out of the bed bellowing "THAT SON OF A BITCH."

The outburst turned heads and raised eyebrows all over the ER.

In walked Dr. Fraiser who simply said "Oh, there you are Colonel."

By the time SG-1 boarded the plane to Peterson O'Neill was walking under his own steam, albeit a tad stiffly.

Sam sat beside him and she tried to thank him for saving her life.

"I'm sorry it took so damn long." O'Neill said, the fear he was almost too late still gnawing at him. Trying to keep his distance from Carter, he almost lost her due to his negligence. He continued "And as for Maybourne, he's the son of a bitch that sold the symbiote to Conrad in the first place. If I hadn't gotten him out of prison… Carter, don't trust him, don't ever trust him."

Within a half an hour the Colonel fell asleep. The even breathing of the sleeping man had Carter's eyes fluttering shut as she slipped into a doze beside him, her head on his shoulder.