Van Diemen's Land: part drei
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Jack pushed open the door to Sam's house and stepped inside, closely followed by Daniel.
"Nice place." Jack glanced round. "Right, Daniel. Any idea what kind of music Carter's into?"
"I've never heard her listening to music."
"Well she has to listen to something."
"I think it'd be best to start looking in the living room, Jack." Daniel walked through one of the
doors and looked round for a sound system of any kind. "Over here, Jack."
Jack followed Daniel over to a small stereo (A/N: I don't know what you Americans call it) and
picked up a stray C.D. case.
"Hey, Carter has taste!" Jack exclaimed suprisedly.
"You don't have to sound so suprised, Jack." Daniel said while looked through the C.D.s in the
rack by the stereo.
"Sorry. I didn't expect Carter to be into this kinda stuff."
"What is it?"
"U2." Jack showed Daniel the case.
"Oh."
"What do you mean 'Oh' ?"
"It's just not my kind of thing."
"What is 'your kind of thing' ?"
"Well...I like classical stuff -" Daniel stopped as Jack started to grin, "What's funny about that?"
"Nothing at all, Danny boy." Jack said, still grinning
"Well we have to get this C.D. for Sam." Daniel changed the subject, blushing slightly. "Which
one do you reckon would um, 'stimulate her memory' ?"
"I dunno." Jack glanced down the stack of C.D.s. "Any ideas?"
"She told me once that she went to see U2 play live with Mark. Maybe 'Rattle and Hum' would
make her remember that?" Daniel opened the C.D. case. "It's not in here."
"Must be in the player then." Jack shook his head as Daniel tried to open the C.D. player.
He knocked Daniel's hand away and pressed the button which made the drawer slide out. "God,
Daniel. You worked out how to use a Stargate, but you can't use a C.D. player?"
Daniel glared at Jack and snapped the C.D. case shut.
"I'll take this in tomorrow." He said.
"No, I'm going back now. I can take it."
"Has she got a discman?" Daniel looked round for a portable C.D. player.
"It doesn't look like it. She can borrow mine." Jack took the case off Daniel. "Right, let's go."
Jack followed Daniel out and took a last look round before closing and locking the front door.

Jack walked into the infirmary room and sat down next to Sam again.
"Hi again, Carter. I brought you something." Jack placed the earphones on Sam's head and
pressed the 'play' button. "Hope you like it."

Jack sat and watched Sam as she listened to the C.D. The steady, calming beep of the monitors
made Jack's eyelids become heavy and his head drooped onto his chest. He fell asleep for about
a minute until Janet walked in. He jerked awake and saw Janet smiling amusedly at him.
"Hello again, Colonel." She turned to connect something to the IV line. "What C.D. did you
bring?"
" 'Rattle and Hum'."
"U2?"
"Uh huh."
"She's in a coma and you brought in a U2 album?" Janet started to frown.
"Yeah. So?"
"So, what song's playing now?"
"Umm...Helter Skelter. Why?"
"Colonel, when I asked you to bring some music in, I meant something peaceful!"
"Well," Jack looked sheepishly at Janet, "There's a couple of peaceful songs on there."
"There's one peaceful song on the whole album!"
"Look, Doc. She's in a coma, she doesn't want some pathetic 'Daniel' music." Jack saw the look
on Janet's face, "Don't ask. Anyway, she wants something interesting to listen to, not some damn
boring -"
" - Okay, Colonel."
Jack looked back at Sam and frowned.

Sam began to hear something. She slowly became aware of quiet music playing, and of familiar
voices talking. She forced her eyes open and expected to be under capture in some weird
planet. Actually, she didn't know what to expect, when she'd been to as many places as SG1 had,
anything could happen. She saw black. Maybe she hadn't opened her eyes, she opened them
again, and again, she saw black. She felt a sense of rising panic and tried to call out, but choked
on the tube that was down her throat. She heard Jack say,
"Carter!" then she heard Janet come running.
The tube was removed from her throat and she coughed.
"It's okay, Major Carter. Relax." Janet removed the headphones.
"Janet?" Sam choked.
"Doc?" Jack asked.
"Yes, Colonel?" Janet said.
"What's wrong with her eyes?" Jack said quietly.
"Janet. I...I can't see anything." Sam told Janet.
"Hang on a minute, Major. It's nothing to worry about." Janet said. Sam knew it was Janet's
voice that she used when she didn't want to worry patients who were dying or seriously ill. It
didn't do much to dispell Sam's fears. Sam felt cool fingers on her skin round her eyes. "Major,
can you follow the light please."
"What light?" Sam asked as fear gripped her. All she saw was black and Janet was telling her to
follow the light?
"Okay, Major. I'm just going to talk to General Hammond." Sam felt Janet leave, and heard
her mutter something to Jack. He came towards her and she turned her face towards him.
"Hey, Carter." He said gently.
"Colonel."
"What's wrong?"
"I can't see anything. I'm blind." Sam struggled to keep her voice from breaking.
"What?"
"I'm blind." Sam repeated. She felt a tear fall down her cheek.
"No, Carter. There's gonna be an explanation. The doc'll find something."
Sam shook her head and turned away.
Jack looked helplessly at her.
"I'm blind." She repeated.
"Ah, come on, Carter. Don't take it so hard..." Jack didn't know what to say.

"General Hammond, Major Carter has no sight in either eye. In short, she's blind." Janet told
General Hammond.
"Isn't there something you can do?"
"Nothing. We could give her laser treatment, but she'd have to go to a hospital, and it'd be
expensive."
"We'd better call the Tok'ra, get Jacob here." The General turned to one of the airmen, "Send
the Tok'ra signal."
"Yes sir." The airman nodded and walked out.
"Sir, I have to get back to the infirmary."
"Of course, Doctor. Dismissed."
General Hammond stood and looked out at the gate. He sighed. Maybe this was the end of SG1
after all.


To Be Continued....
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Disclaimer: Doesn't anyone ever get tired of writing these things (the disclaimers).....okay, okay..
I don't own any of the characters of SG1, I just own the plot. I know a couple of people have
done fics with Sam going blind, but I swear I'd had the idea for this before I saw them.
The album 'Rattle and Hum' is by U2, and the song 'Helter Skelter' was originally written by
John Lennon and Paul McCartney....*goes into daydream*.....my heroes!.....ehem. sorry.

Author's Note: Hi there, peeps! Okay, please review and all that.....hi to all my friends.....etc. etc.