Three hours later, Dr. Frasier walked into her infirmary under her own power thanks to the arrival of Jacob Carter and Dr. Williams at the academy hospital along with the small alien healing device. The hospital personnel had been upset about the 'transfer', but Dr. Williams had overruled them with General Carter's help. While Jacob had healed them each as soon as they'd gotten to the hospital, the 'injured' personnel had maintained the illusion in front of the academy personnel and been brought back to Cheyenne Mountain via ambulance. "Where?" Janet demanded as she strode into the infirmary at a brisk clip. Dr. Williams led the other now healed soldiers to another quiet corner where he could examine them before giving them the all clear to return to duty or go home. Jacob also broke away briefly to call General Hammond's office to inform him of their return.
Thea looked up at her superior officer from over the rim of her glasses. She put down the magazine she'd been reading as she gestured to the curtained off alcove near where she sat. Rising from her seat she grabbed two charts before following the doctor. Janet quietly pulled back the curtain to reveal the sleeping forms of Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter.
"What the Hell are they doing in the same bed?" a voice behind them asked. They turned to see all four attorneys along with General Hammond and Teal'c enter the room. As soon as he'd received the all clear from Williams, Clayton Webb drew Chegwidden and Rabb aside for a whispered conversation before leaving the room with his ever present shadow, the SG guard, following him.
"It was Dr. Warner's considered professional opinion that having spent the last fifteen months totally dependent on one another not only physically but emotionally and mentally, separating them would cause undue emotional and mental stress," Thea explained before adding, "especially now." No one in the room needed to be told what she meant by that, and no one, not even Moore and Rivers, had the courage to disagree. "Their blood work came back," Thea informed the two doctors as she handed each of them a chart. "Daniel talked them into letting Dr. Warner give them a sedative before he went to get Cassie."
Jacob looked at the two doctors analyzing the charts as they commented back and forth quietly. After a moment though he turned his attention to the two figures on the bed. Sam and Jack lay facing one another on the narrow hospital bed. Sam's arm rested naturally in the slight hollow of Jack's waist while his rode higher on her hip. Both of their arms sported IV's and on each of their hands an electronic monitor had been clipped to the index finger. He gently brushed the now neatly trimmed hair from his daughter's face content to just look at her. For fifteen months he'd believed her dead along with Jack O'Neill. He thanked God for giving her back to him yet again and prayed that the cost wouldn't be paid in the lives of his grandchildren. Noticing that Dr. Williams had taken his leave, Jacob asked, "Janet?"
"It's what we expected, Jacob," she told the former general. "The malnutrition they returned with is worse. Clinically, they're at the point of starvation now. Dr. Warner's already started them on IV treatment, but we're going to have to monitor them very carefully for at least several weeks."
"Now wait a second!" Moore objected. "That alien, Thor, was supposed to heal them!"
"He did," Jacob agreed. "But we had to pull them out before it was done."
"The nutrients to heal them came from their own bodies," Janet explained. "The last step in the healing process was to have been replenishing those nutrients. Since that step didn't happen, we have to do it the old fashioned way."
"And the old fashioned way is?" Hammond asked.
"We keep them on the IV and dictate every bit of food and drink they get," Janet said. "Colonel O'Neill will recover quicker than Major Carter because of the anemia. I can treat the colonel's with blood transfusions, but Sam...."
"Can't take blood transfusions from others because of the protein in her blood," Hammond finished. "You've used up the supply of her own blood we'd banked?"
"Yes, sir" Janet confirmed. "In the surgery..."
Hammond nodded.
Before anyone could ask any other questions a distraught Cassandra Frasier ran into the infirmary with a winded Daniel Jackson on her heels. "Mom!" she cried as she launched herself into the petite doctor's arms. "Daniel came and got me and we went to the hospital, but you weren't there," Cassie explained with words that ran together in her excitement and fear.
"Jacob came and got us," Janet said soothingly as she stroked her daughter's hair. "He healed all of us. I'm fine, sweetie. I'm fine."
"Does this teenager have the run of the base?" Moore demanded of Hammond.
"No," General Hammond replied shortly. "She has access to the base when accompanied by her mother or another base personnel. Generally for the purpose of seeing to her medical needs. Because of the naquadah in her blood she can't be seen by doctors outside of the SGC."
"She's the child O'Neill and his team rescued?" Chegwidden guessed as his appraising gaze swept over the healthy young woman.
"Yes," Hammond confirmed. "She's grown into quite a lovely young lady. She'll start at the academy next year," he added with more than a trace of pride in his voice.
Cassandra stepped back from her mother's embrace to get a better look at her mother. "I'm fine," Janet said yet again. Cassandra gave her mother one last considering look before turning her attention to the couple sleeping on the bed. "They'll be fine too," Janet assured her daughter. "They're still a bit sick, but nothing that we can't make better."
"What about the babies?" Cassie asked.
"We're going to get them back," Daniel said repeating the same assurance he'd given her several times since telling her what had happened to her mother.
"When will they wake up?" Cassie asked as she stood next to Jacob who put his arm around her. In the past when he'd visited his daughter he'd gotten to know Cassie well and accepted her as a surrogate granddaughter.
"Not for at least twelve hours," Janet answered as she came to stand on the other side of her daughter.. "Which means that you and Daniel should get some sleep, Jacob."
"Only if you take your own advice," he bargained. "I healed your wounds, but you still lost a lot of blood, Janet. You need to get some sleep."
"I'm..." she began to protest.
"I'm making that an order," Hammond interjected. "All of you get some rest."