"Come on, Jack!"
It's not an easy thing to run while holding up one end of a stretcher with a wounded man on it, but it was even harder to do it while being shot at and at the same time trying to keep looking back over your shoulder to make sure your best friend is coming behind you. Daniel was doing just that, though.
"Move!"
This was from Kelly Thorpe, who was the CO of SG-3. He and his team were taking the brunt of the Jaffa attacks, and things had started looking pretty bad until O'Neill had ordered SG-5 out to give them some backup. Bleeding from a scattering of small scratches on his forehead and cheek, taken when a tree crashed down nearby and the branches, Thorpe didn't look like someone to argue with just then.
Daniel turned and ran.
A moment later, the two labs and Jack made their own appearance.
"Thorpe!"
"Here!"
"Where are the rest of your team?"
"All in front of us, Jack. We're the last of them. SG-5 is holding the far edge, and SG-4 has the gate. SG-8 is through the gate with the medics. You okay?"
He'd noticed Jack's left arm hanging oddly and it was hard to miss all the blood.
"I'll be a lot better when we get the hell out of here." Jack told him.
Thorpe took Jack's Beretta and reloaded it for him with a clip from his own vest.
"Let's go then! I have a hot date tonight!"
"You'll have plenty of time," Jack said, taking his gun back gratefully. "The pound is open until 6 on Tuesday."
Thorpe laughed, despite the dangers around them.
"Screw you, Colonel, Sir!"
Jack grinned.
"Tell your people to make a run for the gate. We'll be the last ones out."
Thorpe was already on the radio when the two of them and the labs headed for the gate.
OOOOOOOOOOO
The wounded were trickling in.
Because she wasn't able to help the medics – wrong kind of doctor and all that – Sam stayed in the command center where she'd have a good view of what was going on and who was coming in. Emmett Bregman was right beside her, his face so close to the glass that he was almost touching it.
"Where is she?"
"She'll come," Sam assured him. At the same time, though, she was waiting for Jack and the others, as well.
"The other doctors are coming through..."
"...have two medics and one soldier unaccounted for, but the Jaffa are swarming us, and we can't get back to them!"
Sam had heard the message as well, coming from the radio that Sergeant Davis was using to allow General Hammond to monitor what was happening off world. She knew Emmett was afraid that Janet was one of the missing medics – and truth be told, Sam was worried, too – but she tried to reassure him anyways.
"Jack's not going to leave until everyone's through, Emmett. Trust him..."
He turned to her, noticing that she was pale.
"He always makes sure everyone's through?"
"Yes."
God, no wonder she was worried. Even though she could hear his voice, she knew that he was actually making a target of himself by staying longer than the others. And the more people he sent home, the fewer guns he'd have backing him up.
"He's going to be fine, Major O'Neill..."
Sam smiled, realizing he had picked up on her concern. She nodded.
"I'm not worried."
"Me, either."
Uh huh.
With silent sighs, they both turned back to the glass, worried expressions almost identical as they waited to see the ones they were watching for.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Be careful with her!"
Teal'c handed Janet off to one of the medics waiting at the gate. A big man who easily picked her up in his arms – just as careful of her wounded side as Teal'c had been – and charged through the gate. By the time they'd reached the gate, Janet's wound had gotten the better of her, and she'd passed out, so she wasn't able to argue about the need for her to be carried. Which was just as well.
Teal'c turned and jumped from the gate platform, hefting his staff weapon and heading back towards the trees. He had to find the others. Just as he reached the trees, Daniel and the corpsman emerged, carrying the stretcher.
"Where is O'Neill?"
"He's coming!" Daniel gasped. It was a miracle neither he nor the medic was hurt – or a sign of just how well SG-3 and 5 had opened the doors. Whatever it was, they weren't injured. Just out of breath from the sprint.
While Daniel headed for the gate with his burden, Teal'c went into the trees, keying his radio.
"O'Neill!"
"We're coming, Teal'c!"
A moment later the last of SG-3 came flushing through the trees, all three injured, but mobile. With them was SG-5, who were holding most of the wounded peoples' gear so they didn't have to carrying it.
"Move!" Teal'c shouted. "I will cover you!"
The Jaffa stood himself between the hasty retreat and the rest of the forest, his staff weapon down and ready, his eyes watching for any sign of danger. There was no way he'd just start firing into the trees, after all. Not when there were friendlies on the other side of them.
The underbrush rustled, and Teal'c lowered his weapon, anticipating yet another crawling Jaffa trying to sneak up on him. A moment later, though, a blonde bundle of energy – streaked with crimson – came rushing at him with a joyful bark. A moment after that, the yellow lab was joined by a larger black one, and then Jack O'Neill and Kelly Thorpe.
"Is everyone cleared?" Jack called, looking at Teal'c and at Thorpe as the three men started trotting to the gate, now that they were cleared of the heavy trees.
"I witnessed several of the SGC team members coming through," Teal'c told O'Neill, taking the Colonel's P-90 from him so it wouldn't rub his wounded shoulder. "I did not see them all, however."
There was someone who would have – and who would have kept track.
"SG-4?"
"We're here, Sir!"
"Status? Who's left on this side?"
"Just my team, Thorpe and you and Teal'c, Sir! Teal'c is on his way to find you, everyone else is on the other side!"
"Teal'c is with me, we're on our way right now!"
An explosion off to his left made all of them flinch as yet another tree took a direct hit. Better a tree than a person, as far as Jack was concerned.
"Shit!"
They kept running. In the open there wasn't anyplace to dodge to, anyways.
"We're under fire!" Jack called into his radio, using the same hand to key his mike as he was using to hold his Beretta – no easy trick, especially at a full sprint. "We're almost there, but we're coming in hot! Watch out!"
"We're watching for you, Sir!"
Sure enough, as they turned the last curve, they found a wall of four men all holding their weapons up. As Jack and the others ran past them, the machine guns came down and they all started firing, a solid wall of bullets that dropped the handful of Jaffa that were coming around the bend, intent on getting off one last shot at the humans before they could escape.
"Go!"
Once Jack made it to the edge of the gate, he called the members of SG-4 back.
"Do we have everyone through?" He asked as Jaffer came over to stand next to him, the black lab soaked in blood. Jack wasn't worried about Jaffer, though. He knew the lab was all right, even with all the blood. He'd know if Jaffer was hurt.
"Everyone's through, Sir!" SG-4's CO told him, coming in at a run with the rest of his team. "I counted them as they came!"
"Let's go, then!"
Jack and Jaffer watched as the others bolted through the gate, then the two of them ran through as well.
