Doctor Frasier: Medicine Woman 1.2: Falling Up (Part 3)

By Jolinar (at) Carter

Jack opened his eyes and frowned. He looked to the rooms other occupant, and realised it was Carter. They were both lying in the double bed. Rather, he was on, she was in. He slowly sat up, trying not to wake her, and stretched. He remembered now.

He'd told her.

He'd held her as she cried.

And then they'd fallen asleep.

He looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:31am. He always woke up at almost exactly the same time every day. He got up, and walked around to the other side of the bed, seeing that Sam was fast asleep. He smiled, and gently adjusted the covers, so that she'd be warm enough.

Quietly, he left, closing the door behind him. He took a shower, and got changed in to clean clothes, before returning to the VIP room. He found that she was still asleep.

His shift didn't begin for a while yet, so he grabbed a magazine from the table and sat down on his side of the bed. Propping the pillows up, he sighed and sat back, opening the April 2002 copy of Scientists Monthly. He figured this must have been Sam's.

Although he played dumb, he was actually a pretty smart guy. No theoretical astrophycisist, like her, but fairly bright.

Around ten minutes later Sam turned over and stretched out. Her arm landed on his stomach, and her head ended up on his chest. He thought about moving her, but decided it was best to leave her.

They were alone, and it wasn't like there was anything wrong with her cuddling up to him. She had just lost her Dad.

He yawned again – Sam hadn't stopped crying until around 3:45am. Then Janet had come by and offered a sedative, which he ordered her to accept. She needed to sleep, she wasn't in brilliant health as it was.

He was almost asleep again himself, when he felt her stir. He looked down at her and smiled. "Hey sleepyhead."

"Hi," she croaked, her voice almost gone from all the crying. She closed her eyes again and wrapped her arms around him. He stroked her hair as she cried again, silently. "You...you'd better go," she sniffed, looking at the clock.

"You're more important," he replied, chucking the magazine on to the floor.


Jack took Sam to see her father's body that afternoon. Daniel and Teal'C were waiting outside. He left her to say her goodbyes in private, and wore a hole in the floor of the corridor as he waited.

He took her home, later on, and they stayed with her. The three guys camped out in her living room for the next few days.

On the Saturday morning, at 9am, Sam called her brother for the first time in two years.

"Marc," she began. "It's Sam."

"Sam, hi, how are you?" Marc asked, surprised to hear from her.

"I don't know how to tell you this," she cried. She paused, and then continued. "It's..."

"Dad." He finished her sentence for her, and she could tell he was crying.

"Are you gonna come up? I'd ask you to stay with me but I was injured, and uh, I have my team staying with me," Sam mumbled.

"I'll be there this afternoon," he said, before hanging up.

Sam dropped the phone, and fell on to the couch, lying down and resting her head on Jack. "Marc is coming here."


Marc Iain Carter glanced in to the back of his BMW to see his two kids were fast asleep. He sighed, and wished that his father had seen them just once more before he had gone. He really hadn't seen enough of them.

"Marc, honey, are you sure you don't want me to drive? I can take over?" His wife of 12 years, Monica, asked. She had been crying more than he had so far, and she'd only met Jacob a few times.

"No. I'm fine," Marc replied, turning the radio on. He did so not want to talk right now.

Monica turned the volume down and looked back at the kids, relieved to see they were still fast asleep. "We don't want them awake on a drive this long."

"No, you're right. I don't think I could stand Jessica's constant bloody whining," He said, speeding up.

"She's seven, what do you expect?" She snapped. That woke the kids up.

"Mon, I'm sorry I'm being so grumpy. It's just, ya know, my Dad is dead and it's kinda hard for me!" He yelled. Jessica started crying, and Michael started asking questions.

"Grandpa is dead?" Jessica sobbed. They hadn't managed to tell the kids yet. They had picked them up from their friend's houses, bags in the trunk, and set off immediately.

"Yeah, honey, Grandpa Jake has left us. But, you know he's in a much better place now. He's gone to heaven," Monica replied, forcing a smile. "He'll be very happy there and he's going to be looking down and watching you."

"Really?" She sniffed, looking out the window. "He'll be up there?"

"Yep."

"Marc, why don't we stop and have dinner?" Mon suggested, when she spotted a sign for a diner. "Then I'll take over driving."

"Fine. But I want to get to Sam's before it gets dark," He said as he drove in to the diner car park. "So we'd better make it quick."

"How was Auntie Sam?" Michael wondered. He'd always liked Sam, probably because every time they saw her she took them shopping.

"She's upset, honey, she misses him," Mon replied, "We're going to go and see her, and stay in Colorado for a few days."

"Are we staying with Auntie Samantha?" Jessica hoped. Monica shook her head, and she started crying again. Marc rolled his eyes and stopped the car. "I like her house."

"We should tell them," Marc muttered.

"Tell us what?" The kids asked, undoing their seatbelts.

"Auntie Sam got hurt recently..." Monica began.

"How?"

"Well I don't know that. She's not allowed to tell us, remember? Like Grandpa Jake couldn't," Marc told them. He unfastened his seatbelt and got out of the car.

"It's classicated?" Jessica said, wiping her eyes.

"Classified, yes," Marc corrected. He opened Jess's door and she gave him a big smile.

"It's okay, Daddy, you still have us," She told him, standing on the seat and giving him a hug. He picked her up and kissed her on the cheek, and then carried her in to the diner, leaving Mon to close the doors and lock up.

"Mom?" Michael spoke up.

"Yes?"

"What were you going to say?" He asked, taking her hand. It was very uncool for a ten year old to hold his mom's hand, but he decided she needed it. She was really upset.

"Sam got hurt, and she's not exactly steady on her feet. So we can't stay with her, because her friends are already there. They're taking care of her while she gets better," Monica told him, as they walked in to the diner. "You've got to be really good around Dad, okay?"


"We're here," Marc announced as they pulled into Sam's road. There were already 3 cars parked around her house, so he parked opposite her place.

"You ready for this?" Monica asked, unfastening her seatbelt. She reached over and gave her husband a hug. "Come on."

Sam was waiting for them as they carried the sleepy kids up the drive. She ran out to Marc and he put a 70% alert Michael down. He wrapped his arms around her and didn't let go for several minutes.

When he let go, he found that they were alone on the drive. "Come on," he said, looking at her lack of clothing. "You're in your pyjamas, you'll catch a cold."

Sam nodded and followed him inside, and then locked the door. She went in to the living room to find Michael and Jack playing on the Jack's Playstation 2, while Jessica was on her mom's lap, fast asleep in the chair.

Teal'C and Daniel were finishing up their dinner in the kitchen. "Marc," Sam sniffed, joining him on the couch. "I'm glad you're here."

"We're going to stay at a Motel about fifteen miles out," He told her, looking up at the clock on the mantlepiece. "I might send Mon out with the kids in a little while, and get a cab back."

"Oh, okay."

He gave her another hug, and then looked towards the kitchen. "You got any beers?"

"Plenty," Jack replied, getting to his feet. "Hi, I'm Jack O'Neill, Sam's..."

"Boss, yeah, she told me that much," Marc replied, also standing. He shook the colonel's hand. "She's actually told me a lot about you, about how great you are."

"Your sister is an amazing woman," Jack told him as he ushered the younger man into the kitchen. "And she always looks after us when we're going through tough times. We stick together, don't we boys?"

"Oh, hey, I'm Daniel Jackson, and this is Murray Polk," Daniel introduced himself, between mouthfuls of pasta.

Marc nodded to the both of them, "I've heard a lot about you guys as well."

"I didn't think you and Sam spoke much?" Daniel blurted.

"Well, occasionally we call each other," He shrugged, taking his beer from Jack. "Thanks. Can I ask you something?"

"Depends what it is," Jack replied, sitting down beside Murray. "I won't do or say anything that will betray Sam."

"I just want to know if she's...you know...okay? I mean, I know she's upset, but...is she okay? She looks bloody awful," Marc asked, perching on the worktop. "When she said she was injured, I didn't..."

"She will be okay," Jack said, peeling the label from his beer bottle. "She was very critically ill, and we did almost lose her. She is still recovering, and your loss knocked her back. She will recover, and she will be fine, eventually. For now, she's on medical leave, and she's seeing an excellent physical therapist."

"She nearly died and no one informed me? God," He growled. "I hate the Air Force. I always have."

"It all happened very fast, Mr. Carter, and I'm sure that our Doctor would have advised us to call you in if she had thought Sam wouldn't pull through," Daniel replied calmly. "She will be fine, in a couple of months."

"It's getting late, I need to get the kids settled," Marc told them, finishing off his beer and going in to the living room. "Hey, honey, why don't you take the kids to the motel – the one I pointed out earlier – and get us a room. I'll be there later," he suggested to Monica.

She nodded, and he picked his daughter up and carried her in to the hall. "Michael, it's time to go, say goodbye to Auntie Sam," He told the boy. Michael jumped up and carefully gave his aunt a hug. His mom did the same, and then they left.

Marc returned a couple of minutes later, and Sam broke down. "There are so many things I wish I'd said to him!" She cried.

"Me too, Sam," Marc sighed, sitting down beside her. He took her hand. "You saw him a lot recently, right? And you talked things out with him."

"Yeah, I did," She sniffed. "But you didn't."

"Actually, we kind of did. I wish I'd told him that I loved him, and I wish he'd seen Jess and Mike more, but we talked," Marc assured her. "It's always been so hard with him. I wish I could have told him that I forgave him, and believe me I tried to, but I just couldn't."

"It hadn't always been so hard," Sam corrected him. "He thought the world of you, you guys used to be so close. He paid you more attention than me. I wasn't a little boy that could follow in his footsteps."

"Guess he was wrong – you're the Major and I am the attorney," Marc laughed. "At one point, yes. We were close. But when I got to Michael's age, I realised that he wasn't as great as I'd always thought," he explained.

"You hated him."

"Yes. And not because of the way he was with me – not because he missed my birthdays, or my Christmases, or my baseball games. It was because I saw the disappointment in your eyes, every birthday, when he wasn't there. Or every gymnastics meet or dance recital. But you were too little back then. He'd come home from a mission with a huge gift, a new doll or dolls house, and you'd forget all about it. But I was there every time, and I remembered how upset you were. I always did hate to see my little sister upset," he sat back for a moment, and closed his eyes. "I was the only one allowed to make you cry."

"Did you blame him for the accident, all these years? I mean, do you, now?" Sam asked. "Tell me the truth."

"Yes, and no."

"He died well, Marc," Sam told him, snuggling up. "He died happy, and he died knowing that his kids were okay."

"You call your current condition okay?"

"He died knowing that he'd said everything he needed to. He told us he loved us," She continued. "He'd done his best to mend things with you. He did mend things with me. It was okay for him to go, he had no unifinished business."

"I think you're right," he nodded. "Wait a minute...you're the little sister...I'm meant to be comforting you."

"Oh, sorry, big brother," She smiled. "I've missed you. I've missed us being this close."

"Me too," he admitted.

"I remember the way you took care of me, Marc," Sam said, "I remember, after we lost mom, you took care of me. Falling apart yourself, you were more concerned about me. You made sure I made it through. You held me when I cried, you beat up my lousy ex-boyfriend every time he hurt me, you made the lunches and took me to my gym meets. You looked after me, and I never thanked you for that. Not once."

"You never needed to Sam. I did those things because you're my sister," He smiled, stroking her hair.

"We were so close back then. What happened?" She asked.

"What happened, is I left for college. I left you in an empty house, heating up frozen meals while Dad worked til 9. I felt guilty leaving you, but I knew I had to get out and live my life," he replied.

"And I told you to go, when I really wished you'd stay," She remembered. "I couldn't be that selfish, with all you'd done for me."

"You hid your problems, pretended you were fine, and that you didn't need me any more. You yelled and screamed at me, drove me away," He sighed. "I didn't realise at the time what you were trying to do."

"When you got back, I'd changed. And we'd grown apart. I'd gone mad, my hair was five different colours, I dressed like a freak, I'd lost 20lbs and I was an extreme bitch at all times," she recalled, sadly.

"Yep. You were really hard to live with. Couldn't wait to get out again. The drugs and the booze, the guys, the weight...you were so different. I hated seeing you that messed up. Of course, you weren't ready to talk, so I couldn't help you. I tried."

"You married Monica, and moved away."

"And she and my studies took up so much of my time that we never talked any more," he nodded.

"I arrived on your doorstep one night, and you took me in. And we talked, and you helped me. I stayed with you, for a while before I went in to Riverside," she said, realising how good her brother really had been to her.

"It's weird. We were close when we were kids, and we grew apart. We were close when we were teenagers, and we grew apart. We were close in our twenties, and we grew apart. Same now, when you're in your thirties and me in my forties." He laughed.

"I've been really, really terrible Marc, and I'm sorry for that," She apologised. "Everything always seemed so hard and I couldn't cope."

"Let's not grow apart again, sis," He smiled, kissing her forhead. "Okay?"

"Okay."

"These guys are taking good care of you?" He checked.

"Yes, they are. They are wonderful. Murray is a great cleaner, too. Jack provides the entertainment, and Daniel is a great cook. They're not letting me do anything at all!" She grinned.

"Well, if they are staying with you again tonight, I guess I should be going," He decided. "Monica will be waiting."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Ooh," she groaned. "Help me up."

He gave her a hand up and they went out in to the hall. She opened the door and then gave him a tight squeeze. "Tomorrow I'll take you to see the body."

"Right," he nodded. "I'll be here at ten."

"We need to talk about the funeral, too," she told him. "I'll call you a cab now."

"Ten," he nodded. He shot her a small smile, and then left. She watched him walk down to the end of the drive, and shut the door.

"Colonel, can you call Marc a cab please?" She requested, falling on to the couch. Daniel and Teal'C were sat either side of her seconds later. "You guys were listening, huh?"

"We tried not to...but you were kind of loud," Daniel shrugged. "Sorry. We didn't hear much."

"It's okay. You're like my brothers. There are things I haven't told you yet, but that's because they haven't come up. I have nothing to hide from you. Especially now you know about my teenage years. Or some of it, anyway."