Doctor Janet Fraiser had not slept in over thirty-six hours. She'd passed the point where coffee did her any good... she was now operating on will-power alone. She had only just managed to wash the last of the blood from her hands and discarded the clothes stained beyond hope. She would have to sleep soon but before she could rest she had to check in on her patients one more time. Nurses trolled the darkened infirmary with her. They watched her closely for any orders then slunk off to other bedsides, each patient checked on ten times over.

Janet found herself at Sam Carter's bedside as she looked at the young woman's deathly still form. The bandage on the major's thigh was beginning to soak through, the first spotting of bright red blood dotting the thick wrappings, but the bleeding was at last beginning to slow. The next time they changed her dressings the bandages could probably stay on much longer. Shrapnel damage. From reports of the conscious SGC team members that had come through, a staff blast had exploded a boulder near Sam and heated chunks of rock had ripped into her skin. It had been a tedious process in surgery to pick out all the slivers of stone. When the major did not wake up from anesthesia Janet had been concerned. She might have lapsed into a coma, but Doctor Fraiser wasn't ready to make that drastic a prognosis just yet.

Janet examined the bags of saline solution and antibiotic drips fed through tubes into Sam's arms, at last pulled out her penlight and leaned over the sleeping woman. She pried back one of Sam's eyelids and flashed the light at the major's pupil, watching the sharp contraction. Sam flinched and turned her head away from the bright light, groaning in malcontent.

"Sam?" Janet sat on the edge of the bed with her hand resting on her friend's shoulder.

"Ja'et?" she slurred.

"I'm here. You're in the infirmary. You took some damage to your right leg and we had to take you into surgery. You might feel a little nauseous from the anesthesia but you're going to be fine."

Sam rolled her head back to look at Janet, expression murky and confused. "What about the others?"

Janet rested her hands in her lap, "Teal'c was wounded in the arm by a staff blast but thanks to his symbiote he's making a rapid recovery. Daniel..." Janet stopped.

Sam forced herself to focus, "Daniel what?"

Janet sighed, "He's not doing so well. He was seriously injured, and he's not out of the woods yet. We have him in one of the isolation rooms right now under close observation."

"What happened?" Sam queried groggily.

"He was crushed by a significant weight of rocks... the boulder blast that wounded you caused a cliff to collapse... Daniel happened to get caught beneath. He broke four ribs on his right side and his lung collapsed. We have a chest tube in right now to reinflate his lung, and he's on a ventilator because he was having trouble breathing on his own. What has me concerned is the skull fracture and concussion. He has some brain swelling that we're watching very closely. Sam, do you remember what happened?"

Sam screwed her eyes shut, then she grimaced, "Goa'uld, um... mission went to hell."

Janet nodded. Reaching out, she patted Sam's shoulder, "I think your memory's fine. I am so sorry, Sam."

Sam swallowed thickly and forced open her eyes to ask, "The colonel?"

Janet looked down at her lap, "He's... he didn't make it."

"What?" Sam croaked thinly, face twisting.

Janet closed her hand around Sam's forearm and squeezed lightly, "He died, Sam."

Sam stared in disbelief at Janet for a moment, as though waiting for the doctor to admit she was mistaken, and when no such confession was forthcoming Sam turned her gaze up to the ceiling. Water swam in her eyes but she would not break down in tears, always trying to be the strong military officer.

Janet squeezed Sam's arm one more time and carefully stood. She left her friend so the newly conscious major could absorb all the information and give her a chance to silently cry alone.