"How do you feel, Ian?"

The cadet looked up, his eyes glazed and a goofy grin on his face.

"Hi, Sam…"

She smiled, shaking her head. Janet had warned her that they'd heavily medicated Ian for the transfer to the SGC that morning – to keep him from feeling any pain on the drive in the ambulance – and it was obvious the drugs were kicking in, because she'd never seen that goofy look before.

"Hi, Ian. How do you feel?" She asked, a little slower this time.

"Oh, good… good, good, good, good…"

He looked like he was feeling good, Sam thought with another smile.

"… good, good…"

"Good, it's taken affect."

Sam looked over her shoulder and saw that Janet had arrived behind her and was looking down at her patient. Ian's gaze followed the Major's and he brought his bandaged hand up and waved it at Fraiser – something that would have hurt to do if he wasn't on painkillers.

"Hey, Doc… where's Sneezy and Dopey?"

Ian snickered at his own little joke, and Janet scowled, because Sam had snickered as well.

"Yeah, I'd say it's taken affect," Sam agreed.

"Are Nathan and Maggie in the hospital, still?"

Sam shook her head.

"They went off with the AG to discuss the case the prosecutors have."

That had been a shock to everyone – except Ian, of course. Early that morning, from out of nowhere, the Attorney General of the United States had shown up at the hospital, looking for Nathan Brooks. The elder Brooks had still been at the hotel with his wife, but the AG had been taken in to see Ian, who'd been awake off and on all night, and with one of the ever present Marine guards watching, the man and two of his assistants had taken a statement from Ian and had double checked his surety that he'd be able to recognize his assailants.

Ian, of course, had had no trouble giving the exact statement that he'd given the police, and had nodded when asked if he'd be able to point them out of a line up. The AG didn't seem as confident – he'd seen the nasty injuries the cadet had taken and he was pretty sure that trauma like that would probably have some kind of affect on how well the kid remembered, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he asked a few more questions, and by the time he was ready to leave to go talk to the local police, Nathan and Maggie had shown up – and so had Jack and Sam.

Nathan made introductions all around while Maggie checked on her son to make sure he was still alive and kicking, and then Nathan had checked on Ian while Maggie told the AG how nice it was for him to come all the way out here from DC just to take care of Ian's case. The AG had sent a look at Nathan, but the retired General wasn't looking his way, and he'd simply smiled, and shrugged, and said it was his pleasure.

Then the AG had gone off with his assistants to talk to the locals, and Nathan and Maggie had gone as well, because – Nate told Jack privately – he wanted to make sure there weren't any mistakes made and that the bastards had every book that could be found thrown at them. Maggie had debated staying with Ian – even though she wanted to go with her husband – but Sam had told her they were going to move Ian, so she'd have plenty of time to see him later, when things weren't so hectic. She'd admonished her son to behave himself, and had left, and Ian's doctors had arrived to get him prepped to move.

Janet nodded, "Then I guess we're ready to get him moved…"

"Hey, Sam…" Ian said. "I'm moving, today."

She smiled, and rested her hand lightly on his. "I heard, Ian."

"To the SGC. It's a secret, though…"

"I know."

She turned to Janet, who was frowning as she looked down at the cadet.

"He's awfully talkative…"

"The dose should have put him out, but he's been restive all morning."

"And you can't give him more?"

Fraiser shrugged, "I could, if I wanted to turn him into a vegetable for the next few days. I don't think his parents would appreciate that, though – and it's really not good for him. We'll just have to keep the right people around him until we get him to my infirmary."

"Well, I'm here…"

"Sam's here," Ian repeated, holding the hand that Sam had rested on his. "She knows all the secrets – well, not the one about the voice – but all the other ones. She can keep me company."

"What voice, Ian?" Sam asked. He'd mentioned a voice the other day, too, although at the time, he'd been just as doped up as he was now – and in a lot of pain.

"It's a secret, Sam," Ian told her, regretfully. "I promised not to tell, because he wouldn't tell me about the…" he caught himself before he could tell her, and he frowned. "Shit! I almost told you about him. Oh, that wouldn't have been good at all. Not at all…"

"I can't know the secret?" Sam asked, curiously. She hated being on the outside of a secret.

Ian shook his head.

"He's probably imagining things, Sam," Janet told her, smiling. "He's not exactly in his right mind at the moment, you know."

Sam shrugged, and leaned over, making sure she had Ian's complete attention.

"When you're feeling better, you and I are going to sit down and talk about this voice, okay?"

He looked up at her, dark eyes glazed where they weren't swollen, and shrugged.

"I'll ask him the next time I talk to him…"

"You do that." She kissed his forehead, softly. "Now go to sleep, okay? Stop fighting it…"

"You're a better kisser than Cassie, Sam…" Ian mumbled, closing his eyes. "Probably because you've had more practice, huh? I'll have to work on that…"

"What did he say?" Janet asked, frowning. She hadn't heard completely what the boy had told Sam, because his voice had been soft, and her friend's body had blocked what little she could hear, but she was certain he'd said something about kissing Cassie.

Sam stood up, looking at Janet, her blue eyes wide and innocent.

"I didn't hear anything…"

"He said-"

"You said it yourself, Janet; he's not exactly in his right mind just now…"

Janet frowned, crossing her arms over her breasts and looking at her friend curiously.

"What do you know that I don't?"

"I know that the quantum theory for biangular dimension planar existence is-"

"Sam."

"He might have kissed her – once."

"Once?"

Sam shrugged, and then sighed, because she could see the suspicion in Janet's eyes, and knew that she'd better hear that there had only been kisses and nothing more – otherwise Ian might not make it the SGC intact.

"I know that Cassie's kissed him a couple times – but that's it. There's really nothing going on between them."

"Your daughter's safe with me, Doctor Fraiser," Ian said, surprising both of them – Sam had assumed he'd fallen asleep, but he was still hanging in there with them, his eyes just as glazed as they had been, but the goofy grin gone. "I'm an asshole, but I'm not so bad that I'd take advantage of a nice girl like her… When Hayden gets his shit together and realizes that sleeping with women isn't a contest, I'll hook them up…"

"Hayden?"

"River." Sam supplied.

"River Hayden…" Ian added, and now his voice was failing him as his eyes started to droop. He was finally succumbing to the medication he'd been given. "He's a good guy, just too…" he dozed off before they could find out what was wrong with him.

Fraiser scowled again, but Sam shook her head.

"Janet, don't hold this conversation against him – he's not at his best, and you know how people can be when they're medicated. He's been a perfect gentleman with Cassie every time she's been to the house, even though-"

"He's all she's been talking about at home…" Janet had just assumed there was a fascination because the boy was cute. "I should put her in a convent."

Sam smiled.

"It's not that bad."

Nah, it probably wasn't. But Janet was going to have a long talk with Ian when he woke up. And she was going to make sure that it was soon – before he was healed and out of her infirmary.