She'd asked them not to watch. She didn't want them to see the moment where she failed, and used the device to kill Janet, and put them all out of their misery. She'd asked them not to watch, but no force on Earth, or any other place in the Universe, for that matter, could have kept them from the observation room. It wasn't like she would see them, after all.
Teal'c, Jack, Daniel and General Hammond sat completely still and watched through the one way mirror as Sam and Dr. Warner prepared Janet for the procedure. In theory, it was simple enough. Warner would inject the penicillin/garlic into Janet. Unlike everyone else who had been given the treatment, Janet would have an anaphylactic response to both the garlic and the penicillin. Sam's job was to keep the penicillin from killing her friend, but still allow it to neutralize the garlic's reaction to the blood stream. It was a tight line, and the question was whether Sam would have the control to keep everything together.
"Are you ready, Major?" Warner asked, speaking across Janet's prone form.
Sam took several deep breaths and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were frozen with blue resolve.
"I am."
"Injecting serum now," Warner reported. "The reaction should begin in a few moments."
Sam closed her eyes again and held her hand above Janet's chest. Since anaphylaxis constricted the bronchial tubes, she was planning to focus her defense on Janet's lungs. In the seconds before the reaction began, Sam looked inside herself for the power she knew she would need. For the smallest instant, she found nothing and despaired. But then she felt it: the singing in her blood that the alien had left behind. It sang of Salvation.
"Major! She's begun!"
Sam barely heard him. She extended her hyperawareness of her own body through her hand and into Janet. Suddenly, she had more of everything, and the lines between what was hers and what was Janet's blurred. She had four lungs and two of them were horribly clogged. She choked, unsure if she could still breathe.
"Major? Sam! Breathe Sam! Your lungs are fine. Fix hers! But breathe!"
Warner's voice snapped though her and she heaved a breath. Forcing her awareness back into Janet, she allowed a small portion of herself to remain in her own lungs so Warner would not have cause to distract her again. Sam pushed her way into Janet's lungs and forced the bronchial tubes open, using her own lungs as a guide.
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"What is she doing?" Jack asked, looking down from the observation room.
"I believe Major Carter is endeavouring to prop Doctor Fraiser's lungs open, O'Neill."
"What if she, uh, over-props?"
"I don't think she can, Jack." Daniel replied quickly, banishing his own concerns. "The device operates mainly on instinct, and Janet's lungs are practically Sam's right now."
Jack looked hard at Daniel. The archaeologist had some colour back in his cheeks now, and his voice was hopeful, but there was still a haunted look in his eyes. Jack forced himself to smile, hoping the result wasn't too off-putting.
"They'll be fine, Daniel."
"I know."
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In the centre of the action, Dr. Warner watched the Major struggle, feeling oddly detached and absolutely useless. His job would begin again once the garlic reaction had finished. They knew from the test runs that the foreign protein, garlic and penicillin burnt themselves out at the conclusion of the reaction, but the Sanoctem disease had thrown them so many curves by now, that Warner was leaving nothing to chance. Anything on the SGC that might be used to resuscitate someone was in the room, and when the time came, he would use them all if he had to.
Sam was sweating now, her hand stretched wide over Janet's chest, straining at the limits placed on it by its own ligaments. Janet's body jerked, the typical reaction to the treatment, her movements confined by the beam of energy connecting her to Sam's hand. As abruptly as it had begun, Janet's seizure stopped. She lay deathly still, and all those observing held their breath. Warner flew to her side, checking for pulse and respiration with a speed bought with years of practice.
"She's breathing!" he announced to the window, knowing full well of their audience. "She's going to be fine, Dr. Jackson. She's going to be fine!"
Daniel was on his feet in an instant and out the door as fast as he could move. Jack and Teal'c let him by and then followed quickly, leaving Hammond alone in the observation room. Warner was busy attaching various monitors to Janet, and did not notice that Sam had moved away from the bed, grasping at the wall for support. So it was that only General Hammond was looking when Sam removed the healing device, staggered into the wall, and collapsed on the floor in a heap.
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to be continued…