A/N: Here's another chapter for you all... This story has taken on a life of it's own, it's a lot longer than I anticipated and it's definitely headed in directions I didn't anticipate. Hopefully though I'll be wrapping this story up soon. Stuff at school is starting to pick up and so I may not as much time to write in the next few weeks. So please bare with me, I promise to you that I will finish this story!

For those of you waiting for the ship to start, give me a few chapters!

Enjoy

Cathy Ryan followed Daniel out of the infirmary. It was six in the morning by then, and Daniel was the first one to leave Sam's side.

Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter had undergone five hours of surgery to repair the damage she had suffered in the explosion. She had crashed once more while on the O.R. table, but been quickly resuscitated. The doctor's had had to do a thoracotomy to try and locate the site where she was bleeding out, insert several chest tubes to drain the blood in her lungs, remove her spleen in a splenectomy, and they had been able to salvage her kidney when they repaired the damage to the hepatic artery. The doctor's had even gone about correctly setting the bones in her arm.

Through out the entire surgery her teammates had waited outside the O.R. doors waiting for any news on their friend. Many others had stopped by to check on the Colonel's condition. But most of them had stopped at the end of the hallway upon seeing her closest friends still waiting.

It had been three hours since she'd been out of surgery and these three men hadn't left her side since returning to the base and learning of her condition.

She waited outside the entrance for him to return from using the restroom. She felt for these men, she saw the concern they had for the blond doctor. She was thinking about what she had seen when Daniel walked up to the entrance.

She stuck her hand out and implored him to stop, "You all love her, don't you?"

Daniel looked from the First Lady to the last bed where Sam's body lay. He looked at his two closest friends waiting for her to wake up.

"Yeah," he quietly replied.

"A family?"

He paused before answering, "Yeah… they're all I have… Sam's like a sister to me…"

"And Jack?"

He looked sharply at the woman next to him.

"He loves her more than a sister, doesn't he?" she astutely observed.

Daniel stumbled, "They never-"

"I'm not in the military," she reminded him as she too now looked into the infirmary. She saw her old friend sitting in a chair next to her bed with his head propped up by his hands. He looked up and stared at Sam's still body.

As they watched her they were haunted by the sounds emanating from the machines surrounding her bed: the ventilator that was breathing for her, the heart monitor that showed that she was still alive with every ping representing a heart beat.

Time came to a stand still for these men, marked only by the pings from the heart monitor. Each heartbeat giving them hope.

Cathy zeroed in her attention on Jack's face, it looked like he had aged ten years in a few short hours. The man she had seen the past few days was gone, no longer was he an upbeat man, but rather a man whose life depended on hearing the constant repetitive pings from the heart monitor.

She remembered all the interactions she had observed between the two, the teasing, the glances at one another, and the smiles.

And before her eyes she realized that it was a man who would rather die himself then know what it was like to live life without her.

"Why didn't they ever…?" she asked leaving the implied question hanging in the air.

Daniel shrugged as he looked at two of his closest friends. "Regulations… They're not selfish like that, to put their desires before the mission of the SGC…"

Daniel then took a step to reenter and resume his vigil.

"She's going to pull through this," Cathy offered him, "she doesn't seem like someone to quit."

Daniel offered a small smile, "No… No she's not…"

As she continued to watch this small family from the doorway, her heart broke. She realized that Sam Carter's death would destroy these three men.

She stood outside the infirmary looking in for several minutes before she heard her name called out, "Cathy."

She looked up and saw Robbie and John Clark heading for her. "Robbie, what are you still doing up?"

"I could ask you the same question. You need to get some rest Cathy."

"Robbie, I'm fine! Besides, I want to wait this one out."

He looked into the room, "There are two other doctors in there. You need to rest." He then leaned over and quietly whispered, "Altman needs a break and he won't take one until you're asleep and Ding takes over."

She looked over her shoulder. She turned to her friend and nodded her head, "Okay… Are you going to stay down here?"

"Yeah, I might talk to some people."

"Do me a favor, and let me know as soon as she wakes up."

"Yes ma'am," he told her lightly.

"Thanks Robbie, I'll see you in a few hours… Come on Roy, we've been relieved of duty."

An hour later there had been no change in Carter's condition. Only two people noticed Hammond's entrance.

"Any change?"

Teal'c was the only one coherent enough to answer, "There is not General Hammond."

He looked at the three tired men who were all sitting or standing around her bed. "Gentlemen, you need to take a break. You know the nurses will contact you if there's any change."

Jack and Daniel looked up at Hammond, shocked that he would suggest something such as them leaving her side.

He knew these men weren't going to budge. They had never left each other's side when one of them was seriously injured. They hadn't when Teal'c had been brainwashed and they hadn't when Daniel had died. They weren't going to do it now.

"I'll get some coffee brought up here."

"Thank you, sir," Jack replied as he returned his attention to Sam along with the others.

Hammond watched the men silently before turning and heading over to the Vice President.

"Are all the teams as close as they are?"

"All the teams are tight… But SG-1 is special. They've been through more together than all the other teams… That's why they're so good."

"I've noticed something over the past few days," Robbie began as Hammond looked over at him. "Even though General O'Neill is no longer a part of SG-1, they all refer to him as being a member of that team."

Hammond allowed himself a small smile. "Everyone on this base associates SG-1 with those four," he explained as he pointed at the four individuals in the corner. "If pressed, Jack would probably tell you that he sends part of himself out there on every mission with SG-1."

The VP nodded his head, "I see… They really are something aren't they?"

Though he would probably never admit it, Hammond looked at the team he was the closest with and held a special spot in his heart. "Yes they are, sir," he acknowledged quietly.

Robbie accepted the answer. And though he hadn't seen them in action himself, he could tell that this team was quite formidable. He recognized it in their comfort with each other, their banter, their respect for one another, and most importantly, the loyalty he saw before him.

"Have they figured out what caused the explosion?"

"Officially no, but I spoke with Captain Warner about-"

"The gentleman who lost his leg?"

"Yes, sir. He was working on the piece of equipment that caused the explosion. They were working on integrating a power source with a piece of technology recovered from an abandoned planet. They thought it was a shield generator and they hooked it up to a naquada reactor. I don't exactly know how, but the generator started to draw large amounts of power from the reactor, that's when they paged Colonel Carter. My understanding is that the power drainage caused the capacitors between the two components to fail and lead to an overload in the naquada reactor. She was able to divert some of the excess energy and prevent the reactor from reaching a true critical mass… If it had, it probably would have brought down the whole mountain on the base."

Robbie listened to the unofficial report and learned how close he had come to dying, if not for Sam's efforts.

"Mr. Vice President, if you'll excuse me, there's a few phone calls I need to make and I need to check if we've had any success in contacting the Tok'ra."

Robbie nodded his head absently, "Of course."

He continued to think about the team that remained in the infirmary when he asked Clark a question, "What do you think of SG-1, Mr. Clark?"

John stepped forward to stand next to the Vice President as he continued to monitor the area around them.

"I think General Hammond did a very good job in putting this team together."

"Explain."

"SG-1, I believe, is aptly prepared for any situation they encounter when traveling through the Stargate. I wouldn't peg them all for the same team. But each one of them brings something to the table that is necessary for a first-contact team. General O'Neill was in special ops – he's a master of covert strategy and tactics. Teal'c is a Jaffa – he's familiar with Goa'uld tactics and their way of thinking. Combine those two and I'd say you could get yourself out of most any sticky situation. But then you also have Lt. Colonel Carter who is a scientist – from what I've seen and heard, she could get anyone out of any technical situation, she's very creative and ingenious. And with Dr. Jackson's expertise in linguistics, anthropology, and archaeology you can get away with offending the least amount of people and actually making allies."

He paused before continuing and commenting on the interactions he saw, "They are all very different people, and yet their service together has made them a very tight unit. They don't need words to understand what needs to be done, they have the confidence in one another that they'll carry out appropriate actions. For example, when we were on the Tok'ra home world and those Jaffa showed up… General O'Neill only had to say Teal'c's name before the two of us took off to go help out. And with respect to the banter between the team, even though it may seem unprofessional, it just shows you how much they know each other. It almost seems to me that they bait one another so that they'll laugh and keep themselves grounded. Which considering what depends on everyone here, it appears to work. I'll admit I was skeptical when I first met General O'Neill, but-"

"Who wasn't?" Robbie pointed out recalling the meeting in the conference room.

"Yes sir. But I don't know if I'd want any other man leading the flagship team for seven years or this base for the past three years. I don't think many could do a better job than he already has, sir."

TBC