Life In the Shadows – Part Seventeen

Sam awoke a little while later. Her head ached badly, adding to the misery of the pain in her abdomen.

She found both Daniel and Teal'c hovering anxiously. The stricken expression on their faces almost made her smile - well, on Daniel's face anyway … for Teal'c bearing the expression of concern that he was would be considered stricken for a Jaffa certainly.

"How are you feeling?" asked Daniel, as he passed her more water.

Sam sipped the liquid gratefully. Her throat and neck felt sore, not surprising considering the chokehold the guard had held her in.

"I'll certainly live," she sighed, "just sore."

She tried to draw her knees up, but the pain made her gasp. "Aagh, yeah, very sore!"

"Just try and stay still," urged Daniel.

"Hmm, good idea, maybe. How's the Colonel?"

Daniel hesitated and flicked a look to Teal'c, which Sam picked up on straight away.

She struggled to sit up. "Daniel? You said he was ok!" she accused.

Daniel didn't look her in the face as he answered. "Err, he's banged up pretty badly again, Sam. I think Masa broke more ribs. He's a bit breathless."

"For God's sake, help me up!" she cried, holding out her hands.

"Sam, you should …"

"I need to check the Colonel. You said he's got more broken ribs and is breathless. That's not good."

Daniel hesitated for a moment longer and then finally assisted Sam to her feet. Teal'c lent her a strong arm for support as well as she swayed a little with the dizziness that almost overtook her. Between them they helped her to kneel beside the Colonel. The blood pounded in her ears as she knelt down. The horror she felt at seeing his battered body made her swallow harshly.

The laboured breaths he drew caused her heart to plummet and her stomach gave a sickening lurch.

"Give me a hand," she whispered, pointing to the bandages still in place.

Once the bandages were removed she was able to see the fresh damage that had been done.

"Shit. Shit!" she swore as she realised just how badly he was hurt.

Daniel leaned closer to see more.

"Reena said the wounds were bad but …"

"Damn it, flail ribs, see?" Sam pointed to how parts of the Colonel's ribs were moving in the opposite way to the way that they normally would.

"At least there doesn't seem to be any sign of a punctured lung …" 'Yet' is what Sam kept silent. "Ok, we need to get more padding under the bandages and immobilise this arm."

"His arm?" queried Daniel.

Sam's voice wavered "To prevent any further damage. It wouldn't take much at all for a rib to puncture his lung." She forced herself to go over what she could re-call of everything she knew about this type of injury, desperately hoping she didn't miss anything vital.

"God, I practically dragged him back. I heaved him up back there. No wonder he passed out."

"You couldn't have known. There doesn't seem to be any signs of internal bleeding at the moment."

"No thanks to me," said Daniel, his face looking as miserable as his voice sounded.

Sam concentrated on applying herself to the bandaging. Once Jack's arm was secured in the correct position she allowed herself a moment to try and calm down.

"I swear when we get back, I'm going to gag him," muttered Daniel.

"What?" Sam dragged her attention back to Daniel.

Daniel repeated himself, and added "It's bad enough he's hurt, but he got you hurt too this time."

Sam stared at Daniel wide-eyed as she realised what Daniel was saying.

"Daniel …" she began.

"He shouldn't smart mouth them, Sam, he …"

"Daniel!" she interrupted more forcibly. "It's … it wasn't his fault." A guilty flush rose on her face.

"You're bound to cover for him."

"What?" Sam's head was pounding really badly and she was having the greatest difficulty in holding back tears.

"You're always defending him."

"Daniel, will you please just shut up and listen!" she snapped.

Daniel did a good impression of a goldfish and if her head didn't hurt so much and the situation wasn't so awful, she would have laughed at him.

"He didn't 'smart mouth' the guards as you put it," sighed Sam. The memory was still vivid. "I stormed off ahead of him and ran smack into them. The Colonel did his best to avoid any trouble, Daniel, honestly he did, but they were intent on …" Her voice died down to a whisper as she spoke, closing her eyes as she recalled what had happened. The tears crept unbidden from beneath her lashes and slid down her face "He … he really didn't do anything … he almost pleaded with them and you know him, that's hard, but because of me … because of me he did it. It was my fault he got hurt. It was my fault they laid into him."

Daniel laid a hand on her shoulder and then pulled her into a hug.

Sam couldn't help it. She wept. She knew the Colonel wasn't going to leave here. Without medical intervention and quickly, he probably wouldn't last more than a few days … and it was all her fault.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Daniel held Sam tightly, feeling the tears welling up in his own eyes. He felt burdened with guilt over blaming Jack, yet again, without good reason. Sam's behaviour worried him. He knew how she felt about the Colonel, but so far she'd held everything together.

"God, what a mess," he moaned. The anger drained out of him like a river flowing to the ocean and it left him feeling wretched and tired … very tired.

Sam's sobbing gradually dissipated and he rubbed her back comfortingly.

"Hey, it's okay, we're going to be just a bit delayed that's all. Another couple of weeks and …"

He felt Sam stiffen in his arms and she pulled back suddenly, her face etched in such misery that his stomach lurched.

"Daniel … I …" she drew a ragged breath. "I don't think that … Jack won't last that long."

"What?" He couldn't quite grasp – no that was wrong – he didn't want to grasp what she was trying to tell him.

"Jack needs urgent medical attention or I don't think …" Sam broke down completely again and a stunned Daniel could only hold her tightly, her words echoing around in his head.

'How could Jack not make it? Sam was wrong, plenty of rest, he'd be okay, broken ribs …. No, he'd be ok …'

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Jack lay in the pleasant realm of darkness, comforting, no pain, just floating endlessly on a pleasant tide.

He felt the tug of his consciousness … something - he wasn't sure of what … it was calling to him … but he fought to carry on drifting.

xoxoxoxoxoxo