Chapter 4
"Daniel, put some pressure on the wound!" Jack yelled, then saw Daniel kneel down next to Carter, rolled her on to her side so her back was resting against him; he pulled out a bandana form one of his pockets and held it against Sam's cuts. O'Neill was ripping open the first aid kit and the bandages he would need to use.
O'Neill moved next to Daniel and Carter, he looked down; saw the blood soaking through the bandana in Daniel's hands. He saw the shocked looked on Daniel's face, and thought that he may actually pass out. "Daniel I need your help here, you have to stay with it." Daniel kept pressure on the wounds while O'Neill removed her pack and jacket. O'Neill took out his knife and ripped the t-shirt down the back, he pulled it away from the wounds, having Daniel lift his hands for only mere seconds. The bloody shirt fell to the ground in a clump, only Sam's left arm was remaining in the untouched sleeve. Jack quickly placed some thick gauze pads over the deep cuts, trying to get the bleeding to stop. Daniel sat back on his heels, breathing deeply, and trying not to pass out. He looked down at Sam, and now noticed she was uncovered, and only had on a tank top. He felt a bit nervous and embarrassed seeing her like this. He tried to look away, but found he couldn't. "Daniel I need your help up here, not down there!" Jack said, noticing where Daniel was now looking.
"Sorry Jack, I was just noticing…"
"Yea I know what you were noticing." Jack said angrily, still holding on to the gauze. He lifted it slightly, noticing the bleeding had stopped. "Good, it's stopped; now we can dress the wounds." Daniel handed Jack the antiseptic and a new clean gauze pad, Jack poured the liquid on the pad and gently cleaned the cuts, trying not to make them bleed again.
"You know Jack those are awfully deep, how are we going to keep them from starting to bleed again?" Daniel asked obviously concerned.
"Yea Daniel you're right, I think we should use the tape to keep the edges together, until she can get stitches." Daniel nodded at Jack and started to hand him strips of tape while Jack put them in place. They did this on the cuts to both Sam's arm and back, finally finishing with a thick covering bandage. "Not bad if I do say so my self." Jack grinned.
"Hey Jack look at that huge bruise, how do you think she got it?" Daniel pointed out a bruise that was on Sam's back, just below the base of her neck.
Jack looked at the offending bruise and knew exactly how she got it. "Ah that's from when she got knocked out in the elevator." Jack didn't want to think about what had happened on the elevator, he knew Kowalski knocked her out, but he also knew his best friend wasn't responsible for it. He still had a hard time thinking about his friend's death, because of the Goa'uld.
"Oh yea" Daniel said remembering the incident. He wondered how Sam was able to carry the pack on her back with a bruise like that. He saw that Jack was taking her pulse
"How is she?"
"Pulse is steady but weak; she's lost a lot of blood. Let's roll her on her back, and put her feet up." They moved her gently and elevated Sam's feet on the pack. Jack now had the time to take an appreciative look at his 2IC, her body was like a work of art, her breasts voluptuous, her skin was creamy white, and her stomach was flat and nicely toned. 'Boy I feel like a dirty old man' he thought. Then he noticed what Daniel must have noticed. There was a raised scar on Sam's left side, just at the bottom of her ribs, where a bruise had been forming from the earlier scuffle that day.
"I see you're noticing too Jack." Daniel said repeating the words from earlier. "What do you think caused that scar?"
"I don't know Daniel; looks like it could be from a bullet." Jack looked at the bruised ribs and gently went to probe the area. He saw Daniel look at him oddly, "I'm just checking to make sure she didn't break any ribs Daniel." He said as he continued to feel her ribs for any breaks. "I don't think anything's broken, just badly bruised"
Sam started to stir; she could feel a sharp pain on her left side, as if some one was painfully pushing on her ribs, she couldn't open her eyes but managed to let out a small moan. She started to feel panicky. She could hear voices, yes, she recognized them, it was Daniel and Colonel O'Neill.
O'Neill saw Carter start to move slightly, and heard her moan, this was a good sign, she was reacting to painful stimuli now. "I think she's coming around Daniel."
Daniel sat down next to Sam and took her left hand rubbing it between his hands. "Come on Sam wake up. Try to open your eyes." Daniel watched as Sam's eyes started to flutter.
"Come on Cater, you can do it, time to wake up." Jack said lightly shaking her good shoulder. He saw her eyes open finally.
"Sir?" Sam's vision was a little blurry, and she wasn't quite sure if it was O'Neill staring down at her. "What happened, where are we?"
"Don't you remember Carter, your little sword fight with the local guy?" Jack said noticing her eyes weren't quite focusing yet.
She tried to lift her right arm, but found it too painful to venture a try, so she lifted her left hand to her face, rubbing her eyes. Then she noticed a piece of black cloth hanging from her arm. She turned her head to look at it, and realized it was her shirt, that panicky feeling started to well up in her again, as she looked down and noticed that she didn't have a top on, but felt grateful she still had her tank top and bra on. "Sir?"
Jack noticed where Carter was looking with that last question. "It's okay Carter, you got injured and passed out, we had to fix you up, sorry but the shirt couldn't be saved." Jack said as he took his jacket off and covered her with it.
"So what's the damage?" she managed to get out weakly.
"You've got a couple of nasty cuts and you've lost quite a bit of blood, that's why you passed out. You've got a nasty bruise on your left ribs, but I don't think anything's broken."
"How is everyone else, are they okay?" Sam said with obvious concern.
"We're fine; you took the brunt of the assault. Teal'c had to take the guy out, and Danny's fine; if you don't count almost fainting at the sight of blood." O'Neill informed her, with a smirk on his face from the last part.
"You're kidding right?" Then she looked at Daniel's pale face. "I guess not. You okay Daniel?" she asked.
"What? Yea I'm fine; it's you I'm worried about."
"Don't be, I'm fine."
Jack and Daniel both looked at her in shock. How could she say she was fine? Jack knew she must be in a great deal of pain, and from the amount of blood loss, she must not be feeling too well either.
Jack heard a noise coming from behind them; he quickly grabbed his gun and got ready to fire. Daniel saw Jack's reaction and quickly covered Sam's body with his own to protect her. Unfortunately, Daniel landed a little harder than he expected to, causing Carter to try to stifle a cry of pain.
Just then, Teal'c came into view, and noticed the positions of his teammates. Jack lowered his gun, and Daniel tried feebly to get off of Sam, causing her to moan with pain. Teal'c went over to Daniel and helped to lift him off their injured teammate.
"So Teal'c did you see anything out there?" O'Neill asked while shaking his head at Daniel.
"I do not believe we have been followed O'Neill, but that may change, we have left a trail of blood behind us. We should move as quickly as possible." Teal'c informed them.
O'Neill didn't like the sound of that, he didn't think Carter was ready to move yet, but they had to try. "Teal'c keep watch, we'll be ready soon."
"Okay Carter time to get you ready to move out, I think we should put your arm in a sling to keep the wound from opening up again."
"Ah Sir, I have another shirt in my pack if you don't mind reaching for it?" Sam said blushing slightly; well at least there was a little more colour in her face.
"You know Carter; I think it might be best if you just wear the jacket, you won't have to move your arm as much to put it on."
Sam thought about it, and realized the Colonel was right; it may be too painful to try to put the t-shirt on over her head. "Yes Sir, your right."
Jack looked around and found her discarded jacket, he knelt down beside her and he and Daniel helped her into a seated position.
As Sam sat up, her head started to spin and a feeling of nausea came over her. The jacket that had been covering her fell to her lap, and she leaned to her left side, putting her weight on her good arm. "Oh I think I'm gonna be sick." Daniel quickly got out of the way, while O'Neill supported her, so she wouldn't fall back or to the side.
"Try to take some deep breaths Captain." Jack took a cloth from his pocket and wet it with water from his canteen. He then placed on the back of Carter's neck. "Any better?" he asked after a few moments.
"Yes thank you Sir." She managed to say, with her world still swaying a bit.
"Think you can drink some water?" Jack asked while handing her a canteen.
"I'll try Sir." she said as she took the canteen from O'Neill and took a couple of small sips, too much and it would all be coming back out.
Jack then helped her to get her jacket on, and zipped up. To his surprise, she didn't try to fight him, but easily accepted his help. After the jacket, O'Neill put her arm in the sling, now he just hoped she was able to travel.
"Thank you Sir, for your assistance, but I think we should be moving out like Teal'c suggested." Sam didn't like the thought of her team being in danger because of her.
"You know Carter; we have some pretty good pain killers in here if you need some?"
"No it's fine Sir, I should stay level headed in our current situation."
Daniel and Jack were on either side of Carter, helping to get her in a standing position. She swayed a little bit and her legs felt like rubber, but she felt strong arms on both side of her keeping her up.
"You okay Sam?" Daniel asked with concern.
"I will be, I just need a sec to get my bearings."
Jack saw her move unsteadily, but knew they had to get out of there soon. "Okay Teal'c" Jack called out to the Jaffa, seeing him come back to the group, he told Daniel to help Carter, while he took lead and Teal'c covered their six.
Sam feeling some strength coming back to her, and her head clearing decided to make a suggestion. "Sir, maybe we should take a more circuitous route, seeing as the villagers are probably waiting for us at the gate, or are on their way there."
O'Neill looked at Carter, taking his cap off and rubbing head.
"What she means is to take a more indirect or twisty route." Daniel explained to Jack, knowing he didn't like really big words.
"Oh, yeah, I knew that Daniel." Jack said a little angrily putting his cap back on. "I may take too long for that Carter; we should get back to the gate ASAP."
"Yes Sir, but we may be walking into an ambush. The villagers weren't too happy with us when we left. I don't know if they'll be as nice next time we meet."
"Yeah Carter I realize that, but you need to get medical help right away."
"With all due respect Sir, I don't want the team put at risk because of me. We all need to arrive home safe." Sam let out a sigh after finishing, breathing a little heavily.
"You really think you're up to a long walk Carter?" Jack was getting a little pissed at Carter, he knew she had a good point, but he didn't want to put any member of his team in more danger than necessary; including Carter.
"Okay Cater, we'll try it your way." With that, settled Jack picked up his gun and Carter's pack, Sam went to reach for it but he handed it to Teal'c instead, to have him carry the extra weight. The group headed deeper into the woods, with Daniel trying to handle Sam's extra weight, as she was leaning heavily on him. Jack questioned his decision to have Daniel assist Carter, he knew she wasn't that heavy, but Daniel wasn't a soldier, and didn't have the physical training most soldiers did. He also knew he and Teal'c were needed in their positions to have their hands free to fire or fight if need be; Daniel would just have to do his best. He smirked to himself thinking the brainy part of the team at the moment didn't have enough brawn.
They had been walking about two and a half hours and were getting closer to the gate. They had been moving very quietly, when they heard a twig snap. O'Neill signalled for the group to take cover. He and Teal'c hit the ground quickly; Cater pushed Daniel to the ground before dropping there herself. They stayed there lying on their stomachs for what seemed to be an eternity, when they spotted a Jaffa patrol searching just a few feet away. Lucky for them the underbrush was quite thick and hid them well. 'Well isn't this swell' Jack thought to himself. His group was keeping still and silent except for the loud thudding his heart was making. He had his weapon ready, but didn't really want a confrontation. He saw that Teal'c had his staff weapon in position; Carter even had her P90 ready to fire, even if it was one handed. Daniel on the other hand, had his pistol in his hand, but a lot of good that would do, with his head hidden and facing the ground.