This one should satisfy some of the shippers out there, but is not over the top as to bother those of you who aren't. I know I keep saying it, but thanks so much for your reviews...they inspire me to write faster! Thanks especially to Crazyangel1 - that I have made Grace seem real to you is indeed high praise! Special thanks also to iamdragonrider...whose review of an earlier chapter was the inspiration for one of Jack's lines.. Hope you enjoy the reunion!

Chapter 10 – Taking Inventory

Jack lowered his weapon and just stopped to stare at his 2IC for a moment. His eyes raked over her quickly from head to toe, taking in the dried blood on her forehead, the obvious way she was favoring one side, and the exhaustion on her face. He felt a strong sense of relief wash over him that, despite her apparent injuries, she was in one piece.

Sam too, felt an immense sense of gratitude as she saw Jack's tall figure come through the door. When he turned to look at her and their eyes met briefly, Sam's breath caught in her throat and she felt the prick of tears in her eyes. She had seen the obvious concern for her written on his features, and maybe something more, before he let his face fall back into his commander's mask. Sam quickly blinked her eyes, hiding both her tears and whatever emotions might have been revealed on her own countenance.

Trying to ease the concern she could still see lingering in the depths of Jack's eyes, Sam smiled at all three men as they came through the door; "Hey guys, nice of you to drop in!"

After a brief pause, Jack replied, "Well, we would have come sooner, Carter, but your directions were awful." A small grin of appreciation crossed his face as he said the words. Sam's smile widened and she started to push herself up, but was prevented from doing so by his clipped, "Stay put!" Jack crossed over to her quickly and knelt on one knee beside her. "I think you've done enough damage for one mission, don't you?" his voice softened as he took a closer look at her injuries.

She had a rather impressive looking lump on her forehead, the aforementioned dried blood surrounding the swollen area, small cuts and bruises on her face, and her right arm was lying protectively over her left side.

Daniel and Teal'c came to stand behind Jack. "Geez, Sam! You look awful!" Daniel stated innocently.

Sam winced. "Gee, thanks Daniel."

Teal'c gave Daniel a glare before stating, "We are pleased to have you back in our midst, Major Carter. How may we be of assistance?"

"Uh, I could use some more pain meds, Teal'c. And someone should rebind my ribs; I didn't do such a great job," she admitted with a grimace.

"I'll take care of Carter," Jack quickly stated. "I want you two to check this place out…see if there's anything here we need to worry about. I'm assuming this is the secret chamber that you were talking about earlier, Daniel?"

Daniel let his gaze roam around the room. "Yeah, I think it is Jack. But there doesn't look like they left much here." His eyes rested on the exposed panel on the opposite side of the wall. The crystal above still glowed, but not as brightly. "Now there's something interesting," he muttered as he walked over to it. Teal'c gave Sam one more concerned look then nodded to Jack before following Daniel across the room.

Jack gave Sam a measured look, once again noticing the weariness and grimaces of pain cross her face before he began to rummage through his pack. Finding the roll of gauze, he pulled it out, along with some tape, antiseptic wipes and pain medications. When he looked back at her, he was surprised at the look of trepidation and embarrassment on her face. "Hey, you OK?" he asked gently as he placed the materials in front of him.

Sam bit her lip and looked down, then let her eyes wander back up to meet his. "I'm…I'm just feeling really stupid about all this, sir. If I hadn't touched the symbol…"

"Let's not worry about that now, OK?" Jack interrupted. "We need to get you fixed up so we can get you out of here. First some pain meds." He handed her two Tylenol with codeine and his canteen and watched as she swallowed the pills. Deciding to take care of the ribs first, he said, "Can you lift your shirt, Carter?"

With a flush of embarrassment and a grimace of pain, Sam carefully leaned forward and lifted her shirt, keeping her bra covered but exposing the wrapping around her ribs that she had attempted to perform last night. Jack hesitated just a moment before slowly and carefully beginning to unwrap the cloths that Sam had used. His eyes narrowed in concern as he took in the bruising that was revealed the more he unwrapped. God, that had to hurt, he thought while trying to hold in a grimace of sympathy. He looked briefly at her face, noticing her flush of self-consciousness while he performed this task. Trying to put her at ease, he said, "Well, it seems as if you haven't gotten a whole lot better at field medicine since Antarctica. This is a pretty shoddy job of wrapping, Major." He gave her a smile to make sure she knew he was teasing her.

Sam glanced at him in surprise before gratefully returning the smile; she knew what he was doing. "It's kind of hard to wrap your own ribs, Sir. At least I wasn't complaining the whole time."

Jack took the clean roll of gaze and began to wrap her ribs, being careful not to jostle her too much but making it tight just the same. "Are you trying to say that I was complaining when you practically pulled my leg out of its socket, Major?"

"Complaining? No, I'd say you were yelling bloody murder, Sir." She paused and took a deep breath as he tightened the bindings around her ribs. "It was just a leg, for goodness sake, not your ribs. And I was setting it, not pulling it out of its socket."

Jack watched her carefully, even as he continued the light-hearted bantering that was making this scenario easier on both of them. "And you think one little fractured rib is more painful than a broken leg?" Jack asked incredulously, raising one eyebrow for added effect. "Might I remind you that I was also freezing my ass off while you have a nice, comfy pile of hay to rest on?"

Sam smiled sweetly. "Ok, you had a worse climate to endure, and maybe a rib is not any more painful than a leg, Sir. But it's definitely more difficult to care for when one is by oneself, don't you think?"

Jack raised his eyes to her face, ready to make another retort, but froze at the smile on her face. It was the same smile that Grace had given him not all that long ago and literally stopped him in his tracks. He had to think of some way to talk to her about the child, but wasn't exactly sure how to bring it up. By the way, Carter, I met your daughter today. She actually showed me how to get down here and find you! Yeah, like that would go over real well!

Sam's smile faltered as Jack continued to stare at her without saying anything. It was beginning to make her nervous. "Sir?" she asked questioningly.

Jack mentally shook himself, drawing his thoughts back to the present, and let his gaze fall back to her now tightly taped ribs. He gently tugged her shirt back down before he looked at her again. "Let's take a look at that head, shall we?" He took Sam's chin in his hand and turned her head so he could more easily see the bump on her head. Making a tsking out loud, he said, "Geez, Carter, what did you hit your head on this time?"

When she didn't immediately answer, he turned her chin so she was looking straight at him. He was surprised to see the blush on her pale cheeks. Raising his eyebrows, he waited for an answer. Sam cleared her throat, causing Jack to drop his hand but not to look away…he wanted an answer and he was going to get one. "Well?"

Sam wouldn't meet his gaze as she answered. "You remember I said that I fell down a ramp, which ended about 10 feet shy of the floor?"

"Yeah," he encouraged her to continue while he opened a packet of antiseptic wipes. He grasped her chin gently again and turned her head away while he started to clean around the wound. Sam grimaced at the pressure, then continued speaking.

"Well…my flashlight came down after me…and kind of hit me on the head. I …passed out after that." Sam bit her lip and closed her eyes, waiting for the laughter she was sure would come.

Jack's hand stilled on her wound, a smile playing about his lips. I will not laugh, he told himself over and over again, but he couldn't help the comment that escaped from his lips unwillingly. "So, you literally had the daylights knocked out of you, huh?"

Sam grimaced at both the pun and the remembered pain of the incident, "Yeah, I guess so."

Seeing the obvious discomfort on her face, Jack decided to ease up on her. "Well," he said lightly as he finished cleaning the wound, "At least it wasn't Siler's wrench. Now that would have hurt like hell!"

Sam chuckled in appreciation of the comment. Siler had in fact broken a toe not long ago when he dropped the rather large tool on his foot. Jack leaned back from her, a smile on his face. "Ok, Major, anything else we need to attend to? How's the leg?"

"Just bruised and sore, Sir. Like the rest of me. Nothing you can do about any of it. I'm sure I'll be good as new in a few days."

"I've got no doubt about that, Carter," he replied as he packed away the medical items he had used. Jack glanced across the room at Daniel and Teal'c, making sure they were busily engaged, before returning his gaze to her, the look in his eyes intent. His voice went down a notch, almost as if he were going to impart a secret. "So, Carter…you didn't see anything…strange…down here, did you? Something that seemed…out of place?"

While she wondered what he might be referring to, Sam thought immediately of Grace. And while she wouldn't classify the child as strange by any means, her appearance was a rather odd occurrence and definitely out of place. But she was just a hallucination, wasn't she? If she told the Colonel, he'd be even more concerned about her than he was now. Sam had a feeling that there was something important in this room that they needed to discover and didn't want the team to leave on her account, so she refrained from mentioning the child's appearance.

While Jack had been waiting for a response, he had been carefully watching Sam's face and could tell by the expressions running across it, that something had happened that probably could be classified as out of the ordinary. Before he could press her further or she could offer an excuse, he was summoned by Teal'c.

"O'Neill, your presence is required." The deep voice came from the small alcove where Sam had initially landed.

Jack looked questioningly at Teal'c, then back down at Sam. "Guess I'm being paged. You stay here, I'll be right back." Jack straightened, wincing as his knees cracked, and walked over to where Teal'c was obviously studying something in the dark recesses of the alcove.

"T, buddy…what's up?" Jack asked as he drew nearer.

Following the beam of Teal'c's light, his eyes met the vacant ones of the skeleton in the corner. Jack made a face, "Ew, now that's something I didn't expect to see." Turning to Sam, who had been watching this from her place against the wall, he called out, "Friend of yours, Carter?"

Sam made a face of distaste. "No, Sir. He…or she I guess… was here well before I was. I've tried not to have anything to do with…it…while I've been down here." She wrinkled her nose and turned away.

"He's not much of a conversationalist, I take it?" Jack teased, before turning back to Teal'c. "So, what do you think Teal'c?"

Teal'c gave him a sidelong glance before responding. "I believe you should take a closer look at the remains, O'Neill."

Sighing, Jack took the light Teal'c offered him and stepped closer. As he bent to examine the skeleton, he drew back, muttering an expletive under his breath. "Shit. Is that what I think it is?"

"If you are referring to a Goa'uld symbiote, O'Neill, then yes, it is what you think," Teal'c replied calmly.

Daniel and Sam both turned their heads in the direction of the alcove, eyes wide in surprise. "What?" Daniel asked, the disbelief evident in his tone.

Jack turned away from the remains in the corner. "Seems as if Carter's friend, now thankfully deceased, was a Goa'uld." Silence filled the room at this observation. For in their experience, where there was one snake, there was bound to be another…no matter how many years separated their visits.