Thanks once again to everyone who reviewed this: your comments are always appreciated. Hope you all enjoy this chapter too!

UNITED WE STAND

By Lingren.

Previously:

In the background, were the sounds of a medical team bustling about, treating the injured. Janet was kneeling beside Moody, barking orders at her staff. Sam let the all too familiar scene wash over her, as her misery swamped her.

Chapter 5

Jack wasn't oblivious to the torment of having a mission go wrong, especially as it was her first command. He could see it in her expression, the stoop of her shoulders, and knew he'd been spot on with his deduction when she'd hung her head down too. He knew the feeling oh so well, he'd been there before, many times. He squeezed her arm reassuringly.

"Command sucks huh?" he said softly. It wasn't so much a question, rather than a statement.

She glanced up at him through a haze of watery film that threatened to spill from her eyes, and nodded.

"Yeah!" she sniffed.

"Tell me about it!" He smiled back at her with understanding.

She dropped her head again, not wanting him to see right into her soul. His eyes were so dark and intense, she was sure he could almost read her thoughts.

"C'mon Carter. It could have been worse. A hell of a lot worse. You could have..." his voice almost failed him and his words stuck in his throat before he forced them out. "...you could have died out there." All he could do was thank God that she was safe.

"Major what happened out there?" Hammond's demand snapped the pair of them back to the reality around them, her duty automatically coming to the fore.

"Jaffa Sir. We ran into a couple of patrols, and when we returned to the gate it was guarded by an unknown Goa'uld and about a dozen Jaffa. We had to fight our way home." Her brief report sounded too precise and clinical, but Jack knew the truth underlying that cool calm voice.

"Go get cleaned up and get that wrist seen to Major when you report to the infirmary. It's late now and I can see you're just about done in. We'll debrief at 08:00hrs tomorrow."

"Yes Sir. Thank you Sir."

Hammond turned to Janet and asked her for her initial report, and Jack took Sam's elbow again.

"Let's get you to the infirmary Carter." He led the way, gently supporting her flagging body by his sheer presence and his hand wrapped so tenderly round her arm.

They made the journey in relative silence. The only communication between them was made with their eyes and his hand when it squeezed the elbow he was still supporting.

Jack made her climb up onto the bed and she laid back exhausted, closing her eyes to await her turn for her post mission check. Suddenly she sat up and clenched her fists. Jack watched as those bright blue eyes suddenly turned chillingly hard.

"It was a total disaster!" she whispered angrily.

Jack barely caught her words.

"A damn stupid shambles! I really blew it!" she kept berating herself.

Jack had no idea what had gone wrong on the mission but he couldn't allow her to blame herself.

"No! It wasn't!" he argued.

"Yes it was!" she fired back angrily, turning to glare at him. "I screwed up!"

"No you didn't! You weren't to know that Goa'uld and his bunch of merry men would turn up on the doorstep."

"It doesn't matter. The whole thing was a complete disaster, right from the start. It's all my fault that Lieutenants Brolin and Moody were injured. I should have..."

"Carter! Stop right there!" he barked, chopping his hands through the air to emphasise his order. "It was not a disaster!" he stated, his frustration with her growing now.

She glowered at him.

"Yes. It. Was! Sir!" she insisted, angrily, enunciating every syllable. Annoyed with him now as well as herself.

"No! That's where you're wrong!" he wagged his finger at her in the gap between them to emphasize his point. "If it was such a disaster, Carter, how come you all made it back? It would only be a disaster if neither you, nor your team made it back. You brought every one of them home, despite whatever went on out there, and that makes me damn proud of you Carter. Well done, Major, I knew you could do it. You make a great commander!"

Sam gaped at his speech, her jaw dropped and her eyebrows climbed higher even that Teal'c's could reach, absolutely stunned by his words of praise.

He grinned at her, and reached out a finger to her chin, pushing her jaw upwards to close her mouth, and he felt her gulp down her surprise.

"You did just fine Carter," he reiterated softly. "You did real good out there."

With a gentle movement, he pushed her back to lie down once more, and she didn't resist the pressure, still stunned at his words. She looked up at him, trying to understand his logic, but it was too much and she yawned sleepily; her eyelids drooping heavily until they closed of their own volition.

Before long she had fallen asleep, so Jack pulled up a chair and sat beside her, his aura of calm a reassuring factor in her subconscious, and she felt safe enough to let go and relax.

OoOoOoOoO

It was early, 07:00hrs to be precise, and Jack along with Teal'c, Jonas and Lt. Friedman, were standing in the gate room ready to embark on their mission.

Jack had remained beside Sam while she'd been tended to, and waited around until her post mission check had been completed. Then he'd guided her to her quarters where he'd all but helped her onto her bed, and she'd fallen asleep even before her head had touched the pillow. He'd draped the covers over her, resisting the temptation to lean over and brush a soft kiss against her cheek. Instead he'd whispered a goodnight and left her to her hard earned slumber, managing only to grab a couple of hours of sleep for himself before he had to prepare for his own mission.

"SG-1, you have a go!" Hammond's voice roused his wandering thoughts.

Jack snapped off a salute to the General in response and led his team up the ramp to plunge into the flickering wormhole.

Teal'c was the only one left standing when they were spat out at the other end. Jack rolled and groaned as he hit each of the steps in front of the alien gate on the way down them. Lying winded and stiff at the bottom he barely made it out of the way before Jonas followed the same path. They sat there looking at each other, when with a startled yelp, Friedman barrelled into them both.

"Arggh! Get the hell off me Friedman," Jack snapped when he was flattened again by the hapless soldier. The Lieutenant's boot ended up in his face, and the attached leg then knelt on his chest in Friedman's attempt to comply with his CO's order. Jack pushed the offending limb from him and groaned again. "I'm really getting' too old for this kinda crap!" he muttered. He lay there counting off how many of his ribs might have been crushed in the process; and they'd only just arrived, for cryin' out loud!

Friedman was hauled to his feet by the sheer power of the Jaffa, who then helped Jonas to his feet.

"Are you well Lt. Friedman, Jonas Quinn?"

"I'm fine thanks Teal'c, nothing's broken," Jonas answered, but the Lieutenant merely nodded and mumbled his thanks, looking sheepishly down at his commander.

They all stood in comparative silence, eyes fixed firmly on the prone figure as he caught his breath.

"Teal'c!" Jack extended his hand and clasped onto his friend's hand and Jack rolled upwards as he was pulled to his feet. "Well that's a great start!" he sighed.

"Are you well O'Neill?"

"I'm fine thanks T. A few bruises, but what the heck!" Jack quipped, rubbing his sore chest.

Jack cast a disparaging look at Friedman who ducked his head in embarrassment.

"It is as well this planet is uninhabited," Teal'c continued

"We damn well hope it is, or they'd be laughing their asses off by now! And you know as well as I do that the M.A.L.P readings have been wrong before!"

"I believe this time they were correct."

Jack bent over and retrieved his cap from the ground where it had fallen in his unscheduled tumble; he dusted it off and pulled it firmly back onto his head and slid his sunglasses back onto his nose against the glare of the sun.

"Okay!" he started, changing the subject none too subtly. "Let's get this show on the road. Teal'c you can take point. I'll watch our sixes."

Which he did, keeping well away from the hapless Friedman.

It was while they were walking he noticed that the Lieutenant seemed very nervous. His head kept swinging round to the surrounding countryside, as if he was hyper-alert. Jack called out to him to relax a bit more, but the level of anxiety in him grew alarmingly. Jack felt a knot of unease settle in his stomach.

"Teal'c! Hold up!" Jack called a halt to their progress, and marched up to the young man. "What's the problem Friedman?"

The man's eyes were wild and darted around him constantly.

"It's here. I can feel it," he cried.

"What's here? What's wrong?"

Jack was growing slightly nervous at this display of unfounded fear. He placed a reassuring hand on the trembling Lieutenant's shoulder to ground him.

"I can feel it watching us. It's watching me."

"There's nothing out there Lieutenant. Look, I know it's your first time through the gate, but it's not as bad as you think. You'll be fine." Jack swung around, checking the area. There was nothing as far as the eye could see now. Nothing but flat barren landscape ahead, except for some distant trees.

Friedman blinked and shook his head, as if he suddenly realised where he was and who was talking to him.

"I...I'm sorry Sir. I...er...I don't know what came over me."

"I'll stay with him Colonel," Jonas volunteered. Jack nodded his assent and they set off again.

TBC