Pete stood quietly in the doorway and watched her as she stared intensely at the phone, absently wiping the tears from her cheeks. It was past two in the morning and he knew she'd been out here for at least an hour – apparently just watching the telephone. He moved over to the couch and sat beside her dropping a light kiss onto her hair as he drew her into his side.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you". Sam's voice was a husky whisper, confirming his belief that she had been out here crying all this time.
"It's OK." Pete rubbed her back for a while. "You should call him"
"What? Who?" Sam looked over at him startled. "Why?"
Pete ran his hand through his hair and she could tell he was thinking carefully about his next words. They weren't exactly what she expected.
"Look Sam, I know that your friend is dead, I'm guessing it happened on a op, and I'm guessing things went pretty pear shaped because Doctors aren't usually front line casualties. I also know that it's not me you need to talk to about it. I'm a cop, I've seen some pretty bad stuff over the years and it's usually my partner, or someone else on the squad that I needed to talk things over with. People on the outside just don't understand and I think that it must be the same for you guys too." He took a deep breath. "Maybe one day I'll be the one you turn to but right now you need to talk to whoever it is you normally download on"
"And what if that person was Janet?"
He winced at her tone but continued on anyway. "I'm sure you were able to talk to her about a lot of stuff but I've seen you with your team – you guys are family. Go on, call Daniel"
She withdrew from him imperceptibly. "I don't talk to Daniel. I talk to the Colonel". She turned in time to see the frustration flash across his face, quickly replaced by sympathy. "Then call him."
"I can't. He's in the infirmary. He's probably asleep".
"Do you normally talk to him at night? At this time?" He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that one but she needed more than he could give her tonight, this was the only way he could help her through it.
"Yeah, usually when we're off world, we talk on watch, or when I'm at the base working. I've never phoned the infirmary though – I've usually still been on base, or been a patient myself. I don't know that they'd put me through, he was pretty badly hurt and they'll want him to sleep"
"Give it a try, the worst that can happen is that they'll refuse. If they won't put the call through I'll drive you to the base. I guess this works both ways. He'll want to talk to you too." He handed her the phone. "Call him".
Sam took the handset from him and punched in the numbers. Soon she was talking to Lt Rush and after explaining what she wanted she listened for a while then quietly chuckled. "Thanks Lieutenant, I'll hold". She looked over at Pete. "Apparently the Colonels been harassing her for the last hour to find him a phone, I think he's awake and wanting to talk." She leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek. "Thanks for understanding and thanks for making me call"
"No problem" He squeezed her hand and stood up. "I'm going back to bed" As he walked away he heard O'Neill's voice clearly through the phone. "Carter! What are you doing awake!" He could hear the affection in her tone as she replied with "Probably the same thing as you sir…" Sam's voice dropped to a murmur and she curled up in a tight ball on the couch as Pete left the room. He'd worry about the meaning of all this another day. Right now he just wanted Sam to be OK.
But wait, there's more..