Just a quick update… and sorry this is taking so long. Mostly filler, here, I'm afraid, getting the team from point A to point B. Thanks for all the lovely reviews. More excitement to come!
It was a little over a mile back to the Stargate as a crow flew. Unfortunately, an almost impenetrable tangle of forest along the banks of a swift moving river between the gate and the ship had forced them to take a considerably round-about route to their destination. Add to that a slightly heavier gravity than earth's and a sweltering, humid atmosphere, and Sam knew the trip back was not going to be fun. She tried to focus on the one consolation that it would at least be mostly downhill.
It was an awkward procession that set out. The Colonel had one arm slung over Teal'c's shoulder for support. Daniel limped directly behind them, looking hardly more stable than the Colonel on his own wounded leg. Judging by the bright scarlet stains on the bandage wrapped around the archeologist's thigh, he was still bleeding. Sam wondered how much more blood Daniel could lose before he finally passed out. Surely she'd read that statistic somewhere, but nothing came to mind. A pint? Two pints? Three pints? She thought about asking Daniel, but he might not appreciate the reminder that he was bleeding. Hopefully, not to death. Poor Daniel. He looked awful.
God, usually she could remember statistics like that. Pints, quarts, liters, gallons? She wasn't even sure if she could do simple conversions at the moment.
Belatedly realizing that she was already falling behind, Sam stumbled after them, concentrating hard on just staying upright. For some reason her left knee burned, and she couldn't remember a time in her life when she'd ever hurt so badly in so many places… felt so sick and weak. She just hoped Teal'c would hear any lizards before she did, because she knew she still wasn't operating on full cylinders. At this point, she was more of a liability to the team than an asset, and she knew it. She should be able to help Daniel, but she could barely help herself.
Briefly she wondered if the Colonel would ask Hammond to transfer her off the team as soon as they got back. She thought she'd done well during their first couple of missions, but she'd screwed up royally this time. And she had deliberately disobeyed the Colonel's order not to open the panel.
Their pace slowed as soon as they reached the trees, halfway down the hill. Teal'c had managed to find a winding, narrow trail leading up from the riverbed, but the terrain was still difficult to traverse with many fallen trees and tangled underbrush. It was particularly hard for Teal'c and the Colonel trying to move side-by-side. She almost ran into Daniel's back as he stopped to allow Teal'c to help the Colonel maneuver over a huge fallen tree trunk.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a minor obstacle…in fact, it had been easy going over it with a swarm of angry lizards chasing them… but Sam now stared at it in exhausted dread.
Daniel must have seen it in her face. "Are you sure you're okay, Sam?" he asked, glancing at her worriedly.
She nodded, wondering how on earth he could be thinking about her welfare when he was so badly hurt himself.
"What about your arm?" he asked, pointing.
Blood was trickling down her hand from the bite on her arm. "It's nothing," she said. Compared to his wounds, it was the truth. Punctured muscles, not torn. No stitches needed. Not even a couple of milliliters of blood lost, she guessed. Not close to a fluid ounce. Infection possible, but nothing to worry about on the trip home. At least not yet.
Daniel's shoulder had looked like raw meat. It was bandaged now, but like his leg, the blood was seeping through the dressing.
"How about you?" she asked. She looked at him closely. His glasses were fogging over from the heat and humidity. How was he still standing?
"I'll manage," he smiled. "Even though I was, ah, glad to cut down on our pack size after those first missions, I think we need to keep, um, real first aid supplies in our packs from now on. You know, real trauma dressings… Gauze and a couple sterile bandages aren't always going to cut it."
"Yeah," Sam agreed, watching as the Colonel slid over the other side of the tree, cursing the whole way. "It's not like we can call for medics when we need them out here. I'll ask the Colonel if I can speak to the new CMO… what's his name?" Sam couldn't recall any of the details in the memo about the new CMO, but knew that General Hammond would select somebody highly qualified.
"Fraiser, I think. And I'm pretty sure she's a woman." He waved his hands to indicate short height, about the height of the fallen tree trunk in front of them. "I saw her being shown around by Hammond yesterday. At least, I think that's who it was."
"That was the CMO?" Sam had seen her, too, actually exchanging a brief "hello" in the hallway outside the women's restroom, but she'd assumed the woman was a new scientist based on the lab coat she'd been wearing. She grinned. Having another female officer on base would be nice. That would make five total, their very own estrogen section. "Right. I'll talk to Fraiser about it when we get back. Maybe she can come up with a happy medium… not too heavy or bulky, but with enough serious supplies to get someone back to the gate."
"Pain meds, too," the Colonel growled from the other side of the tree. "Air splints and hot packs."
"Yes, sir," Sam said.
"And while we're at it, let's ask about a masseuse. A masseuse would be nice to have along next time we get thrown in prison, don't you think?"
Sam glanced at Daniel, unsure if the Colonel was trying to be funny, or if he was torpedoing the whole idea of talking to the CMO.
Daniel rolled his eyes. "A masseuse would be great, Jack, but I don't think General Hammond would go for it, do you?"
"No, I don't suppose so," the Colonel said with a shrug, and Sam realized that this was just another example of her CO's strange sense of humor. Maybe someday she'd learn to actually recognize it.
TBC