Chapter Three: Heroism

It was raining. That was the first thing Rebecca Mayers noticed after she had woken up. She yawned hugely, her face feeling as though it was splitting apart. It was six AM on a Saturday morning and, in her opinion, far too early to be awake. Stretching, she looked for the source of her awakening. There was cheerful whistling echoing out the open ensuite door. Aaron. He stepped out the doorway, showered, shaved and fully dressed, and smiled at her.

"Aaaah, Sleeping beauty awakens, or is it Dorothy this morning?" he asked chirpily.

"Humour at this hour is close to sacrilege," She grunted.

"Bec, its six AM," he said, crossing to the bed and sitting next to her legs.

"Time is relative, Darling."

"Sorry." He leant in and gave her a quick kiss.

Bec looked at him. "Why are you dressed?"

"I promised Sarah and Kellie that I'd take them for a walk and croissants this morning, remember? Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Tempting as it is, it's a definite and resounding no."

Aaron grinned, leaning in for another kiss. As soon as Bec went to kiss him back, the phone rang. She groaned loudly.

"Who on Earth would be calling now?"

Aaron shrugged and picked the ringing bedroom extension.

"Hello, Aaron Mayers speaking."

He listened for a moment, his brow furrowed.

"Okay, hang on a second," He passed the phone to Bec. "It's for you."

Frowning, Bec took the proffered object. "Hello?"

"Hi Bec, its Sam." Her friend's voice sounded small and tired.

"Sam? Are you okay?" She asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, why?"

"Well you sound a little……off?"

Sam laughed half heartedly. "Oookay."

"Sam, it's just that you sounding off, and calling at six in the morning-"

"0600? I'm sorry Bec. Umm, I didn't realise the time, um, I'll just go."

"NO! No, don't go Sam, its okay."

"Sorry."

"It's all right. Soooo…"

"You're wondering why I called," Sam stated.

"Yeah."

"Umm, is it, do you reckon it would be okay if I came and saw you……later."

"Yeah, of course. When?"

"Oh, umm, I don't know."

If the rest of the conversation hadn't put Bec on edge, that comment did.

"Okay. Look, why don't you come round at seven for breakfast?"

"Seven?"

"0700?"

"Isn't that too early for you?"

"Sam, I am talking to you now, at six o'clock, seven is not too early."

"Oh, okay, Thanks. I'll see you soon then. Sorry."

"It's okay. Bye."

"Bye."

Bec hung up the phone confusedly. "Well, that was…odd."

"What?" Aaron asked.

"Sam. She sounded like she was in a real daze." Bec looked at the phone pensively. "I've only ever heard her sound like that once before, and…"

"And?" Aaron prompted

"Well, it was back in school, and her mother had just died."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Umm, I think Sam and I might need some time to talk in private, do you think you could keep the kids away a little longer. Say, an hour or so?"
Aaron nodded, "Yeah, I'll take them to my parents place after breakfast or something."

"Thanks sweetheart."

"No problem."

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Ding dong.

Bec hurried down the hallway as the doorbell rang.

"Hi Sam!"

"Hey." Sam stepped inside and looked around. "Nice place."

"Thanks. Sooo breakfast?"

"Umm… yeah, sure."

Bec indicated the way to the kitchen and Sam preceded her down the hall.

"Okay, I haven't actually made anything yet, so you can choose whatever you want." Bec said gaily while studying her friend's appearance.

"Umm, would you mind heaps if I just had a piece of toast?"

"Toast? Great choice." Bec started to pull everything out that she would need out of the cupboards. "Grab a stool Sam; they're on the other side of the bench."

"Thanks," Sam accepted, moving to the opposite side.

Her friend was tired. Bec could see it in the way she was walking. Her face was pale and drawn.

"So… what's new?" Bec asked curiously.

"What? Uhh, nothing much. Work, you know."

Bec nodded in agreement. "Sam…" She started uncomfortably.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure you're okay, it's just you really don't look great."

"That bad?"

Bec nodded.

Sam sighed and cast her eyes towards the opposite wall, but didn't attempt to answer.

"Is it work?"

"You could say that."

"What happened?"

Sam took a deep breath, and for a moment Bec thought she wouldn't answer. Then Sam blinked and started talking. "One of our teams was ambushed on their way home. A member of that team was badly wounded. My team, and two others, along with medics and Doctor Fraiser, were sent in to extract them. We came under heavy fire from the opposition. Colonel O'Neill was shot."

"What? How bad?" Bec interrupted quickly. Her mind was reeling with the information that she had just been given. Sam had told her that she didn't go into combat;she worked at Cheyenne Mountain doing Deep Space Telemetry analysis.

Sam smiled ruefully, "He'll be all right soon."

Bec nodded with a thankful smile. It was then she noticed Sam seemed to be holding back the tears that had been threatening before, with great difficulty. "Sam? What else happened?"

"The medical team, with Daniel and some guards went to stabilise the wounded soldier. He was really badly hurt but Janet managed to get him ready for transport." She sniffed, and brushed away the lone tear tracking its way down her face.

"We were about to leave when an enemy soldier got past the guards. He managed to get a couple of shots off."

Bec closed her eyes, hoping that what she thought she was going to hear would not come out of Sam's mouth.

"She's dead." Sam whispered slowly. "Janet's dead. She never even saw who shot her. Just like Lauren."

Bec opened her eyes again and look carefully at her friend. She was crying properly now.

"Sam…" Bec stopped, unsure of what to say. Instead of saying anything, she made her way round the bench and wrapped her friend up in a warm hug. They stood like that until Sam had nearly finished crying. Hesitating, she opened her mouth, wondering if what she was about to say would help. "The other soldier… Did he make it?"

Sam nodded into her shoulder. "He's going to make a full recovery."

"I know, this might not help, but…wouldn't Janet be happy about that?"

Again, Sam nodded. Sniffing a little, she pulled back and looked Bec in the eyes. "Yeah, she would. I just wish…"

"I know."

Sam scraped a hand over her face slowly. Catching the puzzled look on Bec's face she said, "You're wondering why we were sent in to extract them, when we do Deep Space Radar Telemetry?"

"Sam, it's okay, I understand, if you can't tell me, then-"

"No, it's not. Look, I do work with Deep Space Radar Telemetry; it's just, I go into combat an awful lot as well. Nearly every week." Sam scrubbed her face with her hand again and sniffed.

Bec looked at her pale face and then back at the bench. She got the feeling her friend wanted to say something else.

"She should have had more guards. They both should."

"Both?" Bec questioned slowly. Sam looked at her carefully.

"Bec, when we met in the shop, I lied. I was there when Lauren was killed. I was one of the volunteers helping with the medics." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I couldn't save either of them." She mumbled. "I should have learnt from Lauren's death that medics need more guards, because they don't usually have the field experience."

"Sam, for as long as I've known you, you've never seen yourself as the centre of everything, don't start now. I'm sure you did everything you could, both for Lauren and Janet." Bec looked at Sam sternly, and then walked around to the other side of the bench. "Now, you're going to eat your toast, and drink this," She handed her a glass of milk, "and then go up to the spare room and sleep for a few hours. Clear?"
Sam gave a half hearted shrug, and took the mug, taking ahuge gulp. She blanched instantly. "Milk?"

"Healthy teeth and bones."

Sam smiled properly this time. "Bec, thankyou, but I should probably-"

"No! you are going to do what I say, I can see you are tired."

"Okay, but only for two hours," Sam relented.

"Okay." Bec agreed, mentally crossing her fingers. "Spare room's this way." Bec led Sam up the stairs. When they reached the doorway, Sam grasped Bec's arm, and said, "Bec…thankyou."

"Welcome." That was all she needed to say. Sam nodded and turned away, but then spun to look at her. "Bec?"

"Yeah?"

"About what I said, you know the part about going into combat?"

Bec nodded. "Don't worry; I'll forget I heard it." At Sam's disbelieving look, she added, "Well, most of the time I'll forget. But I won't tell anyone."

Sam smiled. "Thankyou. Again."

Bec merely smiled this time, and gently pushed her friend into the room."

"Sleep. I'll come and wake you up in a few hours."

"Okay." Sam turned, walked in and shut the door.

Bec turned away and slowly made her way down the stairs. When she got back to the kitchen, she sat down and rested her head in her hands. She let one tear track it's way slowly down her face, before brushing it away. The single tear was the friend that had died years ago, far away from home, fro the friend upstairs in the spare bedroom, for the doctor that had died to save someone else's life, and for the girl that had lost yet another mother.

Bec sat there for a while, before standing, and clearing away the mess from 'breakfast.'

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An: Hi guys! I am so sorry that I haven't updated for sooo long, this chapter was incredibly hard to write, and the first drafts I did, well, I don't think we'll mention them again for a while. I'm having a bit of a mental blank for the next chapter as well, so if you have any requests for content, could you let me know?

Umm, I think that's about it, oh one last thing,

Please Review!