4. Wild Weeds

Sam walked into the gift shop and found herself confronted by a wild array of flowers. She stood there in the doorway for a long moment, trying to orient herself and to understand how she had reached this place, how Daniel could have come to this place. Worse, how Daniel could have reached this place and no one knew?

Sam couldn't leave it alone, her mind looking it over again and again as though it were a puzzle to be solved. Sam wished it were; she was good at puzzles. She didn't know how to solve this. All she could do was wait, sitting by Daniel's bed with Jack and Teal'c while Janet walked in and out taking care of paper work, until the doctors finally agreed that Daniel probably wasn't going to die. She had sat there, waiting, analyzing, questioning until she couldn't take it anymore. Mumbling something about the bareness of the room, she had finally bolted with some half-formed plan to get some flowers to brighten up the place. Now that she was here, however, she felt lost again.

Walking along the shelf of artfully arranged, neatly manicured blossoms, all she could think was the flowers were dying. Freshly cut and prettily arranged though they were, they were already dead and they didn't even know it yet. Was that how Daniel had felt, walking around and pretending everything was fine when really he was dying? Sam had felt sick when she had learned how Daniel had been hurt, to know that he had done it to himself. As she stood among the jungle of dying flowers and get well bears, she wondered what you got for someone recovering from a suicide attempt. Congratulations, you failed? Get well soon, sorry you wanted to die, here's a bear?

"Looking for something in particular?" a voice asked from behind her and she spun around, half expecting to find a salesman standing there. Instead, she found herself face to face with a man in a uniform.

"Major Davis!" Sam exclaimed in surprise, "I thought you were back in Washington!"

"I was supposed to fly back this morning when I heard about Daniel," he answered, "Is he all right? All anyone would say was that he was in an accident."

"He will be," Sam answered cautiously, feeling uncomfortable with the familiarity with which Major Davis spoke of Daniel.

"Well, don't you have any details?" Major Davis demanded. Sam frowned slightly. His concern sounded sincere, but there was something off about the entire situation. SG1 might have been on friendly terms with the major, but he wasn't a part of their team; he wasn't family. It seemed odd that he would cancel a flight just because Daniel was hurt.

"You'll have to talk to the doctors," Sam answered at last, knowing that they wouldn't tell him anything. She turned away, looking over the flowers again.

"Yes, well…" Major Davis answered, before grabbing up a colorful bouquet set with a bright note that read 'Get Well Soon!'. "I'll just get these for Daniel." Sam didn't answer and Davis walked away to make his purchase. She hoped he would leave then, but he came back to where she was looking over the few potted plants in the store. They might take more of an effort and not look as bright as the fresh picked selection, but at least they were still alive.

"These reminded me of Daniel," Major Davis announced, waving about his flower selection, "He always seems so…cheerful. I'm sure he will be all right." So he had decided she needed comfort, Sam thought, and smiled briefly at him, all the while thinking that he didn't know Daniel very well at all. She might have called him enthusiastic, passionate, even friendly, but not cheerful. If she was going to select a flower to match him, she wouldn't choose any of those freshly pruned, garden flowers. Daniel seemed more rare. He would be one of those blossoms that looked so delicate and frail, yet grew in some impossible climate that would kill a normal plant. Like tundra, or maybe something from the desert, given his Egyptian roots.

Finally Major Davis left the gift shop, after trying unsuccessfully to get Sam to tell him Daniel's room. She claimed momentary amnesia and sent him off to find the help desk while she continued to search for her own gift. Finally she selected a small, weathered looking plant with perked up leaves but tattered blossoms. It looked, in fact, rather like a selection of those flowers she often saw growing by the side of the road. They were also among those flowers that Sam knew for sure Daniel wasn't allergic to, and, most importantly, they were still alive.