A/N:for your reading pleasure, chapter 24. thank you to everyone for the reviews, my health has returned, except for that nasty cough that keeps coming back, but that doesn't stop me from writing, or typing. also everyone please trust me, kate's not going anywhere for a while, she's too much fun to write. anyway, please remember to review, they make me smile and they make me type faster.

Chapter 24

Janet entered the infirmary the next morning and found her friend still sitting by Sam's bed. Exactly where the younger doctor had been when Janet had left the night before. Noticing the troubled look on Kate's face as she watched Sam, Janet made a decision. Quickly slipping over to where Kate sat, Janet placed a small hand on her shoulder and indicated for her to come into the office.

Once safely behind closed doors and drawn blinds, Janet turned to her friend and colleague, "What's wrong Kate?"

"Direct approach today?" Kate smirked, hiding behind sarcasm.

"Kate, if you're worried about Sam, she will get better. And then she's going to do everything possible to get the Colonel back. She's never let him down before and she won't now."

"Once Dad is back, I'm putting in for a transfer back to Iraq," Kate stated calmly, as if she hadn't even heard what Janet had been saying.

"What? Why?"

"I'm not needed here, Janet. I am needed there. It's time for my world to be separate from his again. We're not really meant to be in close contact. We aren't that kind of family."

"Kate, you are needed here. You know more instinctively about surgery than Warner, Field, and I do put together! And as for being separate from your father, no one here thinks of you as Jack O'Neill's daughter. You are separate from him, even while working here. Kate, why do you really want to leave?"

"These three are his life now Jan. I'm just someone from the past. He started living again because of them. And….I….I failed him. Our family was falling apart and I ran." Kate sank into the couch that Janet had sitting against her office wall, her voice quiet and defeated. Two things Janet Frasier had never thought to see in Kate O'Neill.

"Sweetheart, he needs you as much as he needs them. You're his family and you know how important that is to him. And as for leaving after Charlie's funeral, Hun, from what I know of it, he checked out too. But he ran mentally and you just needed space to cope. Besides, who was there for him during the divorce? Daniel was living on Abydos, and he didn't even know Sam or Teal'c then."

"Logically I know all these things Jan. But emotionally? I feel useless, like I don't belong either here or in his life."

"I know one major reason to stay here. Hun, I have never seen Hank Griff fall for anyone the way he's fallen for you. The only thing close I've ever seen is how the Colonel feels about Sam. Kate, if you left, it would break his heart."

"I do care about Hank, a lot. But I can't be his doctor and his girlfriend, Jan you know that!"

"What if I told you that certain rules aren't in effect here? And, if Hank does get hurt there are three other doctors here. We just use the same policy we do with you and the Colonel."

"What do you mean 'certain rules aren't in effect here'?"

"Well, after seven years of watching the Colonel and Sam dance around with their "Sir" and "Carter" game, we got certain regulations suspended for the SGC. After all, we're all together so much everyone here is family. Of course, the General, you, and myself are the only ones on base who know about the regulations change right now. Really though, except for a few people who have serious crushes on Sam, everyone wants them to be happy. And everyone wants you and Hank to be happy as well."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Think about staying? Please? You're the only one who has been able to control Field yet."

"So I'm just the idiot patrol?"

"Nah, but you do the job so well you know."

"It's a gift," Kate grinned, the first one in hours.

"Can I have it?" Janet joked; pleased to see Kate's dark mood had lifted.

"Nope, it's all mine. I don't share well."

"Name a doctor who does. Now go, you need at least six hours of sleep. So don't bother trying to sneak in here before that time's up."

"Boss's orders?"

"Hey, I am still the CMO around here. And I want my top surgeon in top shape. So sleep! Or I will sedate you."

"I'm going, I'm going," Kate smiled as she got up and turned to the door. "Hey, Jan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"That's what friends are for, Hun. Anytime."

With a final smile, Kate slipped out of the infirmary and went to her on-base quarters for a few hours rest.