Chapter 22 : line in the sand

She had been caught trying to activate the phase generator. The Ori soldier had caught her in the act. She wasn't wearing her energy vest. The impact rippled down her side, tearing skin and muscle. She screamed. The pain was so great, she collapsed. Fortunately, Cameron neutralized the soldier who was about to finish her, as she lay writhing on the ground in pain, blood pouring out of her.

"Sam. It's okay. You'll be okay." She moaned, the pain ravaging her. She was nothing but pain. She had never known anything like it. She knew the wound was serious. She saw Janet again, hit by a Jaffa spear. She knew it was bad. She brought her fingers to the wound, the pain was unbearable. Her fingers were covered with blood. She could see Cameron's worried gaze fixed on her wound. It was serious, she could see it in his eyes.

"No, no, ah. You'll be fine. Just stay with me." She struggled to stay with him, to stay coherent. She was screaming, the pain was so strong, she couldn't control it. "All right, we have to move."

"We can't." She sighed, he couldn't move her. She wouldn't survive it. Already, she could feel herself fading. She had to fight the pain to stay conscious.

"Sam, we have to."

"The device." She muttered, wanting him to understand that this was their only chance. To get out of phase.

"All right. Yeah." He pulls a block of C-4 from his vest.

"No! You can't destroy it!" She sighed, holding back her hand. It was their only weapon against the Ori. Their only prototype. He couldn't do that.

"Well, what do you want me to do? I can't carry you and all that junk!"

"Activate it!" She ordered as she convulsed in pain on the floor. He stood up and walked around the device, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"It's no good; they're fried!" He informed her as he walked around the device.

"All of them?" The pain was unbearable, yet she tried to remain conscious. She had to stay conscious. Help her to preserve the device.

"Well, we've got one working!"

"Ah, bypass the other two; connect the leads." Her voice was only a trickle, marked by pain. She pressed her hands to her wound, stemming the bleeding as best she could. Aggravating the pain to stay conscious.

"All right, what's next?!"

"There's a macro on the main control screen!" Cameron looking at the several windows open on the laptop.

"I have no idea where that is!" She struggled, but the pain was too much. She sank into unconsciousness, ravaged by pain.

(...)

It was the stabbing pain in her back that woke her up from the unconsciousness she had fallen into.

"Hold still, hold still!" Cameron's voice. She was lying on her side and felt him pull a stitch in her side. She winced in pain. "Hang on a minute. This'll help you..." He injected a dose of morphine to relieve her. The pain subsided slightly. But not enough for Samantha to think she was out of the woods.

"How long was I out?" She questioned, unsure of how long it had been since she had felt sick.

"Well unfortunately, not long enough for me to finish this. Just hang on." She did as he asked, while he worked to stop the bleeding. He sutured and tied the wound, she winced and clenched her teeth even harder, while he completed his maneuver.

"What's going on outside?" She needed to know if the village had been saved. If the device had worked after all.

"The shooting has stopped. The Ori army's in control." Just then an Ori fighter burst into the room. She could only warn him by shouting.

"Cam!" His teammate grabbed his gun, pointed it in the direction of the warrior, but did not fire and lowered the barrel of his MP90.

"Damn it, Sam! Don't scare me like that." He grumbled

"What?!" She then realized. He had managed to reconnect the device.

"Oh, the uh, device is on. I forgot to mention that. I don't know how big the field is. I think you and I are the only ones inside it." This meant that Vala and Teal'c and the rest of the village were at the mercy of the Ori ships.

"Teal'c and Vala?" She asked, knowing the answer in advance.

"Oh, I tried to contact them on the radio, but there's no response."

"Well, that could mean anything." She tried to reassure herself. They had already lost Daniel, SG1 couldn't have its toll increased by the loss of two more members. Three she rectified as the pain in her side and back reminded her.

"It could. Hey, we'll pull through this, Sam." Cameron tried to reassure her. Nothing was less certain. She'd seen the damage the Ori spears were doing. She wasn't sure she'd make it. Not this time. She squeezed her hand between her breasts, closing her fingers on the ring around her neck. Jack. Then it was the black hole again.

(...)

Jack. She woke up, her fingers closed around the ring hidden under her shirt.

"Is it getting worse?" Sam had just regained consciousness, the pain was throbbing. The morphine that Cameron had injected during the operation was already wearing off. She could feel her body burning, fever lurking, sweating.

"Not getting better." She lied, knowing he wouldn't believe her.

"Listen, I've been thinking." He began as he approached her and the instruments in the emergency kit that every SG team carried with them.

"Uh oh." She tried to joke. Cameron bent down to inject another dose of painkiller into her leg. Relief and numbness overcame her within seconds.

"Yeah, dangerous. I know. I can leave the field and still stay out of phase, right? So I was thinking I'd take some C4 and plant it around the village, come back here, use the explosions as a distraction to ... " She couldn't contain a grimace of disapproval. Cameron was in denial. About her condition and its importance. "What? You haven't heard the rest of the plan."

"You can't leave the device here." She managed to mumble, already stunned by the morphine and fever. She had lost too much blood and the infection was spreading.

"Well, I was gonna save some C4 for that as well." She struggled against the torpor to stay conscious and defend her prototype. She had to. Her survival wasn't as important as this machine. This machine could protect Earth and everyone she loved. Cassie, Jack, SG1...

"You cannot sacrifice the device for me. It is still our best chance against the Ori." She argued in front of a stubborn and sure Cameron, he reminded her so much of Jack. One does not give up one of ours, she thought.

"No offense, but that gizmo's not showing a whole lot of promise right now." She might have been offended if she wasn't so exhausted. She had just enough energy left to convince Cameron that her idea wasn't the right one.

"It'll work. It just wasn't ready for this." She confessed, clutching the ring between her fingers. She thought about Jack, what he would say if he were here, that she shouldn't give up, that she should fight. But Jack wasn't there, and she could feel herself getting worse. She was so tired. She had fought for ten years to be shot down far from her own people on a hostile planet, how ironic. " . I'm probably not gonna make it, either way."

"No! Don't you start to talk like that." He reminded her so much of Jack. She tried to smile, but she couldn't.

"Cam...you have to face the fact that I'm gonna die here." She had been wounded in battle before, but never so badly, she could feel the wetness of blood against her sides, she could feel the fever gaining ground and the growing exhaustion in her body. No one would come to their rescue, not quickly enough for her to see Earth again... Not quickly enough to marry him, she thought sadly, or start a family.

"No, I don't have to face that fact, because I am not gonna let it happen." Cameron revolted.

"I appreciate that. But the truth is, even if you manage to create a distraction and destroy the device, you are never gonna get me to the gate by yourself."

"Yes I will."

"Not alive." She confessed. Aware of killing her teammate's hopes by confessing her weakness so openly. She knew she wouldn't make it. Cassie. The young woman wasn't ready to lose another mother so soon, Samantha knew that, but she was so tired... Too tired to fight. She closed her eyes and sank. Mitchell closes his eyes and puts his hand to his face.

(...)

"This is not good." Cameron commented as he watched what was going on from the other side of where Sam was sinking back into unconsciousness, he approached calling out to him. "Hey Carter, wake up! No sleeping."

"My laptop. There's a file." she whispered. Her complexion was livid, her forehead clammy and covered with sweat. But she had to... she had to get this message to him. Before... before ...

"You want me to get it?" He asked expectantly. She shakes her head 'no'.

"In my personal directory. Letters mostly."

"Sam," he sighed, unable to consider that she couldn't get away with it. He was trying to keep her from talking but, she had to. It was all that would be left of her for those she loved.

"There's one to Cassie...some other people." Lord, they hadn't even been able to tell their friends, Cassie that they were getting married. Jack ... The letter on her computer was from before their relationship. She wished she had time to rewrite that letter, but it was too late. He knew how she felt, this letter was a declaration of love, a sentimental testament where she confessed to him what she hadn't had the guts to say to his face at the time. "Password's 'fishing'."

"Ah see?" He turns and sits on the metal case beside the cot. "Now you're gonna have to change the password. Sam, don't give up on me. You've gotta think of my position here. I worked my ass off to get this team back together. Now we've lost ." He paused, his voice cracking. "...well, we've lost Jackson. I can't lose you, too."

"I spent my entire life dedicated to science. Spent the last ten years, trying to convince people they believed in false gods. I don't feel like science is gonna help me. Right now, I'm just hoping somewhere one of those gods..." And that he would watch over those she would leave behind. Those she loved.

"My grandma used to say, "God is like a prairie windstorm. If you look too hard, you get dust in your eyes, but there's still plenty of ways to know it's there. "" Cameron and her grandmother, she smiled slightly, the effort was substantial, she could not hold that smile in place for long.

"Is that what you believe?" She had had this conversation dozens of times with SG1. Jack hadn't believed in the existence of any God for years, ever since Charlie died. Teal'c had his own beliefs about Daniel... Well, let's just say that his wife's death seemed to open his eyes to a possible afterlife, an afterlife.

"I generally just nodded until she gave me a macaroon. There is one thing that I do know is true. The mind is a powerful thing. No matter who or what you believe in, sometimes belief itself makes all the difference in the world. You just don't give up. Tell yourself whatever you have to. Just believe you're gonna make it, Sam." She held on to the one thing that really mattered to her. The one thing that made sense and gave her confidence and hope. She held on to the idea that she had to be there for them, the ones she loved. Her family. Cassie, Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, Cameron and Vala. She had to live. Try to live. That's when the preacher walked in. "Oh crap!" Cameron muttered as he stood up to speak to the preacher after he lit up his staff. "Guess your little bag of tricks don't work on us, huh?"

"Show yourself, or this village will be destroyed!"

"Score one for science." Science... Suddenly, Sam's brain experienced an epiphany. The prior ... The firing of an energy spear. Yes, it could work.

"Cameron... I think I have an idea to save the village..."

(...)

"You wanna use this?" Cameron had been tinkering with an Ori spear for a few minutes and finally pulled out an energy crystal.

"The power crystal in Merlin's device was depleted. That's why we needed the naquadah generators. She explained to him.

"I'm sorry, is that not apples and oranges?" She could sense Cameron's skepticism. Probably, because Samantha's body was drenched in Morphine and it was possible she was delirious.

"Ancient and Ori technology is similar. We can make it work for a short time."

"Fine. So what do I do?" He asked as he stepped up to the device.

"Put the crystal in the back of the device."

"Got it. It's too big. It doesn't fit."

"Power interface adapter."

"What?"

"The connector... generator to Ancient tech. Ah..." The pain took her breath away. She gasped. She didn't have much time left.

"Carter, Carter! You've had a lot of morphine, so I want you to explain it to me so that it makes sense."

(...)

Mitchell has placed the crystal in a small adapter that he has connected to the drawer of Merlin's device with a metal clip. He pushes a metal probe into the other side of the drawer. He receives a shock and yelps, then puts his finger in his mouth.

"That's a good sign!" Samantha commented, her voice slightly mocking despite the pain. Cameron had injected her with the last syringe of morphine. The effects were not so long already, she could feel the pain coming back.

"That's easy for you to say. You with the little flesh wound. All right, what next?"

"Laptop." He approached the device to the makeshift bed where Sam lay. Gently, he helped her to sit up, although she could not hold back the cry of pain that the return to the sitting position caused her. Cameron supported her.

"You okay?"

"No." She muttered between her teeth clenched with pain. Nevertheless, she took the computer in her lap.

"Right." He gently reached behind her to help her stay upright. She winced in pain, but slowly typed lines of code on the prototype's digital interface. The pain was so bad. "Hang in there Sam, you're almost there." Cameron encouraged him as the Ori soldiers left the village, fleeing the bombardment. The blood roared in Samantha's ears, nevertheless, exhausted, she pressed one last key and a flash of white dazzled them.

"Jack..." Sam called weakly as she collapsed into Mitchell's arms.

"SAM! SAM!" Cameron desperately called to her as he gently laid her down on the makeshift bunk. "Sam, stay with me! Sam please!" But nothing helped, the Colonel had sunk into a coma.

(...)

"Okay. Look, Carter's in bad shape. We need a med team here right away." Cameron ordered over the radio to Vala and Teal'c, watching over the unconscious soldier beside him.

(...)

The sensation was pleasant. She was warm, she felt safe. Light as a feather, her thoughts drifted. But her thoughts were disturbed by a sensation. She felt the soft caress of fingers against the skin of her hand. That was what had brought her out of her daze. She felt good, but she felt that she had to wake up. That she was expected.

Only a few steady beeps broke the silence of Colonel Samantha Carter's infirmary room. Since returning from a mission with a serious injury, Sam had been placed in this room after four hours on an operating table. She hadn't woken up. Not yet. It was dark outside the SGC. Yet Samantha was not alone in her room. Two peoples occupied the visitor's chairs around her bed, another stood in the doorway. Jack reluctantly let go of Sam's hand to get up, his knees creaked in protest and he grunted. He was too old to watch over her in that uncomfortable chair, but he wouldn't have left her side for anything. Without a glance at Mitchell, who was watching from the doorway, Jack approached the huddled figure in the other chair. Cassandra had fallen asleep, folded in the uncomfortable chair. He pulled up the blanket that Dr. Laam had laid out, just in case, earlier in the evening. The girl's eyes were rimmed and wet furrows were still visible on her cheeks. He brushed her hair and adjusted the blanket over her slender body. Then, slowly, he turned to Mitchell. The two soldiers left the room without closing the door, watching over the heart of SG1.

"General..." Cameron began.

"Jack." Cameron froze. "You saved Carter's life... You can call me Jack, Mitchell. Thank you for bringing her back to us."

"She saved herself... Without her, we wouldn't be here... All four of us." Mitchell contradicted him, drawing a smile from the General. He recognized Carter there. "Jack I, ..." The military man pulled from his pocket a transparent pouch in which rested a chain and identification plates. "Caroline... Dr. Laam entrusted this to me before you arrived, when Sam went into surgery... I thought that... I mean, I think you should..." Jack grabbed the bag, saving Cameron from getting stuck any further. Jack knew what was troubling the soldier so much. It wasn't Carter's I.D. plates but, the engagement ring that hung with them. Jack brushed the ring with the tip of his thumb through the bag and sighed. He had almost lost her. When the phone in his office had rung, when Hank had told him the news, he'd thought his heart had failed him. Not now, when they were finally going to taste happiness. But when he had arrived at the SGC, accompanied by Cassie. Sam was alive. Badly injured, but alive. They had been watching over her ever since. "It's an engagement ring..." Mitchell was pushing open doors. Jack lifted his head, trying to figure out what the Colonel wanted to hear him say.

"Indeed." Jack replied, plagiarizing Teal'c. "I'd appreciate it if you'd keep this to yourself, Mitchell, Carter..." He sighed, "Sam... She wanted to wait for Daniel to return." He saw astonishment give way to understanding on the Colonel's face. Then came a slight smile as the sound of crumpled sheets reached them from the bedroom. There, on the medical bed, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter was stirring weakly. Jack rushed in, while Cameron backed away into the darkness of the infirmary.

"Fishing." He muttered, amused.