Chapter 1: Back from the Dead –
Sam felt herself slowly leaving the dark abyss of nothingness that she was far too familiar with. She'd passed out again. But why? Suddenly everything came flooding back. The recon mission gone bad. Fleeing for their lives back to the gate. Getting shot. Coming into the gateroom and facing off with a bunch of SFs. General O'Neill's deathly white face. Why was he here? She could understand why the SFs had been in the gateroom, after all Cam had radioed that they were coming in hot. But two things still didn't add up: why had the SFs continued to point their weapons at the stargate and at her; and where had her team been? She knew that they had gone through the gate right before her, they should have still been in the gateroom. And why the hell was Major General Jack O'Neill at the SGC? He was supposed to be in Washington.
As Sam's thoughts raced wildly, different senses began to kick in. First to kick in was sound. She heard an incessant beeping around her, but couldn't figure out what it was. Didn't really care either, she was still trying to figure out what had happened in the gateroom. Then smell returned. Now she couldn't ignore the beeping anymore. She knew the smells, and therefore figured out what the beeping was. She was once again in the infirmary and that beeping was telling everyone that she was still alive. Suddenly all worries over the events in the gateroom fled her mind. She knew that her team would be right there with her, waiting for her to wake up. They always had been. They always would be.
While she thought about this she picked up on yet another sound. Two people were arguing in hushed voices. Probably trying not to disturb me. Sam thought. She strained to understand the words, but finally gave up in frustration.
"Absolutely not Doc!"
There, she knew that voice. General O'Neill. He was probably being kicked out of the infirmary once again because he hadn't slept or eaten since she had landed in the infirmary. She silently chuckled at the sight her mind portrayed for her of the General squaring off against the much smaller Dr. Lam.
"Sam?"
Wait a minute. Sam thought. Did I laugh out loud? I could have sworn…Sam's thoughts were interrupted by a cool hand on her forehead and a quiet voice speaking to her.
"Sam? Honey?"
A jolt of shock and pain flooded Sam's body. That wasn't Dr. Lam's voice. And it certainly wasn't the voice of any other doctor stationed at the SGC. Sam never thought that she would ever hear that voice again in her life. There was no more clinging to the quiet of unconsciousness. Her eyes flew open in shock and quickly alighted on the face hovering over hers in concern. She instinctively knew that fear and shock played across her features, but at this point she really didn't care.
"Janet?"