The pillows had migrated to the couch. Carter lay sideways, her leg elevated on half of them while she reclined against the other half on Jack's lap, her face tucked against his chest. She'd been sleeping like that for over an hour – healing – and he wasn't about to wake her. He'd turned on the captions for his hockey game and muted it so the only sounds were her soft breathing.

The doorbell rang. Then it started to chatter, the repetitive sound of someone jamming their finger against the button over and over. The woman in his lap curled upright, still half asleep and trying to get her bearings, and Jack rubbed a hand against her back as he got to his feet. "Three guesses who that is."

She blinked. "Um…. I don't…."

Jack strode down the hallway and turned the handle. Cassandra Fraiser flew past him before he'd even really opened it, and he called after the tornado, "Be careful; she's broken."

The young woman reached the couch before he'd even made it back into the living room. Falling to her knees on the carpet, she flung her arms around her aunt and buried her face in the other woman's chest. "Oh, sweetheart," Carter murmured, returning the hug as Cassie sobbed into her shirt. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

It had to be difficult, sitting up like that while her leg was still stuck on all the pillows, and Jack settled back onto the couch right behind her to prop her up. "Shhh," she tried, gently stroking her niece's hair. "I'm here now, okay? It's okay."

"I thought you were gone," Cassie sobbed into her chest.

"I know. I know; I'm sorry." Curling up a little further, Sam pressed a kiss to her hair and held her tighter. "I'm sorry."

But all they could really do was let the young woman cry it out, and both Sam and Jack adjusted to get more comfortable for the long haul. Jack reached around to put a hand on Cassandra's shoulder, too, and a part of him felt bad that he hadn't helped her before that point. But he'd been hanging on by a thread himself. He knew exactly how she felt.

Carter turned her head to press her cheek to his. "In a little bit, would you ask the guys to bring lunch? She needs to eat."

Jack nodded. "So do you." She'd been resurrected from the dead less than a day before and was already back to taking care of everyone else.

But when he shifted his weight to get up, she touched his shoulder, turning her head further to touch him again. "Not… not yet."

"Okay." Jack wrapped his arms around them again.

~/~

The guys had brought lunch. And then they'd ordered dinner and shipped Mitchell out to get it. They'd all wanted to at least see Carter, even if they couldn't get too close with Cassie permanently glued to her. And Carter had stayed close to Jack – thankfully – though it earned a raised eyebrow from Mitchell until Jack reminded him that dead people couldn't break regs, much less fraternize.

"You've been overrun," Daniel said quietly from the recliner. And he was right; Carter was asleep in his lap again. Cassie was there, too, snuggled along her aunt's good side with her head on Carter's shoulder. They were lucky to be skinny enough to fit on the couch that way, though it didn't look very comfortable.

"Yeah," Jack admitted, "but it's not so bad." He adored them both.

"Is Cassandra Fraiser asleep?" Teal'c asked.

"Oh, yeah."

"I will take her to her room." As usual, the Jaffa's movements were silent and smooth, and he lifted the young woman into his arms with almost zero effort.

"I'll give you a hand with the blankets," Mitchell offered.

"Take a pillow." Jack nodded toward the mound at the end of the couch – every pillow in the house was under Carter in one way or another. Gingerly, Mitchell lifted her braced leg just enough to extract one before following Teal'c down the hall.

Daniel rolled to his feet, too. "Sam should get some real sleep."

Jack didn't disagree, but getting her to bed wasn't going to be as easy as it had been with Cassie. "Her leg's gonna be a problem."

"Yeah. Keep an eye on it."

The younger man had leaned over but hadn't touched her yet when Jack said, "Daniel?"

"Yeah?"

His eyes landed in the far corner of the room and stayed there, despite the fact that Daniel was two feet away. "I'm sorry."

Daniel sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. And then he said simply, "I know."

"Okay."

"The next time you don't answer your phone for more than two days running, I'm going to find you and beat you with it."

"Fair," Jack agreed.

The moment Daniel's arm slid under Carter's, her eyes flew open, and being sandwiched between the two men obviously startled her a bit. "Easy," Daniel told her as he backed off. "We're just trying to get you to bed."

"Mmm," she mumbled. "Thanks." Slowly – and with help from both of them – she came up to sitting, then to standing, leaning on Jack for support.

"Would you get her crutches?" Jack asked.

"Sure."

Instead of looking toward them, though, Carter leaned closer to Jack. He stepped in, wrapping his arms around her as she pressed her face to his neck. He had to enjoy every moment, because…. "I have to head back to Washington tomorrow afternoon. Gotta find some tiny Pacific island to bring thirty people back to life."

When she pulled her head back, the eyes that met his were deeply concerned. "What happens then? When I'm undead?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But it's on the agenda, believe me. I have a call in to the President. Something has to give," he told her with a shrug. "And it's not gonna be us. Not this time. Not anymore."

Fingering the hair at his temple, she said quietly, "I don't want you to have to retire."

"I don't want to have to, either, but if it's the only option, then I'll take it. And it'll be okay. Trust me."

"I do."

Sam reached for her crutches as Mitchell and Teal'c re-entered the room, and SG-1's new leader asked, "How long are you gonna be stuck on those things?"

"Um, I'm not sure." It took a few mini-moves to reposition herself to face him. "Apparently, I was supposed to start PT within five days of surgery, but I was kinda stranded on an alien planet. I have an appointment tomorrow. They said I've lost a lot of muscle mass in my leg and they want me to build it back up the right way. A couple of months, maybe."

"A couple of -" Mitchell's eyes went so wide it was astonishing they didn't fall right out of his head. "Two weeks," he pressed. "You said two weeks!"

"Oh, God, not this again," Daniel groaned.

"All for a stupid black hole that I told you not to go to. It's been a month already."

Jack had to blink a few times before he managed to ask, "Is he always this whiny?"

"Yes," Carter and Daniel said as Teal'c answered, "Indeed."

"Okay, then." Jack kept a gentle hand on Carter's back as she toddled toward the bedroom. Unbidden, Daniel and Teal'c gathered the pillows up in their arms and followed.