They sat in the briefing room together while Dr. Lam updated SG-1 on Jack's condition with George Hammond on speaker phone.
"So the swelling is down enough that, as long as he shows more improvement over the next twenty four, I intend to lower his thiopental dosage in stages and let him come out of it slowly. We'll evaluate him as he regains awareness."
"What are the dangers?" George asked her from the speaker.
"Well, aside from lowered immune reactions which is why he's in isolation, there's the remote possibility of heart failure. But that's relatively unlikely in General O'Neill's case, as we'd have noticed it on his blood pressure and heart rate prior to this. It's also important to remember we don't know if there's been permanent or temporary damage to his brain. He needs to be awake to do an MRI so we won't have more details until he's conscious."
Sam nodded.
Daniel looked thoughtful. "So what happens if he's not ok?"
"That depends greatly on the extent of the damage Dr. Jackson. It could be anything from minor physical impairment he can regain to severe temporary or permanent memory loss." Dr. Lam admitted to him.
Teal'c squeezed Sam's hand reassuringly when she blanched at that information.
"What are his chances looking like Dr. Lam?"
"Sir, there really is no way of knowing until he wakes up."
"Dr. Lam, Colonel Carter, keep me apprised of the situation." George told them.
"Yes sir." Dr. Lam agreed.
"We will sir." Sam told him and clicked off the speaker phone. She slumped slightly in her chair and closed her eyes.
"Are you in need of rest Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked her.
"I'm all right Teal'c." she told him and gave him an appreciative smile. "I think I'll go work out for a little while though."
Teal'c nodded. He was feeling a similar mix of rage and regret and had spent some time beating up the gym equipment himself the last few weeks. "Would you like company?"
Sam nodded slowly. Perhaps beating the crap out of each other was just the thing.
"Again." She told him. They were using bashaak staffs to knock the stuffing out of each other. Teal'c was winning most of the rounds but Sam wasn't done punishing herself yet.
"You are growing weary Colonel Carter. Perhaps it would be best to cleanse ourselves and check on O'Neill." Teal'c suggested.
"I said again Teal'c." Sam said sharply. "I can make it an order if you need me to."
"Samantha, harming yourself will not undo that which is done."
Sam swiped sweat out of her eyes. "At least I'd look the way I feel." She admitted.
"When O'Neill awakens, he will tell you himself that this was not your fault Colonel Carter."
"Doesn't matter. I know the truth."
"O'Neill will not blame you for what occurred."
"He doesn't have to." Sam told him and put her staff up in a guard position.
Teal'c nodded and they resumed their combat.
Finally Teal'c had Sam pinned to the mat and she was huffing with exertion "Yield." He told her.
Sam glared up at him.
"Samantha, yield." He told her kindly. She lacked much area on her skin without bruises now. Her body now matched her soul.
Sam closed her eyes slowly and nodded.
Teal'c lifted off her and put a hand down to help her up. "Daniel Jackson likely wearies of babysitting."
Sam snorted. She didn't have the heart to tell Daniel the book, Dance With the Devil, he'd been reading to Jack had been left there by Samuels when he was reassigned to DC. Sam was fairly certain Jack had said it was genuinely awful and was going to gift it to someone he didn't like. "Probably not as much as the General does of his reading choice." She said with a smirk.
"Does O'Neill not like reading?" Teal'c asked confused. He friend had several bookcases of books in his office on varying subjects and all of them looked read.
"Oh he loves reading. But that book isn't his and it's really awful low quality smut." Sam said with a tight grin.
"Indeed." Teal'c said with an amused quirk to his lips. He raised an arm to invite her to the door first and followed her out of the gym. "I will meet you at the elevator Colonel Carter." He said with a small bow and entered the men's locker room.
Sam headed off to the women's locker room herself.
The one good thing about a hot shower was it hid tears pretty well Sam thought as she headed for the elevator a few minutes later. She and Teal'c walked silently to the infirmary.
"Oh good, you guys are back. I could really use a nap and this book is awful. Why is Jack even reading it?" Daniel rattled at them.
Sam bit her lip. "Go get some rest Daniel. I have paperwork to do anyway."
"Ok Sam." He told her and squeezed her arm which made her wince. Daniel pulled her shirt collar aside and saw the bruising. "Sam." He sighed.
"Save it Daniel." She said, her mouth firming in such a similar manner as Jack's often did that Daniel nearly choked up.
"All right." He said to her softly. He knew better than to argue with her about this. She needed to punish herself for what she viewed as a grievous error.
Sam sat down at the desk and turned her computer back on. "You want me to hide this?" She asked Jack and held up the book. She flipped through it and read a couple paragraphs. "Holy Hannah, that's awful." She said horrified. "You know, if I didn't know for a fact reading that out loud was truly traumatizing Daniel I'd toss it right now." She said chuckling. "So you have that going for you even though you're stuck listening."
Sam got up and went over to the bed to sit in the chair next to him. She gently stroked his cheek. "Dr. Lam is going to bring you out of this so you can yell at me all you want about my screw up sir. I'd almost rather withstand one of your dressing downs than this." Sam sighed and squeezed his hand gently before going back to the desk and went back to work.
"So Teal'c beat the snot out of me with a bashaak. I got a couple licks in but I think he let me because I was too mad at myself to focus." She resorted a few forms before resuming her narrative. "So don't freak out that I'm covered in bruises. I know how you are sir." She told him and gave him a pointed look. She'd give almost anything right now for one of his reprimands.