9.
Daniel and Teal'c were waiting at the back of the houseboat. Jack threw the ropes to Teal'c who began securing the speedboat, and then helped Carter up off the floor, removing his tanks from her back.
"Daniel, get her in and in the shower. Stat. Hypothermia, possible bends. Watch the ribs, she may have broken something."
"Got it." Daniel grabbed Sam's arms carefully and helped her up the ladder, aboard, and into the houseboat.
Teal'c pulled him up the ladder, grabbing his arms. "What has transpired, O'Neill?"
He headed into the living room of the boat, throwing his equipment down. He fell to the floor, braced his arms on his knees, and breathed heavily. Teal'c handed him a glass of water, which he drank quickly. He knew it was likely he was dehydrated from the dive.
He grimaced as Teal'c handed him another glass. "Damned if I know, Teal'c. But it tried to crush her. We barely got out alive."
"Should we remove from this location?"
"Ah… no. No, I think we're ok here. It left us alone after we got out of the cave."
Daniel came back into the room, a concerned expression in his eyes. "What cave?"
Jack ignored the question. "Is Carter alright?" He should get up off the floor and check himself, but he couldn't seem to move.
"I think so. She's showering. She says no signs of the bends and she doesn't think anything's broken. Just bruised."
"Yeah, she'd say that." Jack started to get off the floor, but nearly fell. Teal'c grabbed him and set him down on the sofa.
Daniel stared at him and repeated himself. "She's showering, Jack. You don't look so great yourself. What happened?"
The adrenaline suddenly gone, Jack realized he had some pretty bad bruises of his own. "Get me some clothes, Daniel. I need to take this crap off."
Daniel returned shortly with a towel, jeans and a sweatshirt. Jack stripped and stood up, drying his hair. "Thanks."
"What happened?"
"Later. I need to check on Carter. That thing nearly killed her."
"Jack, what thing?" Jack ignored Daniel, heading to the middle of the boat to the shower. He knocked on the door. The water was off, so she must be warmed up at least.
"Carter? You alright?"
"I – yeah, I'm …ah..." She started coughing.
"Open the door." He checked. It was unlocked. " Carter, I'm coming in." He really didn't care if she was buck-naked; he'd be better able to tell about broken bones and bruising that way and check for external signs of the bends.
She was leaning up against the sink, coughing, a towel around her body. Jack scanned the skin he could see. She was badly bruised but there was no rash, one of the first symptoms of decompression sickness. She stumbled, bracing her hands as she coughed, and he moved in, supporting her gently, her back to his chest.
He looked back at them both in the mirror in front of them, tilting his head. Her face was bruised, already puffy. "That's going to be quite the shiner."
She grimaced. "One of the shards caught me in the face. The goggles took the brunt of it." She paused. "I hate those stupid AF goggles, but I think they saved my eyes."
"Nice to know that AF requisition has some uses, not just porking up the latest bill in the House."
"I got off lucky. That thing was trying to …"
She couldn't quite finish the sentence, so he finished it for her. "—kill you, I know."
"It didn't want to kill you."
"I know, Carter. We'll figure it out, but right now you need to rest, and I need to make sure we don't have to evac you out of here. The bends…"
"I know. But I don't think I have any of the symptoms. The only joint pain is my left ankle, and it hit the wall. No headache, tingling, numbness, nausea…"
"Can you move? You need to rest." Activity aggravated the bends.
"Yeah." But she started coughing again. He supported her weight while she coughed, holding onto the sink. It wasn't a good sign. Dry cough was one of the symptoms.
She seemed to know what he was thinking. "It's not -I got water in my lungs, that's all. It's still irritating the lining." When she finally subsided, he put his arm under hers, helping her move to her bedroom. She stumbled again, coughing.
"Oh, to hell with this."
Only Daniel and Teal'c were around. He picked her up. She looked ready to kill him, which suddenly made him feel a whole hell of a lot better.
He deposited her somewhat gingerly and quickly on her bed.
"Thank you." Her tone was dry as dust.
He grimaced. "Okay, I know you think I'm overreacting, Carter, but that thing was out after you. And we came up fast." He hurried on. "As for this, its just business as usual when one of us is compromised. I'd do the same for Daniel or Teal'c." He paused, and tried joking. "Well, maybe not T. I don't think I could lift him."
She grimaced, coughing. "I know." She coughed again and continued, determinedly. "Teal'c would have murdered you the minute you walked in without permission when he was wearing a towel."
He grinned. She really was feeling better. "For your information, Teal'c never wears a towel."
"Ah." She started coughing again, and then smiled. "Too much information."
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
"So, just to be clear. Do you?"
"Do I what?"
"Wear a towel?"
She stared at him, clearly appalled. "I can't believe I just said that."
He couldn't either. He tried another joke. "Well, delirium is one of the first signs of the bends."
She rolled her eyes. "Ah, jeez…it's not the-". She started coughing again.
"Answer's 'no'."
She looked shocked that he'd actually replied.
He grinned. "Too much information?"
"Not this time."
He didn't know what to say to that. He left it alone to think about later.
OK, maybe that slight…weirdness had worked for a while to divert her, but he still needed to know how badly she was injured. He was her CO after all.
Yeah, right.
He sat down on the bed next to her. "You'll let me know if there are any signs?"
She stared back, serious. "I will. But we came up although we came up fast, it was still according to decompression rules. There's only a 2.8 possibility in 10,000 dives. I think I'm OK on that count." She stared at him, considering. "What about you?"
"Nothing."
She stayed silent.
He needed more answers. "OK, assuming no bends, are you sure no broken bones? I know you'd feel most of them, but if you've broken a rib, it could have punctured your lung and the pain isn't the same." He knew. He'd done it himself.
"No, that's not it. I'm sure. I just got water in my lungs and when I took a hit on the wall, messed up the ankle. That's it, except for the bruises." She shifted on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position.
"Will you let me check the ribs at least?" He was not going to let something stupid like modesty or bravado get in the way checking her injuries. And he knew that Carter knew better than that as well. Or at least he thought she did.
When she didn't say anything, he jumped into the silence. "Look, I can understand if you'd rather it wasn't me. But we need to know. Daniel or Teal'c can check if that's better."
"No."
"What?" He wasn't sure what she was disagreeing with.
" It's not better. I'd rather you checked, sir."
"Okay." He helped her sit up, then found a sweatshirt and helped her on with it. She shifted on the bed and raised it up to check her ribs. He couldn't feel anything broken, although he wouldn't be able to tell if she had a fracture. Only time would determine that, that or an MRI. He really should insist that they evac her to Page.
"I'm not going to Page. I'm all right, sir. Just sore." Yes, he knew she could read minds, but it didn't really matter. As her CO, it was his responsibility to make sure she was safe.
She broke into his thoughts. "I need to be here. I need to help with the analysis of what happened. Lee and Harris aren't that familiar with alien energy technology and that's what it had to be."
"Carter, you need to get checked out."
"If it's not any better tomorrow you can call for a copter and I'll get checked out at Page."
"No copter. No flying for 24 hours. You know the rules."
"OK, then by speedboat. But I've been worse. We all have. Just because it's Earth, doesn't mean we don't need to see the mission through."
He grimaced. She had a point. It was a mission and they had been in worse situations off world and saw them through. Just because they were on Earth shouldn't change that, although his instincts were screaming out at him to make absolutely sure she was ok and the hell with the rest. Damn. The real problem was he wasn't sure which instincts were foremost - CO or something else.
She noted his silence and said determinedly, "I'm not going. I need to be here."
He sighed. "OK, we'll give it until tomorrow. I'll get you some liquid. No drugs until we're sure about decompression."
He got her some water, and then waited until she'd settled down. He finally stood up to leave.
"Thank you."
He stared at her. Her eyes were already closed, resting. "No problem, Carter."
Except it was. It was a very big problem. He turned away and closed the door, quietly, determined to keep his head in the sand for as long as possible. They were in the desert, after all. Even if they had both nearly drowned today.
He headed to Carter's situation room and contacted Hammond. It was best that the man knew the situation at Powell and what had happened. And some conversations with their allies, Thor in particular, were in order. If it wasn't the Asgard, he hoped the little guy might have some idea of what they were up against. An hour later, he shut down, knowing Hammond would take care of his end at the SGC.