Clanks echoed through the silent infirmary room. Sam hunted a pea with her fork, deliberately missing. Clashing the fork against the plate helped her ease her anger. She didn´t care about the meal - it was still just an infirmary food, tasteless, formless, and colourless. But she wasn´t even hungry. She lost her appetite and the bitter taste in her mouth certainly didn´t help her gain it back.

You should eat it...you haven´t eaten anything in quite a while. With this your condition will only worsen...," nurse warned her again, but Sam ignored her pleas. She broodily syudied her broken wrist, firmly bandaged and fixed. She was told to be lucky to even survive the fall, but Sam wasn´t sure if she wold call herself lucky for that. Misfortune would be more fitting.

"She´s so stubborn...," muttered nurse to herself, obviously discouraged from the lack of her authority. "These are doctor´s orders! You have to listen to them. I´m sorry, I know that the food isn´t the most delicious around, but – " the young nurse gulped when she saw Sam´s annoyed glare piercing her. Nurse stared into the cold dark blue eyes and gulped. She straightened up and cleared her throat. "If you don´t obey, I will inform the doctor – "

"That won´t be necessary," said Sam in a sweet tone and threw smile at the nurse. Sam dipped the fork into the greasy mass of mashed potatoes. Nurse blinked and staggered for a moment from the sudden change of attitude.

"See, it wasn´t that difficult....we didn´t have to argue about it like children and could concentrate on the healing process much sooner...," the nurse sighed when she saw again the lack of interest from Sam in her.

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"Jack! Jack!" Daniel shouted through the hallway and made his way through the crowded corridor to his friend.

"Daniel?" Jack asked, not stopping and not waiting for the archeologist to catch up with him.

"About the mission-"

"Not now, Daniel."

"But Jack – "

"Another time, Daniel."

"No, listen to me, there´s something wrong with Thurman´s story. I mean – "

"I said, we´ll talk about it later," Jack walked into his office and shut his door. Daniel ignored it and followed him in, not listening to Jack´s annoyed remark.

"You do realize that you´re now walking on a very thin line, Daniel?" Jack warned him, but Daniel just threw a bunch of documents on his desk and sat in the chair against him.

"Well sorry for wanting to find out the truth behind the attack....,"

"Why thank you."

"Well you should. You can´t just let people making up things to cover up their mistakes! And I think we should return to that planet, not just because of the – " Daniel looked at Jack who was writing something down.

"Are you even listening?"

"Nope."

Daniel sighed, "By the way, Sam is awake."

"Yeah, I know."

"Did you visit her?"

"Yes, I did."

"And?"

"And what?" Jack snapped fretfully.

"And what did she tell you?"

Jack stopped writing something and startled. The whole conversation appeared in front of him like a nightmare.

"Carter...glad you made it."

"...Thank you."

"Doctor said you were lucky...."

"Yes...."

Long and awkward pause followed. Sam glanced from her bed to her wrist, then on Jack and then finally settling on the white sheet. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish taken from water, trying to find the right words.

"Carter?"

"I....I´m sorry....I messed up...," Sam mouthed the sentence, not sure if she even wanted him to hear it.

"What was that?" Jack asked carefully, not wanting to sound pushy, but he knew very well what she had said.

"I....I failed again." Sam´s eyes started to fill with tears. Jack just watched her crumble in front of him. He wanted her to comfort her, to cheer her up, but somehow the words didn´t come out. He wasn´t able to bring himself to say something like that, not wanting to revive old emotions he had been trying so hard to bury.

"Excuse me Sir, but I don´t feel very well. Could you leave me?"

"Carter..."

"Please – "

"...Okay."

Jack looked up at Daniel and slowly spoke,"That she´s fine and will heal in no-time,"

"You didn´t visit her."

"Actually yes, I did."

"You are hopeless...," Daniel shook his head. He stood up and walked to the door, taking a last look at Jack. „You know, what goes around, comes around....," he said and left the room.

"I did visit her!" Jacked called back at him but wasn´t sure if it meant anything. He sighed and sank into his chair.

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Sam stared at the overhead lamp, the conversation still resounding in her ears. She didn´t pay attention to Teal´c who even brought flowers. She was mean, she knew it, but she couldn´t pretend everything was okay. And then there were the bursts of sharp pain that stroke through her head as a guillotine whenever she started to think about something else. Sam cringed when the pain irrupted again.

"Are you okay, Colonel Carter?" Teal´c asked when she saw her grimace.

"Yeah...it happens now and then...," Sam took a deep breath and lightly massaged her temples.

"Maybe it would be wise to confront it with the doctor," Teal´c noted, sounding concerned.

"It´s okay, thanks Teal´c," Sam smiled at him. He glanced at her with doubt.

"Uh...Teal´c ...," she started slowly, trying to look oblivious to the whole situation , "have you already spokean with the General? About the mission..."

"Yes, we had a briefing shortly after our arrival."

"And what did he say?"

"He wasn´t too pleased with the result."

Sam ridged and looked down guiltily. This was supposed to be the mission when she would finally prove herself as a competent leader. But she had to prove it on a mission with the worst of all SG teams and end it with the worst of all possible endings.

"However he did express a deep concern for your state." Teal´c noded his head in hope to cheer her up with the information.

But Sam looked at him in disbelief. „What? Oh no, I´m sure he didn´t say that – " she started to laugh ´c open his mouth to reply back but was interrupted by doctor.

"I´m sorry, but you will have to leave now. Time for a med check....if you excuse us." The young doctor pushed Teal´c away and closed the white curtain around Sam´s bed, not giving her a chance to protest.

"I shall come later then," he threw look at the doctor, but she didn´t notice it. "Take care, Colonel."

"Thanks, Te-," his name was absorbed in a painful shriek, followed by doctor´s complaints and Sam´s grumping.

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Five levels above was Dr. Merrith sitting behind his desk, staring at the numerous photographs taken at the temple. Inscriptions, architecture, even the odd statue looked so familiar, and yet none of it made sense when put together. He ran through the database countless times, but without any success. He tried to organize at least the few facts they had gathered, but even those were hard to sort out. The whole situation looked like taken from an old myth, something someone just made up to scare kids and to present his hidden opinions.

"Maybe...maybe if it weren´t for the statue...," he took one close-up shot of the sculpture, examing it thoroughly once more. „What are you...," he ran his finger across the paper.

"Still looking at the statue?"

Merrith jumped and turned around to find Daniel looking at him, slightly amused.

"It almost looks like you´ve fallen in love..." he mused.

"Wh-what? N-no, I just – err-...hey,how long have you been here?" he asked finally.

"Just enough time to get that idea."

"Oh..."his cheeks turned red. "I didn´t fall in love, it´s just...so fascinating. I mean, not the statue itself, I mean, cut off limbs aren´t a pleasant look for me, but....it´s so mysterious. Everything. It won´t let me...I need to find out what it is."

"Well that´s a motivated person," he put a pile of books he had been for in his office on his already packed table and pointed at them. "This is all I could find that could be helpful. I excluded almost every culture we´ve encountered, but found some very promosing matches."

"Really? I´ve ran through the database but nothing ever – "

"Oh yeah, well...there are certain things that just aren´t meant for a database," Daniel said conspiratively.

"Really? Why? I mean – "

"How about concentrating on this now? We have about a day to find a clue before Jack throws the whole mission out of window and we´ll never set our foot on that planet again."

"True....but General sure has been nasty lately..." Merrith murmured, taking a book and going through it. Daniel didn´t say anything, but he looked at the door, just to make sure Jack wasn´t standing there. He then grabbed a book too and started going through the notes.

Author´s notes : Well, longest chapter so far.....Enjoy and reviews/crits are welcome.