Chapter 2

"Sam?" the voice was gargled and clear and loud and faint all the same time. "Sam? Can you hear me?" Janet gently stroked her friend's cheek.

"Her body was badly damaged," Selmak was saying, "the device was unable to heal her completely. She could still die."

"If she doesn't wake up soon, she'll die anyway," the doctor told him. Jacob looked away as tears filled his eyes.

"Janet . . ." the lips moved, barely emitting a sound. "Janet?" the voice was scarcely a whisper.

"Sam," Dr. Frasier leaned over her patient. The eyelids opened slowly, blinking slightly as Sam tried to focus her blurred vision. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Two," the blonde answered.

"Hey, Sam," a gentle voice spoke her name as another face took the place of Janet's in her narrow field of vision. For a moment, she saw the face of her captor. As fear gripped her heart, she blinked again, seeing that it was Jacob.

"Dad . . ." she murmured, relief soothing her expression.

"Hang in there, kid," he told her. "Keep fighting and you'll be alright." He kissed her softly on the forehead.

"The healing device . . ." she breathed. Jacob shook his head.

"I already used it. Your body will have to do the rest itself."

"It hurts . . . so much . . ." her forehead creased in agony. Jacob looked to Janet for assistance.

"I can increase her morphine drip a little," the woman replied.

"Thank you," the man sighed, then carefully squeezed Sam's hand. "Hang in there, kid." The air force major struggled to keep her eyes open for fear that she was just having another dream.

"Janet . . ." her voice was edged with panic. "Janet!"

"I'm here, Sam," Janet took her hand. "You're safe." Sam met her concerned gaze, trying to sense anything that would alert her to this new lie. Before she could come to a conclusion she slipped back into a drugged unconsciousness.

---

"Hey," Jack spoke softly as he entered the isolation room. Major Carter turned her head to look at him.

"Sir," she responded.

"Feeling any better?" he asked, taking a seat on a stool beside the bed.

"A little bit," Sam answered quietly, managing a small smile.

"Look—I'll never forgive myself for what happened to you," the man declared, a lump forming in his throat. Sam looked away.

"You shouldn't!" she thought viciously, but said, "Sir, you can't blame yourself for what happened."

"Still," Jack insisted. The major bit her lip as it began to tremble.

"Why did it take so long for someone to find me?" she whispered as tears welled up in her eyes.

"The people who did this took you to another planet," Jack answered grimly, feeling like a total failure. "We had no way of knowing—it was a good thing SG-6 found you on their last mission . . . . Carter, I'm sorry."

"I'm fine, sir," she replied, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'd like to get some sleep now."

"Okay," the man nodded as he stood to his feet. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Yes, sir." Sam pressed her head back into the pillow, closing her eyes as she did so. She suddenly cried out in pain. "Don't do this!" she pleaded as she was thrown to the ground. She cried out again as a torture rod was touched to the back of her neck.

"You are resilient for a woman," her captor, an unfeeling, non-descript man, said as he sat in his chair. He motioned to one of his guards and the man removed Major Carter's BDU jacket. "I hear you tried to escape," he spoke again. "That will not be tolerated." He gave a nod and one of the men brought a whip down upon the woman's back.

"Argh! Oh, my word—oh gosh! Make it stop! Please stop!" Sam cried at the top of her lungs, tossing violently, tears streaming down her face.

"Sam?" a pair of hands gently took her by the shoulders. "Sam, you're having a nightmare. It's not real—you're safe. Sam, can you hear me? You're back on Earth, at the SGC."

"Janet?" the blonde gasped, her eyes opening as she looked around in panic at her surroundings.

"I'm right here," the red-head soothed, putting a hand on Sam's cheek. The blonde looked at her.

"This is real," Sam whispered. "You're really here. I'm here. Along with the colonel and Daniel and Teal'c . . . ."

"That's right," the doctor nodded.

"It seemed so real . . . . My word, Janet, I thought I'd never escape."

"But you did. And you're safe—no one's going to hurt you, alright?" Sam nodded slightly, her breath still coming in erratic gasps.

"Okay."

---

Some time later . . .

Sam sat in the bed reading a book with surprisingly little success due to the fact that the words kept dancing about the page. Aggravated, she thrust the book across the room and then winced as the sudden movement jostled her ribcage. She sucked in a breath that came out in a fit of coughing.

"Are you alright, Major Carter?" Teal'c inquired as he entered the room. Sam smiled at him, blinking to get rid of the blur that outlined his muscular figure.

"Yeah, just a bit of a cold, now," she told him. "I'm getting used to the incessant headaches—a couple more weeks and my ribs will stop hurting, too."

"You still do not look well," he told her honestly. The woman gave a small laugh.

"Well, Janet says she's got to fatten me up," she said. "I haven't weighed this little since I was a kid." At her prompting, the large Jaffa sat down in a nearby chair.

"Major Carter," Teal'c spoke with a slight intensity, "I wish to apologize for what has happened to you."

"Teal'c," she assured him, "it's like I told the colonel and Daniel—it's not your fault. I don't blame you." Only Jack. Teal'c nodded in reply before rising to his feet.

"I will come and visit you again," he promised.

"Alright," Major Carter smiled, "I'll be looking forward to it." She laid back on her pillow, blinking as she weakly attempted to resist her tiredness.

"You don't look well." Sam's head jerked in the direction of the voice, as she rose slowly from the damp dirt floor. A man crouched beyond the rusted bars of her cell, a bowl in his hands.

"Here," he spoke again, "Eat." Suspiciously, she took the food from him.

"Is this some kind of trick?" she finally asked, a hollow ache behind her clear blue eyes.

"No," he answered. "No, it's not. I—I'm not going to take advantage of you or, or drug you or anything like that. I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help . . . ."

"Do you really mean that?" the air force major demanded.

"Y-yes," he stammered, surprised by her sudden brashness. She leaned in closer to him.

"Then get me out of here," she whispered pleadingly, tears welling in her eyes.

"I wish I could, but-but I can't," the man told her, tears beginning to fill his own eyes. "I can't . . . . May I ask your name, anyway?"

"It's Sam," she answered; though, she wasn't sure why she had. He'd already refused to help her without giving any explanation.

"Sam," he repeated softly, hesitantly putting out a hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Sam . . . Sam. Sam—can you hear me?" Major Carter blinked in surprise as a face appeared overhead.

"Sorry, Daniel," she said softly. "I must've dozed off."

"I didn't know you were asleep, your eyes were wide open," the archaeologist returned apologetically.

"Don't worry about it," she told him. "I'd rather stay awake, anyway."

"Nightmares?" he asked. She met his gaze.

"Yeah," she answered. "I keep going back there. I'm not entirely sure what's real and what's not. When I was there, I kept dreaming that I was here and now that I'm here . . . ."

"You're afraid that this is still a dream?" Daniel guessed.

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "I am."