Wow, such a great response...thank you to everyone who sent in those super reviews. Keep them coming, pretty please, because I so need that little extra boost to help me get on with writing my very new story. If you all shout loud enough it will make me write faster! LOL!

"If At First You Don't Succeed..."

by Lingren.

Previously:-

Janet's admiration, already deeply ingrained, for the Colonel went up several more notches. He had conquered his own pain and suffering in order to get help for a person, who, practically everyone in the SGC knew he just did not like. It was so very typical of him to put others needs before his own, no matter who they were or what the circumstances.

Chapter 4 – Questions Without Answers

Consciousness came back slowly. Familiar smells and soft sounds filled his ears. Now he knew without a doubt that he was in the infirmary again. 'Ow! Crap, what did I do this time?' he puzzled, trying to open his eyes.

Janet was busy checking his vitals again when she saw a deep frown crease his brow, and then his eyelids fluttered and opened. She waited a moment for him to focus his eyes properly before she spoke.

"Good to see you've decided to join us at last Colonel."

He turned his head towards the familiar voice.

"Doc?"

Her face swam slightly and he had to blink several times to clear his fuzzy vision.

"Who else were you expecting Colonel?"

"What? How'd I get here?" he asked weakly. "Where's my team? Did they get back okay?" he questioned, on noticing the empty chair, and feeling strangely alone but couldn't grasp the reason why that was so.

"Don't you remember what happened Colonel? You drove your truck back here. Colonel Maybourne was in the back, barely alive, but he's made it so far." He still looked bewildered so Janet gave him a little more, understanding what was bothering him. "You were both wounded sir. And SG-1 went on the mission without you."

He closed his eyes for a couple of minutes trying to recall why and how they had been wounded. And how the heck could he have forgotten all about the damn mission?

When he opened his eyes again, Janet was gone from his side, and he wondered if he'd been dreaming it all.

He turned his head slightly and saw her busy several beds away tending to another patient. So, where was everybody? Normally one of his team would be sitting with him when he awoke after he'd been injured, but the chair beside the bed was empty, and he couldn't understand why that was – but hadn't he asked that before. He felt himself slipping away again, but mentally pushed the need to sleep away.

"Doc," he called, surprised at how feeble his voice actually sounded.

Janet looked up and smiled over at him.

"I'll be with you in a minute Colonel."

She finished checking the other soldier's vitals and made her way over to him.

"Hi there. Feeling more like staying awake are we?"

"I thought I was awake? I was talking to you just a minute ago," Jack muttered in confusion, which deepened when Janet grinned.

"Not for a while now Colonel. You woke up about two hours ago and went back to sleep again almost straight away." She lifted his head slightly and held a straw against his mouth for him to sip the water she offered. His fever had dropped slightly and she was glad he was responding well to the antibiotics. "How are you feeling now?"

"Groggy...em...hot, it's hot. Hurts...all over. Wha'd I do this time?"

"You got yourself shot Colonel, and you have a slight fever too because you developed a bit of an infection from all that dirt you picked up off the ground. You had a couple of bullets in your right arm and one high up in your left thigh. You're lucky to be here at all. If it wasn't for that Kevlar vest you wore..." She let off, knowing she didn't need to tell him the rest, and adjusted the IV which released more pain medication into him to make him more comfortable.

His eyes now widened as he recalled the previous events with startling clarity.

"Maybourne? Is he okay?" He wasn't sure if he'd asked before, but it still wouldn't hurt to find out the latest news.

"I've placed him in the isolation ward at the moment. That way nobody except a few of my staff need see him. He's still with us...for now anyway...thanks to you."

"Not my doin' Doc. That was Harry...he forewarned me to take precautions, so I wore the vest. Why the hell didn't he get hold of one?" It was really a rhetorical question but it raised many others in his mind.

"The wearing of that vest, Colonel, saved your life because it stopped two more bullets," Janet continued as if he hadn't spoken. "They were directly over your heart, which is why you have massive bruising there from the impacts and why you're feeling very sore."

"Where's Carter or Daniel, Teal'c?"

If Janet didn't know any better, she could quite easily grow tired of that question, but knowing her patient and her oath as a medic, she held onto her slight frustration and replied as if he hadn't mentioned them before.

"They went on the mission Sir. General Hammond put Major Carter in command in your stead. They're not due back yet."

"Oh! Yeah. Kinda lost track of the time." He waited for Janet to stop fussing with his bandages before he added. " You know, I told them last time that I wanted sleeves on my vest, but they never listened."

Janet Fraiser had to smile at his comment as she remembered back to the last time he had been shot. It was when Sam had been kidnapped by Adrian Conrad's men. He'd mistakenly thought Maybourne had shot him back then but he'd since discovered it had been Simmons.

"I got more holes in my arm than a Swiss cheese's got," he griped, looking down at the swathe of bandages now covering his arm. This was the point at which Janet noticed his eyelids were getting heavy again.

"That maybe so Colonel, but you'll heal again given time. Now, I want you to go back to sleep. It's only 03.35 and the General wants to see you first thing tomorrow." She wiped the fine sheen of sweat from his forehead with a cool damp cloth, which he thought was wonderful. But then her words registered in his mind.

"Crap!" he sighed as he fell asleep yet again.

She smiled down at him, glad he had defied the odds once again. Making sure he was well asleep, she went back to her office for a cup of coffee and to put her feet up while she could. It had been a long night already, and it was far from over yet.

OoOoOoOoO

General Hammond had been along to the infirmary several times during that eventful night and throughout the next day to check up on his 2IC, as well as their top secret patient. It had been over 32 hours now since Jack had brought Maybourne in, almost dying in the process. Now he kept wondering exactly what had happened to them and who was behind it all? He tried hard to piece the jigsaw together, but it was very difficult when half the pieces were missing.

What on earth had possessed Jack to go and see the disgraced officer during those important hours when he should have been preparing to go off-world? Why had they both been shot? Who was responsible? Did it have anything to do with the NID people, who had tried to kill Jack several weeks before? All these questions kept churning round in his mind since they had arrived back at the SGC; along with the familiar concern about how his off-world teams were faring too.

Hammond found himself once more standing a silent vigil over his subordinate. Janet had already reported to him that Jack had woken briefly and was improving from the medication she had administered, and that he should be able to talk to him later in the morning when she expected him to wake up.

A few minutes later, he moved along the corridor to the isolation ward and looked in on Maybourne. It was still touch and go with him, so he was informed by the duty nurse who was watched over the undisclosed patient. Hammond sighed heavily, there were times he really hated this job. It was at times like this that he felt every year of his age. He had more than enough to fret about over his teams, without the added stresses of any 'cloak and dagger' nonsense they seemed to attract in spades.

Suddenly the soft noises of the infirmary was shattered when the Klaxons started up, and duty bound, Hammond rushed of towards the control room. Both SG-1, and SG-6 were the only teams currently off-world and weren't scheduled to return just yet. It would be too bad if anything had happened to any of them too, more so to SG-1.

OoOoOoOoO

Hammond hurried along the corridors, panting slightly by the time he had entered the control room. The Technician Sergeant seated at the desk turned slightly in his chair to face him.

"It's SG-1's IDC Sir."

"Open the Iris, and get a medical team down there, just in case there are injuries."

Davis, the senior computer technician, opened the iris and called for a medical team while the General made his way to the bottom of the ramp in expectation of possible casualties heralded by their early return.

The General smiled when he saw Jacob emerge from the wormhole, albeit unsteadily. And suddenly all the tension he'd felt about the mission dissipated instantly in the relief of seeing Jacob/Selmak standing there as large as life and relatively unharmed. He watched and waited eagerly for the others to come through as Jacob made his way down the ramp to meet him.

Seconds later, Daniel fairly flew out of the wormhole and landed in a jumbled heap on the ramp, hitting his head in the process. He was momentarily stunned by his abrupt exit and stayed down until his world had stopped spinning around him.

The next person to tumble through was Sam who also stumbled rapidly from the liquid flux. It happened so fast that she tripped over the still prone Daniel, yelping when she landed awkwardly on her wrist.

However, Teal'c emerged quite calmly, raising one eyebrow at the chaotic scene before him. General Hammond and Jacob, now they knew all the team were home, ran up the metal steps and onto the ramp in order to help Sam and Daniel to their feet. Behind them the gate shut down leaving the base safe again.

"You okay Sammy?" Jacob asked as he helped her stand.

"Yeah, I'm okay Dad thanks. I think I just sprained my wrist, that's all. I'm fine honestly."

"I'm glad to see you all back safely and relatively in one piece anyway," Hammond told them. "Get yourselves along to the infirmary and have Dr. Fraiser take a look at that wrist Major, and Dr. Jackson, you had better allow her to check that head wound of yours too. We'll debrief in two hours people." He turned to his old friend. "Jacob shall we talk in my office?"

Sam had been looking round the gate room, seeking the one person who seemed to be missing. Jack. Even to herself she didn't want to admit how disappointed she was to find him absent.

"Ah...General, has Jack returned yet?" Daniel spoke up, unconsciously voicing Sam's very thoughts, and also wondering why his friend hadn't been there to meet them on their return.

General Hammond had known they would ask that particular question as soon as they'd returned from the mission.

"Yes, he has Dr. Jackson."

"Good. That's good. Sooo...where is he? I thought he would at least have been here to meet us? To see if we made it back okay with Jacob."

"Actually..." Hammond sighed with regret, knowing he couldn't keep this from them. "...he's in the infirmary. He had been injured, but Dr. Fraiser assures me he is doing just fine."

"Injured?" Both Daniel and Sam gasped in shock. "How bad?" demanded Daniel, his face growing more pale than it was already.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you here. You'll soon be able to see for yourselves when you get down to the infirmary and get those injuries of your own taken care of."

"Yes Sir." Came the rather subdued despondent replies. Hammond and Jacob watched them hurry as fast as they were permitted through the blast door, eager to see what had happened to their team leader.

TBC