Memories of the Heart by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. A mission goes horribly wrong while Sam's life is changed forever. Spoilers: All seasons, including 10 to the end.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.
Memories of the Heart
Chapter 13
A.N. Thank you to all the reviewers. When I saw them today, I felt like posting sooner. Thanks! Just remember the warnings about the story...
The first week of February started badly for Sam. Telling John that his father had died brought back painful memories about the death of her own father and, inevitably, about Daniel. The uncertainty of his death gave her some days of hope and others of agonizing depression. She desperately wanted him to be alive, but, at the same time, she feared the fate he would be suffering if he had not died.
Almost by the end of the week, Sam finally got good news. A clear surge of beta human chorionic gonadotropin −she knew every technical term by then− signaled the implantation of the egg in her uterus. That, single-handedly, ended her depression. She decided to keep it secret until she was sure it would work, but she found it difficult not to smile without a reason −at least not an evident one− and sighed with pleasure every time she thought about the baby growing inside of her.
It did not last long. Only a few days after the news, she agreed to accompany Rodney and Jennifer to a former Genii mining planet. She wanted to convince the villagers to let the Atlantis people move them to a better location, especially since their current situation worsened every day due to constant earthquakes and poor air quality.
It was supposed to simply be a diplomatic mission. Sam was confident that, with the help of Jennifer and with everything she had learned from Daniel over the years, she would achieve a positive result. Rodney would help her with all the scientific data they needed to show the villagers the need to move.
Unfortunately, on their way to the meeting, the roof of an abandoned Genii mining facility caved in and the three fell to the bottom of a large room.
"Don't move if you feel any shooting pains" Jennifer warned.
"I would never move if that was the case," Rodney answered.
Jennifer looked at Sam as she carefully sat up and immediately recognized the fear in her eyes. "The fall wasn't too harsh. I don't think it caused any damage," she told her.
"Well, it doesn't look like any of us are bleeding," Sam tried with a small smile.
Rodney, unaware of what was worrying Sam, added, "At least externally."
Jennifer groaned. "We'll be okay."
After a few minutes they had assessed their situation. They were inside part of the Genii mining complex.
It was clear that they could not reach the hole in the ceiling, so they tried opening the doors by the sides of the chamber. After not succeeding with the first one, they opened the second −red− door. Behind it, they only found a deep chasm. Feeling helpless, they decided to wait for their friends to rescue them, until a tremor alerted Sam to the possibility that the metal stilts holding the room could collapse due to the extra weight they had added.
The ceiling was their most feasible route of escape. Sam and Rodney stacked some crates that were in the room to try to climb to the surface.
"All right, look. If we're actually going to do this, I figure we need to stack these things, like, twenty feet high in order to climb out, so no matter how we build it, it's going to be unstable," Rodney warned.
"Well, only one person has to climb it," Sam said and looked at Jennifer, the lightest of the three.
"Oh, no. I'm kind of awful with heights, so ..." Jennifer said as she looked at Rodney.
"So, Sam goes," he concluded calmly.
"What? You're not even going to consider yourself?" Sam asked.
"It's heights! I'm probably worse than she is!" he exclaimed.
Sam sighed. "Let's get started."
"No," Jennifer stopped her. "It's dangerous."
"It's dangerous staying here doing nothing, too, so…"
"No; you shouldn't do it."
"Why not?" Rodney asked with curiosity.
Jennifer looked at Sam, begging.
Sam gave up. "Because I'm pregnant and one fall is bad enough for the baby."
Rodney looked stunned. "You're pregnant? And you choose now to tell me?"
"She wouldn't have told you if you weren't forcing her to climb this thing."
"All right. All right! I'll do it, but you'll better take good care of me if I fall."
They women smiled.
"And congratulations, by the way." Rodney climbed and started building on top of the first layer. Right after he reached the third layer, the structure collapsed. Fortunately, he was not hurt, but a new tremor reminded them of their need to get out of the chamber.
They looked around the room and found a grappling hook and some rope. Before they could try to escape with them, a group of children from the village looked at them from the surface. In spite of their pleads, the children refused to ask their parents for help, because they feared they would get in trouble if it was known that they were in an area where they were not supposed to be.
Soon after, a new tremor tilted the room and increased their worry.
Meanwhile, Rodney achieved nothing with the hook but a ruptured gas pipe. The sparks produced by a new failed attempt with the hook ignited the gas and threw Rodney onto the floor. Sam courageously approached the pipe and shut it down.
Sam's attempts with the hook succeeded getting it onto the surface, but trying to use the rope to climb only brought more dirt into the room.
Finding no other solution, they decided to try another plan, based on a bar trick Jennifer knew. They built a bridge of planks using pipes to hold it. When Sam was a few seconds away from reaching the edge of the hole, a tremor shook the structure and everything collapsed.
"Sam!" Jennifer yelled as she ran toward her.
Sam was lying on her back, groaning softly.
Rodney checked the area of the collapse to see if there was more danger.
Jennifer checked Sam. She soon had a diagnostic. "Your leg is broken," she told Sam. Then, she started working on the leg and Rodney helped her. While Sam rested, they searched for a couple of planks to make a splint and immobilize her leg.
Rodney came close to Jennifer and quietly asked, "Look, how bad is she?"
"Well, it's not so bad… She still has feeling in her foot, so there doesn't seem to be any nerve damage, but the break is pretty severe... and there may very well be internal bleeding."
"What about the baby?"
"I won't know until I get an ultrasound."
"Okay; worst case scenario, she's bleeding internally. How long has she got before she... before it becomes very serious?"
"An hour."
"Oh, boy."