It was more than four hours before Doctor Fraiser appeared and headed toward them. "Surgery went well," she told them. Then, directly to Jack, she added, "She wasn't pregnant."

Thank God. He was so overwhelmed with relief that Daniel beat him to the next obvious question. "What happened to her?"

"Uh..." She tapped her foot. Pinched her nose. Made a face. Finally, she decided, "It's a woman thing."

Jack was on his feet in a split second. "Oh, hell no," he growled. "I've had about enough of that crap. What happened?"

Fraiser raised an eyebrow. "You're sure you wanna know? Really sure?"

"I watched my wife pop out a human. I can handle it."

Fair enough. "Okay. Well... Every month a small cyst forms on one of a woman's ovaries, and when she ovulates, the cyst bursts to release the egg. They come and go, painless for most women, and it happens without incident for decades. But every so often, one of them doesn't resolve on schedule. They can grow to be quite large, usually extremely painful. And if a cyst gets big enough, when it ruptures, it can cause serious damage."

"She was bleeding to death," Jack surmised.

"Yes. Colonel, if you'd waited another hour to get her back here, we'd likely be having a completely different conversation."

"Wait." Daniel shook his head to clear it. "You're saying this was a fluke."

"Yes."

"And it nearly killed her."

She shrugged. "It's rare for it to get this serious. But it happens. She's lucky she wasn't home alone."

"Might it happen again?" Teal'c asked.

"It could. A woman who's had one abnormal cyst is more likely to have another. Some women are very prone to them. But I'm not seeing anything about it in her records. I have no reason to believe it's happened before, or that she had any idea what was going on."

Daniel rubbed his nose. "Can we see her?"

"Sure. She's in Recovery. I'll have one of the nurses take you back."

Jack waved them on and headed for the exit instead. "I gotta go update Hammond."

~/~

Jack hadn't returned by the time Captain Carter moaned a bit, pain creasing her forehead. Daniel winced, too, because he knew what was coming next.

She blinked a few times, taking in the infirmary around her and the two men who sat beside her for a long moment before she mumbled, "Wha' happened?"

Daniel glanced up at his companion and realized he was going to get zero help from Teal'c. "Uh... I'm sure Doctor Frasier can explain better than we can." It was such a cop out, he knew. And he embraced it wholeheartedly.

But her brow furrowed deeper. "Is it bad?"

"Oh. No, no, you're fine now," he soothed.

"'Kay." Her eyes slipped closed, and he thought he was off the hook until she asked, "'S'there some water?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Hang on." Ducking between the curtains, he found a nurse who provided him with an ugly pink plastic cup and a straw.

He lucked out. By the time he got back, she was asleep.