"You'll be the death of me, Carter!" Jack yelled as they tumbled onto the ramp in the Gate Room.
General Hammond hurried to the injured colonel. "What happened?"
"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary, sir. The natives liked us fine...as target practice." He said, clutching his leg.
"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know it was blasphemy to touch the cat!" Sam protested, kneeling over her commanding officer, and holding his leg together as the medical team approached them.
"They became hostile for petting a cat?" The General asked.
"Hey! In their defense, it was a sacred cat!" Jack said. "But no, sir, they didn't take to kindly to the cat jumping into Carter's arms."
"Get Colonel O'Neill to the infirmary! The rest of SG-1: debriefing at 0930." He ordered the mass of people in the Gate Room.
SG-1 walked into the infirmary after the briefing in time to hear Jack's complaints. "Aw come on, Doc! It's just a scratch!"
"Sir, hold still! Your leg is broken right above your knee. Thankfully, it was a clean break and won't require surgery!"
"How long should he be off of it?" Sam asked.
"At least a week. Now, it's up to him if he spends that week in here or at his house." She said, folding her arms sternly.
"Well, I'm not staying here!"
"I'll take first watch." Sam offered. "We've got leave until he heals."
"Sounds good to me." Janet said, smiling.
"And I'll take second watch." Daniel piped in.
"And I will enforce Daniel Jackson's authority." Teal'c replied.
"Good." Janet continued. "If you'll give me another few minutes, I'll have his prescription ready to go."
"Doc, I've told you before and I'll tell you again...I don't need no damn painkillers!" He roared, taking the nurse binding his leg by surprise. She accidentally bumped his leg, causing him to yell again. "AGH!"
"You were saying?" Janet asked, with a smug smile.
"All right! All right! I'll take the meds!" He grumbled.
"Have to admit you deserved that." Daniel said, looking down at the injured man.
"Thanks, Daniel. Somehow that makes me feel just peachy!"
"Really?" Daniel asked.
"No!" He yelled.
"Careful," Sam cautioned. "He's a bear when his leg's being splinted. I know from first-hand experience."
"Bite me, Carter!"
She gave him a cheeky grin. "Is that an order?"
While Daniel stared at her with a slightly disturbed look on his face, Janet barely looked up from Jack's chart. "That's enough you two."
"Yes, ma'am." They replied, quickly.
"Now, Sam. I'd like him to take two tablets at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and with a snack right before bed."
"Okay, two tablets at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and with a snack right before bed. And keep him off his foot for at least a week. Anything else?"
"He can only use the crutches for times of absolute necessity at your discretion."
"Thanks, Janet."
"Good luck!"
"Hey, I'm not THAT bad!" Jack insisted.
"Uh-huh." Sam said sarcastically as she helped him up onto his crutches.
They reached Jack's house and Sam parked her car in the driveway. "Hold on, sir." She said as she got out of the car and raced around to open the door for him and help him onto his crutches.
"Oh for cryin' out loud, Carter! I should be able to get myself into my own house!"
She smiled. "And yet, you can't."
He just looked at her, disgustedly and hobbled into his house. She shook her head in amusement as she followed him.
"Sir, it's almost lunchtime and Janet wanted you to start taking these immediately." She said, watching him try to lower himself into the chair by the table.
"So?"
"What do you want? And no, you can't have your world-famous omelet. It goes against Janet's alcohol ban."
"Not in the mood for eggs anyway." He grumbled.
"Got anything for sandwiches?" She asked, walking into the kitchen.
"A little ham, bread, you know...stuff."
She put together a decent-looking sandwich and placed it in front of him alongside a glass of water and two orange pills. "There you go, Colonel."
He grumbled all through lunch, and she ebreathed a tiny prayer of thanks when he announced that he was tired. She helped him into the bedroom, and she was about to leave when the groggy colonel reached a hand out to caress her face. He looked deeply into her eyes and smiled. "I've missed you, Christine."
She froze, her heart pounding. He had called her Christine and she had called him Phantom. In their little lovers' corner of the universe, the Phantom and Christine had had a beautifully tender and spiritually intimate love affair: the graduate student just finishing up his Master's and the college freshman who had blossomed under his wing.
She knew that this wasn't her Phantom, but she held his hand against her cheek anyway. He had fallen asleep, so she didn't feel ashamed as she let the love, longing, loneliness, emptiness, joy, sadness, hope, and fear wash over her- sometimes they came separately and sometimes she was so full of various emotions that each tear that slipped down her heek was indicative of a new emotion.
She missed everything about him: his tender, loving kiss right before rehearsal that gave her the strength to endure Raoul's endlessly tormenting embrace, his strong arms encircling her as he walked her to her apartment after their late night rehearsals, and the look in his eye that could either paralyze her as he walked toward her or send her running into his arms.
She had never been the same after he left. There had never been any sense of closure after their week together. She had gotten up and found herself in his arms every morning only to see him leave a week later for Chicago. And so the Phantom began haunting her dreams, always disappearing into the early morning haze, always eluding her grasp, yet never completely out of her sight.
Jack awoke an hour later, the grogginess gone, to find Sam sitting on the windowsill in his room, with a box of Kleenex in her hands. "You okay?"
She was looking out the window, somewhat longingly, and Jack wondered what had changed her so much. Tears were streaming down her cheek, reflecting the sunlight that filtered in through the window. His heart ached for her, and suddenly, speculation wasn't enough. He had to try to fix it. "You okay, Carter?"
She jumped to her feet at the sound of his voice, quickly brushing away the tears with the back of her hand. "Oh, sorry, sir."
"Nothing to be sorry about."
She stood. "Can I get you anything? Yoyo, Gameboy, Simpsons?"
"Musical."
She stood rooted to her spot. "Musical, sir?" She asked, recovering slightly.
"What? Cranky, old, bedridden colonels aren't allowed to like musicals?"
She forced a laugh. "That's not what I meant, sir. I was just...surprised. Which musical?"
"Um...I don't know..."
"You want me to get Daniel to bring a few over?" She asked, "You know, get a selection?"
"No. Just grab the DVDs in the bottom left-hand cabinet of the bookshelf in the den. I'll take a look at them."
She just nodded. "Yes, sir."
As she pulled out the movies, she was shocked to find such musicals as "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "State Fair" among musicals like "West Side Story" and "Jekyll and Hyde." There was only one person beside herself that had been so eclectiv in his musical tastes- Jonathan.
She shook her head. Now was not the time to indulge in such memories. She was taking care of her commanding officer, and had almost had to explain herself to him. And she wasn't exactly sure that she was strong enough to tell him that Jonathan had been the reason she'd been okay leaving the revelations from the zatarc testing in the isolation room that day.
"Carter! You coming?" Jack bellowed.
"Yes, sir!"
She arrived a few seconds later, carrying a large box of DVDs. "Is this what you wanted, sir?'
He nodded. "Yep. Set it down here, please."
"As you wish, Master." She said, with a grin.
That kind of hurt him, but he brushed it aside. "And don't you forget it!"
He selected "West Side Story" and Sam popped it into the DVD player. "I'm going to go work on some reports for the Pentagon." She said, as the movie loaded.
"Carter!" He whined.
"What, sir?"
"You're on leave!"
"Only because you're injured. That doesn't mean that I don't have work to get done..." She admonished.
"Have you ever seen "West Side Story?"" He asked.
Painful memories welled up inside. "Yes, I have, sir." She replied simply.
"And you'd refuse an invitation to see it again so you can report on your doohickeys that both you and I know you're not thinking about right now?" He asked.
He was right, she thought. She wasn't thinking at all about the things that she was supposed to write her reports about. Maybe taking a break and reminiscing would help to clear the air. Then, after Daniel arrived, she could go to Janet's and tell her the whole story. It sounded like a good idea to her, so she walked over to the other side of Jack's bed. "I guess this one time won't hurt."
"I won't tell a soul!" Jack said, smiling.
At the beginning of the movie, they were on completely opposite sides of the bed. But as tears fell freely from her eyes, Jack reached over without thinking and pulled her close. She cried herself to sleep in his embrace.
