58
"I'm fine, Dad! Let me go!" Sam struggles against Jacob's grip as she fights to follow the gurney taking Jack out of the gate room.
"Sam—you're bleeding! Calm down!" Jacob urges. She had sagged against him a few moments ago, and he'd seen the blood and grabbed her, thinking she was fainting. But she'd recovered quickly, almost frantically, when she saw Jack being wheeled away.
"No! I'm okay! I have to go with him..."
Daniel steps in front of her, and puts his hand on her shoulder. "Sam, you're injured... Look."
She follows his gaze and is surprised to see the blood running down her arm. She has not felt pain up until now, just the weakness that hit her earlier. "What..." she stutters. Another wave of dizziness sweeps over her and Daniel and Jacob both catch hold of her as she sways. Jacob's hand lands on the bleeding shoulder and she cries out in pain.
He adjusts his grip quickly. "Sorry, Sammie baby..."
"Your shoulder's been hit," Daniel says, waving one of the medical teams over. A few moments later, she is on a gurney with a corpsman and a nurse bending over her.
"Daniel," she begs. "Find out about Ja... the Colonel..." Her shoulder is starting to really hurt now, and after a final protest, she allows the corpsman to carefully remove her vest and cut away her shirt in order to apply a gauze pad to the bleeding wound. "I didn't even feel it before..." she mutters.
"Adrenalin," Jacob says, walking beside the gurney as they head out of the gate room.
He stays beside his daughter on the way up in the elevator, and even in the infirmary, despite the efforts of the medical staff to take him aside and examine him. Sam even cracks a faint smile when he pulls rank on them and orders them to leave him be and tend to the injured people. They've inserted an IV and injected a painkiller and she's getting a little woozy. "You'd never get away with that if it was Janet..." she murmurs. But Janet is taking care of Jack, thank God; Sam saw her as they passed by the intensive care cubicles...
She looks around for Daniel and sees him in the corridor talking to Teal'c. "Dad," she says, straining to see around the nurse and orderly who are taking care of her shoulder. "Dad, go see if Daniel knows anything..."
Jacob nods, and heads toward the spot where Daniel and Teal'c are conversing.
"Major Carter, please lie still," the nurse scolds as Sam cranes to see her father.
But Sam barely hears her, she is so focused on the three men in the hall. The only thing she can think of is Jack, and her view of him being rushed from the gateroom, with the corpsman performing CPR. She tries to push up on her elbows despite a sharp pain in her left arm and shoulder, and protests when the orderly gently forces her back down. The nurse picks up a syringe from the medicine tray and injects its contents into Sam's IV. "No..." Sam protests weakly as the sedative takes effect, and she sinks into darkness.
59
"How is she?" Daniel asks some time later, stepping into the cubicle where Jacob is sitting beside Sam's bed. At the other side of the bed, a nurse is checking Sam's vitals.
"She took a bad hit to her shoulder and arm. The clavicle is broken. She was fighting them so much they had to knock her out," Jacob says. "What about Jack?"
"Still in surgery. Amazingly, there's no spinal damage, but Janet said he's got internal injuries, especially to one kidney. She didn't know what else or how bad until she gets inside. There's internal bleeding—apparently from shrapnel from his vest implant." Daniel leans against the end of the bed. "The blast was close range. The blow shattered the implant and that caused the damage—but without it, he'd..." his voice trails off.
Jacob nods, understanding.
Daniel is looking down at Sam. "How did she stay on her feet to get home? Did you know she'd been hit?"
"I had no idea until she collapsed," Jacob says. "I don't think she did either. I'm guessing it happened right at the end, just as we were making for the gate. Adrenalin kept her moving. Where's Teal'c?"
"He's kel-no-reeming outside the surgery door." Daniel smiles a little. "Janet will probably trip over him when she comes out. He blames himself for not seeing that last Jaffa."
"Of course he would." Jacob rubs a hand across his face tiredly.
"I can sit with Sam for a while if you want to go and rest," Daniel offers. "Or get something to eat."
Just then the nurse who is checking Sam over replaces her stethoscope around her neck and looks up at Jacob. "That's a good idea, General Carter. You should rest, too."
"How is she doing?" he asks, ignoring her advice.
"Just about as expected. Her vitals are fine."
"Will she wake up soon?"
"It may be a while. She's pretty heavily sedated. I'll be back to check on her again later." She heads for the corridor, pausing to look back at Jacob. "Please try and get some rest, General."
Jacob nods and turns back to watch Sam. Her left arm is immobilized in a sling against her body and the shoulder wrapped tightly. Daniel pulls a chair over beside Jacob and for some time the two of them sit quietly watching Sam.
After a while Jacob gets up and stretches, feeling restless. He walks out into the corridor and sees that Teal'c is still seated as before; he circles the bed and looks down at Sam from the opposite side. From here, he can see the beginning of bruising on her neck above the edge of the bandages. "I think I will go find something to eat, if you don't mind, Daniel," he says after a few minutes.
"Not at all. I'll be here," the younger man assures him.
"Thanks."
On his way out of the infirmary, Jacob stops to check on Leara. She is sleeping quietly at the moment, all of her injuries having been tended to by the medical staff. Kerlin has still not recovered from the drug doses given them by the Jaffa torturers. Dr. DeLeon says he has no way to determine how long the effects will last. The scans have indicated brain activity in the symbiote at what could be a normal level for coma, but the doctor is not certain. Leara was lightly sedated for the purpose of setting her broken bones, but she is now sleeping naturally.
Further along the corridor, he sees Bra'tac visiting with the rapidly recovering To'kel, and pauses to exchange a few words, thanking them both again for their part in the rescue.
Captain Austin is lying in bed in the next cubicle, with two members of SG5 at his side. His leg is raised and bandaged from knee to groin, where he was struck by a staff blast. He appears to be sleeping, or perhaps still unconscious. Jacob stops here too, to speak with Airman Klein and Lt. Winters, again extending his thanks for their help.
He passes Teal'c sitting in the hallway outside the surgical unit, his eyes closed, his body motionless. So Jacob knows that Jack is not out of surgery yet. Otherwise, Teal'c would not still be here.
Jacob glances at a clock as he leaves for the commissary. It has been three hours since they returned through the gate.
60
Five hours since they returned to the SGC. Teal'c has not moved from his place outside of the surgery doors. Subconsciously he is aware of the activity and muted sounds of the infirmary swirling around him. They do not disturb him; the sounds he is waiting for, those that will claim his attention and draw him from the kel-no-reem, have not yet occurred—the sounds that will tell him O'Neill has survived the surgery.
Daniel is seated on a chair a little way down the corridor, ignoring the book that lies open on his lap. Maybe he should go back down to Sam's room and keep Jacob company. At least there he can see Sam, watch for her to wake. Janet has closed off the operating theater from the observation bay; there's no way he can have even the small comfort of watching Jack.
Janet sent word out an hour ago that she will have to remove Jack's damaged kidney, so the surgery time will be extended by several more hours. The time so far has been used stopping the internal bleeding, checking for other damaged organs, and picking out dozens of bits of shrapnel from Jack's body. The shattered pieces of the vest armor driven into his back, along with shreds of clothing and kevlar, all had to be located and removed. Daniel shudders at the gruesome picture his imagination supplies.
Once again he considers going to join Jacob in Sam's cubicle. But he hates to leave Teal'c alone, and he wants to know as soon as there is any word on Jack. Besides, Jacob has Selmak, so technically he is not alone. Daniel rearranges himself in the chair, seeking a more comfortable position, and leans his head back against the wall and closes his eyes.
"Any word, Dr. Jackson?"
The voice startles him, and Daniel looks up to find General Hammond standing in front of him. He straightens awkwardly. "No, sir. Nothing since Janet sent out word about Jack's kidney."
Hammond nods. "What about Colonel Carter?"
"Jacob is with her. They still have her sedated. Were you able to get in touch with the Tok'ra?"
"Not yet." They have been trying to reach the Tok'ra Council since the rescue party returned to earth. "They're still in the process of moving, I imagine," Hammond continues. "Ha'mara contacted us while you were on the mission, so it'll be another twenty-four hours or more before she calls again." The General studies the younger man's worried expression. "Hang in there, son. Dr. Fraiser is doing the best she can."
"Yes, sir. I know that." Daniel tries for a more upbeat tone. "I heard that Leara is waking up. Also Captain Austin's going to be all right. He'll be laid up for a while but there's no permanent damage to his leg. And of course, To'kel's symbiote has healed him already." He pauses. "Oh. And Jacob and Selmak are fine."
"That's all good news, Dr. Jackson." Hammond gives Daniel's shoulder a fatherly pat. He glances toward Teal'c. "He's been there since you got home."
"At least he's using the waiting time for something beneficial," Daniel says wryly.
61
Janet lifts her gaze from Jack's body on the operating table and looks around at her team. "Karen, can you close, please."
Dr. Taylor nods. "Yes, ma'am."
Janet steps away and Karen Taylor moves into the space vacated, preparing to close the wound that remains after removal of Colonel O'Neill's right kidney.
Janet perches on a high backed stool off to the side where she can still observe the procedure, but also rest for a bit. Jack's back is a mass of wounds, some small, some not so small, where the shrapnel cut through his skin and into his flesh. She is satisfied that the pieces of armor material have all been found and removed. Stitches are being placed in the larger cuts. She watches as her team works. There was some damage to his liver, and she had to resect the small affected portion of the right lobe. The Colonel's right lung was punctured in two places by shrapnel, both of which she also repaired. Likewise the pericardium had small tears, but by a miracle his heart was untouched. How he escaped spinal injury she cannot understand, since the staff blast hit dead center on his back. His entire back is massively bruised, both from the injury and from the further invasion of the surgery. She cannot predict yet what effect that much muscle damage will have. She closes her eyes to rest them for a few moments.
"Suction!" Karen's tone snaps Janet back to attention. "We've got a bleeder here, Doctor!"