Daughter of My Heart, Chapter Thirty-Four
[Set during "Heroes", Part 2]
Daniel felt as if he were trapped in a nightmare, only it was real, and happening, and there was nothing he could do.
"Help apply pressure," Janet was ordering, deft hands grabbing various tools of her trade, jabbing, securing, desperately trying to hold the young officer together long enough to get him back to the gate.
"My wife..." the man gasped, amid the too-close explosions of a dozen or more staff blasts.
"Hang in there. We'll get you home to see her," Daniel reassured, holding the gauze where Janet had indicated, unnerved by the amount of blood seeping through even with even pressure.
"I need to tell her...I need to tell her I'm sorry. That I love her."
"You can tell her yourself," Janet replied, field dressing the largest of the wounds. "A few more minutes and we'll have you ready to move."
"Please," he begged, his voice cracking. "Please. I need to tell her."
"Okay," Daniel said, fumbling clumsily for his camera. "Okay. You can tell her yourself," he said, turning the device on. Another blast ricocheted way too close to his head for comfort, and he flinched inward as debris scattered over the three of them.
"Damn it," Janet muttered as foreign particulate coalesced within the wound. Daniel sincerely hoped the man hadn't noticed, busy as he was leaving a message for his wife and unborn child.
"I love you. I love you both so much," he was saying, while Daniel distractedly divided his focus between holding the camera steady, and applying pressure to the still-gaping wound.
"Just about...," Janet muttered, prepping to move his hand aside and work her magic. Then the searing heat of a too-close blast swept past, and Daniel turned to stare, horrified, at the blackened hole in her chest.
"I need some help!," he yelled, scrambling to his feet.
"Get down!," Hailey retorted, leaping from her position and pulling him back to the ground. "We've got to get them out of here, ready or not," she said, assessing the damage.
"There's no way the two of us could move them both," Daniel said, searching in vain for more help on the horizon. She smacked his arm, hard.
"Shut up and lift with your legs," she ordered, pointing to the fallen soldier. She moved over to Janet, checking for a pulse. "Colonel O'Neill," she called, toggling her radio. "Jackson and I are falling back to the gate. We have wounded."
"Understoo...", the rest of the word was cut off by the sound of an enormous blast.
"O'Neill!," Teal'c roared from somewhere in the distance, and Daniel blinked through the sweat and haze to see where they were.
"There's no time!," Hailey yelled, taking the lead. Thank goodness Janet was so small, or the Lieutenant would never have been able to manage her load.
Daniel hurried after her, the sobbing man cradled gently in his arms as they raced along the tree line to the gate.
"Fall back!," a voice called over the radio. "Everyone, fall back!"
They ran blindly, the ambush unrelenting, barely escaping a number of staff blasts before skidding to a halt by the gate. The SG-3 Marines were already dialing out, half a platoon of dead or dying Jaffa laying sprawled at their feet.
"Go!," the leader yelled, punching in the iris code as the gate whooshed to life. "We're coming in hot!," he yelled into his radio, sending his men through with Daniel and Hailey, putting down cover fire for the remaining SGC personnel still racing to the gate.
The last thing Daniel saw before stepping through was Jack, slung listlessly over Teal'c's shoulder. His entire torso was soaked in blood.
"What the hell happened out there, people?," General Hammond demanded tersely two hours later. Daniel, Hailey and Teal'c sat in the briefing room with the only two uninjured members of SG-3 and SG-13, silent, shaky, and wishing it'd all been nothing but a bad dream. Jack, Janet, and the man Daniel had carried through were all still in surgery, fighting for their lives.
"We were ambushed, Sir," the man from SG-13 announced solemnly. "We never saw it coming."
"The MALP showed no hostile activity in the area," Hammond stated. "Where did they come from?"
"There must have been a ship in orbit, Sir," The SG-3 marine announced. "We saw a handful of gliders circling the fight on the ground, and there were an awful lot of Jaffa appearing seemingly out of nowhere."
"There was a probe," Daniel put in. "It was activated when we sent our UAV to do the aerial survey I requested. It must have sent a transmission."
"So the Goa'uld were alerted to our position," Hammond said, nodding.
"Anubis," Teal'c stated distastefully. "We were met by the warriors of Anubis."
Hammond ran a hand wearily over his face. "The casualty reports on this are enormous, and I have politicians breathing down my neck to come up with answers. Can anyone here tell me why there wasn't enough warning to get the hell out of there before the first strike?"
"Permission to speak freely, Sir?," the remaining member of SG-13 asked shakily.
"Go ahead," Hammond said.
"It was a bad judgment call, Sir. We saw the probe. We knew it could mean trouble. But we were so close to having everything we needed on the ruins. We thought if we could just get it all on video and get it back to base, we'd be laughing. It took over three hours to complete. And by the time we were packing up, the enemy troops were already moving in."
"Did the ruins provide any useful information for this war against the Goa'uld?," Hammond asked pointedly.
"No Sir," the man replied, shaking his head. "They were of cultural significance only."
"People, need I remind you of our primary mission directive?," Hammond demanded.
"No, Sir," came the murmur of replies. Hammond sighed.
"I expect your reports on my desk by 0800 tomorrow," he said, shaking his head. "You're all dismissed."
"Daniel, what happened?," Sam asked, falling into step beside him as he emerged from the briefing room.
"Not here," he whispered, glancing surreptitiously around for Emmet Bregman. As they reached his office, he motioned her inside, shutting the door behind them.
"Daniel?," she asked, worried.
"There was an attack. SG-13 came under ambush while examining some ruins I'd wanted pictures of. SG-1 and the marines were sent in to extract them, but everything went to hell." He shook his head, swallowing the lump forming in his throat. "Sam, Jack and Janet were both hit."
"Oh my god," she breathed, eyes widening in horror. "Are they...?"
"I don't know yet," he said, worry etching his own face.
"Oh my god," she murmured, shutting her eyes.
He reached toward her, pulling her closer as they both began to fall apart. "I'm going to stay here tonight. Sit with them once they come out of surgery," he murmured into her hair, holding her tight.
"Do you want me to stay too? I'm sure Cassie could stay with a friend for the night."
Daniel shook his head. "No. She'll worry too much. You know how she gets when just one of us is hurt."
"Right," Sam said, nodding. "But if you need anything..."
"I know. And I'll call as soon as there's news of any kind."
"You'd better," she said, wiping an errant tear from her eyes.
"I will. I promise," he said, wrapping her as tightly as he could against his body.
Dinner was a subdued affair in the Carter house that night. There was no hiding anything from Cassandra these days, and as soon as she found out who'd been injured, and how badly, it'd been all Sam could do to convince her to give them the night to recover before charging into the infirmary to make sure they were okay.
"Do you think Dad will leave active duty now, after this?," Cassandra asked after a long while, absently pushing food around her plate.
"We've had close calls before, Cass. And we've lost people before..."
"But he's not even a soldier! And he's already died once. Don't you think we should at least try to convince him there are other ways to do his job?"
Sam shook her head. "Leaving active duty on a project like the Stargate program is a huge decision, Cass. I mean, this job is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You'd be crazy not to hang on to it for as long as you can."
"Do you regret leaving?," Cassie asked, looking Sam square in the eye.
"Sometimes," Sam confessed with a sigh. "It's not a decision I would push anyone else toward. But it was the right decision for me."
Cassie eyed her dubiously.
"I'm serious, Cassandra," she said, reaching across the table to take her daughter's hand. "Nothing, and I mean nothing in this universe is as important to me as you are. When the time came to chose between you and my career, the decision was already made." She squeezed Cassie's hand reassuringly. "Yes, sometimes I miss the action. And yes, sometimes I feel as if I'm missing out, not getting to explore different worlds. But what you and I have here, this life, this family, nothing could ever top that."
"I don't want to lose him again," she whispered waveringly.
"Neither do I," Sam admitted seriously. "But it's not our decision to make. Ultimately, it's up to Daniel to decide."
"He said he's in this for keeps."
Sam smiled. "There is nothing that man does without his whole heart," she replied affectionately. "He loves his job with the same intensity that he loves us. And he really wouldn't be Daniel if he didn't."
"I still wish we could convince him not to go through the gate."
"I know, Sweetie. But no matter what happens, we always have each other. That, I promise."
Jack came to, groaning. Why the hell did staff blasts have to hurt so much? He tried to sit up, winced, and sank deeper into his pillow. Turning his head fractionally, he managed to catch sight of Daniel sprawled inelegantly in one of the infirmary chairs, sound asleep and snoring between his bed and another. Jack frowned. Double duty?
"O'Neill."
The voice was Teal'c's, soft and strong, and laced with more relief than Jack had ever imagined possible on his own behalf.
"Teal'c," he croaked. "What happened?"
"You were shot with a staff weapon," the Jaffa replied evenly.
"I know that," Jack spat, wincing at the pain in his ribs. "Who else is Daniel guarding over?"
Teal'c's face darkened momentarily, weighing his choice between telling Jack the truth, or deftly avoiding the question altogether. The hesitation was just enough to really get Jack's heart-rate going.
"Dr. Fraiser was also injured in the battle," Teal'c confessed, eyeing his friend wearily.
"How bad?," Jack asked, marshalling every ounce of calm he could muster while panic rose through his scattered memories and the blinding hot pain in his side.
"Dr. Fraiser is a formidable woman," Teal'c replied confidently. "I do not believe she will allow her injury to overcome her."
"How bad?," Jack pressed, enunciating carefully for the other man's benefit.
"She sustained considerable damage to her chest. I believe her heart was in some danger, but as I have said O'Neill, she is strong."
"As much as I appreciate your vote of confidence, do you think you could give us a moment?," he ground out, desperately repressing the urge to regurgitate this morning's Fruit Loops.
"As you wish, O'Neill," Teal'c said with a nod, glancing briefly over to Daniel to make sure the younger man hadn't stirred.
"Thank you, Teal'c," Jack replied, glad for the man's honesty and faith, if not for the news he'd delivered.
With another silent nod, the Jaffa left the room, leaving Jack alone to the sleepy silence of the infirmary, and his own stormy thoughts. He closed his eyes, desperately trying to get his thoughts in order.
"Janet," he whispered after a moment. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I need you to fight," he said, urging the words to reach her slumbering ears. "I need you to hang in there, and get through this. We need you here. I need you," he added softly. "Whatever you do, don't give up. Don't die on me, Janet. I love you. So fight," he breathed.
The answering silence nearly broke him.
Daniel stiffened in his seat, shocked as the whispered words met his ears. Jack and Janet? Since when? But it made sense. The way Jack had somehow joined their family gatherings, how they always seemed so in tune with one another. He wondered if Sam and Cassie knew, then rolled his eyes at himself. Of course they knew. Cassie knew everything that went on in that family, no matter how Classified any of them might deem it.
Still, it was a side to Jack he'd never really seen. A living, breathing, beating heart beneath that tough military facade.
He hoped Janet heard. The doctors had their doubts whether she'd make it through the night, much less live to ride off into the sunset with a certain surly Colonel.
Sending up a silent prayer of his own, Daniel relaxed back into his seat, dozing off just as Teal'c settled once more in the seat at the foot of Jack's bed, a silent sentinel of tranquility in the oppressive uncertainty of the infirmary ward.