Dr. Fraiser didn't have overnight duty at the SGC this particular evening, but she'd been called in for a consult on a patient at Peterson and was wide awake. And since Cassie was spending the night with a friend, she figured it would be a good opportunity to stop by Cheyenne Mountain to check on her patients. Then she might get a nap in before Cassie came home in the afternoon to regale her with the latest college gossip. She chuckled to herself, which echoed off the walls of the elevator as it descended to her office on the 22nd floor.

She plucked some notes off her desk and checked on the half of SG-15 in isolation on that level. They were recovering from exposure to a virus on P49-712, but seeing as how they were all nearly well and just waiting out the remainder of quarantine, Major Pierce gave her quite the earful. His sleep schedule was understandably out of whack. Dr. Kemp was a little more understanding, owing to his medical training. Mercifully, when she arrived on level 21, Dwight and Aston were passed out in their rooms and Lieutenant Evans said they'd behaved during her shift.

She dutifully made her rounds, but was anxious to finish and check on Sam, who'd had quite the ordeal at the Alpha Site. She was lucky to be alive. Impartiality was a key tenet in both medicine and the military, but their friendship had been forged through fire in the early days of the program. Despite the particularly irritating way SG1 tended to evade her orders, they had all gained a special place in her heart. Specifically with Sam, they were able to occasionally remind one another you don't always have to sacrifice your femininity on the altar of military protocol.

She rounded the corner into the infirmary and caught sight of the object of her concern. She was resting, but it didn't appear comfortably so. Sam would probably rest easier in a private room, but there were none to be had currently. If the infection in her leg looked better in the morning, she'd release her to her quarters instead. She approached her bed and noticed the infamous puzzle on the side table. She'd overheard them working on it when Sam had too recently been in the infirmary with that nasty concussion.

"I'm not asking for a hint, I'm just asking if you can sing it!" A cranky Sam was arguing with Colonel O'Neill, who was holding the crossword puzzle just out of reach with a smirk on his face. Janet continued pretending to check the contents of a medical cart at the other end of the infirmary.

"That would be giving you a hint!" he taunted.

"Just the melody, not the lyrics."

Sam sounded a little overexerted for her condition, but considering she normally bribed one of the guys to bring her a laptop, Janet figured arguing over a puzzle was the lesser of two evils.

"How would that help? Have you even seen the show?"

Sam huffed. "Of course I've seen it."

"Are you sure? I think it was on before you were born," he said, emphasizing the last word.

"They have these little things called reruns. Besides, weren't you a little too old for it, sir?" Sam drew out the word old, giving as good as she got.

"I was in the sixth grade, thank you very much, besides you're never too old for Underdog."

And that's how Dr. Janet Fraiser got to witness one Colonel Jack O'Neill humming the theme song to Underdog in the middle of the SGC infirmary.

"Thunder!" Sam shouted suddenly, remembering the missing lyric. Daniel, who had just walked in to humming and shouting, exchanged a look with Janet, who just shook her head and held up both palms.

The Colonel set the paper down and clapped his hands dramatically. "Nicely done, Carter. Two clues in an hour. It's looking like I'm going to win this one."

"Hey, I still have time."

"Tick-tock," he called, as he swapped places with Daniel.

"So, how's it…" Daniel started.

"No helping!" The Colonel called from the hallway.

"Going?" Daniel finished. He glanced toward Janet again and she eyed him over her clipboard. They hadn't truly discussed the situation between their friends, but there was always an unspoken agreement between them.

Janet picked up the crossword puzzle and surveyed its contents. There was something going on between those two. Well…something more than usual. She didn't hear a sir come out of Sam's mouth at all that day. She tended to drop them when she was passionately arguing a scientific point. But lately, she had heard her omit them during their banter, as well. And when she did use it, it sounded…well, a little flirty. She hoped her friend wasn't using that tone in the briefing room. She snorted before she caught herself, and she checked to make sure she hadn't woken her patient before she examined the page more closely. Most clues were written neatly in Sam's handwriting, but she noticed a few clues scribbled in by the Colonel, most likely at the direction of a concussed Sam.

But she hadn't seen Sam work on it much this go-around. She'd barely had any sleep while running from the super soldier and she'd seemed pretty upset after Jacob's visit. She'd only caught the tail end of the conversation as she'd started her rounds the previous day.

"Don't worry, I'll be back eventually."

"I'll miss you."

It hurt Janet to hear her friend so vulnerable. And the gentle way Jacob responded to his daughter stirred something in her heart as well.

"I'll miss you, too."

As she read through the clues, she realized many of them reminded her of own childhood or of Cassie's introduction to cartoons when she'd first adopted her. It was a fun trip down memory lane.

"Janet?"

She looked over the page to find her patient and best friend staring at her, bleary-eyed.

"Hey, Sam, how are you feeling?"

When she didn't respond immediately, but looked around the room confused, Janet set the puzzle aside and stepped closer to the bed.

"Honey, are you okay?"

"I…uh…yeah, I think so."

She actually looked like she was ready to bolt from the bed. But she didn't push her, just patted her hand. The contact had the effect of melting Sam's bravado.

"I thought I was dreaming," she admitted, and Janet waited for her to continue.

"When I was out there," she took a deep breath, "I never really slept, but I would drift off for a few minutes, and I don't know if I was dreaming or hallucinating, but I thought so many times the guys found me and brought me here." She looked up, likely expecting an eye of judgment or pity, so Janet schooled her features to appear neutral.

"Well, you're here now, and you're safe." She squeezed the hand she had patted, and Sam squeezed back, didn't let go immediately. Then, her eyes cleared, and the analytical side of her friend returned.

"What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night."

"I have a lot of patients to check on."

Sam squinted her eyes at her skeptically, and the expression looked so much like Colonel O'Neill that she let out a chuckle before she could stop herself.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing. And maybe I just wanted to check on my best friend because I was worried about her. Is that okay with you, Major?"

"Oh, absolutely Major, but I just have one question for you." Sam glanced around the empty infirmary, but still motioned for Janet to step closer, so she did.

And then, as though she were discussing top secret intel, she asked, "Have you seen Space Jam?"

Janet full on belly laughed at that. There was no one around to wake or hear it, and it felt good to be in on the conspiracy for a change. What Colonel O'Neill didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

"Let me get a pencil," she announced, and she was proud to have brought a smile to Sam's face for probably the first time since she'd returned.

P=100.584/400

Daniel found her in his lab, still wearing her dress blues. The overhead lights were off, and she was lit by a single lamp on his desk. He approached slowly, not entirely sure what version of his friend awaited him. She didn't startle on his approach, which meant she'd known he'd been watching her from the doorway. Sorrow didn't dull her tactical sense. It was a skill he'd picked up from her, unfortunately.

"Sam?" he said softly as he perched himself on the stool next to her.

"Hmm?" she said without making eye contact. It was just as well, or they might both break down.

"It was…really nice what you said at the memorial. She would have liked it."

She sniffed softly. She wasn't crying, but they were all in various stages of post-weeping. "Thank you…but…well, it was Teal'c's idea." She handed him a piece of paper that he recognized from the service. It was just like her to deny the credit.

"Yeah, he told me. But there's a reason he asked you to do it."

"Why's that?" she asked.

"Sam, you were such a good friend to her."

"Daniel, I am gone all the time, and cancel on her….cancelled on her more than I showed up."

The hunch in Sam's shoulders was a physical manifestation of the guilt they all shared.

"But you showed up. She had a tough job ordering all of us around and we all gave her a hard time. She could really talk to you, you know?"

Sam gave up a small, sad smile. "Yeah, maybe." She looked up at him then with a storm in her eyes. "I wasn't able to help her when it mattered."

He sighed. He felt it, too. "Sam, I was right there. And I couldn't do anything." His throat closed a bit on the last word, and it came out strangled. He looked up and her face softened.

"I'm sorry, Daniel. I know you're hurting, too. She…she cared about you a lot." He knew what she wasn't saying. She reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. In the old days, she would have pulled him into a hug. But there had been too many losses, and their sanity hung by a thread. They couldn't fall apart in his lab.

"She was the best of us," he practically whispered.

She nodded. "She really was."

And then she was chuckling, and he immediately recognized the absurd nature of grief that layered memories in unexpected ways. He waited for an explanation and watched as she picked up another piece of paper from his desk. He recognized it the instant she placed it in his hands.

"You finished it."

"She helped me with the last clue. Don't tell Jack."

He filed away her use of his name for later and scanned the page for a glimpse of Janet's handwriting. Recognized it the instant he saw it on nineteen across.

"Nerdlucks?" he said, huffing out a laugh.

"Read the clue." Her eyes were shining. He obeyed.

"Quintet of Space Minions." He smiled. It was bittersweet. Their quintet was missing a most important member.

"I don't know what to tell him." She sighed, returned the paper to the desk.

He had a good idea who he was, but he wasn't quite sure what the telling was. He waited.

"After all this, a bet seems kind of silly."

Ah, the bet. "Sam, it was always kind of silly. And there's nothing wrong with that."

"I got rid of the book when you died…or ascended…whatever."

That surprised him. He had been so focused on remembering his old life when he returned and then catching up on planets explored in his absence, he was only now getting a picture of just how much he had really missed.

"I…I don't know what to say, I'm sorry."

"I don't want you to be sorry. It's not your fault. I just missed you. And I'm really glad you're back."

He nodded. There was an unspoken thought bouncing between their brains that they wished it had been the same for Janet. They had all cheated death and it seemed now their beloved doctor was paying the price. They sat there, leaning into one another, sharing the weight of the galaxy.

"He dug it out of the trash."

She always said "he" in a way he knew had to mean Jack, but it took him a second to realize she was talking about the book. What exactly had happened between them while he'd been gone? He smiled. "Tell him double or nothing."

"Hmm?"

He nodded toward the paper. "Just…put that one away for now. Tell him double or nothing and we will pick a beast of a puzzle for him."

A grin lit up her whole face, and she finally reached to embrace him. "Daniel, you are brilliant, have I ever told you that?"

"Only when you want something," he responded.

She laughed, then looked at her watch. "Listen, I have to run some errands with Cassie, but I'll call you later, okay?"

Ah, Cassie. She was lucky to have Sam. He watched as she stood to leave, and just as she was about to cross the threshold, he had a thought.

"Hey, Sam?" He wasn't sure he had the nerve to give her the advice he'd give himself if he had another chance.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Don't wait too long, okay?"

Confusion only flitted on her face for a nanosecond. She didn't play dumb or coy, just nodded seriously and held his gaze for an extra second before turning to walk down the hall. Maybe his friends could have what he'd missed.