Sam Carter's head was going to explode; she was sure of it. Gray matter everywhere, bone shards, the whole shebang. It was gonna make a damn mess, but at least it would stop her agony. She heard her own moan as consciousness crept back alongside the pain, but she didn't dare open her eyes. There was light beyond her eyelids; she could tell. And she couldn't handle that.
The voice beside her was quiet, at least. And familiar. "Head hurt?"
Colonel O'Neill. "'Sbad," she slurred.
"I know the feeling. Hang on." She felt him lean over her for the call button. "Doc's coming."
But she wasn't there, and Sam curled to her side, cradling her forehead in her hands for the excruciating minute it took Janet to arrive. "Headache," Colonel O'Neill told her, and while Sam appreciated not having to speak, that word seemed ridiculously understated.
"Okay. I'm gonna put something in your IV," the doctor said, her voice low. "It should ease up pretty quickly." She shut off the light, too, and within a few minutes, Sam felt able to roll to her back and open her eyes without throwing up. "Follow my finger," Janet ordered.
"Do I have to?"
"Yes." So Sam took the doctor's brief neurological exam, wiggling her fingers and toes, repeating a few words, until Janet said, "Looks good. I'll come check in on you later."
"Thanks," she mumbled. Then, to Colonel O'Neill, "What happened?"
"Your new nickname is canary," he told her dryly.
She had neither the mental capacity nor desire to suss that out. "What?"
"P5X-011."
That wasn't particularly helpful, but her brain managed to grasp some threads of the briefing… coughing in the Gate Room…. Oh. "God, sir, I'm sorry."
Jack raised an eyebrow, but she'd closed hers and couldn't see it. "I feel like your apology means you don't remember the really relevant bits," he said, "like the part where the air was the problem and Daniel and I barely made it back to the Gate."
Her eyes went wide. "What? We test for that!"
"So they tell me. But apparently 'other gases' included one that's not hazardous except for, y'know, building up in our lungs and blocking our oxygen intake. If we'd've gone much further, we wouldn't have made it back."
It took a moment for her to really process that. "Wow."
"Yeah. The doc's released us already. You got hit harder because your lungs were in cruddy shape to start with. The cough wasn't a problem. It was a warning."
A warning she'd tried to ignore to save face. "It's a good thing you listened, sir."
"Mm. I feel like I coulda listened a lot sooner," he drawled. "But we made it. All of us." Giving her arm a pat, he coached, "Rest up, Carter. I'm not slowin' down for your ass next time."
She chuckled as he ducked through the curtains, careful to let in as little light as possible. And then she went back to her well-deserved sleep.