Doctor Warner allowed Cassie to stay for the better part of the afternoon, with Sam doggedly keeping the conversation going.  Hesitant at first, Cassie finally opened up, and they spent the rest of the afternoon talking about safer things, both avoiding the painful subject of Janet.

At some point, Sam glanced up and saw Doctor MacKenzie standing at the end of the ward, watching them thoughtfully.  He didn’t acknowledge that she’d seen him.

The ever-present ache in her side increased steadily throughout the day, until it felt like a freight train had slammed into her.  Grimly, Sam kept her pain to herself, not wanting to upset Cassie, and not wanting to cut the visit short when they both so desperately needed each other.  She was, however, relieved, when Warner, a male nurse trailing in his wake, came to check on her.

“Well, young lady,” he said, smiling kindly.  “I hope you had a nice visit with Major Carter.”

“Yes, Sir,” Cassie replied shyly.  “Thank you for letting me come.”

“Thank you, Doctor Warner,” Sam echoed, knowing full well she’d nearly given him good reason to cancel the visit.

“General Hammond said he’d meet you in his office.  There’s an airman waiting to escort you.”

“Can I visit Sam again?”

Warner glanced meaningfully at Sam as if to say ‘That depends on Major Carter.’  Sam got the message loud and clear.  “We’re moving her to the Air Force Academy hospital this afternoon, so arranging visits will be easier.”

While Sam was relieved to hear that it would be easier for her to see Cassie, she still wasn’t so sure about being moved out of the mountain.  It would be that much harder to get information out of the Colonel, Daniel and Teal’c, and that much harder for her to get some…any…work done as soon as she was feeling strong enough.

“Now, I have to check on Major Carter.  Why don’t you go see General Hammond?”

Once Cassie left, Warner began his usual efficient checkup, instructing the nurse to give Sam a dose of pain killers.

“The painkillers should make you sleepy for the trip, but we’re going to give you an additional sedative.  You’ll most likely sleep through the transfer, and probably most of the night as well.  Which,” he added, “Is exactly what the doctor ordered.  I’ve briefed Doctor Preston on your condition.  He’ll be by to see you first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Doctor Preston?” Sam asked.  The name wasn’t familiar.  Then again, if he was on staff at the Academy hospital, there wasn’t any reason for her to know him.  Maybe he was going to be her primary care physician there.

But something about Warner’s tone of voice, his body language, told her it was more than that.  After a moment, he looked up at her almost regretfully.  “Doctor Preston is…will be…ah…filling in for Doctor Fraiser as CMO while she’s…”

He didn’t finish this sentence.  He didn’t have to.

After a few more uncomfortable seconds, Warner quietly excused himself.  She heard him instruct the nurse to give her a mild sedative in about half an hour, adding that he’d be back to oversee her transfer from the facility in about an hour.

Sam barely paid attention to the quiet conversation, leaning back heavily into the pillows and studying the ceiling tiles above her head.  That hadn’t taken long, she thought bitterly.  Janet hadn’t been missing a week and General Hammond had already decided to replace her.

A part of her knew she wasn’t being fair.  General Hammond had to keep the best interests of the entire SGC in mind, and the base couldn’t function without a CMO.  She briefly wondered why Warner hadn’t stepped in to fill Janet’s shoes, then remembered that he’d been acting CMO for the first few weeks of operations, until Janet had taken the post.  He’d been only too relieved to turn the position over to his colleague.  Sam tried to recall anything that Janet might’ve said about Warner, but couldn’t remember a thing, other than that the other woman had respected his skills as a surgeon.

That was probably it, Sam realized.  Warner was a surgeon.  The base needed a doctor with wider practical skills.

She could feel the painkillers kick in, and after a few minutes her eyes began to droop.  She forced herself to stay awake, working through her turmoil over the news about Doctor Preston.  The new doctor’s presence did make everything seem so permanent, so final, like Janet wasn’t ever coming back, she realized. 

She hadn’t even met the man and she resented him already.

As would everyone else, she realized.  The SG teams tended to be very loyal to each other, but had little to do with other team members other than in passing.  Janet was different Sam thought with a swell of pride.  Janet took care of them all, worried about all of them, and in doing so, had earned a special place in the hearts and minds of everyone here.  Sam couldn’t think of a single person, whether on the medical staff or not, who didn’t genuinely like and admire the woman.  At the same time she was resenting him, she felt almost sorry for Preston.  Knowing how fiercely loyal some of the Marines were to Janet, she knew he was in for a very rough time of it.

---

When Sam opened her eyes, she was lying in a beige hospital room, bright sunlight streaming through two large windows.  Glancing around, she took in the wall of flowers that occupied every flat surface.  The local florists had obviously been busy, she thought, as a smile touched the corners of her mouth.

Whatever “mild sedative” Warner had given her had proven to be very effective.  She had no memory whatsoever of being moved.  The rest had obviously done her some good, too, she realized, and reminded herself not never, ever, mention that to Warner since she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of telling him he was right.  She was in less pain than she expected to be, but she didn’t know if that was because things were truly better, or because they’d added some medication to her IV drip while she’d been asleep.

Deciding that it didn’t matter, Sam used the button to raise the head of the bed.  There was a cup of half-melted ice cubes on the table in front of her, and she drank it gratefully.

She was just looking around for the water pitcher, still thirsty, when a uniformed nurse walked by and glanced into the room.  “Here, let me get that for you, Ma’am” she said, taking the cup from Sam.  “I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake.  How are you feeling?”

“Fine, Lieutenant” Sam said, noting that her voice seemed stronger than it had previously.  “Just thirsty.”

“The sedatives will do that,” she said sympathetically, handing Sam the now-full cup.  “I’ll be right back with Doctor Preston.”

Thanks, Sam thought sourly, as she took a sip of water.  She wasn’t really in the mood to meet this guy, but realized she had little choice in the matter. 

Rather than dwell on her own resentments, she wondered if Daniel or the Colonel had found out anything new.  They’d undoubtedly be by to visit her today, she thought.  She’d have to remember to grill them on what progress they’d made.

Not much, a traitorous voice in her head reminded her.  How could they make any headway when they had so little to go on?  From the sound of things, General Hammond had more or less given up on finding the doctor.

Before she could pursue these darker thoughts, Lieutenant Chalmers came back, a sandy-haired man in his early fifties in tow.  Doctor Preston, Sam thought, taking in his appearance as he dismissed the nurse and approached her.  He was a Colonel, she noted, dressed in the somewhat more formal attire favored by the medical and support staff in the mountain.  Thin, but not overly so, he stood just under six feet.  His eyes were bright green, looking out from an open, lined face.  Sam thought he looked just a bit like Colonel O’Neill.

“Major Carter,” he said, extending his hand for her to shake.  His clasp was warm and firm.  “I’m Doctor Preston.”

“Doctor Preston.”  Sam returned the handshake.

“You have a lot of admirers,” he said with an easy smile, waving one hand to take in the forest of flowers filling the room.  “There are about half a dozen of them out in the waiting room, waiting for you to wake up,” he added, pulling a stool up beside her bed.

“I’ve been over your charts with Doctor Warner,” he said, getting down to business when his attempts to engage her in conversation failed.   “You’re very lucky, Major.  That projectile should have killed you.”

So much for his bedside manner, she thought sarcastically.  “Doctor Fraiser saved me,” Sam said quietly.  She didn’t want him to forget for once second why he was here, and who he was replacing.

He nodded emphatically.  “How much information did Doctor Warner give you about your injury?” he asked.

She tried to shrug, but aborted the tiny movement when she felt a brief flare of pain in her side.  “Not much,” she said.  “He said the surgery lasted for five hours.”  She didn’t add that Warner had also mentioned a long rehabilitation.  Hopefully, Preston would decide otherwise.

“They almost lost you on the table,” he said.  “The projectile went into your back, right through the intestines and cracked your pelvis on the way through.  It was a miracle it missed your kidney, but it still did a lot of internal damage.”  He flipped open one of the folders in his hand open, and held up an MRI scan for her to see.  “All this red here,” he said, pointing to a portion of the image with the tip of his pen, “Is the damage path.  The entry wound is fairly small, but the projectile must’ve tumbled inside your body, given the amount of damage it did,” he added ruefully.  “It took a good-sized chunk out of your pelvic bone as it went in.  In addition to sewing up the holes in your small and large intestines, Doctor Warner called in an orthopedic surgeon to wire your pelvis together.”

While he explained the extent of her injuries to her, Sam clenched her jaw.  Once again Warner had been right—this sounded like it was going to take a long time from which to recover.  Time she simply didn’t have. 

“So what’s the verdict?” she finally managed to grind out.  “How long am I going to be laid up?”

Preston leaned back.  “Well,” he said thoughtfully.  “The bone is worst of your problems right now.  The soft-tissue injuries seem to be healing nicely and so far signs of infection have been minimal, but we’re going to monitor that closely.  The problem is, you have a foreign substance…”  He broke off, to flip hurriedly through a folder.  “Naquada in your system.  Doctor Warner has some concern that this could interfere with the proper healing of the bone but we’re going to have to wait and see what happens with that.

“Best case scenario,” he continued before she could ask.  “Assuming the Naquada doesn’t cause too many problems, you’ll be off your feet for the next week or so.  If all goes well, we’ll start you on physical therapy to build up your abdominal muscles again.  They took a hell of a beating and are going to need time to heal and build themselves back up again.  Optimistically, we’re only looking at a month to six weeks before you can go back on limited duty.”

“Six weeks?” Sam asked, not bothering to hide her dismay.  “That’s too long!”

“It’s going to be at least that long before I can clear you to go back to your lab in the mountain.  If you try to push things you’re only going to end up doing more damage. And it’ll take that much longer for you to recover.”  His voice had taken on a no-nonsense tone that made Sam want to punch him.

“What about the Tok’ra?” Sam asked.  “My father, he could heal me.”

Preston looked down at the floor for a moment, then nodded slowly.  “Yes, he could,” he said.  “I understand the Tok’ra have a healing device that works very effectively.  But I also understand that your father is on a mission and can’t be here right now.  So until, and, quite frankly, if we can make arrangements for that, I’m afraid you’re going to have to do things the hard way.”

His tone left no room for argument, and Sam had to literally bite her tongue to keep herself from mouthing off at him.  She didn’t have to like him, but she knew it was probably not a good idea to antagonize him.  Where in the hell was her father, she wondered angrily.

“The best thing for now, as I’m sure you’ve already heard from Doctor Warner, is rest, and plenty of it.”  Sam flinched slightly as he patted her leg beneath the blanket as he rose.  If he noticed he gave no indication.

“You said I had visitors.”  She tried to keep her tone mild, but it still sounded defensive, almost accusatory, to her ears.

Preston nodded.  “I’ll send them along.”

At least he didn’t give her a hard time about visitors, she thought.  That was something considering the battle of wills she’d engaged in with Warner about that.

The “half dozen admirers” Preston mentioned turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration, as the Colonel, Daniel, Teal’c and Cassie filed quietly into the room.  Teal’c was carrying yet another bouquet of flowers, and arched one eyebrow at the floral arrangements that already decorated one corner of the room.

Cassie was at her side immediately as Daniel and O’Neill took up a position on the other side.  O’Neill gave her a meaningful look and a small nod in Cassie’s direction as he crossed the room.  Teal’c placed the bouquet precariously on the pile and took up position at the foot of her bed.  It made Sam feel hemmed in, almost claustrophobic.

“Hey, Sam,” Daniel offered quietly, patting her arm.  She hadn’t seen him since that first time she’d woken up in the infirmary.  He looked tired.  So did the Colonel, she realized, glancing around the room, though she noticed O’Neill had at least shaved, and the cuts on his face were healing.  “How are you feeling?”

‘Better,” Sam said honestly, nodding.  She had to fight the urge to ask about the search.  Not in front of Cassie.

“Doctor Preston said I could come visit every afternoon if I wanted,” Cassie said. 

“You’d better,” Sam said, smiling affectionately at the girl.  “Every day after school,” she added, knowing full well Cassie had been out of school since her injury.  It was time she went back. 

Yesterday’s visit seemed to have done a lot of good, Sam mused.  Cassie wasn’t quite her old self, but she definitely looked less haggard and fearful.

Cassie agreed.  “Jack said he’d pick me up from school and bring me here, then take me home.”

Sam glanced up at Jack who nodded.  “SG1’s getting a little downtime with you laid up,” he offered with a shrug. 

“You can help me with my math homework,” Cassie offered.

“Sure thing,” Sam said, then caught O’Neill’s eye again.  “Listen,” she added patting Cassie’s arm.  “I need to talk to Colonel O’Neill for a little while.  Maybe you and Teal’c should go and check out the cafeteria, since you’re going to be eating dinner there for awhile?”

Cassie flashed her a knowing look, and shook her head slowly.  “I want to stay.”

“I know,” Sam said soothingly.  “I’m not going to keep anything from you, I promise.”  She meant it, but she did want to hear it first, filter it if necessary.

That didn’t seem to placate Cassie.  “Cassie, go on,” O’Neill said gently.  “We just have a few things to talk about, then you can have her all to yourself for the rest of the afternoon.”

That seemed to work, and Cassie reluctantly took Teal’c’s outstretched hand and left.  Sam watched her go, waiting to speak until she was sure the girl was out of earshot.

“Is there any news at all?” she asked, tearing her attention away from the open doorway and giving O’Neill an imploring look.

He glanced away and shook his head.  “We’ve got nothing,” he admitted.  “Hammond’s called off the search on PR6-342.”

“And replaced Janet,” Sam said, seething quietly.

“He didn’t have a choice, Carter,” O’Neill replied a little too sharply, then glared at her when she looked questioningly up at him.  She had the sense there was more too it than that, but he spoke before she could press him about it.  “I don’t like it any more than you do,” he explained.  “But the SGC can’t operate without a CMO.”

“Besides,” Daniel interjected, a smile touching his mouth.  “Feretti already given him a warm welcome.  I don’t think he’ll be eating in the mess hall again any time soon.”

“You’d think a doctor wouldn’t be so squeamish,” O’Neill added with feigned innocence, though it was clear from his expression that he was grateful for the chance to fall back on his trademark ascerbic humor.  There was probably not much to joke about these days, Sam thought.

She fought the urge to ask for more details, instead focusing on the problem at hand.  “Did General Hammond say why he called off the search?”

O’Neill shrugged.  “Oh, probably because those people are maniacs,” he said, his voice rising.  O’Neill was trying to continue with the lighter mood, but it just sent a chill through her.  If Janet was with those people…

“There was no indication that she’s their prisoner,” Daniel said, sensing what was going through her mind.  “And she didn’t go with the Rhonalli to the Land of Light.  The only logical conclusion is that she went somewhere else using the stargate.”

“Which means she could be anywhere,” Sam said, her head dropping back onto the pillow.  “And we have no idea where to begin looking.”

“Look,” O’Neill said touching her arm lightly.  “Hammond hasn’t given up on Fraiser.  You know him.  He wouldn’t do that.  He’s added Fraiser to the standing orders for the field teams.  We’ll investigate the minute any of them report anything back.”

“And until then?” Sam groaned.

“Until then, you concentrate on getting better, and we all take care of Cassie.  General Hammond’s worried that with Fraiser out of the picture they might try to place her somewhere.”

That got her attention.  “They can’t do that!”  God, it would kill Janet to make it back only to discover that she’d lost Cassie, Sam thought frantically.  “We can’t let that happen,” she added grimly.  “I can’t let that happen.”

“We won’t,” Daniel said.

If only they’d finished their conversation about legal guardianship, Sam thought.  Neither one of them had brought the subject up after the argument, so the issue had been left unresolved.  Maybe if Janet had made some provision for Cassie things would be easier.  Now it might be too late.

“Has there been any luck reaching my father?” Sam asked, thinking all of this would be so much easier to deal with if she wasn’t incapacitated.

Again O’Neill shook his head.  “We’ve put in three requests to the Tok’ra,” he said, his voice tinged with disgust.  “But they refuse to contact him.  They say they’re sorry, but his and Selmac’s mission has to take priorty.”

“Dad is going to hit the roof when he finds out about it,” Sam observed, knowing her father all too well.  He wasn’t going to take kindly to having information about his daughter withheld from him, regardless of the reason.  She almost felt sorry for the Tok’ra High Council who were going to have to deal with him when he finally did get word.

But this meant she was stuck following Preston’s medical orders until her father could be contacted.  “Damn,” she whispered in frustration.  She gave serious thought to requesting the healing device and trying it on herself.  But she didn’t really understand how it worked or how to use it, and something told her she’d probably end up doing more harm than good if she tried.  The irony was, Sam thought, that were she here now, symbiote and all, Janet herself would be able to use the healing device without any problems.  If she were here.

“I can’t stand this,” she whispered.  “Janet’s out there somewhere because of me, and I can’t do anything to help her.”  Eyes stinging with tears of frustration, she barely noticed when Daniel took her hand, giving it a small squeeze.

“It’s not your fault, Carter,” O’Neill said gruffly.  “If anyone’s to blame, it’s me.  I should never have put in that call for her.  And I should never have left either of you behind.”

Sam looked up quickly at him.  “You called for her?” she asked, needing a moment to process the information.  This was news to her.  She’d just assumed Janet had volunteered when she’d found out who had been injured.  “What were you thinking?” she asked hotly before she could stop herself.  Her anger spun out of control, and she didn’t bother to try to reign it in.

“I was thinking you were dying,” O’Neill said defensively. 

Sam glared at him, eyes narrowing.  “Then you should have called for a medic,” she told him harshly.  O’Neill knew as well as she did that Janet had no business in a combat zone.  She felt Daniel give her hand a warning squeeze, but ignored him. 

“What was I supposed to do?”  He was almost shouting now.  “Let you bleed to death in that cave?  Look Carter, if I could take it back, I would.”

“But you can’t.  And now she’s a Goa’uld,” Sam accused.

A part of her recognized she was lashing out unfairly.  O’Neill hadn’t done any of this deliberately, and given what both Warner and Preston had told her about the injury, he’d probably made the right call.  But he thought she was angry because she’d lost a close friend, and her relationship with Cassie was threatened.  There was that, but suddenly a part of her wanted to hurt him, so that he would have some idea, in however small and indirect a way, of how much she was hurting.

“And now she’s a Goa’uld,” O’Neill echoed, nodding.  “And it’s my fault, and I have to live with that.”

“So, what?” Sam asked bitterly.  “You think you can make up for it by chauffeuring Cassie around?”

She watched as the Colonel’s face flushed a deep scarlet and knew she’d hit a nerve. He straightened and seemed to loom threateningly over her for a moment or two, but she glared defiantly back up at him, refusing to back down.  For a minute she thought he was going to say something, but after a few moments he spun on his heel and stalked out of the room, roughly informing Daniel he’d be in the waiting room.

She explosively released the breath she hadn’t even been aware of holding, then leaned back heavily against the pillows, closing her eyes.  She felt drained.

Damn him, she thought, then opened her eyes and looked up at Daniel who was still standing beside her.

“Well, that was productive,” Daniel observed sarcastically.