"Carter! Come on, Carter, wake up!" A hand shakes her leg, and others touch her shoulder and her forehead.
"Sam, you're okay. We're all here. Wake up."
"Open your eyes, Major Carter."
She blinks reluctantly. The blurry face of Colonel O'Neill is very close to her own. Her eyes won't focus, but she can still see his relief. "Good work, Major," he says.
And then Daniel, from somewhere down by her feet, "Oh, thank God."
"What happened?" she says.
"Earthquake, and we don't know if there'll be more," the colonel says. "We've gotta do this quick. Move your fingers for me?"
She does. They're cold even in her gloves.
"Feet?" he says.
She rolls both ankles. There's a familiar pressure inside her skull. Her hair is damp on her scalp. "My head's throbbing and my left thigh hurts a little," she says. "But really, guys, I think I'm okay."
Colonel O'Neill scowls at her. "Try to sit up."
For that, she needs help from him and Teal'c. Her head swims, but she won't complain. Their hands support her while one of them traces her spine through the Kevlar. "Do you feel that, Major Carter?"
"Yes, yes. I told you, I'm fine." Everything's still a little fuzzy. She looks down toward her feet, sees blood on her shin and her knee, and somehow figures out that it's Daniel's, not hers. His palms are both bright red. "Jesus, Daniel, what did you do?"
"Later, Carter." And to the others, "We've got to get to open ground. Teal'c, can you --"
"I can, O'Neill." He stands, lifting Sam with him.
"Keep her head and neck still," the colonel says.
Sam relaxes against Teal'c's shoulder. She's sleepy, but she thinks the headache will make sleep impossible for a while.
Colonel O'Neill leads the way, moving quickly over the rocks covering the last of the mountain slope. It dawns on her slowly that his pack is torn and his pants don't look much better. He's bloody, too. "What did you do, sir?" He casts her a worried glance over his shoulder.
"We took a slide down the cliff, Sam." Daniel's suddenly next to her. "There were some rocks."
"That is an understatement, Daniel Jackson. And I did not slide."
"The three of us took a slide down the cliff, Sam. You don't remember?" Daniel's voice holds the same concern she saw in the colonel's eyes.
Tumbling, scraping, thunking. "No, I remember falling. I just didn't know you guys decided to join me."
"All for one and one for all?" Daniel says.
The ground shakes again. All three of the guys stop moving. Teal'c and the colonel look up behind them and Sam hears more rocks crashing over each other.
"Shit." The colonel walks faster. "Come on."
They stop in the middle of a flat, treeless area they passed on their way from the Stargate, two days ago. Sam remembers that. She finds herself on the ground again, on dead brown grass. Someone gently lifts her head to slide a down jacket under it. It's extremely cold. Whoever took that off is nuts.
Daniel's hand appears over her face. "How many?"
She squints, which hurts badly. "Three?" Daniel frowns.
"Close enough," the colonel says. She hears somebody rifling through what must be a medkit. "Now tell me where we are."
Sam sighs, but then she figures out why they're all being so careful with her. That part where she couldn't hear anything: she must have lost consciousness. That means she's got at least a grade three concussion. It's her third in a matter of weeks. The first was on the Prometheus, the second at the Alpha site, and another so soon could be very bad. "How long was I out?"
"Approximately forty-five seconds," Teal'c says. She wonders if he counted. "This will hurt, Major Carter."
"I know it -- ow!" The antiseptic feels both cool and scalding. She bites her lip, not wanting to worry them by crying out again. Finally she feels gauze pressing on her skin. "M3P-491," she says. "For a meeting with a Tok'ra spy."
"That got us absolutely nowhere," Daniel says. Yes, Sam remembers that, too. They came here for intel on Anubis' cloned army, but they learned nothing they didn't already know. And they hiked twelve hours in each direction to learn it.
Teal'c stretches tape over her bandage, wrapping some around her head for security. "And what day is tomorrow?" he asks.
"Ugh," she says. "Don't remind me."
Colonel O'Neill sits back on his heels to examine Teal'c's work, and whistles through his teeth. "You're lucky we're in no position to shave your head, Major." He's got bandages in his hands, too. "That should get you back to the gate, Daniel. No, Teal'c, I'm okay. Fraiser can sew me up in a couple hours."
"This is not wise, O'Neill."
"No, but it's faster. Pack it up."
Teal'c puts his jacket back on and lifts Sam. They keep her talking while they walk, but she can tell they're all distracted.
Daniel's hands are wrapped like a mummy's. Sam watches gray clouds and flexes her fingers to warm them. The bitter air seeps through all her layers, right to her skin. "Is it getting colder, or am I getting worse?"
"I believe the temperature has dropped several degrees since we began administering first aid," Teal'c says.
Colonel O'Neill looks up to the sky. The clouds are moving fast. The pounding in Sam's head is getting worse, and another aftershock doesn't help. Her brain seems to slosh in her skull. "I don't understand," she says. "The MALP didn't report any seismic activity."
None of them respond. They're all busy watching the colonel sniff the air. He turns to see all four directions, stops, and says, "Shelter. Now."
"Jack?"
"I'd bet my left one that's a blizzard coming, Daniel. Teal'c, take our stuff and go set up camp in those trees. We'll be right behind you."
No one questions him. He's the blizzard expert, the way Daniel is the desert expert. Teal'c nods, sets Sam carefully back on her feet, gathers their gear, and jogs off. The tree line is a good half-mile away.
Daniel and the colonel each wrap an arm around her waist. Wind whips past her cheeks. She shivers.
She thinks of the colonel's injuries and decides she'll only hold onto Daniel. She's sure she can walk on her own, but protesting will get her nowhere. Besides, they're warm.
Something wet falls on her nose. Colonel O'Neill looks at the clouds again.
"I think it's snowing, Jack."
"Because we were already having so much fun," the colonel says.
The tent is up by the time they get there. Snow is beginning to stick to the ground, but it falls lightly under the cover of evergreens.
Sam and Daniel crawl inside while Teal'c and the colonel pitch their spare tarp on a rope between two trees, to keep the tent from getting buried. "Might have to come out later and build a windbreak," she hears Colonel O'Neill say.
"I do not believe any of us will be exiting the tent for some time, O'Neill."
"I think he's right about that," Daniel says. "Don't go to sleep yet, Sam."
She'd closed her eyes for a few seconds against the pain, but now that she's out of the wind and lying down again, she does feel tired. "I'm awake," she says.
"You know they'll kill me if you get worse on my watch."
She gives him a small smile and reaches for the nearest pack. Her vision is clearer now. "I'm getting better, I promise. Can you set up while I see what else we've got?"
There's barely enough room for their sleeping pads and bags in the three-person tent, but Sam thinks nobody's going to complain about body heat. Daniel crawls around, patting down the bedding.
She skips past the weapons and radios and canteens. She knows those are fine. The flashlights are, too. They also have food for five days, the cookstove and plenty of sterno, four thermal blankets, her laptop, a pack of playing cards, the travel chess set, four chocolate-chip cookies courtesy of Daniel, and one comic book that can only be Teal'c's. Daniel rolls his eyes at that. Sam lets him decide where to put it all, so she can lie down again. She crawls into her sleeping bag.
There's a blast of frigid air into the tent, followed by Teal'c and a shivering Colonel O'Neill. "New rule," the colonel says. "From now on, we only go to planets with the Weather Channel." He lies on his stomach by the door. His torn BDUs can't be much use against this weather. "We good on supplies?"
"As long as we don't get snowed in for a week," Daniel says. He pulls a blanket over his shoulders.
"Carter, you still with us?"
"Yes, sir."
"She sleepy?" he asks Daniel.
"I think so," Daniel says.
"Did I not mention the part where I'm right here?" she says.
"I don't want you asleep for more than two hours at a time," the colonel says. Then he gasps. Teal'c's already working on his shredded legs. "Make sure she wakes up, guys."
Daniel rubs her arm with his mummy hand. "Too many close calls lately," he says softly.
"I know," she says. "It's okay." She does understand. She's been missing twice in two months, and she'd be just as worried if one of them hit his head on a rock.
"Major Carter," Teal'c says. "Are you able to administer antibiotics and analgesics?"
"I think so," she says, as Daniel helps her sit up again. She winces without meaning to, but none of them comment. The syringes and the painkillers are right where they belong in the medkit. She hands out pills and water, and injects Daniel and the colonel. They don't even flinch. Then it's her turn. Teal'c presses the needle into her skin, and she doesn't flinch, either. But she's dizzy by the time she's done. She doesn't mention it, but she's sure Teal'c and Daniel already know. The colonel's too busy gritting his teeth. She lies back down.
"Do you wish to sleep now, Major Carter?" Teal'c tears off the rest of the fabric around Colonel O'Neill's legs, so he can properly secure all the gauze.
"Ah, Christ," the colonel says. "Is this gonna take all night?" Sam and Daniel raise amused eyebrows at each other.
"I am nearly done, O'Neill. I will be done more quickly if you do not move."
"I think I should eat something first," Sam says. "You guys hungry?"
Teal'c helps the colonel put on his other pair of pants while Daniel passes out four matching MREs. It's Thai chicken, Sam's favorite out of all the Air Force's culinary crimes, and she knows Daniel chose it on purpose. The colonel heats hers up, perching on his elbows, and Teal'c pushes his pack behind her, so she doesn't have to sit up all the way.
Daniel struggles to open his crackers until Teal'c silently reaches for them. Sam wonders how he's going to handle a fork. "Thanks," Daniel mumbles. "Can we get some water heated up?"
"Hand it to me," Colonel O'Neill says. "I'll do it." The smell of sterno fills the tent. Teal'c unzips the flap an inch and the wind howls a few notes higher.
"So," Daniel says, licking crumbs off his lips. "I think we might not make it back for your birthday dinner, Sam."
"We owe you one," the colonel agrees.
She tries to keep her smile to herself. "I didn't want to celebrate it, anyway."
"Oh, you did, too," Daniel says.
"It's cruel and unusual to withhold cake from your friends on your birthday, Carter."
"I concur," Teal'c says.
"And it's such a big one, Sam," Daniel says, his eyes sparkling. "You're officially old."
"Hey!" The colonel looks over his shoulder. "Now that's just mean, with Teal'c being ancient and all."
"You're only eight months younger than me, Daniel!"
"Eight long months."
The ground rolls beneath them and they all look up, but the tent holds.
"The first one was a lot stronger, wasn't it?" Sam asks. "Or was that just because I was falling?"
"I believe it was stronger, Major Carter."
"Still not too powerful, I think," Daniel says. "We were just in the wrong place."
"Which is such a rare occurrence for us," the colonel says. The water simmers. He fills their cups.
Sam opens Daniel's coffee packet for him. She knows they'll all object to her drinking caffeine, so she tears open a meatloaf MRE and takes the hot cider mix.
"C'mon, Carter," Colonel O'Neill says when they're all a little warmer. "You're not really freaking out over four-oh, are you? You're not vain enough."
Daniel sips his coffee loudly. "She's allowed to freak out a little bit," he says.
"Age brings wisdom," Teal'c says. "Considering how wise you already are, Major Carter, I fear you may ascend before you reach fifty."
Her face grows warm. "Thanks, guys," she says softly.
The colonel struggles to his knees. "I need to check outside before bedtime."
"Only if I accompany you, O'Neill."
"Yeah, yeah. Come on."
Snow covers their hats, their clothes, and even their cheeks when they return. "Wind's at least fifty miles an hour and you can't see a thing," Colonel O'Neill reports. Sam can see the pain on his face as he lies down again. "But the tarp is holding."
They stow the remains of their MREs, and Sam makes them all turn while she pees into a specimen bag. She hates this part, but it's not the first time they've had to share quarters so closely.
"Okay, you can look now," she says.
The colonel pulls a blanket over his back and plants his face in the sleeping bag. "Hold the fort, will you, Teal'c?"
"Indeed, O'Neill."
The storm attacks the tent and the air is sharp on Sam's hands and face. She starts to push the pack back into the corner, but Teal'c leans over and does it for her.
"Going to sleep?" Daniel asks.
"Mmm." Sam takes off her jacket so she can roll it up as a pillow, and cuddles into the down. But a minute later she hears a suspicious sound from Teal'c's other side, and she levers herself up again. The colonel is snoring. He never sleeps that deeply offworld, and Teal'c and Daniel are staring at him, too. They all share a smile. Sam settles down again.
"See you in two hours," Daniel says.
"Mmm," she says. She's very tired. She hears wind shrieking outside, hears another snore and Teal'c quietly asking Daniel whether he wants to play Go Fish or chess. And then it's quiet.
A hand touches her face, and Teal'c calls her name. "What?" she says, irritated. Her headache's worse than it was during dinner.
"It has been two hours. Do you feel unwell?"
"A little groggy," she admits. "Can you find the Tylenol?"
He hands her the pills and a canteen. "Are they both asleep?" she asks. Teal'c nods. "You're okay staying awake?"
"I am."
Sam sips more water. The bruise on her thigh hurts from being slept on, so she lies on her back instead. The tent rustles as Teal'c accidentally hits the pole.
It's Daniel who wakes her up next, by poking her shoulder.
"That was not two hours," she moans.
"Oh, yes it was. How many elements are there in the periodic table?"
"A hundred sixteen officially," she says. Her mouth feels dry, but asking for water seems like a lot of trouble. "Seventeen more that we've found offworld."
"I have no idea if that's correct," he says, smiling.
"Trust me," she says.
She wonders why it's still light in the tent. Should it still be light in the tent? Thinking about it makes her brain feel sloshy again, and now her neck is sore, too. She rolls over, trying to get comfortable, and shuts her eyes.
Sterno. She smells sterno. "Hey, Carter. Carter!"
She groans.
"Come on, Sam. It'll be worth it."
Her eyelids feel like lead. But above her are three smiling faces, and in Daniel's bandaged hands, a chocolate-chip cookie with a tin of sterno on top.
"It's midnight back home," Daniel explains.
"You guys are nuts," she says. It's hard to speak. The smiles turn into expressions of alarm, and a hand waves in front of her face. It makes her dizzy.
"How many fingers, Carter?"
"Two," she says. She's pretty sure it's two. They all look like she gave the right answer.
"How many birthdays?" Daniel blows out the sterno and hands her the cookie. It has white cotton lint on it.
"I refuse to answer that," she says.
"What's the highest-scoring college hockey game of all time?"
"How am I supposed to know that, sir?"
"Worth a try," he grins.
"What is your address, Major Carter?"
She rattles it off. She just wants to close her eyes. "Can I go back to sleep now?"
They make her eat her cookie first.
The next time, it's just the colonel. She squints, painfully, to see him bending over her. The tent is darker now. He quizzes her about the Simpsons and asks her if she's cold, which she is. He makes her sit up so he can slide her arms into her jacket, and wakes Teal'c.
"She's freezing. You're big. Get closer," the colonel says. Sam feels Teal'c's muscled arms around her and drifts away. She wishes for a pillow. She dreams of falling through ice.
Time becomes slippery after that. She hears their voices -- "Too cold in here." "Shit." "Sometimes they get better before they get worse." "I am concerned, O'Neill." -- and she flits in and out of sleep. She tries to respond to their questions. Colonel O'Neill orders her to stay awake.
"Sorry, sir," she says.
They pour water and pills down her throat, give her bits of food to chew. The sleeping bag gets bigger somehow and there are other people in it with her. Her toes are cold, her back is cold, she's sleeping on something hard and she remembers it's the ground and it's a blizzard and that's why she can't get warm. She thinks she hears a radio crackling, and the colonel saying, "General," but that can't be right. The whole planet seems to shake.
The screaming of the wind bores into her skull. She pulls something over her ear to shut it out, but somebody uncovers it again and does something with tape and makes her drink hot water. There's talking, but it's far away and she can't answer. There's another needle in her arm. And then there's quiet, again, and the quiet is good.
Something beeps. It must be a watch. Whichever of the guys owns it should turn it off. The tent is light through her eyelids. She raises a hand to her head to touch her bandages, and her fingers aren't cold.
"Doctor Fraiser." It's Teal'c's voice. It feels like his hand holding hers. "I believe Major Carter is awakening."
"Sam?" That's definitely Janet. "You're in the infirmary. You're going to be fine."
Sam opens her eyes, finally, and takes a sharp breath, but the pain is nothing like before. "Hi, Janet," she says sluggishly. Her tongue doesn't want to cooperate. "Hi, Teal'c."
Teal'c holds a straw to her mouth. Water. She drinks.
Janet takes her pulse and checks her bandages. "How do you feel, Sam?"
"Warm," she says. Janet smiles.
Teal'c smiles, too. "You disobeyed an order, Major Carter."
"What? When?" Sam hopes she hasn't forgotten something else.
"You slept when you were told not to," he explains. His hand envelops hers again.
Ah. "Sorry," she says, smiling. She reaches for more water, and Teal'c helps her. "Where are Daniel and the colonel?"
"It is not their turn," Teal'c says.
"I'll get one of the nurses to call them down." Janet presses a stethoscope to Sam's chest. "They both came home with infections, but they're fine."
"In our concern for you we neglected the antibiotics, Major Carter."
She can imagine that, though she could hit them all for it, too. She blinks. "Did you guys carry me back?"
"Hardly," Janet says. "They were hypothermic and exhausted by the time SG-3 and SG-10 dug you out. You came back on stretchers."
"I did not require a stretcher, Doctor Fraiser," Teal'c says.
Janet glances at him sideways, amused.
"So I did hear the radio?" Sam asks.
Teal'c's eyebrow shoots up. "I am surprised you recall that."
"It is kind of a jumble," she admits.
"It was thirty below zero when the weather cleared. It must have been colder during the storm," Janet says. She lifts the blanket to examine Sam's toes.
"It was very cold," Sam says. She wishes she'd been awake for more of it, if only so the guys could have spent less time worrying about her and more time taking care of themselves. She remembers the fall, she remembers the stinging and the blood while the wind picked up, she remembers dinner in the tent, she remembers being asked about hockey. And she remembers --
"Birthday sterno? You really gave me birthday sterno?"
"We'll get you a real cake, Sam," Janet says. "That's no way to turn forty."
"No, the cookie was good," Sam says brightly. And to Teal'c, "Thank you."
Thanks for reading!