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Cameron put the probability at fifty-fifty that he would be able to convince Dr. Lam to let him stay in the infirmary overnight. Though if he could plead exhaustion—which honestly wasn’t too far from the truth—he might be able to stay without an argument. Though that would probably get him an even more in-depth med evaluation, and he didn’t particularly want to deal with that.
“You still here, Mitchell?”
Cameron jolted to his feet, spinning to face General O’Neill, who was standing in the doorway. “Sir.” He really must be tired, if he hadn’t noticed the General walking up.
The General looked amused. “At ease.” When Cameron shifted to a more relaxed position, the General looked past him to where Sam was still lying unconscious in the infirmary bed. “How is she?”
Fighting a wince, Cameron said, “She’s, uh…she’s alive, sir. Dr. Lam said she’s going to be okay.”
“Good. Go get some rest. I’ll sit with her for a while.”
Cameron nodded. “Yes, sir. Just…if you don’t mind me asking, sir, what are you doing here?”
General O’Neill’s lips twisted up slightly. “They wanted to debrief me personally about Merlin’s thingamabob, and I thought I would check up on Carter while I’m here. So get out of here. Landry told me you’ve been here since you were cleared by Dr. Lam.”
Cameron nodded, then headed out of the infirmary. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do now; he should sleep, knew how to sleep after bad situations, knew how to sleep after losing people, but all he could see when he closed his eyes was Sam, dying in that bed with nothing he could do about it.
Vala found him half an hour later in the cafeteria, where he was nursing a cup of lukewarm coffee. She dropped down in the chair across form him, lounging, a smirk plastered on her face. “Pouting, handsome? Lam kick you out of your vigil with our Colonel?”
“The General’s sitting with her now.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Hate to disappoint you, but I just saw General Landry in his office.”
“General O’Neill.”
“Oh.” Her smile grew. “Nice little date in the infirmary. I guess for you military types, that’s romantic.”
Cameron looked up from his coffee at her, but it didn’t look like she was joking. Which was unnerving. Though Vala as a person tended to be unnerving, hiding behind her smiles until she did something brave or thoughtful. “He’s her old CO.”
“He’s her boyfriend.”
Okay, Cameron really didn’t want to be hearing this. “Did she tell you that?” Not that he really wanted to know, because…well, he wasn’t sure what the fraternization rules for something like that were, not as tired as he was, but he was fairly certain that wasn’t allowed.
She reached out and swirled a finger in his coffee, before licking her finger and making a face. “I have no idea how you drink that stuff.” And now he wasn’t going to drink it either. Not that he had been getting through it anyway. “And no. But she didn’t need to. I have eyes.”
Ah, so it was one of Vala’s intuitions. “They’re friends. Close friends. That’s what happens when you work together for almost a decade. He’s the same with Daniel, too.”
“Really?” She looked interested. “Maybe he’s with the two of them together—”
“Vala.” Cameron pushed the cup away, and coffee splattered out onto the table.
Vala smiled at him. “Just trying to get you to relax, handsome. You looked like you were about to jump out the nearest window.” She looked around. “Not that there are any in this place.” Patting his hand, she stood. “I’ll be in my room if you need some comfort.” And then she walked away.
Cameron stayed where he was for a long time, Vala’s words running through his head. He didn’t think Sam and General O’Neill were in a relationship—they were too professional for that, and besides, it wasn’t like they ever saw each other—but they were incredibly close friends from all indication. And Sam’s password was fishing…but he already knew that she, Daniel, and Teal’c went fishing with the General occasionally, or used to before everything went to hell. Having something that reminded her of normalcy made sense.
Vala was probably just listening to the rumors and extrapolating from there. That was definitely it.
--
Jack was an hour into his vigil when Sam’s eyes fluttered and opened. “Hey, Carter.”
She blinked at him. “Please tell me I’m not dead.” Her voice was hoarse, and he reached for a cup to pour some water in so he could hold it with a straw up to her lips. She swallowed once, twice, then shook her head slightly, and he set the cup aside.
“You’re not dead, Carter.”
Her lips curled just slightly upward at the corners. “I guess if I was dead, you wouldn’t be calling me Carter.” She started to shift, then froze. “And I wouldn’t hurt so much.”
“You want me to get Lam?”
A minute shake of her head. “Not yet. Just want to…see you.”
He made himself smile at her even though it hurt so much to see her so pale and quiet like that. “I’m starting to think that was your plan all along. You just wanted an excuse for me to be dragged all the way over here.”
“You caught me, sir.” Her eyes were starting to close, and he let himself indulge in the luxury of resting a hand on her cheek, feeling her skin against hers. It was too long, and he hated that the only time he got to see her was when she had just almost died.
Her eyes slitted open to look at him. “What are you doing here?”
“They wanted to tell me how cool your doohickey is.”
“I knew you’d like my doohickey.”
Jack fought down a smile. “You know I’m going to hold this against you when you’re conscious enough to know what you’re saying.”
She blinked at him once, then said, “Glad I’m not dead.” And then she fell asleep again.
Yeah, Jack thought, he was glad she wasn’t dead, too.