Work Text:
General O’Neill stormed through the hospital corridors, the protests and shouts of staff proving ineffective at stopping him. He didn’t care; no-one and nothing was going to keep him from where he needed to be.
He turned the corner and saw Teal’c standing guard outside a room.
“T,” he said, not caring for the gruff quality to his voice, “what happened?”
“Perhaps it is best if we have this conversation inside, O’Neill,” he said solemnly as he gestured to the waiting room where Daniel, Cam and Vala were also waiting.
Jack swallowed hard. “Is she –”
“We haven’t heard anything more,” Daniel quickly interrupted and he released a shaky breath.
No news was definitely good news on this occasion, he told himself, and with a reluctant nod he stepped inside the waiting room.
“Start talking,” he ordered.
“Sam was on her way home from base,” Cam supplied quietly. “A man in a pick-up ran a red light. The police are saying it was a drunk driver.”
“What about her car?”
Cam shook his head. “She’d taken her motorcycle to work.”
A curse left Jack as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Where is she?”
“She’s still in surgery,” Vala answered, her usual enthusiasm and energy nowhere to be found.
“What about the other driver?”
“He didn’t make it,” Daniel confirmed.
Jack released a long breath. He had been given very few details of the accident and even with him calling on any contacts he knew, no-one had been able to tell him anything. The only information he had was that there’d been a multi-vehicle accident at a large cross-intersection near Cheyenne Mountain and Sam had been one of those involved in the crash and rushed to hospital.
“Was anyone else hurt?”
The others shared a look which only served to anger Jack.
“Was anyone else hurt?” he repeated firmly.
“There’s been two other fatalities,” Daniel nodded, his upset visible. “One of them was just a child.”
Jack sat down heavily in the nearest chair he could find and closed his eyes.
He had spoken to Sam just that morning; she had called him to let him know she and the rest of SG-1 had arrived back from their latest mission safely and she was going to catch up on some paperwork before she headed home. They had then discussed their plans for the weekend as Jack was due to fly to Colorado Springs so they could spend some time together. The last thing he’d said to her was to be careful and he would see her in a couple of days.
He replayed their conversation over in his mind; the light tones that edged their voices, the flirting undertones to their words, the way he could picture her blue eyes sparkling and her lips twisting into a smile as he made a really bad joke in an attempt to make her laugh.
He took a deep breath and another and another to try and rein in his emotions. He didn’t hear the others leave the room until he felt someone sit down to his left. He opened his eyes to find Daniel beside him, his attention focused on his own hands. They sat in silence for a few minutes but Jack didn’t realize he was bouncing his legs up and down until his friend reached out and placed a hand on his leg to try and stop the movement.
“I know I should be surprised by how quickly you got here,” the archeologist said quietly, “but I’m not.”
“It’s Carter.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t give them a choice,” Jack continued after a moment. “I just… walked out.”
“Walked out?”
“Of a meeting with the President and Joint Chiefs.”
“Ah.”
He shrugged. “Like I said, it’s Carter.”
His leg started to bounce again and he caught Daniel’s glance, so tried to stop fidgeting.
“It’s fine,” his friend reassured quietly. “We’re all anxious.”
“The last time I was at this hospital,” Jack said quietly a few minutes later, “was the day Charlie died.”
Daniel winced.
“I am not going through that again. I can’t go through that kind of loss again.”
“She’s in the best place, Jack. The surgeons –” He swallowed the lump in his throat, “– they’ll do what they can.”
“I wish Janet was here.”
A heavy silence fell before Daniel nodded. “So do I.”
Another bounce of the leg and a huff of unamused laughter escaped Jack.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“Carter has spent her life traveling the galaxy and fighting alien enemies. She’s had a Tok’ra symbiote die in her brain, her memory has been stamped, her entire consciousness has been transferred out of her body and into a computer – and then back again – and that’s just for starters. And yet the thing that has her life hanging in the balance right now is a car accident that happened less than two miles from her home.”
“She fought, every single time. She’s going to fight this too, Jack.”
“I wish I had your optimism, Danny.”
“The two of you didn’t make it this far for it to end up like this.”
It was too much. He didn’t want to think about the possibilities of a life without Sam, especially as they had finally been able to work around the regulations and be together. He pushed himself to his feet and stretched his legs before he headed for the window.
“It’s going to be okay, Jack,” Daniel said. “Sam’s a fighter.”
He thought about Daniel’s words and nodded because he knew his friend was right.
Over the years, Jack O’Neill got to know many things about Samantha Carter and one thing he knew for certain was that she has always been a fighter. He kept the reminder with him as movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he looked up to find the rest of his friends returning, before he saw a doctor standing in the doorway.
“General O’Neill, I have an update regarding your wife.”