"Take cover!" yelled Cameron, ducking behind a rock to avoid enemy fire. The others did the same.

"We need to get to the gate," yelled Sam returning fire, "and we need to get there now. We can't hold them off much longer."

"Daniel?" yelled Cameron.

"Here," said Daniel.

"You got the artifact?" yelled Cameron as he too returned enemy fire.

"Got it," said Daniel, securing their newest find in his backpack. This exploration on PX5-426 had started out as routinely as any other, exploring a new planet looking for new technology. When the team arrived here on the first day, there was no civilization to be found. It seemed that the people of this world were no longer here, and so the day passed without incident. They had studied the surrounding area, but concentrated on a dilapidated temple that Daniel had found interesting when viewing the MALP video feed. He thought the Ancients might have built it and so they were off to check it out. The mission went well, and as the second day dawned, they were packing up to get back to earth when they were ambushed by enemy fire. They were being fired on with some sort of energy weapon, not unlike the staff that T'ealc carried. They couldn't see their enemy very well, their faces covered by masks, but what they could see was that there were a lot of them. This routine mission had quickly become a retreat for their lives.

"Sam?" yelled Cameron.

"Yeah?" she yelled back, firing the whole time.

"Think you can make a run for the gate with Daniel while T'ealc and I lay down cover?"

"I think so," said Sam.

"Daniel?" yelled Sam.

"Let's do it," he said.

"Ok, you guys ready?" asked Sam.

"Go! Go! Go!" yelled Cameron.

Sam and Daniel broke into a sprint and headed straight for the gate, about 50 feet away. They were doing well avoiding the weapons fire around them.

"Dial us up Daniel," yelled Sam over the noise of the energy weapons, "I'll hold them off."

Daniel went to the DHD and started to dial while Sam returned fire. "Cameron," called Sam through her radio, "Daniel's dialing, let's go."

"Roger, we're on our way." Cameron signaled to T'ealc and the two headed for the gate.

Daniel was on the last symbol when he was hit in the shoulder by a weapon.

"Aaahh" gasped Daniel as he fell to the ground.

"Daniel!" yelled Sam as she made her way over to him. "You alright?"

"The last coordinate…." Said Daniel, "Dial the last coordinate…"

Sam stood up to dial in the last symbol and was immediately hit in the back by an energy blast. "Aaaaahh" She fell to her knees, but not before getting the last symbol in completing the dial up. Daniel watched as she fell, hitting her head on the DHD and landing in a heap next to it.

The gate let out it's "whoosh" as Daniel made his way to her, staying low to avoid getting hit again. "Sam!" He turned her over and felt for her pulse, it was faint. "Sam?" She was hit in the lower back and she was unconscious. She had a large gash on her forehead.

"Daniel!" yelled Cameron, "Get to the gate. Teal'c, get Sam. C'mon let's go…."

Cameron continued to lay down fire as T'ealc picked up Sam and headed for the gate. Once T'ealc and Daniel were through, Cameron made a dive through the event horizon and the wormhole closed.

On the other side of the gate a medical team was working on Daniel and the doctors were assessing Sam. "Let's get her to the infirmary STAT. She's losing a lot of blood."

Daniel, T'ealc and Cameron watched as the medical team took their friend away, each of them saying a silent prayer that she would be all right. She had to be.

Cameron and Daniel paced the hallway outside of the infirmary, waiting for news of Sam's condition. Teal'c was seated, deep in meditation.

"It's been like hours hasn't it?" asked Cameron as he continued his pacing, nervously tapping his fingers on his thighs as he paced.

"I dunno, seems like it," said Daniel, wincing at his sore shoulder.

"It has been 2 hours and 38 minutes," said Teal'c coming out of his meditation.

Cameron stopped his pacing to stare at Teal'c, "You kept track."

Teal'c looked at Cameron, a quizzical look on his face, "Of course. The longer Colonel Carter is in surgery, the more concerned I am becoming."

"I know the feeling," said Daniel, "Why won't anyone tell us anything?"

The door to the infirmary opened as Daniel finished his sentence, "I couldn't tell you anything when I didn't know anything now could I?" asked Janet.

The three men jumped to surround Janet, "Well," asked Cameron, "How is she? Is she going to be alright?"

Janet rubbed her eyes, "Her head wound isn't as bad as it looked. It's a pretty severe laceration, but she's lucky. She didn't seem to hit her head hard enough to cause any lingering problems. However…"

"Oh I don't like the sound of your however, doc," said Cameron.

"Me neither," said Daniel.

Janet looked at Teal'c, "Nothing to add?"

"Please, Dr. Frasier, proceed."

"Ok. However, the hit was hard enough to cause a concussion. Don't expect her to wake up anytime soon though, I put her into a drug induced coma, at least for a day or two."

"A drug induced coma?" asked Daniel, "Why? What else aren't you telling us?"

Janet took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes, "The head injury isn't what I'm worried about. It's the hit she took in her lower back."

"What about it?" asked Cameron.

"Sam was lucky, somewhat. Another inch and it would have directly hit her spinal cord, probably severing it. This hit just missed the spinal cord, however it managed to destroy a hell of a lot of nerves around it. Basically, the hit took out the nerves going to her lower right back and her right leg. It's like it cut the wires running the current through from her spinal cord to the muscles."

"So she's paralyzed!" said Daniel, clearly taken aback by such a dire prognosis.

"For now," said Janet. "And only the right leg. That's the reason we were in surgery for so long. We had to reconnect everything on that side. Now, if everything takes, she'll be ok, eventually."

"What does 'eventually' mean exactly?" asked Cameron.

"Even if we had gotten everything exactly the way it was first time, and I think we did, she still has a lot of rehabilitation ahead of her before that leg will be functional again."

"But I thought that if the nerves were reconnected, well shouldn't everything just work again. Kind of like reconnecting the wire?" said Daniel.

"In theory, yes, but there is no way to know just by looking at them, which nerves did what in terms of controlling things like muscle movement to that extremity. Sam is going to have to give those nerves time to relearn their functions."

"So you are saying that even in the best case scenario, Colonel Carter will have to re learn how to maneuver on that limb?" asked Teal'c.

"Yes," said Janet, "Look, guys, this isn't going to be easy for her. You know Sam; she likes to fix the problem that's in front of her. But she can't fix this in one sitting. It's going to take time for her body to heal enough for her to try to start rehab, but she can't change how long that is. I think this is going to be tough for her, and we'll all need to be there for her."

The three men all nodded, "When can we see her?" asked Daniel.

"You can go in now if you like. Remember, she's in a coma for now. I want her to be as still as possible for the first few days after the surgery to give those nerves the best chance to settle in a bit. But talk to her. She can hear you. But stay as positive as you can. I'll check on her later." She patted Daniel on the back, "She'll get through this." He nodded, "Now go on in and see her."

"You guys go on in, I need to make a call," said Daniel, and disappeared down the corridor and into Sam's office. He picked up the phone and dialed. "C'mon, pick up, pick up. Uh hello? Hey, it's Daniel. Uh, no, everything's not all right. No, how fast can you get here? Um, it's Sam. Bad, really bad. Ok, we'll see you soon." As Daniel hung up the receiver he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. His gaze fell on Sam's laptop and a piece of technology she had been working on before the last mission. Everything was just as she left it. Just waiting for her to walk back in. Daniel put his glasses back on, "She'll walk back in here. He said softly to himself. She has to." He put on his glasses and exited the lab towards the infirmary.