Curiously, there were no guards left at the Gate, but the Jaffa were pressing close behind them. Reaching the gate before his companions, Teal'c commenced the dial-out sequence, before pausing to lay down covering fire to allow the rest of the team to arrive unharmed.
Looking back briefly as he formed a defensive shield with O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, he saw that Major Carter had taken up the dialling process.
Remaining outwardly calm, he concentrated on the task of keeping her alive long enough to finish and was horrified by the loud reports that shook the world at that moment.
Curiously, the event horizon appeared without its usual wooshing noise.
In fact, since the explosions two days ago, Sam had heard nothing at all, and that had only increased her frustration while she fought the alien device preventing them from dialing out. Daniel and Teal'c had been supportive, but the Colonel had been downright offensive when he thought she wasn't looking.
Gratefully, she shouldered her gear and stepped through the gate. This trip was far more disorienting for her than usual, though, and she was grateful to be caught and enveloped by strong arms as she stumbled onto the ramp.
Curiously, his 2IC's deafness bothered Jack O'Neill far more deeply than he cared to admit. This wasn't just male denial, he told himself, it was a command decision, to keep up team morale. Teal'c and Daniel may be pampering Carter as if she were some dying duck, but he knew from experience, that she was apt to blame herself for every misfortune that befell the team and a few sarcastic remarks, when she thought the he thought she couldn't see him would help keep her mind off the guilt. He had no doubts that he would pay for them later.
Curiously, or perhaps not so curiously, Doctor Fraiser was unsurprised when SG-1 failed to return from P7K-831 on schedule. She knew better than most, how trouble swarmed around the team wherever they went.
Yet, in the three days since the team last checked in she had still worried obsessively, until General Hammond had ordered her to get some rest. Just as she was approaching the sleep her body desperately needed, the sirens that signaled an opening wormhole rocked the base.
Janet arrived in the Gateroom at a run, in time to catch Sam as she stumbled through the event horizon.
Curiously, thought Daniel, I was the only one uninjured. Janet Fraiser had been almost incredulous when she finally reached him in the aftermath of the mission on P7K-831 and she had looked dead on her feet.
Now, with Jack sleeping fitfully and Teal'c healing in Kelnoreem, Daniel wandered the once again peaceful Infirmary for some news of his other colleague's injuries. Unable to find Janet in her office, he headed to the private room that SG-1 had used so often. Through the door he saw the Doctor holding Carter's hand, her head resting on the bed. He turned away, smiling.