No one gets left behind.
By Gumnut
19 Apr 2004

Falling.

Falling rain, like a thunderous drumbeat on an iron roof, it came down around them. A solid wall of water, crashing into the earth, throwing up dirt spun into mud, to splatter their clothing.

They ran.

Their feet pounding, weapons drawn, stricken yells as the air around them lit up with orange fire, steam clouds hissing in a sudden cycle of evaporation and condensation.

The snap-chatter bark of the gun in his hands biting back was swallowed by the pine trees caught in the gusting wind.

But suddenly they were no longer four.

Suddenly they were three running souls in the pouring rain.

One lay silent in the mud, a black singed burn in his back.

Oh God.

He slid in the slick, drawing a halt to his onward rush. Flame licked at his hair as he turned, spinning on a heel, yelling for the others to run. Black metal shuddering under his fingers as he covered himself, death and injury felling the pursuing Jaffa like wooden ducks in an amusement park.

The sounds of anger and agony pierced the air.

His hands found cloth and he pulled, and yanking his teammate vertical, flung him over his shoulder. No one gets left behind.

One handed he fended them off. P-90 firing wildy, his own screams of defiance drowned out by the rain and, just as suddenly, the pain.

It flared up his leg, and he buckled, he was down, his friend’s weight pressing his face into the mud. He struggled to move, he struggled to breathe. No, damnit, it wouldn’t end like this!

And then hands were pulling at him, lifting him, gunfire throbbing with his heartbeat. He found his feet. Sam screamed something into his face and he was moving. No-one gets left behind.

Through water-ridden eyesight he saw Teal’c standing protected by the gate at the edge of the wormhole, dealing out helpings of orange death of his own. His face snarled anger, simmering defiance.

They didn’t hesitate. He stumbled up the steps under the cover Teal’c provided, and threw himself and his injured friend through the wormhole to safety, landing in an unceremonious heap on the other side.

There was quiet on this side of the gate. Despite the alarms, and despite the urgent chatter of the medical staff, he let himself relax back on the ramp.

And knowing Jack was finally in safe hands, Daniel let the world drift away.

**********

FIN.