Author's Note: This fic was written in response to the prompt, "A fic where Sam is fascinated by Jack's hand, when he's holding her hand."

She hears the colonel's warning a second before the world shifts from under her feet. Searing pain tears through her entire body as she falls to the ground. The wind knocked out of her, it leaves her momentarily paralyzed, and struggling to breathe.

The pain intensifies and her vision starts to tunnel and she tries to call out, but her throat feels like it's on fire and she doesn't know if anyone can hear her, because she can't even hear herself.

The sounds of the firefight around her have also vanished, everything now muffled and heavy and confusing.

But then a warmth suddenly settles on her stomach, and penetrates through her skin, but it's different to the heat that is currently burning in her chest. It feels almost familiar, and pulls her from the darkness to just this side of conscious.

"Carter!"

Nothing is in focus anymore and she thinks she must have hit her head when she fell as her vision starts to fade again.

"Shit. Carter! Can you hear me?"

It's his voice that keeps her awake, and his touch that lets her know she is still alive, because she figures out that it's his hand that's frantically pressing down on her stomach and chest, while the other rests against the side of her face, his fingers shaking as they graze her cheek. It's warm and strangely comforting, despite her entire body feeling like it's on fire. She tries to say something, but guesses she is unsuccessful when the colonel doesn't answer.

"Teal'c! I need help. Carter's been hit."

His presence is like an anchor, and she finds herself grounded, but then the pain hits her all over again, relentlessly in waves, and she cries out. This time she knows the colonel has heard her when the pressure on her stomach increases and his other hand moves to her shoulder to stop her from moving.

"You're gonna be okay, Carter."

It's then that she realizes she is lying on the ground, and the smell of gunfire and burning flesh fills her nostrils and she wants to be sick. She remembers she's off-world with her team and how the colonel tried to warn her about the Jaffa a second before she took a staff blast straight to the chest.

"Sam? Can you open your eyes?"

She doesn't realize her eyes are closed until the colonel lightly slaps her face, but the pain is now too much and she just wants the drugs and to let the darkness claim her until nothing hurts anymore.

"Sir..."

"Ssshhh, Carter."

"Sir –"

"Save it for when we're home, Carter."

"I can't –"

"Sam... Please."

She grimaces as the colonel presses down harder on her abdomen. "I'm sorry."

"It... hurts."

"I know, Carter."

She tries to keep her eyes open, but the darkness is more inviting. Even when a hand appears before her, she finds it a struggle to focus.

"Carter! I need you to stay with me, OK?"

He moves his hand, so Sam can see his face; but she isn't looking at him, so she doesn't see the fear and worry in his eyes. Instead she studies his hands. Hands that had held her, carried her and protected her, but that were now fighting to keep her alive.

"Sam? Sam! Shit."

She feels like time is slowing down, and as the pain finally becomes too much to handle she feels his hand capture hers and hold it tight. It's the last thing she knows as her world fades to black.