DISCLAIMER: Not mine, no money, just some fluffy fun.....
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
If You Must Stomp
By ncruuk
The infirmary was finally quiet, with no patients and few staff as, after a busy day, Janet Fraiser had welcomed her night shift staff into her infirmary with the observation that,
"It's empty, and I'd like it to stay that way. If you must stomp about, do it in your socks, I have a headache..." before heading to her office. She still had several hours of work ahead of her and, if something happened, she would respond, but otherwise, she was treating paperwork, not patients.
Recognising when not to bother their boss, the night shift had swung into action, taking care to not go near the CMO's office for fear of disturbing her. Janet Fraiser was a great CMO because she never felt that any patient or procedure was beneath her, getting involved in all the work and not standing on unnecessary ceremony. Unfortunately, that tendancy did mean she often got involved when she really didn't need to, resulting in her late nights and paperwork backlogs. Determined not to contribute further to their overworked boss, the on-call staff took the decision to move all their work to the opposite end of the infirmary in an attempt to leave Janet alone.
"Jess?" Sam Carter came into the patient-less infirmary and stopped the nearest nurse she recognised.
"Yes Ma'am?" replied the nurse formally, only to earn a waved instruction to relax from Sam. It was past 10pm and Sam was wearing her sweaty work out clothes, hardly a time for the blonde astrophysicist to care much about ceremony.
"She still here?" she asked, with little preamble, recognising Jess as one of Janet's more senior nurses, and one who was 'in-the-know' about their relationship.
"Triaging paperwork in her office..." explained Jess, relaxing her stance but reluctant to launch into an informal conversation with Major Carter about her boss, even if they were lovers.
"Bad day?" asked Sam, curious. She'd been off-world for 4 days on a planet whose day was about 11 hours off from Colorado, explaining why, when she'd returned at 10am she'd barely been able to stay awake through the briefing and why now, after a decent 8 hours sleep, she'd been up and running in the gym. The rest of the SGC had completely bypassed her.
"We're all at the other end of the infirmary tonight," explained Jess, gesturing towards the corner with all the activity which right now amounted to nothing more dramatic than a hushed game of 'Snap'. Without any patients there was only so much general tidying you could do in an infirmary run by Janet Fraiser.
"Headache?" guessed Sam, running her fingers through her sweaty hair, unwittingly making her look even more like a hedgehog than she thought her hair normally did.
"She told us to stomp in our socks..."
"Thanks Jess..." Another vague wave and smile and Jess nodded and headed back to her colleagues, intent on getting the card game to stop. Either they were going to need to treat Major Carter for injuries sustained whilst interrupting Dr Fraiser when she was nursing a headache, or, and it was the second option Jess was mentally putting money on, the tall blonde would coax the CMO out of her infirmary and home to bed....either way, getting caught playing cards was not going to do any of their careers much good.
Stopping a couple of paces short of the open doorway, Sam took a moment to observe her lover unseen. She didn't need many degrees to work out that Janet had not had a good day, with the smaller woman's shoulders hunched around a tense neck which was clearly visible owing to the blue scrubs that her lover was wearing: Janet only wore scrubs outside the operating theatre when she had run out of uniforms.
Walking quietly into the office, her footsteps muffled by the sneakers she was still wearing, Sam came up behind Janet, relying on her lover's incredible ability to subconsciously identify Sam's presence and recognise her as being 'safe' even without her conscious mind being aware of her lover's presence. Once close, Sam was content just to stand and wait for Janet to become fully aware of her presence.
"You've been to the gym..." murmured Janet finally, when she became aware of who was standing behind her, too tired to look up or turn around.
"Mmm...tough day?" asked Sam softly, placing her hands on Janet's shoulders and beginning a gentle massage that immediately started working, so experienced was Sam at undoing her lover's knots.
"I ran out of uniforms at 2 something..." explained Janet, suddenly glad she was wearing scrubs when Sam took advantage of the lack of collar and big neck to slip her hands inside and actually begin massaging soft skin rather than coarse fabric.
"But it's better now?" asked Sam, remembering the empty infirmary.
"SG3 and SG7 came back with superficial scrapes and scratches...but they were very...messy to fix..." The firm but tender massage was starting to lull Janet towards sleep.
"Messy?" Sam queried the unusual word from her lover - Janet was normally more precise.
"Native weapons with anti-coll.." Janet was so tired her mouth was no longer cooperating with her brain's ability to think in multi-syllabic medical speak, forcing her to rephrase, "The cuts wouldn't clot...oh, and they were swamp dwellers..."
"Easy to fix?"
"Very...all organics that we have here....but hell on my uniforms...got through 4 coats too...." mumbled Janet, dropping her head all the way back now she felt her muscles were loose enough to move, affording her an interesting upside down view of Sam.
"Hello..."
"Hi..." Sam's view was equally attractive...it seemed the good doctor had run out of bras as well as white coats and uniforms.
"You're sweaty..." observed Janet lazily, taking in the shorts and faded, sweat soaked t-shirt which, whilst baggy, somehow did something quite fabulous to her lover's figure.
"And you're sleepy..."
"Mmm...How'd you get here without me knowing?" asked Janet suddenly, not remembering doing Sam's medical that morning. Deliberately misinterpreting the question, Sam pointed to her feet and said
"Sneakers..." before pulling back Janet's chair and helping the bemused, exhausted doctor to her feet.
"C'mon Jan..."
"Where we going?" mumbled Janet, nearly asleep as she leant against Sam's warm sweaty body which, because it was her lover, felt comforting and nice, rather than nasty and sweaty.
"Home..." Anything further in the conversation was lost as Janet, finally relaxed and utterly exhausted, literally fell asleep on her feet, propped up against Sam who, on realising this, smiled and muttered
"Good job I skipped the final weights..." before scooping her lover into her arms as easily as Teal'c would carry her, before heading out through the deserted base. It was time for the CMO to hand her infirmary over to someone else for a while...
The End