Author: Geonn

Email: neil_j_miser@yahoo.com

Pairing: Sam/Janet, pre-slash

Spoilers: The Changeling

Series: Second story in the "Ablaze" series, following 'Rescue Me'

Disclaimer: The situations are kind of my own... seeing as this is an AU. But I can't even really take credit for that.

Rating: Older Kids

Notes: Before anyone asks, there will probably be a third in this series.

Summary: One good turn...

Captain Samantha Carter was facedown in the hallway, trying to see through the haze and smoke ahead. The blurry shape ahead of her, also pressed against the floor, was Jonas Quinn. He was lugging the narrow hose they'd use to douse the flames, but Sam couldn't tell him to open it up too early. If he did, the water would evaporate and just add steam to the mix. Problems galore if that happened.

"Now?" Jonas screamed, trying to be heard through his mask and over the roar of the flames.

"A few more feet," Sam shouted back. Behind her, T was bringing up the rear at the end of the hallway. He touched her leg and she looked back, seeing his gloved hand motioning at the wall of apartment doors. "T?" she asked.

"Tenant says there's someone missing!" she heard his muffled voice. "Three B!"

Sam felt a momentary panic at those words. But only momentary. She turned and called for Jonas, watching for his facemask to turn towards her. "Go two more feet! Then open it up!"

"Where are you going?"

"A tenant is missing!"

He nodded and Sam scooted towards the wall, looking up and squinting through the ash-white smoke. She could barely make out the room numbers. 3-A. She moved down quickly, almost tripping over the hose Jonas was dragging. She found the next door and pulled her halogen axe.

Pressing the flat end between the door and the jamb, she wrenched it back. The door cracked open, swinging back into the apartment. Sam pushed the axe back, felt Jonas take it and presumably pass it back to T. Sam moved into the apartment, moving forward on her elbows and scanning for signs of life.

A living room was directly in front of her, separated from the kitchen by just a low wall. No feet sprawled out on the tile, no hands hanging over the edge of the couch. She took a gamble - since it was the middle of the night - and crawled in the direction of the bedroom.

The door was open and she eased inside, thanking the architect for including a bedroom window that looked out over a streetlight. It was as if a spotlight had been turned on the search. The smoke had gotten trapped in this room, having few points of egress. The heavy cloud covered the bed, obscuring anyone that might have been sleeping there. It would also serve as a very potent sleep aid... the kind that killed a person.

Sam crawled onto the bed, immediately feeling thin legs underneath her. "Ma'am!" she called, hoping it wasn't just a small man. "Ma'am, this is the fire department!" She was now on top of the woman - oops, misplace of her glove and a brush of breasts and lace... definitely a woman - in a very intimate manner. If the guys saw her now...

"Ma'am!"

The body shifted and she heard a gasp. Sam unhooked the oxygen mask from her tank, pressing it over the woman's face. "Ma'am, just breathe regularly, okay? I'm a firefighter; I'm going to get you out of her. Nod if you understand."

The nodding made Sam's hand move back and forth.

"Do you live alone?"

Another nod.

"Okay, we're going to get you out of her. Just hold on."

Due to the lace she'd felt earlier, she knew modesty might be an issue. She tucked the ends of the quilt under the woman's sides, then moved off of her and lifted her off the mattress. Cradling the woman - thankfully, she was small and light, unlike some of Sam's other rescues - against her chest, Sam rushed for the door. She passed T and Jonas in the hallway, seeing they'd opened the hose and were in the process of knocking down the larger flames.

Sam rushed down the stairs, holding the woman tight, breaking through the downstairs door like surfacing in the ocean. Oxygen seemed to flood in from all around, the darkness of night seeming unbelievably bright. She moved to the ambulance, carefully depositing the tenant on the gurney provided and pushing the plastic mask of her helmet up. "Are you having trouble breathing?" she asked.

The woman was frowning up at her.

"Ma'am, can you hear me?"

The woman was saying something under the oxygen mask. Sam bent down and said, "What was that?"

"You're Carter."

Sam straightened, trying to see if she recognized the woman. She had her name written across the back of her jacket, but the woman had never seen her back. "That's right. How did you...?"

"I'm Dr. Janet Fraiser," the soot-faced woman rasped.

"You did your best, though. Right now we're going to take care of you, okay?"

Sam gasped. It was the doctor who had saved her life almost a year earlier. "Oh, my God. It's you!"

Janet smiled and said, "Tit... for tat?"

Sam returned the smile. "Hey, you had the hard job. All I did was drag you out of bed in the middle of the night."

The EMT was already checking Janet's vitals, looking unconcerned and casual about it. Obviously nothing too serious. Sam put her hand on Janet's shoulder. "Dr. Fraiser, you know this better than most, but I'll tell you anyway," Sam said. "You're going to have to go to the hospital for observations. Nothing major, just want to make sure you're okay."

Janet nodded and squeezed Sam's hand. "Will you come see me when things settle down here?"

"Oh, you bet," Sam said. She squeezed Janet's fingers and stepped back, allowing the EMT to load her onto the ambulance. She turned back, pausing next to Chief O'Neill and looking up at the burning building. "T and Jonas almost have the blaze under control."

O'Neill nodded and motioned at the ambulance. "Tenant all right?"

"Smoke inhalation," Sam said. "It was Fraiser. The doctor who helped me after that big fire last year."

He looked back after the ambulance, which had already turned the corner. She knew he was close friends with the doctor. "She's fine, though?"

"Yeah, Chief."

He looked at her. "So you saved each other's lives. That means you're responsible for each other forever now, you know that, right?"

Sam glared at him and motioned at the building. "I'm going to go see if T and Jonas need a hand."

"Have at it, Captain."

She pushed her facemask back into place and headed back into the building. As she started up the stairs, she thought about Jack's words. Owing Janet Fraiser her life, being owed Janet's life in return.

There were worse things, she was sure.