Something of the Host Must Survive
by Bounty
TITLE: Something of the Host Must Survive
Author: Bounty
Email: kaisteph@worldnet.att.net
Category: Hurt/Comfort, Angst
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Spoilers: Begins as Tag to Tangent and The Curse
Season: 4
Rating: PG
Content Warnings: none
Status: Completed
Summary: SG1 works with the Tok'ra to rescue Jack from Osiris
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. We have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the authors. Not to be archived without permission of the authors.
Author's notes: Thanks to my awesome betas/GrammarGurus Arren and Pough for all their suggestions and to Aniko for the chocolate :)
Hypoxia and hypothermia were not a good combination. Major Samantha Carter was doubly convinced of this as she hovered over Teal'c and Colonel Jack O'Neill, sprawled in the center of the floor of her father's ship, after being transported by rings in the nick of time.
Teal'c was immediately on his feet and offering Jacob assistance in ship repair. The colonel on the other hand remained seated on the floor. He had been lucid at first, but that lucidity seemed to be making a rapid decline. Daniel Jackson knelt beside him, taking his arm. "Jack, can you stand?"
O'Neill fixed him with a slightly dazed look. "Yeah," he said after a moment, breathing hard and making no attempt to move.
"Okay, come on." Daniel tugged at his arm and O'Neill tried to push to his knees.
He gave a groan of pain and sank back to the floor. "Uh, no," he amended, rubbing at his right leg. "Pins and... pins." He yawned widely, gulping for oxygen.
Daniel and Sam exchanged glances, and then she came forward to help. "Colonel," she said, "your legs have been cramped in the same position for so many hours - it's going to take them awhile to get the circulation going again."
He blinked at her and nodded slowly, still breathing hard.
"He needs a chance to get some more oxygen," Sam said softly to Daniel. "Let's get him over against the wall." They each took one of Jack's arms and pulled him across the floor to prop him against the wall of the cargo bay.
Jacob, back at tweaking wires, called to Teal'c to accelerate, and the ship lurched forward into motion.
"I canna give ye any more, Captain!" Jacob said walking past Daniel, who studiously ignored him as Jacob then broke into a whistling rendition of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road."
O'Neill meanwhile was shivering and rubbing his head. "Did you bring the aspirin like I told you to?" he asked.
Daniel blinked. "Um - I might have some in my pack."
"Look for some blankets, too," Sam instructed him. She straightened O'Neill's legs and began to work at rubbing circulation back into them.
The colonel placed his hand on her arm, and she looked up to see him watching her intently with softness in his dark eyes. "I knew you'd come," he said, "eventually."
She smiled at him, not sure what to say.
Daniel rescued her, returning with a small bottle of ibuprofen, a rough-looking blanket, and a small white box. He shook some tablets into O'Neill's hand. The colonel swallowed them dry and tilted his head back, closing his eyes. He looked exhausted. Sam took the blanket and shook it out over his legs. He was still shivering despite the warm dry air in the Tok'Ra ship.
Daniel opened the box. "Hot pack from our first aid kit," he explained.
"Great, " Sam took the pack and snapped it to start the heat. She unzipped the front of the colonel's flight suit. A folded square of paper tumbled out and landed in his lap. On the outside of it, Sam saw her name, "Carter" written in the colonel's sprawled script.
Sam froze, swallowed, then grabbed the paper and stuffed it into her pocket, glancing sidelong at Daniel to see if he'd noticed. He was busy unfolding the top of the blanket and looked back at her obliviously.
She quickly slipped the hot pack into the suit and re-zipped it. Daniel pulled the blanket up to O'Neill's chin. The colonel didn't stir. Sam sat next to him, leaning against the wall, her shoulder barely touching his. She realized she, too, was exhausted- she hadn't slept in nearly two days.
Daniel went forward to join Teal'c and Jacob; the latter upon seeing him began to whistle "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
"I believe I have seen this movie, Jacob Carter," Sam heard Teal'c say. "It involved a flying house and many little singing people."
Daniel groaned audibly. "I'm never gonna live this down."
Sam smiled and closed her eyes.
*******************
SGC Infirmary
The dizziness was starting to fade, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, he was feeling warm and could catch his breath. Jack pushed the annoying oxygen mask off his face and struggled to sit up. Janet Fraiser was at his side in a flash.
"I don't think so, Colonel." She pushed him back into the bed, put the mask back on his face, and tightened the strap with a threatening look. As a concession, she raised the bed so that he could survey his domain. A white curtain, a gray wall, two anxious humans, a Jaffa and a Tok'Ra surrounded him.
Jack felt some lightheadedness return as he sat up, but there was no way he was going to admit that to Fraiser, so he grit his teeth, pushed down the blanket, and smiled at his teammates. "Hey kids, what's going on?"
"Well," Jacob Carter said, stepping forward and folding his arms across his burlap-like tunic. "You slept all the way back to Earth. Missed my fancy flying and some lovely scenery."
"Saw it on the way." Jack told him. "Gorgeous. Never got to see the Oort cloud though." His voice was muffled by the oxygen mask, and he tugged at it. "C'mon, Doc - gimme a break."
"I'll change it to a canula," Janet told him, "but if you take it off..."
"I will restrain him if necessary," Teal'c rumbled.
"It's a conspiracy," Jack complained, glaring at Teal'c, who returned his gaze impassively. He threw up his hand, which seemed to be attached to some tubing. "Ow."
"Pull out that IV, and you will be restrained, Colonel," Janet said. "You're dehydrated, have an electrolyte imbalance and are suffering the effects of oxygen deprivation."
"As in...I may have lost brain cells?"
"Gee, that might be hard to tell, Jack," Daniel replied, not quite softly enough..
"Whatever happened to bedside manners?" Jack grumbled. He sighed and folded his hands meekly in his lap. "Do you think you can get me something for this headache too, while you're getting rid of the mask?" he asked with exaggerated politeness.
Janet's gaze softened. "Sure, sir." She took the mask away and connected him to a nasal canula as the others shuffled around the bed to get out of her way.
Jack made a face when the prongs went up his nose, but didn't pull them away. He tossed back the pills Janet gave him, drank half a glass of water and leaned back on the pillows with a sigh. The energy he'd found upon waking was rapidly depleting.
"The Colonel needs to rest," Janet said firmly. "You can stay five more minutes - that's it." She waved her clipboard at them and slipped around the curtain.
"I will return later, O'Neill," Teal'c said. "I trust that you will obey Doctor Fraiser's instruction."
"Yes, Mom," Jack said tiredly.
"Come on, Wizard, let's get some coffee," Jacob said sardonically, clapping Daniel on the back. Daniel groaned, but turned to accompany him. "Sam?" Jacob asked.
"In a minute, Dad." Sam moved closer to the bed as the others left. Jack smiled at her and did his best to stifle a yawn.
"Dad's gonna stay for a few days - mini-vacation," she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She was looking to the left of him, avoiding his eyes.
"That's nice," Jack said, pulling the covers closer to his chin.
"Hmm." Sam shifted her weight and again and was silent for a moment, her hands thrust deep into her pockets.
Jack's eyelids were starting to feel like lead. "Carter?" he asked.
"Colonel," she said at the same time.
"What?"
Sam hesitated. "Nothing, sir. Get some rest."
"Thanks," he mumbled, eyes sliding closed. "I will."
**************************
Sam put down the phone and picked up the wrench that Sergeant Siler had left lying on the Harley's seat. While she twirled it between her fingers, her thoughts raced. A Goa'uld was loose in Chicago. Daniel would be flying back soon. Until then there was really nothing she could do. And so here she was, alone with her thoughts - precisely where she didn't want to be. That was why she'd asked Siler to help her with the bike. A related matter was the reason she'd refused to go fishing with the colonel; she definitely did not want to be alone with him.
Sam dropped the wrench back into the toolbox and sat against the bike's seat, careful not to put too much weight on it and tip it over. She pulled the clumsily folded paper out of the pocket of her coverall and twirled that in her fingers instead, frowning thoughtfully into the air of the empty lab.
She'd carried the paper with her for days, and several had passed since the colonel had been released from the infirmary. SG1 went stand-down, and he'd gone off with Teal'c to Minnesota. Poor, unsuspecting Teal'c who trusted O'Neill completely. Sam imagined Teal'c with a fishing rod in his large hand, and had to smile.
In all that time she had not had the nerve to open the letter. She twirled it again, then flipped it up and stared at her scrawled name- "Carter".
"I shouldn't read this," she said aloud, addressing the Harley. "I mean, I shouldn't even have it. The colonel didn't mean for me to have it, not really. When he wrote it he was extremely hypoxic, confused, not entirely in his right mind." She flipped the paper open one square and tapped it against her hand. "He didn't expect me to read it, he doesn't even remember writing it, or he would wonder where it is and be giving me uncomfortable looks instead of the other way around. I should tear this up right now and pretend it never existed." She un-folded another square. "On the other hand, I'm driving myself crazy with this, and am always gonna wonder... I know about his... feelings, we agreed we were okay with it and could continue to act professionally, there's no reason why I can't read this, return it to him and discuss it. We're two mature adults and seasoned officers. Oh, hell."
Squaring her shoulders, she opened the paper to its full size - the back of a short memo that had been probably stuffed in the Colonel's jacket pocket days before and forgotten about - until he needed something to write on. 'Dear Carter,' it began.
'If you're reading this, I'm probably dead - boy that sounds cliché, doesn't it? Let me start again. If you're reading this, you've just gotten me back from whatever helpful ally was the first to come and collect our frozen bodies from this flying deathtrap. Okay - now that sounds morbid. You'll have to forgive me here, my head is pounding, I'm freezing to death again, and Teal'c is meditating so I have no one to talk to. All I can do is sit here, stare at the stars, and wait. So, I think I'm entitled to a little morbid self-pity, don't you?
'Anyway, Carter, the reason I'm writing this is not to rant and rave about this hopeless situation - I'm sure you feel bad enough about that already. You shouldn't, but I know you do, because you're always hard on yourself when you can't accomplish the impossible. Believe me, Carter, if you couldn't save us, I doubt even the Asgard could. And they couldn't even save themselves without you. I don't want you to feel bad, Carter. The reason I'm writing this is - and this is soooo cliché, but here it is - I want you to know how I feel.
'I know you know the basics - what Anise's wonderful machine dragged out of me, but there's so much more I wanted to say, you know, someday down the road when we were both old and retired, or at least I was old and finally really retired, and we could maybe chat over a few beers and laugh about it.
'But now it doesn't look like that's going to happen, and I couldn't leave things like this. Sam - you need to know that you are the -'
Sam shut her eyes, crumpled the paper and shoved it deep into her pants pocket, unable to bring herself to read the rest. She knew the gist of it, and even though his handwriting had become pretty illegible toward the end, she could just make out the last word before his signature.
She rubbed her forehead briefly and hugged herself. She could never tell him about this - hell she couldn't even sort out her own feelings about it, and didn't want to, didn't dare go there. And yet she couldn't bring herself to destroy it either. She'd take it home, she decided, and stuff it in a shoebox at the top of her closet; save it for that day in the far future when they'd be retired and having a few beers and talking. She'd bring it out then and they'd both laugh about it.
She hoped.
****
The wormhole swooshed away on P5X309, leaving SG1 standing in the midst of ... trees. Jack took a deep breath, patting his chest. "Ah, smell that fresh air! Pine, what a change!" He squinted off through the trees into the distance, and saw nothing but more woods. He groaned inwardly. Whatever had happened to nice, sandy deserts?
"Okay. Carter - the MALP found some ruins that away." Jack pointed off to the right of the gate. "You and Daniel go check them out. Teal'c, you're with me. We'll look for that burned out site that the MALP showed us, on the other side of the... trees," he sighed, and drumming his fingers on his P90, began crunching his boots across twigs and needles.
Teal'c walked beside him, face impassive, staff weapon at the ready, ducking gracefully under low branches without getting touched by so much as a needle.
'How does he do that?' Jack wondered, just as a full brush struck him squarely in the face. "Ow!"
Jack pushed ahead of Teal'c, concentrating his full attention on the trees instead of the Jaffa. Only a few minor scratches later, they came to a small muddy streambed where the MALP's tracks were clearly visible.
"Well, at least we know we're going the right way," Jack said, hopping over two stones and irritably swatting another straggly pine branch away from his face. "Though we can't see the forest for the trees."
"O'Neill," Teal'c said, frowning, "that statement does not make sense."
"Never mind," Jack muttered, swatting another branch.
"I do agree that we are proceeding in the right direction, however," Teal'c continued. "Look." He pointed ahead to where the tops of several trees in a row had been burned away. Blue sky peered through the charred sticks. Two grayish-white moons, one in three quarter phase, and one only a sliver hung heavily in the distance.
Jack stepped over a fallen log that was now mainly charcoal. "I'm guessing we're real close now," he said. "Barbeque, anyone?"
Teal'c frowned again and walked past him into a large clearing. He surveyed the open circle, and the burnt trees and grasses around the fringes. He knelt and touched some of the ash, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together. "O'Neill," he said, rising and hefting his staff weapon menacingly. "A mother ship has been here."
***
Sam and Daniel were enjoying their stroll through the woods. After hunting through space to catch a runaway glider, then hunting through the Egyptian desert to catch a runaway Goa'uld, a bit of nice, cool, quiet forest was a pleasant change.
They followed as straight a path as they could while avoiding low branches and patches of mud, and soon were rewarded by a jutting pile of stone in a small clearing.
"These were definitely a building at one time," Daniel said excitedly. "Look how the walls are still intact in some places." He peered over the top of one section that wasn't intact. Stones from the walls and some rotting wood lay in piles of rubble, shrubs and grasses growing over and around them. "And there's what's left of the ceiling..." Vines covered the intact parts of the wall, and he moved to push them away.
"Wait," Sam said, grasping his arm. She moved closer to the leaves and eyed them suspiciously. They were a dull dark green - nothing shiny or pointed. "Okay, they don't seem to have anything that could be poisonous. Go ahead." She pulled out her knife and helped him clear a two feet square section of the wall.
"These glyphs are really worn." Daniel ran his hands across them, and then fingered them more slowly. "I can barely make out the edges. Wish I'd brought paper."
Sam cleared more wall while he laboriously mapped the glyphs with his fingertips.
"Definitely a temple," he muttered.
"Whoever worshipped here is long gone, though," Sam added, slicing through a particularly thick piece of vine.
"Mmm - apparently." Daniel adjusted his glasses and moved to the newly cleared stone. "What I'd like to find out is who they worshipped."
A breeze stirred the branches overhead, rustling leaves and raising the hairs on the back of Sam's neck. She gripped her weapon, suddenly apprehensive. I'm gonna run a perimeter check," she told Daniel. "Don't move too far," she added as an afterthought.
Daniel grimaced. "Yes, Jack," he said, not shifting his gaze from the stone.
Sam cracked an awkward grin, but the feeling of apprehension was only growing stronger. She started to walk a slow circle around the stone walls, making her way as quietly as she could through the brush.
A rustling to her right side was accompanied by a high-pitched squawk. Sam whirled, her palms clammy, as her finger was poised on her weapon's trigger. Two sparrow-like birds rose from the thick brush, one in pursuit of the other. Taking a deep breath, she loosened her grip on the gun and watched one bird chase the other in circles above her head. "Young love," she muttered, leaving them to it and resuming her march.
As she rounded the building and headed back, she heard a series of crackles and snaps, followed by an "ouch!" and then a breathless voice calling her name. Daniel emerged from a clump of bushes, panting heavily. "Sam! There you are - I've been calling you." Frowning, Sam turned to check that her radio was on.
"Uh, Sam," Daniel said with a sheepish look. "I meant out loud."
Sam decided to ignore the breech of protocol and not make the archeologist feel any sillier than he already did. "What's the matter?"
Daniel's face darkened as he remembered why he'd run all this way. "The glyphs," he said. "This temple was to Osiris."
***
Jack walked into the center of the clearing, and spun in a slow circle surveying the burned ring. "Okay, this is weird," he said, "The burned area is a perfect circle."
Teal'c frowned, "Just like a crop circle."
"A what?" Jack asked.
"Crop circle. Perfectly cut circles on Earth farm-fields, believed to have been made by aliens."
Jack raised his eyebrows. "You've been watching too much Sci-Fi, T."
His radio squawked to life with an indignant burst of static. "Colonel O'Neill, come in."
Jack tapped his earphone. "Yes, Major."
"Colonel, we have to get out of here!" The anxiety in Carter's voice was evident even through the static.
"What did you find?" Jack tightened his grip on his weapon, and looked over at Teal'c, who was similarly posed.
"A ruined temple. To Osiris."
"Osiris?" Releasing the radio button, Jack squinted at Teal'c. "The snake that took Daniel's friend?"
"Indeed," Teal'c looked up sharply, and Jack's eyes followed his gaze. There was a minor distortion, like a heat mirage, in the clouds above them. A strong breeze had picked up, only the direction was undetectable. It seemed to be blowing down from the sky.
Jack gripped his radio again. "Roger that, Carter. Head back to the gate."
"O'Neill." Teal'c placed a large hand in the small of Jack's back. "We must get out of this circle - now." He gave Jack a push toward the trees and began to run.
Jack started to run after Teal'c, but instead stopped as a shadow fell over him. He looked up and saw a golden ship materialized in the air above his head.
"Holy..." Jack started running again. His foot struck a rock and he stumbled, going down on his right knee.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c was running toward Jack as he struggled to get back to his feet. A loud hum filled the air, and transport rings dropped, separating human and Jaffa.
***
Sam and Daniel burst from the trees just short of the gate, expecting to find O'Neill and Teal'c waiting for them. No one was there, and a strong breeze was coming from the direction that the others had gone.
"Stay here," Sam ordered. "Start dialing."
Daniel nodded breathlessly as Sam turned and ran into the breeze, which had now become a wind. The feeling of apprehension around the temple that the woods had brought was now twice as strong. A flock of birds, flying in tight formation, squawked past her, gripping her attention away. She looked up.
A large golden pyramid was rising above the tree line. It hovered there for a moment. Then, gleaming in the sun, it spun and rose into the atmosphere with incredible speed, until it was no longer visible.
The wind stopped. Sam kept running, not stopping till she reached a large clearing. A circle of burned trees ringed the field, and in the center was Teal'c, still as a statue, staring up into the sky.
"Teal'c!" Sam gasped, coming to a stop just a few feet away from him.
The Jaffa lowered his head to look at her, his face an angry mask. "O'Neill," he said, "is gone."
***
The forest vanished and was replaced by cold hard floor. Off balance from transport, Jack fell forward onto one palm. He pushed and rocked back on his knees, wincing while pain lanced through his right knee and up his thigh.
"Kree, Tau'ri!"
Jack looked up to see a company of Jaffa surrounding him. Directly in front of him was the leader, the one who had spoken. His armor gleamed and he brandished his staff menacingly, pounding the end of it into the floor.
Jack's P90 was still in his right hand. He gripped it firmly, its cold metal reassuring. He rocked slowly back onto his heels, suppressing the pain in his knee. There were six Jaffa. Six large, armed Jaffa, and he was one small, primitively armed human on their turf. On the other hand, he was a lone human on a Goa'uld ship, and his chances didn't look good either way. He decided to go down fighting.
"Kree this." Jack pushed himself to his feet in a quick, fluid movement, and spun on his left foot, letting loose a spray of bullets in a wide arc. Over the staccato bursts of ammunition, roars of curses and 'kree's' assailed his ears, and then through it all he heard one unmistakable twang.
"Zats," he groaned to himself as the electric charges ripped through his body, driving him back down to the floor. "I forgot the Zats."
Jack lay on the hard stone, arms and legs twitching with the electrical seizures. He gritted his teeth, willing his face to remain still, wondering incidentally if there was a maximum number of Zat blasts a human body could absorb before developing cancer or something...
Large Jaffa hands were pawing him roughly, turning him over, removing his weapons and searching for more. "Whoa." Jack finally regained enough control over his body to squirm away. "You're not gonna find anything there."
He was kicked in the stomach for his trouble. Then in the head, and then in the lower back, for good measure. Jaffa boots felt as though they were made of stone. Barely conscious, Jack was dragged across the floor and deposited unceremoniously in a small dimly lit room. The doors slid closed behind the exiting Jaffa. Jack curled on his side in a ball and allowed himself to pass out as the ship lurched into motion.
He woke minutes (hours? days?) later in the same dark room, on the same cold floor. Shivering, Jack pushed gingerly to a sitting position and rubbed his knee. He ached all over and had a pounding pain in his head - remnant of the kicking session and the Zat blast. He stared down at his bare feet and wriggled his toes, just to make sure he still could. They'd taken his boots and socks, his vest, jacket and hat, left him with only his tee shirt and fatigue pants. Everything else was gone, right down to his wristwatch and... He reached up to his neck to make sure. Yup, they'd even taken his dog tags. "I suppose I should be grateful for clothes," he muttered.
He slid himself back along the floor to lean against the wall. The cell was about six feet square, lit by a dim glow at the juncture of wall to ceiling. The door, in typical Goa'uld fashion, was barely visible, but when he looked more closely he could see the criss-crossed lines where it would open. He knew it would be locked, but that fact didn't stop him from getting painfully to his feet and limping over to try it. The lines were smooth; there were no spaces to wedge anything in them to pry it open - not that he had anything to use as a wedge in the first place. The walls were smooth as well - no evidence of a control panel; pretty much what he'd expected.
He sat back down; stretched out his legs and ran his hands through his hair, massaging his temples with his fingers. There was a steady hum that reverbrated though the walls and the floor. He knew from his experience in other Goa'uld ships that the hum meant they were moving. Going where?
"I've got a bad feeling about this," he told the wall. The ship must have been there the whole time he and Teal'c had been exploring the clearing. Cloaked, waiting for them. Why? And why hadn't they killed him? The possible answers to that were chilling. SG1 had made many enemies among the Goa'uld, and there were several he could name off the top of his head who would pay good money to have one of the team captured, preferably alive. The Jaffa, though having no problem with hurting him, had made sure he had been left with nothing to harm himself. He obviously wasn't just being taken for a ride in the park.
The ship lurched underneath him and Jack pressed his hands to the floor, grateful he was already sitting on it. The vibrations that set his viscera humming decreased. The subsequent lack of fluttering in his stomach told him the ship had stopped.
The door swished open, revealing two humorless looking Jaffa. The one whom Jack recognized as the kicker reached in, grabbed Jack's arm and hauled him to his feet.
"Nice of you to drop by," Jack said, trying in vain to free his arm. There was no point. The second Jaffa just grabbed his other arm, and yanked him out the door.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming. Easy! What, we got a hot date or something?" Jack's protests were silenced as they pulled him to a halt in the same cold room in which he'd first arrived. He tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling. Right on cue, a loud hum filled the air, a bright white light shone full in his face, and rings dropped from above.
When the rings receded, he was in a cavernous room, filled with warm light, and with a large, raised throne in the center. On the throne sat a woman with long blonde hair, dressed in flowing white robes.
"My Queen!" The Jaffa to Jack's right released him and stepped forward. "We have brought the Tau'ri prisoner."
The other Jaffa tightened his grip on Jack's arm, tugging downward. "Kneel," he hissed. "Kneel before your god Osiris."
"Yeah, well, I've got this cartilage problem..." A swift strike of a staff weapon behind his knees brought him down anyway, tears springing unbidden to his eyes. "Ow! Jeez..."
The woman on the throne looked down at him, her cold eyes narrowing. "You fools! You have brought the wrong one! This is not Daniel Jackson."
"Ah, no," Jack agreed. "Terribly sorry. Well, I suppose I'll just be going now..."
"Silence!" Another whack with the staff, this time to the back of the head."
"Do you have to keep doing that?" he muttered. "Just because you screwed up, don't take it out on me."
"Confine him," Osiris ordered the Jaffa, "until I decide what to do with him."
***
Briefing Room - SGC
General Hammond entered the room in his usual brisk manner. He walked to his seat at the head of the conference table, sat, and looked out at the remainder of SG1. Carter and Jackson were gazing forlornly into untouched mugs of coffee. Teal'c sat ramrod straight, hands folded on the smooth tabletop in front of him, the corners of his mouth turned down in a look of extreme displeasure.
"What happened?" Hammond asked as gently as he could.
"Sir," Carter said.
"Osiris," Jackson said. Both spoke at the same time, leaning forward and nearly knocking over their respective coffees. Daniel's sloshed a little over the edge as the back of his hand hit the mug.
Hammond sighed and rubbed his forehead. "One at a time please, people."
"The fault is mine, General Hammond." Teal'c spoke without moving a muscle.
Both Carter and Jackson immediately spoke up in protest, causing the General to clear his throat loudly.
"Sorry, sir." Carter sank back in her chair glumly.
"Sorry," Daniel echoed. He touched the wet side of his coffee mug and rubbed his fingers together.
"Teal'c?" Hammond said. "Would you like to explain what you meant by that remark?"
The Jaffa's eyes met the General's gaze evenly. "We were in the clearing. A Goa'uld ship de-cloaked above us. I thought O'Neill was right beside me as I ran out of the clearing, but I was mistaken. The ship's transport rings captured him as I tried to reach him. I was unable to prevent his capture."
"It wasn't your fault, Teal'c," Carter said quietly.
"I should have figured out sooner that the ruined temple belonged to Osiris," Daniel put in.
"And I could feel there was something wrong," Carter said. "I just couldn't put my finger on it."
It was as if they were competing for blame. Hammond rubbed his forehead again. He'd woken up with a headache that morning, and losing one of his best, if more ornery, officers was doing nothing to ease the pain. He felt a deep urge to say 'just the facts, people,' but knew that the team needed to debrief emotionally as well as factually.
"So, bottom line?" he said as gently as possible.
"Osiris has the colonel, sir," Carter said. "He was transported to a ship. We have no way of knowing where they've taken him."
"If we could go back," Daniel said, "examine the temple some more - maybe we can find some clues as to the location of Osiris' home world."
"A convenient set of gate coordinates, engraved in stone?" Hammond smiled sadly, hearing Jack in the slightly sarcastic tone that entered his voice. "No, I'm sorry, I can't allow another trip. Not with ships hanging around that belong to a Goa'uld who has lots of reasons to want revenge against SG1." Not that there were many Goa'ulds who didn't want revenge of some sort against Sg1... He held his hand up against the inevitable protests. "Dr Jackson, you may contact our allies, ask them to be on the lookout for Osiris, and keep us informed, but that is all for now. Dismissed."
***
Sam stared blankly at the computer screen on her desk. It held the heading of her report, and nothing else. She stared harder, willing words to appear. All that accomplished was to make her vision blur and her head hurt. She closed her eyes to try to moisturize them and lowered her head into her hands, massaging her temples.
"Sam?" Daniel's voice was hesitant. She looked up, blinked, and saw him standing in the doorway.
"Oh, hey, Daniel. You wouldn't have any eye drops on you, would you?"
Daniel blinked back. "Uh, not on me, no. Sam, I contacted the Tok'ra."
"Did you talk to Dad?"
"No, apparently he's off on some super secret important mission..."
Sam sighed. "What else is new?" she muttered, then frowned. "Not Anise?"
"No." Daniel smiled wryly. "A new one this time - Clarin, her name was. Pretty nice, actually. She promised she'd pass the message to Selmak, and that she'd also spread the word to the rest of the Tok'ra to be on the lookout for Jack."
"Good." Sam rubbed her dried out eyes again.
"Sam, you should go home, get some rest," Daniel said gently. "General Hammond's put us all on stand down for two days."
"I know." She sighed again. "I just want to finish my report."
Daniel looked over her shoulder at the blank computer screen and raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, start my report," she amended, "then finish it. Daniel, I really need to do this before I go."
He nodded and put a hand lightly on her shoulder. "Why don't we get together for dinner tomorrow?" he said. "You, me, and Teal'c. We could do some debriefing of our own."
"Sure, Daniel," Sam smiled.
"Okay, see you then." Daniel closed the door behind him and Sam turned back to her computer.
After a few moments, she switched the monitor off, rose from her chair, and crossed the room to the large gunmetal gray vertical cabinet. She opened the cabinet doors, dug through to the back, past various tools, scopes, and other equipment to a small gray lockbox. Gray, like the colonel's hair...
The box wasn't locked. She'd just never bothered, though she supposed she should have been more paranoid, should have really taken the contents home as she'd originally planned. The truth was, she never really spent that much time at home. She opened the box, and pulled out the colonel's letter. She'd never read it again after stashing it, but had touched the box occasionally as a quick guilty pleasure. Now she opened it, and began to read.
Her eyes were not dry any longer. Tears spilled over the edges, splashing down onto the paper. "I'll find you, sir," she whispered. "I promise."
*****
The buzz of conversation in O'Malley's was deafening if one stopped to listen. However, the three members of SG1 were intent on their own conversation and to them the background noise was just a dull drone.
Sam leaned forward over her steak and fries. "Nothing from the Tok'ra?" she asked.
"Nothing," Daniel replied. He stole a quick wistful glance at the pool table, and then returned his attention to his teammates. "Sam, you know your father will let us know immediately if they hear anything."
"Unless he's off on assignment," she said with more than a trace of bitterness in her voice.
"Well, yes," Daniel admitted, "but I think we should give then the benefit of the doubt. Complaining though he is, Jack's helped them lots. They owe him. I think the Tok'ra will help us. Especially Anise," he added in a lower tone.
Sam looked up sharply. "Why 'especially Anise?'" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Oh, uh, she's got a bit of a thing for Jack. The host half, anyway." Daniel became intent on spearing a piece of lettuce from his salad.
Sam quickly pushed three French fries into her mouth to keep from saying anything she'd later regret.
Teal'c, sitting up impeccably straight as usual, interrupted her reverie. "I believe the only action we may take is to return to P5X309."
"General Hammond already nixed that idea," Sam said, taking a swig of diet cola to wash down the fries.
"Then we must convince General Hammond otherwise." Teal'c's face was a stone mask.
"He's right," Daniel put it. "If I could just get another look at that temple, there just might be a gate address conveniently carved in stone, as the general sarcastically suggested. Or at least...something."
"And we'd be doing something," Sam said, "instead of just sitting around trying to write reports. Okay, first thing tomorrow, we go talk to General Hammond." She grinned. "He's never been much of a match for SG1 when we're on a mission."
"I feel better already," Daniel said. He waved to the waitress. "What do you have that's chocolate?"
General Hammond inaudibly groaned as he saw the remaining members of SG1 approaching the door of his office with purpose in their strides.
Carter rapped sharply once on the open office door and entered followed by Daniel and Teal'c.
"Major, Doctor, Teal'c, have a seat," Hammond said. "What can I do for you?" 'Like I don't already know,' he added silently.
"We'll stand, sir," Carter said. Having been elected spokesperson, she drew a deep breath. "Sir, we respectfully request permission to return to P5X309."
"Major, I already told you I would not allow that."
"Yes sir. Please sir, just hear us out."
"General Hammond," Teal'c spoke up, "I do not believe there is danger any longer. The Goa'uld will have returned to their world by this time. As well, the temple is deep in the forest. The ship was only able to locate Colonel O'Neill with its transport rings when we were in the center of an open field."
"Another team could go with us as backup if you like," Daniel said, "and we could set a time limit - do rubbings of the glyphs, then leave."
Hammond sighed. He knew they would give him no peace until he agreed, and given their history, if he didn't agree they were likely to go anyway.
"All right," he said, "SG11 will accompany you, and you can have two hours. That's final," he added, as Daniel looked about to protest.
"Okay," Daniel agreed, subdued by a sharp look from Carter.
"Thank you sir," Carter said, quickly leading her team back out of the office.
***
The gate whooshed open once again on P5X309. This time Carter, Daniel and Teal'c came through flanked by five Marines all armed to the teeth.
"Fall out!" Colonel Andrews ordered, and the Marines fanned out to surround SG1.
"This way," Daniel called, starting off then stopping and turning around with a puzzled expression on his face as no one moved to follow him.
Andrews looked askance at Carter, who nodded sharply. "This is the way, sir," she said.
"This way, men!" Andrews led the way, followed by one Marine. The rest fell in place beside each of the Sg1 members, Teal'c bringing up the rear.
With Marines bushwhacking in the front of the line, Daniel found the going much easier this time around. They reached the temple in just a few minutes. He set down his pack, squatted beside it, and pulled out a heavy roll of paper followed by a handful of large charcoal pencils. "We need to rub down as many of the glyphs as we can," he said, ripping off a long sheet of paper and handing to the Marine nearest him.
The Marine, a lieutenant, looked incredulously at his colonel.
"We only have two hours here, sir," Sam explained apologetically. She took the paper and pencil from Daniel, who immediately ripped off another sheet.
Teal'c stepped forward, took a sheet of paper twice as long as Carter's, and fixed the Marine colonel with a withering look. "I shall begin over here, Daniel Jackson," he announced. He began work with his staff weapon propped against the wall just inches from his fingertips.
Andrews sighed, and nodded to his men. "Harris, you stand watch with me, the rest of you - go ahead." They formed a line and each took paper and pencil.
"Great," Daniel said, already placing his paper against the wall. "Start as high as you can reach and work your way down. Try to keep the sheets in order."
The marines rolled their eyes, but complied. Daniel paid no attention to them, busy with his own rubbing. Sam worked alongside Daniel, filling sheets as quickly as possible. Every rustle of a leaf or breath of wind made her jump as she grabbed paper after paper.
It seemed to her they'd been there almost the whole day when Andrews came up behind them and said "Time's up. Let's go."
Daniel immediately started to protest, but Sam reached over and grasped his arm. "Daniel," she said softly but firmly, "if we don't have what we're looking for and need to come back, General Hammond will never agree again if you argue now."
Daniel reluctantly acquiesced. They gathered their papers, and flanked by the ever-present Marines, made their way back to the Stargate.
****
Balancing a coffee pot and three mugs in one hand, Janet Fraiser tapped softly, then pushed open the door to Daniel's lab. She stopped and stared. Daniel had sheets of paper covering every possible surface - tables, desks, chairs, book piles, even the floor in the corners. He was moving energetically from sheet to sheet, crouching over one, bending over another, holding a third up to the light. As he translated the glyphs, Sam, posed over the computer's keyboard, typed madly.
By the looks of the lab and them, they'd been working for several hours. They'd yet to notice Janet standing there, so she tapped again on the now open door, this time a bit harder. Both scientists jumped and looked up. Smiling, Janet held up the coffee pot. "Break time," she said cheerfully.
"You're encouraging our coffee habit?" Daniel asked. He stood up straight, stretched catlike toward the ceiling, removed his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Just this once." Janet move a paper aside just enough to set the mugs down and pour the coffee.
"Thanks, Janet," Sam said, continuing to type into the computer.
Daniel took the proffered mug from Janet's hand. He sniffed the steam appreciatively and took a long swallow.
Janet walked over to Sam, held the other mug in front of her, and switched off the computer screen. "Five minutes break," she said firmly over Sam's protests. "Making yourself sick will not help you find the colonel any faster, you know that. When did you last eat?"
Sam opened her mouth to reply, closed it, and turned to look questioningly at Daniel. He shrugged and took another swallow of coffee.
Janet sighed. "All right, you two- one more half hour of work, and then I expect to see you both in the commissary. Sitting down and eating, not at the vending machines. If I don't see you there, I'm sending Marines," she paused for dramatic effect, "and Teal'c."
One half hour later, Janet stood in the commissary, frowning impatiently at her watch. Only two minutes late, Sam and Daniel burst in looking reborn.
"What's going on?" Janet asked as they grabbed trays and started piling on food.
Sam looked up from the huge slice of meatloaf she was lifting and gave a hopeful smile. "Daniel found some glyphs that matched gate symbols. I plugged them in to the dialing computer in the order they were written and came up with a valid gate address."
"The word 'home' appeared several times near the symbols," Daniel added, dropping a chicken leg on his plate. "We're hoping this is the address to Osiris' home world."
****
Jack wasn't sure how many days had passed since he'd been on Osiris' ship. The glowing light around the ceiling of his cell was a constant - never dimming, never brightening. Periods of acceleration and deceleration informed him when they were moving, usually by throwing him into a wall or to the floor, but he was getting better at 'surfing.'
Every once in a while food was pushed in through a slot in the door. Dusty, crumbly bread-like stuff, a thick, greasy soup, and water. Of the three, the water was the tastiest. The intervals between food arrivals seemed to change randomly; sometimes it seemed very short and he wasn't even hungry, other times it seemed like days and he was starving and calling the soup 'Dinty Moore.' Either his internal clock was playing tricks on him, or the Jaffa were doing this on purpose to more disorient him.
He heard a sound at the door and looked down at the crummy remnants of the previous meal. Another already? He could always hoard it for later...
Instead of forming it's usual slot, the door opened fully, revealing the two now familiar glowering Jaffa.
"Come to visit me? How sweet." Jack leaned tiredly back against the wall, pulling his sore knees up to his chest. He'd been finding it impossible to sleep more than short periods at a time. "I thought you'd forgotten all about me."
The head Jaffa barked an order to the other, who reached down and hauled Jack to his feet.
"Here we go again," Jack muttered.
He was dragged down the same hallway, or maybe a different one, he wasn't sure - all of the gold encrusted Goa'uld walls looked alike - but not to the throne room this time.
Osiris was standing to the side of the smaller room, surrounded by priestess types dressed in gauzy white scarves that would have passed for robes if the Goa'uld shopped at Victoria's Secret. Hathor's Secret? Jack's musing was shortened as Osiris caught sight of him. Tossing her blonde hair, she made her eyes glow and beckoned to him with an imperious "Tau'ri!"
"You rang?" Jack tried to shake off the hands of the two Jaffa who held him firmly between them. At least they weren't making him kneel.
The Goa'uld regarded him coolly. "We have found a use for you." She motioned to the priestesses, who stepped aside to reveal a long, very uncomfortable looking table - gray and rectangular, it reminded Jack of Hathor's medical beds and made him start to squirm harder.
Osiris' eyes flashed again as she commanded the Jaffa. They dragged him forward and pulled him down onto the table. Dark leathery straps were wound tightly around his wrists and ankles.
One of the gauzily dressed priestesses stepped forward and beckoned to the senior Jaffa. He bared his abdomen, and stood staring straight ahead.
An icy chill hit Jack directly between the shoulder blades. He felt rivulets of cold sweat trickling down his back. "No!" He struggled as hard as he could against the strap but they were immovable. "You know, I don't really get into this kinky stuff, but I have this friend--Siler--now he'd be all over this..."
The priestess plunged her hand into the Jaffa's pouch. She pulled it out with a squirming snake coiling around her arm. The Jaffa fell backward and was carried away by the others.
The priestess turned to Jack. The Goa'uld opened its petal-like mouth, uttered a high-pitched shriek and descended toward his neck.
Liquid fire pierced through him. Shrieking sounded in the back of his head, pulsing in time to the pounding in his temples. The fire shot down his spine, spreading a stabbing pain in all directions, covering his body from his fingers to his toes.
The high-pitched voice of the Goa'uld pervaded his brain, drowning out his thoughts. He fought it, shouting get out, get out, get out at the top of his lungs, but couldn't make a sound. He tried to move - a finger, a foot, anything - but he was paralyzed. Even his lips and eyebrows were frozen. He lay quivering, pinned to the table by the fire spreading though his body.
Slowly the fire faded to dull embers. His hand lifted and flexed as his eyes watched. His legs moved, slid to the side of the table and his head and shoulders lifted.
"No!" He screamed as his body rose to a sitting position and faced Osiris. His lips did not move.
"Quiet!" A voice said inside his head. An electric-like shock surged through his chest. His eyes locked their gaze on Osiris. He felt a flash of heat between his eyelids. His lips moved and his voice echoed in his ears with a deeper one superimposed.
"I am Ravenor."
Osiris smiled.
"This host you have given me is old," Ravenor complained, sliding gracefully off the table. "I have many repairs to make."
"You were a strong larva, Ravenor," Osiris said, "which is why you were chosen. Are you saying you cannot handle this host?"
"Of course not, my Queen." Ravenor spoke smoothly with Jack's tongue.
"Then you will be ready to command a ship in battle when the time comes?"
"I will do as you command, my Queen." Ravenor bowed low.
Osiris gestured to the priestess. "Take Lord Ravenor to his chambers and see that he is made comfortable," she said.
The priestess bowed. "Yes, my Queen." She walked to the door and Ravenor followed her, flexing his knees with a frown.
"Rest well, my prince," Osiris called after them, "I will require your strength soon enough."
"SG-1, you have a go." General Hammond released the microphone and stared down into the gate room. The MALP data had shown nothing exciting -a field, some stones, the usual trees - but no signs of sentient life. SG-1 insisted on going anyway, and at this point, he was letting them have whatever they wanted.
They stood on the ramp, determined as ever, in full battle dress - right up to Carter's helmet. She led the way, followed by Daniel, and SG-11 - a condition that Hammond had insisted upon. Teal'c raised his staff weapon in a brief salute to the general, and then brought up the rear.
The team vanished through the water-like event horizon, which dissipated behind them leaving the empty stone ring. General Hammond sighed. "Good luck," he said softly.
****
SG-1 and 11 exited the gate with the characteristic slurping sound, and caught themselves on running hops down the mossy stone steps on which the ring was mounted.
A blast of dirt hit Sam in the face. She pushed her helmet forward against the strong wind and pulled out her sunglasses to shield her eyes from flying dirt and pebbles. Daniel, his eyes already shielded by his regular glasses, grimaced slightly and waited. Teal'c walked stiffly, not deigning to take notice of anything so petty as wind.
Colonel Andrews and his Marines all donned their shades. Seeming to sense more of the gravity of the situation than he had on the last mission, Andrews gestured that Sam was to take the lead.
She smiled in nervous appreciation, and then quickly wiped the expression off her face, molding it into a military mask. "We'll split up," she said. "Colonel, you and three Marines can accompany me in this direction," she waved to the left. "The rest of you go with Teal'c and Daniel."
"This way," Daniel called, heading off to the right.
No protests this time; the selected Marines just rolled their eyes tolerantly and hurried to catch up to the archeologist, Teal'c striding confidently behind them
***
Jack sat on the edge of a huge bed in a huge room. Or rather Ravenor did, Jack was just along for the ride. Ravenor placed Jack's hands regally on his knees and surveyed the chamber, the large four poster bed ornately decorated in gold and covered with a heavy burgundy velvet. The Goa'uld really knew how to flaunt wealth.
'Not my first decorating choice' Jack thought, and was rewarded by a zap of electricity through his nerves. 'Ow.'
'Quiet,' Ravenor ordered him. He leaned Jack's body back against the cushions and studied the ceiling.
The electricity faded and Jack felt a burning in his knees. The warmth traveled up his spine to his bruised ribs. Almost immediately the pain was replaced with a vague tingling sensation, and breathing was comfortable once again. His head was next, and he breathed an internal sigh as the headache that had been plaguing him for days vanished.
Ravenor stood, and Jack realized with a start that his knees had been completely healed. 'Cartilage and all?' He wondered. If he could just get back to the SGC, Janet could tell him for sure. If....
Ravenor strode to the door and called in a loud voice for the priestess who was supposed to be attending them. "Food," he ordered curtly. The priestess bowed and retreated, Ravenor eyeing her lustfully as she walked away.
Jack remained quiet this time, in anticipation of his hunger pangs finally being relieved.
Several very strange courses decked out in golden and jeweled bowls later, Jack was disgusted with himself. He'd sold his soul for a full stomach. Of Goa'uld food, no less. Right. Time to get back to the fight. He concentrated on his legs, willing them to straighten and lift him off the bed.
Nothing. Zip. Squat.
He tried harder. And harder. A tiny bead of sweat formed on the side of his forehead and trickled down his temple. Ravenor lifted his hand and wiped the drop away in irritation.
"I grow tired of this, human," Ravenor growled, his voice thundering in Jack's thoughts. "I have control, surely you realize this by now? I have spent much time fixing your flaws, and require rest. If you are quiet, I will leave you in peace. If not..."
"If not, what, Snake?" Jack couldn't resist.
Burning pain shot through him, obliterating his vision and hearing, consigning him to fiery blackness.
****
Sam Carter gave a loud, discouraged grunt. She kicked at a fallen pillar in exasperation. The pillar crumbled where her foot hit, and dust rose up in the air and covered the black leather of her combat boot.
"Feel better?" Colonel Andrews asked mildly, as Sam walked away from the pillars and rubbed her boot in a patch of grass to clean it.
"No," she said gruffly. 'I'm acting just like Colonel O'Neill' she thought. She sighed and turned to face Andrews. "Sorry sir," she said. "It's just so...frustrating. There's nothing here."
'Ya think?' popped into her head unbidden.
"You can say that again," Andrews muttered, eyeing a pillar with a seeming inclination to start kicking as well.
They were standing in a small clearing, partially overgrown with brush. A ruined temple stood, or rather lay there, in a much further state of decay than the one on P5X309. Crumbled rocks and fallen pillars lay in a heap, nothing more than knee high. The forest had encroached on one side, covering the stones with moss and grasses. On the side where Sam and Andrews stood the sun beat down strong and the stones were bare and dusty.
The stones were far too crumbled to have anything left written on then, so didn't seem like even another goose chase was possible. Sam didn't see anything resembling an artifact either, but she wasn't the expert, and hope died hard.
"Daniel, come in." She released the button on the radio and waited.
"Yeah Sam, we're here."
Sam's hope faded as she heard the dejection in Daniel's voice.
"We've got just some dusty stones - how about you?" She winced at the sound of her own voice.
"As Jack would say: 'squat.'" Daniel sounded angry now. "Whoever was here is long gone, probably at least a millennia or two ago."
"Okay, head back to the gate - we'll meet you there." Sam looked up into the sky, hoping for a glider to suddenly make an appearance, or a distortion that showed a cloaked ship.
Nothing. Zip. Squat.
Sam kicked the stone twice more, then a third time for good measure. Not bothering to clean her boot this time, she turned and headed down the path to the Stargate, Andrews and his silent Marines in her wake.
*****
"Come in." Sam put down her coffee mug and ran her fingers through her short hair.
Daniel peeked his head around the door of her lab and wriggled his hips to hold the door open as he juggled two large Starbucks cups and a heavy looking book. "I had to do an errand in town," he explained, "and I thought you might need a refill that doesn't taste like gasoline. No offense to Sgt Siler's excellent brewing technique," he added with a grin.
Sam smiled tiredly. Handy though he was in just about everything else, Siler's coffee left a lot to be desired. And with the commissary closed at this hour, his generously offered pot was the only option on base. "Thanks," she said. She pushed her green mug to the side and took the fresh cup from Daniel, taking a long draw through the sipper lid.
"So." Daniel turned a chair around and straddled it, taking a gulp of his own coffee. "What now?" he asked quietly.
Sam sighed. "I don't know." She hated the whiney tone that was coming through in her voice. "We're at a dead end."
"I contacted the Tok'ra," Daniel told her, "and the Tollan and Nox. They all promised to let us know if they hear or see anything."
"Mmmhmm." Sam did not feel overly optimistic.
"You never know," Daniel said, the encouragement in his voice not matching his eyes.
She nodded and rested her forehead on her hands.
"Well, I, um..." Daniel waved the book he'd tucked under his arm. "SG Seven's given me a stack of photos from P3X289 to translate. Want to meet later? Breakfast?"
Sam shook her head. "No, I'm just going to go home. Thanks, though."
"Sure." Daniel stood, frowned for a second, then left.
Sam reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the colonel's much worn letter. She read it, and then methodically re-folded it. "I'm going to find you, sir," she said aloud, her daily mantra. She stuffed the letter back into her pocket and began to search the desk for her car keys.
***
Jack stared at himself in the gilded mirror. A smug, pompous overdressed, Glowing-eyed snake stared back at him. A small jolt of pain admonished him for that thought. Ravenor patted his tunic, smiled, flashed his eyes, and then turned away from the mirror.
"My lord," the priestess said, hovering in the doorway. "The Queen wishes you to attend her council of war."
The priestess led them, not to the throne room, but another, smaller room. A long divan-style couch was at one end, covered in the typical overdone gold fabric. Osiris was draped across the couch, her hair brushed to a high gloss in the candlelight. She was dressed in her usual gauzy white robes, parted strategically to reveal a slim pale leg. The room was filled with scented candles- more than Jack had ever seen at once, even in Teal'c's quarters.
Ravenor bowed low. "You wished to see me, my queen?"
"I did." Osiris sat up, leaning forward to show considerably more cleavage than Jack would have guessed. "It has been millennia since I have had a female body," she sighed. "How are you adjusting to your new body, Ravenor?"
Ravenor looked down critically, smoothing his tunic. "It will do," he replied.
"Yes, it shall." Osiris gave a throaty laugh and a hungry look.
'Uh oh' Jack thought. He didn't think he was going to be enjoying this.
Ravenor moved over to the couch and sat next to Osiris, his hand trailing lightly across her shoulder.
Jack wondered if giving him pain would distract Ravenor enough that he wouldn't be able to have any pleasure.
'This is sweet,' he thought loudly. 'Snake woman meets "Xena Does Dallas."'
The electricity shot through him, but he was starting to get used to it and was able to hold on for a whole minute, concentrating on trying to move his hand. The hand remained where it was, and his minute was quickly over. The pain pushed him down, and he heard and felt Ravenor through a thick haze.
"Is something wrong?" Osiris asked.
"Nothing, my queen," Ravenor replied easily. Moments later, Jack learned that his theory was incorrect.
Sam tapped away at her computer keys, frowning at the numbers on the screen. After a couple of weeks of despondency, she was back to work with a vengeance, refusing to give up on Colonel O'Neill. She was playing with her calculations, trying to tweak the dialing computer into giving her another sequence from the coordinates gleaned from P5X309.
Daniel was also continuing to refine his translation, looking for any other clues. The difficulty was, General Hammond had solemnly and apologetically informed them they needed to get back to work, so they were juggling their search between assignments, which meant much coffee and little sleep.
Sam yawned heavily and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples and pushing her hair back. She was exhausted and would need to crash sooner rather than later. The lights dimmed suddenly, brightening again as the claxon sounded in the hallway: off world activation. Sam wrinkled her brow as she looked at her watch. At this hour? There were three teams off world; she hoped none of them was in trouble.
There was one tap on the door and it opened without waiting for her response, revealing Daniel. Sam looked up and blinked in surprise - he wasn't bearing coffee. "Daniel?"
"Sam." Daniel pushed up his glasses and rubbed his hands together. "Jacob's here."
Sam jumped to her feet. "He just came through the gate?" Duh. Oh man, she really was tired.
"Um, yeah - guess he parked the scout ship elsewhere this time." Daniel grinned. "He's in the briefing room with General Hammond.
As they walked through the hallway toward the briefing room, Sam ran down the list of reasons her father would be here. The Tok'ra needed their help on a mission, wanted to experiment on them again... It had been a couple months since he'd been here; maybe he just missed his daughter. But then why would he be in the briefing room?
Sam didn't dare hope as she entered the room, followed by Daniel. Teal'c was already there, standing gravely beside General Hammond's chair. Jacob Carter rose from his seat and came to embrace his daughter.
"Hi Dad," she said, kissing him quickly on the cheek and stepping back to look anxiously into his eyes. "What's going on?"
Jacob sighed. "The good news is," he glanced at Daniel and Teal'c, "one of our operatives has found Jack. The bad news is," he kept a light grip on Sam's arm, "he's a Goa'uld."
Sam uttered a sharp cry and wrenched her arm from her father's hand.
"Sit down, Major," General Hammond said gently. Daniel tugged Sam toward a seat and pushed her lightly into it. He sat next to her and Jacob and Teal'c took seats across the table.
"Jacob," Hammond said, "you came here in full battle dress," he motioned to the weapon belt Jacob was wearing, "but without your ship. I'm assuming you came to tell us more than just the bad news about Colonel O'Neill."
"Yes." Jacob leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. "Osiris is planning an attack on several of the system lords. You've already conveniently disposed of several of them for her," he grimaced. "And our operative on her ship tells us that she's preparing to attack Yu next - he being the strongest of the remaining system lords."
"So what's the plan?" Sam asked, leaning forward with her hands on the table in front of her.
"Jack has become her right hand man, so to speak. Her second in command. His symbiote is a Goa'uld taken from one of Heru'ur's Jaffa. She's taken one of his former home worlds as her own- apparently she just showed up there not long after his defeat by Apophis and gave them the choice of serving her or waiting for Apophis to show up. They picked the pretty lady. And in hindsight, since you've also disposed of Apophis and Chronos, she'd have gotten them eventually. She's absorbed many of their Jaffa as well, and is becoming a formidable presence. The system lords are getting restless.
"She's moving her troops to the sector bordering on Yu's space, and seems to be preparing for a full frontal attack, though we suspect there's also some sort of treachery involved." Jacob frowned. "Her headquarters is on the planet Lynak, just light-years from Yu's border. My mission is to stop her."
***
Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and Jacob gathered in the infirmary around Dr Fraiser and a carefully held canister that had arrived from Area 51. Janet gingerly unscrewed the canister lid and slid out the small silver vial that it contained. Drawing a deep breath, Janet held it up to the light.
"Here it is," she said. "The last of Machello's little buggers, and the only one they were able to extract from the second page-turner without destroying. The titanium case seems, and I stress seems, to keep it in containment, but carrying it around is going to be very risky."
"I'll hold it," Sam took the vial and held it carefully. "If it did get out, it couldn't hurt me."
"No, but it could hurt Selmak," Daniel pointed out. "Or Teal'c. I wasn't too crazy about what it did to me, either." He smiled sheepishly realizing his pun. "Or actually I was, but that's exactly my point."
Teal'c face was impassive, but Sam knew he had to be thinking about his experience with the last batch of Machello's Goa'uld killing worms. "I'll be very careful, I promise. And I'll make sure Dad and Teal'c are not near me when I release it on Colonel O'Neill."
"You may not have a choice," Teal'c told her. "Jacob Carter and I will have to 'watch our own backs.'"
"Okay," Janet sighed. "Bring back the colonel."
***
On Lynak, Osiris' forces were preparing for battle. After weeks on the mother ship, Jack was glad to have his legs stretched on earthy ground, and chagrined at the brief pleasure he experienced when he realized that Ravenor's 'repairs' kept him away from the disorienting feeling of moving from space to land.
Ravenor strode easily across the grassy courtyard of the palace, appropriated from Herur and re-tailored by the Jaffa to suit Osiris' taste. The breeze blew cool against his cheek, the first such breeze for Ravenor who had spent what had so far been of his adulthood in the stale recycled air of a ship. In no hurry to return indoors, he walked through the courtyard and around to he side of the building where Jaffa were training in a dusty field, practicing hand to hand combat with staff weapons.
The clang of metal was rhythmic as the Jaffa thrust and parried in a complex dance that sent small showers of sparks into the air every few moments. Dust from the unpaved yard stirred the air about them, so Ravenor stayed to the side, leaning against the wall, its shadow shading him from the heat of the midday sun.
'Why don't they just shoot the weapons?' Jack's cynical thought escaped before he could stop it. 'Not that this isn't nice,' he added hastily, cringing inwardly as he waited for his punishment. But Ravenor let the comment go.
"Master No'vak," he called, detaching himself from the wall and moving into the sunlight.
"Kree Jaffa!" The grizzled master shouted. As one the soldiers stood at attention, the butts of their weapons thumping in unison into the ground.
"Lord Ravenor." No'vak bowed stiffly.
"Tell me, Master," Ravenor folded his arms. "Why do the Jaffa play at swordfights when our battle will take place in ships?"
No'vak eyed him dourly, and spoke as sullenly as he dared. "The drills ensure the total conditioning of the Jaffa, my lord. Coordination, reflexes, muscle strength, all these are useful to fight on any surface, anytime. Hand to hand combat is always a possibility."
'That's true,' Jack agreed. This time, he went too far. Ravenor paused a moment to shoot a flash of electricity through him.
"And will the Jaffa be ready when we leave at first dawn?"
"They will, my lord. I was preparing to report exactly that to my lady Osiris."
"Stay and complete the training," Ravenor ordered. "I will take your report to my lady." He gave a leering smile. "It will be my pleasure." He glanced toward the entryway to the palace and the smile faded from his face as he saw two of Osiris' retainers walk past with a third Goa'uld he'd not seen there before.
"My Lord?" There was more than a hint of impatience in No'vak's voice.
Ravenor frowned. "I feel like I've seen that woman somewhere before, but I'm not sure where."
"Your host has been in many battles with the Goa'uld," No'vak pointed out. "Heru'ur spoke of him on many occasions." A grudging admiration laced his voice, that of a warrior for an enemy. "Perhaps he has come up against her."
Ravenor nodded. "That is most likely true." He turned from No'vak as the clanging of drills resumed behind him. Ahead of him the woman stood framed in the doorway. She hesitated a second, and looked to see him staring at her. Her dark brown eyes widened, and she turned away from him, hurrying through the doorway.
***
Clarin slipped into a small room off the courtyard. A man in a hooded robe turned to face her. He removed his hood.
"Selmak," Clarin said. "O'Neill is here. I believe he may have recognized me."
"He's never met you, has he?" Sam Carter stepped next to her father, pulling off her own hood.
"Not formally," Clarin replied. "But he may have seen me on our former base." The symbiote has access to all memories of the host."
"Well, let's hope he doesn't put two and two together just yet." Jacob said grimly.
Sam nodded, fingering the small vial she kept hidden inside her robe.
"Can't we go get him now?" Daniel blinked out from under his hood, squinting without his glasses.
"Not now. He's going to meet with Osiris." Clarin said.
"Any further news on that front?" Jacob asked.
The troops are being prepared for a frontal attack on Yu," Clarin answered. "Your Teal'c is working to infiltrate the Jaffa, but had to hide when Ravenor came to inspect them. There are many also who would recognize him as the Shol'vah, so we must be extremely careful."
"Apparently 300 years in a jar has not taught Osiris much humility," Daniel murmured to Sam.
She nodded distractedly. "So what's our next move?"
Sam leaned against the shiny gold corridor wall on Osiris' second largest mother ship. The heavy metal of her gun was a comforting weight in her hands; the smoothly curved Zat was snuggled at her waist. She inched forward, peered around the corner, and waited for the signal.
Across from her, Daniel waited at the other corner. She could barely see the glint of his glasses through the thick robe and flowing hood that obscured his figure. He held his own weapon close to his chest, mostly hidden in the fold of the robe.
They were disguised as priests. 'Priests with guns,' Sam thought, and fought a maniacal desire to laugh.
An explosion rocked the ship, and the floor beneath them shifted. The corridor seemed to list to one side, and Sam struggled to keep upright with her back to the wall, as Daniel was pressed briefly into the opposite one. The charges Jacob and Teal'c had set in the engine room had gone off. The floor shifted again, and with a lurch the ship came to a stop.
Sam let her billowing sleeves slide down to hide her weapons, and slipped around the corner, keeping her head bent so her hood obscured her face. A tide of Jaffa rushed past, hurrying toward the engine room, and she moved demurely to the side of them, a salmon swimming for the falls. Behind her Daniel followed closely, occasionally muttering questioningly in Goa'uld. The Jaffa ignored them, and clamored past. Behind them came another robed figure, which brushed up against Sam.
"Turn left, then right to the control room," Clarin murmured. "You have ten minutes before we must transport. You must return to the rings by then." Then she was gone, heading after the clanking Jaffa.
Sam moved more quickly now that she was unobserved. Left then right, Daniel close at her heels, then the door swished open to reveal a domed room with a star-filled window, two Jaffa, and O'Neill.
The colonel was seated in the center chair, hands resting loosely on the arms. He turned his head at their entrance, eyes flashing white.
Sam was paralyzed for a split second. She heard Daniel mutter something in Goa'uld that had to be a curse, and then he nudged her as he shook himself out of character. "You take the one on the left," he whispered. "I'll take the one on the right."
Paralysis dissolved and Sam stepped forward. She shook the hood off her head and brought up the Zat in a fluid movement to stun the guard to the left of O'Neill. The Jaffa fell to the ground in synch with the one shot by Daniel.
The glowing eyes widened, and O'Neill leapt to his feet, bringing up his hand to reveal a ribbon device on his palm. A faint shimmer around him revealed his personal shield had risen. His eyes locked with Sam's and she saw his face contort.
"It's me, Colonel," she said, stepping closer. "It's Sam. Fight it, sir!"
His face contorted again, and his eyes closed, and then snapped open, glowing once again. A beam shot out from the ribbon device, burning into her forehead. She gasped and stumbled.
Daniel moved behind her. "Sorry, Jack," she heard him say over the pain in her head. She fell on her knees. In the corner of her eye she saw Daniel move past her and his arm move in a blur.
The colonel cried out and stumbled backwards, the ribbon device abruptly cut off.
"Yes," Daniel hissed. "Those target practice sessions have finally paid off."
Sam struggled to her feet, as the colonel collapsed. She ran forward to kneel beside him. He lay flat on the ground, his hands clutching at the hilt of Daniel's knife, imbedded in his side. "Easy, sir," Sam said softly. She pulled the little vial from her pouch, exchanging a glance with Daniel, who now knelt across from her.
Daniel grasped the Colonel's hands, pulled the ribbon device off, and gave Sam a nod. She opened the vial and shook the worm out. It landed on the Colonel's forehead, wriggled a bit then vanished under his skin. His eyes widened with fear. Daniel removed his hand and moved back. "Okay," he said, looking at her nervously.
"Okay," she agreed, just as nervously. "Now we wait."
*****
Ravenor was angry. Inside Jack's head he seethed over those who would dare try to harm him, even as he moved Jack's hands to remove the knife from his side. Jack restrained himself from telling him it served him right after attacking Carter. It was his fault just like it was that Ravenor had recognized Carter and had chosen to use the ribbon on her in a slow burn rather than a fast burst to stop the ambush.
Carter was kneeling beside him now. He tried to concentrate on her voice, letting the pain from the knife distract Ravenor so maybe he could move a finger, or even a hand...
Something cold and wet fell on his face. A sharp pinch, and he felt it tunnel under his skin. It took barely a second for Jack to recognize the sensation and realize what the thing was. One of Machello's worms. With the realization, Ravenor heard, and reacted, howling with rage. Jack's body tensed as the symbiote began to fight the intruder.
Pain burned through his head, down his back and legs as Ravenor punished him. The symbiote was dying, knew it, and was going to make Jack suffer as long as possible. His vision darkened. "Adios, snake," he muttered inside, "see you on the dark side of the moon."
Jack withdrew to the tiniest back corner of his mind to hide while the death throes of the symbiote raged.
Suddenly it was quiet. The pain was gone, reduced to a dull ache, and a throbbing in his left side. He heard an echo of a voice and felt wetness in his ear. Jack lay still in the darkness and waited for Ravenor to open his eyes.
A cool hand touched his cheek. "Colonel?" said a soft, anxious voice.
"Jack?" said a slightly louder one.
Inside there was no response. Jack realized with a start that he had to open his own eyes, and did so tentatively, blinking up at two anxious faces. His hands felt like dead weights, his muscles were not used to obeying him. With a supreme effort, Jack raised a hand, and then with a heavy groan dropped it again, staring upwards with a shudder.
Sam and Daniel exchanged a concerned glance. "We don't have time," Daniel whispered.
Sam nodded. She tore a strip from the bottom of her robe. Daniel pulled the colonel up to a sitting position, his head lolling against Daniel's shoulder. Sam wrapped the strip of cloth around his waist, tying it tightly across the spreading crimson stain on his left side. She grabbed one of the colonel's arms, and Daniel grabbed the other as they struggled to their feet, the colonel's dead weight supported between them.
"Danny?" O'Neill's voice was weak and hoarse. "Carter?"
"Yes, sir," Sam replied firmly. "It's us. Now we need to get you out of here."
"Can't...move," he whispered.
"We need to go now, Jack," Daniel said. "Just hang on."
O'Neill seemed to be recovering some of his strength as they rounded the corner, heading back toward the transporter rings. His finger gripped Sam and Daniel's shoulders and he was trying to move his legs, which was actually more a hindrance than a help.
A clanking sounded, and a group of Jaffa rounded the corner. "Lord Ravenor is injured!" the lead one cried.
Sam closed her eyes in relief as she recognized the deep voice.
"Jacob Carter awaits our signal" Teal'c whispered. He slipped a communication ball into her hand as he lifted O'Neill from his teammates and hefted him over his shoulder. Sam and Daniel tugged their hoods low and followed Teal'c to the rings.
"Where do you take him?" One of the other Jaffa stepped forward to bar their way.
"To Lord Osiris' ship, and the sarcophagus," Teal'c replied. "Stand aside, Jaffa!"
"Osiris forbids transport between ships during battle." The Jaffa stepped forward and slapped the side of Teal'c's helmet. The spring released to reveal his face. "You are not one of us! You are the Shol'vah! Kree, Jaffa!"
"I do not wish to hurt you, No'vak," Teal'c said. "You are a valiant warrior, and you have no great love for Osiris. Join us!"
No'vak hesitated. The other Jaffa froze in the doorway. "We don't have time," Daniel whispered desperately. He slipped the Zat from his sleeve and fired once. No'vak dropped.
"Dad, now would be good," Sam whispered, squeezing the orb as they stepped into the circle.
Before the Jaffa could charge their staff weapons, the rings dropped.
******
The Tok'ra ship whipped through space, unpursued. "Osiris will have to cut her losses," Jacob observed. "She's too busy with Yu to concern herself with one host escaping.
"And perhaps No'vak will oppose her after all," Teal'c said.
Jacob eyed him, unconvinced. "Perhaps..."
Leaving them to their debate over the merits of the Jaffa master, Sam knelt beside O'Neill. Despite her attempt to stem the bleeding, his side was heavily soaked with blood, and his skin was gray with a sheen of perspiration. His breathing was shallow, but his eyes were focused, staring at her.
"Sir?" she said gently, touching his cheek.
"Hurts," he grunted. Then, "He's gone?" he whispered uncertainly.
"Yes," Sam told him firmly.
O'Neill reached a shaky hand toward the burn on her forehead, his own brow wrinkling in a frown.
Sam grasped his hand, pulling it away from her face. She squeezed his fingers tightly, and they squeezed back. O'Neill sighed softly, and closed his eyes.
****
Jack slept the whole way home once again. Jacob and Clarin dropped them off on the nearest planet with a Stargate and headed off to their next mission.
As they exited the 'gate, Jack was swept from Teal'c arms onto a waiting stretcher. Dr Fraiser immediately barred then from the infirmary, telling them in no uncertain terms to go debrief and leave her with her patient.
The debriefing took hours, and Sam had become convinced that General Hammond was conspiring with Fraiser by the time he finally released them. She hurried through the halls, Daniel and Teal'c at her heels, to be stopped at the door to the infirmary by a very tired looking Janet.
"He'll be all right - physically," Janet told them. "The knife wound was deep but didn't hit any vital organs. We gave him a transfusion and stitched him up. However-"
"However, the psychological effects are quite another story," interrupted a smooth voice from behind. The team turned as one to stare at Doctor Mackenzie. Sam's eyes widened, and she glared accusingly at Janet, who just shrugged helplessly.
"What are you doing here?" Daniel's voice was cold enough to freeze lava.
"One of our high ranking officers has been compromised," Mackenzie replied. "I'm here to assess the damage and decide what course of treatment to effect."
"The one who did the compromising is dead," Daniel pointed out.
"And General Hammond took the precaution of changing the iris codes," Sam added. "I know the NID goons will be here to debrief him extensively, so let us in to see him now-"
Mackenzie shook his head, interrupting once again. "Colonel O'Neill has suffered severe psychological trauma. He is very agitated at the moment, and is being restrained."
"What?" Sam moved up to within inches of Mackenzie and Janet. "He doesn't need a shrink - he needs his friends! Let us in!"
Teal'c's clearing throat signaled that his patience was at an end. He stepped forward, moved Sam gently aside and looked down at Janet, ignoring Mackenzie. "Doctor Fraiser, I wish to see Colonel O'Neill immediately."
"Me too," Sam pushed back in.
"Me, uh, three," Daniel put his hand supportively on Sam's shoulder.
Without a word, Janet Fraiser stepped aside.
"I'll take this to General Hammond," Mackenzie threatened as Teal'c opened the door.
"Go ahead," Janet replied wearily.
Inside the hospital room, they found Jack struggling against the restraints around his wrists that one of Mackenzie's orderlies was trying to tie to the bed. Another orderly was approaching with a syringe.
Jack saw the needle and cried out. Ignoring the wrist restraints now, he kicked his foot free of the sheet and lashed out at the needle-bearing man, kicking him in the groin. A bright red stain was spreading across the colonel's side - some of his stitches had come loose. There was blood on his arm too, where an IV had been that was now dripping into a large puddle on the floor.
"Remove your hands from O'Neill immediately," Teal'c's voice boomed, and the orderly dropped the restraint straps and backed away.
"You won't be needing that." Daniel plucked the syringe from the hand of the other orderly who was doubled over in pain, and deposited it in the sharps container on the wall.
"You may leave." The orderlies weren't waiting for Teal'c's permission and were already hurrying out the door.
"Colonel, stop that," Sam hurried to the bed, where O'Neill was still struggling with the restraints. "Colonel," she said more loudly. "Stop."
He stopped struggling and stared at her in confusion. His eyes were feverishly bright in his pale face, and his hair was sticking out in all directions, giving him a wild look. His breathing was harsh, and he was drenched with sweat. Sam sat on the edge of the bed, and took his hand, loosening the straps of the restraint to slip it off his wrist. "Easy," she said soothingly. "It's ok."
"You are safe, O'Neill. We will not allow anyone to harm you."
O'Neill looked up at Teal'c, and slowly relaxed, trembling, back against the bed as his dark eyes registered recognition. He looked back at Sam, who was untying his other hand. "S-Sam?"
"Yes, sir," she said quietly. "It's me."
He pulled his newly freed hand from hers, and reached up to touch the now fading burn mark on her forehead. "I did that," he whispered. He jerked his hand back with a groan.
"No," Sam told his firmly. "Not you, Colonel. It wasn't you." She took his hand back, squeezing it firmly.
He just shook his head, eyes wide.
Daniel moved to the side of the bed, his hands full of gauze. Sam glanced behind him to see Janet had entered and was standing at a discreet distance.
"Jack," Daniel leaned over. "You're bleeding. Let me take a look at your side, ok?"
Sam moved back out of Daniel's way, slipping behind the colonel and supporting his back and shoulders. He leaned into her tentatively, his hand shaking in hers.
Daniel took Sam's place on the side of the bed. He pushed up Jack's scrub shirt to reveal a loosened bandage with blood oozing out the sides. "This was my work," he said softly. "Guess I should fix it."
Janet cleared her throat behind him.
"Right," Daniel muttered, and put on the gloves he was carrying loosely in his other hand. He gently eased off the old dressing, revealing three broken stitches. Janet handed saline to Teal'c, who passed the bottle to Daniel. Daniel wet the gauze, cleaned away the blood, and put steri-strips over the newly reopened area. He covered the wound with dry gauze and taped it down firmly.
"Good enough for now," Janet murmured. "Thanks, Daniel."
Sam and Daniel helped Jack into a fresh scrub shirt, then made him lie down. He blinked at them sleepily, exhausted now that the crisis was over. His three teammates took up posts around his bed, and watched as he drifted to sleep, snoring softly.
There was a tap on the door, and they looked up to see General Hammond looking in the window with Mackenzie at his side. Daniel and Sam stayed where they were, and Teal'c moved over to the doorway as Hammond slipped through.
"How's he doing?" the general asked quietly, looking at Jack.
"Stable, for now," Janet answered just as quietly, with a meaningful look toward Mackenzie.
"We've come to a compromise, doctor, Teal'c," Hammond acknowledged Sam and Daniel also with a nod. "Doctor Mackenzie agrees that SG1 is in a unique position to help Colonel O'Neill right now, as they have been in situations that make them most able to understand what that colonel has gone through. They will be allowed to remain with him, at your discretion, Doctor. Once Colonel O'Neill has physically recovered, Doctor Mackenzie will be allowed to debrief and examine him."
"One at a time," Janet said. "You can take shifts."
"I will remain," Teal'c informed them in a voice that brooked no argument.
Sam and Daniel glanced at each other and shrugged in acquiescence.
"Just as well," Janet sighed. "I need to get that IV back in sooner or later."
****
Daniel shifted his weight on the uncomfortably hard infirmary chair, flipping to the end of his archeological journal, and musing that Janet kept the chairs hard on purpose, to discourage lengthy visits. "Fat chance," he muttered. He stretched his head back, and found Jack's dark eyes fixed on him.
"Oh, hey," he said, smiling, pushing up his glasses with his forefinger. "Have a nice nap? Janet left you some lunch." He indicated the now cooling soup and juice sitting on the over bed table. Jack scratched at the skin above his IV, and ignored the food.
"I could warm up that soup for you," Daniel offered.
"Not hungry." That was about as long a sentence as Jack put out these days.
"Okay," Daniel tried to keep the conversation, such as it was, going. "I have to go in a few, got a briefing with SG6. Sam's gonna come and sit with you awhile."
Jack visibly flinched. Daniel frowned. Sam had told him that whenever she was with Jack he kept his eyes closed and often would curl on his side facing away from her. She'd been amazed to hear from Daniel and Teal'c that Jack actually spoke a word or two to them at times.
"What's wrong, Jack?" he asked. "Why don't you want Sam with you?"
Jack closed his eyes.
"No, you don't!" Daniel leaned over the bed. "Come on, Jack, tell me - why don't you want Sam here?"
"I hurt her," Jack whispered, keeping his eyes closed.
"And I hurt you."
"That's different!"
"Yes, it is. Because you didn't hurt Sam. That was Ravenor."
"You don't understand..."
"No, I don't. Tell me." Daniel leaned over the bed and touched Jack's hand that was starting to tremble. "Tell me."
"He knew." Jack opened his eyes, and stared dully at the table. "He knew how much she means to me," his voice caught, "That's why he hurt her - to punish me."
Daniel heard a soft gasp behind him, and turned to see Sam standing there, tears in her eyes. Jack's eyes followed his, and he groaned, pulling away from Daniel and turning on his side.
Daniel got up and looked wordlessly at Sam.
"I'll take it from here," she said quietly, brushing away a tear.
He nodded, and she sat on the edge of the bed, resting her hand lightly on Jack's back. He stiffened, but couldn't pull any further away, with the side rail already in his face.
"Was it my fault," she asked, "when Jolinar used my voice against you? She had access to all of my memories, too, but I had no control over what she did. Or how about when Ammonet tried to kill Daniel? Was that Sha're's fault? She was strong enough to send him a message, but not to stop the device or move her hand."
Jack remained completely still. Sam rubbed his back for a few minutes, and then stood. "Think about it, Colonel," she said softly. "And know that even if it were your fault, I'd forgive you."
Jack rolled slowly over onto his back. "Sam," he whispered. But she was gone.
****
Sam looked up from her keyboard at a tap on her door and saw Janet Fraiser standing there, hands thrust deep into the pockets of her lab coat. "Hi, Janet," Sam clicked save and leaned back in her chair. "What's up?"
"I released Colonel O'Neill this morning," Janet said quietly.
Sam smiled. "That's great!" The smile faded as a thought hit. "Oh - not so great."
"He's in with Mackenzie now. I promised him he could go home directly after. Daniel's not around, and I don't want him going home alone, so..."
"You want me to take him?" Sam frowned. "Will he agree to that?"
"It's that, or spend another night in the infirmary."
Sam nodded and stood. "Okay."
Fiddling with the car keys in the pocket of her leather jacket, Sam waited outside the door where the colonel was being "examined." She glanced down at her watch and frowned at the door, willing it to open. Finally, it did, and the colonel came out, walking very slowly. His face was white and he walked straight across the hall into the men's room on the opposite side. Minutes later he emerged, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
He leaned against the wall, one hand pressed to his side, and looked at Sam. She jangled the car keys.
"I'm your ride," she said with what she hoped was an encouraging smile. He pressed his lips together in what she assumed was an attempt to return the smile, and pushed off the wall to follow her.
Sam kept the radio at a low background hum in the car, in order to drown out the silence. The colonel, knees folded up pretty high in the smallish passenger seat, just tilted his head back and closed his eyes till they arrived at his house. Shutting off the engine, she hopped out and came around to offer her arm as he awkwardly climbed out. He took the arm, avoiding eye contact, and groaned as he straightened. They walked up to the door in silence, and he handed her the key. Sam opened the door, and helped him down the three steps into the sunken living room. Behind them, the just closed front door burst open again.
"Pizza, coming through!" Daniel swept into Jack's house bearing the telltale square box, the warm scent preceding him.
"Root beer," Teal'c announced his own presence, placing the six-pack on the coffee table. Jack stared at them both, wide-eyed. He glanced questioningly at Sam, who smiled and shrugged.
"Sorry, Jack - no alcohol yet," Daniel told him. Jack nodded solemnly, eyes dark with confusion.
Teal'c strode over to the television set and began to fiddle with the channel and volume buttons. "The Jets of New York are preparing to do battle with the Broncos of Denver. Daniel Jackson has explained to me that we should be wishing the Broncos to gain victory, as they are closest in proximity to Cheyenne Mountain.
Daniel grinned at Sam's raised eyebrow. "I might not know football, but geography I can do."
Jack sat carefully on the couch and hesitantly reached out for one of the cans of root beer, interest flickering in his eyes.
****
Two hours later, Jack opened his eyes. He was laying on his couch, at home, his own place for the first time in - well, a long time. He'd eaten two slices of pizza and drunk two root beers - more than he'd consumed in days. Testifying to that, an empty pizza box, various paper plates and empty cans were stacked on the coffee table and on the floor. Daniel was reading a journal, Dennis Miller was waxing poetic on the TV screen, and Sam and Teal'c were animatedly discussing the problem of pass interference.
Jack cleared his throat. "So?"
"Hey, sir," Sam said brightly. "The Broncos just lost."
Teal'c frowned. "I do not agree with this geographic loyalty, Daniel Jackson. Next time I wish to side with the stronger team."
Daniel looked up from his journal and blinked. "Uh, sure, ok."
"You have to pick a team to be loyal to, Teal'c," Jack told him. "You can't win them all, you know."
Teal'c's frown deepened as he considered O'Neill's words. Sam and Daniel just looked at Jack.
Abruptly, he rose, holding the arm of the sofa for a moment, then walked stiffly out of the room to the back door.
Daniel got up, folding his magazine closed. Sam shook her head. "I'll go," she said. She grabbed her jacket and the colonel's and followed him out the door.
Jack was standing just outside, arms folded, shivering in the cool night air and staring up at the stars and nearly full moon.
'At least he isn't trying to climb to the roof,' Sam thought. She closed the door quietly behind her and approached him holding out his jacket. "Thought you might need this," she said.
He looked at her, startled, and cleared his throat. "Thanks." He took the jacket and shrugged it on, refolding his arms.
"Sir," Sam pulled a small frequently folded square of paper from her pocket. "Do you remember writing this?" She handed him the paper, wondering if her face looked as pale as his did in the silvery moonlight.
"What?" He took the paper, unfolded it and held it up, squinting in the pale light. "I wrote this?" He looked more closely, and swallowed hard. "Oh," he said faintly. "I thought that was a dream."
"It wasn't."
"Apparently."
They stood in awkward silence for a moment, then both spoke at once.
"Sam-"
"Sir-"
"You first," Jack offered, refolding the letter with shaking hands.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I never should have read it. And I was never going to even tell you that I did, not for years and years, but then I thought," she paused, "I thought maybe it would make you talk to me again."
Jack winced. "Sam,"
"Let me finish, sir. I understand some of what you went through. Not all of it of course, only what compares to my experience. But I understand enough to know that what Ravenor did was absolutely not your fault. There was nothing you could have done. And I, we," she gestured at the house, "all of us would do anything to help you see that."
A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. "Would you run interference with Mackenzie for me?"
Sam grinned. "Almost anything. He wants to see you again?"
Jack made a face. "Oh, we're gonna be good buddies by the time he clears me for duty," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He glanced down at the note that he was flipping back and forth in his fingers, and started folding it again. "You said one time that things didn't need to leave the room..."
Sam looked up at the sky. "Pretty big room this time."
"Yeah." Jack shoved the folded note into his jacket pocket, and looked directly at her. "I don't want to lose you, Sam," he whispered.
"You won't, sir," she answered.
Bending slightly, he kissed her gently on the forehead. Arm in arm, they rejoined their teammates.
The End.
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