• Anytime after the fourth season. Have to give Jack time to truly understand Daniel's genius.
• A dying civilization asks SG1 to save it from extinction just as Daniel begins to inexplicably deteriorate.
• PG [A] [Hc] [D]

"It's just I'm not sure what we can do to help you, Stavon," Daniel said, walking with the leader of the Dulesk.

Stavon finished buttoning his jacket and motioned for Daniel to follow him through the ravaged building and into the crumbling, decrepit streets of a once glorious city. "Dr. Jackson, when I was a child, this city, my birthplace, was the center of education and culture for an entire planet. We relied on each other for all that we needed. Generations went on without a single tumult. And then the Virolians arrived. Before we even knew they were amongst us, our infrastructure was compromised. This," he said, spreading wide his calloused and stained hands, "this is what has become of us. We are dependent on outsiders in order to...in order to survive." Daniel watched Stavon take in the remnants of his city with tired, moist eyes. "It is not how we choose to live." Stavon turned from the dilapidated buildings, the rock-strewn passageways. "Nor is it how we choose to perish."

"I understand, Stavon. But how do you see us helping you?" Daniel asked, carefully stepping around a puddle of broken glass.

"Help us find the Virolians. Please, help us eliminate them. We are too weak to do it ourselves," Stavon begged.

Daniel knit his brow, sympathetic to their plight, but unsure of the SGC's jurisdiction in such matters. "Um, don't get me wrong, Stavon, I am well aware that you're in trouble here, but, again, I'm not sure we can help you. It's not our place to turn the tide in a civil matter," Daniel said.

"If these were the Goa'uld, you would help us. But because the Virolians are not a threat to the entire galaxy, you choose to let us die?" Stavon asked incredulously.

"No. No. That's not it at all. Look, let me go back and talk with my people. See what we can come up with," Daniel said.

"I feel as though I am not able to make you understand our crisis, Dr. Jackson," Stavon said.

Daniel's eyes skimmed over the facade of the once grand State House, now pocked with mortar shells and bullet holes. Daniel removed his glasses which had become filthy from all the dust, soot and smoke in the air. He put them in his vest pocket.

"Believe me. I do understand it. I just need to know more," he said and turned to rejoin his team.

Stavon stood in the doorway of the home, his eyes cast down, tired of seeing the ruin that had come to his home and to his world.

*****

"Poptarts," Jack said, filling his cup with hours old coffee.

"Excuse me?" said Sam.

"Poptarts and Tang, actually," Jack said, looking thoughfully into his cup.

"Sir?"

"First time I was granted leave, I went home and found my sister eating Poptarts and drinking Tang. I tell you, I almost went AWOL right then and there," Jack said, taking a sip of his coffee, finding it not worth the effort, and throwing the rest into the grass.

"AWOL. For breakfast food," stated Sam, entering numbers into her laptop.

"Oh, ya and so. Breakfast of Champions."

Sam glanced up at Jack. "Correct me if I'm wrong, sir, but I think that's Wheaties," she informed him.

"Not on my training table, Major," Jack said, opening his canteen. Sam hid her smile.

"DanielJackson approaches," Teal'c informed the two. From a distance, Daniel could be seen slowly lumbering toward the base camp, a pained expression on his face.

"Okay, who's got money?" Jack asked. Major Hencho and Captain Frame of SG7 both took out five dollars. Jack did as well. "What's your pleasure?"

"I'm going to say palace princess problems," Hencho said, handing over the five to Jack.

"I got moral issues," Frame said, also handing his money to Jack.

"T, you want in?" Jack asked the Jaffa.

"I do not, O'Neill," Teal'c told him, dismissing him with a scowl.

Jack recoiled facetiously. He turned to Sam. "Major, you want a piece of the action?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Allergies," she said handing the bill back to Jack.

"Good. People, I'm going to take...'broke my glasses,' " Jack informed them, rolling his fiver into the stash. They waited for the archeologist to enter camp and proclaim the winner of the pool

Daniel sauntered in and ducked under the tent flap.

"Hey, Daniel. Where are your glasses?" Jack asked. Daniel looked suspiciously at him.

"They're in my pocket. Sam," Daniel said, turning his attention from the crestfallen colonel, "do you know if Janet packed any Sudafed in the med pack?" Sam's face lit up as Hencho, Frame and Jack threw their hands up in disgust.

"Let's see," she said swiveling around to procure the box. "We've got Benadryl, Zyrtec...ah, yes, Sudafed. Why? You feeling okay?"

"Just a little stuffed-up. Give me a couple, would you?" Daniel asked sitting down on the case next to Sam. He cradled his head in his hands waiting for the tablets. Sam gathered the medication and held her hand out to Jack at the same time. He slapped the $20 into Sam's hand.

"Here, Daniel," Sam said, giving him the medication. Daniel swallowed the pills, drank from his water bottle, and sat back.

"So, Daniel, what did you find out?" Jack asked.

"They're in trouble, and they're asking for us to help eliminate their...problems," Daniel said.

"And do these...'problems' have a name?" said Jack.

"Yes, they're the Virolians. Apparently, they came uninvited and unwelcome," Daniel said, leaning back. "Now the Dulesk want us to help them usher out the Virolians."

"We're not bouncers, Daniel," Jack said with a smirk.

"I am aware of that, Jack. You and I are going to meet with Stavon tomorrow, see what our options are," Daniel said, standing carefully.

"So, no moral gray areas?" Captain Frame asked.

"In terms of what, Captain?" Daniel asked peevishly.

"Wanting to help them; knowing we can't. That sort of thing."

"They want our help. We may be able to help them. If we can, we will. If we can't, we won't. No gray area," Daniel stated.

"'Scuse me, Dr. Jackson," said Hencho. Daniel turned slowly to him. "Does the Dulesk minister have a daughter?" Daniel eyed Hencho as if the officer had personally offended him.

"No, Major. I don't believe so. But tomorrow I'll be sure to ask. 'Gee, Stavon, I can see that your world is falling apart, but my friend needs a date. You got any daughters in there?' Not sure if that's going to go over, Major," Daniel said, glaring at the man. "I have some work to do," he said disappearing into his tent.

The three men stared at Sam as she counted out her money, folded it, and put it haughtily back in her vest pocket.

*****

"Daniel, I'm not waiting around anymore for this guy. Let's pack it in," Jack said, reharnesing his P90. Daniel looked quickly between Jack and Stavon.

"Stavon, when did you say the Virolian would meet us?" Daniel asked as Jack began to walk out of the meeting room within the quiet State House.

"He was to meet us some time ago. Therein lies one of the problems we are having with the Virolians. They do not respond to our attempts at communication," Stavon said, sinking into his chair, his features awash with exhaustion. Jack simply waved as he left the room. "Perhaps you are beginning to understand our predicament?" he asked pointedly of Daniel.

"Stavon, we are expected back on our planet in four hours in order to apprise General Hammond of our findings. I'm afraid I can't offer any support unless we have all the bases covered," Daniel told him, feeling the affects of the five-day long mission to Dulesk. "In two days I'll return. At that time, if you can provide us with a one-on-one with a Virolian, then, maybe we can begin to work on the diplomatic channels. Until then..." Daniel shrugged his shoulders.

"I understand you have rules to follow," Stavon said.

"I hope you do," Daniel said as he offered his hand to Stavon. Stavon looked at it momentarily and then slowly took it in his own.

"I am certain, in time, you will understand our rather dire situation and choose to help us renew ourselves," Stavon said, pressing his other hand against the union.

Daniel closed his eyes, his head drooped forward slightly.

"Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel pressed his fingers into his eye, trying to regain his equilibrium. "Um. It's nothing," Daniel said. "Must be my allergies. I'm just a little light-headed." He began to lean precariously to the side. Stavon laid a hand on Daniel's side to steady him.

"Shall I call one of your team members?" Stavon asked.

"No. I'm fine," Daniel said. "I'll, ah, I'll be in touch in a few days, Stavon." Daniel turned from the man.

"Dr. Jackson. You will return home, but this place will not leave you." Daniel looked back at Stavon. "It has become...part of you," Stavon said. Daniel eyed him cautiously before continuing on to join the rest of his departing team.

*****

"Now hear this. Roll up your sleeping bags, pack up your arts and crafts, because summer camp is over," Jack told the group of SGC members.

"Colonel, how did the meeting go?" Sam asked.

"It didn't, Major. Time to bug out," Jack told her.

"Yes, sir," Sam responded and then saw Daniel coming up the trail that led to camp. He had his hand on one hip and was walking with a slight limp. Sam put her pack down and went to assist him.

"Daniel? You're walking kind of funny," Sam told him, taking hold of his elbow.

"Somehow I must have pulled something in my hip between the city and here," Daniel said, wincing slightly. Jack met them halfway.

"Hey," he said, lifting his chin in salutation. "What's going on?" Jack glanced down at Daniel's leg.

"I'm not sure. But it's not a big deal. Thanks, Sam," Daniel said, taking his arm out of her grasp.

"We've got a long walk ahead of us," Jack said. "You gonna be able to make it?"

"Yeah, sure," Daniel said, shaking out his leg, rubbing the hip joint with his hand. "I'll be fine."

"Okay, campers. Then let's get ready to move," Jack said, turning toward camp. Sam stood still, watching Daniel attempt to take a few lumbering steps.

"Daniel, if you're in pain..."

"No. I'm not. Really. It's just...I'm fine," he said, continuing on toward camp. Sam let him pass and then fell in line behind him. A place she decided she would hold until Daniel was safely back to the SGC.

*****

"General Hammond, the Dulesk are a peaceful, erudite people. When the Virolians invaded their city, it was for no other reason than to...well, there was no reason to do it other than they could," Daniel told General Hammond. The general sat stone faced listening carefully to the debriefing.

"Sir, Teal'c, SG7 and I made a sweep of the city and the surrounding area. There's no sign of weaponry at all. For all intents and purposes, they had and have no way of defending themselves against an aggressor of this magnitude," Sam said.

"Are the Virolians in alliance with the Goa'uld?" General Hammond asked.

"We do not believe the Goa'uld have had anything to do with this planet, General. There would be no reason for them to lay claim on Dulesk. The Goa'uld are ruthless, to be sure, but they do not waste time or resources on planets that will not prove to be valuable," Teal'c informed the senior officer. "We found no traces of naquada in the soil, nor are the Dulesk people able to carry a symbiote. Their unique physiology makes them unable to be used as hosts. Also, the planet of Dulesk is not in an area that would be of any military importance. Until the Virolians appeared, The Dulesk were living in a Utopian society."

"Yes, I'd agree. That's a good way of putting it," Daniel concurred. "Unfortunately, that perfect society has come under attack and is slowly dying."

"What would they like us to do?" General Hammond asked, knowing full well the SGC was not to be used as a United Nations Peace Keeping detail. "Our mission is to explore and procure technology, not to intervene in the politics of a warring nation."

"But that's just it, sir. They're not a warring nation. They're under attack by an aggressor who, for no other reason than they can, is out to destroy a society. And I know what you're going to say. What's in it for us? Well, maybe nothing other than a good night's sleep," Daniel said, feeling as though he needed a good night's sleep immediately. He blinked his eyes, trying to work out the fatigue.

Sam noticed Daniel slowly rubbing his hip, working his hands down his thigh. She glanced at the tight look in his face, a look of pain and weariness.

"Colonel, what would you like to add?" General Hammond said. Jack rocked slowly back and forth in his chair, his hands clasped over his head.

"It's awfully damn hard to fight an enemy you can't see. And we've never seen the Virolians," Jack said. Daniel shot him a glare. "I didn't say they weren't there. It was hard to see the Viet Cong, but everyone knew they were there," Jack said. Daniel's expression relaxed, but a tightness remained. "From my vantage point, this is a guerilla war. Until we can meet with one of the Virolians and find out what's going on, I don't think there's much we can do." Jack noticed Daniel wince. "Daniel? Do you disagree?"

"What? Oh, no. Actually, I agree whole heartedly," Daniel said.

"Then, until we can meet with the Virolians, let's just hold tight," General Hammond said. "Unless there's something else, let's call it a day. Dismissed."

"Thank you, sir," Jack answered. He picked up his folder and walked out of the room behind the general. Teal'c followed as well.

Sam remained in her chair next to Daniel, concerned about the look of pain in his face. She reached a hand out and touched his arm. "Daniel, are you okay?" she asked. Daniel quickly glanced up at her and then back down to his leg.

"I...I can't seem to move. I mean, whenever I try to stand up, I get this excruciating pain down my thigh," he told her, rubbing his leg.

"I'll call Janet," Sam said, pushing herself away from the large bi-colored table.

"No. Just help me get up, okay?" he said, pressing his hands against the top of the table. Sam wrapped her arm around the back of his shoulders and tried to help him stand. Slowly, with great care, Daniel stood, grimacing and pulling air through his teeth.

"Are you sure you can make it to the infirmary under your own power?" Sam asked. Daniel's forehead was beaded with sweat.

"Oh, yeah," he said swiveling from the table. A pain akin to a lightening bolt jammed through his leg. He buckled over to the side. "Or not." Sam quickly lowered him into his seat. Daniel pressed his head into the back of the chair, bracing himself against the throbbing, cutting pain. Sam picked up the phone and quietly informed the medical staff of the situation.

"Okay, Daniel. Janet is coming down with a chair," she told him. She crouched down next to his side. "Maybe...maybe you're just cramped up after that walk to the Stargate." Daniel nodded his head, his hands still clutching the table. Sam rubbed his arm.

"So, this is what old age does to a person, eh?" Daniel said, trying to make light of the pain he was experiencing. Sam let out a sympathetic chuckle. "No wonder Jack is always so cranky."

"Dr. Jackson, what's going on?" asked Janet, rounding the corner of the room. A nurse with a wheel chair followed behind her. Janet turned Daniel and the chair he was sitting in toward her.

"That was fast," Sam said, moving out of the way.

"I... I don't actually know," Daniel said, resting his head in one hand as Janet took his pulse.

"Where are you experiencing pain?" Janet asked.

"Oh, in my right hip and thigh, I guess," he said. Janet's hands glided over the joint, her fingers walking over the area. She shook her head.

"Let's get you back to the infirmary, shall we?" she said. "Lt. McDonald, would you give me a hand here?" The nurse took Daniel's left arm while Janet held his right. "Okay, now, Sam, when we raise him, you pull his chair away and push the wheel chair under him. Got it?" Sam grabbed the wheel chair and positioned it closer to Daniel, readying it. "Ready, Daniel?" Daniel nodded anxiously. "On three. One, two, three." Together, Janet and the nurse lifted Daniel. He let out a choked moan. Sam repositioned the chairs. Janet took note of the way Daniel's hands were shaking, his eyes closed. Slowly they lowered him into the wheel chair, tenderly lifted his feet onto the platforms, and disengaged the brakes. Sam held the handles of the chair. She lowered her face to his.

"You okay?" she asked quietly. Daniel bobbed his head up and down. Sam lightly ran her hand over the back of his head. A sense of foreboding washed over her. In her logical mind, she knew this was nothing more than a muscle cramp, a pinched nerve. But in that place where the truth lies, where all the answers wait to be coupled with a question, she knew. She knew.

*****

"Hey, Carter. I hear Daniel's down here. What gives?" Jack asked, finding Sam in the hall outside the infirmary. She turned to face her CO.

"Probably nothing, sir," she said, hoping the same. "You remember back on Dulesk before we left, how his leg was bothering him?"

"Yeah? He said he was fine," Jack stated, glancing into the infirmary, and seeing that Daniel's bed was partitioned off.

"Apparently during the debriefing it came back. It's not a big deal, but we thought Janet should have a look at him," Sam said, taking a seat.

"He was fine during the post-mission exam," Jack said. Sam nodded. "Okay, well, call me when you know anything. I have a stack of reports to...Carter, let me ask you something."

"What's that, sir?"

"What do you do with your reports?" Jack asked, thrusting his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heals.

"You mean after I read them?"

"Ah, so you read them."

"Well, yeah. That's why they're there- for us to read."

Jack thought about it for a moment, and then waved his hand through the air, erasing the first suggestion.

"Okay, what do you do after you read them?" he asked. Sam furrowed her brow and looked sidelong at Jack.

"I file them."

"File them. Okay, this isn't helping at all," Jack stated, turning to leave. "Call me when you hear anything."

"Yes, sir," Sam said with a smile. She stood up and went to the window. Janet was just pulling the curtain away from Daniel's bed. Daniel was standing, fastening the top of his pants. Janet motioned for Sam to enter.

"Hey, Daniel. Janet. So?" Sam asked as she stepped next to Daniel.

"Looks like I'm getting old," Daniel added, suppressing a smile.

"It's a muscle strain. I've given him some anti-inflammatories. That and some Tylenol, and he should be good as new," Janet said, writing down some notes in his file. "So, you're free to go."

"Great," Daniel said. He grabbed his jacket. "Thanks, Janet."

Sam shook her head in bewilderment. "Are you sure he's okay?" she asked.

Janet closed his file. "Yes, I am," she said.

"That's good enough for me," Daniel said, taking Sam by the arm and pulling her out the door. He watched the doors to the infirmary swing shut and then turned to Sam. "What was that all about?" he asked.

Sam stepped a few feet from him, shoved her hands in her pockets, and shook her head. "I don't know. I guess I'm just being..."

"You're looking out for me," Daniel said. "I appreciate it, Sam. But I'm fine. Really."

Sam held his focus. She looked deep into the eyes, usually so clear and blue, usually so full of wonder. Now she saw something else. Exhaustion? A certain resignation that, at the end of the day, it just didn't matter?

"Hey, Daniel. We're on down-time for the next 24 hours. You want to...I don't know," Sam exhaled and relaxed her shoulders. "Let's get out of here. Go out to dinner or something."

Daniel's lips curled into a half-felt smile. "Yeah, okay. I'll meet you at O'Malley's at 7 tonight," Daniel said.

Sam's face displayed a relaxation she hadn't had since before they left Dulesk. "That sounds good. I'll see you there," she said, pivoting.

Daniel grabbed her arm. "Sam," he said, trying to smile even deeper, "thanks for watching out for me." Sam nodded and walked spiritedly down the hall. Daniel watched her round the corner before leaving the infirmary himself.

*****

"Wow, you look nice," Daniel said, finding Sam waiting at the bar inside O'Malleys. She had on a red cardigan over khaki Capri pants.

"Thanks. Thought I'd wear 'girl clothes' for a change," she said, putting her beer on the cocktail napkin. "Like the shoes?" she asked, displaying a pair of stylish strappy sandals.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Daniel said. "Well, um, it's...Had I known, I would have worn something a little nicer." He looked down at his jeans and heather-green pullover.

"Don't worry about it. You look fine."

"Sam?" said a young woman holding a clutch of menus.

"Yes?"

"Your table's ready," she said, turning to walk to their table. Sam hopped off the bar stool, grabbed her beer, and followed with Daniel at her side. The hostess put menus in front of their chairs and told them to have a nice dinner. Daniel held Sam's chair for her. She looked at him strangely, but took the seat anyway. After he pushed her chair in, he found his own seat.

"Wow. What service," Sam said. Daniel blushed. "What's with the manners?"

"I don't know. You and I...we don't...I just thought," he stammered.

"Daniel, this isn't a ...I mean, I didn't ask you out tonight on a..." Sam started, looking flustered and uneasy.

"You mean it's not a..." Daniel gestured incoherently.

"A date?"

"Yes, that."

"No!"

"Of course not."

"I mean, yeah, you're...But you're my..."

"I couldn't agree more." Daniel and Sam looked at each other uncomfortably for a moment before they broke into nervous laughter.

"I just invited you out because it seems like you've been under a lot of pressure lately. I just thought it could do us both some good to get away from...work," Sam said.

"I appreciate it. I do. And I'm relieved this isn't a date," he said smiling.

"I think I should be offended by that," Sam said, looking at him sidelong.

"No. No. That's not what I mean. It's just that, I don't think of you...that way," Daniel tried. "You're my...I see you more like a sister than...date." Daniel shook his head, flummoxed by the conversation.

"I know, Daniel. That's how I think of you, too," she said, reaching over and patting his hand. "Don't get me wrong. You're cute, but you're not my type."

"And what is your type?"

"Oh, you know. The big, loopy, not-too-bright types that you can easily manipulate," Sam said, picking up her beer. Daniel shook his head and smiled. "What about you?"

"I don't have a type," he said in avoidance.

Sam took in his expression and decided it was time to talk, the kind of heart-to-heart they rarely had time for in the SGC.

"Daniel, do you see yourself ever getting married again?" she asked.

Daniel looked absently around the restaurant. "I don't know. Our jobs aren't really marriage-friendly," he said. Sam nodded in agreement. "Besides, how often are you given the chance to find your soul mate?" he said, smiling sadly. Sam frowned.

"You really think no one else could ever...I mean, not that anyone could take Sha're's place, but don't you think there's someone out there you could love?" she asked.

Daniel drew a line in the condensation on his glass. "Tell you what, if I haven't found anyone by the time I'm 60, I'll marry you," he said, smiling.

"Make it 65 and you've got a deal," she said. Daniel propped an elbow on the table and rested his cheek in his hand.

"You know, on paper, we would make a great couple," he said, wistfully. Sam smiled.

"Paper. That just screams passion and romance," she said.

"Exactly. Besides, right now I need friends more than I need romance."

"Then you're a lucky man, because you have three very good friends."

"I know. And I'm very thankful."

"But a nice romantic evening wouldn't be bad every now and again," Sam quipped.

"To hell with the romance," Daniel blurted out, laughing. "I just want one night of hot, sweaty, mind-blowing..."

"Yeah, yeah, got it. And don't look at me!" They both laughed easily.

"Oh, God, Sam. It's been so long!" Daniel said, shaking his head, laughing.

"Tell me about it!" Sam laughed.

"Can you just see it written across my forehead, 'Need a date'?" Daniel asked, pathetically giggling.

"Oh, Daniel, it says more than that?" she retorted, snorting. Daniel gripped his stomach laughing. "What about me? I'm in my sexual prime! My hormones are screaming in here," she said, gesticulating boldly. Daniel pressed his napkin to his mouth muting his laughter.

Then his laughter stopped, and it was replaced by a look of fear and panic. Sam's laughter petered out as she noticed the marked change in his expression. She reached out a hand to him.

"Daniel? What is it?" Daniel grabbed the side of the table as he began to slip off his chair. Sam reached him just as he was about to fall to the floor. "Daniel. Talk to me. What's wrong?" Daniel began to convulse, his arms and legs becoming rigid. Sam eased him to the ground, and pushed the chair away from him. "Somebody call an ambulance!" she yelled. The other patrons stared helplessly. A man two tables away pulled out a cell phone and called for help.

"Sam," Daniel uttered through the onslaught. He kept his eyes focused on her. "What's...happening...to...me?" His body twitched and spasmed. Sam stroked his head, trying to maintain a calm demeanor, even though the sense of panic had spread from Daniel and through her.

"I'm not sure," she said as his body tightened. He tightly closed his eyes and arched his back. The veins in his neck bulged as the pain wracked his body. A choked, high-pitched groan escaped him. Sam swiveled to his side and grasped his face. "Daniel?! Daniel, you have to breathe!" Daniel's face mirrored the crushing pain his body felt. His mouth opened and closed trying desperately to draw in air. "Daniel!" Sam yelled, supporting the back of his neck.

Just as it began, without warning, it was over. Daniel collapsed into the floor, his face moist with perspiration. Sam bent over him and wiped his face. Daniel's heart raced, his breath came in short, gasping, irregular bursts. His eyes were wild with fear.

"Daniel. You're okay now. An ambulance is coming," Sam told him, rubbing his shoulders.

"What...Sam?" Daniel whispered, looking at her, very afraid, very fatigued.

"I think you had a seizure, Daniel," she said. He shook his head.

"No. Just pain," he said, his eyes darting from her face to the surroundings. "Really intense pain. God, Sam, what's happe..." He locked his sight on her as his breathing became more forced and increased in speed. "Oh, God," he uttered in terror as the torturous pain once again gripped his body.

Sam pulled him into her arms and rocked him, trying anything to ease his suffering. The tension in his body seized his breath, sent blinding tremors through every muscle, clamped down on his nerve endings, and forced him to endure the attack without reprieve. Sam caressed his face, screamed for someone to call an ambulance again, vigorously rubbed his arm, took his pulse and found it racing.

Seconds and then minutes crawled by. Long, excruciating minutes filled with awful cries of pain, severe agony, and intense fear as the continuous waves engulfed him, tore at him like thousands of poison-tipped arrows. With each new seizure, there would come an ending, and Daniel would collapse again, each time more fatigued by the ordeal, less lucid.

Sam fought a battle with herself to remain calm for him. Finally, out of the corner of her eye, she saw two people pushing a stretcher toward them.

"Hi, I'm Mhari with the ambulance. How are we doing tonight?" the paramedic said, kneeling down next to Daniel.

"He's having some sort of seizure. It's been a continuous pattern," Sam told Mhari, holding Daniel as he quietly laid slumped against her.

"What's his name?" Mhari asked, attaching a pulse ox meter to his forefinger.

"Daniel."

"Hey, Daniel. How did this start?"

Daniel shook his head lethargically.

"We were just talking," Sam said, sensing Daniel was too exhausted to speak. "All of a sudden he began having convulsions. I got him on the ground before he fell."

"Did he choke?" David, Mhari's partner, asked.

"No," Sam answered.

"Does he have any medical concerns that you are aware of?" asked Mhari.

"No. He's very healthy. Oh, he took an anti-inflammatory a few hours ago for a muscle pull."

"Daniel, I'm going to listen to your breathing, okay?" Mhari said, reaching under his shirt to listen to his chest. "He's tachycardic," she told David. David pulled an oxygen mask from their equipment and gently placed it over Daniel's nose and mouth. Mhari turned to Sam. "Does Daniel have a history of seizures or diabetes?"

"No, neither," Sam told her.

Mhari removed the stethoscope from her ears. Seeing his hands shake, Mhari glanced at his pale face. His chin trembled. "This is scary stuff, huh, Daniel?" Mhari said, trying to comfort him while attending to her duties.

"Pretty much," Daniel whispered tentatively as he closed his eyes.

Sam stroked his face, wiping his clammy skin. She watched Mhari pat down his torso, his pelvis, and his legs, feeling for signs of injury, while David attached three lead lines to his chest in order to check his heart rhythms. The activity was dizzying.

David moved quickly to Daniel's feet; Mhari to his head. Reaching under his arms and grasping his wrists, Mhari looked to make sure her partner was ready to lift Daniel to the stretcher.

"On three," David said, rattling off the count. They quickly and carefully lifted Daniel onto the stretcher, set all their monitors and equipment between his legs, and purposefully made their way out of the restaurant to the awaiting rig.

Daniel never took his eyes off Sam, who walked close to his side.

"He needs to be transported to the Air Force Academy Hospital," Sam told them quietly as they reached the truck. "I need to be with him for security reasons."

"By all means," Mhari agreed. They quickly lifted him into the truck, shut the large doors, and were en route to the hospital

*****

He walked quickly through the halls in search of Sam. It had been over an hour since Jack had received the call that Daniel had been taken to the hospital, and in that time Jack's mind raced with possibilities. Sam had shut off her phone once inside the hospital due to strict cell phone prohibition, so Jack wasn't able to make the much wanted quarter-hourly call to check in on his friend. It was with relief that he spotted Sam and Teal'c talking casually in the hall outside the emergency room. They both stood in respect when Jack reached them.

"Hey," he said. "Sit down." Both Teal'c and Sam returned to their seats. "What's going on? I thought he had a muscle pull?"

"That's what Janet thought, but it seems to be much more," Sam told him. "Daniel and I were at O'Malley's when he started having what I thought was a seizure."

"A seizure? How the hell..."

"It wasn't a seizure, but it was...Sir, for 10 minutes, Daniel was having convulsions, painful convulsions that just kept coming, over and over. They continued in the ambulance and for the next half-hour once he arrived here. Janet's with him now. We're just waiting for some word on his condition," Sam reported. She looked tired and rattled.

Jack hunkered down in front of her and put his hands on her knees. "You okay, Sam?" he quietly asked.

She looked at him briefly and then lowered her head into her hands. "It was terrifying, sir," she said, the long hour spent worrying reflected in her weak voice. Jack patted her knee.

"I bet." He stood up and rubbed the base of her neck while he tried to look through the doors.

"It is disappointing that you were unable to take in the sporting event, O'Neill," Teal'c said.

Jack turned to him, thrust his hands in his pockets, and nodded sadly. "Oh, you know, what the hell. Game five of the finals. I'm sure there'll be a game six. Next year," he said sarcastically. Sam managed a smile.

The door to the bustling room swung open and Janet stepped out. She motioned for them to join her inside.

They found Daniel laying quietly in a bed, an oxygen cannula affixed under his nose, wires escaping from the top of his gown. Sam reached for his hand, careful not to disturb the pulse ox meter.

"Hi, Daniel. How are you feeling?" she asked.

Daniel swallowed wearily. "Sore. Tired," he said, closing his eyes and licking his lips.

Sam looked at Janet who nodded that Sam could offer Daniel some ice chips. She picked up the cup on his stand and scooped a few chips onto a spoon. She placed the spoon gently next to Daniel's lips. "Here you go, Daniel. I promised you dinner, remember?" she said, smiling. Daniel gratefully accepted the ice, and attempted a small chuckle. Jack looked quizzically at Sam.

"Daniel and I were talking," said Janet. "He doesn't remember anything out of the ordinary happening on your last mission that may have caused this. Can any of you shed light on what may have happened?" Teal'c, Sam and Jack looked at each other.

"I believe DanielJackson's allergies were a problem for him," Teal'c offered. Janet nodded.

"Okay, but I guess I'm asking if you remember him eating anything or injuring himself. An insect bite. That sort of thing," Janet said.

"Nothing," Jack said, shaking his head. "But, then again, we weren't with him when he was in the State House."

"Um, I never..." Daniel cleared his throat, "...never ate or drank anything there. Not so much as scratched myself, which I'm sure you'll find odd." Jack shrugged his shoulder and then nodded.

"Colonel, a word," Janet said, tipping her head to the door. Jack followed her out of the room. Once in the hall, Janet slowly closed the door behind her and faced Jack. "Colonel, I don't know how this happened. When Daniel came into the infirmary this afternoon, I signed off on him thinking it was just a muscle pull."

"It happens. Hell, I didn't think anything was wrong, either. Don't beat yourself up, Doc," Jack told her. "But now that he's here, what do you think's going on?"

"I've checked Daniel's pre-mission and post-mission blood samples, as well as the sample I took when he came into the infirmary this afternoon. Neither the protein levels nor the..."

"Aht!" Jack blurted. "Just tell me the bottom line." Janet let out an exasperated sigh.

"Bottom line? I don't have a clue what's wrong with him. I need you to go back to Dulesk and bring back samples of anything he might have come into contact with," Janet said. "Meanwhile, I'll run some more tests, try to determine the pattern, but without the root cause, I won't affectively be able to treat him."

"What's going to happen to him?" Jack asked.

"Frankly, I don't know. I don't know if the seizures will return; I don't know if the pain in his limbs will get worse; I don't know if the weakness will increase. I just don't know."

Jack nodded his head, understanding her frustration. "I'll talk to Hammond, get permission to go back in the morning," he said. "Is there anything else?"

"No. We can go back in," Janet said, opening the door for the colonel.

"...it was more like a full-body muscle cramp than a seizure," Daniel told his two guests. Sam winced. Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"I hate to break up the party, but Dr. Jackson has some tests to take," Janet told the gathering. "I'll keep you all informed."

"Very well," said Teal'c. "I shall call upon you at a later date, DanielJackson." Daniel raised his hand slightly to wave goodbye to the Jaffa as he exited the room. Jack tapped Daniel on the foot.

"So, I guess I'll see you in a couple days, huh?" Jack said. Daniel nodded. "Bye," Jack called as he joined Teal'c in the hall. Sam lightly squeezed his hand.

"I'll see you..."

"Sam, would you..." Daniel began. He closed his eyes. "I'd really appreciate it if you'd..."

"I'll stay here," she said, glancing over to Janet for her approval. Janet smiled and nodded. "Let me just go tell the colonel what's going on." Daniel bobbed his head up and down wearily. Sam jogged down the hall to catch up with the two men.

"Sir, I'm going to stick around for a while. Daniel..."

"It's a good idea, Carter," Jack said. "Report back to the base at 0800. We should have a go at that time.

"A go for what, sir?"

"We need to go back to Dulesk to take some samples," Jack said.

Sam nodded that she understood. "Yes, sir."

"Try to get some rest. We have some hard work ahead of us," Jack said, touching her arm. "Call if there's any change."

"I will," Sam said, turning to go back to Daniel's side.

"...and Sam can be in the room if you'd like," Janet said to Daniel as Sam returned to the room. Janet turned to address Sam. "We need to perform a lumbar puncture on Daniel. I think he'd like you to support him during it, right?" she asked, looking over to Daniel who nodded.

Sam stepped to his side and took his hand. "Sure. No problem," Sam said, smiling gently.

"Okay, then let me go get the LP pack. I'll be back shortly," Janet said, leaving the room. A nurse stepped to Daniel's side, checked his IV, and stepped away. Sam pulled up the chair next to Daniel's bed. Daniel closed his eyes and swallowed carefully.

"You alright?" Sam asked, taking his hand. Daniel nodded without opening his eyes.

"I was just thinking," he said quietly. "I must have killed a whole herd of butterflies in my past life, because my karma is...not good."

Sam smiled and stroked his hand. "Tell you the truth? I was thinking the same thing," she said.

"I'm sorry about dinner."

"Oh, gees, don't worry about it."

"You looked nice."

"Thanks."

"We'll do it again soon."

"Okay," Sam said. She looked at her friend, pale and tired, talking only to stay awake. She stood up and spooned out some more ice chips which she offered him. Daniel let the cold chips mercifully dissolve in his mouth.

"All set," Janet said, entering the room with a tray draped in blue. "First thing I need you to do is lay on your side and bring your knees up to your chest."

"Easier said than done," Daniel said, his voice drained and quiet. He slowly rolled to his side with the help of Sam. He pulled his knees a short distance toward his chest, softly moaning. Sam helped him the rest of the way.

"Daniel, are you okay?" she asked. Daniel nodded, his eyes tightly shut.

"Good, now drop you chin. Sam, what you need to do is hold his neck and his knees, just to make sure he doesn't move," Janet said as she placed her hands on his hip and shoulder, assessing the position. Sam stuck her hand in the crook of his knees and held them in place. She stroked his hair with the other hand, ready to hold his neck still as well.

"You women can't seem to keep your hands off me," Daniel quietly said. Janet looked up and smirked at Sam.

"Everybody needs a dream, Daniel," Sam said, laughing. "You go ahead and stick with that one." She ruffled his hair. Janet pulled the stool to the side of his bed and sat down. A nurse stepped in next to her.

"Daniel, what I'm doing now is finding the two vertebrae. Can you feel that?" Janet asked, palpating the lower section of Daniel's spine. He nodded. "Nope. No nodding for a while. You have to talk to me and keep very still." Sam laid her hand across the back of his head and neck, caressing his hair with her thumb. Janet pulled on a pair of latex gloves while the nurse pealed the sterile LP pack open. He handed Janet an alcohol swab. "Alright. Now you're going to feel me clean the area. How's that?"

"Fine," Daniel croaked out.

"Good," Janet said. The nurse handed her a hypodermic filled with Lidocaine. "I'm going to numb the area. You'll feel some pinching and then some fairly strong burning. Ready?"

"Um, I guess," Daniel said. He felt the intense pinpoint of the needle entering his skin and the burning sensation of the anesthetic that followed. "Aaahhhhh," he groaned. Sam held him still. Janet pulled the needle out and reinserted it on the opposite side of his spine.

"One more," she said. Daniel clenched his jaw warding off the discomfort. Sam looked on, watching Janet work as well as keeping tabs on Daniel's condition. "There," Janet said, handing the needle to the nurse. "We'll give it a minute to numb you up. Now, Daniel, while I'm performing the procedure, you're going to feel strong pressure, but you must not move. Do you understand?"

"Just get it over with," Daniel said through clenched teeth.

Janet held her hand out to accept the spinal needle. The nurse removed it from the sterile pack and placed it in Janet's hand. She positioned it next to Daniel's spine. "Here we go," she said, passing the needle through the skin, between the vertebrae, and into the spinal canal. "How you doing, Daniel?"

"'Kay," he whispered. His hands shook.

Sam leaned over and kissed his cheek. "You're doing really well, Daniel," she told him.

Janet manipulated the needle through to the subarachnoid space. Daniel grasped the sheets in a tight fist.

"Okay?" Sam asked.

"Um..."

"It'll be over soon."

"Daniel, any discomfort?" Janet asked. Daniel whispered something to Sam.

"He said electric shocks down his legs," Sam reported.

"That's very common. I'm measuring the pressure in your spinal fluid, and so far... it looks very good," Janet said. The nurse had ready a small tube, which he gave to her in return for the manometer. Janet attached the tube to the needle. "I'm gathering fluid now to study. A few more minutes, okay?"

"M-hm," Daniel uttered.

Sam leaned in close to him. "It's almost over, Daniel," she whispered, trying to soothe him, knowing the only thing that would help would be for Janet to finish in record time. "Did I ever tell you the story my dad used to tell me? He and I watched the lunar landing together. Well, I don't really remember it, but he said I was engrossed by it. Anyhow, from that moment, my dad decided I should be the first woman in space. Obviously, the Russians had different ideas, and then there was the problem with my age, but you know my dad," Sam smiled, lightly stroking the back of his neck. "So every night for a month he told me the story of 'Colonel Carter, girl astronaut.' "

Janet smiled listening to the story. She gave the tubes to the nurse and picked up the manometer. "Checking the pressure again. We're almost home, Daniel," Janet said, working quickly, efficiently, but remembering explicitly who was at the other end of the needle.

"Hang on, Daniel," Sam said. Daniel screwed his eyes shut, as much from the pressure of the needle in his spine as from the position he was in. "One day," Sam began, lowering her voice to sound like her father, "two officers in dress blues came to our front door and knocked. I ran to see what was the racket. When I opened the door, the officers said, 'Major Jacob Carter? We'd like to talk to your daughter.' Well, I wasn't going to let just any fly-boy talk to my favorite daughter, so I asked what it was that they needed. 'We're here to talk to your daughter about becoming an astronaut.'"

Daniel groaned as Janet extracted the needle.

"That's it," she said, pressing her hand against the puncture. "I need to apply a little pressure here for a few minutes, then I'll put a nice USAF bandage on it, and then it's nappy time for you."

"You did great," Sam said, brushing the sweat-soaked hair at the back of Daniel's neck.

"Thanks, girl astronaut," Daniel whispered, his eyes closed.

"I'll tell you the rest of that story someday," said Sam. Daniel mouthed an okay. Janet adhered a bandage to the spot, removed her gloves, and helped Sam ease him onto his back. The nurse took the tray out of the room.

"I'm going to go get some things for you to drink. I want you to lie flat, no sudden movements. Is that clear?" Janet asked.

"Yes," Daniel whispered.

"Okay. Any requests?"

"Coffee."

"You're going to love me, Daniel, because that's just what the doctor ordered. I'll be right back with some luke warm coffee and a bendy straw," she said, leaving the room.

Sam stood up next to Daniel and cupped his face in her hand. "How you doin'?" she asked.

"I'm cold," Daniel whispered. His body trembled slightly.

Sam pulled the extra blanket over him and tucked it up under his arms. When she looked up, she saw that he was already asleep. She pulled the chair next to his bed and with an acute sense of exhaustion, sat down. As she sat watching him, nervously pinching her lower lip, she prayed that this would all end soon for him. That it was a simple virus, a silly little infection that could be treated and eradicated. But she knew it would never be that simple. She knew.

*****

The sun floated low in the sky of Dulesk, casting jagged, distorted shadows along the littered streets. Jack and Teal'c had walked the two kilometers from base camp to the city center in search of Stavon. They left Sam and SG7 tending to the job of collecting samples to take back and study. It was up to Jack and Teal'c to glean any information from the Dulesk leader that might be used to cure Daniel.

When Jack and Teal'c entered the main section of the capital city of Dulesk, the first impression they had was that of the worsened condition of its buildings. Whereas before there were broken windows, superficial damage to the fascia, now entire facades were missing, reduced to moribund piles of rubble. Homes and businesses were left exposed, their protective outer walls ripped away. The two men clutched their weapons as they stealthily made their way into the State House.

Stavon sat slumped in a chair in the middle of the room, the dust and sediment from a recent attack on his city covering him in a heavy dust. At the sound of footsteps, he slowly looked up, his violet eyes half covered by heavy lids.

Jack and Teal'c carefully crossed the expanse of the room, littered with glass and chunks of plaster.

"Have you come to help me?" Stavon asked.

Jack squinted his eyes and took at the destruction of the man in front of him. "We still haven't met your attackers," Jack said. "I can't help you unless I know how to help you." Stavon dropped his head and laughed bitterly.

"Then we will die," he said.

Jack swallowed hard, the dust and soot penetrating his sinuses.

"Our friend, Daniel Jackson, is ill. We came today to ask for your assistance," Teal'c said. "We believe he came in contact with something while in your presence that may be causing his illness."

Stavon looked thoughtfully at the Jaffa. "Is he very ill?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, he is," Jack answered. "Did he...did you give him anything to eat or drink while he was with you?"

Stavon lethargically turned his head to Jack. "No. I have nothing to offer," he said. He brushed the sediment from his arms. "Last night the Virolians repeatedly bombed our city. For two hours we endured the attack, and when it was over, we were more crippled than ever. We will not be able to endure much more before we entirely collapse."

"You have no way of defending yourself?" Jack asked.

"How can you defend yourself against someone you never conceived could attack?" Stavon asked in response. "To defend one's country is to admit you are prepared for war. We want neither."

Jack lowered his head and rubbed his eyes. "As noble as that is, it's also fairly naive," Jack said. "Look, right now, I'm more concerned with finding a cause for Daniel's illness. Can you tell me anything that might have happened while he was with you?"

Stavon lowered his head despondently. "I cannot."

"You don't mind if I just take a look around, do you?" Jack asked, becoming frustrated.

"You will find nothing. But please, feel free to...see what has become of my home," Stavon said, running a hand through his hair.

Jack and Teal'c carefully walked throughout the room, opening doors, peering in vessels. They found nothing but dilapidated construction, forsaken belongings.

"If there was anything here, it's gone now," Jack said to Teal'c. He kicked over an urn which lay toppled beneath a shower of dust.

"I believe you are correct, O'Neill," Teal'c said. They slowly crossed back to the main room, but found that Stavon was gone. Jack looked suspiciously at Teal'c. The door to the State House was pushed aside. They stepped over fallen columns and through the door. Stavon stood solemnly taking in the ruin of his city. Jack cradled his weapon as he reached the leader.

"The air is getting worse. Soon we won't be able to breathe," he said weakly.

"I can bring back food and medical supplies," Jack said.

"You would bring salve for an amputation," Stavon sardonically replied. "We need much more."

"What more can I do? You've never made it clear how we can help you," Jack said.

Stavon turned glaring at Jack. "You can get rid of the Virolians, gather them and massacre them, rid my city and my people of them!" he barked. Stavon's body trembled with fury.

Jack blinked his eyes. "Until I can be shown their positions..."

"They're right there!" Stavon cried, gesturing into the hills, in the trees, all around the decrepit city. "You only need to look."

"We have looked..."

"Then you must look again!" Stavon implored. "Would you give up so easily on Dr. Jackson?" Jack shot him a seething glare.

"Teal'c," Jack said, maintaining the forced calm in his voice, "we're done here." Teal'c bowed his head to Stavon. "I'll come back in two days with supplies. That's all I can do right now," Jack said as he turned from the man and began to walk away with the Jaffa.

Stavon's knees buckled and he fell to a sitting position amidst the littered streets of his once beautiful, vibrant city. He wept helplessly as he watched the two SGC members turn from his world in order to return to their own, a world where only one man could understand Stavon's horrors. He hoped that that one man would soon be able to convince his people to assist in the Dulesk's continuing nightmare.

*****

"Hi, there," Sam said, entering the infirmary. She found Daniel sitting up in one of the beds. He looked pale and tired.

"Hey. When did you get back?" he asked. Sam sat at the foot of his bed.

"About thirty minutes ago. I can't stay long. We have to report to the general in an hour, and I have some lab results to go over first," she said. Sam smiled at Daniel. "You look a lot better than the last time I saw you."

"I feel...better," he said, lowering his eyes and swallowing hard. "I'm pretty tired. But at the very least, I haven't had anymore of those..." Daniel twitched, "...things."

"Good," Sam said. Her brow line became pinched as she tried to form the words for what she had to tell Daniel. "We couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, Daniel. This may take longer than I anticipated," she sadly told him.

"That's okay. You'll figure it out," Daniel assured her.

She looked deeply into his eyes, wondering if he could see her panicked thoughts. She decided her own feelings of fear and trepidation were unimportant at the moment and chose to put them away.

"You're right. We will," she said, not entirely believing it. "So, tell me. What have you been doing?" she asked as brightly as she could muster.

"Oh, I had an exciting trip back to the base in an Air Force medical vehicle. I had a CT scan, an EEG, an EKG. They tested my CBC with diff, whatever that means. They checked my CPKs, and did a complete metabolic profile, all very much on the QT. You know. The basics," he said, a lop-sided smile nervously appearing.

"You've been reading your chart, Daniel," Sam told him.

"Not successfully, obviously. I can't make heads or tails out of it," he stated.

"How's your leg feel?"

Daniel felt for his hip. "Still numb. Weak," he said.

"How about your back from the lumbar puncture?"

"Actually, fine," Daniel said. He wove his fingers together and dropped them in his lap. "Sam, thanks for staying with me in the hospital. I was...It's silly, I know, but I was...scared."

Sam reached forward and placed her hand on his knee. "I know. So was I," she told him.

Daniel tapped her hand. He wanted to hold it, intertwine his fingers in hers for his own sake, but he had never been very comfortable with filling his need to be touched. He replaced his hand in his lap and scratched at the skin on his thumb.

"It was..." Daniel's eyelids fluttered as he tried to put into words the terror he felt while in the throes of the convulsions. He cleared his throat and began again. "It was frightening. There was nothing I could do. And I couldn't figure out what was happening to me, and I tried to scream, and I tried to breathe, and I tried...to..." He shook his head. "All night for the past two nights I've been terrified that the convulsions would come back. It's hard to imagine being able to live through that...many more times."

"I don't think you'll have to. Janet's on top of this," Sam told him.

"Janet's been testing the strength and sensations in my limbs. I think she called it 'taking a baseline.'"

"And?"

"And, um, I'm, uh, getting weaker," he said, unable to make eye-contact with Sam.

"Oh, Daniel," she said. Sam searched his eyes for signs of tenacity, but found only fear.

"Why don't you go. Figure out what's going on," he said, half smiling.

Sam lowered her chin and looked pensively at him. "You sure?"

"Yeah. Jack will be here any..."

"So, Daniel. What's it like to have a needle in your spine?" Jack asked, sauntering into the infirmary.

"...minute," Daniel finished. He smiled at Sam. "I'll talk to you later." Daniel partially waved, partially reached with his hand toward Sam. Sam grasped it and gave it a gentle squeeze. Jack furrowed his brow seeing the exchange.

"I'll come back later tonight," Sam said. Daniel nodded. "Colonel," she said, and left.

"Major," Jack called out, watching her round the corner. He turned back to Daniel.

"Hey."

"Hey," Daniel answered.

"So..."

"Yeah."

"Okay, what's going on with you and Sam?" Jack asked pointedly. Daniel shook his head. "Did you guys go out the other night?"

"Jealous, Jack?"

"Well, yeah! Nobody asked if I wanted to get anything to eat!" Jack stated.

"You said you were going to some friends' to watch the game." Daniel reminded him.

"Yeah, well, that's beside the point. You two went out without me. I'm a little...To be honest, I'm a little hurt," Jack said, rubbing his chest. "I thought we were a team, friends. I thought..."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Are you finished?"

Jack looked up to the ceiling momentarily. "Yup."

"Good."

"So, you and Sam got a thing going?"

"No. We were just having dinner."

"You sure there's nothing..." Jack said, bobbing his head back and forth. "There seemed to be, I don't know, a little..." Jack waved his hands awkwardly. Daniel blinked.

"No. No..." Daniel mimicked Jack's hand movements. "Besides, I'm not her type."

"Oh, yeah? What type is that?" Jack asked, plopping down in the chair against the wall.. Daniel thought about the qualities Sam had mentioned: big, loopy, not too bright. Daniel watched as Jack shined the otoscope light through the thin skin between his fingers.

"Not me," he plainly said. "Did you talk with Stavon?"

"A little. Dulesk took some hits a couple nights ago. He was pretty shaken up," Jack said, replacing the scope.

"God, is he...are they alright?" Daniel asked.

"They got hit hard," Jack said. Daniel rubbed his forehead with both hands, worried for the people of Dulesk and for Stavon. "Um, Daniel," Jack started. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Stavon couldn't think of anything with which you might have come in contact."

"Damn."

"Hey. Something will come up. Carter's working on it, and if anyone can figure it out, it's Sam," Jack said optimistically. Daniel fully agreed with his assessment. Jack stood up to leave. "I just wanted to check in on you."

"Thanks, Jack."

"By the way, if you're not Carter's type, what is?" Jack asked reaching the door.

"Big, loopy, not too bright," Daniel told him quickly, raising his chin.

Jack snorted. "Yeah, right. Good luck!" he said as he left the room. Daniel blinked, his forehead became lined. Suddenly, Jack's face appeared in the door, mirroring Daniel's expression.

"Huh?" Daniel uttered.

Jack stared at Daniel, his mouth agape with the realization of Daniel's description. He dismissively shook his head and disappeared.

*****

Janet sat hunkered over the stack of lab results on her desk. She held her head in her hands. She heard a knock on her door, sat up straight, took a deep breath, and called for whoever it was to enter.

Sam peeked her head in. "How's it going?" she asked.

Janet shook her head. "How about for you?" Janet asked.

Sam stepped in, shut the door, and took a seat. "Janet, I can't make any sense of it. For all intents and purposes, the biological samples we took from Dulesk are identical to those found on Earth," she said, stooping over her knees.

Janet wove her fingers together and laid them on her desk. "Daniel wants some answers. All I can tell him is that I don't have any. Not any he wants to hear," Janet said. She pressed her head against the back of her chair. "The muscle biopsy shows a change in his myelin layer, so whatever this is involves the muscle tissue as well as the nervous system. He's getting weaker. Every morning when I check his baselines, they're decreased. Decreased mobility, decreased flexibility. Everything. And I don't know how to stop it. Plus, and this is my favorite part, he's not responding to any drugs that I give him. Nothing. No sedatives, no anti-convulsives, no paralytic agents. Nothing."

"What are we missing, Janet?" Sam asked.

"I haven't a clue."

"Could this have happened before Dulesk? I mean, was this already going on and we just couldn't see it?"

"No. There is a distinct difference in the protein structure and white blood cell count in his blood samples pre- and post-mission. It definitely came as a result of something on Dulesk." Janet laid her head on her desk, exhausted from the non-stop research and readings, all in the name of finding a cure for Daniel. "If the cellular degeneration keeps going at the pace it currently is going, he won't be able to walk by the end of the week. Early next week, he won't be able to use his arms. By the end of next week..." Janet said, shaking her head.

"We'll just have to keep looking," Sam said, pressing her fingers forcibly into her skull. "We're overlooking something. I know it." A dead silence permeated the office.

Finally, Janet stood and took her lab coat from the back of her chair. Slowly she pulled the coat on and stepped away from her desk.

"I have to talk to Daniel. He deserves to know what's going on," she said, leaving Sam in her office.

*****

"So, Daniel..." Jack began, entering Daniel's corner of the infirmary. He stopped when he realized that he was the only one in the room. He swung around in a quick circle, looked casually out in the hall. Janet walked by. "Hey, Doc. Where's Daniel?"

Janet stepped into the room and, with a look of confusion, shook her head. "He was just here. He and I had a talk about his condition. I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know where he might have..."

"Daniel? Danny?" Jack called, knocking on the bathroom door. When there was no answer, Jack opened the small personal closet. A day earlier Jack had brought him a set of clothes, sort of a sign that the ordeal would be over soon. Wishful thinking, Jack knew, but he had come to believe in the impossible where Daniel was concerned. But as he peeked inside the closet, Jack found the that the clothes were missing. "He's gone."

"Excuse me?" Janet asked. "He can barely stand. I don't think it's possible for him to..."

"This is Daniel we're talking about here," Jack said. "Your talk. Was it..."

"It wasn't good news, if that's what you're asking," Janet said. Jack pursed his lips and squinted his eyes. "He's not well, Colonel. We need to find him."

Jack didn't wait to hear what he already knew, that Daniel needed to be found. That much was clear. He ran from the infirmary to Daniel's office, swung open the door and took a quick look.

"Dammit, Daniel," Jack said under his breath, finding the office empty. He took off for the next most obvious place- Daniel's personal quarters.

Jack knocked on the door of quarters, tried the door knob and found it unlocked. He stepped inside and saw that the room was empty as well. Taking a moment to gather his turbulent thoughts, Jack tried to think where his friend might have gone. He knew Daniel was scared, was probably feeling like a caged, wounded animal. Jack rubbed his forehead, trying to think clearly past the black "what-ifs." A thought occured to him, but it was a long stretch. He grabbed a blanket from the end of Daniel's bed and ran out of the room, to the elevator, where he hoped, after a quick ride to the surface, he would find Daniel.

Once outside the mouth of the mountain, Jack scanned the horizon. The air was cold, bitingly cold and thick with moisture. Jack found Daniel, 30 feet out, leaning against a light pole with his arms wrapped around his chest.

"Daniel!" Jack yelled, beginning to jog to his side. Daniel didn't answer. Jack stopped running and began to slowly cross the distance instead. He didn't want to startle him. He was sure Daniel had had enough startling news today. Jack calmly stepped in line next to his friend.

"Daniel? Little cold out here, don't you think?" Jack asked, his hands in his pockets to ward off the chill, the blanket stuffed in the crook of his elbow. "Doc Fraiser kind of lost track of you," Jack said, leaning toward Daniel. "Wanna talk?"

Daniel's eyes gazed over the surrounding landscape. His jaw jutted out. "It's cold," he finally said.

"Yeah, that's why I brought you this..."

"...but I'm...numb, which is a good thing, I suppose, so I can't...feel it." Jack lowered the blanket. "Janet told me the results of the tests." The lids of Daniel's eyes concealed most of the blue corneas.

Jack's heart sank. For years now he had been carefully cataloguing Daniel's body language, a process he was almost entirely unaware he was doing. It was a language he understood deep inside his soul, where the language of all those things we hold dearest resides. Jack translated the language of his eyes. The message was hard and heavy, and Jack knew he didn't want to hear it.

"Whatever it is, Daniel, we..."

"It's Multiple Sclerosis, Jack. Or at least it's presenting itself as Multiple Sclerosis , but the cellular degeneration is happening at an alarming rate so it can't really be Multiple Sclerosis because that would take years to get where I am in a matter of ...days. In any event, for now, Janet is calling it Multiple Sclerosis. I have..." Daniel stopped, caught his breath after such a long, fast spray of words. "I have..." He blinked and shook his head unable to say the words.

"Let's go inside where it's warmer, Daniel," Jack said, wrapping the blanket along Daniel's shoulders.

"I don't understand," Daniel said. "How can this just...happen.?"

"I don't know. But...let's go back down, get a cup of coffee," Jack said. "Come on." He gently grasped Daniel's elbow, steadying him as he stepped away from the pole. Daniel's hand reached for Jack's. Jack gave it to him reflexively. Daniel took slow deliberate steps toward the mouth of the mountain. Jack wondered how he ever managed to make it topside on his own. Jack slipped his arm across Daniel's back to offer him more support.

It was humiliating for Daniel to have to need Jack's aid in walking. Humiliating and horrifying. Daniel looked away from Jack's face as he plodded his way across the short expanse. As Daniel slid his feet across the pavement, Jack brushed aside rocks and sticks, any obstruction that would make the process more difficult for Daniel. Finally, they reached the elevator and made their way back down.

Jack would stay with Daniel as long as he needed, but then Jack was going to get some answers of his own. And if they weren't the answers he was looking for, there was going to be some hurting personnel in Cheyenne Mountain.

*****

Sam sat hunkered over her spectrometer, her hands clenched in tight fists at its side. For hours she had been staring at one slide or another, performing any tests on the samples she could think of. She reached up, rubbed her neck, closed her eyes, and threw her head back.

"Dammit," she exclaimed. "It has to be here somewhere." She sorted through some lab results, searching for the errant piece of information that would hold the key to the puzzle in front of her.

"Dammit all to hell!" she yelled, pounding her fist on the lab table. She slumped back on her stool and rubbed her eyes.

"Carter! I want to know what you know. Right now!" Jack insisted, marching through her door. He grabbed the edge of her lab table and assumed an aggressive stance.

"Well, sir, that's not much," Sam said.

"Wrong answer. Want to try again?" he seethed.

"What would you like me to say, Colonel?" Sam glared at him.

"I want you to tell me what's wrong with Daniel. I want you to tell me that you've been doing your job," he barked.

"Whoa! With all due respect, sir, I am doing my job."

"Then how come Daniel is wasting away down there? You call that doing your job?!" he yelled, pointing out the door.

Sam was shaken, her eyes wide with disbelief that she was being dressed down by her CO. She shook her head and regained her composure. "Permission to speak freely, sir!" she said through clenched teeth.

Jack crossed his arms in front of him. "What." he snapped, allowing her to talk.

Sam stepped briskly to the door and closed it. She stepped back to her desk and looked Jack straight in the eye. "Who the hell do you think you are coming in here demanding answers like some puffed-up, tyrannical pain in the ass? Do you think if you just say it loud enough and offensive enough I'll be able to pull some lab results out of my ass that will make this all go away?" she bellowed, picking up the thick stack of papers. "I'm doing calculations and experiments that you can't even comprehend, and still I'm not able to figure the damn thing out." Sam flipped the papers angrily on the table. Jack pinched his eyes half-closed and gritted his teeth. "I mean, do you really think you're the only one whose friend is sick and..." Sam took a quick breath through her nose as her chin trembled. "Well, you're not, Colonel. He's my friend, too. And I'm trying everything I know to help him, and apparently it's just not good enough. So, Colonel, if you wouldn't mind, spare me your indignation. It isn't helping, and I don't appreciate it," she said, blistering him with her fiery stare. She held onto the edge of the table, lowered her head between her arms, and bit back on her emotions.

Jack stood still watching her, taking in what she had said to him. Finally, he reached out and grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry, Carter. I was out of line."

Sam lifted her head and stared straight ahead, trying to quell the emotions running through her. "It's just that I'm so scared I'm not going to be able to find anything, sir," Sam said, tears that she tried hard to suppress trailing down her cheek.

"We'll find it, Sam. It'll work out," Jack said quietly.

"But we're running out of time," she whispered.

"What can I do to help?" he asked.

"Oh, " she began, wiping tears from her eyes, "I could use about a quart of coffee."

"Done," he said. He turned for the door. "Sam," he said before leaving. "I..." He tapped nervously on the door jamb. "Sorry."

Sam nodded. "Thank you, sir," she said, sitting on her stool.

Jack walked away, in search of good, strong coffee for Sam, Daniel's best bet and greatest hope.

*****

Throughout her years in the SGC, Sam had walked countless miles through the corridors that connected the different departments and areas of the base. Countless miles unconsciously taking in the nuances of the walls, the flooring, the sounds, until they became as familiar to her as her own hands.

Except at night.

There was always an eerie silence that pressed in on the ears as she traversed the empty halls. A depth of isolation that engulfed her. She knew she should be in her quarters resting as the colonel and Janet had all but ordered her to do, but her mind and heart were troubled.

She went to the one place where she could unburden herself, a place of understanding and quiet empathy.

She only hoped he would be asleep when she got there.

Turning hesitantly into his room, Sam found him thankfully asleep, dimly lit by a small light behind his bed. Silently she pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. With exhaustion and fear wracking her body, Sam slumped over her knees, heavily resting her forehead in her hands.

"I always knew the bottom would fall out, Daniel," she said quietly. "I always knew that some day I'd reach the limits of my abilities, of my intelligence, and it would all come crashing down. Why did it have to be now?" Too tired to cry, Sam rolled her head from side to side in her hands. "I've tried everything I can. I don't know what else to do. I don't know how to help you, Daniel.

"Janet says you're getting weaker. She says in a few days you'll..." She stopped short, not wanting to tempt fate by saying the words outloud. Sam scooted closer to his bed and laid her head on the edge of the mattress. "You just have to hang on, Daniel. You have to fight this with everything you've got until we can figure it out." Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled onto the slightly coarse sheets. "I'm counting on you just as much as you're counting on me.

"I'm so tired, Daniel, but every time I close my eyes, I see numbers and microscopic particles that swirl around taunting me to make sense of them. And I can't make sense out of any of it," she cried.

"You can't leave me, Daniel. Who would I have to complain to about the imbeciles around here? Who could I talk to about strange theories that make absolutely no sense? You always listen to me, Daniel, even when my ideas seem outlandish or, well, a little crazy," she said, wiping her nose. "Daniel, without you, who's going to remind me that I have a non-military side? Who's going to remind me that it doesn't always have to go by the regulations? Daniel, without you, who's going to remind me to smile?

"I never told you this, but when we first met, I had kind of a crush on you. You were such a cute, geeky academic, a fish out of water. Then the longer we worked together I started seeing what a good and kind and loving man you are. That's when you became my friend. Well, I don't have a crush on you anymore, but I do love you. And my heart would break if I ever lost you," Sam cried, closing her eyes and turning her face into the bed.

"I'm so sorry, Daniel. I feel like I'm failing you at every turn. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Sam whispered over and over until sleep permeated her body and gently closed her eyes.

Daniel scanned the ceiling above him, forcing himself to breathe normally. He didn't want to wake Sam, who needed the rest. More importantly, he didn't want Sam to see his fear. His heart ached at her confession. In a strange, disassociative way, Daniel felt sorry for Sam, that she was in such pain over the loss of her friend. He felt strangely guilty for having to put her through that kind of pain again. He felt panicked that he'd be losing his friend as well. It was unbearable to hear her as much as admit defeat, especially since that defeat meant his death. He fought hard to stay calm.

"Don't let me die, Sam," he whispered, almost imperceptibly. "Please."

*****

"General, we took three shipments of food, water and medical supplies to the Dulesk. To be honest, sir, I think it's too little-too late," Jack said. They had been back from Dulesk for over an hour, and the pervasive sense of hopelessness and sadness over the situation on the distant planet as well as the situation within their presence was palpable. The faces that surrounded the table were haggard and lifeless. Even Teal'c looked uncharacteristically saddened by the circumstances.

"What do you think we should do, Colonel?" General Hammond asked, his voice quiet and calm in deference to the mood of the room.

Jack tented his fingers over his nose. "Frankly, sir, I'm not sure there's anything we can do at this point. Their infrastructure is all but obliterated, their power sources are dwindling. It's only a matter of time before they... disappear," Jack stated.

"The leader of the Dulesk, Stavon, was fairly uncommunicative when we arrived," Teal'c said. "His city has been through great suffering as of late."

"I told him we'd send the MALP through in two days to check on him. He promised he'd meet it at the gate. I don't think it's safe for us to go back on our own," Jack said.

"Understood," General Hammond said. "Major Carter, do you have anything to report on your research?"

"No, sir, I don't," Sam said, her eyes cast down.

"I'm confident you and Dr. Fraiser will be able to find a cause for Dr. Jackson's condition. Dr. Fraiser, how is he?" he asked, turning to the physician seated at his side.

"Dr. Jackson's condition continues to deteriorate. His baselines are rapidly decreasing. He's no longer able to walk or support himself in a seated position. I'm not sure how much longer he'll be able to...to..." Janet stopped, clenched her jaw, and twisted her hands together.

"I understand," the general said. "People, we have work to do, but I'm also going to ask that you first and foremost get some rest. You've all been on high-alert for a week. You're not doing yourselves or Dr. Jackson any good by making sloppy mistakes all because of lack of sleep. I'm not making it an order, but I am strongly suggesting that you find time to rest. Now if there isn't anything else..." The general stood. Jack, Sam, Teal'c and Janet stood as well. "Dismissed." General Hammond left the room.

Jack looked at each person seated at the table. "Teal'c, why don't you check the UAV readings, see if you can give us any information on the Virolians," Jack said. The Jaffa bowed and left the room. "Janet, I'll walk back to the infirmary with you. And Carter," he said, looking at his exhausted 2IC, "I am making it an order. Get some sleep. At least two hours worth." Sam began to speak, but Jack held up his hand. "I won't discuss this, Sam. You need to sleep."

She closed her mouth and nodded. "Yes, sir," she said as she stood to leave the room.

Janet and Jack stood as well and walked out of the debriefing room, down the hall, toward the infirmary in silence. There was nothing to be said, no sentiment that could possibly change the situation, no words to explain the reasons why.

Outside Daniel's room, Janet lightly touched Jack's elbow, gave him a pitiful smile, and continued on to her office.

Jack watched from outside the door as the physical therapist pressed Daniel's right leg up and toward him, stretching the forsaken, slowly atrophying muscles. Daniel clenched his fists as he stared straight up to the ceiling. Next the therapist crossed Daniel's leg over his body, which elicited a pained expression from him. Jack couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, but he watched Daniel nod, close his eyes, mouth a few words, and grab at the sheets below him. Jack felt his heart pounding against his chest, his entire system screaming helplessly for answers to questions. He watched as his friend's lifeless legs were being manipulated. Legs that, up until a weeks ago, held up the entire man who now laid immobilized in his bed. Jack could see the sweat beading on Daniel's forehead and could easily imagine the pain and anxiety he was experiencing.

The therapist finished manipulating Daniel's legs, sat down next to him, and carried on a short conversation. Jack took in Daniel's lack of affect as the physical therapist gestured and spoke, educated him on the effects of the illness. Daniel nodded perfunctorily. After a few moments, the therapist stood, patted him on the shoulder, and exited the room. Jack gave her a wide berth. When she was far enough down the hall, Jack knocked lightly on the door and peeked his head inside.

"Hey," Jack said.

"Hey," Daniel responded quietly.

Jack entered the room. He took the cup of water off Daniel's bedside table and smelled it. "This is water, right?" Daniel nodded, so Jack took a sip.

"Where's Sam?" Daniel asked, still staring at the ceiling.

"I pulled rank on her. Ordered her to get some sleep," Jack said, taking a seat next to Daniel's bed. "So, saw you doing your morning calisthenics. You look good."

"Oh, yeah. I'm sure," Daniel said bitterly.

"Hey, it's one of those necessary evils, right? If you don't do them, in a few days when this is all over, you'll have a harder time getting back on your feet," Jack said, trying to bolster Daniel's dwindling hope. His own, as well.

"Speaking of necessary evils, I, uh, well, let me put it this way," Daniel started. He clenched a fist and knocked it gently against his forehead. "Thanks to a little procedure this morning, I no longer have to make that long trek to the bathroom. I, uh..." Daniel rubbed his forehead willing himself to stay in control of his emotions and finding it impossible. He covered his eyes with both hands. A weary, dejected sob escaped him.

Jack looked down along Daniel's bed and saw the reason for the frustration. "So you got a Foley cath. Big woo. There have been plenty of times when I would have paid someone to give me one, especially during Stanley Cup finals," Jack said, lifting his eyebrows momentarily, trying to smile. "Hey. Come on. Don't worry about it."

Daniel draped his forearm over his eyes. The muscles around his mouth twitched and tightened.

Jack reached out and took hold of Daniel's other hand which grasped the bed rail. "You're going to be okay, Daniel."

Daniel shook his head and pulled a hand across his face, wiping away the tears. "I wish I could believe that," Daniel said.

"I know. I promise we're going to figure this out, though. Soon." Jack rubbed Daniel's hand, tried to soothe him, knowing that his own heart was breaking as well. Daniel turned his head from Jack and stared at the opposite wall. Jack tried to find words to fill the silence, to assuage the emptiness, but found there were none. Guided by Daniel's dejected stillness, Jack sat doing nothing more than offering a comforting hand. Hating himself for not being able to do more.

*****

"Please. I beg you. Help us," Stavon pleaded into the camera of the MALP. Behind him, in the night sky, his city lit up with the continued bombings. Jack looked uncomfortably at the screen.

"How many people are still living within the city?" General Hammond asked. The transmission faded with static. Stavon's face appeared again.

"The only people who remain are those of us in charge of maintaining the city. Very few of us," Stavon said, dabbing a hand to his brow and finding it bleeding.

Sam felt her pager buzzing on her belt. She looked down to see that she was being paged to the infirmary. Without excusing herself, blindly, numbly she silently left the control room and ran to the infirmary.

Janet met her in the hall and pulled her quickly along. "He's having convulsions again and is calling for you," Janet told Sam as she entered Daniel's room. Two nurses stood guard over him, wiping his brow with a wet cloth as his body trembled and shuttered helplessly in the bed.

Sam didn't think about her actions as she slid onto the bed, pulled him into her lap, and held one arm under his neck. With her other hand she pinned both wrists to his chest.

"Hi, Daniel," she said smiling at him. Daniel focused on her as his body, weak and helpless, quaked. "Heard you needed a friend." From deep within him, Daniel groaned and arched, reacting to the pain of the onslaught. Sam reached from around his head and grabbed his wrist, holding it as she reached out with her free hand for the cloth. The nurse soaked it, wrung it out, and handed it to Sam. She wiped his face and neck with the cool material until the convulsion ended. "That was a hard one, huh?" Daniel blinked. His countenance was blank, his mouth agape. Tears slid down over his temples. Sam wiped them away. His body felt limp and lifeless in her arms.

"Where was I? Oh, yeah. So, they asked my dad if I wanted to join NASA," Sam said, smiling, hoping that the silly story from her childhood might ease Daniel's pain, if only a touch. It was more than she could do for him in her lab. She adopted a scowl and lowered the range of her voice. "I told those fly-boys that if they wanted my daughter, they'd have to ask her themselves. When we got to your room, I said, 'Sammy-kins, come out of your flight simulator and talk to these men.' You walked out with your Barbie and GI Joe, told me you were just about to go over re-entry procedure with your two co-pilots, " Sam continued, letting the moist cloth slide over Daniel's sweat-soaked arms and hands, cooling him, soothing him. "The two men looked at you and said..."

Daniel's jaw clenched, his eyes snapped shut as a renewed wave of agony swept over him. Sam rocked him gently while his body swayed, undulating with the attack. "...and said, 'She's smaller than we anticipated.' Well, I told those two you could just carry a bowling ball with you, or, better yet, we'd fill your pockets with pennies to weigh you down." Daniel moaned weakly as he surrendered to the pain, allowing the illness that consumed his body to control it as well. He laid in Sam's arms, uncontrollably convulsing, shaking, trembling, crying, listening to her story. Sam rested her cheek on his forehead as she continued.

Janet stood at the foot of the bed, both hands pressed to her mouth. She was mournfully aware that there was nothing she could do to ease his suffering. No sedatives, no anti-convulsive meds could touch the force of the tremors. The amount of drugs she pumped through his IV was staggering, and she knew any more would, once the wave of convulsions ceased, knock him out. She had to be vigilant about his respirations, knowing any minute she'd have to help him with his breathing. Perhaps his last breaths. She wiped a tear from her cheek, ashamed that she allowed herself the indulgence of emotions.

From just outside the door, Jack watched in bitter frustration as his 2IC cradled the young man lovingly in her arms, calmly talking with him as he convulsed and wept.

"Dear God! What the hell is happening to him?" General Hammond demanded, appearing at Jack's side. Jack reeled and strode out of the hallway. General Hammond took in the scene further, his heart aching as he watched the penultimate moments between Sam and Daniel. Even through the torturous pain, Daniel kept his eyes on Sam who never let go of that focus. She smiled at him, drew the moist cloth over his face and hair, never once letting him see the fear that she- that they- held. General Hammond was overcome by the pride he felt in her, and by the thought that these poignant moments might very well be the young man's last.

He was well aware of SG1's utter and complete respect for each other. Only now was he aware of the love and deep, abiding connection, particularly between the two scientists. The old soldier turned away, unable to keep even a tenuous grasp on his stoicism.

Inside Daniel's office, Jack stood paralyzed. He felt the fragility of spirit that comes with losing a friend, a person without whom life is incomplete. In the corner of the office, between a filing cabinet and the wall, Jack spotted the five-iron he had left in Daniel's office months ago. He pulled it out and gripped his hands around the neck. Walking around the office, his hands gripping and regripping the handle, Jack surveyed the years of work Daniel had produced. He looked over artifacts, scrawled out notes with question marks, blotchy rings of coffee stains on desk tops, papers and books. Jack's fingers throttled the handle of the club. He caustically spun and smacked the iron against the wall. The shaft of the club reverberated violently in his hand. Pain, he thought. Good. Pain. Pain is better than being numb. He pulled the club back and put all his anger into the next blow. As it impacted the wall, the head shattered and the shaft splintered. Jack whipped the decapitated handle of the club furiously to the other side of the room.

"O'Neill," Teal'c softly intoned. The Jaffa stood with his hands behind him, darkened by the corridor's backlighting.

Jack raked a hand through his hair. "Daniel's dying, Teal'c, and there's not one gaddamn thing I can do about it!" Jack growled as he shoved a pile of papers onto the ground.

"Are you searching for answers in DanielJackson's office?" asked Teal'c.

"No! Yes! I don't know!" Jack barked.

"Perhaps there is a more systematic way of searching for the answers than by throwing data onto the floor," Teal'c said, entering the room.

Jack's eye caught the corner of Daniel's mission diary. His heart pounded in his chest seeing the book that contained the essence of his friend. With a shaking hand, Jack picked up the book and thumbed through it. He skimmed the pages, losing himself in the lively, often animated words and sketches produced by his friend who not so long ago carefully reported all his findings and wonderments within these pages.

"He's here, Teal'c," Jack said, waving the book at the Jaffa. "He's not in that...bed. That's not Daniel." Jack opened the book once more, lightly touching the pages, as if he could feel Daniel's presence on the gritty surface.

"He is all around us, O'Neill. His energy and life force remains with us, no matter where his body goes. His spirit, as you say, will forever be in our souls," Teal'c said, standing next to Jack.

Jack looked up at Teal'c quickly and then back down to the book. A passage from their last mission together to Dulesk seemed to rise above the rest. You will return home, but this place will not leave you. It has become part of you.

Jack blinked. An inkling flashed into his mind, like a great bolt of lightning illuminating a darkened landscape. His mouth agape, his nerves spiking, he read the words again.

Jack flipped to the next page. Jack doesn't think we can help the Dulesk. I'm inclined to agree with him. Still, I feel like we should do something, anything. I don't know how to help them. It's funny, but I can almost hear the sorrow of the city and its people. My hip still is numb. I must have hurt it back in the city. Don't know how. Just came on all of a sudden. Need to talk to Janet about my allergies, have her check my ears. I was feeling pretty weak and lightheaded talking to Stavon.

Jack instantly turned the page back.

"That son of a bitch!" Jack yelled. He slammed the book shut and took it with him as he stormed out of the office.

"O'Neill," Teal'c called, following the colonel.

Jack ran to General Hammond's office. "He did it, Teal'c. I don't know how, but that son of a bitch did this to Daniel," Jack seethed. Rounding the corner, the two men found General Hammond entering his office.

"General! It's Stavon. He did this. Teal'c and I have to go to Dulesk and find out what the hell he did to him," Jack said breathlessly, his pulse racing.

"Colonel, what the hell are you talking about?" General Hammond said with his hands planted firmly on his hips.

Jack opened up Daniel's diary and showed Hammond the page. "Here. 'You will return home, but this place will not leave you. It has become part of you.' The city is under attack. Daniel is under attack. The city is dying. Daniel is dying. Stavon did this to him," Jack told the senior officer.

General Hammond eyed him carefully, the muscles in his jaw contracting as he bit down on his anger. "Take SG7. Bring Stavon back here if you have to, but you make that bastard give up the information. Is that clear?" the general barked.

"Yes, sir," Jack answered, half-way out the door with Teal'c in tow

*****.

His breathing was shallow and slow. Sam could hardly see his chest rise and fall with each meager breath. As if watching the long hand on a clock, only the most tenacious concentration allowed her to detect the faint motion of his chest. But with each breath, Sam prayed it would not be his last. Jack and Teal'c had been gone an hour, but for Sam and Janet the minutes now seemed to stretch interminably, each second attended by a thin wisp of air.

He looked up through hazy cognizance to see her face. His mouth was dry and hot. He tried to swallow but lacked the energy. Choked crackles and popping noises came from his throat.

Sam looked down at him in her arms, unaware that he was conscious. "Daniel?" she whispered. Sam reached for the wet cloth, drew it across his parched lips, and cocked her head to the side so he could see her better.

"I can't..." he eked out in a voice which was strange and powerless. His mouth barely moved as he forced out the words. "I can't feel anything."

"You just have to hang on a little longer, Daniel," Sam told him, her own voice cracking and wavering. Daniel blinked.

"I'm trying. Oh, God, Sam, I'm trying. It's hard," he mewled, tears escaping his eyes.

"I know, sweetie. I know."

"Don't...wanna...die here."

The words ripped through her, crushed her soul into thousands of blistering pieces. She pulled him in closer to her and kissed his forehead. Sam caressed his arms and his chest, listless in her arms. She wanted to tell him that he shouldn't say such things, that he was going to be fine, just fine. She had never lied to Daniel. She wouldn't lie to him now.

"Where do you want to go?" she asked. Clearly her friend, her confidant and trusted colleague, was dying. In her arms. "Where do you want me to take you, Daniel?"

"Sha're," he sadly murmured. Tears crept down his face.

Sam peered over to Janet, standing silently, mournfully at the foot of the bed. The doctor closed her eyes and wept. Sam looked down at Daniel and tried to offer him a reassuring smile through her own tears. She nodded. "Okay, Daniel," she said, rocking him gently. "I'll take you to Sha're."

"Sha're..."

"Sshhh," she soothed. "Rest, Daniel. Close your eyes, sweetie." Her voice cracked. Daniel's eyes fluttered shut. Sam turned her face to the ceiling and wept.

*****

Jack and Teal'c had run the eight kilometers from the Stargate to the Dulesk city center. In the time it took to cover the distance, Jack ruefully thought how he would make Stavon tell the truth. He asked himself what he was prepared to do. Whatever it takes, was the answer. He explored how he would easily step beyond acceptable measures to make this man answer for Daniel's condition. He felt his anger increase with every stride.

With clenched jaws, hands wrapped tightly on their weapons, Jack and Teal'c entered the street on which the State House resided. However, even the streets were fatally destroyed. The entire city had been obliterated and lay in waste. A pile of mangled iron and twisted wires, piles of brick and mortar replaced the landscape which once was a city. It was now a desolate scrap heap, silent and foreboding. The consuming anger seemed to melt away from Jack as he surveyed the ruins.

"You are too late," Stavon whispered as Jack and Teal'c took positions near him. The Dulesk leader sat slumped against the only remaining portion of his once grand home- the threshold. Blood trickled down his face and out of his ears and nose. "There is nothing left to save. But that is not why you're here."

Jack stood above him, his finger ready in an instance to release the safety on his weapon. Jack removed his sunglasses, let them dangle in front of him before asking Stavon the pressing question. "I know you did it, Stavon. Tell me what you did to Daniel?"

Stavon lowered his head, an admonition of guilt. "We were inconsequential to you, therefore you would not help us. I thought if I could make you understand what we were going through, you'd be more willing to help my people."

"Your city was dying," Teal'c said, "and in retribution you chose to let DanielJackson suffer the same fate. I do not see how that assists you."

Stavon coughed painfully and looked up at the Jaffa. "In hindsight, it doesn't," he said, "but perhaps you can empathize now."

Jack found the argument distasteful and his expression mirrored this. "We could empathize before, Stavon."

"I don't believe you could," Stavon replied.

Jack pushed his hat off his forehead, becoming frustrated with the chatter when time was so crucial. "Look, Stavon, we were working on the situation. Hell, Daniel was working on the situation until he got sick. Now, none of us can work on your situation because we're all trying to work on Daniel's situation. Seems like your little plan backfired, huh?" Jack glared at him.

"It would seem so." Stavon closed his eyes, weakened by his injuries. Jack turned his back to the man and slapped his hat against his thigh. With his eyes focused on the massive destruction in front of him, Jack took in the dust and smoke filtering slowly through the sulphurous rays of light. How the sun still shone here was beyond the colonel. For years, through his many experiences with war-torn cities, the simple fact that the sun still rose and set amidst cataclysmic events astounded Jack.

We're not getting anywhere with this, he thought to himself. Daniel will die if I don't get through to Stavon. Daniel will die, and the sun will rise and set, and I'll never forgive myself if I don't do something here.

"We didn't know how to help you, Stavon, just like we don't know how to help Daniel. It's obvious we can't help you in time to save your city. Are you going to let Daniel die out of a sense of misplaced retribution?" Jack asked, never turning to see the scornful expression on Stavon's face.

"It is regrettable that you were not as passionate about seeking a solution when it was not one of your own," Stavon caustically replied. Teal'c's jaws quivered with anger.

Jack crouched down in front of Stavon and drilled him with his steely eyes. "But he is one of my own. He is my..." Jack stopped, not willing to let Stavon see his pain and his fear. Jack raked his hand through his hair and pulled, frustrated by the game of rhetoric. "Look, Stavon, you know Daniel. He's a good man. He doesn't deserve this; neither do you," Jack said, pursing his lips, trying to maintain a hold on his anger, yet at the same time trying to make the dying man understand his anguish. Jack's instinct told him to hurt the man until he gave up the information, hold him at gunpoint, taking out a limb or two until Jack got what he came for. Seeing the dying man, Jack realized nothing he could physically do to the man would make him anymore willing to help than he was now.

Jack abandoned his instincts and approached Stavon with impassioned logic. "I can't change what's happening to you. You can change what's happening to Daniel."

Eyes that had witnessed a city being destroyed, children fleeing through chaotic streets in search of dead parents, men crumbling to their death in the middle of intersections were now eyes that filled with misty tears.

"Perhaps with our death and his, we are now equal," Stavon whispered.

"Then you become as culpable as the Virolians, destroying a life to serve your own purpose," Jack seethed. He pulled in the corners of his eyes and barked out the rest. "Does that make you better of worse?" He locked eyes with Stavon and saw the leader's compassion surface from behind the numbing fear that enveloped him.

While tears washed clean a meandering trail down his face, Stavon began to speak. "When a child is born...When children were born in Dulesk, the ruler performed the Rite of Concordance. It ensured that our society prospered and thrived. It was...our heritage, our legacy, our only way of maintaining the world that we knew. Because of it we lived peacefully and in harmony for many generations," Stavon weakly told them. "When your Dr. Jackson told me that he did not believe he could help us, I bestowed upon him the Rite of Concordance. Now he understands us most completely."

"DanielJackson is dying, Stavon," Teal'c stated, his voice reverberating with a deadly hush.

"Yes, I'm sure that he is."

"So you baptized him, endowed him with a sort of...empathy for your city?" Jack asked.

"Yes."

"Well, stop it!"

"He is all that is left of us."

"But he's not one of you, Stavon."

"I realize that. I realize that now."

"Look, Stavon, we're running out of time. How can we help Daniel?" Jack demanded.

The Dulesk leader crept his hand into his lap slowly, with great pain. A ring, shimmering with opalescent light, encrusted with violet and sea-green jewels hugged Stavon's first finger. Jack and Teal'c looked at it with subdued fascination.

"This is the Ring of Dulesk. It was given to me at my coronation just as it had been given to every leader throughout our peaceful existence. It is...was my connection to my world, and with it I connected each member of this society to the other. It...was the symbol of our world, and as such was used at the Rite of Concordance. With it, I touched the child, thereby forming the communion between citizens and land." Stavon removed the ring with a trembling hand. He lay the ring with its fluctuating hues in his palm. "There is no more. It is unneeded. Our communion has ended. By destroying it, you will destroy the bond between this place and your friend." He passed his hand to Jack.

"But what of you, Stavon?" Teal'c asked, eyeing the leader with a new sense of realization.

"The ring is quintessentially me. I am, after all, a Dulesk, nothing more. When the ring is destroyed, I will be as well." Stavon closed his eyes and let the ring fall lethargically from his hand. "Decimate it. Have mercy on me." Stavon's head dropped to his chest. Jack cringed at the sight of this once regal leader, now reduced to the human embodiment of the city. "Destroy it quickly, before it is too late for Dr. Jackson."

"No. I won't do that. That's unacceptable," Jack countered, shaking his head.

"You have no other choice."

"You could return with us. We can help you."

"There is no time. My city is dead; I will be soon. Do this now," Stavon ordered.

"No. It doesn't have to end like this. Our doctors..."

"Colonel O'Neill, you don't understand. The city, this land and its people...we are inextricably bound by the Rite of Concordance. The injuries I have sustained cannot be healed by your doctors. They are injuries of the soul," Stavon whispered. "You could not help end my peoples' suffering. Perhaps now you can help end mine."

The ring lay shimmering in the dust, its ethereal glow transforming the dirt around it into pearlized sand. Jack drew a hand across his face. Daniel wouldn't be happy with this kind of trade-off, Jack thought. He'd be able to think of something else, something where we all walk away happy. Dammit. Think, Jack.

"Colonel O'Neill, we are running out of time," Teal'c reminded Jack. Stavon's breathing became raspy and choked. Jack shook out his hat and returned it with one movement to his head. Jack was forced, due to his position and rank within the Air Force, to follow regulations, find an answer within military protocol. It was his only point of reference. But more often than not, Daniel would be in the mix, flailing his arms in front of Jack, trying to get Jack's attention, bring him back to his moral center. It was Daniel who would remind Jack that not all situations need be solved by a strategically placed Claymore. Whether he liked to think it or not, Jack relied on Daniel's eleventh-hour ability to find a palatable solution for an impossible situation. But with Daniel back at the SGC, unable to give Jack the signal he needed, the colonel felt utterly dead in his tracks, rendered helpless against an intolerable choice.

"Stavon, Daniel..."

"Dr. Jackson will remember us. That is enough," Stavon said.

Jack looked at the dying man before him and realized the choice had been made. Jack nodded, reached out his hand and grasped Stavon's. "He will, Stavon. I promise. And, when this is over, we'll come back, and Daniel will write about your world so that other people will remember you as well."

"Then you have saved us after all," Stavon whispered.

Jack placed his hand on Stavon's shoulder, trying to convey that he understood the magnitude of Stavon's appreciation, and trying to convey his own appreciation for Stavon's sacrifice. "Thank you."

"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said.

Jack reached for the ring, picked it up and felt an almost imperceptable surge of energy spread through his hand. He dropped it immediately.

"My symbiote will protect me from any unwanted effects the ring may produce," Teal'c said. Jack nodded. Teal'c picked up the ring and secured his zat gun from his belt. With one final nod to the Dulesk leader, the Jaffa threw the ceremonial ring into the air and, with three quick blasts of his weapon, disintegrated it in a brilliant display of sparkling light.

Stavon, in his desperation, had done the only thing he knew to save his world. As Jack watched the ring atomize, he came to fully realize what a difficult decision it had been for Stavon to put Daniel's life at risk in order to save the people he was sworn to protect. But in the crucial moments of his final appeal, Stavon conceded that the only hope for his world's future was in its history, and that history now belonged to Daniel.

Against the burned and sooty threshold of the obsolete structure, within the limits of his city's extinct boundaries, Jack and Teal'c watched as Stavon let pass his final breath.

*****

At the very back of Sam's mind, something was nagging, nagging. She didn't ask herself what it could be, because she had a feeling that if she allowed herself to concentrate on anything other than Daniel, even for a brief moment, he might slip away, quietly and without care, like sand through fingers. Sam had the irrational thought that his weak and fragile heart continued to beat purely because she willed it to do so.

But the thoughts persisted. They needled at her, crept through her brain, and presented themselves to her.

His chest heaved up as a great gasp of air was drawn into his lungs, like a diver finally surfacing from the crushing depths. His body became rigid in her arms, his head thrown back convulsively.

"Oh, God, Daniel!" Sam cried, grasping his arms. "No. No. No. No." She stroked his face, nervously patted his chest. "God, Daniel, please..."

Lights and buzzers flickered on monitors. Janet ran to the equipment. She pulled a strip from the machine and looked at it suspiciously. She shook her head unable to believe what she saw before her. Janet pried open one of Daniel's eyes and watched the pupil constrict under the light. She shook her head skeptically.

"Dammit, Janet! Do something," Sam yelled.

Janet glanced up at Sam and then thrust the head of her stethoscope onto Daniel's chest. What she heard brought the prickling sensation of tears to her eyes and nose.

"Janet!" Sam cried, panicked by the imminent event.

Janet shook her head and removed her stethoscope from her ears. "There's nothing I can do, Sam," Janet told her. And then her face, in bemused confusion, brightened. "He's fine."

Slowly, Daniel's eyes fluttered open, his body relaxed as he began to breathe more easily and regularly.

"D...Daniel?" Sam said, questioning the sudden appearance of her friend's clear cerulean eyes.

"Hey," he softly said. Daniel blinked sluggishly.

"Hey," Sam answered, finding a trembling smile forming on her face. "You're back?"

"I guess so," he said. Daniel swallowed and ran his tongue across his lips. "I feel like something just died." Sam took in a shuddering breath as Daniel shut his eyes to stop his tears. "What happened?"

"I don't know, Daniel," Sam told him.

"It's Stavon. The Dulesk. They're..."

"Maybe. Maybe."

"It's over."

"I hope so."

"I'm a little thirsty."

Janet grabbed a cup of water from a nearby stand, threw a straw in it, and offered it to Sam. Sam placed the straw in Daniel's mouth who accepted it gratefully.

"Thank you," Daniel said after he had sated his thirst.

"Any time. If you want some more water..." Sam started, but Daniel shook his head. He reached meekly for her, stretching his fingers to touch the hands that held him.

"No, Sam. I mean...thank you," he said, his blue eyes alive and shining, yet heavy with fatigue.

Sam nodded as she wept and sniffed, cried and smiled. She put her hand in his and felt the cool skin. "Anytime," she said. "Anytime."

"Sam?"

"Yeah."

"One-sixth gravity."

"What's that, Daniel?"

"One-sixth gravity on the moon. You would have been fine," Daniel whispered and then fell asleep. Sam stroked his cheek, held him close, smiled deeply at Janet, and began to weep.

She had cradled him in her arms for hours while he slipped further and further away from her. Her arms had become cramped and stiff with the weight of his lifeless form. Still, she had refused to let him go, had refused to allow him to die wrapped only in sheets.

Now, with a renewed strength and vigor, she held him to celebrate his life, to assure herself that yes, he was with her, alive and breathing. In her arms.

*****

Daniel sat propped up against the headboard of the VIP room bed with Sam next to him. They munched intently on popcorn, watching a movie on the TV. Sam squinted her eyes in horror as Al Capone furiously struck a bat against the back of Sunny Day's head.

"Man, that's awful," Sam said, wincing, hiding her face in his shoulder. Daniel regarded her with an incredulous glance, tempered by humor.

"You mean to tell me that this bothers you? Sam, you see things like this all the time out...there. How is this any different?" Daniel asked, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Different mindset, I guess. Out there, I'm Major Carter; in here, I'm just me," she said, peaking through her fingers as blood poured from the fictitious man's skull onto the crystal-clad white tablecloth. Daniel thought about her statement, furrowed his brow, and attempted to come up with a reply.

"Hey, kids. What ya watching?" Jack asked, sauntering into the room. "Scootch," he told Daniel as he sidled in next to the archeologist and took a handful of popcorn from the bowl on Daniel's lap.

Daniel moved over, put-out by the request. "It's..."

"Hey! 'The Untouchables'!" Jack told them, pointing to the screen. "You're watching 'The Untouchables'! You know, that was filmed in Chicago." Jack tossed a piece of popcorn into his mouth. Sam and Daniel stared at him in fractious astonishment. Jack did a double take as he realized his friends were eyeing him. "What? I'm right. Right?" he asked, his eyes twitching nervously.

"So, Jack. We're you ever able to contact the Virolians?" Daniel asked, pulling his elbow out from under Jack's arm.

"Nope. Damn shame, too. It would have been nice to figure out what they wanted," Jack said, taking another handful of the dwindling supply of popcorn. "Ooh. Eskimo and Butterfly kisses..." Jack stated, gesturing toward the TV.

"Um, sir?" Sam asked, unsure of the topic.

Jack waved his hand to the screen. "Ness and his daughter. Watch," he ordered. Sam and Daniel turned to see Eliot Ness give his daughter a kiss, followed by a playful nose to nose rub, and a fluttering eyelash kiss. Daniel scowled and peeked out the corner of his eye at Jack.

"How many times have you seen this?" he asked.

"I don't know. A couple..." Jack said, reaching for more popcorn, finding only old maids. "Got anymore?"

"Um, no," Daniel answered scornfully. Jack brushed his hands on his shirt. Sam looked sadly into the bowl which had been practically full until the colonel had reduced it to kernels.

"So what's going to happen to Dulesk, sir," Sam asked, putting the bowl on the dresser.

"Well, you know, Major. In a few years, something will develop, life will continue. It may not be in the form of the Dulesk society, but nature has a way of renewing itself," Jack informed them.

With their jaws dropped, Sam and Daniel stared at their CO.

"My God, Jack. That was...almost...eloquent," Daniel said, mystified. "That was..." He shook his head, marveling at Jack's keen insight. Then he closed his eyes, clamped shut his mouth and let his head bob listlessly. "That was from 'Jurassic Park'," he said. Daniel rubbed his eyes.

"Is that where I heard that? Good movie. Woulda been better without all the scientists," Jack casually mentioned.

"You're right, sir," Sam said. "It was a good movie." She stood up and stretched.

"Wait. Um, you're leaving?" Daniel asked.

"I'm pretty bushed," Sam told him. "I'll see you in the morning."

"See ya, Carter," Jack said, never taking his eyes off the screen.

Sam smiled. "Goodnight, sir."

"Night, Sam," said Daniel, smiling gently at his friend, the woman who had seen him through his nightmare, who would see him through many to come.

"Night, Daniel," she responded, offering him her warmest, most resplendently complete smile, just intoxicated by the fact that she could wish him another night's goodwill. "Sleep well." Daniel nodded, and Sam left the room.

Daniel looked over to Jack, fully engrossed in the movie, and decided that with Sam gone, there was enough room to allow the colonel a wider space. Daniel scooted his body over to Sam's former spot, however his pillow remained behind Jack.

"Uh, Jack. That's my..." Daniel said, pointing to the pillow between Jack and the headboard. Jack glanced over his shoulder and realized what Daniel was alluding to.

"Oh. Here," Jack said, pulling the pillow half-way from behind his head to share it with Daniel. Daniel looked at the pillow. He looked at Jack. He looked at the empty headboard to his left. He looked back at Jack. He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and scooted back towards the pillow.

"Thanks, Jack," Daniel said miffed, resting his head against his half of his pillow.

"You're welcome, Daniel," Jack said, undaunted. He reached across and patted Daniel on the chest. "You're welcome."

Silently and together, the two men watched Eliot Ness rid Chicago of Al Capone using whatever force necessary. "He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of your guys to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way."

And that was the way Jack was raised. But in the years since Jack had left Chicago, he had come to understand the finality of sending anyone to the morgue. He had come to understand that the Chicago way had its limits, and had he sent Stavon to the morgue by his own hands, Jack never would have been able to learn about the Ring of Dulesk. It wasn't the Chicago way that finally won the battle. It was through communication, words and empathy. It was a way that, up until he met Daniel Jackson, Jack thought useless and time consuming. Daniel had convinced him time and time again that it was not.

No, what finally saved Daniel was not Jack's first response. It was that moment of quiet, a pause which enabled clarity to prevail and answers to come. It wasn't the Chicago way.

It was the Jackson way.

*****

Fin

Tons of people! Thank you goes to Two Cats for the emergency services information. Keep those Black Flies at bay! Arren, for all things medical, all things colloquial, all things in general, and for not letting me be mushy. Come on, Arren! One lousy whimper! Without your trained ear, I would have been finished with this a lot sooner...:-) And, of course, Lin. How many does this make? And where do I send the bill for "Aforementioned Affirmations"? Why you put up with me, I'll never understand...Thank you very much. Can't forget Sarah! Why? I'm not exactly sure...

© July 6, 2001 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.