• Season/Spoiler: Season 2. Set immediately after In the Line of Duty, so expect spoilage of that.
• Summary: On their first mission since Sam’s encounter with Jolinar, SG1 journey to an innocuous planet, where they discover it not to be so innocuous after all.
• PG-13 [A] [D] [HC]

Fighting the equilibrium-disrupting effects of traveling via wormhole, Daniel Jackson stumbled down the wide stairs and prayed he wouldn’t fall. He really wasn’t in the mood for any ribbing from a certain Air Force colonel who delighted in inflicting just that at every opportunity. Fortune smiled on him, allowing him to reach the MALP and lean on the big machine for balance the same moment Jack O’Neill catapulted out of the event horizon, arms windmilling. He couldn’t help but smile as the colonel noisily landed on his butt several feet away.

"Amused? Glad I could entertain you, Jaundice Boy! Get over here and help me up," Jack grumbled, beckoning with an impatient waggle of his fingers. "When we get back if Fraiser finds my bruised ass and determines extra prodding is necessary, she’ll lose another couple of inches off of her already miniature stature."

"Threats generally don’t work unless you’re actually making them to the intended victim, Jack," Daniel gently chastised, loping over to help SG1’s team leader to his feet. He sneaked glances at Captain Carter and Teal’c, who both appeared amused to witness Jack’s fall but wisely kept their mouths shut when he finally registered part of the remark. Glaring at the other man, he asked, "Jaundice Boy? What’s that supposed to mean?"

"Take a look around. You figure it out."

Automatically switching his focus from Jack to his surroundings, Daniel discovered the cause for the other man’s somewhat derogatory name. Quite frankly, he was embarrassed he’d missed it – the sky on P0X 413 was an intense saffron color, lending its odd color to everything. He vaguely remembered seeing the MALP’s video playback while still on Earth and thinking the strange coloration to be some technical glitch. Apparently that assumption was incorrect. While a little disorienting, the different visual environment was actually a softly nice change from the customary blue.

"What an unusual color," Sam Carter spoke at last, pointing at a nearby grove. Daniel smiled as he noticed the yellow didn’t make her look sallow, instead giving her a warm, golden glow. Jack and Teal’c both looked sick in the strange light, and judging from the colonel’s earlier remark, so did he.

"Oh, yeah. Delightful as always. I’ll never tire of the tree filled worlds we always seem to come across. Conifers aplenty," Jack sarcastically commented. Hands brushing butt, the colonel moved in front of him and stretched his arms wide. Daniel scowled at the back of his friend’s head as a hand nearly hit him on the nose. "Trees, trees, wonderful trees."

"I wonder if what we’re seeing is just the sky playing off the natural color," Sam continued, calmly ignoring Jack. She walked to Daniel’s side, where she paused. "Let’s go find out."

"Does it matter what color they are?"

"No, I suppose not, sir. They are really beautiful, though."

"Ah, yes. We may have just discovered the perfect world to farm Earth’s Christmas trees."

"They’re a little big for that, Jack. Besides, they’re blue," Daniel wryly remarked as he drew near the copse. Lifting a low-lying branch, he flipped it to emphasize his point. "The light spectrum must play on our optical nerves from a distance, but once we get close enough we can see the actual color."

"Funky Dr. Seuss Christmas trees, then," Jack amended with a quirk of his eyebrows. "For giants."

"I do not believe I have ever encountered a species large enough to call giant, O’Neill. Though if such exists, they would be formidable opponents to the Goa’uld."

"Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of a snaky man?"

"I wonder what other strange things we’ll run into? Sam, did the MALP give us any indications?" Daniel asked, wanting the colonel to get down to business. Joking was all well and good, but Jack could take it too far and too long sometimes. He wouldn’t mind making this mission as quick as possible, thinking back to the piles of work on his desk. Not that he preferred paperwork to missions, but every day he spent off world seemed to make the work back home multiply. He hoped General Hammond would seriously consider his latest request for additional personnel.

"Nothing but the usual plant life. This should be a milk run mission for us – no signs of sentient beings. Of course, the equipment has been wrong on that count before." She swatted at a tree once before moving back to her supplies. "We have plenty of time for exploring whatever effects the sun has had on this planet."

"In other words, Teal’c, Daniel and I are going to be bored."

"Speak for yourself, Jack. I’m looking forward to giving Sam a hand," Daniel instantly retorted, internally wincing at the half-truth. He didn’t mind helping her, but to say he was excited about it was a slight exaggeration.

"Thanks, Daniel," Sam gratefully said, the annoyance with her CO barely masked on her face. Daniel shot her a smile, secretly pleased she was becoming more open and assertive with Jack.

"I, too, will endeavor to make myself useful, Captain Carter. It appears only you will be bored, O’Neill."

"The UAV picked up some interesting readings – either coincidentally structured rock formations or possibly remnants of a past civilization," Daniel added, shooting Jack a hopeful look. The trek was only five kilometers but he knew the other man wouldn’t be happy if they walked all that way for no good reason. "It showed some fairly significant rifts and fissures. I think at the very least there’s an extensive network of caves there."

"Think? Shouldn’t the UAV be able to confirm this stuff?" Jack asked with a scowl at Sam.

"We’re still having a few problems with it, sir. Sergeant Siler is working on it as we speak," she informed them, sheepishly shrugging her shoulders. "Budget cuts won’t allow for outside help. But I’m pretty sure the readings are accurate."

"All right, then. We’ll walk as you gather, Carter. Kill as many birds as we can."

"Why should we wish to kill birds, O’Neill?" Teal’c asked, eyebrow tipping up.

Though Teal’c had made great strides in learning the ins and outs of vernacular English, there were still some phrases he had trouble understanding immediately. Nine out of ten times, the words came directly from Jack’s lips. Daniel sometimes felt he was a dog owner, carrying a shovel and plastic bag in preparation to clean up some of the colonel’s unintentional confusions, except explaining things to his Jaffa friend was actually something he enjoyed. He shot an exasperated look at Jack, picking up his pace to catch up with Teal’c.

"It’s just an expression, Teal’c, and it’s actually ‘kill two birds with one stone’. It means to take care of a couple of things at the same time," Daniel quickly relayed, suddenly not feeling like delving into the complete history of that particular idiom.

"I see. We have a similar saying on Chulak."

"Daniel, could you come here for a second?" Sam called.

He slowed and pivoted around to find the captain crouching next to a large shrub. He knew virtually nothing when it came to the botanical samples Sam gathered, but always found it interesting. Sometimes he had to remind himself that biology wasn’t her field either, and that working with her to figure out what they needed to was rewarding in its own right. Jack and Teal’c continued slowly as he backtracked a few steps. Taking several seconds to study the habitat more closely, he was surprised to find it didn’t seem too dissimilar to Earth’s. Reaching his friend’s side, Daniel leaned down to see what she was indicating.

It looked like an ordinary plant to him. If he had to guess, he’d say it was a Venus’s-flytrap. Giving her an inquisitive look, he suddenly realized how alive Sam looked. For a long time, Daniel had wondered if she would ever be able to pull herself from the depression that Goa’uld had left her in. More selfishly, he had wondered if he would ever stop seeing Sha’re’s face overlay his friend’s. He smiled with satisfaction as no ghost made its presence known – in the form of his lost wife or Sam’s all consuming depression.

"What’s up, Sam?"

"Well, you’d think the plant would snare its prey like the ones back home, right? When I was preparing to cut off a chute, it didn’t react at all. I admit it doesn’t sound like much, but it points to the fact that significant variations might be present in other things as well."

Studying the plant more carefully, Daniel involuntarily shuddered at the somewhat notorious reputation it held – both a fascination and a terror. An overactive imagination could envision a giant sized plant devouring something quite larger than an insect. He tore his gaze away, snapping himself from his strange train of thought.

"So we bag one of them, take it back to the SGC and try and determine its purpose there?" Daniel asked rather than stated. He wasn’t quite sure why, but the thought of being around the plant gave him an uneasy feeling. Undoubtedly a case of one overactive imagination having its way with his mental condition. It was just a plant.

"Now, Daniel, you know the rules about that," Jack’s voice sounded in his left ear, coming from nowhere. The older man’s shoulder brushed lightly across Daniel’s.

He jerked upright at both the unexpected intrusion into the conversation and into his personal space, the top of his head catching the colonel square on the jaw. Sam leapt to her feet in synchronization with him, her arms reflexively jerking slightly before she clutched at her MP5. Someone screeched, and he couldn’t totally rule himself out as the guilty party. God, he hoped it hadn’t been him! Spinning toward Jack, he forced the startled look off of his face and attempted to replace it with indignation. The other man moved several steps back, one hand cupping an abused jaw and chin.

"Ah, jeez. That’s gonna leave a mark."

Daniel disbelievingly stared at Jack. With eyes covered by sunglasses and face obscured by the brim of a baseball cap, he couldn’t tell if his friend was serious or not. What he could tell was the damage inflicted to his own skull, which was now throbbing harshly. He snapped, "How do you think I feel? It isn’t every day I run into a big slab of granite! You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that!"

"I can’t help it, Daniel. It’s what I was trained to do." Jack shrugged, amusement now apparently overcoming any discomfort he’d experienced. The colonel looked from him to Sam and back again, smirk growing from barely discernable to downright cocky. "Like I was supposed to know you two were afraid of your own shadows?"

The words were a cold, feather-thin sliver slicing straight through his insides. Twitching slightly, Daniel swallowed and edged backward, jumping when he ran into Sam. She reached out a steadying hand, laying it on his forearm. Warmth seeped through his jacket sleeve and he latched onto the feeling, letting it pull him out of whatever had taken control. Looking into Sam’s concerned eyes, he managed a small smile.

"Give me a break, Jack. It was reaction – like when stupid people ask if you’re afraid of a man this big," Daniel finally found his voice. Lifting his hand, he held his thumb and index finger about half an inch apart. "Then laugh hysterically when you blink because they shove their hand in your face."

"Sure. That’s exactly what it was," Jack drawled, shifting his sunglasses down to peer over them.

"O’Neill, had either Captain Carter or Daniel Jackson sabotaged you in such a manner, would you have not also reacted similarly?"

"Really, sir. Teal’c has a point. Scaring people like that is a little juve…" Sam trailed off, suddenly becoming flustered when Jack glowered at her. She bent back down to focus her attention on the plant specimen.

"Whatever. Can we just get going?"

Now apparently bored again, Jack impatiently shuffled his feet and looked the direction they had been traveling. Daniel realized any form of apology was unlikely and he sighed deeply. He couldn’t count the number of times SG1’s team leader had pulled the exact same joke, and he’d never once shown regret. Of course, Daniel had never gotten so disturbed by it before. Several minutes after the fact, his heart was still racing and palms still clammy. He really should cut back on his coffee intake. Before missions, anyway.

"Daniel, give me a hand?" Sam requested. She peered up at him, but her eyes frequently darted to check the surrounding, shadowy woods. His own nervousness increased with every furtive look she gave. "I don’t think we need an entire plant, just this chute here."

"Hurry up, will ya? Teal’c and I are going to get started again. Don’t lag too far behind," Jack ordered, shoving his sunglasses back up.

Without waiting for an answer, the colonel strode away, leaving him and Sam to complete their task. As he held the sample bag open for her to deposit the single branch she’d extracted, Daniel noticed her hands trembling slightly. He frowned at the plant as he sealed it into its container, still apprehensive about being around it. Shaking his head as if to dislodge the irrational feeling, he rose and followed Sam to catch up with his other two teammates.

~~~~~~~~

Even though he’d managed to appear self-satisfied and smug at scaring Daniel and Carter, Jack hadn’t really taken any enjoyment from it. In fact, he felt slightly repentant about the whole thing – their intense reactions were so uncharacteristic he was actually concerned. Normally, each of his team members swallowed the majority of the reaction when he scared them, giving only the barest sign. Damn, Carter had yelped.. He thought perhaps he could attribute some of her jitteryness to the whole Jolinar thing, but he noticed both of the scientists had stayed on edge for a lot longer than they should have.

"Teal’c, did Carter and Daniel seem kinda off to you just now?" he casually asked, swinging a hand at nearby branches and surreptitiously checking on the huddled figures behind them.

"Off?"

"You know…jumpy. Nervous. Off."

"I did notice both appeared abnormally bothered by your attempt at amusement, O’Neill, though I do not know if it signifies anything of importance."

"Maybe I’m just getting better at scaring them."

Teal’c’s response to that was to arch one eyebrow to a height Jack had never seen it reach, which he interpreted as a sign of extreme skepticism. He tried not to take it personally, agreeing with the implied assessment. If anything, he’d been less careful than usual and hadn’t minded when Teal’c had purposely made no attempt at all to move with stealth. Daniel and Carter should have heard them coming. Well, Carter should have.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jack peered up into the golden sky. His teammates might find the atmosphere intriguing, but all it did for him was mask the obviousness of how this world was exactly like nearly every other planet they’d visited. While he typically complained about such a thing, and had just done so, he was actually not that irritated by the mundane, uninhabited world. He’d never admit this to anyone, but he was still having a hard time dealing with the too recent near loss of his 2IC. Too recent and too near, he’d argued with Hammond for more down time, as much for his own state of mind as Carter’s.

None of them had been up to par since the body-snatching incident – Carter depressed and non-responsive, Daniel nervous and twitchy, Teal’c…well, Teal’c just looked more dour than usual, which couldn’t be a good thing. As for himself, he hadn’t slept more than three hours each night for a solid week, the sight of Carter’s inanimate body haunting him. Long story short, if he and his team absolutely had to be off world, he’d rather be bored than running from Goa’uld or indigenous life. He’d still prefer to be home, though.

He covertly sneaked another glance back at Daniel and Carter, who had finished collecting their plant and were walking slowly toward him and Teal’c. Smiling, Jack saw them chatting a little and was happy to see his captain was getting back to normal. Or as back to normal as one could get after being possessed by a snake. That thought brought a frown as he scanned the man next to her, disconcerted by what that meant for Sha’re. And Skaara. He had a suspicion that was what was causing the archaeologist’s nervousness, though neither of them had approached the subject.

"O’Neill, it is not necessary for you to disguise your actions. Neither Captain Carter nor Daniel Jackson are aware of us at the moment."

Startled, Jack jerked his head to gawk at the bigger man. Teal’c was very obviously not looking anywhere but straight ahead, ever vigilant. How the hell… Chalking it up to Jaffa super-sense, he muttered, "You say that like it’s a good thing."

"I meant only that they are focused on completing their specimen gathering. Is it not a good thing that they clearly have no desire to seek retribution for your prank?"

Teal’c’s tone was so even, Jack couldn’t be sure if the Jaffa was teasing. To use the word humor when referring to his friend was almost oxymoronic, and that was a generous way of putting it. Still, the longer he was around Teal’c, the more he got a feeling that the other man both understood more than he let on and held a very subtle wit. He rolled to a stop, glaring just in case the remark had been intended as a kind of slight.

"Can we hurry it up, kids?" he yelled, scowling when his shouts caused the scientists to start. "I’d like to make this trip in one day. Gotta catch the game."

"What game?" Daniel asked as he and Carter caught up. Despite the casual manner both of his teammates exhibited, Jack could feel their tension.

"Oh, you know. The BIG game," he nonchalantly said. There was no game, he just suddenly really didn’t want to be on lovely P0X 413 anymore. "Why? Want to come over and watch it with me?"

Daniel blessed him with a dry smile, mouth opening to make an undoubtedly witty retort. Taking a step back as a loud choking snort resonated in his ears, Jack gaped at the younger man, who gaped right back.

"Ahem. Sorry, I must have swallowed a bug or something," Carter chirped, rushing by them to stand next to Teal’c.

Jack grinned at the ease in which they seemed to flow back into a light-hearted banter session. He felt infinitely more relaxed just knowing Carter was finally – officially in his book – on the way to recovery. This was the longest time she’d held a spark of life in weeks, and she showed no signs of withdrawing from them again. Aside from his ill thought out scare, she was being a typical astrophysicist. Or whatever. In the past year, she’d taken on so many different scientific tasks he wasn’t sure what the heck to call her.

"Did the yellow light have an effect on its taste?"

"Sir?"

"Never mind. Let’s book, shall we? I was serious about heading home early. I can only take so much tediousness."

"Can’t guarantee that, sir," Carter cheekily said, surveying the landscape. "Daniel and I agree that we need to examine everything very closely. That plant showed no physical dissimilarity to a Venus’s flytrap back home – it was only after minute study that I discovered the separating factor."

With that, she exchanged a long look with Daniel. The archaeologist nodded slowly, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Leaning slightly toward him, the younger man lifted a hand, index finger pointed, and opened his mouth. He just stared at Jack for a moment, then sauntered after Carter. Rolling his eyes, Jack hung his head low and moved a step to draw up next to Teal’c.

"It appears I was incorrect about Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson’s need for reprisal, O’Neill."

"Yeeah, got that," he muttered. It was going to be a long walk. He couldn’t stop the weary sigh from escaping as he saw Daniel whipping out his rubber gloves, an intent look upon his face. "So got that."

Disinterestedly taking up the path toward the rocky ruins…or the ruined rocks…Jack fiddled with his sunglasses. He had to admit it was pretty damn cool how everything seemed so much more vivid and sharper due to the yellow light. Unfortunately, that small amusement wasn’t going to get him through the mission any more quickly.

"Carter, Daniel. Teal’c and I are going to go at a non-scientific pace and scout out whatever it is at the end of the yellow brick road," Jack announced. His 2IC’s face went slack for a moment, eyes widening, and then returned to a neutral expression. The little alarm buzzer in his head started to go off again.

"Uh, I object."

"You object? What is this, People’s Court?" he scoffed, keeping an eye on Carter as Daniel moved in front of him.

"Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to go to the ruins? I mean, hopefully there’s something there in need of translating and who are you going to get to do that if not me? And it’ll save you precious time."

"All right, then. Teal’c, you and Daniel scout up ahead. I’ll hang out with Carter."

Teal’c raised an eyebrow, which Jack interpreted as disbelieving. He was getting good at figuring out that particular facial expression of his Jaffa friend. And, yes, he knew he was condemning himself to sheer, utter, complete, undeniable, total torture but he just had a feeling he should stay close to Carter. He nodded and impatiently waved them off, turning to find the captain already kneeling and digging some moss from a tree.

"Do we really have to collect all of this stuff?"

"It could prove important, sir."

Again glancing up at the sky, he noted with resignation that the sun already looked too low to make it back home today, no matter how quickly they walked. He rested his back on a tree, watching Carter as she worked busily but unhurriedly. Even if he had asked for it, Jack was feeling the agony of her and Daniel’s chosen revenge. It burned him that his buttons were so easily pushed.

"Important for what?" he asked at last, hoping at least some conversation would help.

"Well, as I’ve said before, plant life accounts for a huge portion of the world’s medicinal resources. If something here has developed just slightly differently than at home, it could make a normally useless item invaluable."

"Oh."

"Sir, I wouldn’t be collecting these things if I didn’t believe that."

"Okay."

"I’d rather be back at the SGC too. I really would," she said pensively, darting her eyes to the dense forest.

That admission alone was enough to make him wish with everything he had that Daniel didn’t find anything of interest. On a good day, he was less than excited about the archaeological thrills and wonders richly abounding the galaxy and frequently let his stance be known. All of a sudden, digging in the dirt with Carter sounded like a mighty fine idea. He pushed off from his tree, joining the captain with an outstretched hand.

"Let’s see if we can speed this up, shall we?"

~~~~~~~~

"Sir?" Sam stuttered, a little taken aback by the colonel’s intention of lending aid. Not once in their time as a team had he offered to give her or Daniel any type of help when it came to the scientific aspects of missions. Not that he was lazy; she thought perhaps it had more to do with his stubborn belief that science was a waste of time.

"What, I can’t be your lab assistant?"

"Of course you can, sir. It’s just you’ve ne…never mind. Here, can you hold this open for me?" she asked, tossing him a vial.

Getting right to work, she found herself now motivated to take care of the least glamorous aspect of each mission, uneasy by her CO’s apparently benevolent participation. More than that, though, she was nervous at his insistence on getting back home. There was no deadline, no danger, but ever since the colonel had scared her and Daniel earlier, she’d been on edge. It was silly, but she felt as though she was being watched.

Sam sighed, rubbing her forehead with gloved fingers. It was not unlike the sensation she’d had ever since Jolinar, of both being outside her body and being probed mentally. Even if the Goa…Tok’ra was gone, its effects to her psyche were still yielding their power. That was probably it. Residual eeriness from that event. She deposited the moss sample into the bag the colonel was patiently holding for her.

"I find it really hard to believe the cure for the common cold is going to be in this stuff," he grumbled, shying away from the fuzzy plant.

Make that impatiently. Giving her CO her best exasperated look, Sam mentally shook her head. The colonel’s decision to stay with her wasn’t based on any military reasoning whatsoever. It was a lose-lose situation for him as far as she could figure: bored out of his mind with Daniel or bored out of his mind with her. As much as she might like to think the choice had been made because he enjoyed spending time with her, Sam thought it more likely that he stayed for the same reason he’d been watching her every move since they set foot on P0X 413.

"But what if it is, sir?"

"Yeah, yeah. We’ve been over this. Look, even at a normal pace, it’s going to be dusk by the time we make it to Daniel’s rocks. What are the chances I can convince you to just head right there? Once we determine that’s a bust, we’ll mosey on back to the Stargate tomorrow and collect until your pack is full of fascinating things. Hell, until all our packs are full."

He had a point; the sun was descending quickly and taking with it the already mellowed light. Her and Daniel’s plan had worked already anyway. No big game for the colonel tonight. Smirking, Sam looked up and was greeted by a flash of movement beyond her CO’s left shoulder. She stiffened, face freezing as she reached for her MP5. The colonel was already rolling, weapon in hand. Ducking behind the tree, she felt her heart racing, her palms sweating. She was right – something had been watching her.

"Carter? What is it?"

"I saw movement behind you and to the left, sir. I don’t think it was very big, but there may have been more than one," she hissed. More than one what? And why was she so freaked out?

"Okay. Stay put. I’ll see if I can flush it out toward you," he whispered, stealthily slithering into the woods.

Even as he left, Sam wanted to call him back. She didn’t want to be all alone out here, where the trees seemed to have eyes. She sure as hell didn’t want whatever was out there to come charging at her. Gasping breaths as quietly as she could, she clenched her eyes shut and leaned into the tree bark so hard it was probably leaving an imprint on her skin. She didn’t care. All alone, she was all alone with whatever was out there, and even if she didn’t know what it was, she knew she was scared of it.

Exhaling shakily, she tried to calm herself. Air Force captains did not have nervous breakdowns in the middle of missions. She’d survived Desert Storm; she could handle a little romp in the woods. No way could she let her CO see how close she was to losing it, not after the past month. She was more than ready to move beyond it – Jolinar would not ruin her life posthumously. He wouldn’t have wanted…what the hell? How did she know what a Goa…Tok’ra , it was a Tok’ra…would have wanted?

Sam snapped her eyes open again, confused by the jumbled emotions now flickering through her. Part of her screamed in terror while another previously unknown part of her sought rationality of thought. It wasn’t the battle between woman and soldier, at least not in the sense she knew. No, this was different, but she just didn’t know how.

Everything was so different now, and it would never be the same. Sam saw how everyone at the SGC looked at her – expressions filled with fear and relief and distaste in equal measure. Even her teammates gave her the kid glove treatment, afraid she would break or something. She didn’t blame them for their concern, but she found it was inhibiting her from moving on. All her life, whenever bad things happened, she just forged ahead and those around her permitted it. When her mother died, her dad hadn’t known how to deal with his own guilt, let alone her blaming him. He’d receded from her and Mark for a long time. It had been easy to get on with life without him around as a constant reminder.

Only she realized that that hadn’t necessarily been a good thing. She and Mark were not exactly on speaking terms. And her father? Well, she would describe their relationship as tentative, at best. She may not be able to fix what was already wrong in her life, but she could prevent the same thing from happening again. When the colonel looked at her as thought she was going to vanish off the face of the planet, she’d make sure he knew that wasn’t going to happen. If Daniel started nervously rambling around her, she’d talk him down and make him comfortable with her. Teal’c…Teal’c would be more difficult to diagnose, but she’d watch for any signs of uncharacteristically apparent concern and ease it.

Calmed a little by her thoughts, Sam straightened her shoulders and felt the tension in her muscles relax. She was fine, safe with her teammates. If the threat in the woods was great, they would be there for her and she for them. Confidently holding up her weapon, ready to fire upon whatever the colonel sent her way, she smiled slightly. The irrational fear subsided to a tolerable level, but refused to disappear completely.

"There’s nothing out there, definitely not lions and tigers and bears."

The whispered voice in her ear was like gunfire, explosively destroying the shield of comfort she’d just attained. Leaping away from the tree, Sam instinctively brought her gun around with her and aimed it at the intruder.

"Shit, Carter! It’s just me! Don’t shoot," the colonel quickly said, hands raised cautiously in the air. He stared at her with wary eyes, slowly rising from his crouched position. Sam dropped the MP5 as if it were hot. "You okay there?"

Damnit, there it was – the look. Heart still pounding, she raised a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. So much for her assuring him she was fine. At least she hadn’t screeched that time. Lions and tigers and bears, the colonel’s words repeated in her head, bringing with them a strange feeling of panic. Mark used to taunt her with that phrase when she was a little girl, delighted in the terror it created. It had been years since she’d thought about this, why was it suddenly popping up again?

Feeling a light touch to her shoulder, Sam jumped and opened her eyes to find her CO standing directly before her. She swallowed and gave him a smile she intended as reassuring, but given his returning grimace, she imagined she’d fallen short of the mark. She tried again, gladdened to see his shoulders loosen a bit. An awkward look began to appear across his features as they stood in relative silence, her rapid breathing filling the air. For a moment, she was afraid he was going to ask her to explain her reaction and she frankly had no idea what to say. But then his expression changed to his ‘let’s get down to business’ one.

"Are you sure you saw something? There weren’t even any tracks for me to follow," the colonel said at last, moving back a step. "In fact, I’m noticing there’s a distinct lack of any animal life on this rock."

Pulled out of the lingering shock by his no-nonsense observation, Sam realized he was right. The only sound was the rustling of leaves in the breeze. No birds. No bugs. No nothing. Scrunching her eyebrows, she looked at him thoughtfully, hoping her voice wouldn’t betray her unease. "You’re right, sir. That might explain why the plant didn’t react to my attempts to engage it – there’s nothing to foster that instinct."

"Plants have instinct?"

"Function," she revised. With each word she uttered, she began to feel better and she saw her CO also returning to his usual relaxed but ready stance. "I wonder what happened to the inhabitants of the planet? Human and animal. I mean, the ruins suggest there was a civilization here at one point."

"Rumored ruins. I still have my doubts about them," the colonel inserted quickly, holding up a finger as she opened her mouth to protest on Daniel’s behalf. "Speaking of, now that we know there’s nothing bad lurking out here, let’s catch up to the others. Sun’s way too low now, and even if there’s no threat I don’t like to hike in the dark."

She looked to the sky, a bit surprised to see the sun had descended so low its view was blocked by the trees. She hadn’t realized how long the colonel had been separated from her; he must have searched very thoroughly. Embarrassed that it appeared to have been her overactive imagination, Sam was about to offer an apology when she caught the concerned look flashing again on her CO’s face.

"Just let me gather my things," she mumbled, disconcerted she was failing to hide her emotions. "I’ll be quick."

"Do that, Carter," he said, not offering his help this time. He kept his eyes alert to their surroundings, despite his earlier proclamation that SG1 appeared to be the only sentient forms on the planet. "Do that."

Gathering her supplies quickly, Sam wasn’t reassured by the colonel’s guard. It made her even edgier, if that were possible. She swallowed the lump in her throat and blindly shoved everything into her pack. Walking back to her CO’s side, she noticed he hadn’t removed his sunglasses in the dim light. She could see her pale face staring back at her in their reflective lenses, and she saw how…young and small she looked. That would explain his behavior.

"Let’s go."

Sam followed him, eyes pinned on his back. A few feet later, she suddenly realized the colonel hadn’t used humor at all to diffuse her tension and fright. With a shudder, she could only imagine what that meant.

~~~~~~~~

Carefully watching Daniel Jackson’s face as they moved from O’Neill and Captain Carter, Teal’c saw the young man still struggling to control his emotions. There was an underlying presence of disquiet that remained well beyond the time it should have faded, and it was not solely the archaeologist who displayed it. With a frown, he turned his head to study Captain Carter’s fluttering hands begin gathering samples again.

O’Neill was correct, though Teal’c did not know exactly what was causing the fearful reactions. Glancing to his left and right, he wondered if perhaps the lack of life was somehow impacting his human friends. None of them had mentioned the strange quiet that enveloped P0X 413, almost as though they had not noticed it. Above all else, these things caused him alarm – it was not natural for a world to be teeming with plant life and no animal, and it was not natural that his companions had not perceived the phenomenon immediately. He did not know why he had not made mention of it earlier.

"Teal’c, I just noticed this," Daniel Jackson burst, words tripping from his mouth rapidly. He turned his full attention on his teammate, not surprised to find arms flying in the air. "It’s really quiet here, isn’t it? Very odd, I would have thought there would have been birds or something. There’s nothing here, is there? Can you tell?"

Teal’c knew the younger man was asking if he could sense something the others may not, and he wished he had a different answer. Tilting his head, he replied, "Your assessment is correct, Daniel Jackson. There does not appear to be animal life on P0X 413."

Stopping, the archaeologist looked around as if searching for something, his brow creasing. "That doesn’t make any sense. There has to have been life at one time or there wouldn’t be ruins. Unless Jack is right and they’re just rocks. We haven’t come across any signs – no bones or remains. This could be a complete waste of time."

"I have seen many strange things, Daniel Jackson. While it may not be apparent, we should not rule out the possibility this world once housed life."

"Maybe, but why doesn’t it anymore? The plants are thriving, why didn’t animal life?" Daniel Jackson mused.

"Perhaps the answer lies in the ruins we seek to reach," he suggested, beginning to walk again.

The light was weakening, the shadows darkening around them. He could see the trees thinning ahead, and knew they would soon be out of the woods. It was abnormal for the Stargate to be situated in such a manner – surrounded by dense forest. If this world was once a Goa’uld planet, it had not been so in quite some time. It gave him a small degree of comfort to know his friends would not have to be worried about that threat.

"Teal’c, wait for me!" Daniel Jackson called, jogging to catch up. Teal’c did not realize he had increased his speed, leaving the younger man trailing behind. "Oh, we’re almost out."

Hearing relief in the tone, Teal’c turned to find the archaeologist’s gaze once again surveying the woods apprehensively. Though he still could not ascertain the reason, he was certain Daniel Jackson found something alarming in the harmless forest. The inexplicable behaviors he had been exhibiting were indeed…off, as O’Neill had described. Not having a basis from which he could aid his friend, Teal’c thought it the best he could do to escort him into the clearing, and subsequently away from that which disturbed him.

"Indeed. The UAV revealed a barren area spanning three kilometers around the stone structure."

"Right, I remember that now. That’ll make the walk much faster, don’t you agree? Although by the looks of it, the grasses here have grown pretty high," the archaeologist rambled.

Following Daniel Jackson’s pointing finger, he saw the grass encroaching into the treeline was quite tall. It neared shoulder length, and appeared rough and thick. Teal’c hoped it became less so as they progressed, or his friend would have considerable difficulty traversing through it. The younger man pushed by him, moving out of the woods and onto the savanna.

"No, look, it’s only up to my knees out here," Daniel Jackson announced as he walked farther onto the plain, turning around to wave Teal’c toward him.

As he had predicted, Daniel Jackson’s entire countenance changed once away from the trees. Teal’c wondered if he should inquire about the change in body language, but reconsidered when he realized that might provoke an unfavorable reaction, possibly even bring the return of tension. Dismissing the idea, he strode up next to the scientist. An unsettling feeling edged around the corners of his mind, unnamable but potent.

The past several weeks had held much of which to be concerned. While the Tok’ra had possessed Captain Carter, Teal’c had stoically told O’Neill to look at her and not see a friend. However, upon visiting the young woman, he had found himself unable to set up the barriers necessary to follow through with his own advice; had seen his teammate and friend, imagined her suffering. Now it was the opposite – he could not see her for her, only the image of her posture and demeanor while Jolinar resided within her. Even knowing the Tok’ra to be good, he could not separate that fact to make what had happened to his friend acceptable. It was unfair, both to Captain Carter and to the mysterious renegade Goa’uld, and he was unaccustomed to the sensation of being unable to control his emotions.

Teal’c had been forcing himself to frequently look upon the captain in the hope he could overcome his difficulty. Unfortunately, his practice had been observed by her on more than on occasion, and had served only to cause her discomfort. He did not know how to explain to Captain Carter the reasoning behind his actions, and had subsequently attempted to avoid such a confrontation, a tactic employed by Daniel Jackson. It provided no relief.

"Let us continue, then, Daniel Jackson," Teal’c said, pulling himself from his sobering thoughts. "I am certain Colonel O’Neill and Captain Carter are not far behind us. They will not be able to gather samples in the fading light."

"Teal’c, do you think…"Daniel Jackson said, pausing before completing his inquiry. He darted a look around them as they treaded through the field, the corners of his mouth turning downward. "Do you feel strange?"

"I do not," Teal’c instantly responded as his infant Goa’uld suddenly swirled nauseatingly in its pouch. Unconsciously lifting his free hand to rest on his abdomen, he frowned. "What has prompted your inquiry, Daniel Jackson?"

There was a long pause, as if the younger man was debating how to reply. Teal’c’s fist clenched on his staff weapon as he recognized he had spoken a mistruth to his friend. Strange would be an accurate word to describe the sensations running in him. Sighing deeply, Daniel Jackson ran a hand through his long locks, and then let his arms swing loosely at his sides. Teal’c thought to amend his assertion but could not explain the feeling he was experiencing, nor pinpoint a cause for it. When he was a child, it had been ingrained in him that speech was to be used only if there was important information to reveal, a habit he was quickly losing among the Tau’ri. On this occasion he took heed to his upbringing, telling himself he did not want to cause further agitation to his friends.

"Nothing. It’s nothing. As much as I was looking forward to discovering signs of civilization here, now I just want to get it over with. That probably doesn’t make any sense."

The statement may not have held any concrete evidence to support it but Teal’c found it suited his own thoughts perfectly. He bowed his head once to demonstrate his understanding, remaining silent. Once again increasing his pace, Daniel Jackson matched him stride for stride. The journey was uneventful, the land as barren of landmarks or varying terrain as the UAV had indicated. He found the younger man’s anxiety seemed to dissipate somewhat with each footfall away from the forest, while his own seemed to increase.

Neither man spoke for the remainder of the jaunt, and Teal’c was grateful for the quietude. His mind fought between focusing on completing the mission and attempting to squelch the uneasiness roiling through him. He was pleased when their destination came into sight, rocks standing alone on the horizon and shadowing in the deep yellow sunset. To his surprise, Daniel Jackson slowed as they approached. It was uncharacteristic for the archaeologist not to rush forward to begin a cursory exploration.

"Daniel Jackson, we have arrived," he declared unnecessarily, perturbed when the other man flinched and then squared his shoulders as if bolstering himself.

"Yeah, let’s go. If this turns out to be nothing, we can radio Jack and Sam not to come and head back tonight after all," Daniel Jackson breathed, voice sounding dull and unenthusiastic. Teal’c frowned again at the strange reoccurrence of apprehension in his young friend. As if influenced by the archaeologist’s mood, his trepidation soared.

Daniel Jackson looked terrified at the prospect of returning through the woods, yet there was underlying hope coloring his tone as well. Teal’c understood that hope as desire to return to Earth, an idea not adverse to him either. There may be great botanical and medicinal resources here, and possibly cultural findings but he did not care about such things. Normal tolerance of the secondary objectives to each missions disappeared as he selfishly hoped to make this trip a brief one. His skin prickled with gooseflesh as he followed Daniel Jackson into the ruins.

~~~~~~~~

Trying to push his unfounded misgivings aside, Daniel ventured closer to the rocks. Despite wanting to get home, he couldn’t stop the disappointment creeping into him. Rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. The grass gave way to stone almost completely, making the site unrewardingly sterile, with no signs of past or present life. There was no reason to stay here. Reaching for his radio, he noticed how big some of the boulders were, how elongated their shadows were becoming with the sun’s setting rays. Extending toward him from every direction, they seemed to inch closer with each passing second.

"There is no life here," Teal’c intoned from behind.

As when Jack had sneaked up on him and Sam, Daniel launched into the air and spun toward the voice. Hoping Teal’c hadn’t noticed, he drew in a deep breath and nodded. "Jack was right."

"However, I have discovered something that bears investigation," the Jaffa continued, giving him a tiny glance complete with inclining eyebrow.

"Really? What? When?" he asked, curiosity teasing despite his nervousness. He was getting control of his breathing and relaxing a little. Nothing to be afraid of. Teal’c was here.

"We have been here for several minutes, Daniel Jackson. I immediately set out to check the perimeter of the area, and in doing so located a small pond, which I believe is not naturally occurring. Also, I have found an entrance to an underground tunnel."

Several minutes? God, how long had he been standing there? Sneaking a quick look at his Jaffa friend to try and get some indication, he realized the move was futile. If Teal’c noticed his preoccupation, it didn’t look like he was going to mention anything. Daniel wished he could identify what was making his nerves resonate so badly; the latest news of possible sentient life vanishing from the face of this world certainly didn’t help.

He didn’t know which was worse – to find no traces of life or to find evidence that there once had been. It was definitely ominous to think about what might have caused a populated world to become quite the opposite. In the twilight, the yellow sky had deepened to a mustard color and it stained Teal’c’s features surreally. Daniel looked away from the now gruesome visage, unable to find strength or relief from it as he usually did.

"Where?" he asked at last, knowing he wouldn’t like the answer.

"We must cross to the other side of the rocks. The pond is located in a small dell, the tunnel hidden among the stones there," Teal’c said, his expression indecipherably blank.

Scanning the distance, Daniel unhappily noted the entire path was littered by darkness and shadow. He nodded, ushering Teal’c to lead the way with a sweep of his arm. As his friend began moving, he reconsidered. It’d be safer for him to be in front, with the other man behind him to safeguard him from the shadows getting him.

Shadows getting him? What was he thinking? He wasn’t a little kid anymore. But the thought of voluntarily walking into the shade-infested area was enough to chill the blood in his veins. Teal’c was already a good ten paces in front of him, fearing neither man nor beast as usual. Bracing and calmly reminding himself that there was no such thing as ghosts, Daniel briskly walked to his friend’s side. He had to concentrate on something other than absurd, vague feelings that were probably due to something as ordinary as lack of sleep. Too many fitful nights disturbed by thoughts of Sha’re and Sam and Jolinar and…this wasn’t helping. Unfortunately thinking about what might have happened to the inhabitants of P0X 413 wasn’t much of an alternative, even for an archaeologist.

He couldn’t think of a thing to prevent the feeling of claustrophobia as the night closed in all around him. Daniel rotated between warily watching the surrounding darkness and keeping track of Teal’c, protecting against…something. His friend walked purposefully by his side, never faltering in gait, and he managed to look beyond the sick, yellowed tinged countenance to find a scrap of his own backbone from it. If anything were wrong here, the Jaffa on his left would definitely make him aware of it. Reassured by that simple fact, he loosened up by degrees until he was almost at ease.

The moment he looked down into the glen and saw the pond, Daniel knew Teal’c’s assessment had been correct. Perfectly circular, the small expanse of water dully reflected the departing sun’s rays and was absolutely still. Upon first glance, he thought it looked like a cesspool, dead and rotting, but then he took in the plant life surrounding it. It was as abundant and flourishing here as the rest of the planet. The incongruity of this evidence of civilization combined with the complete lack thereof anywhere else had him puzzled. If the tunnels did turn out to be manmade, he had to wonder why the indigenous people built a pool on the surface when they lived underground.

"I think you’re right, Teal’c, this is definitely manmade. I just can’t think of a good explanation for it. Maybe when we check out the tunnel I’ll find a clue about the civilization," Daniel said, a little startled at the loudness of his own voice. He waited for the other man to give some sort of response, but got none. "Teal’c?"

Pulling his eyes away from the water, he glanced over to his friend. Teal’c stood slightly hunched over, right hand fisted over his abdomen and face displaying shock or distress. Daniel felt a corresponding wave of cold splash over him at the sight of Teal’c in such an emotionally unguarded state; there were so few times he could recall where his friend allowed any reaction broadcast for everyone to see. None of them overwhelmingly positive instances. Bad. This was so not good.

"Teal’c?" he whispered, jerking a hand up and placing it on the other man’s shoulder. "You okay?"

Half expecting it, Daniel quickly jumped back as Teal’c came to life in volatile motion, arms swinging to raise his staff weapon. He instantly put his hands out in front of him, hoping the Jaffa would recognize it as a sign of his non-aggression. Furious and fearful brown eyes glared over to him, clearly not fully recognizing him.

"Teal’c? It’s me, it’s me," Daniel calmly said, lowering his hands to his sides and inching a step closer as Teal’c’s grip on the staff slackened. He slid the weapon away, all the more troubled when the action was tolerated. "You okay?"

"Daniel Jackson?"

"Yeah."

"I was experiencing a very unusual sensation; it has passed," Teal’c said, voice and face still ghosted. "It was not my intention to harm you."

"I know that, Teal’c," he assured his friend, strangely and unsuitably comforted to know that Teal’c was feeling off as well. "Feel like talking about it?"

"I do not."

"Didn’t think so," Daniel conceded, not altogether happy to let the issue slide. Something had seriously spooked Teal’c, and anything that could do that had to be terrible. He couldn’t ignore what had just happened, or his own unfading agitation. "Teal’c, when I asked you before if you felt strange…"

"I did not reveal the entire truth, Daniel Jackson," Teal’c unexpectedly interrupted. "The longer we remain on P0X 413, the more the feeling of unease magnifies within me. I did not make mention of it earlier because I cannot give cause for such a reaction."

Taken aback by the admission, Daniel stared at the man in front of him. He could understand himself, Sam or even Jack not calling attention to the bizarre atmosphere seeming to sheath the planet - hell, he had withheld from the rest of them - but Teal’c? Never. If there was only a remote possibility of danger, Teal’c always made it known to the rest of them. It was an invaluable tool of sorts, a gauge to assess every situation. Now he was faced with the fact that the Jaffa didn’t say a word about his own sense of foreboding and had made no mention of the lack of life on P0X 413, which he certainly must have noticed right away. Daniel continued watching Teal’c carefully avoid direct eye contact with him, jaw muscles working nonstop.

"But you know the cause now, right?"

"I do not," Teal’c hastily shot back. "This is not relevant, Daniel Jackson. We should examine the tunnel entrance before the light completely dissipates."

Firmly reclaiming his weapon, Teal’c pivoted and began walking away. Daniel knew he’d just been lied to and dismissed. The light was already too far gone to be of any use; his friend was simply avoiding him and the uncomfortable discussion. Suddenly alone in the gloaming, his own fear began creeping back like a shadow. Déjà vu. Like Teal’c, he hadn't been able to find a cause for the feeling, but now he thought he could identify a certain familiarity about it as though he’d already experienced it and moved on. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

"Teal’c, I think it can wait until morning," he called, relieved when the other man stopped only a few feet away. "Let’s just get camp ready. Jack’s probably irritable and hungry - we can head off that monster before he makes his full presence known."

"Perhaps you are correct."

"We can go back ov..." Daniel faltered when he thought about crossing the dark, rocky terrain again. Swallowing, he continued, "Over to the grass where Jack and Sam will see us right away."

"There is more vegetation over here. We should first gather material enough to sustain a fire," Teal'c suggested, sounding much more like his usual pragmatic self.

Daniel gave a slight nod, reassured at the return to normalcy. Fire was a good idea. A warm, bright fire. He joined Teal’c and they made their way closer to the thick brush growing on one side of the pond, searching for suitable kindling. It was becoming nearly impossible to see more than a few feet in front, and he started groping for his flashlight.

"Teal’c? Daniel? Come in."

Jack’s voice blared over their radios, obliterating the silence they had fallen into. Daniel’s hand jerked and missed the flashlight completely. Now thankful for the darkness’ ability to mask his physical reaction, he corrected his hand’s path and latched onto the flashlight. With a flick, the area was bathed with brightness.

"We are here, O’Neill."

"Yeah, I see that now. Whatcha doing?"

"Gathering wood for a fire, Jack. We’ll be there in a bit," Daniel said into his radio, turning to locate his other two teammates. He could see flashlights bobbing toward them. Shrugging his shoulders, he mumbled, "Or you could just come here."

"This is also a good area for an encampment, Daniel Jackson. The proximity to the water is favorable."

Daniel said nothing, just looked back down to the ground for branches. He didn’t particularly care where they slept and his sarcasm had come from frazzled nerves. Whether they stayed by the water or not, he had a sneaking suspicion his night would include anything and everything but sleep.

~~~~~~~~

Sparing a sidelong glance to his walking partner, Jack could see how pale her face was despite the poor lighting. Carter had been very anxious to leave the woods, and had gathered her scientific doo-hickeys in record time. She’d seemed to calm somewhat during their brisk hike across the flatland. Still, though, there was an aura of twang about her entire person; the grip she had on her MP5 left her knuckles white. He had no idea what to think of it, but found himself suffering a similar feeling as a result of constant association.

Arriving at the location where he’d expected to find Daniel and Teal’c present only to find them absent hadn’t helped matters at all. Carter had instantly assumed there was life on the planet after all and the rest of the team had been ‘gotten’ by it. He’d choked back a snigger at the sheer childishness of her conclusion before remembering that if the captain guessed at something it usually turned out to be accurate. Fighting the urge to turn over every rock in a search, Jack had thumbed his radio and called for his team members with well-disguised apprehension that turned into embarrassingly obvious relief when an answering flashlight suddenly illuminated and Teal’c’s voice answered.

Guided by dual beams of yellowed light, he and Carter jogged over to join their teammates. As they approached, Jack thought he saw a glint of another light sparkling in the blackness. It took him only seconds to identify it as a small lake or pond, and only seconds after that to be overcome by an intense sensation of dread. He slowed his pace, allowing his 2IC to get a couple of feet in front of him as he tried to contain on the emotions inflicting him. He’d bet a million dollars Carter had been feeling something very familiar to this for hours now…

"Hey, Sam," Daniel’s soft voice floated over to him, and Jack was finally able to tear his eyes off of the rippling, menacing water.

He brought himself up with the rest of his team, gathered around the beginnings of a fire pit. Teal’c was crouched down, arranging the tinder with Jaffa-y meticulousness while Daniel swiftly moved to Carter’s side. The archaeologist’s hands skated all over the place, messing first with his hair, then glasses and finally rubbing down the front of his thighs. Jack ignored the scientists and aligned himself with Teal’c in creating the perfect habitat for fire, plagued by a need to do something to occupy his mind. Not that flipping sticks used all that much brain matter, but anything was better than letting that cold fear take a stronghold.

"So, you guys find anything fascinating…other than a bunch of old rocks?" he dryly commented, dropping to his rear as Teal’c added the finishing touches to their masterpiece and lit the first match.

"Actually, Jack, yes. You probably can’t tell in the relative darkness, but this pond was definitely made by someone or something. Teal’c also found entrance to an underground tunnel, presumably leading to the network of caves I mentioned back at the ‘gate," Daniel said, though his words held no note of victory or interest.

Unaccustomed to the lack of enthusiasm at the discoveries, Jack whipped his head up to find Daniel hunching as close to the growing fire as he could get without being in it. The archaeologist darted repeated looks behind him, calling up the memory of Carter’s earlier behavior. Continued behavior, he amended as he saw his captain following Daniel’s eyes. Disregarding his own mounting internal trepidation, he replaced it with worry for his team. He realized what being so wired for so long could do to a person – hell, spending all afternoon with Carter was a prime example. Now he had an almost legitimate reason to get out of Dodge and couldn’t make it happen.

"So you’re saying there’re people here?" Jack asked, fairly sure there wasn’t anyone here and positive he didn’t like the implications of that.

"It appears this world is no longer inhabited, O’Neill. Daniel Jackson and I had not yet explored the tunnel when you arrived," Teal’c answered, slightly bent at the waist and as close to the fire as Daniel.

"I’m hoping there will be some indication of what happened to the civilization inside. And hopefully the rest of the animal life as well. Whatever it was, it must have happened a very, very long time ago."

"Otherwise there would be more apparent signs," Carter added, stating the obvious.

"Right."

"Any idea on how long that might take?"

"Not without seeing what I have to work with," Daniel patiently said.

"Okay, then," Jack muttered.

Quiet befell the small camp, the sound of the crackling fire the only noise in the eerily silent air. Jack turned to stare at the dead pool of water, suddenly feeling they were too close to it. He was too close to it. Rising, he joined Carter and Daniel on the other side of the blaze, facing the pond. He ignored their startled looks and began digging thought the packs in search of the MREs and canteens.

"Anyone else hungry? I could eat a horse."

When his inquiry was met with no verbal response, Jack shrugged his shoulders and yanked out rations for all of them anyway. Truth was, his stomach was doing somersaults for some reason. If he managed to choke something down, he’d be lucky if it stayed put. It was damned unnerving to be this spooked without due cause. The resurgence of uneasiness reminded him that he was not alone in the feeling; at least two of his team had been suffering something akin to what he was only now experiencing. That they hadn’t made any mention of it bothered him to no end.

"So," he began, eyeing all three of his team members. They all felt it, even Teal’c, judging from the odd look on the Jaffa’s face. "You guys would tell me if there was something wrong, wouldn’t you?"

Daniel’s head popped up so fast, Jack thought he heard his neck crackling. Leaning away from him, the archaeologist nearly took a header into the campfire before he caught himself and landed clumsily on his butt. Jack took that as an emphatic sign something was definitely wrong in Jacksontown. Normally, after he’d swallowed the fear of near disaster, he would have had a good chuckle at the younger man’s expense. He felt no such compulsion tonight.

"You okay, Daniel?" Carter hesitantly asked, skittering closer to the fallen man.

"Fine. I’m f-fine." Daniel brushed the woman’s hand away, slight stutter nearly inaudible. "Just lost my balance."

"Really? You seem kind of edgy to me," Jack probed. Damnit, someone had to root out the issue. "Know the feeling."

"I’m just tired, Jack, I think. I’ve been a bit preoccupied today."

"Me, too, sir," Carter offered without being solicited.

Refraining from an adolescent ‘duh’, Jack simply looked at the thus far silent fourth member of his team. Teal’c still sat stiffly, hand opening and closing over his abdomen, gaze on the flickering flames. Apparently the Jaffa hadn’t been listening to the conversation – he could always count on the alien to be forthcoming with any intelligence.

"Teal’c?"

"Jack, he…" Daniel whispered, halting. Jack threw the younger man his best ‘TELL!’ look, which faltered when he saw a terrified expression peering back at him. "He did that before – spaced out. That’s not something Teal’c usually does. What’s going on here?"

"You’re asking me?" Jack hissed. "I just asked you."

"Teal’c?" Carter stood and walked over to the Jaffa, gently placing a hand on his shoulder.

The physical touch finally prompted Teal’c out of his trance. He pulled his eyes away from the fire and pinned them on the pale hand on his shoulder. Straightening, the Jaffa looked around at all of them, looking befuddled. Jack’s frown deepened at the evident disorientation, again wishing he could get the hell off this rock. Yesterday.

"I am sorry. I must meditate," Teal’c blandly stated, giving Jack a slight headshake when he offered an MRE.

Without ensuring it was okay for him to do so, the Jaffa got to his feet and stalked away. Meditate. Maybe that was it – it had been a hell of a boring day. And this was, after all, their longest jaunt through the ‘gate since Carter was okayed for duty. They just needed to get back into the groove again, that’s all.

"You go. Meditate," Jack mumbled. He snagged his dinner, popping it open without zeal and stirring it with his fork. Daniel and Carter watched Teal’c solemnly construct his tent while he fiddled with his food. He could see how tired they were. "Actually, we should all get some rest. Since there’s nothing else alive here, I don’t see the need for watches."

"Sir, are you sure?" Carter immediately asked, alarm ringing in her voice. "I mean, what really do we know about this place?"

"Well, I’m no expert but I’d say not a whole helluva lot."

"Jack, what Sam’s saying is that even though all the evidence points to the contrary, there’s always the chance that it’s misleading."

Dropping the MRE to the ground, Jack ran a hand down his face. It was a valid argument, but he really didn’t relish the idea of spending quality alone time when there wasn’t even the sound of crickets chirruping to fill the silence. "Fine. I’ll take the first shift. Carter, you’ll take the next and wake Teal’c for the third. Daniel, you get sunrise duty - you make the best coffee."

Glum faces bobbed up and down, then the pair moved away from the fire to get their tents ready. Jack couldn’t help but notice they both clasped their flashlights like they were little kids unwilling to give up their favorite toys. Or was a better analogy that their flashlights could serve as weapons against...what? There. Was. Nothing. Here. Scowling, he kicked his uneaten MRE into the fire and knew he’d regret not forcing it down and forcing his team to follow suit. They’d all be ravenous by morning.

The noises of his teammates died down as they all quickly settled into their tents, and he was left in the unnatural hush. Hair on the back of his neck prickling, Jack remembered precisely how suffocating silence could be. It set him on edge like almost nothing else.

Sounds of water lapping ominously from the mirror-still pond were a definite exception. Jack kept his eyes fixed on the pool, waiting in abject horror for something to happen. He didn’t know what, but the thought chilled him straight through.

~~~~~~~~

She had no idea what had possessed her to convince the colonel watches were a good precautionary measure. Sitting in the asphyxiating quiet, it was all she could do not to monitor the second hand on her watch to make sure it kept on revolving and pushing the minute hand along. Blessed breaks came when she added wood to the fire, but they came too far apart and didn’t last nearly long enough. In the vacuum in between, Sam sat poised and ready. The feeling of being voyeured mounted at a harried speed when there was literally nothing to distract herself with.

Ten more minutes, that was it. Sam messed with the fire, inching closer as if it could alleviate all of her worries. She was struck by the fact that something that could sometimes be so deadly and fearful could also be so warm and secure. Nine more minutes. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Oh, my. She checked the tents huddled nearby for signs of movement from any of her teammates - preferably Teal’c graciously rousing for his turn, even if he hadn’t stuck around to know it was his turn next. Nothing. God, why couldn’t there be any blasted crickets on this damn planet? The quiet was killing her.

As if reading her mind, the dense brush on the far side the pool rustled with almost calculated force. One the barely noticeable breeze couldn’t possibly have caused. A shaft of cold coiled around her spinal column, snapping her upright with weapon ready. Her already wide eyes felt as though they were bursting from her head as she shakily stood and peered into the night. There. Something was definitely out there. And it would get her first, before heading for her sleeping and helpless teammates. Sam opened her mouth to scream out a warning but her vocal chords seemed frozen, as did her legs.

"No, NO! Stop it!"

Unfrozen legs sent her shuffling backward a step, her foot nearly landing right in the middle of the flames, the loud cry echoing through the dead air.  For a moment, Sam confusedly kept her eyes on the threat in the bushes until she realized the voice was not that of her would-be attacker. The blue-green plants waved harmlessly and soundlessly in the gentle wind, mocking her with their absolute innocence. Fairly vibrating with adrenaline, she realized the words were not ones that would come from an assailant but rather from a victim. And it had come from the colonel and Daniel’s tent.

Heart in her throat, Sam spun to find flashlights had been switched on in both tents, making them glow faintly. They looked like giant murky green eyes, staring right back at her. She could see fluttered activity in both of them as the men of SG1 flew into action, their silhouettes dancing against the canvas. Rushing away from her own fear, she almost collided with Teal’c as he barreled out of his small tent. He took her elbow and they reached the other two-man tent side by side, the colonel’s muffled voice emerging.

"Daniel...Daniel, wake up. You’re dreaming, wake up!"

"Sir?" Sam anxiously called as Teal’c unzipped the tent’s door. "Everything okay?"

"I’ll give you three guesses, Captain. Damnit, Daniel, will you wake up?" her CO ground out, grunting as he apparently struggled to quell the other man’s thrashing.

She took in commotion within the small enclosure, concern gnawing through her. This was the first time anyone on the team had suffered from nightmares on a mission, which said a hell of a lot to her. It wasn’t as if their lives had been blessed by wondrous things, personally or professionally, but they’d all been able to control whatever emotions coursed through them to the point she’d heard scuttlebutt that the whole of SG1 were heartless SOBs. Surprisingly, that had included Daniel. Nothing could be farther from the truth; they were just damn good at internalizing. Incidents of emotionality were few and far between, and none on this scale. Sam fretted, knowing that being in a dream state would not be a valid reason for the outburst.

"O’Neill, perhaps this will be of assistance," Teal’c rumbled, handing the colonel an uncapped canteen.

The colonel tipped the canteen, splashing a little water onto his fingertips and proceeded to douse the squirming man’s face with droplets. Daniel came awake violently and intensely, spluttering and raising his arms in defense. Confused and frightened blue eyes stared at each of them in turn, looking a touch on the wild side. Looking just as Sam had felt only a few minutes ago. Instinctively, she twisted her head to check outside the tent briefly.

"Um, hey, guys. What’s, um, going on?" Daniel asked in a sleep-addled voice, easing his arms out of the colonel’s grip and sitting up. His hair was unkempt and fell across his face, partially obscuring his expression, though Sam could see it was still very guarded. "Why are you all in here?"

"You don’t remember?" the colonel pressed, narrowing his eyes as he dropped his hands to his sides.

"Would I have asked if I did?"

"Probably."

"Huh?"

"You were having a nightmare, Daniel," Sam cut in, swinging her gaze from her scan of the perimeter to the archaeologist. "The colonel couldn’t wake you up. Do you remember what it was about?"

"No, I don’t even remember dreaming," Daniel muttered, brushing the hair out of his eyes and ducking his head in embarrassment. "I’m sorry I woke everyone."

"I wasn..." the colonel began with a wave of his hand. He paused, looking a little discomfited. "I wasn’t sleeping too deeply, don’t worry about it."

"I was no longer meditating, Daniel Jackson."

Sam’s ears perked up, startled to learn her other teammates hadn’t been sleeping. Coupled with Daniel’s episode, those assumptions made her feel slightly better, knowing she wasn’t the only one experiencing the heebie-jeebies. She let out a huff of air at the highly technical term she’d
just mentally used, and found herself the focus of her companions’ attention.

"Something on your mind, Captain?"

"No, sir. I guess I’m just glad I’m not the only one who..." Sam started, suddenly uncertain if she should continue with her confession.

"Who what?"

"Has had a creepy feeling for hours?" She tentatively asked her response, hoping someone would pick up her lead. When they all gaped at her wordlessly, Sam braved on, "I mean, if you couldn’t sleep, sir. And you weren’t meditating, Teal’c...Daniel’s nightmare... I just assumed you feel
it too."

Good. Very clear and succinct. She couldn’t even string together an intelligent sentence. Now they probably all thought she was nuts or messed up from the mental exchange from the Tok’ra. Sam sighed again and determinedly met the three blank faces. Crazy or not, something was riling her enough to cause concern. Waiting for any confirmation or denial, she refused to look away from them and kept her eyes on the colonel. His returning gaze didn’t waver.

"There does indeed appear to be a feeling of ookiness pervading the atmosphere of P0X 413, Captain Carter."

The stanch brown eyes stabbing into her suddenly blinked, and the colonel whipped his head toward Teal’c, mouth dropping as the odd comment seemed to lighten the tension. Biting back a smile, Sam relaxed a notch. She couldn’t have put it better herself – and Cass would be proud of the Jaffa’s word usage. She didn’t think Daniel or the colonel realized just how much time Cassie and Teal’c had been spending together, mostly pursuing greater understanding of pop culture. Apparently both the young girl and the seasoned warrior had become rabid fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, evidenced by the colorful but accurate term just used.

"Um…I don’t, uh…ookiness?" Daniel looked both relieved the attention was off of his nightmare and extremely confused.

"I’m guessing…"

"Creepiness," Sam clarified for the baffled men, flashing Teal’c a quick smile. "I don't know exactly what it is about this place, but I can’t seem to relax."

"Ya think? Didn’t we already establish that?"

"Yes, sir. But…"

"Then what’s the problem?" her CO snapped irritably.

The tension again elevated as they all stared at him, confused by the force of his words. Frowning, Sam exchanged a glance with Daniel, now kneeling. The archaeologist raised his eyebrows, creating deep grooves on his forehead. Not really wanting to be the animal placing its foot in a trap, she inclined her head a bit to tell either Daniel or Teal’c to take the initiative. Neither looked pleased to do so, but the point was moot anyway as the colonel examined each of them and loosened his shoulders.

"Okay, so that’s the problem."

"I would still like to check out the entrance Teal’c found. Maybe find something to explain why we’re all so…"

"Ooky?"

"I was going to say jumpy. There doesn’t appear to be anything malevolent here, so there’s no reason not to stay and check it out, right?" Daniel asked, sounding almost as though he wanted someone to refute his suggestion.

"Right. So, you and I will venture into the great unknown while Carter and Teal’c gather the rest of her samples. Then we make like bunnies and hop back to the Stargate and home."

"Actually, sir, I think I should go with Daniel. There may be more than just archaeological information to be gleaned."

"I have assisted in procuring mineral and botanical samples on many occasions. I should not have difficulty completing that task while Daniel Jackson and Captain Carter study the interior of the caves," Teal’c offered.

"Sounds like a plan. Now let’s at least try and get some rest. We’ve got half the night left," the colonel brusquely said, shooing her and Teal’c out of the small tent with a flourish of his arms. "I know this is contradictory, but I also want you all to be on alert. If something more concrete than a vague inclination of something not being on the up and up here happens, I want to know about it. Immediately."

"Yes, sir," Sam automatically replied.

God, she hoped none of them would come across anything to solidify the ice churning through her veins. She shivered and leaned closer to the blaze.

~~~~~~~~

It did not surprise Teal’c when he saw Daniel Jackson emerge from the tent halfway through his watch. He was not altogether convinced the younger man had told the complete truth regarding the nightmare that had had him so in its grips he could not be roused. The entire team, himself included, were behaving in a manner that was somewhat altered from the norm, a fact now acknowledged openly. Yet they could not seem to prevent the changed conduct from recurring. On cue, his larval Goa’uld swirled within his belly and he fought to keep himself from pressing his hand on his abdomen. Such action was useless, he knew, and yet it seemed to settle the creature. Unfortunately, it also brought his companions’ attention.

"Hey, Teal’c," Daniel Jackson whispered as he moved into the firelight.

"Daniel Jackson, it is not yet your time to post guard," Teal’c reproached, though he was not displeased for the company. It was not often he was bothered by the solitude accompanying late night watches, but that was not the case on P0X 413. Another presence at his side did much to calm his symbiote, and in turn his own tension.

"I couldn’t really get back to sleep, and I didn’t want to disturb Jack. You don’t mind, do you?"

"I do not."

The archaeologist gave a tight smile, shifting closer to the fire. He crouched down, unobtrusively edging so close their thighs practically touched. Unconsciously arching an eyebrow at the close proximity, Teal’c thoughtfully surveyed his friend. Daniel Jackson appeared paler than usual, though that could be attributed to the dim lighting. Despite the obscurity, he could see smudges beneath dull eyes, a definite slump to the shoulders, and their nearness was such he could feel the tautness in which the other man held himself. The environment was having an increasingly adverse effect on all of them, and he felt it wise for them to take their leave as quickly as possible upon daybreak.

"Hasn’t been anything out here, has there?" Daniel Jackson quietly asked, cautiously glancing around.

"There has been only silence. I have found it to be overpowering at times," Teal’c admitted, wondering if he should also divulge that on several occasions he had believed the stillness had been interrupted.

"Really?"

Flavored with doubt, the response prompted him to again look to his companion. Daniel Jackson’s countenance was troubled, so he decided it would not be judicious to reveal any further information. To admit he had heard the rapid flutter of multitudes of wings in the black sky, so real he had scoured the perimeter with excessive energy. To acknowledge the terror such a thing summoned in his very soul. He had not felt anything so intensely since he was but a small child.

"Teal’c?"

Realizing he had again allowed his mind to wander, Teal’c cursed under his breath and looked at Daniel Jackson’s worried expression. Denial was an enticing temptation, though he suspected the other man would easily see through his front. Nodding once, he said nothing for long moments.

"I think I understand what’s causing my restlessness," Daniel Jackson hesitantly said just as he was about to speak. Uncertainty continued to flood his friend’s tone and appearance, but also an underlying need to relay whatever was on his mind. Teal’c waited. "This is going to sound crazy. It sounds crazy to me, and it’s happening to me…"

"I will bear no judgment, Daniel Jackson," he interrupted to assure, pleased when the words garnered a slight relaxation in the other man.

"I wouldn’t be so sure about that. But okay. For the better part of the day, I’ve had this unclear feeling of apprehension…like everyone else. It’s gotten worse and worse, and when Jack woke me from my nightmare, I finally realized what it was. It always did get really bad at night. I remember my mom or dad spending hours with me after each incident. I’d just refuse to close my eyes, because if I did they would come and get me."

"They?" Teal’c asked when the story stopped. An incredible sense of familiarity was beginning to fill him at Daniel Jackson’s revelation of something from his youth.

"When I was seven, we moved to New York from a dig in Egypt. They were planning to stay once the exhibit was set up, so my parents enrolled me in school and I started to get really comfortable. I don’t know how much you’ve learned about the social structure of educational systems in America…probably not a lot," Daniel Jackson rambled in his round about method of explanation. Unlike O’Neill, Teal’c enjoyed the meandering quality and he found himself soothed. "Have you ever heard of a bully, Teal’c?"

"It is someone who uses their size and strength to intimidate those smaller, is it not?"

"Yes." The younger man paused, shuddering slightly and leaning closer to the fire.

It was easily discernable that Daniel Jackson was uncomfortable with the subject material, and Teal’c assumed that meant he fell under the category of those abused by such a coward. On Chulak, this was also a common happenstance among the ranks of the young Jaffa trainees until they had been fully instructed to suppress such emotions and urges.. The playing field was leveled. He felt a swell of compassion, and almost told his friend to speak no more.

"Bruce Dexter. He was the worst bully I’ve ever experienced, because he didn’t use physical force to strike fear in us. His technique was one hundred percent psychological, and he was good at it. He’d root out every kid’s worst, most hidden fear and use it. Not to get lunch money. Not completely for the power. Because he enjoyed it. I knew what he was about, and I wasn’t afraid of him.."

"What was it that you feared, Daniel Jackson?"

"He said they watched all day; learned every move. At night was when you’d really be in trouble. I don’t think I was ever really afraid until Bruce put the idea in my head. I had friends, but I usually kept to myself. Read a lot. One day, at lunchtime, I was concentrating so hard on my book I got startled when Bruce walked by me. That’s when it started – he’d tease me about being afraid of my own shadow. It didn’t stop there. He went on to elaborate and tell me that everyone’s shadows were really bad thoughts and pure evil. During they day, they could only hurt you if you were alone. But at night," the archaeologist continued without emotion. "At night is when they came. Silent and dark and terrible."

"These shadows were in your dream."

"They’re here now."

"They are not."

"I know! I know that," Daniel Jackson cried, voice rising in pitch. The younger man ran both hands through his hair roughly, shaking all the while. "It’s childish to think anything else. But I also know they’re here."

Startled by the vehemence in the other man’s assertion, Teal’c did not know how to respond. Daniel Jackson obviously knew what he was experiencing and feeling was illogical, but was unable to use that knowledge to dispel the fear. Nothing he said could change that, and he did not believe it was his friend’s intention to seek aid, only some form of comfort. He was not positive he could provide that either. Now that he understood the origin of the younger man’s concerns, though, he could help reduce the severity of panic by infusing logic.

"I will serve to assist you, Daniel Jackson. Our time here is short; I am certain that upon your return to the SGC, you will overcome these feelings."

"God, I hope so. I do feel a little better knowing you know. I wonder what…shouldn’t we all let each other know what’s been bothering us? Kind of a group cleansing?" the archaeologist muttered with a derisive snort. "Has it even affected you?"

"I believe you know the answer to that, Daniel Jackson," Teal’c replied, disregarding his trepidation at sharing any sign of weakness, "Though I do not believe it has reached the same level of intensity as you."

"What…" Daniel Jackson began, interrupted by a piercing cry all to reminiscent of the nightmare-induced cries earlier in the night.

Intuitively jerking to his feet, Teal’c was five steps away from the fire before he even realized it. He stopped, turning to ensure Daniel Jackson was secure, finding his friend mere inches from his person, eyes wide. He bowed his head slightly before returning his attention to the new disturbance. His symbiote swam sickeningly, his heart rate increasing in tempo. He could not determine if the alarm was due to the fact that another of his companions was suffering or of his own growing fear. This was most difficult. How could he be of assistance when his own stability was in question?

As an answer, Teal’c felt something brush his left ear. He automatically brought a hand up, swinging with force and connecting with something large. Large? That did not seem correct. A loud grunt sounded from behind and below, and he slowed. Torn between continuing to the tents and investigating what he had struck, he froze. O’Neill dashed out of his tent at the precise moment as Captain Carter, crashing into her in a jumble of limbs and curses. Chaos reigned as the still air filled with rapid movement and loud imprecations, and he rotated his head to the creature, cold dread now stilling his symbiote.

There was no truth to the tales. He was not a child. Like Daniel Jackson, he must battle against irrationality and focus on reality. Keph’atar were false creatures. They existed only in stories. He had not just encountered one. Foolishness. Here he stood while his friends were in distress. Ignoring the need to verify his own hysteria, Teal’c proceeded to O’Neill and Captain Carter. Even up close, he could not establish which of them had initiated the current activity. Both appeared excessively agitated as the struggled to regain their footing.

"Daniel Jackson, you should assist Captain Carter. I will aid O’Neill," Teal’c ordered, distraught at how erratic his voice sounded. Leaning over, he made to steady O’Neill when he noticed the archaeologist was no longer at his side. Frowning, he pulled O’Neill to his feet and glanced around to locate his other teammate.

"Jesus, Teal’c! Why did you hit him?" O’Neill swore, shoving by him.

Teal’c followed the team leader’s departure, eyes lighting on a sprawled form on the ground. He had been correct. It was not a Keph’atar that had touched him, and that he had hit.

It was Daniel Jackson.

~~~~~~~~

It made no sense.

Frantically yanking himself free of Captain Carter’s flailing limbs, Jack felt Teal’c’s strong hands lifting him. Already tense from his 2IC’s outcry, he pulled away from the Jaffa with a harsh glare. He shot Carter a quick glance, and while she was frazzled, she seemed physically fine. The same could not be said for Daniel.

"Jesus, Teal’c! Why did you hit him?" he blurted, moving rapidly to the unmoving archaeologist. "Daniel?"

Not expecting any response didn’t make the lack thereof any less disappointing. Teal’c couldn’t have meant to smash Daniel’s face like that; no matter how annoying he himself might find the archaeologist, Teal’c never showed anything but patience. As he neared the slumped man, Jack saw a trickle of blood trailing from the nose and winced in sympathy. Visually scanning for any other obvious signs of injury, he followed up with his hands. At his touch, the younger man emitted a soft moan.

"Daniel? C’mon, wake up," Jack coaxed. "I’m getting a déjà vu feeling here. Daniel?"

"Sir? What’s…going on?" Carter called, sounding out of is. Jack could only assume she had had a nightmare similar to Daniel’s. "Daniel? What?"

He quickly decided he preferred a Carter who knew everything to a Carter who babbled on incoherently. Sparing a look over his shoulder, Jack saw her approach with Teal’c straggling behind. The expression on the Jaffa’s face was not as unreadable as usual, and he was shocked at the relief mixed with regret there. Making room for his 2IC, he scooted back and kept his eyes on Teal’c, letting the captain do her stuff with Daniel.

"Care to explain it to her, Teal’c?"

The other man’s jaw muscles clenched for a good minute. Jack wondered if there really was a valid explanation as he remembered how extremely long his watch had seemed to take – how he hadn’t been able to tear his eyes off the water or relax from his attack-ready stance. Had anyone approached him, he might have taken action before realizing who it was. Like Carter had almost shot him earlier in the day. Shit, they were in trouble. Scowling, he glared at the pool of water, muscles strangely flexing for flight. Duty to Earth and the SGC had to come before trivial, silly feelings of unexplainable fear. Right. He’d just keep repeating that until he believed it.

"I cannot. In the confusion, I believed there was a…hostile presence by my side. It was an error, and I must have struck Daniel Jackson."

"Daniel sneaked up on you?" Jack asked, sure Daniel had left the tent at least ten minutes prior to Carter’s nightmare.

"No. Daniel Jackson was at my side."

"But you just said you didn’t know it was him!"

"That is correct, O’Neill. Captain Carter, how is Daniel Jackson?"

"He’s fine," a thick, non-feminine voice said.

"Daniel!" Jack’s attention immediately returned to the archaeologist.

"Jack."

"You okay?"

"I don’t think anything’s broken. Headache. What hit me?" Daniel dazedly inquired, struggling to sit.

"It was I, Daniel Jackson. I am sorry."

"‘S’okay. Um, why?"

"I will explain momentarily. Perhaps we should move closer to the fire."

Grabbing Daniel’s arms, Jack heaved the unsteady man to his feet and tentatively released his hold. After a shaky step or two, Daniel appeared to have his muscles under control. He whipped his left wrist up and checked the time, irritated to find they still had several hours before daybreak. With any luck, the nights here were shorter than on Earth. And hopefully he could get Daniel and Carter to give up the science this time around.

"As much as I would like to get out of here, Colonel, I don’t think there’s a valid cause," Carter murmured as they all collectively sank down around the warm fire. "There is no physical threat."

Huh? Had he spoken aloud? And what about mental threat?

"Teal’c and I were talking before about how we all seem to be suffering from escalated nervousness…which in itself should not be difficult to deal with. It’s odd. I feel exactly like I did when I was seven years old. Not just a feeling vaguely reminiscent; actually seven. What I was afraid of then, I am now," Daniel admitted.

"We speculated whether sharing the root causes for each of our fears might enable us to successfully manage them in order to maintain a level of functionality," Teal’c somberly explained, looking at each of them. "Daniel Jackson has revealed his fear of shadows to me."

Instantly, Jack remembered making a flip comment after scaring Daniel and Carter, and the reaction it had garnered. Shit. The idea that he might have unintentionally fed the archaeologist’s apprehension tore at him and he automatically turned to make an apology. It stuck in his throat as he witnessed Daniel’s whole body shiver at Teal’c’s revelation. No. They couldn’t stay here.

"No valid reason? I’d say the fact that we’re all openly a bit…no, a lot rattled and off of our game is enough to make immediate return to Earth number one on our objectives list," Jack snapped more harshly than he’d intended. Both Carter and Daniel promptly put on their protestation faces. "And no, I don’t care to find out what’s causing it. I just want to be gone."

All three of his team stared at him, apparently dumbfounded at his words. Why was he the only one to see the logic in retreat? He sure as hell didn’t want to stick around for the nasty rodents to emerge from the shallow pool he knew they lurked in. Just thinking about it caused Jack’s insides to curl up, and he could smell the foul stench of their breath on his face.

"Uh, Jack?"

"What?!"

"Sir, I think you should point that somewhere else," Carter whispered, the terror in her voice tearing into him.

"Point? What?" Jack stuttered stupidly. Then he realized his hands were cramping around his MP5, which he had up and aimed at the water. More accurately, at his very stunned 2IC, who was directly between him and the pool. He hadn’t even realized he’d picked the weapon up. He unwrapped his fingers. "Oh, shit."

"Okay, so I think Jack has a good point," Daniel hastily mumbled, fisting his hands before wrapping his arms around his chest. "And I think we just discovered a physical danger."

"Indeed."

"Maybe we should head out now?" Jack tentatively suggested, eyeing his spooked teammates.

Daniel immediately took on the look of someone trying to swallow his tongue, Carter paled even further, and if he could trust the firelight, Jack would say even Teal’c turned a sickly green color. Damnit. He was the only one who would benefit from getting away from the water’s edge and into the woods, effectively ruling out that proposal. No matter how brightly their flashlights could shine, they’d not be strong enough to allay the terror each of them felt. The only positive he was feeling at the moment was the fact that if he could keep his mind occupied long enough, his brain avoided conjuring up crazy apparitions and ideas…rats. A spasm ripped through him.

"Okay, then I suggest we spill. Maybe even attempt to complete the sample gathering and chicken scratch deciphering, if there is anything to decipher. Daniel’s got a shadow problem," he reiterated, knowing there had to be more to that story. He just didn’t want to cause any of his team any more pain. "What about the rest of us? Teal’c?"

"On Chulak, there is a flying creature known as a Keph’atar. It is as small as a hummingbird, but fiercely territorial. As a child, I was separated from my father during a hunting excursion, and stumbled on a covey of them, resulting in a large number of Keph’atar retaliating against my intrusion. By the time my father heard my screams, the creatures had succeeded in drawing much blood. From that point until the death of my father, nightmares plagued my sleep, and I refused to go alone anywhere. Upon his death, the need for me to be a man effectively eradicated my fear."

He didn’t know why, but Jack had thought a Jaffa warrior would have more…exotic childhood issues. Despite this surprise, however, he stored away the glimmer of knowledge regarding Teal’c’s past. His father must have died when he was very young. Just like Carter’s mother and both of Daniel’s parents. He wasn’t sure if that particular tie inadvertently binding his team together was such a good thing. Like death and loss were ever really good.

"Carter?" he prompted at last, and waited without anticipation for the captain to tell her tale.

~~~~~~~~

As Teal’c spoke, Daniel watched him closely and noticed how the bigger man hunched over as though there was a need to protect his Goa’uld larva. He couldn’t help but wonder if the thing was responding physiologically right along with Teal’c. Odd. And disturbing on several levels. While he loathed the Goa’uld, he had to admit the relationship between Jaffa and symbiote was interesting. Catching himself staring at his friend, he jerked back slightly and tried to disguise his rudeness. Thankfully, Jack heaved a deep breath and broke the silence that had spread over them yet again.

"Carter?"

Giving Teal’c one last look, he was relieved to see that some of the strain was gone from the other man’s bearing. In fact, thinking about it, his own burden of fear seemed reduced now that everyone else knew what it was. It wasn’t, however, entirely gone. Sitting in the shadowy dark, his heart was pounding as if he had just run a mile or two and his palms were sweating. Nothing to fear. Daniel unclenched his hands and spread his fingers around his ribcage, a subconscious means of self-preservation.

"You have to swear not to laugh," Sam unevenly said, gaze riveted on the fire. Laughing was the furthest thing from his mind, and Daniel was confident by Jack’s tenseness the same could be said for him. Having never heard Teal’c laugh, he doubted it was even possible. He bobbed his head, even though she wasn’t looking at him.

"You’ve all seen The Wizard of Oz, right? People always say it’s supposed to be this great kids’ movie. I never thought so. The first time I saw it, I was fine until Dorothy landed in Oz and came across the Munchkins. In my mind, those things were anything but friendly and jovial. They looked so diabolical, cunningly evil. I just knew that lurking behind the false cheeriness were fangs and big claws.

"My brother Mark saw how upset I was by them. He started to chase and taunt me until I cried. My parents thought the best thing to do was sit me down and make me watch the rest of the movie. It didn’t work. Actually, all it did was give Mark more ammunition. Any mention of that movie had me in tears – and he got a lot of tormenting out of it. I had kind of an overactive imagination, I guess. I could actually see the little buggers lurking in my closet and under my bed, just waiting for the perfect time to come and tear me apart. Stupid, huh?" Sam finished, finally drawing her face away from the fire to peer over her shoulder.

"Shit…" Jack murmured, so low Daniel didn’t think anyone else caught it. He turned to the other man to find a look of miserable guilt spotting his features. "That puts a whole new spin on a classic film, doesn’t it?"

Despite the dismissive remark, Daniel could tell Jack was troubled at Sam and Teal’c’s stories. He was glad he’d only had to relay his specifics to Teal’c, fairly sure SG1’s team leader didn’t need to feel the weight of yet another account. Frankly, he didn’t even want to hear Jack’s, which was inevitably going to be revealed. The other man resolutely kept his eyes averted from the rest of them, swallowing repeatedly and looking at the still water. Reflexively, he followed the gaze.

"You guessed it, Daniel," Jack spoke again, making him jump. Daniel turned back to stare into brown eyes. Running a quick hand across his face, the other man shook his head. "Well, part of it, anyway. It started out with pools – at the torture known as swimming lessons. The baby pool was no problem, but once I advanced into the big pool I started developing an aversion. The water itself wasn’t the issue. But the drains, those were different. I’d heard stories about giant rats in the sewers. Who hasn’t heard about them?"

Pausing, Jack was visibly pale with a bare sheen of sweat glistening on his upper lip. Daniel felt the chill running through him increase as he realized how profoundly each of his teammates was impacted. These were not things any of them would normally air in public, yet they had all just mechanically exposed deeply personal parts of themselves. More than the actual words, this fact frightened him.

"Then it grew. Pretty soon, I couldn’t even go into the shower. Hell, lakes became taboo. Imagine that – living in a state renowned for its sky blue waters, and I was too afraid to go near any of them. Oddly enough, regular storm and street drains were safe. Funny how a kid’s mind works, isn’t it?"

All of their secrets revealed, Daniel wasn’t surprised when they again fell into silence. Silence and fear seemed the two constants plaguing P0X 413, and like Jack he really didn’t care if they discovered the cause. However, he didn’t think that was the safest route to go either. What if this…condition was permanent? Jack and Teal’c had already proven they all were dangers to each other. Going back to the SGC without knowing more might simply exacerbate the problem to the extent of bringing a potentially contagious and deadly disease back with them. It seemed a classic six of one, half dozen of the other to him.

"So, what do we do now?" he asked, knowing the rest of his team had likely reached the same conclusion as he.

"First, we all give up our weapons; put them somewhere we can’t get at them easily," Jack said right away. "Even though we all seem to be functioning normally now, we don’t know how long it will last. The last thing we need to is to worry about killing ourselves."

"We could dismantle the tents and bind them up in there?" Sam suggested. "We couldn’t bring them home with us, but we shouldn’t need them anyway."

"Right. We’ll collect as many samples as we can and send them back for Fraiser and your people to study, Captain. I’m afraid we’re not going anywhere until we know for sure we’re not contagious. Daniel, you can do your stuff inside the caves like we initially planned. You going to be okay with that?"

Daniel froze. He hadn’t thought of all the dark corners and crevices found in the confines of the underground. Where the fear had subsided somewhat with concentration on getting out of here, it spiked again. Rubbing his clammy palms on his ribcage, he nodded at Jack. From the return look, he knew Jack understood how un-okay he was with spelunking. Ultimately, it didn’t matter. The answers they needed were very likely in those tunnels.

"Just as long as the batteries on the flashlights don’t die out," he lamely joked, regretting it when the thought of how that could easily happen whammed him upside the head. He literally felt all of the blood draining from his face at a dizzying rate.

"You can have them all, Danny," Jack said lightly. "Teal’c and I won’t need them."

Somewhat reassured, Daniel listlessly nodded but caught Jack’s face grimace. Oh, man. While he and Sam were inside the earth fighting against their demons, Jack and Teal’c would be out here…where it was just as treacherous for them. Can’t win for losing. None of them. He was really beginning to doubt whether they could keep each other sane long enough to make it home. No. Thinking like that was counterproductive. He had to keep his mind occupied with ANYthing besides failure. And the shadows he swore he could feel wrapping tendrils around him, ready to snatch him into the night when his friends weren’t looking.

As if by unspoken agreement, they all started moving at once toward their packs. Daniel had left his sidearm and knife on until he’d gone into the tent, and he eyed the dark enclosure warily for several seconds before taking a deep breath and proceeding toward it. Repeating to himself over and over that there were no such thing as shadow monsters helped slightly, but made him feel incredibly foolish. He hoped they wouldn’t have to wait long at the ‘gate before being authorized home. Doctor Fraiser would just set up the Haz Mat quarantine procedures and send for them. They wouldn’t have to spend another night here.

Bending to enter the tent, Daniel felt something grasp his right elbow tightly. Heart stopping, he instinctively shoved at it and heard a subsequent grunt of pain. They wouldn’t get him, not if he had anything to say about it. He lay aside his fear of the tent, lunging for the spot where he’d placed his weapons. Crippled by fear, his hands refused to work properly and with each passing moment his anxiety increased. Time wasted. Time that would prove his downfall.

"Daniel, it’s just me! Calm down," a deceptively warm voice called in to him. Was it a trick? He couldn’t be sure, but it made him pause. "Sir, can you come over here? I can’t get through to Daniel."

Sir…sir. The voice sounded so familiar, so in control. Sam. Oh, God. Daniel twisted and peered toward the entrance, finding a distinctively human form crouched there. Reality reasserted itself in a flash, as disorienting as the increasingly potent panic attacks. He finally realized just how big of trouble they were in.

"I’m okay. I’m fine," he mumbled, shakily scooping up the sidearm and knife and thrusting them toward Sam. "Here, take them. Are you okay?"

"I’m fine, Daniel. Come on," she whispered, looking scared and small. Her eyes were huge in the flickering, dim light and he could see them constantly surveying their surroundings. And now him. "Back to the fire."

Daniel quietly followed her, sickened by the loss of control he’d just experienced, at how quickly he’d succumbed to craziness. Tripping, he lurched into Sam’s shoulder and felt her tense up at his touch. Mumbling an apology, he moved to her side and stumbled toward Jack and Teal’c.

"Kids? Everything okay?" Jack asked, outwardly casual. Daniel saw the concern blazing from the team leader’s eyes, and barely contained dread. "Under control again?"

Grateful for Jack’s downplaying, Daniel didn’t answer. Sam quickly deposited her and his weapons on the pile stacked next to the fire and sink to the ground. He wished they would just hurry up and dispense with the things already.

"I was thinking, sir. All we really need to do is get rid of the extra clips of ammunition. We can throw them, the knives and Teal’c’s staff into the water. At least then General Hammond won’t have to explain the loss of our weapons."

Teal’c looked insulted that his staff was going to be interred under water but apparently agreed with Sam’s suggestion, gathering said arms and calmly walking to the shore. As he watched each knife and round of ammunition sink below the surface, Daniel should have felt reassured. He didn’t.

And he was beginning to wonder if he ever would again.

~~~~~~~~

Sam lost track of how many pots of coffee they’d gone through. Judging from her trembling hands, they probably should have laid off of the stimulant intake. It kept them awake like they all needed, but she was edgier than ever. Her three companions also showed signs of increased jitteriness, making her worry they’d only compounded the problem. Thankfully, dawn was fast approaching, the darkness lifting to reveal more clearly the sallow, almost gaunt looking features of her friends. She shuddered.

"Screw this waiting. Teal’c, can you see well enough to start rummaging through the woods?" the colonel abruptly snapped out, tossing the dregs of his coffee onto the fire. It hissed in protest, sending up miniature flares of anger.

"I can."

"Good. Carter, Daniel, you comfortable starting into those caves?"

"Ready to get it over with," Daniel answered for both of them.

"Right. Here, take these. And the first sign either of you are…losing it, I want you back out here," the colonel ordered.

Doubting it would be so simple, Sam merely took the lamp Teal’c proffered and stood up. Since her powerful, thankfully unmentioned, nightmare, she’d been pretty successful keeping from anything worse than the pervasive unease. Doctor Fraiser might disagree, at least based upon her now normal rapid heart rate and heavy perspiration. Actually, all of them could use a dip in the pool. Except that would likely throw the colonel right over the edge. Kicking herself her mental focus, she moved closer to Daniel. The lines cutting her CO’s face deepened, and she automatically stepped away.

"Yes, sir," she said, hoping again there was nothing to explore. The thought of being in an enclosed area with multiple hiding places was making her stomach churn. She swallowed dryly. This was such a bad idea. "Sir?"

"Carter?" he snapped, making her flinch.

"Nothing…how long do you think we should stay in there?"

"Till Daniel has what he needs on tape."

"Jack, if our radios don’t work inside…I think we should have a set time. Like we usually do when we split up," Daniel quietly said.

It was times like this Sam remembered how important and downright nice it was to have a civilian on the team. No, how important it was to have Daniel. He didn’t have to worry about military protocol, though she suspected that even if he did, he wouldn’t let that stop him from expressing his opinion. Or stepping on toes, as the case may be. Clearly the colonel was under strain, and only protests from Daniel were acceptable. She was beginning to think, though, that someday she’d have a similar freedom. Almost.

"An hour. Then we’re out of here."

"Okay, Jack," Daniel agreed, tugging on her sleeve and backing away. His nervous fingers flicked on both the flashlight attached to his vest and the one in his hand. As they moved from their teammates, Sam caught him murmur, voice detectibly tremulous, "An hour."

"I don’t think it will take that long, do you? I mean, you can videotape any evidence that’s there and send it back to the SGC with the samples. It’ll be there for you to study more thoroughly once we’re cleared," Sam rambled, aware she sounded scatty and cursed herself for it. When she was scared, she prattled.

"I agree. History is just that – history. Better to figure out the why and fix it, right?"

Feeling she should be disturbed at how readily Daniel seemed willing to forego any in depth archaeological and anthropological studies, Sam’s footsteps faltered slightly. The hesitation lasted a moment before she realized he wasn’t acting any differently than the rest of them. Of course, there was always the fact they were all acting completely…insane. She decided the colonel’s estimate of an hour was generous. She was sure they could be done in half that. Maybe less.

By the time they’d completed the twenty steps to the tunnel entrance, the sunshine was already losing its morning opaqueness and Sam could see how narrow the black slit was. She had serious doubts anyone could get through it. Except maybe someone really petite. Or a child. Daniel pushed ahead of her, seeming to relax and regain some natural curiosity now the sun had dispelled some of the shadows. She wondered if she’d ever get to hear the complete story about that. She wondered if she really wanted to.

The archaeologist shined his flashlight into the crack, stooping closer to peer in. Out of the darkness, a tiny, brightly clothed being jumped at him. Recoiling, Sam watched it latch onto Daniel’s neck with long, sharp teeth before he could do anything to stop it. Her friend’s screams pulled her from her shock, propelling her toward him. Revulsion and fear bit into her but she knew she only had seconds.

"Daniel!" she called, both of her hands wrapping around his shoulders desperately. She could see the blood spraying all around. So much. Too late. Oh, God. Daniel…

"Hmm?"

Sam blinked into Daniel’s bemused face, no sign of any attacker. No blood. She blinked again, giving her head a small shake. Covering, she said, "I think I should go first, just in case we were wrong about life on this planet."

"Okay," Daniel easily said, shifting over so she was directly in front of the opening, which was wider than she’d first thought. She glanced at him to see if he was aware of her terror and saw no trace of concern on his face. He handed her one of his flashlights. "Here."

Peeking into the enclosure, Sam thought perhaps the reason Daniel wasn’t hyper sensitive to her emotions was that his were probably running amok themselves. The flashlight cut a narrow path into the dark, shadows flickering enough to make her nerves jangle. His must be all over the place, which would also explain why he was so quick to let her go first. Normally, he’d get bullish when it was implied he might not be the best at defending himself. This was a bad idea. Bad. She was sure she’d said that at one point or another. Hadn’t she?

"Sam?"

"Huh?"

"Well, in order to explore whatever’s inside the caves, we have to be inside the caves."

"Right," she said, still not moving.

"It looks like it widens out a bit a couple of feet in. You lead the way, and then we can go side by side."

Nodding, Sam finally inched into the cave. She was extremely conscious of Daniel’s presence behind her, using it as a mechanism to keep her grounded. As long as she could remember it was him and not some rabid apparition she’d be just fine. The archaeologist’s light added to the dim glow, easing her fear. She could see the far walls of the cave and the emptiness of the chamber. Sliding over when the width of the cave allowed, she smiled at Daniel in relief and encouragement. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Moving deeper into the cave, they encountered nothing through the first couple of turns. The absence of the yellowed natural lighting from the slit in the rocks had a huge impact on the atmosphere. Sam was reminded of her vacation to Scotland when she was younger, more specifically the tunnels under St. Andrews. Cold and dank, she’d been able to feel the blood, sweat and fear of people long dead. The same feeling here chilled her straight to the core.

"Sam, wait up a second," Daniel whispered, slowing his pace. "I think I see something down there."

Instantly acquiescing, Sam stopped and looked down a deviating tunnel. Her flashlight flickered as if it were running out of juice, and she tapped it against her left hand. Illuminating the area, she saw what Daniel was indicating. Oh, crap. Was that…

"Oh, God, I think those are bones."

"Humanoid bones," Sam grimly concurred, her stomach flipping over. Lots and lots of them. Fingering her radio, she spat, "Colonel, we’ve found something. Do you copy?"

The only sound she heard for several long minutes was Daniel’s accelerated breathing. Flicking her eyes over the ancient, but still horrific scene in front of them, Sam caught sight of scratches on the walls. Daniel moved toward them automatically.

"Colonel, do you read?" she called again, panic starting to rise with accompanying claustrophobia. She looked at Daniel with a shake of her head. "I think the rocks must be blocking the transmission."

"Well, there’s not much Jack and Teal’c could do in here, anyway, except take up room. Shine your light on this writing, will you? I think we’d better do this fast," Daniel nervously said, eyes narrowing.

"Can you interpret any of this?"

"Let’s just say these people didn’t die naturally. The pictographs start out very concise and logical – a detail of daily life, I think. But there’s a definite progression into chaos. I don’t know what, but something here caused these people to lose their lucidity. Incrementally and ultimately fatally. I think."

As he spoke, Sam found herself growing sicker and sicker. The skeletons on the ground were gruesomely shaped, mouths agape. In some cases, skulls had very obviously been crushed. She couldn’t pull her eyes away, barely registering Daniel’s continued murmurs. Her eyes gravitated to the bodies closest to her, and she saw one of them clutching a crude knife in twisted ivory fingers. Without thinking, she reached for it.

Skittering footsteps sounded from her left and Sam twirled, propelled by self-preservation instinct. Knife up, she stared with horror at the approaching demons. Cheerful, bright clothing belied the malevolent expressions twisting the faces of three small figures creeping toward her. Glancing down at the instrument in her hand, she fisted it tightly and brought it up in front of her. They wouldn’t get her. She was stronger than them, and she wouldn’t give them the chance to get the upper hand.

"NO!" she screamed, lunging for the closest one with her knife swinging. It crumpled onto the ground as the other two jumped on her. "No, no, no, no!"

Swiping her arm wildly, Sam prayed it would contact her attackers and was satisfied when one of them howled in pain and she felt hot liquid splash on her hand. She knew she couldn’t relent as the three multiplied into a dozen. They wouldn’t get her. They wouldn’t get her! They wouldn’t…too many. God, they were all over her now, tiny fists pummeling her midsection until she couldn’t breathe.

Sam choked out in denial, felt a powerful blow to her jaw and fell into the horde. Darkness threatened, and she gave in to it.

~~~~~~~~

"What’s taking them so long? Was I not clear in my between the lines hurry it up instructions?" O’Neill muttered under his breath, glaring unhappily at the water’s edge. "I mean, look at us. Don’t quote me but I think we set some type of sample gathering speed record here."

Teal’c only half listened to his companion’s irritated rambling, the bulk of his concentration devoted to retaining control of the battle waging within his mind. The only thing keep him from losing himself in the throes of fear was the knowledge that if he felt it so deeply, his human friend undoubtedly felt it in far excess.. He must ignore the Keph’atar he saw on every periphery of brush and rock. If he did not, they all might suffer a terrible fate. He did not know why, but he was certain of this truth.

"Captain Carter? Daniel. Come in," O’Neill snapped into his radio, giving it a shake when no response was gained. "Damnit. Why won’t they answer?"

"It is likely the stones are preventing the radio signals from reaching them, O’Neill. Perhaps we should enter the cave and locate them."

Inside would be safer than out here. Keph’atar did not inhabit enclosed spaces, building nests only in the open. No. There was no life on P0X 413. No Keph’atar. Teal’c struggled to keep that thought foremost in his mind. Inside would be better. Rising, he glanced down at O’Neill’s huddled form. The team leader was becoming less proficient at hiding his distress, eyes always reverting to their paranoid perusal of the water. Unconsciously, Teal’c followed the gaze as if to witness for himself the horrors he believed were playing out for O’Neill.

"Yeah, I’m for that. Let’s go."

They traveled five steps before both seemed to realize at once that they were without light. The interior of the caves would prove difficult to sojourn in complete darkness. Halting, Teal’c turned to O’Neill at the same moment O’Neill turned to him.

"Shit. Light. Fire?"

He turned back toward the camp and the ashes that were the only remnants of the fire. Teal’c knew he would have less difficulty in the dark than O’Neill, his eyesight enhanced by the larva swimming more and more erratically in its pouch.

"My eyesight will function without assistance. I will locate Daniel Jackson and Captain Carter, O’Neill. You may remain out here."

"But Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.s?" O’Neill hoarsely whispered.

"My name is not Westley, and I do not believe I have heard of an R.O.U.S.," Teal’c confusedly turned to O’Neill, worry for the other man’s sanity winning out over his own fear.

"Joke, Teal’c. Rodent of Unusual Size. Bad joke. I can’t, uh, I can’t stay out here alone."

O’Neill’s voice suddenly sounded as though it were coming from a small child on the verge of panic-driven tears. Clenching his jaw, Teal’c swallowed past the anger rising in his throat. His friend’s reaction should not have been unexpected, though the note of base, childlike fear filling the tone shocked him. Irrationality as an adult was a significant challenge to overcome; a child’s even more. If their mental conditions eroded so completely, there would be little hope of returning to the SGC undamaged. He understood what childish defensive measures could do when fuelled by adult and adrenaline strength. Especially in his case.

"Indeed. We will go together."

"You get the fire started. I’ll find branches big enough to use as torches."

Relieved that O’Neill once again appeared to be in control of his emotional state, Teal’c quickly gathered some dry twigs and piled them within the circle of stone. Searching his pack for matches, he carefully kept close watch on his friend and the sky. Keph’atar were guileful creatures. They could attack at any moment. The yellowness of the atmosphere taunted and teased; warned of impending assault. He snapped a match in two.

"Shit, shit, shit. Figment of my imagination. It’s okay," O’Neill murmured to himself, pulling Teal’c back to reality. "Not real. Not real."

Teal’c mentally repeated the other man’s mantra, a sense of foreboding returning. Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson’s separation from them became all the more troublesome. Striking a match, he furiously fed it to the pile and was pleased when the first attempt garnered success. He blew gently on the small flames until they were large enough to make torches.

O’Neill came to his side, an uneasy expression on his face. "Teal’c, I don’t know if we should use these. Fire plus big sticks equals weapons to me."

"What do you propose as an alternative, O’Neill?"

"We wait another five minutes and hope they come out on their own?"

Disbelief at the suggestion made Teal’c raise an eyebrow. To consider leaving their companions alone while the potential for hazard mounted was not acceptable. For a moment, he stared at O’Neill before he became aware of a high-pitched, recognizable shriek infesting his ears, blanketing him. Keph’atar! Ducking down, he covered his head with his arms as the flock appeared out of nowhere and set upon him and O’Neill. Pecking and beating wings against his flesh, he was barely aware of his companion’s cries of pain. Where was his father? It hurt. So many, the flutter of their wings an ominous melody.

"Teal’c! What? What is it?"

"Father, you must help me!"

"Father? Shit. Not father, Teal’c!"

Shit? This was not a word in his father’s vocabulary. The horrible cacophony of wings disappeared, and Teal’c peeked out from under his ineffective shield. O’Neill stared at him, face lined with worry and tinged sickly yellow. He could not prevent a shudder. Nodding at the other man, he clamped his teeth together and averted his eyes in embarrassment.

"You okay?" O’Neill asked, sounding strangely breathless.

"I am we…" Teal’c stopped. There was something he was missing. The wing beats of his hallucination had vanished but not the shrill calls.

"Teal’c? Buddy? You’re getting me worried here."

Inside the cave. The cries came from inside. Dread settled coldly even as he turned to O’Neill. "Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson are in danger."

"What?! How do you – "

"There is no time!" Teal’c shouted, running for his distressed teammates.

At the entrance, the screams abruptly halted. Teal’c paused mid-step, O’Neill slamming into his back and prompting him to continue. Foolish. His foolishness might have resulted in something terrible. The silence was thick, the dark oppressive as he led the way deeper underground.. A nervous hand clutched his right shoulder and, despite the urgency, he slowed. Stumbling down the slight decline of the ground, he strained to hear and see anything that would lead him to Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson. Unburdened of his own fear, he felt command returning. Vision sharpening, he saw the dim glow of flashlight beams in a narrow offshoot of the main tunnel.

There was no movement, barely any sound. Shallow but rapid breathing was the only indication of life. Suddenly afraid of what they might find, Teal’c stopped. O’Neill let go of him and moved toward the light.

"Oh, God. Carter? Daniel?" the colonel cursed, rushing into the enclosure. "Teal’c, give me a hand!"

Taking one step forward, Teal’c saw the blood.

~~~~~~~~

They were here; he could feel them. Goosebumps broke out on his arms, the hair on the back of his neck standing to attention. He didn’t know what to do. Sam was here. Maybe if he just concentrated on the wall, focused on telling his teammate the story unfolding awfully in the images, the shadows would leave. They couldn’t get him when he wasn’t alone. Sam was here. He was safe.

"See here? This was obviously the last survivor," Daniel commented with a shiver. He didn’t want to imagine what it must have been like for that poor person. For any of them. "The stories are all very similar, thanks to a child’s tendency to fear terrible, dark and very solid things. But you, ah, you know…that."

Sam remained silent, and he felt his terror rise. What if they’d already gotten her? What if he was alone here in this dark place? Spinning around, Daniel’s heart sped up as he realized his suspicion was correct. Sam was gone. He was alone, except for the grisly skeletons. And the shadows. With only his two flashlights, the cave was dimly lit. More dark than light. More dark coming right at him, transforming into physical creatures.

"Not real," he whispered to himself. "Not real. Can’t hurt me."

Even as he spoke, the monsters belied his assertion. Angry howls filled the air as they descended upon him, sharp teeth snapping. Fixated on their glowing red eyes, Daniel was frozen for a moment before coming to life. Kicking and fighting with all of his might, he dodged his attackers but there were too many. Surrounding him, hot breath on his neck and saliva trickling hungrily from their mouths. Flailing his arms, he tried to hit them but his swings contacted only air.

Razor-sharp pain tore into his left shoulder, searing and hot. Panicking, he stumbled back into the wall and knew he couldn’t win. His left arm refused to work, agony flaring in his attempts to use it. Daniel wildly punched with his right, fear adding force to the blows and he felt his knuckles collide with one of the monsters strong enough to make it crumple to the ground. Reverberations shot up his arm as he fell backward, satisfaction fading as the shadows continued to encroach upon him. His head contacted with the wall, and he saw stars.

Wet, sticky heat flowed down his chest and useless left arm, dripping slickly between his fingers. Consciousness faded, and he cowardly hoped it would take him away from the horror of being eaten alive. Slumping, Daniel gave up and let the shadows surround him in heavy, suffocating cover. It was so cold. His limbs tangled with strange protrusions on the ground, a hollow rattling sound underlying the cries of the monsters. Cold. Inevitable dark. He closed his eyes, shuddering.

"Teal’c, give me a hand! I can’t tell who it’s from."

Shocked at the familiar voice, so out of place, Daniel opened his eyes. A dark shape approached, back lit by the bright light filling the cavern again. Moaning, he closed his eyes. This wasn’t real. Cold. He just wanted it to end, but couldn’t help reflexively bracing himself for a continued attack. Hands probed him, different than before. Gentle and warm. Fighting was futile, so he sagged limply and played dead; maybe they would be convinced and leave him alone. Daniel felt himself lifted off of the hard ground, warmth seeping through the layers of clothing. The hands harshly prodded his shoulder, eliciting an involuntary groan. At his noise, the shadow froze and silence fell for a moment.

"Shit, we have to stop the bleeding," the voice swore as his face was enveloped by something. Daniel shuddered, expecting violence and cold. Confused when the touch was the opposite, the tone soft and oddly concerned. "This was a bad idea. Is she okay? Daniel? Can you hear me?"

Jack?

"It appears Captain Carter received a minor injury to her jaw, though I do not believe it to be the cause for her unconsciousness."

Teal’c?

Not real? No shadows? What? Daniel fought to open his eyes, sluggishness assuming all power over his body. With supreme effort he tried to regain the use of muscles that were quaking all of a sudden, fishing around slightly. The motion caused a resurgence of pain and he hissed.

"Don’t move, Daniel. You’re fine. You’re going to be fine."

"Jack?" he uncertainly whispered, afraid this was the illusion, some devious ploy.

"Daniel?"

"Jack."

"Damnit, Daniel. Open your eyes," Jack ordered, grip around his shoulders tightening. "Thanks, Teal’c."

Jack pressed onto his wound again…wound? Daniel managed to crack one of his eyes open, staring right into the other man’s frowning face. Blurry. His glasses were gone. Wound? He couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t. He tried to sit up but Jack wouldn’t let him move. Blearily shifting around, he was embarrassed to note he was…cradled on the colonel’s lap, a massive black lump encompassing his left upper chest and shoulder. Teal’c, T-shirtless, hovered above and to the left, and beyond that he saw a body. Sam!

"Happened? Sam?"

"You don’t know?"

"I’m not sure," he said, though he was getting a pretty good idea. He’d apparently just had another hallucination. It had felt so real; the burning in his upper chest seemed to indicate that it had been real. Oh, no. Daniel remembered hitting out, hitting something. "Is Sam okay?"

"She will be fine, Daniel Jackson. Your condition is more severe."

"I hit her, didn’t I?"

"Looks that way," Jack confirmed with a nod, adopting a pained expression. "But I’m guessing you didn’t…"

"Know it was her," Daniel finished, unsteadily trying to extricate himself from Jack’s hold to go check on Sam.

"Damnit, don’t move. I’m not hugging you for the pleasure, you know."

Daniel stilled at the gruff command, sinking back down weakly. He half smiled and raised his eyebrows. "No?"

A short burst of laughter told him he’d at least partially succeeded in breaking through what he thought was Jack’s self blame but the accompanying slight jarring resulted in ripples of pain. Daniel stiffened and bit down on his lower lip, waiting for it to recede to a dull throb. The light mood made a rapid disappearance, and Jack very gently squeezed his left arm.

"Sorry, sorry," Jack whispered in his ear, uncharacteristically emotional. Daniel frowned, but the oddness only lasted for a second. "You may have KOed Carter. She skewered you. It was bleeding pretty heavily before but we’ve stopped it as long as you don’t loosen the bandage. Doesn’t look too bad now."

"Doesn’t feel too bad anymore either," he said, speaking half truthfully.

"I regret utilizing medication to ease your pain would serve to interfere with the mental degradation we are experiencing. We should return to the surface and the Stargate immediately," Teal’c intoned, apparently not convinced Daniel was being honest.

"Agreed. Mental degradation - that’s putting it mildly. Teal’c, you go get Carter. Why the hell hasn’t she woken up yet? Daniel, did you get everything you need before…?"

He nodded. The pain in his shoulder really did seem to be reducing to tolerable levels, only shooting sparks of irritation every once in a while. Twisting in Jack’s arms, Daniel watched, his own guilt flaring, as Teal’c leaned over Sam. He couldn’t have hit her that hard, not when the shad… Shuddering at the memory, he again tried to scoot out of the imposed embrace. Jack didn’t protest this time, instead helping him gain an upright, if wobbly, position. Pressing on the swathe of gauze wrapped up in Teal’c’s T-shirt, he looked around for his camera and found it beneath a pile of bones that had once been a skeleton. Bending and reaching for it, he lost his balance and almost toppled onto his face.

"Careful. I don’t think you should be letting up on the pressure quite yet. Actually, you probably should be moving around at all," Jack warned, catching him before he fell. The other man propped him against the wall, looking weary as he retrieved the camera. And afraid.

"It’s just a scratch."

"Sure it is, Daniel. But just to be on the safe side, work with me a bit. Okay? Stay put. Teal’c and I will figure out the best way to get you out of here with minimal activity on your part. Enjoy the ride."

Muscles turning gelatinous, Daniel realized the validity of Jack’s words. It was as if someone had unplugged his power cord all of a sudden and he slouched back, resting his head on the wall. Jack studied him for a second, handed him the dented video camera, then moved to join Teal’c. Sam was still unconscious, a fact that disturbed him. He almost wished he could remember exactly what happened. The progression of their…illness was acute and rapid. And they had no idea what to expect. What if Sam had reached another stage? He looked down at his hands, noticing the camera light was still flashing red. Recording.

"NO!"

Starting from his thoughts, Daniel lurched away from the wall and looked over to his three teammates. Sam was moving, hands flying out as she unexpectedly sat up, catching Jack’s chin with her forehead. He weaved his way over to them to help get her calmed down, remembering just how disoriented he had been when he woke up.

"Ah, damnit. If you guys keep ramming into me, I’m going to end up with a concussion. And don’t you take another step, Daniel."

Pausing, he deliberated for half a second before continuing on his path. He was fine. A little lightheaded but the pain was easy to regulate, concern for Sam overriding his own soreness. By the time he reached them, Teal’c had his hands clamped on Sam’s shoulders and was shaking her slightly. Her eyes were wide open, though Daniel couldn’t say what she was seeing. He was positive it wasn’t them. Thinking to kneel next to her, he began an awkward descent. Halfway down, he realized he’d miscalculated how fit he was. Fuzzily feeling himself lose control over his limbs, Daniel gracelessly slid to the cold ground.

The last things he heard were the clatter of metal bouncing on rock as the camera slipped from numb fingers and Jack issuing forth language that would shock any sailor.

~~~~~~~~

Twisting toward the falling man, Jack felt his back and knees gripe at the sudden movement and ignored them. Daniel’s head landed in his lap, face down, and he quickly manhandled the archaeologist into a less embarrassing position. He sagged with out of place relief at the low moan that issued from his teammate but frowned as he took in the increased pallor and faint tinge of sweat shining the face.

Vehement curses slipped out of his mouth as he gently patted Daniel’s cheek to get him awake again. The gauze poking out from under Teal’c’s T-shirt was tinting red, clear indication the wound was bleeding again. It wasn’t a serious injury by any means; fortunately for the archaeologist, Carter had driven the… What had she got her hands on, anyway? Abandoning his revival efforts, Jack shifted slightly to look back over to his captain and Teal’c. Metallic clattering sounded after his thigh contacted with something, the video camera. Distracted, he watched it bump and tumble over to his other teammates.

Carter appeared to be under her own faculties once more, expression quickly turning from confusion to dismay and contorting her features. She stared past Teal’c’s broad shoulders to the man in his lap, mouth open. Jack tried to convey that everything was fine with a smile and a head nod but could tell right away she needed more than that. Near her left hip, he spotted the weapon – a simple tool or knife of some sort. Damnit. He tried not to think of what bacteria might be on that thing and now inside Daniel.

"Is Daniel all right, sir?" she spoke at last with a trembling voice. She pulled out of Teal’c’s hands, crawling over to them. "Oh, God. I thought he was…I didn’t know… We have to get out of here."

"He’s fine, Carter. The knife punctured him right underneath his left collarbone, pretty deep but clean. No serious damage."

Yet. He unhappily eyed the knife, which Teal’c surreptitiously maneuvered out of sight beneath a pile of bones before picking up the camera and putting it in his pocket. Infection induced delirium would not be a good thing on top of the regular, run of the mill delirium they were all suffering. First things first. Jack shuffled around to grasp Daniel in a better hold, one hand pressing down on wound. Thoughtfully looking at his captain’s distressed face, he made a quick decision. It might cause her discomfort but in the long run he thought it would help her move beyond self-recrimination and see this wasn’t her fault.

"But we did kind of a slipshod job patching him up. We need to get him outside where you can check him out better, Carter. Your medical skills are way better than mine."

A vaguely ill expression fluttered for a second before she squared her shoulders and returned, at least outwardly, to the officer he knew she was. "Yes, sir."

"Did you two find anything definitive here to suggest what’s going on?"

"We only just discovered the wall drawings when it happened. Further exploration might be a good idea."

That may be so but Jack was ill inclined to separate the team again. The likelihood of any of them deteriorating again while together was still high, yet he had to believe that with four of them that at least one would be able to maintain a semblance of clarity if anything happened. There really wasn’t much of a decision.

"Negative. We return to the ‘gate and send what we have to the SGC. If it turns out no one there can figure it out, we’ll come back," Jack said, letting up on the pressure and glancing down to visually check Daniel out. He jerked when he discovered blue eyes warily looking back at him. "Daniel."

"Hey."

"Don’t ‘hey’ me. When I tell you to stay put, I expect you to listen."

"Sorry," Daniel whispered, looking suitably chastised. The younger man relaxed a bit, then spasmed slightly, eyes searching around. "Sam?"

"Here, Daniel," she called, guilty expression returning.

"You okay? I hit you."

"I’m all right. Remind me to get you in the gym when we get home. Cassie packs a bigger punch than you."

Blinking in surprise at the flippant comment coming from the usually all business captain, Jack bit back a smile. She picked a hell of a time to develop a sense of humor but he wasn’t going to complain. He just wondered if his influence on how to deal with emotional situations was necessarily a good thing. At least, he thought he could claim it as his influence.

"On the contrary, Captain Carter, Daniel Jackson’s technique was admirable. You were unconscious for a considerable amount of time."

And Teal’c, too.

"Thank you, Teal’c," Daniel said with a tiny moan.

Heartened by his team’s ability to deal with adversity, Jack gave Daniel’s shoulders a squeeze and stayed silent for a moment. They had it under control. For the first time in hours, he thought they might just make it out of this. A shudder from the archaeologist reminded him that it was no longer possible to do so unscathed, and it also prompted him to get them moving again. He was reluctant to return to the situation at hand.

"Daniel, you’re not going to like this but I don’t want you walking quite yet," he began, pausing for the subsequent denial. Instead, the archaeologist simply nodded. Frowning, he continued, "Teal’c, can you handle him on your own?"

"I can, O’Neill."

It took a bit of finagling but after a few minutes, Daniel was transferred into Teal’c’s reliable hands. The younger man had his eyes closed tightly as if in pain but hadn’t issued any sound. A half proud, half worried feeling filled Jack as he rose. Carter’s face almost mirrored his thoughts, except instead of pride she showed regret. Touching her elbow, Jack gave her a small squeeze of reassurance. Nothing he could say would take away her feelings, not even owning his culpability for the situation. He never should have let them come in here in the first place.

Shaking his head, Jack banished the unproductive thoughts. There was no sense thinking about things that couldn’t be changed. Snagging a flashlight from the ground, he followed Teal’c as the Jaffa led them back out into the yellowed daylight. Yellow. The color associated sometimes with fear. How coincidentally appropriate.

"Put him down here, Teal’c. I’m sorry, Daniel. This is probably going to hurt," Carter directed, indicating a spot next to the still flickering fire. "I know I shouldn’t remove this bandage but I’m worried about infection from that k-knife."

"It’s okay, Sam. This wasn’t your fault," Daniel assured through clenched teeth as she set about tending his injury.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows when the archaeologist reached up and touched Carter’s spectacularly bruised jaw. Her face softened in response, and he knew he had been right about her gleaning some contrition from taking care of Daniel, no matter how unnecessary he thought that contrition to be. As he silently watched the proceedings, it took Jack a moment to realize that his feelings of trepidation and outright terror were virtually nonexistent. Actually, the entire team seemed to be in a sort of remission and he could only speculate as to why. Probably the concentration on certain tasks, though if that were the case the sample gathering and fact-finding should have kept them okay.

"Out of curiosity, do you guys feel, I dunno, better?" he asked. Tacking on as Daniel failed to prevent a moan, "Mentally? Because I think I’ve got a handle on this hallucination thing."

"I believe you are correct, O’Neill. I am no longer overcome with feelings of extreme fear."

Relieved, Jack sought confirmation from the two scientists huddled on the ground just in time to see Carter peel the bottommost layer of bandage off of Daniel and winced. Out in brighter light, the puncture appeared significantly worse than it had in the cave. But still not as bad as it could have been.

"Yeah, I’d agree. Maybe having some…ungh…"

"Daniel, God, I’m sorry," Carter cried in a panicky tone. Her hands flew to finish the task, cleaning the area before placing a new bandage over it.

"Carter…"

"I know, sir. It’s just easier to know than to accept."

She finished applying the gauze, then wrapped the injury tightly and walked away. Instinctively turning to follow, Jack was stopped by a hand on his calf, and found Daniel staring up with a deep frown. Concern flared, and he leaned down again, noticing two bright spots of color on otherwise white cheeks and reaching a hand to the younger man’s forehead.

"No, no…I’m fine. I was thinking about why we all seem better, Jack. This may be overly simplified but I think it’s because we all have something else to think about."

Jack flicked his eyes to the large bandage. "The hole in your shoulder."

"At the risk of sounding self-important, yes. I know it was working for me," Daniel explained, waving at him for help sitting up.

"Was?" Jack obligingly slipped an arm around the other man’s shoulders, keeping it there for safe measure once Daniel was upright. He still looked too pale.

"Have your feelings of fright returned once again, Daniel Jackson?" Teal’c asked, staring up at the sky before crouching down to join the quiet discussion.

"I think so, yes. It’s weird, I can feel it building but I can’t stop it. Sam ended up giving me something for the pain anyway, so I’m not entirely focused on that anymore. Since that’s not at the forefront of my mind, there’s room for the fear," Daniel hesitantly said, then chewed on his lip for a second. "And now I’m concerned that by telling you guys, yours will start too."

"Something to look forward to," Jack grumbled, very aware he was the only one of the team yet to have had a full-blown, sense-stealing hallucination.

"Actually, Jack, if we leave right now you should be fine. Right? I’m guessing proximity to water plays a big part for you."

"True."

"Then we must tell Captain Carter of this and take our leave immediately," Teal’c sensibly said as he stuffed Daniel’s video camera into the sample loaded pack.

"Daniel, can you walk?"

"With a little help. But I don’t think we should tell Sam. I know it’s cruel to let her feel guilty – which she shouldn’t at all. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with…other things."

Jack hated the thought of purposely allowing someone under his command suffer unduly. Grimacing, he realized it was a lose-lose situation: either Carter had hallucinations or was wracked by guilt. Some choice.

Splashing water, hideous chattering and the scurrying of a multitude of hundreds of little feet made the choice easy.

~~~~~~~~

Daniel didn’t look good. They were traveling slowly to help him but Sam could see it was tapping his already low reserves of energy. She hadn’t seen how much blood he’d actually lost, unwilling to verify just how badly she’d hurt him. Judging from his pallor, it was significant enough to be worrisome. He shouldn’t be here, and he shouldn’t have a gash in his shoulder.

"Daniel, how’re you holding up?"

"Um, good."

"I believe Daniel Jackson is in need of rest, O’Neill."

"No, I’m fine."

"And I’m running for President in the next election."

"Good, then I have several years to emigrate to Canada."

"He’s fine, Teal’c."

Unconvinced by the banter, the unsettling feeling that her companions were keeping something from her crept up in her harassed mind, warring with the latent dread and not so latent guilt already there. She’d stabbed Daniel. No matter what she did, she couldn’t erase the first sight she’d gotten of him after waking up in the cave. So still.

She hadn’t missed the hushed conversation that had taken place back at the campsite after she’d had to leave the very obvious sign of her transgression. Imagining what had been said was very easy. The way each of them kept sending her wary looks as they silently walked to the Stargate was proof it had something to do with her. Like how they had looked at her when Jolinar was manipulating her body, making her say such horrible things to hurt them as surely as the knife wound to Daniel had hurt. Very adult fear that she was losing their trust and friendship chilled her.

"Carter, you with us?"

Startled, Sam realized she had stopped walking. She had to get a hold of herself. This morbid, indulgent preoccupation wouldn’t do them…wait. Mind leaping back to the colonel’s assertion that his hallucinations had stopped, she recalled thinking about being too busy to worry about illusions. She hadn’t once felt as though she were being hunted by the Munchkins from Hell.

"Yes, sir, I’m with you," she said. Now she was. "Daniel, I want to make sure everything’s okay."

"We’re almost there, Sam. Can it wait? Please."

Briskly trotting the distance that had spread between them, Sam searched the archaeologist’s face for signs of further subterfuge. No, he wasn’t trying to keep her distracted. Actually, he looked as though stopping now might mean stopping for a good long while.

"You’re right. At this pace, we’re only about ten minutes from reaching the ‘gate. Just let me check your temperature again. We can do that as we walk."

Though she knew her hand wasn’t cold, it felt icy when she laid it upon Daniel’s forehead. He tugged away from it with a hiss, stumbling into Teal’c, who had one arm secured around the other man’s waist. Wincing at the indication of infection, Sam snapped off her daypack to snag the medkit from it. Frustration built when she discovered no antibiotics there, she settled for acetaminophen to at least contain the fever besetting her friend. After handing Teal’c three of them, she stuffed the ill-equipped kit back in her pack and put it back on. Damn the governmental budget constraint – it should not apply to medical necessities.

"Carter?" the colonel asked softly, drawing up next to her as Teal’c and Daniel continued on.

"I can’t be certain without closer examination, sir, but I think it’s infected," she whispered back, miserably looking away from him.

"Not your fault, Captain."

Snapping her head back up, she saw understanding in the colonel’s eyes. This was the first time any of them had attempted to nullify her guilt in quite a while. He knew she knew what they were trying to do for her. New guilt, born of her doubt of their trust, welled briefly and then faded to warmth at his mute concern. She touched her jaw as Daniel had done before and began to believe it really wasn’t her fault.

"Pretty great color you’ve got there. Burnt orange, I’d say. Much nicer than the run of the mill reddish your bruises usually are at this stage."

"Maybe we should get a picture of it, sir."

"Nah. I wouldn’t want Daniel to get his hands on it to use whenever I remind him of how terrible his field skills are."

"Well, I can honestly say I hope I don’t meet his fist again any time soon," she joked, a little surprised at how her own participation in the joking eased her mind. She saw more clearly now why the colonel insisted on having a running, lighthearted commentary when extreme situations mellowed out into residual tension. "We have to make sure to ask Doctor Fraiser for antibiotics until we can get back to the base, though."

"I fully intend to have a little chat with General Hammond about the lack of said antibiotics when we get back. Ridiculous that the bureaucrats decided that of all things could be fudged," he snorted. "What do they think we’re doing out here? Picnicking?"

She nodded and they fell silent again, both of them concentrating on the unsteady duo leading the way. The Stargate came into view through the thick brush, reassuring and solid. Relaxing a bit, Sam smiled in relief. The sensation lasted a fleeting second before faltering as she saw branches flutter with unnatural force. Holding her breath, she stared at the offending shrubbery and waited.

Nothing happened. Because there was nothing here, she reminded herself. This couldn’t happen again when they were so close. Almost home. General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser would initiate quarantine procedures and get them off of P0X 413 whipsmart, especially given Daniel’s injury. Sam tried to relegate the increasing fear down where it had been for the entire hike, tuck it away where it couldn’t hurt her or anyone else. The colonel stiffened next to her, as if sensing her returning unease. Sparing a minute head jerk, she pulled away and walked toward Daniel and Teal’c. Focus is what she needed.

"Okay, let’s check this before we dial out. You know Doctor Fraiser – she’ll want a comprehensive report," Sam said easily, hoping the nervousness in her voice wasn’t as apparent to her team as it was to her.

"Maybe we should take a picture of it," Daniel joked as he lowered himself to the ground, leaning on a tree trunk.

Choking at his apparently innocuous use of her earlier suggestion, Sam almost missed the shaky inhalation of pain as she slid his jacket off of his shoulder. Through the tattered fabric of his shirtsleeve, she could already see the flesh underneath and surrounding the bandage was enflamed. It didn’t look like it had progressed very far, thankfully, though its tenderness was obvious. Finding it pointless to cause him more pain, she eased the jacket back up and placed her hand on his forehead again. Damnit, the Tylenols weren’t working well enough. She closed her eyes and sighed.

When she opened them again, a dark shadow had fallen over Daniel’s form. Reactively jumping up, she jerked her hand up to strike even while knowing somewhere deep in the back of her mind that there was nothing to be afraid of. She heard a soft cry of alarm…Daniel?…and it pulled her back to her senses at the same time as a hand gently encompassed her own fist.

"Captain Carter, it is only I," Teal’c stated, bringing her arm down and turning to Daniel. "Daniel Jackson, you should not move."

"Damnit. It’s not real, Daniel. Snap out of it," the colonel ordered, brusque tone upsetting. She stared at him, and realized instantly he was feeling it strongly again. It. He repeated, as if for himself, "It’s not real."

He should be fine. There was no water for his mental…rats to come from. Her stomach flopped at the thought that the illness was progressing so quickly it no longer mattered. Glancing at Teal’c, guiding a struggling Daniel back to a sitting position, Sam read his body language easily. Which she shouldn’t have been able to do. Teal’c was scared. Shit.

"I’m dialing," she announced, moving to the DHD. "Colonel, do you want to deliver the audio message along with the samples and Daniel’s camera, or should I?"

"I. I will."

"Sir?"

"Make it fast, Carter. I’m ready to send this through," he said through tight lips, hands fisted around Teal’c’s sample laden pack.

Slamming her hand down on the red globe, the event horizon magnificently crested and settled in calming blue ripples. A gasp of shock sounded off to her right, incongruent with her own happily relaxed condition. Following up the activation with their IDC, Sam looked over to the colonel to let him know it was okay to begin audio transmission. The look of complete terror on his waxy face made her step back, bumping into the DHD. He stood stock still, transfixed by the shimmering pool.

Pool.

Shit! It wasn’t water, but the goddamn event horizon sure did an uncanny impression. Having never been witness to anyone else’s hallucination, Sam didn’t know what to do. If the colonel was affected as she had been, they were in trouble. Edging closer to him, she carefully raised her hands out in front of her. So far, he hadn’t done anything. She just hoped she could keep it that way.

"Uh, Teal’c? I think I might need your help," she called. "Colonel? Can you hear me?"

Her words were catalytic, spurring the formerly inert man into frenetic activity. Swinging the heavy pack around him wildly, the colonel shouted and started rushing toward the ‘gate. She couldn’t understand any intelligible words, and knowing what he must be seeing did little to help her. Desperately, Sam glanced back over to Teal’c. Shit. The Jaffa had Daniel in a grip she could see was crushing, alternately shaking him and releasing one hand to swat at him. His cries joined the colonel’s in a delusional two-part harmony. She didn’t know what to do, a blinding moment of complete hesitancy overcoming her.

Daniel. He was the only one in immediate physical danger. Barely conscious of the colonel lobbing the daypack through the Stargate, she rushed over to Teal’c. There was no way she could physically take him out. Grimacing, she searched the ground for something to use. A surrogate weapon for those they had so diligently and, she thought, mistakenly rid themselves of. Eyes lighting on a thick branch, she swiped it up and uttered an apology before wailing Teal’c upside the head.

He fell like timber, landing right on top of Daniel. Tugging at massively broad shoulders, Sam tried to remove him. The archaeologist squirmed, and she was unable to tell if he was hallucinating or not.

"I’m okay. Help Jack."

Her assessment would rank him as anything but okay, his face pasty and screwed up in pain. But he was lucid and relatively stable. Bobbing her head once, Sam gave him a small smile before she turned back toward the Stargate. Her CO was grunting, on his knees and scrabbling around on the ground. She had to find a way to break him out of his hallucination without hurting him like she’d just done Teal’c.

Cautiously walking toward him, she saw him reach down and pick something up. She had no time to think or react as the colonel hurled a good sized rock directly at her, only felt the pain as the projectile tore into her right thigh muscle with unexpected force. Crying out, she fell on her back and lay still for a moment. Raising her head, Sam frantically wondered what she could do to help him. The point was moot. She sat up just in time to see him fall backwards through the Stargate, struggling as though he were being bodily pulled through.

Then it deactivated, leaving her, Daniel and Teal’c in absolute, consuming silence.

~~~~~~~~

The first time he had battled one on one with Master Bra’tac, he had been careless and had been struck so hard his head felt as though it had been knocked off and sewn back on in a careless manner. That remembrance of pain was a dull throb in comparison to that spiking his skull as he slowly regained awareness. Teal’c had no idea what had transpired to render him unconscious, a fact he found quite disturbing. More disturbing was that he was fairly certain he was lying prone on something that was alive. He gingerly moved his head, opening his eyes and seeing only black. Confused, he lifted it and his shoulders higher, eliciting a moan from the body he was apparently covering.

As he gained balance in his withdrawal, he realized the blackness of his vision was really a standard issue T-shirt and the body to be that of Daniel Jackson. There could be no more effective motivator. Launching himself back, Teal’c clumsily gained his knees, straddling his smaller teammate at the waist. Ignoring the persistent hammering, he cautiously leaned down until his face was nearly above his friend’s.

"Daniel Jackson?" he asked, not expecting a response and not receiving one from the unconscious man.

"Is he okay, Teal’c?" Captain Carter suddenly appeared at his side.

He spared her a glance, anticipating O’Neill to be behind her. The colonel was nowhere to be found. Puzzled, Teal’c again tried to remember what had happened and vaguely recalled O’Neill having an adverse reaction to the Stargate event horizon. Then, images became intertwined and nonsensical. Fragmented memories of being attacked and attacking in return tumbled around before his mind’s eye, and he could draw only one conclusion.

"Daniel? Teal’c, are you okay? Look at me, can you focus?"

"I am fine, Captain Carter, though I am feeling considerable pain in my head."

She blushed, tentatively reaching for the back of his neck. A brief stabbing pain shot through him before she withdrew her hand for him to view. It was covered in blood.

"Yeah, about that –"

"Ugh."

"Daniel Jackson, you are awake," he said and nodded at Captain Carter, hoping to alleviate her worry. If she had struck him, there was due cause. Most likely, Teal’c thought, it had something to do with him wakening atop Daniel Jackson.

"Yeah," the archaeologist winced, trying to move from under him.

"Daniel, don’t move until I get back," Captain Carter ordered, relief obvious. "The colonel went through the ‘gate, and I didn’t have the chance to send any information to them before it shut down. I wanted to make sure you two were okay before dialing again."

Without further hesitation, she moved away from them. Teal’c frowned as he noted she moved as though she had suffered an injury, favoring her right leg. They were indeed becoming battered physically as well as mentally, and he hoped no further outbreaks of hysteria would occur now that they had arrived so close to home. Metallic clanking told him Captain Carter had reached the Dial Home Device, the sound giving him assurance. He looked down upon Daniel Jackson’s uncomfortable face and realized his current position was the cause. He did not move, instead bending down to survey the wrapped shoulder.

"Um, Teal’c, I like you and everything but do you think you could do that after you get off me?"

"Daniel Jackson, I must ensure I have not caused you further harm. I do not remember what happened, though it is obvious you have suffered as a result of my actions. I am sorry."

"No harm, no foul," Daniel Jackson said, grunting as Teal’c probed his shoulder.

Teal’c could feel heat rising from the younger man’s entire body, contradicting the easy response Daniel Jackson had just given. He laid a hand on a sweat-slicked forehead, removing it to fumble with a pack. Starting when the Stargate whooshed to life before his subconscious registered Captain Carter imputing the symbols necessary, he was distracted from his task. She stood poised at the Dial Home Device, mouth agape.

"The SGC must be trying to contact us," she called across the small clearing. "I was too slow in re-dialing."

As expected, the head of the MALP probe began to pan slowly in their direction. Leaving the captain to the duty of reporting to General Hammond, he once again focused his attention on Daniel Jackson. It was with great relief that he did not detect that the injury had reopened, more concerned with the fever. He located more acetaminophen, gave it to the archaeologist and wished he could do more. Clearly, medical attention was necessary. Frustrated at his helplessness, Teal’c finally moved from his straddled position. At least with his mind otherwise occupied, he posed little threat to his friends.

"You will not move, Daniel Jackson," he ordered, rising to his feet. He listened as Captain Carter began speaking.

"General Hammond, this is Captain Carter."

"Captain, what’s going on? Colonel O’Neill just came through in a state I can only categorize as hysterical, incoherent, and uncontrollable," the general sounded simultaneously aggravated and relieved. "We assumed the worst. Is everyone there all right?"

"I’ll make this brief, sir. Something on P0X 413 seems to be influencing our mental and emotional conditions, more specifically it plays on root fears to the point we’ve all suffered severe hallucinations. It’s very important Colonel O’Neill is not exposed to water, and any type of drain will probably incite a reaction similar to what you’ve already witnessed."

"Captain?"

"Just trust me, sir. The samples and video he brought with him are for analysis but until you can be sure whatever this is isn’t contagious, I don’t think we should return to the SGC."

"Agreed. Colonel O’Neill has already been exposed to numerous people, Captain. How quickly might we expect the onset of symptoms?"

"I can’t be sure, sir."

"Captain Carter, I can see your leg is bleeding and Doctor Jackson appears injured as well. I repeat, is everyone there all right?"

On cue, Daniel Jackson uttered a low groan. Teal’c peered down to find the young man struggling to rise, as though attempting to prove he was well. Throbbing head protesting, he quickly squatted and placed a hand on the archaeologist’s chest to keep him horizontal.

"He will be well, contingent on two items, General Hammond," Teal’c spoke calmly, cocking an eyebrow at the injured and ill man beneath his hand. "We must return to the SGC soon and he must refrain from moving."

"Sir, during one of the…attacks, I managed to find a weapon and I…"

"Captain Carter mistook Daniel Jackson for an apparition and hence took action against him. It appears as though his wound has become infected and we are without antibiotics."

There was a long pause before the general continued, "We’ll move as quickly as we can. I’ll have Doctor Fraiser furnish you with medication to assist Doctor Jackson, and we will re-contact you within the hour. Until that time, will you be secure?"

"We should be, sir. As long as we have something to concentrate on, we seem to be fine. But hurry."

"Affirmative, Captain. Hammond out."

Seconds after the dismissal, the Stargate sighed off. Captain Carter slumped her shoulders tiredly and limped closer to them. A dark, wet patch stained most of her right thigh and he could see a tear in the fabric of her BDUs.

"Sam?" Daniel Jackson hoarsely whispered, staring at the blood. "You okay? What happened?"

"It’s nothing. The colonel was fighting by any means necessary, and I got caught in the crossfire," Captain Carter brushed off Daniel Jackson’s concern, shifting to study his head. "We’re all a bit of a mess."

"Indeed."

"Let me clean that and bandage it, Teal’c. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know how else to stop you."

"I do not remember the incident, Captain Carter. You need not feel any remorse," he stated, ill inclined to ask what she had had to stop him from doing. "My symbiote is already repairing the slight damage."

"You were shak – "

"Sam, it doesn’t matter," Daniel Jackson wearily interrupted her.

With the absence of an explicit task to accomplish, Teal’c attempted to reassemble his memories. He could envision only countless Keph’atar descending upon him and feeling incredibly frightened. Combating them had been instinctive. Glancing down at the archaeologist, he realized he had been assisting him in navigating forward when the Keph’atar appeared. Guilt flared as Teal’c recalled his fist repeatedly contacting his attackers. His weakness and inability to control his actions had harmed an already injured individual. A friend.

"Daniel Jackson, I am sorry," he repeated his previous apology.

"Oh, not you too. Look, if it makes you feel any better, you kind of stopped my own walk down hallucination alley by shaking me up a bit," Daniel Jackson feebly refused his regretful statement, coughing. "I guarantee you I have a few small bruises at the very most."

Not soothed, Teal’c said nothing. It did not surprise him that his friend was so easy to forgive but he did take small comfort in the fact Daniel Jackson’s fever was not high enough to be incapacitating. The archaeologist was coherent and aware, which was not to be taken for granted. Captain Carter warned him softly of her impending ministrations moments before he felt something cool on his neck. Ducking his head, he sought out the medical supplies and extracted the items necessary to treat her injury.

As they administered aid to each other silently, Teal’c’s thoughts traveled to their missing team leader. Though not a planned action, O’Neill’s return to the SGC may prove fortuitous to them. His absence was greatly missed, yet signified hope that he had not felt for some time. They would be well again.

He was positive.

~~~~~~~~

Rancid breath moistly misted over him. Jack knew there were too many to beat entirely but sought to take as many of them with him as he could. Never give up, never give in. Fight until the end. Sharp stone and gravel cut into his knees through his pants, and the pain spurred him on. Blindly reaching out for anything to defend himself with, he triumphantly found a sizeable rock. With as much muscle as he could manage, he aimed it at an approaching rat. A cry of victory as the rat fell turned into a cry of dismay as more and more of the beasts pummeled into him, salivating and screeching. Try as he might, he couldn’t stop them from pushing him toward the water.

They forced him into the pool, barely allowing enough time for him to grab and hold a shallow breath. It took him a second to realize his entrance into the water didn’t bring weightlessness, suffocation and wet. There was an intense moment of bright light, then he landed on something cold, loud and hard. Artificial howling joined the rats’ bloodthirsty shrieking, strange and distracting. He glimpsed metal and steel grating amidst the throng of fur and teeth and tails. No trees? His inattention cost him, a rat latching onto his shoulder with sharp precision.

Screaming in pain and outrage, Jack swatted his hand at the animal responsible for his latest suffering. His arm seemed to be made of pudding instead of muscle and bone, flopping uselessly. Panic overrode all else. He knew he was toast. Warmth flooded his veins, followed by a haziness of thought. Familiar sensations. The pool of water evaporated into nothingness, the rat lording over him transforming into a benign, concerned face.

What? The rats continued their siege, though now unusually careful. Struggling weakly, Jack bucked as he was lifted and placed on something soft. What? This tactic was scary in and of itself, uncharted and new. He didn’t know what to expect but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. He squeezed his eyes shut.

"No, no, no," he breathed, sounding pitiful and feeble.

"It’s okay, sir. Just calm down. We’re going to help you."

Talking rats? Curiosity beat terror, and he opened his right eye a crack. Fluorescent white mauled, a sharp contrast to remembered yellow. Bewildered, Jack lifted his head, eyes catching on a broad dark stripe floating near his head. Not floating. Painted. Solid gray wall.

"Let’s get a full blood work up, and I need results fast, people. Evans, take the samples Colonel O’Neill brought with him and begin analysis. General Hammond needs answers within the hour."

He recognized that dictatorial voice!

"Doc?" he braved, turning toward the sound. He almost smiled when he saw the pretty, petite doctor looking back at him. "Where?"

"Colonel O’Neill?"

"Yeah. Where…how?"

"You’re in the SGC infirmary. About fifteen minutes ago, a daypack and a whole lot of debris were thrown through the Stargate. You followed. You don’t remember? Can you tell me your birth date?"

"I could, but you have it right there," Jack mumbled, confusion still clouding his thoughts but lessening. Snippets of memory filtered through the haze. Rats. Water. Pain. Not real. "That knowledge is not for the general public."

"Welcome back, sir," the doctor said, shaking her head and tossing him a small, still worried smile. She looked away, issuing rapid-fire orders. "Gunderson, go assist Evans. Damn, his blood pressure is too high even with the sedative. Sir, we need you to calm down. Do you think you can do that?"

Safe. He was okay here, surrounded by people, not monsters. Ignoring the heart still ramming so hard his vision flickered in time with each beat, Jack nodded. Calm. He tried to comply, thinking of things that typically soothed him. A cold beer. Hockey. Fishing at his lakeside cabin… A seizure of fear reasserted itself, his chest tightening. Not real. He was at the SGC. In the infirmary. No rats. No monsters. Breathing slowly, he settled jittery nerves.

"Getting better, Colonel. Do you feel up to answering a few questions?"

"Sure," he said, thinking ‘no’.

"Captain Carter was able to give us a little information regarding P0X 413 and the reactions you and the rest of SG1 appear to be having. To be honest, she wasn’t very comprehensive. I’d like a more detailed report in order to determine the possible cause."

Rats. Shuddering, he closed his eyes.

"It’s okay, sir. You don’t have to," Doctor Fraiser recanted, a cool hand falling on his arm. "I shouldn’t have asked. General Hammond said Doctor Jackson didn’t look that well, and I’m afraid without seeing the root contagion, the antibiotics I sent won’t do very much good. I can only hope they’ll stem whatever organism is causing the infection. I’d like to get him and Captain Carter back here as soon as possible. Her wound could become infected as well."

He sifted through her wordiness meant to reassure, hearing only that Daniel didn’t look well and Carter had a wound. That wasn’t right, she was fine. She…shit. He’d done something to her. A rat fell from his attempts to hurt them. He’d hurt his own 2IC and left his team in that place. Whether because of some outside influence or not, he’d left them. Injured. Snapping his eyes open, Jack glared at Doctor Fraiser. He’d left them but he’d damn well do everything in his power to get them home. Control easily returned.

"I’m fine. I won’t pretend to understand any of this but I’ll tell you what I can," he said with renewed determination. "It started off as just a strange feeling, and it seemed to affect Carter and Daniel more than me or Teal’c."

He stopped speaking, an odd looking object suddenly floating before his face.

"Colonel?"

"The plant."

"The plant?"

"The first time I noticed Daniel and Carter were…off, they were futzing with a plant type thing. Looked familiar but Carter said there were differences. It didn’t have flowers but it looked like a mini taco with fingers."

"You think this might have something to do with your current medical…problems?" Doctor Fraiser asked, worriedly looking beyond him to the monitors he was hooked up to.

"Wrong guy to ask. I’d start there, though."

"Okay, I’ll let the lab techs know. What else can you tell me?"

Rats. All over him. Straining to push them off, Jack was startled when his arms wouldn’t move. Puzzled, he kept struggling as though the activity would negate his new immobility.

"Sir, it’s not real. Whatever you’re seeing isn’t real. Stay with me."

Stay, stay, stay. Had to get his team home. Daniel bleeding, Carter falling, Teal’c panicking. Blinking, Jack pulled himself back to sanity. A raucous beeping assaulted his ears, and he unconsciously tried to bring his hands up to cover them. Why wouldn’t they work? Groaning his frustration, he opened his eyes to try and figure it out. Too bright. His head felt as though someone was dancing upon it.

"Just rest, sir," a feminine voice uttered. Doctor Fraiser. He was safe. Safe. Jack closed his eyes and faded into the comfort of that knowledge.

"What’s wrong with him, Doctor?" Another voice now, not the doctor. "Are the restraints necessary?"

"Sir, Colonel O’Neill is still fluctuating wildly from lucidity to acute psychosis. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I assure you they are for his own safety, as well as that of my staff. As for what’s wrong with him? I’m not certain. His readings show high blood pressure, increased respiration, extreme muscle tension…all signs of heightened, in this case fear related, stress. My guess is he’s been like this for quite some time. The human body was not built to handle that kind of state for extended periods."

"Is it dangerous? What about the rest of SG1?"

"The colonel is showing some signs of improvement, leading me to believe whatever is causing this reaction is on P0X 413 and is not communicable. Still, I’d like to wait a little longer just to be on the safe side. As long as SG1 are stable, they need to stay where they are."

They were talking about his team as though they were unimportant. Priority one should be getting them home, not putzing around in some lab. Angry, Jack growled and tried to sit up. They wouldn’t stop him from going back to his friends. Again, his movement was stilted by something. He peered down at his hands. Restraints. Damn them!

"No, I have to help them. Why are you trying to stop me?" Jack screamed, feeling the veins in his neck tremble with the force of his words. Out to get him. "You’re going force me to stay here and to let them die! No!"

"Doctor?"

"I don’t know, sir. We’ve given him a pretty strong dose of sedative already but it doesn’t seem to be doing much good. It’s as though he’s becoming increasingly paranoid – no longer consumed by fear."

"Stop talking about me like I’m not here!!" he shouted furiously. They were all working against him. Everyone. Taking away his freedom. Never give up, never give in. Fight until the end. A sharp sensation in his arm made him rear off the bed but it was useless. Muscles wilted under forced and false relaxation. No.

They were killing his team.

~~~~~~~~

Hot. So hot.

Daniel stared across the clearing, watching Sam and Teal’c sort through the supplies the SGC had just deposited for them. His fever was rising again, he could feel it heating the blood within his veins. Shivering with sudden and incongruous chill, he pulled his jacket tighter together with his right hand. He closed his eyes, weary from the infection he’d known was getting worse by simply looking at Sam’s frightened face as she’d hovered above him minutes ago. Rest, she’d said. He needed rest. He needed more than that but hadn’t corrected her. Worry for her, Teal’c and one missing Jack O’Neill prevented him from voicing concern for his own health.

Hot again. Not good.

"Daniel?"

Peeling his eyelids up, he saw Sam and Teal’c had rejoined him. The Jaffa was busily building a fire, which Daniel suddenly found extremely humorous. A traitorous giggle wracked him, stopped by agony flaring up as a redundant reminder of his injury. Fire. Who needed it when it was so warm? Ice captured his forehead, making him hiss.

"You’re burning up," Sam worriedly proclaimed, shifting her frosty fingers to the side of his face. He couldn’t help but move away, turning his head. "Daniel, can you sit up a bit? Doctor Fraiser sent some antibiotics, but they’re oral."

Oral B. Oral Roberts. Oral hygiene. Or ah, who cared? Sick. Sha’re always tried to make him take pungent, herbal remedies to quicken his recovery. Didn’t need them. Get better on his own, thank you.

"No, Sha’re. Fine. Let me sleep," Daniel growled, fever causing ill temper. It always did. "Go away."

"Daniel, it’s Sam. Please work with me."

Bewildered at the brassy tone so unlike Sha’re’s melodious voice, Daniel twisted his neck back around to face her. Bright, short blond hair and blue, blue eyes floated above his face. Not right. Not Sha’re. Couldn’t be. Sha’re was gone, gone. The blue eyes flashed white, and he gasped. Goa’uld? They took his wife and now they were here for him.

"No, don’t."

"It’s okay, Daniel," the Goa’uld calmly told him, turning its head away. "Teal’c, can you give me a hand? He’s getting delirious. We have to get his temperature down. Grab the icepacks."

A dark mountain moved up behind the Goa’uld woman, terrifyingly huge. Daniel saw gold at the top, gleaming in a serpentine loop. This thing took her. He took Sha’re. Recoiling instinctively, a blast of heat scored his left shoulder, moved outward, and encapsulated his entire body. Rocked him back to reality. Sam. Teal’c.

"Good, I’m good," Daniel slurred untruthfully. His heart was pounding a terrible rhythm, throbbing blood into his veins and wounded shoulder. Gray gnawed at the edges of his blurry vision but he could still make out the disbelief on Sam’s face. He amended, "I’m okay."

She snorted as Teal’c returned, oddly shaped white bundles clutched in one hand, canteen in another. Anxiety sprang up again as his teammates worked together to prepare the white bundles, a snapping sound filling the air. Snapping like bones breaking. Jerking, Daniel fought to remain calm even as surreal images entwined in front of him. One moment Sam and Teal’c’s concern filled him with warmth, the next a blast of cold made him shiver as a Goa’uld and her Jaffa taunted him with hinted news of Sha’re and Skaara. He didn’t know which was real.

"Daniel, Teal’c’s going to lift you a bit. Then I need you to swallow these and a bit of water, okay?"

It sounded like such a reasonable request. No. He couldn’t without knowing for certain.

"Tell me."

"Tell you?"

"Where are they? Tell me where they are," Daniel ordered, hysteria raising his voice in pitch.

"Who?"

Tok’ra. Rebellion. She knew. She had to know. And he was a first prime, privy to all sorts of horrible knowledge. They had to tell him.

"You know who. Sha’re. Skaara," Daniel sighed, angry at the way the words slurred and cracked. "You said you knew where to find her. You took them from me."

The Tok’ra gasped, reeling away from him. Upset. She was upset? His wife and brother were out there and this…person was upset.

"Their location is unknown to us, Daniel Jackson. It is likely Skaara perished with Klorel and Apophis."

Solid truth in the words and voice, known to him. Teal’c. No evil Jaffa. No Tok’ra. No Goa’uld. No Sha’re. Skaara dead. What was happening? Loosening tensed muscles, Daniel limply sagged onto the cold ground. So cold. Oh, God. Sam. Her back was turned to him, shoulders shaking slightly. He’d hurt her.

"Sam? No, I’m sorry, I’m sorry," he moaned. "Please."

The shoulders unslumped stiffly and held for a moment before Sam swiveled about to face him again. Her eyes were red with emotion, cheeks pale with it. Completely sure who he was and who they were now, Daniel shook his head in misery. Not fever. What was this? A shaking hand held two large pills between thumb, fore and middle finger. He held up his right hand dutifully and let them drop onto his palm. Sam’s hand withdrew but he grabbed at it, pleasantly amazed his coordination still worked when everything felt like paste.

Daniel wanted to say so much. All he managed was, "Not real. Sorry."

She nodded but didn’t look at him, pulling her cool hand away from his touch. Pulling more than her hand, ripping something almost tangibly from him and withdrawing. A blank mask, her expression slashed into him. The same face she’d worn for so long after Jolinar died inside her. He’d done that.. Helplessly, Daniel watched her walk toward the supplies, fumbling around with shuddering movements. Anguished heat rose biliously again, soaking into every inch of his body. Hot. So hot.

"Sam," he croaked.

"She will be well, Daniel Jackson," Teal’c rumbled quietly. "She understands the fever within you causes you to see things that are not there. You must take the medication Doctor Fraiser has provided and rest until we are able to return to the SGC."

Not to be argued with, Teal’c promptly eased a strong arm beneath his shoulders and lifted him with gentleness that silenced any protest Daniel might have. Gratefully resting his head on a broad shoulder, he lifted his treacherous right hand up to his mouth and deposited one of the pills and was instantly plied with a canteen of cool water. Choking a swallow, he rested before repeating the action. He closed his eyes and waited to be lowered to the ground.

When he didn’t move, Daniel pried open his eyes in confusion and caught a fleeting softness shading Teal’c’s eyes. Worry and something else he couldn’t identify. He weakly nodded, wishing he could wipe that expression away. He was fine. A cough tickled his lungs, burbling up before he could contain it. Groping his hand upward, he clasped his friend’s jacket in a tight fist as he scrunched his eyes and rode the spasms of pain radiating from the infected shoulder.

Teal’c abruptly shifted away, levering Daniel’s fingers from their hold. Perplexed and hurt by the departure, he involuntarily let out a small moan. Hot. Scrabbling at his jacket, he tried to squirm out of the heat-entrapping garment. He ignored the arrows trying to stop him. Hot. Cold. Ice bathed his forehead and neck. Felt good.

"Teal’c, can you move him without jarring the shoulder any more? We can slide him onto a sleeping bag. That way we can move him more easily."

Sam? Sam was back. Felt good. Daniel feebly tried to raise his head, prevented by an unyielding force. Instead, he opened his eyes and located her immediately. She smiled at him and he relaxed. She didn’t hate him anymore.

"It was not Daniel Jackson’s intention to harm, Captain Carter."

"I know, Teal’c. It’s the infection," Sam whispered, still looking at Daniel. Her features momentarily curled from barely concealed apprehension to guilty anger.

Daniel shook his head. Not her fault. Not fever. He had to tell them so they could prepare for the tumultuous swing of reality and unreality. Jolinar stared at him with smug knowledge she refused to share. Laughed at him, unwilling to help. He ground his teeth angrily as she chortled, rubbing elbows with her depraved warrior companion. Sam shook her head back at him. He blinked and fought to keep from vomiting.

"Not shadows. Bigger," Daniel heard himself say nonsensically. Why couldn’t he say what he needed to? Aggravated, he tried again, "No fever."

"Your temperature is quite high, Daniel Jackson. Please remain motionless as I move you."

"No, not fever. Warn you," he whispered, then screamed as Jolinar and the Jaffa savagely thrust their fingers into his wounded body.

Dark came.

~~~~~~~~

Sam felt Daniel’s eyes follow her as she teetered away from him and Teal’c, heard his accusation over and over. Her lungs seized as the force of the words seemed to knock the air out of them with an almighty punch. "You said you knew where to find her. Tell me!" Common sense said not to take it personally but despair filled her anyway. Daniel didn’t see her. He’d talked in his sleep before, dreams obviously haunted by his lost wife. He’d been begging someone to tell him where she was. Now she knew who and it killed her.

Trust was gone. Daniel thought she knew something about his wife and wouldn’t tell him. Tilting her head as she heard Teal’c’s voice deeply rumble, Sam didn’t have to eavesdrop to know he was assuring the archaeologist’s accuracy in doubt. Teal’c hadn’t believed Jolinar was a Tok’ra, she remembered. He had fled the room with scoffing skepticism. They weren’t the only ones. The colonel, too. Sam had tried to help him through his hallucination and he’d rejected it. Threw rocks at her!

The unfairness of the indictment her three teammates brought down cut her soul deep and swift anger welled. How dare they doubt her loyalty, her dependability…her? Wait, wait, wait. No. Fighting past the rushing emotions of betrayal and hurt, Sam tried to think. She stared up into the sky, eyes catching a mustard colored fluff of a cloud breezing by at a fast clip. Watching it go, she heard Daniel’s weak voice apologizing with heartrending sincerity. But his blame had been sincere, too. Which was real?

Fever.

Practicality reclaimed its place in her mind. It wasn’t Daniel who’d said those things; Teal’c had simply left her alone to tell the general of the Tok’ra; the colonel had been hallucinating. Sam let out a brief laugh. She was a fool. Those things were real. Their concern and care after Jolinar died were real. Scrubbing a hand through filthy hair, she stood again and turned back to face her shame.

Teal’c cradled Daniel awkwardly, half on the ground and half on his lap, with Daniel’s head pressed against a shoulder. Instantly, she regretted her ill thoughts and wished they’d disappear to wherever they’d crawled out from under. Sam moved forward, determined not to make the same mistake. Her team needed her, and she needed them. As she neared, she saw sweat lining a pale face as Teal’c gently lowered the archaeologist down to the ground and placed an ice pack on his forehead.

"Teal’c, can you move him without jarring the shoulder any more? We can slide him onto a sleeping bag. That way we can move him more easily," she suggested, wanting to prevent her friend any additional pain.

Daniel started at her voice, head lifting from the ground. Teal’c promptly stopped him and he caved easily but his eyes opened in a bleary search. Sam smiled when she read no accusation in them. He moaned quietly and relaxed.

"It was not Daniel Jackson’s intention to harm, Captain Carter," Teal’c needlessly explained with caution. She hated that he felt the need.

"I know, Teal’c. It’s the infection," Sam whispered.

A heavy wash of guilt flowed again; she had done that to Daniel. That was a good reason for him not to trust. She felt ill and had to look away before her misery became apparent to him and Teal’c. Swallowing deeply several times, Sam kept her eyes averted and focused on the neat piles of supplies. She had to get a grip on herself and get the ill man situated better. Her fault in his condition was not an issue. She shakily unfolded a sleeping bag and placed it next to Daniel.

"Not shadows. Bigger. No fever," Daniel muttered.

He sounded as though he were asking instead of insisting. Confused, Sam didn’t know if she should pay attention to him or disregard the words as ramblings of a feverish brain. She cupped both of his cheeks with her hands, alarmed at how warm they were. Even knowing his temperature was high hadn’t prepared her.

"Your temperature is quite high, Daniel Jackson. Please remain motionless as I move you," Teal’c directed, speaking her thoughts as if she’d requested him to do so.

"No, not fever. Warn you."

Daniel’s words were adamant now, and she hesitated. Perhaps they should try and find out what he was telling them. It had been her experience that anything the archaeologist had to say shouldn’t be dismissed, extenuating circumstances or not. He’d had a good sized burn on his arm and a consequential fever when he’d claimed Apophis was barreling his way to attack Earth and he’d been right. Sam held up her hand to stop Teal’c as he prepared to move Daniel.

"Wait, Teal’c," she said, then paused.

No, this could wait until they got Daniel more comfortably positioned. She lifted the jacket off of the injury to look at it one more time, jerking her hand back when the archaeologist arched and screamed. Teal’c lunged, blanketing himself over the stomach, carefully avoiding the left shoulder. He uttered something she didn’t understand, though it wasn’t completely foreign as she gawped uncertainly.

"Tell me!" Daniel screamed once before his cries turned completely unintelligible.

Sam gasped, skittering away as angry legs kicked out. She was paralyzed as Teal’c continued to hold Daniel down, waiting for the adrenaline of pain and fear to fade. It seemed to take forever, though it was likely only seconds. Wilting, the archaeologist quieted and ceased motion. He did blame her. She wasn’t angry anymore, only hurt.

"Captain Carter, I require your assistance."

Shoving her own distress aside, Sam moved to the legs. Teal’c nodded at her and they gently lifted the archaeologist onto the sleeping bag. To her relief, there was no reaction. She busied her hands as though physical activity would help her forget what she was losing. Possibly had already lost. Fumbling with an ice pack, she eased it behind the back of Daniel’s neck and choked again at the unfairness. It wasn’t her fault she’d been possessed by some desperate Goa’uld. Why did her friends blame her?

"Clearly Daniel Jackson was not in full control of his thoughts, Captain Carter," Teal’c said rather abruptly. "Though Jolinar of Malkshur did indeed claim to have knowledge of Sha’re."

What? What was he saying? That she really did have the answers to Daniel’s inquiries and just didn’t want to admit it? Sounded that way to her. Sam clenched her teeth shut, fury growing rapidly. It wasn’t any of his business, since he didn’t even think Jolinar had been a Tok’ra. He was probably just trying to get her to confess she was tainted by an evil Goa’uld, a reminder of his false godhood worshipping days.

"What do you know about it, Jaffa? Shut up."

Pleased at the almost stunned expression Teal’c’s face adopted, Sam abandoned Daniel’s side and started pacing. If her friends were going to discard her, that was fine. She didn’t need them or their fake friendships. They could all just go to hell, including the colonel. She wouldn’t let them know how much it hurt her to be cut out of their lives.

"Captain Carter?" Teal’c said as he stood upon the path she was tracing, hands raised.

An oddly upset expression on his face pulled her up short. What? Her head hurt tremendously. Searching for signs of deceit in his countenance, Sam stood stock still. This was Teal’c. Big, strong, dependable. Former friend. Current friend. She was so confused at the mayhem of changing emotions tugging at her. All of a sudden her legs gave out, and she found herself on the hard ground. What was going on? As they had before, Daniel’s words came flying at her from nowhere and everywhere. "No, not fever. Warn you!" She didn’t know what that meant but she knew it must be important.

"Teal’c, I think Daniel was right. Have you experienced any hallucinations since we’ve reached the Stargate?" Sam asked, unsure herself why she needed to know that. No Munchkins. No attacks. Only anger and fear and resentment. Paranoia. She stared into the Jaffa’s deep chocolate eyes.

"I have not."

Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to think. Extrapolate what that meant. It meant something. Sam rubbed the back of her neck in a slight massage, surprised at how tense her muscles were. So hard to think. Gazing over at Daniel’s inert form as though she could glean understanding through visual contact.

"You blame me," Teal’c softly said. "As you should."

Huh? Puzzled by the peculiar comment, Sam lifted her head and saw Teal’c looking at her with an expression of infinite sadness. The pain in her head quadrupled in size but she shook it anyway, wincing as the action caused more throbbing. She had no idea what he was talking about. Reaching out a hand, she clasped a thick bicep, rigid beneath her fingers.

"Teal’c?"

"I will take my leave."

She gurgled as he extricated himself without another word and stalked away from the clearing. Forcing her vocal chords to work proved fruitless, so she rose to follow him. Traveling about four paces, she was halted in her tracks by a soft mewl from Daniel. Damnit. Worriedly looking at the spot where Teal’c had disappeared, Sam retraced her steps and crouched down next to the archaeologist.

Whatever was wrong with Teal’c, Sam knew she should figure it out before searching for him. A glance at her watch told her the SGC should be reactivating the ‘gate soon. She just didn’t know what they might find when they did.

~~~~~~~~

Legs moving as if of their own will, Teal’c left the Stargate clearing behind him. His choice to leave the service of Apophis had been a difficult and pivotal one, in which he had believed the positives outweighed the negatives. He understood the Tau’ri would have trouble accepting him and the deeds he had done in his former life. He thought he had successfully gained friendship among those with whom he served every day. Perhaps it had been a mistake to think Colonel O’Neill, Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson considered him a friend.

It was always present, the guilt of his participation in the kidnapping of Sha’re and Skaara. Daniel Jackson professed forgiveness but Teal’c knew there remained a certain level of discomfort with him for the young human. He attempted to take no notice of it, though it was at times most difficult to do so. He and the archaeologist had a tenuous relationship, and he was grateful for even that. "You took them from me!" He had been wrong. Daniel Jackson did not forgive and forget.

Captain Carter also knew of his shortcomings, it seemed. An image of her pale, tired face flashed in front of him, one hand rubbing her neck as if suffering great pain. Pain that the Tok’ra Jolinar of Malkshur had inflicted because he had allowed such a thing to happen to a comrade. More than that, she looked down upon him, did not consider him an equal. "What do you know about it Jaffa? Shut up." The words had hurt more than Teal’c imagined anything could. Both Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson’s and they were all the confirmation he needed. Undoubtedly O’Neill and General Hammond would simply stimulate his belief of deserved denunciation.

Stumbling to a halt, Teal’c glanced at his surroundings. He had traversed a great distance in a short period of time, fueled by his dismal thoughts. There was nothing for him here or with the Tau’ri and he knew he should return to the Stargate. Leave through it, perhaps return to Chulak to find his wife and son. Regain something of himself once again with them and Master Bra’tac. Resolved, he turned around and began the journey back, hastening as he realized night was drawing near.

A part of him was taken aback when he found Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson still in the clearing. He had assumed they would return to the SGC after his departure from them, as they no longer deemed him an ally. Doubt of that assertion assailed him as Teal’c soundlessly neared the huddled pair. What was the reason for their lingering? His steps faltered clumsily, pebbles skittering loudly in the evening air. Stark fear emanated from Captain Carter’s eyes as she stilled her movement on the unconscious man’s arm and looked up, a look so familiarly instilled in those he had subjugated as Apophis’ warrior. Teal’c stopped completely, stricken by intense regret.

"Teal’c? Are you okay?"

And suddenly Teal’c was baffled. Those were words of worry, not recrimination, and so out of place for her disconnected idea of him. Now he was uncertain whether he had imagined her distaste for him. He studied her pale face carefully, searching for an indication in either direction. All he could distinguish was concern. This was the Captain Carter he had come to know. The nagging doubts persisted. Strange machinations seemed to be working in his mind, of which he was aware and yet was still unable to differentiate between correct and incorrect thoughts. His head ached.

"Teal’c?" she cautiously repeated, beginning to stroke Daniel Jackson’s arm once again.

"I am…well," Teal’c managed to reply. He sensed she did not believe the half-truth, her head giving a small shake. Unfortunately, he knew of no way to convey the turmoil of emotion running through him.

"Wrong answer. Teal’c, you have to be honest with me here."

Startled, Teal’c was at a loss for words. He simply stared at the captain, who had her mouth drawn in a tight line. Then he found he had to avert his gaze in shameful cowardice. "I do not know the proper way to explain. I am sorry for my abandonment."

"Actually, I don’t think you have to explain," she sighed, bringing his attention back to her face. Discord reigned there, patently identifiable with the same war he felt. The sight of such conflict should have been alarming, but he found only reassurance in it. "Let me guess – you’re going between extremes. One moment you’re fine, the next ready to believe the world is out to get you. And as for the abandonment thing? You’re here, aren’t you?"

"I am," he whispered with renewed shame. It was vaguely disconcerting to hear his feelings laid out in the open and to realize Captain Carter was able to do so because she was undergoing a similar experience. Usual reticence could not be employed here. "Your assessment is correct, though the feelings are more specific, encompassing only yourself, Daniel Jackson and to a lesser degree Colonel O’Neill."

"Daniel said before it wasn’t the fever making him react so…strongly. I’ve been thinking about that. What if he is right? What if whatever is happening to us is changing, growing even worse?"

"Where before manifestations of adolescent fears were of primary concern, now we must be alert to deeper, more mature insecurities."

"Exactly!" Captain Carter exclaimed. "I haven’t had an hallucination for a while. And I feel fine now but before…when I… It came on so suddenly and disappeared just as."

Teal’c grappled with the idea of asking Captain Carter to explain in greater detail but hesitated when he considered his own bizarre mental journeys. Revealing such betrayal to her might evoke resentment and be a detriment to her mental health, as well as his own. Tightening his jaw muscles, he lowered himself to his knees and glanced down on the prone form of Daniel Jackson. The younger man had appeared quite distressed earlier, as though he were seeing illusions. A result of the fever still ravaging his body, perhaps. Frowning, he wondered why the medication did not appear to be working.

"Daniel Jackson seemed quite certain you were in fact Jolinar of Malkshur, Captain Carter," Teal’c stated. "And then within moments saw only you."

"I know," she softly agreed, hand again stopping its ministration. "Despite what he said, I do think his illness is propelling his mental collapse. Fortunately, the antibiotics seem to be doing the trick. The fever’s gone down slightly."

"He has not awakened?"

"No."

They ceased talking, and Teal’c’s mind wandered to the new development in their conditions. Apprehension that there was a breaking point to the illness, and that each of them were rapidly approaching it, built within him like an inferno. If this was the case, Daniel Jackson was likely to be the first to reach such a point. As unfortunate as that event would be, he found himself thankful. The image of the countless skeletons in the cave, so obviously brutalized, led him to believe violence was the ultimate end. The archaeologist’s physical condition should prevent him from damaging his own person, Captain Carter or Teal’c himself. A fleeting look at his ill teammate made him repent that selfish thought.

It could not be allowed to advance that far. General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser would contact them soon with good news. Colonel O’Neill might be exhibiting marked signs of improvement, or they might have determined the source of illness was localized to P0X 413 and was not contagious.

These things must hold true, because Teal’c knew that in a physical battle he would be the victor and his two friends would be dead.

~~~~~~~~

There was an insistent humming in his right ear, annoying and rising in pitch like a model airplane taking off. Grunting as though that would dispel the irritation, Daniel tried to shift to his side from the uncomfortable position on his back. A slender, strong arm stopped his movement but not before deep throbbing pulled him all the way back to consciousness. He moaned, confused. What had he done yesterday to throw his muscles so out of whack? And why was their bed mat so hard? He and Sha’re shared the task of fluffing it, and he knew he had done it not long ago.

"Daniel?"

The buzzing was gone and now there was only the sound of his breathing, and the sweet feeling of Sha’re’s breath on his cheek. Smiling, Daniel rolled toward her voice and was prevented once again, this time by an obstruction that very obviously didn’t belong to his wife. An iron bar of strength pressed down just below his ribcage, on his diaphragm.

"Sha’re…what?" he mumbled.

"Oh, Daniel," she sighed, sounding so sad he instantly opened his eyes to find out what was wrong.

And remembered with cruel sharpness. A sob strangled in his throat before he could prevent it, and Sam’s face softened with compassion. Sha’re was gone. Lost to him, and with each day of their separation, Daniel feared she was farther and farther away. So far he would never find her, never wake up next to her again. Skaara was dead, first by Jack’s hand and then by all of theirs. No family. Kasuf. Endeavoring to regain composure, he closed his eyes and concentrated on recent, real memories. P0X 413. Nightmares and pain. Torment. Sam, Teal’c. Not Sam, not Teal’c. Confusion.

"Sam," Daniel croaked, needing it to be her.

"Hey, there. How are you feeling?" she whispered, brushing a hand across his forehead and nodding. The band holding him down lifted. "Think you can manage to drink something?"

"Please."

Yes, he was incredibly thirsty, mouth cottony and dry as the sands of the Sahara. Abydos. Sha’re. Taking inventory of his surrounding as Sam scooted out of his line of sight, Daniel saw Teal’c adding brush on an already blazing fire. The sky had darkened into dusk and he thought that was wrong, somehow. But the reason escaped him. Sam tended to his basic need with solemnity and silence and he longed for her to speak. Tell him what was in his mind was wrong. Wrong but right.

The water was a balm, blessing down his throat. Fingers carded through his hair once, then he heard a weighty sigh and wrinkled his forehead in mute inquiry. Was it for the pain he’d inflicted, oh he remembered that, or something else? Voluminous silence spoke more than any word in any language could and told him nothing. Thoughts muddled to even himself, Daniel continued his struggles for clarity as conflicting images played out before him. Sam, not Sam. Sam.

"That better?" Sam whispered, pulling the canteen away from his lips. Sam, Sam was real. "You’re going to be just fine, Daniel."

She moved from him again. Panicking, Daniel flung out his right hand and secured it around her arm. Anchor. Warm. Squeezing it, he heard her hiss. Hurt.

"Teal’c, I don’t think he’s with us quite yet."

Not true.

"Here. I’m here. What’s going on?" he said, carefully forming the words with numb lips.

"Daniel Jackson," Teal’c announced loudly, face suddenly appearing above him. Against the dark background, it looked to be only the head, shadows from the firelight morbidly dancing upon it. Daniel winced. Shadows again. "What do you recall?"

Fight. Fight fight fight. Not real. Teal’c true Jaffa ogre pain torture.

"Monsters." Daniel giggled though he found no humor in the words. "Two of them."

Teal’c cocked an eyebrow in confusion or disdain or superiority. Hurt. No. Sorry. Sorry. Anger glaring down at him, ferocious and snarling. Wrong. This was Teal’c. Daniel looked away, ashamed of his lack of control and the wounds it tore. Sam wrenched her arm free from his tight hold, the sound of rocks skittering filling the dense quiet. Fix or die. He knew those were the only choices.

"No, no, no," he mumbled. "Not right. Not true. Can’t. Please."

Ramblings of a crazy person. Oh, God. This is what happened to the people here. This is what would happen to Sam and Teal’c and…Jack? Hot, sweaty, snaggle-toothed terror bit him over and over, painful chomps he could feel eating his brain but couldn’t stop. Help. Had to tell them.

"Your friendship is false and I do not need it," Teal’c spat at him. "Your doubt is unfounded. It angers me. Why should it be I that is to leave?"

No. This was not Teal’c. Not Teal’c leaned so close Daniel could feel hot moisture of breath on his cheek. Dripping venom and hate and wrong, wrong, wrong. This thing took his wife and killed his brother. Took…she knew. The other one. Shying away from the malicious Jaffa, he saw her staring at him with wide, whiteglowing eyes. She knew.

"Tell me, please. Help." Nonsense.

"Stop it, just stop it! I don’t know. What will it take to make you believe that?" the Goa’uld not Goa’uld Sam shouted, bringing her anger to the other side of his face with lambasting force.

"You lie to him and to yourself. Contaminated by Goa’uld knowledge. You are not above me," Teal’c sneered.

"Yes!" The Jaffa saw! Daniel sighed in relief, assured he now knew truth.

"Shut your mouth! You don’t know anything. None of you know," the panic stricken Goa’uld screamed. Panic? Misplaced emotion. Goa’uld didn’t panic. Not Goa’uld. Sam.

Torrential words of hatred and rage swelled into a tsunami of chaos and Daniel couldn’t hear or find himself amidst it all. They knew. No matter the cost, he had to make them tell him where Sha’re was so he could glue his jigsaw family back together. No, not together. Never that again. Skaara, little brother. Him. He did this. He saw only a swirl of red and pink, brown and green before him and aimed for it. Bursts of pain screamed, vision darkening before he could reach his tormentors and make them talk.

Hot, so hot he couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Daniel fell and heard a hoarse shout, pulling him up again. Someone was hurting. He didn’t know where he was. Alone? Hot. Think. Help them. Help me. Not alone. If only he could garner the scattered thoughts, line them up so they made sense. It was so hard. A fierce cry and then more pain, on his face. Tingling, burning magenta. He saw Sam and Teal’c. The Goa’uld and Jaffa. Fight, fight, fighting like he needed to. No, fighting each other. Pain and death and murder. Had to stop. Yes. Focus.

Scratching around for something of himself to cling to, Daniel sat up. Surprised as throbbing took his breath away again, he looked down to see red on bright white. Bandage. Dizzy with nausea, he reached out his right hand. Fire. They were so close to it. Muzzy, useless brain. He had to stop them before it was too late. In a brief moment of truth, it struck him that it might already be too late. An outburst of pain, flash of light. Sam! On top of the fire. Out put it out! He sagged in relief when he saw her angrily pat down the flames. Good. Head hurt. He couldn’t do this alone. Where was Jack? Jack would help him find Sha…no. Not that now. Angry. Always military agenda first, help last. A place for everything and everything in its place. Help them first. Grunts and curses, flesh on flesh. Killing each other like the people in the cave.

"Sam? Teal’c?"

His pathetic voice might as well have been sounded in a vacuum; he didn’t see either of his friends respond. Yes, friends. Not the monsters, not. They could beat this. Had to, or Jack would kill him. Kill. Monsters. Moaning, Daniel brought his supplicating right hand up to his temple as if to hold his brain in his skull.

"Teal’c? Teal’c?" A confused, child’s voice.

Itchiness all around him. No time left. Over, just let it be over. Darkness knocked. Sam. Teal’c. Jack. So sorry. A bright turquoise light. New calm, at once disconcerting and important. Another voice filled the air, not his friends. Who? Metallic whining. Daniel knew the sounds, recognized the voice. Couldn’t move. All right, though. Hands grasped him, probing and intrusive and pain.

Darkness came right on in and didn’t bother wiping its feet, a familiar houseguest.

~~~~~~~~

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls were made of. That’s what everyone said but she didn’t feel that way anymore. Instead of goodness and purity there festered something putrid and ghastly and wrong. No. That’s what he told her and she almost believed it until she saw the gleam of deception and mockery in his eyes. Using her, using her self-doubt to make himself stronger. He wasn’t, he wouldn’t win. The other one, there, on the ground. Daniel, moaning pathetic taunts in harmony with him. Teal’c. There was nothing wrong with her!

They had to stop. Stop treating her like an anomaly, a freak of nature.. Not nature. Mutated by an aberrant force that would not epitomize her being. Not define all that she was in the beginning, as she was now, and ever should be. Refuting the vindictive slurs with words of equal venom was not enough. Sam had to make them see what no one seemed to want to see anymore.

Launching herself forward as Daniel struggled to his knees with a howl of pain and sank back down, she clutched at his face, aiming for eyes. He refused to see her as her, so he wouldn’t see at all. She slapped him harshly and he fell limply. That’ll teach him. Sam gloated for a second, and it cost her. From behind, a great force plowed her forward and she tripped over the flopping archaeologist. Elbow automatically shooting back, it contacted something soft and she was rewarded with a grunt of discomfort. Yes! Daniel could wait. She’d show Teal’c first. Show him she was her and not that thing. Beat it into his thick head.

Strong, meaty fingers in her hair, yanking it back with a snap. Teal’c wrapped an arm around her throat and pulled her around as though she were a rag doll, her feet clattering on the ground. Not so easy. Wriggling, Sam managed to get loose for a second. Long enough to sink her teeth into the forearm, gnawing down on it until her jaw ached. He roared in her ear and released her into the air and she was flying. Breathless, she rolled and then there was fire scorching and raw. Screaming, Sam looked down and found flames licking her sleeve. Forgetting the fight for a second, she batted it out and let the stinging stimulate her once again.

Teal’c came at her, a gigantic ball of anger. In the back of her mind, Sam knew strategy would be the only way to take him out. He was too big and too strong but if he won then he was right and she was nothing save a used up shell that once contained a beast. She let him get closer and saw how he hunched over slightly. Ha! Jolinar didn’t make her, her but Junior made him, him. There was something ironically sweet in that realization. She had an advantage over him and he didn’t know it.

A pitiful mewling distracted her victorious staring, and she looked toward it. Mistake. The Jaffa took advantage of her inattention and butted into her at waist level. Stupid. Sam knew he couldn’t be allowed to win and she’d just given him trump. Pain rocketed up her spine as she jarringly landed at Daniel’s kicking feet and with it came a harsh sense that this was wrong. She swung out anyway, pleased when her fist smacked into flesh. Too much, too big on top of her squeezing life now. Using her legs, Sam squirmed out from under the unwieldy mass of Teal’c and crawled about on her hands and knees.

"Sam? Teal’c?"

What? Sam shot up to her knees, froze, and pivoted to the barely audible voice. Siren to sailor. Porchlight to moth. Daniel clutched at his head with his right hand, left dangling. Blood. Blood on his shoulder. Daniel? Think, think, think. Harsh breathing behind her. Doubting Teal’c. Anger boiled again, then slowed to a simmer. What were they doing? Teal’c? Daniel? God, her head hurt. Mirroring the archaeologist, she brought a hand to her head. A low growl made her jump around.

"Teal’c?" Sam asked, voice terrible and small and not her. She dropped her hand down, only to bring it back up again with the other as if holding out both arms would stop him. Sharp pain. Fire. Burn. "Teal’c?"

Nothing in the air but panting groans of addled pain. A dark streak trailed down Teal’c’s chin, dripping slowly onto his uniform and dotting it in a macabre pattern. He didn’t move an inch, other than to bring both hands up to his head, on the side and the other at the back. Shaking, Sam dropped her arms and ventured a tentative step toward him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daniel weaving and she veered from her path. The archaeologist fell heavily with an expulsion of wheezing air just as the dark night lightened with fierce greenish-blue illumination.

Bewildered, Sam looked up as Teal’c joined her at Daniel’s side. His dark face was awash with artificial light, and she could see a bevy of emotions warring for control. It lasted a terrifying split second before he closed his features from everything but stoic concern. What had they just done? To themselves and each other? Daniel’s garbled prediction had been accurate. Not fever. Something so sick and twisted and wrong and what was it?

"Captain Carter? Teal’c? This is General Hammond."

Jolting up, Sam couldn’t help but think time must be warping along with her brain. How…the Stargate. God, her head hurt. She had to give him some kind of answer, yet couldn’t make her vocal chords work. Daniel. Glancing down at her friend, she grimaced at the deep bruise on his cheekbone, another injury she was responsible for. But he had deserved it. Yes, he…

No. Nononono.

"Captain Carter, what is your situation?" the general’s rational, worry tinged voice spoke again.

"Sir?" she whispered, not bothering to find the MALP. Sam ran a trembling hand through Daniel’s sweaty, matted hair. Couldn’t the general see them? Answer, she had to tell him. Help. Send help. The colonel. "Colonel O’Neill?"

"No, Captain, this is General Hammond. I’m sending SG4 to assist you," he replied, not understanding at all. Never understood a word…no, stop it. Sending help! Good.

"Teal’c?" Dismissing her, crazy Captain Carter.

"General Hammond," Teal’c said and he sounded so normal. That wasn’t right. Wrath and wreckage and wrong. Sam grimaced. "You must hurry. I fear there is…little time."

Sam sobbed a laugh at the understatement, fingers reflexively clenching around Daniel’s head, making him whimper. Sorry. Sorry. Daniel. Teal’c. Someone help them. Please, please, please.

"They’re on their way. We’re keeping an eye on you."

Keeping an eye so they didn’t remove an eye. Sam chuckled and wondered why Daniel and Teal’c didn’t join her. That had been pretty funny. She snorted and closed her eyes, slumping down to lay her head down onto Daniel’s right shoulder. It hurt so much. So much stuff scribbling around, making a mess with no purpose. She just had to hold on, the general promised he was sending for them. Was that right? When? The shoulder pillow was hot, smelly and uncomfortable. Real. When would they come? God, please soon.

Drifting mentally, Sam was vaguely ill from the sensation. Very odd. Hearing things now, footsteps and voices so orderly and calm she knew they were here. SG4. Had to be them. Hands were on her, prying her away but she wouldn’t give up her hold on Daniel so readily. She grumbled and twisted from the hands. Too many hands. Land borne octopus? She giggled again until there was a sharp pinprick in her arm and a seething, burning, horrible tingle filleting through her veins. Changing till it was not bad. Nice, warm soothing and good. SG4 here to save the day!

"Captain Carter, you have to let go so we can examine Doctor Jackson," a pragmatic voice urged her. She knew who it was. Lieutenant McFarlane. Real, this was real.

Right. Okay. That made sense, Daniel was hurt. Sam automatically relaxed and was eased away. Floating, floating. It felt nice. She didn’t know who these people were but she was eternally grateful for the numbness they inserted into her jumbled head. Oh, yes. SG4 angels, bringing with them an end to fear, and no more pain. Dead? Heaven. It hadn’t been nearly as bad as she’d expected.

~~~~~~~~

Something wasn’t right. His muscles ached, head pounded and throat felt closed off, each of which might be considered not right. But none of them were it. It was something else. Concentrating proved pointless, his mind seeming to block any attempt at coherent thought. Jack felt his lower back locking up and tried to roll before it got any worse. He made it about half an inch, then there was a tugging sensation on his right wrist and ankle. He flopped back down on the soft mattress. Mattress? Noise. There was a lot of commotion around him; chirping and whirring and…wrong. P0X 413 was barren of life. If he should be hearing anything, it should be his team getting ready for ano…no. Off, they had to leave and get help. They shouldn’t be here anymore.

On the verge of panic, Jack opened his eyes. Gray ceiling, gray walls, gray blanket. Not right. He wasn’t on P0X 413 anymore, but in the SGC infirmary. How had he gotten here? He knew he shouldn’t be here. Instinct kicked in and he bolted upright, a clumsy and vertigo-inducing maneuver. His hands stayed pinned to the bed, pulling his shoulders and hunching him over. Brown, notched leather straps around his wrists. Restraints? Confusion and unease growing, Jack blinked stupidly as clipping footsteps, rustling paper and hushed words pulled his attention from his bound hands.

Doctor Fraiser stared at him as though he had three heads, wary and guarded with hypodermic in hand. Narrowing his eyes at her made her pull one step back, then she looked embarrassed and returned to her previous position. She stared at him for long moments as if contemplating the best approach to take. Her face transformed from tight worry to placating softness, as a mother’s face changes when trying to coax a stubborn child to relinquish its favorite plaything. Jack braced himself for an equally sugary voice.

"Colonel O’Neill?"

The one and only. He nodded, disturbed at her further relaxation. It probably had something to do with him being tied down to the bed. God, if only he could remember. Staring at the syringe, Jack muddled his way through thick and dull synapses to understand he was obviously under the influence of something.

"Why don’t you lie back down, sir? I’m just going to check you over again, okay? I need one more blood sample."

Her words were reassuring and soft but her tone said ‘please don’t hurt me’.. What was that about? Compliance came involuntarily, muscles quivering as he sagged into the pillow. There was something not right here. He needed to know something important. Think. Blood sample? Doctor Fraiser cautiously moved to him, eyeing his bedside monitors and hovering over him. Something must have happened to him, but he didn’t remember what. He didn’t feel injured, no overt signs of wounds. Wounds…blood. How could he have not remembered right away?

"Carter? Daniel? Teal’c?"

"They’re still planetside, Colonel. You’ve only been back for about forty five minutes."

Cold sweat broke out and his heart skipped at least four beats. Planetside as in P0X 413? Not right. He wouldn’t have left them there. Shaking his head, Jack fuzzily tried again to remember why it was so urgent for them to…blood. Daniel. He had to go back and get him, all of his team, off of that rock. It was too clear now, everything rushing back to him.

"Calm down, sir. You’ve been heavily sedated since your return, which by the way hasn’t really done a whole lot of good. Still, your readings are much better than they were even ten minutes ago. Whatever was affecting you is thankfully dissipating rapidly," Doctor Fraiser rambled, making no sense to him.

"How did I get here? Why haven’t the rest of SG1 come back?" Jack asked, pleased when the questions actually made sense.

"The nearest we can figure, you came back in the grips of a severe hallucination, bringing with you various samples and Doctor Jackson’s video camera. You’ve been a bit combative, Colonel, which explains the cuffs," the doctor quickly relayed. "It was decided that until we determine the cause of the hallucinations isn’t transmissible that the rest of your team should remain off world."

"Daniel’s hurt."

"We know that, sir, and we sent medication to help him. We haven’t been able to pinpoint the cause but as I said before, your symptoms have faded significantly. Won’t be long and they’ll be right alongside of you. We’ve been working with very little to go on here."

She was being so damned blasé about it! His team was out there, in madness and misery he remembered so truly now and all she could do was pat his head, give him a figurative lollipop and tell him his boo-boos were getting all better. Anger fumed up, and even as it did Jack heard his heart monitor tripping faster.

"What do I care if you ever figure it out? You shouldn’t be standing around – you should be letting me up out of here so I can go get them home!" he growled, lifting his shoulders off of the bed. His body didn’t appreciate the movement, and apparently neither did the good doctor. Jack slumped back down, instantly realizing how ridiculous that outburst had been. Very alarming. "Okay, what was that?"

"That, sir, was what you’ve been doing on an off since you were admitted."

"Oh. Sorry. I don’t, uh, I don’t know…"

"It’s okay, Colonel. I can’t give you anymore sedative, so you’re going to have to be patient with us and tolerate the restraints until we’re absolutely sure you’re back to normal. It’s either them or a padded cell, which I’m sure you wouldn’t appreciate either," she wearily announced, contradictorily fingering a syringe as if still tempted to use it. "You’ve been very… adamant that SG1 be allowed back. Any idea why?"

Jack froze. All he could think about was his team, stuck on P0X 413 where surely they would be getting worse. Forty-five minutes. They couldn’t get that much worse in such a short amount of time. His mind shrugged off the quilt of drug haziness and displayed horrifying images of skeletons and death. The cave. The bodies. Stupid! Rage took hold again.

"I’ve been ready to kill people over it and you’ve just let them stay off world?! Where the fuck is Hammond? He’s got to get them home before it’s too late! What the hell do you think is happening to them over there? You’re killing them! Did you even see the videotape? All those people were killed by something and there wasn’t anything there but themselves to do it. And Carter stabbed Daniel, for Christ’s sake."

Doctor Fraiser leapt back as if he’d scalded her, looking distraught. Goddamn scientists sitting on their hands and biding time as if there was time to bide. Without a word, the petite woman scurried out of the infirmary, her footfalls tapping a fast beat away from him. Going to Hammond.

"Haven’t you heard of a freaking phone?" he bellowed, tugging his bound hands yet again. A previously invisible nurse flinched, and he glared at her until she faded back and out of sight. She inched back again, timorous and hesitant. "What?"

"Sir, you need to calm down."

Calm down. Sure. Calm down when his team, his friends, were very likely killing each other on a distant but so near planet. He was stuck here, completely useless when their fates hung in the balance. Nothing he could do. Nothing but wait. Wilting, Jack recognized the truth of that and nodded to the nurse. He pinned his eyes to the door, moving them only to check the clock as it ticked so incredibly slowly. It wasn’t long before he discovered his jaw muscle twitched in synchronization with each flick of the second hand.

He waited forever, oblivious to the flurry of activity going on around him. Paid it no mind, as he calmly told himself over and over that any moment now, SG1 would come through those doors. Each of them in one very solid, okay piece. The sedatives he’d been told wrangled around in his body threatened to pull him down again but he fought against them. Five minutes. Six minutes. Jack closed his eyes. Opened them. Ten minutes.

Clattering and creaking sounds of metal on metal warned him they were finally here. Jack tried to sit up, swearing as gravity seemed to become stronger. The harried nurse from before magically appeared again and graciously wheeled the head of his bed up a bit and he could see everything so much better. As the first gurney flew through the door, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to see quite so clearly. Daniel. Pale, motionless and bloody. There hadn’t been that much blood before, had there? Fraiser was barking orders left and right but she looked like she had everything under control Of course, of course she did. Nothing to worry about. The archaeologist was not quite well, but alive.

Tearing his eyes away, he caught Carter and Teal’c also being carted in. Blood on them too. Daniel’s or their own? He lurched up again with instinctive need to be there, right next to them. Both were animated, rearing up and kicking. At once relieved and worried at their vehement struggles, Jack relaxed into the pillow. Alive and kicking. They would be okay. Worry and anger that had been keeping him conscious faded away and left him without energy.

And unable to keep his eyes open any longer.

~~~~~~~~

As awareness came upon him slowly, Teal’c had the distinct impression it was not the first time he had surfaced from slumber. Imprecise recollections cluttered his brain, of brightness, confusion and diminishing pain. This time was different, more tangible, and he pulled himself toward it. Weakness of his symbiote was easily detectable, and thus he was able to determine he had remained insensible for a considerable length of time. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew there was something terrible.

"Twenty, twenty, twenty four hours ago, I wanna be sedated. Nothing to do, nowhere to go-o, I wanna be sedated," a monotone voice chanted nearby.

O’Neill? Teal’c did not know whether to trust his ears. Opening his eyes, he was again struck by overwhelming lightness, and it took several blinks before he adjusted enough to realize he was in the SGC infirmary. He turned his head the direction of the questionable singing and saw it was indeed O’Neill, located on a bed directly to his left. When he opened his mouth to speak, Teal’c was only able to manage a gravelly rasp.

The unintentional serenade thankfully ended. "Teal’c, that you? No, don’t try to answer that. Trust me, it’ll get better in a second…Doc!"

He thought it quite unusual that O’Neill did not attempt to move to his bedside, and he lifted his head higher. Doctor Fraiser appeared, blocking his view but not before he noticed the colonel was strapped to his bed by wide leather bonds. Startled, Teal’c looked down at his own hands, which were similarly entrapped. He felt a sudden swell of betrayal and anger for the doctor, clenching his fists in physical testimony to his emotions. As rapidly as they had built, they dissipated when he saw abject anxiety and concern in her dark brown eyes. There had to be a logical reason for the arrangement, and he had a suspicion it had to do with the terribleness lurking.

"Hey, Teal’c," Doctor Fraiser said at last, lifting a plastic cup to his lips. He felt abashedly like a small child but accepted the water gratefully. "You’re in the infirmary. Do you remember why?"

"Seriously, Doc, are you going to ask that question to all of us? I think it’s pretty well established our brains are a bit mushy."

"No comments from the peanut gallery, Colonel. Just because you have scattered memories doesn’t mean that the rest of your team will."

"Sure. You keep telling yourself that."

"Sir…"

Tuning the arguing pair out, Teal’c searched the infirmary and noted that despite the assault on his eyes, the lights were dimmed. His brain did indeed feel, as O’Neill claimed, mushy. Bursts of clarity seeped through, then dissipated quickly. His last clear remembrance was of P0X 413, fierce anger and a drive to extinguish that which caused it. Captain Carter…and then Daniel Jackson. His infant Goa’uld swirled, but in predatory anticipation or distress he did not know. Had he hurt his friends, and this was why he was held in such a manner? Instinctively, he craned his neck up to find any traces of the remaining members of SG1.

"It’s okay, Teal’c. They’re fine," Doctor Fraiser said, her playful argument with O’Neill abandoned to focus on him once more.

Teal’c finally saw them. Positioned two beds away from him to his right, Captain Carter lay still and pale. He immediately saw dark, purple smudges around her slender neck and remembered cruelly wrapping his own arm around it and squeezing. His gaze flickered to her arms, both bound by restraints, one bound by bandages. A bright flash of fire, the smell of fabric burning came back to him and he recoiled. He had watched it happen, sickeningly pleased. The remnant pleasure made him ill still. Looking down, he saw one of his own arms was bandaged. Teeth, biting ferociously hard. Captain Carter deserved what had been inflicted upon her…no. He must not think such things.

"Teal’c! Teal’c, listen to me. Whatever you’re remembering, it wasn’t you, it wasn’t Carter and it wasn’t Daniel. Keep your head on that," O’Neill called, voice snapping him from the intense memories.

His entire body was taut and stiff, and while he understood what O’Neill was attempting to tell him, Teal’c could not seem to renounce the guilt or the sudden transformations of emotion. And yet if he did not, he knew it would lead to insanity. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, willing his errant muscles to relax.

"That’s it. Just calm down."

He did not dare turn his attention to Daniel Jackson, though he was almost confident he had not harmed him bodily. No, the archaeologists injuries had been severe enough without any contribution on his part. Doctor Fraiser was certain he and Captain Carter would be fine, and that should be enough for him to believe it as well. Nagging doubt would not leave him, commensurate images of blood and insanity compounding it. Wishing he could go to their sides, Teal’c closed his eyes and rode out the upsetting feelings.

"I remember the events that took place on P0X 413," Teal’c said needlessly. "My memories since our return to the SGC are less clear. How long have we been here?"

"About five hours, and under the circumstances I don’t think it’s important that you remember, Teal’c," Doctor Fraiser stated. He opened his eyes in time to see a troubled look disappear from her features. It had been unpleasant. "I’m sure you have many questions, but for now I want you to concentrate on resting, okay? That bump on your head has only begun to heal."

"Indeed. My need for meditation is great." His symbiote emphatically agreed, agitation increasing. He was unable to determine if it was due to fatigue or the memory of how he had obtained the injury.

"It’ll probably help your recovery, so just go ahead. We let Colonel O’Neill up for the first time about an hour ago…"

"With some fantastic consequences. Who would have thought a trip to the restroom could be such a…bad trip? In more ways than one."

"Yes, well. Chances of residual outbreaks of paranoia and hallucination still seem possible, which is why I’d like to keep you all here overnight. I’m not sure what impact your symbiote will have, but I want to be on the safe side."

"I understand."

After loosening the restraints to give him a little more room for movement, Doctor Fraiser left him and O’Neill alone. Teal’c finally looked over to Daniel Jackson, as white and unmoving as Captain Carter. He felt another snare of regret that he could not move from his bed. There was much for which he must make amends, though he was uncertain how much of what he thought and said had registered with both of his unconscious teammates. He still had difficulty sifting through hallucination and reality, but the terribleness remained pervasive. He could only hope any attempt at reparation would be accepted. It must be.

"So…ah," O’Neill broke the silence abruptly. "Back in one piece again, huh?"

Of that Teal’c could not yet confirm. He said nothing.

"Look, Teal’c. About what happened on the planet…when I was there. I guess I just….I don’t know." This was the manner O’Neill spoke when he felt the need for apology. Teal’c tilted his head at the colonel, seeing embarrassment peering back at him. "I left you guys there."

"You were not yourself, O’Neill," Teal’c dismissed. "By returning to the SGC, it is likely you aided our recovery."

"Yeah. Kind of," O’Neill acknowledged, tension visibly easing. "You want the story now or later?"

"I believe later would be more appropriate, O’Neill."

"Right. Gonna do that meditation thing?"

"It is necessary."

It was an escape from the thoughts continuing to plague him, and Teal’c did not enjoy his cowardice. Shame flooded him as he closed his eyes and retreated into his still disturbed mind.

~~~~~~~~

Sam wished she had more of a life; it would make things so much easier. Not that having anything else to do off base would really help her out, since Doctor Fraiser had instructed all of SG1 to remain on medical lockdown for a solid week. Four days down, three to go before she could flee from the uncomfortable feeling in the air. She’d managed to avoid her teammates fairly well in that time, keeping herself busy with the dreaded samples from P0X 413 but there had been several encounters with each of them, fumbling and foot shuffling situations.

They were looking at her as if she were going to fall apart again, and she didn’t know how much of it was from the mysterious psychosis or still from Jolinar. She wondered if they even knew. She sure didn’t. The insecurities that had blown up there had already been evident in her mind, which she supposed was why she was having a hard time getting over it now. Why they all were, she amended. Issues that BIG didn’t spring up from nowhere and it was disturbing to think of the undercurrents of tension each of them usually hid so well.

Glaring at the plant specimen in front of her, Sam wanted nothing more than to go back in time and make it so none of this had happened. A foolish desire, and impossible. She couldn’t take back the horrible things she’d said and even worse things her off balance mind had thought. They hung over her head like a thundercloud, waiting to settle or explode. She’d thought finding solace in science, in rooting out what had made them all so scared and small and crazy, would relieve some of the tension. But she’d found nothing at all to explain it away and use as an excuse, which didn’t surprise her, as Doctor Fraiser had found nothing neurologically wrong with them, nor was there anything in their bloodstreams. It left her with nothing. Nothing for her to use as a means to broach her self-shunned teammates. She was on her own.

And Sam knew avoidance wasn’t a game any of them could play forever, not if SG1 was going to be a functioning field unit. Most of the things she needed to discuss with the colonel, Daniel and Teal’c should have been laid out long before they’d even set foot off world. General Hammond had kindly postponed a formal briefing for the P0X 413 mission until after Doctor Fraiser’s ordered recuperation time, to allow them to better understand what had happened before presenting the reports. She suspected he had ulterior motives. Massaging the back of her knotted neck with one hand, she briefly closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c stood before her. Nerves still slightly taut, Sam jerked and knocked the plant to the floor. Damnit, they should know better than to sneak up on her like that! She stared as Teal’c calmly leaned down, retrieved the fallen plant stem and then returned to the colonel’s side. Forcing herself to look at their faces, she read not the ill at ease expressions she had expected, but troubled from one of them and blank from the other. It wasn’t the Jaffa who was blank. A draft of cold made her shiver.

"Sir? Teal’c? What can I do for you?" Sam stupidly asked, depositing her suddenly trembling hands safely in her lap.

"Carter, when’s the last time you left this lab?" Colonel O’Neill innocently asked, tone contradicting his face.

Confused, she blinked once and flitted her eyes between them. She honestly didn’t know how long she’d been holed up this time, and figured no answer would really satisfy the colonel anyway. So she just shrugged her shoulders.

"That’s it. Drop what you’re doing and come with us."

It was not a request. Her CO didn’t bother waiting for her to respond, spinning on his heels and marching out of her office. As though he couldn’t wait to be away from her. The thought was unbidden and so sharp with pain it felt as though the air in her lungs was pulled out and towed from the room in the colonel’s wake. It took her several attempts to start breathing again, her concentration so devoted to that she didn’t realize Teal’c still stood in front of her until at least thirty seconds had passed. He had both arms behind his back and was staring at her with the same troubled face. Giving her head a tiny shake, Sam offered a weak smile.

"I guess we should go, then."

"Indeed."

She couldn’t seem to move her legs, though, and Teal’c remained as still as a marble statue. Darting her eyes away, Sam fingered the limp green leaves on the countertop. Opportunity was spreading out right in front of her but her voice seemed as frozen as her legs. Truth of the matter was, she hadn’t quite figured out how to relate to Teal’c. Since Jolinar, it had been even more difficult for a reason she couldn’t identify. He was just so reserved and stoic about everything. She glanced up, hoping he’d departed. Reserved and stoic. It struck her that he was behaving around her as he had around Daniel at the very beginning of the Stargate program – reticent, cautious. Not because of Daniel, but because of his own perceived guilt in the taking of Sha’re and Skaara. The difference now was he had nothing at all to feel guilty about regarding Jolinar.

Or P0X 413.

Understanding this should have made her feel worse for misinterpreting for so long; instead it eased her more than any words could and she felt the constriction around her heart loosen. She remembered his own harsh statements to and about her, realizing her behavior toward him had been unfair, to provoke such anger. It was easy to categorize people, lock them into molds they might not come close to fitting if you just took the time to realize it, and she had done that. Both of them had to one degree or another. Knowing it had to be fixed was one thing. Actually knowing how to do it was another, far trickier task. They certainly couldn’t stand in her lab all afternoon. Sam took a small step toward the door when something occurred to her.

Veering from her route, Sam walked over to stand right next to Teal’c. It was still a bit disconcerting that he wasn’t saying anything, but she swallowed her misgivings. This was how he was; words were not required for him to relay what was on his mind. She didn’t know how she hadn’t comprehended that so much sooner. For the first time in a long time, she looked up to his face without letting her own preconceptions cloud what she saw. And she saw guilt, regret, concern and, surprisingly, self-doubt.

She held his gaze and smiled a big, real smile. Showed him her true self and while that true self was now a bit different than it had been a couple of months ago, she wasn’t afraid of it anymore. Teal’c’s features lifted a minuscule trace, the only indication she needed to know he understood what she was saying. He gave her more, a verbose tilt of his head a fraction of an inch to the left.

"So do you have any idea where Colonel O’Neill is dragging us?" Sam asked after a lengthy moment, sweeping her still bandaged right arm to usher Teal’c out of the room.

"I do not. He made mention of playing with horses," Teal’c said with confusion. "Captain Carter, I was not aware the SGC had a facility for maintaining and keeping such animals."

Mystified herself, Sam shook her head. Playing with horses? She couldn’t imagine what the colonel had up his sleeve. "It doesn’t, Teal’c. Uhm, where did he go?"

"We were to collect Daniel Jackson from his office. After that, our destination is unknown to me."

"Okay, so off to Daniel’s we go."

As they walked, Sam allowed a smile to return to her face. She felt so much better now that the first step had been taken to fix the invisible problem she and her teammates were having. There wasn’t a reservation in her mind that soon SG1 would be up and running again. Together.

~~~~~~~~

Not overly fond of making mistakes, Jack knew for damn sure he wasn’t going to repeat this one. His team was back, which was all he thought he needed, but they weren’t back together. Giving credit where credit was due, he had to say they were all highly skilled in evasive maneuvers. Even Daniel. He knew he couldn’t let SG1 go on another mission until everything was hunky-dory again. And since he was the team leader, it seemed only appropriate that he get the ball rolling.

He was off to a pretty good start. Leaving Carter and Teal’c in the dust, he paused for a second when they didn’t immediately follow him. He figured they could probably use some quality alone time and Teal’c knew where he was headed, so Jack continued on his way. Having not seen Daniel all day, he made an educated guess he’d find the archaeologist in his office. He hoped. Any of the times his feet had accidentally taken him by the younger man’s common hideout in the past four days, it had been conspicuously vacant. Navigating through the halls, he rounded the corner and had the office door in his sights.

"No! Nononono!"

Daniel! Running before he even realized it, countless horrible scenarios overlapped each other, the worst being that somehow Daniel had relapsed. Jack tore into the lab, expecting to find something terrible. Skidding to a halt, his eyes automatically scanned the entire room, landing on one startled, open mouthed Doctor Daniel Jackson. The archaeologist gawped at him, dropping a remote control with a clatter onto the desktop.

"Jack?"

Relief tracked through him, followed closely by completely irrational anger. On the video monitor beside Daniel, he could see the interior of the caves from P0X 413, jostling erratically as two figures wrestled and kicked it around. Spluttering, he pointed at the screen and scowled.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Uh, my job. Jack, are you okay?" Daniel asked, clearly baffled. He fumbled for the remote and switched the tape off. He carefully approached Jack, good hand raised.

Was he okay? Geez. Jack stared at Daniel’s slinged left arm and back to the now blank monitor, certain he’d just stepped closer to death’s door. At least another year of his life sucked right out of him. He shook his head slowly, disregarding the quizzically concerned face now directly in front of his. Well, this was definite proof that SG1 had some…issues to resolve.

"Why don’t you sit down? You don’t look so good."

"God, Daniel. What do you expect? I’m walking along and I hear…that. How am I supposed to react?" he snapped, rubbing his eyes tiredly but acquiescing to the younger man’s suggestion and sinking into the chair Daniel formerly occupied. Jack gazed up at him, not really expecting a response.

Dismay choked the archaeologist’s features for a brief flash, then settled to sheepish regret and understanding. He absently massaged at his bandaged shoulder, which Jack was sure still hurt like hell. Okay, so maybe he’d had a slightly strong reaction. His nerves were still a mess, and if his were… He just didn’t know how Daniel could sit through that tape so readily.

"Pretty much like you did. This, uh, isn’t the first time I’ve seen it. I guess I’ve been able to distance myself a bit," Daniel quietly said. "Looking for something to go on."

"And?" Jack asked, not caring but uncertain how else to keep Daniel talking. The other man was actually not rejecting conversation, and to him that was a kind of victory in itself. A damned shaky step, but a step nonetheless. A little archaeo-babble might be what they both needed to get things back to normal. "Any luck?"

"Well, actually, yes. I don’t remember how much, if anything, I told you back on the planet, but I guess that doesn’t matter because my initial assessment was incorrect. Well, not incorrect, per se, but not quite accurate…"

Daniel paused mid-ramble as Carter and Teal’c strode in. Striding, that had to be good. Jack, almost recovered from his mild heart attack, perked up. A quick perusal of both of them had him almost smiling. Good things had happened in Carter’s lab. The captain looked…relaxed and almost confident again. Her eyes studied him and Daniel in turn, and he saw her muscles tensing again. Teal’c seemed to be following a similar strange pattern. Frowning, he opened his mouth to say something.

"Colonel O’Neill, Daniel," Carter beat him to it, saying their names as though she’d just learned how to pronounce them. "What? Have you found something?"

"Daniel admitted he was wrong," Jack flippantly commented.

"That’s not what I said at all, Jack. I…oh, never mind," Daniel grumbled. Turning to Carter, the archaeologist looked at her wrapped forearm with an ashamed face, asking, "How’s the burn, Sam?"

"It’s fine. Can barely feel it, and to be honest I don’t fully remember how it happened. How’s your…?" Carter asked, grimacing.

The pair of them looked like gangly pre-teens at their first school dance. Jack watched the conversation with trepidation and silence, saw both Daniel and Carter needing something from the other and not sure what. Teal’c moved to his side to join his observation. Actually, the Jaffa hung on every word. He wondered if he would ever learn everything his team had experienced after he’d left them. Left. Swallowing, he realized he was clinging to every word as well. Instead of answering Carter’s question, Daniel looked at her for a long time before reaching out and brushing his fingertips across the dusty bruise marring her jaw line in a gesture Jack thought vaguely familiar.

The tension sapped out of Carter’s shoulders and she literally beamed at him. It had been so long since he’d seen that particular expression on his 2IC, Jack straightened up in happy startlement. Not for the first time, he was glad for how adaptive his team was. The way they’d been avoiding each other, he’d half expected this business as usual process to be considerably more painful and slow. Like Daniel had said, his initial assessment had proven fortunately not quite accurate. And that shouldn’t have surprised him in the least; if he’d learned anything working with his people it was that they were resilient. Chances are they had all reached the point where they knew continuing on in isolationist ways was unacceptable. He smiled, not minding how sappy he probably looked doing it.

They were going to be just fine.

"I’ve been reviewing the video footage from P0X 413," Daniel said in an almost abrupt way, pulling them all back to the present.

"Oh," Carter said, nose crinkling in distaste.

"Yeah. Like I was just telling Jack, I’ve got a better idea of what happened to the people on the planet. I don’t think the remains we found actually belonged to native inhabitants. The pictographs that I thought demonstrated a progressive decline in mental health actually were from several different cultures. The markings varied in style so much, it seems clear they weren’t correlated at all. And I found this," Daniel explained, turning the tape back on and fast forwarding it past his and Carter’s struggle. Pausing it, he turned to them.

Unhappily peering at the stilled frame, Jack wasn’t quite sure what ‘this’ was. Daniel was looking at them with an expectant gleam in his eye but as far as he was concerned, he was looking at a bunch of bones that would probably give him sleepless nights. Never mind the very obvious crumpled, green clad form blocking half of the image.

"What is that?"

"What?"

"It does not appear to be a natural formation of the cave wall," Teal’c said.

"What are we looking at?"

"I’m not sure, Jack. This," Daniel said, circling his pointer finger around a grayish circular blob in the picture, "looks to me like some type of device. There’s a barely noticeable flicker of light coming from it in a regular pattern. Like the flashing light when a camera is recording something."

"Recording? So, if there wasn’t a populace on the P0X 413, these beings were brought there for some reason? Like a giant laboratory?" Carter asked hesitantly. "I don’t know, Daniel. Why didn’t the UAV pick up any indications of technology? And why would they only install the recording mechanism in a cave?"

"Who says that was the only observation station? We were affected very quickly. If I missed something as big as this, who’s to say we didn’t overlook something else? As far as the technology goes, maybe our sensors were unable to pick anything up."

"So we were guinea pigs?" Jack burst out, angry at the implications.

"That appears likely, O’Neill."

Carter and Daniel started talking about a zillion words a minute and Jack tuned them out. As disturbed as he was about being some aliens’ experimentation fodder, he was extremely happy at the evidence that SG1 was finally moving forward at a comfort level with each other that he could absolutely live with.

~~~~~~~~

Daniel saw an almost combative spark in Sam’s eyes and could literally hear her refute his theory before she opened her mouth to do just that. He had no doubt her arguments would be valid – he was, after all, making some pretty big leaps. But he really didn’t care. He could argue with her all afternoon with complete pleasure because she was being herself again, and so was he. He sensed Jack and Teal’c still in the room, their presence serving to further assure him. When Jack had first come into his office, he’d been unsure he was ready to be around any of his friends yet. That inhibition had quickly vanished, and he was glad.

Now he wished it hadn’t taken four days to arrive at this point. Daniel had managed to elude contact with everyone on base except Doctor Fraiser and General Hammond, a fact he had at first been proud of. Stupid. So much had happened to them on P0X 413, a majority of which he had very little recollection. Seeing his friends had been a stark reminder, so he’d turtled himself away from them. Apparently, he’d been feverish and more influenced by the hallucinations because of the infection that had set in his shoulder wound. As selfish as it was, he was grateful for the lack of cohesive memory. Problems didn’t get corrected by not addressing them, though, which he had always known but only acknowledged during the past day or so.

There were still traces of guilt lingering in Jack, Sam and Teal’c’s countenances and though Daniel couldn’t even remember what they were feeling guilty about, he still thought he could do something to relieve it. His fuzzy recollections told him he had probably said some regrettable things in his delirium-enhanced delusions. Obviously none of them were comfortable coming right out and saying what was on their minds, so he relied on a tried and true method – acting normal to show he was okay. If they saw that… And it seemed to be working.

"Sam, I’m not suggesting there isn’t another explanation. I’m just saying this is a possibility. What if some alien race set up P0X 413 as a remote laboratory, equipped with something – and it doesn’t matter what right now – to cause other organisms to deteriorate mentally? Bringing in numerous different species would give them information to gauge that corrosion. We don’t know if every life form would react the same way we and those poor people in the cave did," Daniel stated, watching her eyes flicker with acknowledgement.

"For what purpose?"

"I don’t know. Scientists on Earth conduct experiments for everything under the sun. It seems reasonable that humans aren’t alone in our need to learn."

"Daniel, apart from discovering there was more than one type of writing on the wall and an indistinct, possibly alien, shape you haven’t anything to go on. You’re making some pretty huge assumptions."

He’d forgotten how much fun discussing things with Sam could be. It was as though they’d been transported through time to how it was before Jolinar. Smiling quickly, Daniel raised his pointer finger in the air, prepared to continue the battle.

"Uhm, kids? I have a question," Jack popped in before he had the chance.

The intrusion was unexpected and he spun toward Jack. The other man was looking at him and Sam wryly, arms folded across his chest. Teal’c still stood at his side at military ease, and if Daniel didn’t know better, he’d say the Jaffa looked about as pleased as a cat that had just finished a big bowl of cream. Huh.

"Yes?" Daniel prompted.

"Do you think anyone really cares?"

Righteous indignation was the first thing to flutter through him until he remembered that he didn’t even care about the actual content of the debate himself. He swallowed his retort but glared at Jack as if he were irritated. The sparkle in the other man’s eye was blatant, something that had been missing earlier. Now that he had a moment, Daniel realized he had no idea how all three of his teammates had come to his office at almost exactly the same time.

"So Jack, what were you coming to see me about?"

"Just checking your free time."

"Uh…huh."

"I believe I can answer that, Daniel Jackson," Teal’c spoke definitively, cocking an eyebrow down at Jack. "O’Neill wished for us to play with horses."

Daniel felt his eyebrows shoot up and swore he heard Sam titter as Jack refuted, "I did not! For crying out loud, Teal’c. Just…come with me."

Jack got to his feet and departed the office with a shepherding wave of his arm, leaving him, Sam and Teal’c staring at each other in perplexity. After a moment, he popped his head back through the doorway and cleared his throat. Sam tossed him a curious look, then moved to follow. His own curiosity piqued, Daniel joined her. As they walked down the corridors, he wondered exactly what Jack was leading them to.

A transfer of elevators later, Daniel figured they were going to the surface. Horses? He wasn’t physically up for that, his shoulder aching at the mere thought of riding. Actually, at the thought of doing anything more vigorous than reading a book. Sharing confused glances with Sam and Teal’c along the way, he could see they were equally as baffled. Behind the understated bewilderment in Teal’c’s gaze, he thought he saw something else. Lingering doubt? He caught his friend’s eye and held it, giving a nod he hoped would be interpreted as both apology and absolution. There was a slight relaxation in Teal’c’s shoulders and he was given a slight head tilt in return. Daniel smiled, and allowed his mind to return to the mystery Jack was building.

It wasn’t until they’d arrived up top that Daniel started to get an inkling. A very indistinct one. Someone had rigged a section of the parking lot with a moveable basketball hoop, and Jack aimed them right for it.

"I see no horses, O’Neill."

"Nope. Carter, your arm okay to shoot hoops?"

"Yes, sir," Sam said, inflecting the last word in inquiry.

"Uh, I can’t really do much of anything at the moment, Jack."

"You get to keep score, Daniel. We’re going to teach Teal’c how to play Horse." Ah, Horse. Now Daniel…still didn’t get it. Seeing his confusion, Jack sighed. "Okay, we’re going to teach Teal’c and you how to play Horse. Carter, you tell Daniel. Teal’c, come here."

Sam smiled and complied easily, explaining the rules succinctly. The game seemed easy enough, but he didn’t know why Jack was making them do it. Settling himself on the pavement and out of the way, Daniel watched as his friends began playing. It was awkward at first, Teal’c stopping frequently to comment on the inanity of the game and irritating Jack in the process. Sam developed into the role of mediator between them while he diligently kept score. After a couple of minutes, the three of them developed an easy flow. Playing nicely with each other…so they could work nicely together. He had to admire Jack’s subtle technique. He smiled.

"What are you grinning at?" Jack huffed. "Scores?"

"Let’s see," Daniel said around his smile. "Sam, you’re a ‘ho’. Jack, you’re a ‘whore’. And Teal’c, you’re a very wholesome ‘H’."

Sam strangled back a snort, eyes laughing as she covered up her mouth to prevent an actual giggle. Teal’c just looked justifiably proud of his pure status.

"Daniel! That’s H.O. and H.O.R., not ‘ho’ and ‘whore’," Jack exasperated, giving him the evil eye. "I don’t like what you’re implying."

Blinking innocently, Daniel smiled bigger. He could read beyond the evil in Jack’s eye to see the twinkle was still there; he wouldn’t put it past Jack to have reached that score on purpose. "I just call it as I see it, Jack."

"Well, laugh it up. When you’re better, you and I are so going to play against each other. Then we’ll see who’s a ‘whore’."

And Daniel had no doubt they’d do just that.

~~~~~~~~

Footnote:

O’Neill’s plan had become clear almost immediately, though Teal’c honestly did not understand the game in which he been made to take part. Showing one’s prowess in depositing an orange rubber ball into a small, raised ring in order to assign a derogatory name upon one’s competitors seemed a foolish thing to do. It had, however, solidified the steps SG1 had taken in recovery from the events on P0X 413.

Now, standing in the embarkation room and ready to depart on their first mission since that one, he and his teammates again had an easy fluidity in their behavior with each other. To any outside observer, it would appear that SG1 has simply chosen to carry on as though nothing had happened, but Teal’c knew better. It was true that none of them had verbally expressed any regret, apology or forgiveness. It had nonetheless taken place, much to his relief. When O’Neill had left him in Captain Carter’s laboratory, he had wondered if the damage was too great to repair. Then she opened up to him without doing more than stopping, looking at him and smiling.

It had occurred naturally and easily after that until every doubt of his place on SG1, born of some alien influence or his own subconscious, was vanquished. If anything, Teal’c felt much closer to his teammates now, especially Captain Carter. He sensed she still held some trepidation toward him, and he himself felt a strange sensation whenever she approached him. Through that, though, they were laying the groundwork for a solid friendship. He turned to his left, where she was standing quietly. Touching her elbow gained her attention and a smile. This time, he knew they were ready to proceed through on the mission at hand, unimpeded by personal insecurities.

The technician warned them of the impending activation moments before the Stargate leapt at them and settled back within the confines of the ring. Despite his confidence at their preparedness, Teal’c cautiously looked at O’Neill to gauge whether the other man was bothered by the appearance of water. He was pleased when he saw nothing but calm assurance on O’Neill’s features.

"All right, let’s go," O’Neill directed, waiting for the rest of them to begin the journey up the ramp. "Carter, what did you say this world had in store for us?"

"Oh, trees, sir," Captain Carter replied, a mere tinge of humor in her tone. She stepped into the event horizon at the precise time as Teal’c. Daniel Jackson emerged right behind them, with O’Neill behind him. "Trees, trees, wonderful trees."

O’Neill glared around. Teal’c followed suit. Indeed there was a bountiful amount of trees, and it was considerably damp. The displeasure on the team leader’s face was extremely apparent as he stalked down the steps of the low dais on which the Stargate was situated.

"Well, this is all so…familiar."

Teal’c could not disagree with the sentiment, or the grumbling, somewhat sarcastic manner in which it was presented. He noted uneasy expressions splash over the faces of each of his friends, but they did not last long. Captain Carter began withdrawing her equipment with the assistance of Daniel Jackson, while he and O’Neill scanned the perimeter. They began walking slowly together as the captain checked for anything the UAV or MALP might have missed. Daniel Jackson busily began taping the surrounding woods, calmly refuting O’Neill’s occasional disparaging remarks. Teal’c relaxed into the normalcy.

Keeping his senses alert, they had only traversed a short distance when Teal’c heard rustling and fluttering amid the dense forest trees. He froze in horror, an intense feeling of foreboding sweeping through him. His friends were not yet aware of the noises, but he knew. He knew they could only be bringing trouble.

Author's Notes: Many blessings to Kaz for taking up the beta pen and helping me out with this one. Trust me, it wouldn’t be the story it is without her!

© August,2002 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.