• SPOILERS: There are a bunch of little ones. Familiarity with The Curse, Thor's Chariot, and Secrets will help.
• SUMMARY: Tragedy befalls SG-1, leading a member to resign from the SGC. Can a mission gone wrong a year later bring them back together?
• R [AU] [D]

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jack O’Neill was not a happy man.

He sighed heavily and shifted his weight for what seemed like the one-hundredth time in the past hour. It was amazing to him just how many twinges he could get in his worn knees from simply standing. He supposed that they wouldn’t be complaining quite as much if he’d only stop fidgeting or sit down, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he stood beside what looked like a giant oak tree with bright, red leaves and purple fruit and shifted from foot to foot, trying to keep from tearing the leaves off the branches he could reach. He didn’t think that the locals, if there were any, would take kindly to him defacing one of their trees. Not that he’d care either way. A tree was a tree was a tree, no matter where it was or what it was used for. Jack glanced up at the bluish sky of PTX-612 and squinted at the brightness of the suns. With renewed impatience, he took his sunglasses out of a vest pocket and quickly put them on. He sighed once again and then directed his gaze away from the sky and towards the source of his annoyance.

He unconsciously tightened the grip on his MP-5, though he knew that it wouldn’t do him any good and would not get the younger man working any faster. Jack supposed that he could shoot the man, though that wouldn’t necessarily guarantee that the job would get done.

"Hey, Carter, do you think if I shoot at the ground beside him, he’d be inclined to work a little faster?"

Major Samantha Carter, who sat on a rock beside the colonel, glanced up at the sound of his voice. She regarded him seriously for a moment, and then shrugged and played along.

"What if you accidentally hit him, Sir? We’d have to go back to Earth to get another one."

"Hmm, you do have a point, Major. Besides, it’d be way too bloody. I don’t want to have to stay behind in this heat and clean up the mess," he added, a slight smile curving his lips.

The desire to shoot the man was almost overwhelming, however. Not because Jack particularly wanted him dead, but simply because it would get things moving and give him something to do. If there was anything he hated, it was boredom. He liked having something to keep his mind occupied at all times. Unfortunately for him, a lot of these missions required a lot of patience, a lot of waiting for someone else to do their job. Lately, SG-1 had been doing a lot of waiting for the man in question now to do his job.

‘If only we could take his head apart, download all the necessary knowledge into his brain and put him back together’, Jack thought, his eyes narrowing at the image his all too vivid imagination provided for him. ‘There would be no more waiting, no more boredom. And there would definitely be no more insects trying to crawl up my leg’. Jack grimaced as he brushed his pant leg, dislodging the insect. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to become lunch to the native insect population, Jack returned his attention to the younger man.

"How much longer is this going to take?"

Sam turned away from Jack and glanced at the younger man just in time to see the man’s shoulders tense at Jack’s question.

"I don’t know, sir," the man replied immediately, without turning to face his commanding officer. His voice was slightly distracted, giving no indication that Jack had either startled or annoyed him by his questioning. "I’m having some difficulties translating the glyphs, but it shouldn’t take too much longer."

Jack rolled his eyes, because he knew that the man couldn’t see him. He sighed and shifted his weight once again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Carter turn give him a slightly amused glance, but he ignored her. Instead, he concentrated on a point on the back of the linguist’s head.

"That’s what you said an hour ago, Captain Michaels," Jack pointed out, trying to disguise his impatience. "In the mean time, the suns keep getting hotter and the bugs keep getting way more eager to have a taste of us. I don’t know about you, but I would like to go back to Earth with an intact supply of blood."

For the past four hours, SG-1 had been patiently waiting for the captain to either tell them that the temple they stood in front of was safe or that they needed to go back to Earth to come up with an alternate plan. The MALP readings they had received of the planet had shown them the temple and several other surrounding structures. Mineral readings showed an ample supply of naquadah in the area. That, more than anything, had prompted General Hammond to authorize a mission to this planet. Since the naquadah deposits seemed to be directly underneath the temple they now stood before, it was imperative that they enter and study it further. However, Jack did not want to risk the lives of his team unless he was absolutely sure that there was no immediate danger to them in the temple.

Jack sighed once again as he ran a hand through his hair. ‘Daniel would have already translated the whole damn thing,’ Jack thought uncharitably. ‘Yeah, but Daniel isn’t here. He decided that he had better things to do with his time.’

The bitter thought followed of its own accord, making Jack wince at the strength of it.

"Get to it, Captain. We don’t have all day," Jack stated. He kept his voice as neutral and non-confrontational as he could, knowing that his anger wasn’t really directed at the man who stood in front of him, but at another linguist, no longer a member of SG-1.

"O’Neill, are you angry at Captain Michaels?" Teal’c asked. When Jack turned to regard the Jaffa, he saw Teal’c raise an eyebrow and study him carefully. "It is not his fault that Daniel Jackson is no longer with us," Teal’c added.

Jack’s head snapped up at the comment. Once his angry, brown eyes met Tealc’s honest ones, however, the anger he felt in his gut sparked, then slowly sizzled away until it only existed as a pale afterthought at the back of his mind.

"If that were Daniel standing there, trying to translate that writing, I’d still be yelling at him to hurry up," Jack commented, his voice dull and flat, but soft so that Michaels couldn’t overhear him. "That’s not what this is about, Teal’c."

"Indeed?" Teal’c made the word a question, making Jack suddenly feel defensive.

"No, it isn’t, Teal’c. Not everything is about Daniel. I just want to get the hell out of these suns," Jack said.

Without another word, Jack turned away from Teal’c and walked away from his teammates, leaving Sam and Teal’c staring after him, similar expressions of worry on their faces.

****

Teal’c observed as O’Neill walked away from them, his eyebrow rising quizzically. He wondered why the Tau’ri were so intent on lying to themselves about what was obvious to everyone else. He had heard O’Neill’s explanation about his annoyance with Captain Michaels, but knew that the man was not being entirely truthful.

He was well aware of just how much Daniel Jackson’s departure from SG-1 had affected O’Neill. Teal’c had been around during the mission that brought their team to its knees and had seen what it had done to O’Neill and Daniel Jackson individually as well as to the friendship and trust that they had shared. For months following the archaeologist’s departure, Teal’c had observed as O’Neill closed himself off from the rest of them, insisting that everything was normal. Neither he nor Major Carter had believed it for a minute, but there had been nothing that they could do.

That sentiment applied to their current predicament as well, because Teal’c was aware that O’Neill’s annoyance at Captain Michaels had a lot more to do with Daniel Jackson than O’Neill would admit to. However, Teal’c could not get O’Neill to talk about the events leading to Daniel Jackson’s absence from the team and how much his absence still affected him. He had tried very hard over the last year, to no avail. If O’Neill didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t going to.

"He still deceives himself about his feelings surrounding Daniel Jackson’s departure," Teal’c intoned quietly to his team mate.

"Yes, he does," Sam replied, still gazing at where the colonel now stood by another large tree. "He’s stubborn, he won’t tell us that it’s bothering him."

"Just as we do not speak of how it has bothered us?" Teal’c made the statement a question, glad for the opportunity to address the subject with his team mate.

Sam sighed. "Yeah, something like that. I still have a hard time believing it. Sometimes, it’s almost like Daniel is just on vacation and is going to come back at any time. Is that silly or what?"

"It is not silly, Major Carter. Sometimes, I too, feel like Daniel Jackson will be returning. But I do not believe that will be the case. The circumstances under which he departed leave very little hope for his return."

"I know, Teal’c. It was just another mission to us all. We left Earth expecting to come back the same as when we’d left. I don’t think either one of us imagined how much things would be different once we returned." Sam paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "I can still remember the bloody faces of the innocent natives as they tried to understand what was happening. The smell of the charred bodies is something that I’m never going to forget, along with that haunted, guilty look in Daniel’s eyes."

Teal’c inclined his head slightly, acknowledging the words. "He took it very hard. No matter how much we attempted to make him understand that there was nothing he could have done to prevent what happened, he would not listen."

Sam laughed, but it was a short, bitter thing. "He’s stubborn too, just like the colonel. It’s no wonder those two parted on such bad terms."

"Daniel Jackson did not have to leave the SGC. He could have chosen to stay and attempt to rectify what had happened," Teal’c said.

"He didn’t have to leave, but I think he felt like he did. He felt such guilt…" Sam trailed off, before gathering her thoughts again and regarding Teal’c. "I went to see him in his office right after we got back. He was so upset. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like that. When I left I heard him crying and I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to forget the sound of those broken sobs."

"I attempted to speak to him as well, but he turned me away. I could not understand why. However, I believe that it was harder for O’Neill, because he and Daniel Jackson have always been able to speak about such things. I do not think O’Neill appreciated being set aside."

Teal’c glanced at O’Neill, who was now watching them. Teal’c inclined his head respectfully and saw the colonel begin to walk towards them. "We must get O’Neill to talk about what happened, Major Carter. If not, I am afraid that we will never have a permanent archaeologist on the team."

****

Jason Michaels sighed in frustration when he heard his CO’s command to hurry up. Translating wasn’t exactly a piece of cake and it took time, but Jack O’Neill didn’t seem to understand that. It wasn’t that Jason didn’t know what he was doing. It just took him a bit longer to translate a language that he wasn’t very familiar with. The frustration turned quickly to anger as he heard Teal’c mention the name of SG-1’s first archaeologist.

Michaels had heard stories about what had happened to make Dr. Jackson resign, but he didn’t know anything concrete. He’d only been at Cheyenne Mountain four months and had not had the opportunity to read through SG-1’s mission reports. He had intended to do it immediately after his assignment to SG-1, but his need to familiarize himself with the ancient cultures he would now be studying had won out, leaving the reports on the back burner. The stories he had heard from soldiers and scientists alike, however, had intrigued him. Each group had their own opinions about what had driven Dr. Jackson out of the SGC, but Michaels had some trouble believing the differing accounts he had heard. He wouldn’t believe anything until he got around to reading the official report, or heard it from a member of SG-1.

Michaels knew of Dr. Jackson and of what he had discovered while at the SGC, but had never met him. He had also learned through the grapevine that the good doctor’s departure was the result of a mission gone horribly wrong. Apparently, Dr. Jackson had been somehow responsible for the deaths of hundreds of the peaceful inhabitants of PJ7-564. In addition to the civilian deaths, Colonel O’Neill had been seriously injured as a result of that mission, nearly killed, if he could believe the gossip he’d been hearing. The remaining members of SG-1 refused to talk about the failed mission, so Jason couldn’t get any information that way. They would only speak of Daniel Jackson when they were alone, which eliminated any chance of him overhearing something. Jason didn’t understand why all the secrecy was necessary, but he was determined to find out just what had happened on PJ7-564.

For now, however, he had a translation to finish.

He looked back at the Egyptian hieroglyphs and scratched his head thoughtfully. His green eyes narrowed as he read the part of the wall that he’d already translated, which suddenly ended in a flurry of symbols and greatly differentiated from the writing beside it. Michaels couldn’t understand how the writing on the wall became so confusing so suddenly. It was almost as if another language had been used along with the Egyptian he was reading. That couldn’t be the case, however, since the glyphs looked similar. What he had managed to translate seemed to be a welcome message, which was a good sign. He was glad that he was going to have good news for his commanding officer once he finished the translation. He hoped to, at least.

Jason stepped up to the wall and ran his fingers over the stubborn glyphs. He was a good linguist, which was why he’d been assigned to SG-1 in the first place. However, he had no letters after his name nor had he ever aspired to any. He had always wanted to be in the Air Force and nothing else had mattered. He had attended the Air Force Academy right after high school and had received a degree in Linguistics, which he’d used on several missions. He spoke eleven languages, and had been invaluable to his team during those missions. None of those languages, however, currently included ancient dialects, especially Egyptian hieroglyphs. He had been given an intensive course on ancient cultures and languages when he’d been transferred to Cheyenne Mountain and Michaels had soaked up the knowledge quickly, fascinated by the material. However, it had become painfully clear to him that he was nowhere near as good as Dr. Jackson was. Apparently, no one else had been either, since he was the fifth social scientist to be assigned to SG-1 since Dr. Jackson’s resignation. Because of that knowledge, he didn’t take it very personally when Colonel O’Neill became annoyed with his slow progress. It hurt not to have the CO’s trust and respect, but it wasn’t as bad as it could be. The fact remained that being assigned to SG-1 was the best thing that had happened to him in his career, and Jason Michaels was not going to let anyone, or anything, get in his way.

****

"The important thing to remember is that every language has a pattern. Identifying the pattern will help you decipher and master the language you’re trying to learn," Dr. Daniel Jackson explained as he pointed to the slide of ancient Greek text that was currently on display in the middle of the lecture hall’s rear wall. Daniel glanced at the graduate students who sat throughout the mostly full lecture hall, quietly absorbing every word. Unlike others he had lectured in the past, these kids understood that their grade would ultimately depend on what Daniel said, so they listened carefully and intently.

Daniel took a deep breath and smiled ruefully at the irony of being at the one place he thought he’d never return to. After all, what university could possibly want a crackpot archaeologist/linguist shaping young minds? UCLA apparently did. Daniel had been very surprised when Dr. Richard Morton, the head of the archeology department at UCLA, had contacted him with an offer of a position at the university, teaching a class in linguistic skills as part of a special archaeology doctorate geared towards the best and brightest students. The class was officially part of the archaeology department, even though it dealt entirely with languages. It also happened to be a very specialized class that was only offered in very few universities. UCLA had lost the professor who had previously held the position to an unforeseen illness and desperately needed a replacement. There didn’t seem to be very many linguists who were well versed in archaeology, or vise versa, so UCLA had contacted Daniel.

At first, Daniel had refused the offer because he knew where it was coming from. When he’d left the SGC, he had done so because he was convinced that it was the right thing to do. He, the rest of SG-1, and the other innocents involved at the SGC and off-world were better off without him, so he’d packed his things, resigned and walked out without looking back. However, since he had been very brutally laughed out of the academic community six years ago, and had subsequently disappeared since then, he didn’t have very many options for employment. He hadn’t given a public lecture or written a paper, no matter how ill received it would have been, for so long that the chances of anyone knowing who he was, or that he was actually very good at what he did, were very slim.

When he had received Dr. Morton’s letter, Daniel had no doubt of how he’d come to get the offer. General Hammond, for whatever reason, had decided to pull some strings and assist him, which Daniel truly did appreciate. He had not understood why the general would be inclined to do that, after everything he’d done and all of the pain he’d caused, which was why Daniel had rejected the offer at first. Daniel could only imagine how much wrangling the general would have had to do in order to convince anyone that Daniel was not crazy and could be of value, which left him confused. However, as days turned into months, it had become painfully clear that he wasn’t in a position to be picky, so he’d finally called Richard Morton and accepted the position. Three days later, he was back in Los Angeles, the site of one of his last, and least well received, lectures before disappearing into the wild blue yonder of other worlds.

Richard Morton had been very polite and to the point, never bringing up Daniel’s shaky standing in the archaeological community. It was clear to Daniel that Dr. Morton knew who he was and how others in their field viewed him. However, for once, Morton seemed more interested in what Daniel had actually accomplished, rather than what he hadn’t. He’d told Daniel that as long as he taught the classes he was scheduled to teach and stuck to being a linguist, his job was secure. In other words, no spouting about aliens having built the pyramids. Daniel had almost laughed again at the unspoken threat, because he now knew for sure that aliens HAD built the pyramids. But he wasn’t about to risk national security to point that out to the man. Daniel had agreed to the terms, and had been on his way towards his second attempt at academia.

The assistant professorship suited Daniel just fine because it was different. There was no archaeology involved, past what he occasionally referred to when he wanted his students to study a particular language. He’d come to the conclusion that being on digs would not have given him much satisfaction after all of the work he’d done at the SGC. After all, what could he possibly find in a dig that he hadn’t already uncovered and experienced with SG-1 on any number of worlds?

Teaching had been the perfect choice, but it hadn’t been easy. His reputation was still the same as it had been when everyone had walked out of his last, fateful lecture in Los Angeles a mere six years ago. Most of his colleagues at UCLA could not understand why the university would want to have Daniel on staff and they made sure that he knew it. It didn’t help that two of his fellow professors were people that he’d worked with, and disagreed with, on research projects before. At first, the insults, whispered conversations and innuendoes had hurt Daniel deeply, since he was already doing a good job of berating himself over the actions that had led him to Los Angeles in the first place. However, after a while, the insults had stopped registering. After all, he had been hurt in much worse ways since he’d last been around academia. He’d seen and experienced things in that time that none of the others could even imagine, which made the insults lose their impact on him.

Daniel quickly learned to distance himself from everyone and everything, concentrating only on showing up every day to teach the six classes he was scheduled for. Nothing else outside of his lectures, grading papers and preparing exams seemed to matter to him. Soon, the rest of the department got the hint and lost interest. Unlike the other members of the department, Daniel did not have a research project to work on. After the cultures and artifacts that he’d seen, there didn’t seem to be anything on Earth worth researching. And even if there was, he had neither the funding nor the influence that he’d once had. Not that he was broke. His four years of active duty at the SGC, plus his salary from the original Abydos mission, had left him with a sizable monetary cushion. But it was nowhere near enough to fund a sizeable research project.

Instead, Daniel taught class and did nothing else. He used his archaeology degree as little as possible. After all, he now knew much, much more than the so-called experts he was surrounded by. He couldn’t participate in a research project to prove or disprove something that he more than likely had already proven. Besides, it would be too easy to let something slip about what he knew. Not that anyone would take him seriously, but he couldn’t take that chance. His theories, which he had now proven, were still held as jokes and ridiculed, and Daniel made no attempt to change that. He was content to live his life, as it were, and let everyone else live theirs.

"Dr. Jackson?"

The question suddenly broke Daniel out of his musings. He quickly looked away from the slide he was still pointing at and turned around, smiling sheepishly at the young lady who had spoken. She, like most of the class, was in her mid twenties, only ten or so years younger than Daniel. His age worked to his advantage in the classes he taught, because his students seemed better able to relate to him than to someone older. He rearranged the glasses on his face and focused on the redheaded woman.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to zone out like that," Daniel said, wondering just how long he’d been out of it. "What was the question?"

She returned his smile. "I wanted to know how you can recognize patterns when you’re exposed to a language that you’ve never seen?"

Daniel’s smile widened a bit, grateful that his students were paying attention to him.

"You find patterns. You examine the language, whether it’s written or spoken, and try to find similarities, places where it repeats. You then analyze those places and see how they fit in with the rest of the language, how they relate," Daniel raised his index finger in his familiar gesture of concentration as he paced in front of his students, raising his voice so that everyone in the lecture hall could hear him.

"From that, you begin to extrapolate certain words, phrases and concepts," he continued. "After that, and after careful observation, you begin to understand the language in its entirety. No matter what language it is or how difficult it is, the patterns will always be there. Like these," he explained.

He pushed a button on the small remote in his hand and the slide changed to be replaced by a new one.

"This is ancient Egyptian," Daniel said, pointing at the hieroglyphs that graced the new slide. "It hasn’t been spoken on Earth for thousands of years, which makes it difficult to recognize," he added. "But if you look closely at the depicted hieroglyphs, you’ll see the pattern in this particular sample," he stated and proceeded to go through the text one glyph at a time to show them what he meant.

Daniel neglected to tell them that on Abydos, the language had never died and was spoken to this day and that he could speak it fluently, along with about ten other languages that had never been spoken on Earth. That wasn’t important, however. Not now and not ever again.

He continued with his lecture, letting himself forget everything but the stubbornly undead language in front of him.

****

"So what’s the verdict, Captain?" Jack O’Neill asked the linguist as he strode up to where the man was standing. He lifted his right hand up to his face to wipe away an annoying bead of sweat that was sliding down his cheek as he regarded the captain. He didn’t fail to notice the slight tensing of the younger man’s shoulders at the sound of his voice. Did he have that affect on everyone? Jack didn’t think so, but Michaels seemed to tense up anytime O’Neill got anywhere close to him.

"We’re standing in front of a temple, Colonel," Michaels said confidently, trying to keep his voice level and as unemotional as he could make it, despite the fact that his commanding officer made him a bit nervous. "It appears to be a temple to Seshat, the Egyptian goddess of writing."

Jack raised an inquisitive eyebrow when the captain turned to look at him. "Appears to be?" Jack repeated.

Michaels nodded. "Yes, sir. This symbol here is Seshat’s symbol," he said and turned back to the entrance where he pointed to the figure of a seated woman, with what looked like a flower framed by down-turned horns, above her head. "It’s what was used by the ancient Egyptians to depict her. However, Seshat had no temples devoted to her back on Earth. At least that’s what the mythology states, which is why I say that this appears to be a temple to her," Jason paused and took a breath before continuing. "But just because Seshat had no temples on Earth doesn’t mean that there can’t be any temples to her here."

Jack nodded, taking in the carefully delivered information the captain had just given. He glanced over the younger man’s shoulder and took in the figure Michaels was pointing at. The Captain was career military and was well aware that expediency was the key to a successful mission. Which was why he tended to get to the point very quickly, with very little added information. Jack liked that about the man. However, every now and then, he missed the rambling lectures he used to be given about a variety of subjects. Even though he ignored them half of the time, Jack sometimes found himself wishing that Michaels would slip into lecture mode and go on and on about something or other. That had yet to happen, however.

"What do you know about this She-sat in Egyptian history, Captain?" Jack asked, not even trying to correctly pronounce the goddess’s name, as he motioned for Sam and Teal’c to get closer to them and hear what was being said.

Michaels shrugged. "I’m not an Egyptologist, Colonel. What I know of Egyptian history is what I was taught when I joined the SGC, so my knowledge is sketchy at best. But what I do know is that Seshat is a scribe. A scribe’s job in ancient Egypt was to witness and record the life and accomplishments of someone of her choosing. Seshat is believed to be the wife of Thoth, who is her male counterpart," Michaels finished and glanced at each of his team members in turn, before finally settling on observing his commanding officer.

"That’s it?" Jack asked, somewhat surprised.

Michaels shrugged. "I told you I didn’t know much about Egypt."

"Teal’c, have you ever heard of this She-sat?" Jack asked, turning to the Jaffa, hoping that he’d have a little more information to give them.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow as he regarded O’Neill, before answering. "I have not, O’Neill. However, I am aware of some Goa’uld using scribes to record their battles. Apophis had one that traveled with him, but was never seen by anyone but Apophis. I believe that Apophis wanted his scribe to focus only on recording his deeds, therefore he was not allowed to do anything else, or associate with anyone else."

"Then scribes are usually peaceful in nature, right?" Carter asked, glancing at the hieroglyphs on the wall.

Michaels nodded. "They usually are. They are there to witness the events and record them, not to take part in them."

Jack looked behind Michaels to the writings on the temple’s doorway that the Captain had been studying. It was a doorway about ten feet tall, completely covered in hieroglyphs and accented in black marble. Some of the writing, Jack noticed, became something else, something that was not hieroglyphic at all. All he could see were what he dubbed chicken scratches. He thought nothing more of them, confident that if they were important, Michaels would have told him.

The structure around the doorway was impressive, but worn. The brownish stones the temple had been constructed of were now decaying, with smaller pieces of stone littering the grown at regular intervals. The temple was tall and wide, not quite a pyramid shape, but very close to it. It was more rectangular, with a spiked center column. The structure was completely surrounded by tall, full trees. It was almost as if the temple were on an island, completely covered by the greenery around it. It was a beautiful and peaceful looking place, but O’Neill was well aware the appearances were more than often deceiving.

"Were you able to decipher the markings?" Sam asked the captain as she, too, finished her examination of the temple.

Michaels shook his head slowly, a frown marring his face. "Not all of them. There seems to be a different form of hieroglyphics, not to mention several other forms of writing that I can’t identify, interwoven with the common type and unfortunately, I can’t decipher those. However, I have been able to translate some of it." He stepped away from the rest of SG-1 and led them over to the doorway. He pointed to specific rows of hieroglyphs as he spoke.

"This is a message, welcoming visitors to the temple of Seshat. It says that any and all are welcome, as long as they are prepared to share knowledge. It also states that Seshat is a peaceful goddess."

"So if someone erected this temple in her honor, then there should be some villages around here for us to explore, correct? After all, a goddess needs worshipers," Jack stated, glancing towards the thick trees surrounding the temple. "Maybe some people that we can talk to?" he asked, his voice taking on a tone of cautious excitement at finally having something to do.

They had done a search of the area round the Stargate when they’d arrived on PTX-612 half a day ago and had found nothing to indicate villages or any other type of settlement. All they had found was the temple. And since they knew that they had to get into the temple, they’d decided to start there first, before exploring further for signs of inhabitants. Now that Michaels has assured them that the prominent Goa’uld of this planet was a peaceful one, or as peaceful as Goa’uld could be, they could better devote time and effort to carry out a more efficient search.

"If the temple is still used, and I would say that it is by how clean and free of debris the area around the temple is, then there is a possibility that there are villagers here. We’ll just have to find them," Captain Michaels stated.

Satisfied with that assessment, Jack O’Neill nodded. "Very well, kids, let’s go exploring!"

****

Daniel quickly made his way to his office, wanting to get away from the throng of students that littered the halls of UCLA’s Institute of Archaeology. His second class of the day ended at noon, so when he got out of class, he was typically in the middle of the students’ rush to get to the student union for lunch before one o’clock came around and it was time for class again.

He carefully balanced his briefcase in one hand, while the other carried several notebooks with his class notes inside and the textbook for his class. The weight of the load in his arms was heavy, but Daniel was used to it. He had spent many, many years in similar halls while he’d been a student, carrying similar loads to and from class. The feeling was eerily comforting to him.

Daniel sidestepped a young man who had his nose buried in a book and headed for the elevator. He stepped inside and punched the button for the fourth floor. Once he exited the elevator, Daniel made his way to the far end of the hall where his small office was. He put his briefcase down and reached into his pocket for his keys, then quickly opened the office door. He turned on the lights and made his way inside, putting the briefcase, his notebooks and textbook on his desk.

He made his way over to the far end of the room, where a filing cabinet stood next to a window. On top of the cabinet, a coffee maker softly gurgled as it brewed a fresh pot of coffee. Daniel smiled as he poured himself a cup. He’d set his coffee maker to turn on a few minutes before the end of his class so that there would be a fresh pot waiting for him during his lunch hour. Not that he ever actually ate lunch. Instead, he munched on whatever he happened to have available on one of his desk drawers, which could turn out to be anything from candy bars to stale crackers.

As he picked up his cup of coffee, something outside of the window caught Daniel’s eye. His office faced a small courtyard, which was surrounded by lush trees and contained a fountain in the center of it. Several benches and picnic tables dotted the landscape here and there, giving students a place to go for quiet study. Since it was spring in California, the fountain was turned on and the water bubbled down towards the small pool below. The water was a bright blue, which reflected the sun very nicely. Daniel sighed and stepped away from the window. He sometimes stood by the window and started at the water, finding a little bit of peace. However, he didn’t have much time to do it today.

Daniel walked towards his desk and sat down, picking up the manila folder that lay prominently on the desktop. He opened it up and found the midterm he’d been working on inside. He still had to come up with a topic for the essay, but nothing he’d thought up seemed good enough.

"I’ll just pick something the day of the midterm," he muttered, chuckling slightly. "That’ll surprise all of us."

He reached over to grab his red marker, when his hand brushed the frame of the lone picture to sit on his desk. The frame was precariously balanced along the edge, and Daniel’s hand only served to knock it aside and off the desk with a loud crash.

"Oh, damn!" Daniel got up from the chair and went over to pick up the frame. He noticed with a slight wince that the edge was dented. One more dent to add to the few that already adorned it. He picked it up and brought it to his desk, where he sat and stared at the picture.

It was the picture of himself on a camel, in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza. He’d been on a dig in Egypt when it had been taken and he’d carried it with him ever since. Behind that picture, where no one could see it, was the only picture of Sha’uri that he owned. The one that just depicted her smiling face. Daniel undid the clasps on the back of the frame and gingerly took out Sha’uri’s picture from behind the other one. He set the frame aside and held the picture of his dead wife. Daniel slowly ran his thumb over Sha’uri’s face, as a small, sad smile touched his lips.

The picture of Sha’uri had once had its own frame. After what had happened to the last one, however, he had decided that it was better to keep the picture hidden where it wouldn’t bring up questions that couldn’t be answered and memories that were better off hidden away.

**~~**

Daniel walked into his office at the SGC and slammed the door shut behind him, rattling a few of the artifacts that hung on the walls. He didn’t bother turning on the overhead lights, because his desk lamp was turned on and he could see just fine without them. He headed straight for his desk, intent on picking up one of the cups that sat there and getting some coffee. He reached down and picked up the cup, but instead of taking it over to the coffee maker, Daniel stared at it. After a few moments, he flung it towards the closed door, grinning humorlessly when the porcelain cup shattered on impact.

That felt good.

With shaking hands, Daniel turned back towards his desk and picked up a couple more of the cups that he’d forgotten to take back home and flung those towards the door as well. When that wasn’t enough, he picked up a few of the books that littered the desk and threw those as well.

He shook his head, trying desperately to control the need to scream that threatened to overwhelm him. He clasped his hands together, willing them to stop shaking. When that didn’t work, he ran his hands through his hair and took several deep breaths, but that wasn’t enough to calm the desperation he felt.

"How could I have been so stupid?" Daniel asked himself, his voice sounding foreign to his ears. He paced the length of his darkened office, unwilling to sit still for fear of the demons finally catching up to him. "How could I have been so ignorant? I should have known better! I should have been more thorough in the translation, more careful! But no… I was so sure!" he yelled, his voice getting louder and louder with each word.

A sob escaped Daniel and he immediately clenched his jaw to prevent any more from doing so. He didn’t have a right to feel sorry for himself. He didn’t have a right to feel sorrow. He simply didn’t deserve it.

The rage, however, he deserved. The looks of disappointment and hatred he had gotten from the members of the SG teams that had been involved in the incident and from the scientists that had pointed out the mistake he’d made, those he was entitled to. And there would be no one who could possibly hate him more than himself right now. Suddenly, he walked to stand in front of his desk and with one swift move, knocked everything off of it. He smiled bitterly at the sound of cups breaking, of electronic material shattering and of lives breaking in two.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" he heard someone say from behind him, but he didn’t turn around.

He heard the crunch as the person stepped on broken pieces of porcelain as they walked further into his office, but he said nothing. Instead, he sank to his knees beside the desk, in front of where the frame holding his only photograph of Sha’uri lay in shattered pieces.

"Daniel?"

Daniel tried to tune whoever it was out, intent on being miserable in peace, but they didn’t go away. Before he knew it, someone was kneeling beside him, a hand rubbing his back comfortingly. Daniel flinched away, knowing that he didn’t deserve the comfort either. The hand disappeared, but was replaced by another one, this one on his chin, moving his face to the left so that he could see who the hand belonged to. He was surprised to see Sam kneeling next to him, her expression one of worry and fatigue. He hadn’t expected anyone to come see him, not even Sam.

"Daniel, please talk to me. I can’t begin to imagine what you’re going through and I’ll never know unless you tell me. Please," she said, her voice breaking slightly.

He watched her expression for signs of hate and saw none. How could that be? He’d failed Sam as much as he’d failed everyone else, so why wasn’t she running away from him? Daniel didn’t fail to notice the bandage on Sam’s forehead and the accompanying bruises or the sling holding her left arm in place, nor how her eyes were rimmed with red from fatigue and crying. He’d done all that to her.

"There’s nothing to talk about," Daniel said softly. He pulled his head away from Sam’s hand and watched as it dropped back to her side. "It was my fault. All of it was my fault, Sam. All of those lives lost on the planet…all of the innocents, their lives are in my hands."

He picked up the broken remains of Sha’uri’s picture, not feeling when the broken shards of glass dug into his palm, drawing blood.

"It wasn’t your fault, Daniel. There was no way you could have known," Sam insisted, her voice as steady as she could make it.

"But there was!" Daniel insisted. He raised his index finger to try to explain to her, but lowered it again when he saw blood running down it and onto his hand. "It was in the writings, Sam. It was all there, I just didn’t translate them correctly. It took Dr. Lovell one look at the writings to figure out what had gone wrong, what I had missed. Lovell, for God’s sake! The woman is inexperienced and has never been on an SG team. But she figured it out right away."

"It wasn’t done on purpose. You didn’t mistranslate the writings because you wanted to," Sam said. "You can’t beat yourself up over this."

Daniel shook his head, immediately dismissing her words.

"There are hundreds dead on the planet because of my mistake and Jack and Teal’c are close to it in the infirmary. And look at me, hardly a scratch! All I got is this gash that probably won’t even leave a scar," Daniel said. The last statement came out broken, as a sob that finally found its way loose. "I should be the one in a coma, Sam, not Jack. Teal’c’s symbiote will heal him, but who is going to help Jack?"

"The colonel did what he had to do," Sam insisted. Her gaze never left him, even though he couldn’t look at her. "He wanted to protect those people and the rest of his team, and he did that to the best of his ability. We all know the risks when we step through the Stargate, Daniel. Jack and Teal’c understood that. I understand that as well. Now I only hope that you do."

Daniel tore his eyes away from the broken glass on the floor and finally looked at Sam, his gaze steely.

"I know that you understand the risks! In the end, it’s what’s going to get all of you killed…" Daniel trailed off and looked away from Sam, unable to further meet her gaze. "I can’t let you do that anymore, Sam. I can’t do that to Jack and Teal’c either. It has to be this way."

"What way, Daniel? What are you saying?" Sam asked, confusion evident in her voice.

"It just has to be this way… now if you could, please leave me alone. I have stuff to do," Daniel said, his voice regaining the harsh tone it had before Sam had entered the office. "Please close the door behind you."

Daniel didn’t see as much as hear Sam sigh deeply. She reached out and patted him on the back once more, before leaving the office, closing the door behind her.

Once she was gone, Daniel let his gaze fall back towards the picture of his dead wife. He lifted the photo, cradled it to his chest and finally allowed the sobs to break free.

**~~**

"Dr. Jackson?"

The voice interrupted Daniel’s tortured memories like a lightning bolt, sending him reeling. He opened his eyes, which he hadn’t realize he’d closed, and quickly lifted his head, while setting Sha’uri’s picture aside. He found himself staring at the face of the redheaded student from his eleven o’clock class, the one who had asked him several questions during his lecture.

"I’m very sorry, Dr. Jackson, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I know that you don’t have office hours right now, but…" She trailed off as she noticed how his blue eyes shone brightly with unshed tears. Maybe it hadn’t really been a good idea to come after all. She looked down to his desk and saw the photo of the beautiful woman he’d put aside and she wondered what she had interrupted. "I’ll just come back some other time," she said and turned to leave when his voice stopped her.

"No, it’s okay," he said, quickly blinking away the tears. "I’m sorry. What can I do for you?"

The young lady smiled shyly and took the chair in front of Daniel’s desk. "I’m Alison Marsh, and I’m in your eleven o’clock Linguistics class. I just wanted to come by and ask you a few questions. I know that I should have probably waited until your office hours, but I had some time during lunch," she explained. She glanced at the professor and noticed that his eyes were still directed towards the picture on his desk.

"She’s lovely."

The observation caught Daniel off-guard, since he had been listening to what Ms. Marsh was saying, but not looking at her. He smiled slightly as he glanced back up at her. "Yes, she is."

"Who is she?"

Daniel swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. "My wife," he answered softly.

Alison’s eyes widened. She hadn’t realized that Dr. Jackson was married.

"Is she an archaeologist too?" Alison asked, honestly curious about the man who was known throughout UCLA as the loner.

Daniel shook his head. "No, she isn’t," he explained. Somehow, ‘she’s from another planet’ wouldn’t quite cut it as an explanation, so Daniel decided to tell her what was sure to stop the flow of questions. "She was killed a year and a half ago."

"Oh," Alison said. No wonder he’d been close to tears while looking at the picture. "I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude."

Daniel nodded, glad to have stopped that conversation from getting into dangerous ground. "Thank you. Now what can I do for you, Ms. Marsh?" he asked, granting the young lady his full attention.

He knew who she was, because she always made it a point to ask for clarification when needed and wasn’t afraid to ask questions or voice her opinion. She wasn’t exceptional when it came to languages, but she was intelligent and a hard worker. Her grade in the class so far was average and if he could help her achieve more, he’d be happy to.

"I just wanted to talk to you about today’s lecture. I’ve read through the textbook and there wasn’t much material on the origin of languages or on your technique of finding the patterns. I was wondering if there were other books available so that I could read more on the subject," Alison stated. "I’m afraid that I’m having a little trouble recognizing the patterns, especially in ancient Egyptian writings, and I want to make sure that I do everything I can to learn it correctly."

Daniel nodded, impressed with Alison’s work ethic. He got up from the desk and walked over to the bookshelf, glad to have a distraction for the demons that kept popping up on him at the most inopportune moments.

"I have several books that I can recommend," he said. "Let me find them."

And Daniel Jackson proceeded to do what he did best: teach.

**~~**

"What a lovely planet we have here," Jack O’Neill quipped as he and the rest of his team made their way through the dense forest in search of any signs of life. "To the right, we have some big trees," he said, extending his arm to the right as if showcasing the trees. He waved his hand up and down along the tree trunk, showing off all of its attributes. "It’s big, it’s brown, it’s sturdy, and it’s sure to give you plenty of shade from those two annoying suns shinning in the sky," he pointed out in his best game show host imitation. "To the left, we have some even bigger trees and right in front of us, well what do you know, more trees!"

Sam Carter snickered softly from where she walked a few feet to the colonel’s left. She watched his eyebrows move on his face, as if he were pointing out the most important thing in the world. She caught Teal’c raise an eyebrow in amusement, while Captain Michaels just frowned in confusion. She loved being on SG-1, because she knew that no mission would ever be boring as long as Jack O’Neill was around.

"It could be worse, Sir," she pointed out, not yet entirely comfortable in joining her CO in his small rants. However, ever since Daniel had left, there had been no one else to join in, so she’d started doing it. At first, she was afraid of unknowingly stepping over some line and insulting her commanding officer, but Colonel O’Neill had made it clear that he appreciated her involvement in his rants. "We could be stuck in the middle of some mindless game show where the jackpot was all the trees you could ever want."

"Ahh, yes," Jack said, turning to her and giving her a beaming smile. "But at least then, I’d get to say ‘I’ll take door number three’," Jack pointed out. "And we’d definitely be inside and away from all this sun and these bugs."

They had been walking through the dense forest for three hours without any signs of civilization. The walk was considerable and it made Jack wonder why the inhabitants of this planet would erect a temple to one of their goddesses and place it so far away from them.

"Say, Michaels, don’t worshippers usually situate their places of worship where they can be reached in a short amount of time?" Jack asked suddenly, startling the linguist.

Jason turned his head to regard his commanding officer, confusion plain on his face from the quick change of subject.

"Yes, Sir. In most cultures, centers of worship are placed in a central location where they can be easily accessible."

"Why didn’t these people?" Sam wondered. "We’ve been walking through this forest for almost three hours and we’ve found nothing. If the villagers wanted a centrally located temple, they sure miscalculated where they built the one we just left."

"You have a point, Major," Michaels replied. "I can’t explain why we haven’t come to any villages yet. Unless we simply walked in the wrong direction and should have headed south instead of north."

"The Stargate is to the south, Captain Michaels," Teal’c pointed out. "We traversed that area when we arrived and did not see any villages."

"That is correct, Teal’c. All I meant was that maybe the villages are in another direction".

"Okay, so then we should do what, head east?" Jack asked, glancing at each team member in turn.

"If Captain Michaels is correct, then we have already traveled too far and will not find any villages here," Teal’c replied. "Heading in a new direction would be the logical choice."

"I agree, Sir. Maybe we’ll have better luck somewhere else," Sam added.

"All right, then. East it is," Jack decided and began to walk in that general direction.

****

They had walked through the endless forest for two hours and had still found no signs of civilization.

"What are the odds of there being a temple with absolutely no villages around?" Jack asked no one in particular.

"The planet could be uninhabited O’Neill," Teal’c supplied.

"True, but Captain Michaels said that the temple was still in use, therefore we must assume that someone is here," Jack pointed out.

"Yes, but where?" Sam asked, but was not given a chance to hear a reply.

Suddenly, they heard sounds of rustling vegetation from behind them. Jack immediately whirled around, his MP-5 in his hands. He heard the rest of his team drawing their weapons and relaxed slightly, knowing that they were well armed and hopefully well equipped to handle any threat from the locals.

"Looks like we’ve found our locals," Michaels whispered to Sam, his own MP-5 in his hands.

"Look sharp, kids," Jack said.

He slowly moved to his right, positioning himself behind one of the huge trees that formed the forest, motioning for the others to do the same. He saw them comply and once he was satisfied that the others were covered, he turned back towards the direction of the sound. Jack strained his ears and heard more vegetation being disturbed. He thought he heard voices, but he couldn’t be sure. He listened for a while longer and he became sure that there were voices, speaking in a language that he couldn’t understand.

‘This is an alien planet, O’Neill, of course you don’t understand the language’ Jack told himself.

He motioned for the others to fall back a few paces and quickly followed them. He made his way over to Sam, who was crouched behind a medium sized tree. Ten feet to their left, Teal’c waited with Michaels.

"Can you hear that, Carter?" Jack whispered.

Sam turned her head slightly so that she could hear the voices better. Her eyes widened suddenly at what she heard. At the same instant, Jack saw Teal’c turn towards him, what passed for alarm for the Jaffa clearly on his face.

"That’s Goa’uld, Sir," Sam replied. She turned to get confirmation from Teal’c, who simply nodded his agreement.

"Shit. We need to go back to the Stargate before they see us. We’re not in any position to defend ourselves now, not against that many of them," Jack said as the few voices got closer, then multiplied until about thirty Jaffa could be heard and seen through the cover of the trees. They were marching in their direction along a path that SG-1 had not encountered yet. The Jaffa were about fifteen feet to their left, close enough to spot them if they were to bother looking.

The decision made, Jack turned toward the direction of the Stargate, motioning for the rest of his team to walk ahead of him. He was about to step forward, when a voice stopped him cold.

"Tau’ri, kree!" the Jaffa yelled at them.

His momentary paralysis broken, Jack dove towards the cover of the nearest tree.

"Take cover!" he yelled and then positioned himself and fired at the Jaffa who had spoken, who was standing only a few feet in front of Jack. He couldn’t understand how their position had been found, unless the Jaffa had known all along that they were there and had waited until now to confront them. He heard the discharge of the other MP-5s and knew that the rest of his team was doing their best to defend themselves and retreat towards the Stargate. Jack saw Teal’c firing his staff weapon at anyone who got near him, and saw Sam and Michaels doing the same with their weapons. Jack took care of himself as best he could, while moving slowly towards where he thought the Stargate was.

He quickly dove for cover again as a staff blast sailed over his head, impacting the tree behind him. He rolled to his feet as another blast narrowly missed his left leg. Jack fired his weapon, taking out the Jaffa before he got a chance to fire again. He stepped back quickly, intent on putting as much space as he could between himself and the dead Jaffa, when his ankle twisted painfully, causing him to lose his balance and fall. When Jack hit the ground, he felt the soft soil underneath him give way and barely had time to reach out to grab a low hanging branch before the ground fell away, revealing a steep drop to a ravine a few dozen feet below him. Jack forgot his grip on his weapon; instead he grabbed at the branch and hoped that it would hold his weight. He desperately tried to swing himself onto firmer ground, but was rewarded only with the snapping of the branch, sending him down to meet the ground of the ravine.

He looked up as he fell, and watched as the tree he’d been holding on to grew smaller and smaller. He knew what was in store for him and unconsciously, closed his eyes so that he wouldn’t see what he would surely feel. His last thought before his body hit the ground below was of his team. He hoped that they could get away, back to the Stargate and back to Earth.

****

Consciousness returned slowly.

At first, he wasn’t sure where he was or what had happened. He didn’t know much of anything, except that his head hurt and that he felt incredibly nauseous. He slowly opened his eyes, fully expecting to be assaulted by the bright light of the suns. Instead, he experienced only slight discomfort as his eyes struggled to focus on his surroundings. It wasn’t quite nightfall yet, but the suns were quickly disappearing into the horizon. Jack turned his head to the right and saw that he was at the bottom of the ravine. He looked up and could see the tree he’d been holding onto. He supposed that was a good thing, because it meant that he hadn’t fallen that far.

Slowly, Jack moved his extremities, trying to feel for broken bones. He winced when his knees flared up as he moved his legs, but was relieved when he felt no sharp, mind numbing pain as he moved his arms and legs. He felt slight pain and discomfort in his back, but nothing severe. He’d felt worse after a particularly strenuous workout back home. His ribs were intact and aside from the pounding in his head, Jack counted himself lucky.

He got himself up to a sitting position and only then noticed that he’d landed in the middle of what appeared to be a bed of flowers. They were bright pink, dotted every now and then with a yellow or white center. They looked like sunflowers, except for the odd colors. Jack reached down and into the flowerbed, surprised to find that it was thick and spongy. No wonder he hadn’t severely hurt himself. The soft soil and equally soft flowers had served to break his fall.

"Thank heaven for small favors," Jack muttered to himself as he carefully got to his feet, wincing as his head did several loops before settling once again on top of his neck.

He blinked rapidly, willing his body into motion. He lifted his head, immediately trying to find a way out of the ravine and back to where the rest of his team was. By the look of things, several hours had passed since he’d fallen. The thought brought a sick feeling into Jack’s stomach, because a lot could happen in a few hours. He had to get back to his team and see how they were.

After several failed attempts, Jack managed to grab onto a vine and pull himself up and out of the ravine. He glanced down as the remaining sunlight drifted away and once again counted himself lucky for landing where he had. A little more to the left and he could have been paralyzed.

He shook his head to clear the pessimistic thoughts and immediately regretted it when he became nauseous and disoriented. He recognized those as clear signs of a concussion and knew that he had to get his team and get them all back home very soon. Once the nausea had subsided, Jack looked around and started walking towards the direction where he’d last seen Teal’c, his MP-5 held in front of him. He moved carefully and quietly, hoping not to attract any unwanted attention.

When he reached the spot he was sure he’d seen Teal’c, Jack stopped and stared at the ground. There was no sign of Teal’c or any of the other Jaffa he had seen a few hours earlier. He raised his head and looked around some more, seeing nothing that would indicate a battle had taken place there. Jack couldn’t even find the discarded casings from the bullets that he knew they’d fired. Why would the Jaffa that attacked them want to cover up the fact that a battle had been fought? What were they trying to hide? It was almost as if they were cleaning up so that anyone else who came back to the planet would think it was uninhabited and leave.

Jack walked a few feet forward and then stopped, once again looking around the area. There was nothing. No sign of a fight, no sign of a struggle. More distressing, there was no sign of his team. Jack fought down the rising panic and methodically walked through the area he was sure they’d covered when the Jaffa had began their attack, but once again found nothing.

How could that be? He couldn’t find the Jaffa that had attacked them, nor could he find where they’d come from. There were still no signs of villages or any other dwellings, nor where there any caves or other hiding places.

As quickly as his battered body allowed, Jack extended the perimeter of his search until several more hours had passed. In his extended search, he’d managed to come across a few broken branches and slightly trampled flowerbeds, but nothing to give him any clues on the whereabouts of his missing team members. Darkness had finally descended upon the now calm surface of the planet, severely limiting Jack’s ability to continue his search. Since he couldn’t do anything for his team by himself, he decided that the best thing to do was to go back to Earth and get reinforcements.

Jack started walking back towards the Stargate, hoping that the three other members of SG-1 had made it back there. He knew that they wouldn’t have willingly left him, not unless they had been retreating. Even then, they could still be around the Stargate, all he had to do was get there and find them.

With renewed determination, Jack started making his way back towards the Stargate, hoping that he’d find familiar faces when he got there.

****

"Unscheduled incoming traveler."

The announcement brought George Hammond out of his train of thought. Immediately, his stomach clenched in worry as it always did when a similar alarm blared through the base. He’d learned in his years of working at the SGC and anything and everything could happen and he was better off being prepared. Hammond quickly got up from his chair and walked towards the control room to see just who was knocking on his door.

"It’s SG-1, Sir," the sergeant on duty stated as soon as he spotted the general.

"They’re not due to report back for two more days," Hammond commented to himself. "Open the iris," he commanded the sergeant and then walked down the remaining flight of stairs and made it quickly to the embarkation room to await his premier team. His stomach clenched even tighter in worry now that he knew that SG-1 was involved. They rarely reported in early, unless something had happened. George just hoped that it wasn’t anything too terribly serious.

He stood directly in front of the Stargate, watching the blue pool shimmer lazily. After a short while, a solitary figure emerged from the gate, before the gate winked out of existence, signaling that there were no more travelers en route.

"Colonel O’Neill?" Hammond asked. He saw Jack turn towards him, clearly disoriented and limping slightly. "What happened?"

Jack blinked at the general, trying to get the man to stop spinning in his vision. He looked around, hoping to see Sam or Teal’c waiting for him. His stomach clenched in dread when he realized that they weren’t there.

"Where is the rest of SG-1?" Hammond asked.

Jack’s eyes widened momentarily, his pessimistic thoughts having just been confirmed to him.

"They didn’t make it back before me?" Jack asked, his voice eerily quiet in the huge room.

"No, Colonel, they didn’t. What happened?"

Jack sighed and walked down the ramp to where the general was standing. Slowly, then with renewed intensity, Jack told his commanding officer what had happened.

"Captain Michaels had no idea what was in the temple or what the inscriptions said?" Hammond asked.

Jack clenched his jaw, once again fighting that old anger that came with being reminded of the teammate that he’d lost.

"He knew some of it, but couldn’t decipher everything, Sir," Jack replied. "What he did tell us led us to believe that there was no trouble on the planet, just some worshippers. We didn’t expect any Jaffa."

Jack watched the general take everything in, then made his decision.

"Permission to take units 2 and 3 and return to the planet, sir. The rest of my team is still there and I want to find them."

General Hammond shook his head. "I’m afraid not, Colonel. You’ve been injured and you’re going straight to the infirmary. After that, we’ll see. I will, however, send units 2 and 7 to the planet to have a look around. Dr. Harrison is a skilled linguist and might pick up something that Captain Michaels missed."

"I should be with them, sir. It’s my team out there."

"You’re no good to anyone if you can’t stand straight, Colonel," Hammond said, watching Jack. "Now you either get yourself to the infirmary, or I will have you escorted there."

"Yes, sir, I’m on my way," Jack grumbled and began to walk out of the embarkation room.

Hammond stood at the base of the ramp and watched the colonel go, hoping that the rest of SG-1 would be found safe and unharmed.

****

48 hours later found the SGC just as confused about the fate of the remaining members of SG-1 as they’d been when the three had first disappeared.

George Hammond made his way to the infirmary, his jaw set and his shoulders squared in defiance and determination. Anyone who saw him immediately recognized the general’s attitude and wisely stayed out of his way. To an outside observer, the general was the epitome of calm. It served well to mask the uneasiness, worry, and doubt that churned within him.

SG-2 and SG-7 had returned from PTX-612 eight hours after they’d left Earth. They had been unable to find anything to indicate that SG-1 had ever been on the planet, much less any indication of where the three missing members of the team had been taken. This greatly concerned the general, because the fact that the Jaffa that attacked SG-1 had so thoroughly cleaned their tracks could only mean that they were concealing something.

‘Or someone,’ George thought. ‘These people are not in the habit of inhabiting planets on their own, because some Goa’uld always holds their leash. The question is, which one is it this time?’

To make matters worse, neither Dr. Harrison of SG-7 nor Dr. Meyers of SG-11, who had visited the planet with her team and SG-15, had been able to completely translate the writings on the temple walls. They, along with Captain Michaels of SG-1, were the best linguists currently at the SGC. If they couldn’t do the work, who else was there?

‘There is someone else,’ George thought as he rounded the last corridor that led to the infirmary. ‘I just have to get him back here.’

"Oh, I’m sorry, sir. I should have paid more attention to where I was going."

The feminine voice broke Hammond out of his thoughts and he glanced down at the petite doctor he’d run into.

"It’s my fault," he said, slightly embarrassed that he’d run into her. "How is Colonel O’Neill?"

Janet smiled, but there was very little humor in it.

"Let me guess, he’s been insufferable, demanding that you let him out of here?" the general guessed.

"Yes, sir, something like that. However, the injury he sustained on PTX-612, while not life threatening, was severe enough to give him a concussion, which is why I insisted that he remain in the infirmary. He seems to be doing better, at least physically."

Hammond nodded his understanding of the situation. "Doctor, is the Colonel well enough to travel?"

Janet looked quizzically at the general, but when it became apparent that no answer was forthcoming, she gave him her answer.

"If you’re going to send him off-world, I recommend that someone stay with him at all times, just in case. Gate travel is pretty intense and it might aggravate his concussion."

"I don’t intend to send him off world, Dr. Fraiser, but I do intend to put him on a plane." He wasn’t being deliberately misleading, he just didn’t want to talk about his plan until it had already been set in motion. He wasn’t a superstitious man by any stretch, but he did believe in operating with caution.

"He should be okay on a plane, sir."

"Thank you, Doctor. I won’t keep you any longer," he said to her, then made his way into the infirmary and towards the bed where Colonel O’Neill lay.

As the general got closer, he got a better look at the colonel. The man looked pale and very tired. His shoulders were tense and his fists were tightly clenched, which was a good indication that the man wasn’t sleeping. It had been hard keeping the colonel in the infirmary and he’d been forced to order the man to stay put. Hammond understood the colonel’s need to be out there, looking for his team. However, he wasn’t going to do anyone, least of all himself, any good if he wasn’t operating at 100 percent.

"Colonel O’Neill?" the general said as he took a seat on a chair beside the colonel’s bed. He waited for a beat, before the younger man’s eyes opened and settled on the general.

"Sir. Do you have any news about my team?" the colonel asked, his voice soft and laced with worry.

"I’m afraid not, Colonel. The SG units found no signs of SG-1 and Drs. Harrison and Meyer were unable to complete the translation on the temple walls."

The colonel sighed, and then closed his eyes. He was quiet for a moment, and it became apparent to the general that the colonel was trying hard to contain his emotions.

"So that’s it?" O’Neill finally spoke, his voice gaining intensity with each word. "My team is missing and I can’t go looking for them. Everyone who has been out looking has come up empty handed," he paused and closed his eyes momentarily, before opening them and looking at the general. "Of all the brilliant linguists we have on staff here, you’re telling me that no one can translate a simple wall? Isn’t there anyone else we can send?"

The general took a deep breath, his own feelings of helplessness and anger echoing the colonel’s. He held the younger man’s eyes, conveying to him that he did understand the situation and what he was going through. Hammond only hoped that it was enough.

"The only other person on staff that we could send is Captain Michaels…"

"Yeah, and he’s missing," Jack finished for him. "Besides, Michaels wasn’t able to completely translate the writings in the first place."

"There is someone else, Jack," Hammond said, keeping his eyes on the colonel.

Jack’s’ eyes narrowed in confusion. "I thought you said we’d already sent the best the SGC had to offer."

"The person I’m referring to is not at the SGC, at least not anymore," Hammond commented, waiting to see how long it would take the colonel to figure out who he was talking about. It didn’t take very long. Jack’s frown deepened and he looked away from the general, shaking his head.

"He won’t come back, sir. He was pretty determined to leave," Jack said, his voice taking on a far away quality, as if he were remembering something painful.

"How do you know that, Colonel? Are you sure Dr. Jackson wouldn’t come back, or do you think he wouldn’t be able to translate the writings?"

Jack’s gaze returned to the general. "I have no doubt about Daniel’s linguistic abilities, no matter what he thinks," Jack said. "However, I don’t think he’d come back."

"Not even to help his friends?"

Hammond saw the emotions flicker across the colonel’s eyes, knowing how hard it was for Jack to talk about Dr. Jackson. The two had never discussed it, but the general knew that the archaeologist’s resignation had not been easy on the colonel.

"I really don’t know, General."

"Well, I’m afraid you’re going to have to find out, Colonel. You leave for Los Angeles first thing tomorrow morning."

Jack still couldn’t believe that his team had disappeared. How could it have happened so quickly and so cleanly?

He watched the white, fluffy clouds pass beneath him as he sat on a commercial flight en route to Los Angeles, desperately trying to keep his stomach from tying itself up into knots. He waved away the flight attendant that came his way, knowing that if he were to drink or eat something, it would just come right back up. He needed to focus on the difficult task ahead of him, not on a queasy stomach.

He momentarily covered his face with his hands and winced as he touched the tender spot on his head. Janet had said that it was a small and shallow laceration, but the impact had been severe enough to leave him with a slight concussion. His head still hurt a bit, and he felt weak and disoriented. Jack couldn’t figure out if his physical malaise was a result of his injury or a manifestation of the dread he felt at what he had been sent to do.

He understood the general’s reasoning behind wanting Daniel back at the SGC. The man was the best linguist that the SGC had ever known, and if the writings on PTX-612 held a clue as to what had happened to the rest of SG-1, then it was in everyone’s best interest to get them translated as soon as they could, by any means necessary. Jack was just not looking forward to convincing Daniel to return to Colorado. They had parted on very bad terms and Jack didn’t want to reopen old wounds for either of them.

Sighing, Jack tore his eyes away from the clouds below him and redirected his vision to the manila folder he held in his hands. He read the name that was carefully imprinted on the top, right hand corner of the folder and smiled slightly, remembering a time, six years before, when he had first opened up this file.

Back then, it had been his duty to properly research and approve anyone involved with the US Air Force’s newest classified project. He’d been given Daniel Jackson’s file after Catherine Langford had insisted that the young man be given proper clearance for the project. She seemed sure that he could help with their work and since Jack knew nothing about the science of the improbably-named ‘Gate of Heaven’, he’d bowed to Catherine’s experience and had reviewed the young man’s file. Jack had not known then how Dr. Jackson would help the project. After all, government scientists had spent years working on the Stargate with no success. He hadn’t known how the longhaired, bespectacled, geeky archaeologist would make a difference. But a difference he sure had made, and not just to the project.

Jack opened the file that General Hammond had given him and the first thing he saw was an 8 x 10 glossy photo of Dr. Daniel Jackson, assistant professor of Archaeology at UCLA. It seemed to be an official photo of the archaeologist, something that the university probably used for press releases or for their web site. Daniel was wearing a navy blue suit in the picture, and his hair was a bit longer in the front than Jack remembered him having. The eyes, however, were still the same as they had been the last time Jack had talked to Daniel. No one else might have noticed, but to Jack, Daniel still seemed haunted and drawn, as if what he’d seen and experienced would never leave him. He understood, also, that the experiences would never leave. They would become a part of Daniel, just as they’d become a part of Jack.

General Hammond explained that the file on Daniel was a security measure. The archaeologist knew classified information; therefore it was in the best interest of the project that Dr. Jackson’s activities be monitored. Jack didn’t know if Daniel was aware of what was being done, but he had a feeling that Daniel could care less.

There was nothing extraordinary in the file. All the papers said was that Daniel had an assistant professorship at UCLA. He hadn’t done any research or published any papers since he’d left the SGC, instead choosing to concentrate solely on teaching. Jack smiled a bit, remembering how Daniel had always seemed to become animated every time he’d gotten into what Jack called ‘lecture mode’. He’d always liked to teach and Jack was happy that Daniel was doing something he enjoyed that was a world away, literally and figuratively, from the violence that had driven him from the SGC.

Unconsciously, Jack’s left hand wandered to his head, where a three-inch long scar ran parallel to his ear. He slowly ran his fingers over the slightly raised flesh, vividly remembering SG-1’s mission to PJ7-564.

The inhabitants of PJ7-564 had named their planet Aurora. It was a beautiful place, populated by a technologically young, but friendly people. The natives had welcomed SG-1 with open arms and had been genuinely interested in the sharing of information. Daniel had, of course, been in his element and had taken every opportunity to learn from the natives, while Jack, Sam and Teal’c did their own reconnaissance. Through ancient writings left behind on the walls of the few remaining temples, Daniel had learned that the Goa’uld had once inhabited Aurora but had left it two thousand years before for unknown reasons and that they would not be returning.

That was all that Daniel had said about the translation. He’d told Jack that the temples depicted a story similar to that of the few worlds that had managed to revolt and overthrow the Goa’uld. Since two thousand years had passed, it seemed rather unlikely that the Goa’uld would bother to return. The Aurorans were not any more technologically advanced than they had been during the Goa’uld occupation and Daniel doubted that their planet contained anything that would interest the power hungry System Lords.

"If only it were ever that simple," Jack whispered quietly to himself. He closed the folder in his lap, rested his head on the back of his seat and closed his eyes, letting himself remember the disastrous events that followed.

**~~**

"That was delicious," Sam exclaimed, bowing gratefully to Soco, the wife of one of the Auroran elders. She’d cooked the dinner for SG-1 as a way of honoring their presence and smiled at Sam’s compliment.

Jack was sure that the woman hadn’t understood a word of what Carter has said, but had understood the smile.

"So what’s up for tonight? We’ve had dinner, so is there a movie in our future? Perhaps a thriller involving a lunatic false god getting what he deserves?" he joked, glancing at his teammates.

"Which false god do you have in mind, Jack?" Daniel quipped. "Perhaps we should watch Lethal Weapon, in which a team of two handsome officers go after the latest System Lord to set foot on Earth?"

"Good one, Daniel! Teal’c and I would be perfect for that one."

Jack saw Teal’c raise an eyebrow, but he did not question what they were saying.

"Or how about Independence Day, where a team made up of a handsome, Air Force officer and a brilliant scientist defeat the aliens on board their own vessel? Sam and I would be perfect for that, wouldn’t we Sam?" Jack asked.

Daniel frowned. "I thought the scientist in Independence Day was a man."

"He was, Daniel," Sam replied, her own smile widening.

"What about Indiana Jones? Though I guess in this case, it would have to be Indiana Jackson," Sam added.

Jack frowned. "Indy…Danny… it could work. Indy had a whip; Danny has his barely used sidearm. It would be interesting."

"What is this ‘Indiana Jones’ that you speak of? Is he a great warrior who single handedly slays his enemy?"

Jack laughed out loud, turning to regard his Jaffa friend. He had been wondering how long it would take Teal’c to say something.

"Indiana Jones is a fictional character from a movie, a couple of movies, actually. He’s an archaeologist, like Danny boy here, who always gets himself into trouble while searching for some ancient rock of some sort. But unlike our Daniel, Indy always manages to get himself *out* of trouble," Jack teased, watching Daniel for his reaction.

Daniel groaned, but remained quiet, refusing to take the bait.

"Daniel Jackson does get himself out of situations of his own doing, O’Neill."

"Thank you, Teal’c," Daniel stated, glaring at Jack.

"Perhaps you will show me these ‘movies’ when we return to Earth. I would very much like to know what you are talking about."

"Will do Teal’c! I’ll make sure I have them in my collection. I think Daniel has the Indiana Jones movies in his."

"Do you hear that?" Sam asked suddenly, tilting her head to the side so that she could hear a bit better. "It sounds like shouting."

All humor was gone from the room as suddenly as it had come, leaving all four teammates on alert.

"Let’s go see what’s going on," Jack said and got up from where he’d been sitting on some rugs. He was about to step out of the tent when Arglo, Soco’s husband, rushed in.

"They’re here, they’ve come back!" he yelled, his face red and his eyes bright with fear. "They have come for revenge."

"Who came back?" Jack asked.

"The gods, they have returned!"

"That doesn’t make sense. The writings in the temple didn’t depict that," Daniel frowned.

"Let’s go find out for ourselves, come on. Everyone armed and on alert!" he said and led the way outside where they were greeted by a battlefield.

What they saw when they exited the tent almost froze them on the spot. Goa’uld death gliders were savagely attacking the small village, leaving nothing untouched. Jack could see tents and small houses on fire in the distance and could smell the stench of death in the air. Women were screaming and children were crying everywhere he looked, and Jack couldn’t help but grimace at the sound.

SG-1 immediately took cover and Jack saw his teammates do their best to protect themselves and the villagers. After a few hours of intense battle, it became clear that four armed humans were no match for a dozen death gliders and a couple of dozen ground troops, all hell bent on destruction. He had to do something.

"Daniel, can you hear me?" Jack called into his radio. He could see his teammate behind a small outcropping of rocks to his left, but wasn’t close enough to shout to him.

"I hear you, Jack. But I’m a little busy right about now," came Daniel’s voice, stressed and barely controlled.

"You’re the closest one to the Stargate, Daniel. I’m going to cover you and I want you to go back to the SGC and bring back reinforcements."

For a split second, Daniel’s eyes left the Jaffa he had been defending himself against and met Jack’s, a look akin to incredulity marring his face.

"You want me to leave?"

"I need you to get us some help. If Teal’c were the one standing where you’re standing, I’d send him. You’re the closest. I’ll cover you. Make your way towards the tree line and remain there until you reach the DHD. You can make it in 30 minutes if you run. Once you’re there, you’re on your own, but I think you can handle it. I think that most of the Jaffa are here in the village anyway."

Jack saw Daniel turn away from him and fire at the three Jaffa directly in front of him, then turned his attention to his own Jaffa.

"Okay, cover me, Jack," he heard Daniel say. Jack immediately turned and dove towards a rock formation similar to the one Daniel was standing behind, putting himself closer to the archaeologist. He fired his weapon into the crowd of advancing Jaffa, diverting their attention from Daniel as the younger man made a run toward the tree line, his own weapon held ready to fire. Jack sighed as he saw Daniel duck behind some trees and disappear from sight.

Jack didn’t know how long he’d been standing behind that rock, fighting off what seemed like wave after endless wave of Jaffa. He’d had to reload several times and was afraid that he would run out of ammunition soon. He didn’t know how long it had been since he’d sent Daniel back to Earth for reinforcements, but it seemed too long. He caught sight of a Jaffa approaching him on his left side and immediately whirled to fire at him. The Jaffa was faster, however, unleashing a deadly bolt from his staff weapon. Jack dove to the ground, avoiding the blast. He immediately got up and ran for the nearest shelter, which is this case was a towering, massive tree.

A sudden, brief flash of light from his right caught his attention, and Jack turned to see what the source was. He had to squint to see through the smoke radiating from the burnt and fallen huts, but he realized that what he’d seen was torchlight reflecting off Daniel’s glasses. He felt immense relief that his team mate had made it to the gate and back unharmed, and hoped that Daniel had brought plenty of reinforcements. He was forcefully brought back to reality when the Jaffa that was pursuing him fired again, once again missing Jack. The energy discharge did not miss the tree, however. The blast managed to tear a huge branch off of the tree, sending it crashing down towards Jack. He tried to avoid it, but was unable to. The last thing he saw as the branch hit the side of his head was the leering grin on the Jaffa’s face.

**~~**

Jack quickly opened his eyes, the strength of the memory serving to send chills down his spine. He shook his head quickly, trying to clear the violent images from his mind.

Six SG teams had arrived to help SG-1 and eventually managed to drive away the Jaffa that had landed on the planet. The unidentified Goa’uld that launched the attack had retreated when it became apparent that it would waste too many resources to continue the battle, because the Aurorans were not going to give up without a fight. Jack was sure that the snakehead had just wanted to make a point and he’d managed to do that. The damage to the people of Aurora was done. Three hundred and fifty Aurorans were killed in the attack, including three of the five village elders. Out of the six SG teams, thirteen people had been injured and four killed.

Jack had suffered several broken bones, along with a fractured skull that had left him in a coma for two weeks. A staff blast had struck Teal’c, but his symbiote had healed his injuries. Sam had sustained a concussion and a broken arm and had recovered quickly. Daniel, miraculously enough, had sustained only bruises and a nasty laceration on his face where his glasses had been broken. However, the damage done to the archaeologist had been far worse than anything physical.

Jack had been in a coma when the source of Daniel’s distress had come to light, but he had been able to piece the events together from conversations with several different people, including the general and later, Daniel himself.

Jack took a deep breath to settle his nerves, and then allowed himself to continue to remember.

**~~**

"How are you feeling, Colonel?" General Hammond asked as he slowly made his way into the Infirmary.

"I think I’m getting way too old for this, Sir," Jack replied as he took a seat on his bed.

He had only just come out of his coma and Janet was being very particular about what he could and couldn’t do. Jack had gotten bored lying in bed with nothing to do so he’d gotten up to move around a bit. He’d realized, a little too late, that Janet was being overprotective for a reason. His body ached and his head felt as if it might explode at any moment. He should have stayed in bed.

"With all due respect, sir, I don’t think that you came all the way over here to inquire about my health."

"You’re right, that isn’t the only reason that I’m here, Jack."

Jack immediately stiffened. The General only addressed him as Jack when there was something seriously wrong. All he could do was look up at his commanding officer and hope that the news he was about to get didn’t involve him dressing up in his dress blues in order to tell a family that they’d lost a son or daughter.

"I came to discuss Dr. Jackson."

Jack frowned. What about Daniel? "He’s okay, isn’t he? Janet tells me that he wasn’t severely injured. She wasn’t lying to me, was she?"

General Hammond shook his head. "He’s fine, Jack, physically at least. Have you had a chance to speak to Dr. Jackson?"

"As a matter of fact, I haven’t," Jack replied, realizing that he’d been awake for almost a day and Daniel hadn’t come by to see him. Sam and Teal’c had, but not Daniel. "Did something happen?"

Hammond sighed and took a seat on a chair besides Jack’s bed.

"A week ago, I had a meeting with Dr. Monica Lovell. She’s one of the linguists in Daniel’s department. She brought to my attention the fact that the temple writings on PJ7-564 had been mistranslated."

"Mistranslated how? Daniel doesn’t make mistakes."

"He did in this case, Colonel. Dr. Lovell showed me digital images of the temple writings as well as Dr. Jackson’s translation of those writings. It appears that it is Dr. Jackson’s policy to have someone else double-check his work in case he ever misses anything. In this case, it fell to Dr. Lovell. Upon close inspection of the images and translation work Dr. Jackson had e-mailed her, she discovered that the translation was incorrect, that the Goa’uld return to the planet had been foretold. Dr. Jackson transposed some of the glyphs and took the writings to mean that the Goa’uld were not returning, when the writings clearly indicated that they were. That was what Dr. Jackson missed."

Jack was speechless and not yet ready to believe. "Have you talked to Daniel, Sir?"

Hammond nodded. "I spoke to him three days ago. He reviewed his translation and came to the same conclusion that Dr. Lovell had come to."

"Okay, so he made a mistake. No one is perfect," Jack said, unsure of what the general was getting to.

"I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Jack. Dr. Lovell is insisting that I take disciplinary action against Dr. Jackson for negligence."

"Oh, for crying out loud! How can she possibly hold Daniel responsible for a Goa’uld attack?"

"She insists that Dr. Jackson should have been able to warn the inhabitants of the planet in time to prevent the massacre we saw."

"You don’t really believe that, do you General?"

Hammond took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds, before releasing it. "Of course I don’t believe that, Jack. No one can predict a Goa’uld attack, no matter what the circumstances are. That is why I told Dr. Lovell that she was out of line and should have addressed her concerns with her department head, in this case Dr. Jackson himself, before bringing them to me. She was not very happy with my decision and proceeded to inform anyone who would listen about Dr. Jackson’s mistake. Needless to say, every member of the six SG teams that went to Aurora was already stressed from the battle itself, then from injuries and fatalities. Knowing that a mistake had been made only worsened matters." Hammond paused and shifted in his chair.

Jack could feel the dread in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t quite sure what was coming next, but he was sure he wasn’t going to like it.

"Major Feretti informed me that Captain Ironside of SG-5 cornered Dr. Jackson in one of the hallways a couple of days ago and accused him of killing the four SGC members and the inhabitants of the planet."

"That son of a…" Jack trailed off and decided to listen to Hammond instead.

"He also told me that Lieutenant Mitchell of SG-10, who was killed on Aurora, was Dr. Lovell’s cousin. She took his death pretty hard and was determined to lash out at the person she saw responsible, which explains, but does not condone, her behavior."

Jack didn’t know what to say. But he did know that he had to talk to Daniel as soon as possible.

"I need to talk to Daniel. Where is he?"

Hammond did not answer Jack right away, instead, he rummaged through the folder he’d been holding, until the retrieved a folded piece of white paper. He handed it to Jack, who took it and immediately read it.

Jack looked up after reading Daniel’s letter of resignation, trying to gauge Hammond’s reaction. General Hammond observed him as he read and seemed very calm and in control. The letter was dated two days ago, so Jack figured that the general had already had ample time to digest the news. He didn’t know how he felt about it. Shocked was a pretty good description, but disappointed and angry were in there too.

"You didn’t… the fact that you even have the letter means that you accepted his resignation. Why, Sir?"

"It’s something that he needs to do. I can’t begin to explain to him what it’s like to lose people because of the choices you make or the things that you do. Dr. Jackson is a civilian, so even if I could explain it to him, I don’t think that it would make much of a difference. He made it clear in the letter, as you just read, the he feels he’s no longer useful to this program. Now you and I both know that is not that case, but we can’t convince him of that. Only he can do that."

Jack looked back down at the letter in his hands, at the scrawled signature at the bottom of the page, and knew that something had to be done. He had to talk to Daniel now, before it was too late.

**~~**

Jack sighed and turned his head towards the small airplane window and watched the clouds. With sadness and regret, he let that doomed conversation play once again through his mind.

**~~**

"What the hell do you think you’re doing?" Jack said without preamble as he walked into Daniel’s office. He sluggishly made his way to Daniel’s desk and placed himself directly in front of his friend, keeping him from packing anything else. Daniel’s only reply was a raised eyebrow, followed by a frown.

"It’s nice to see you awake, Jack," he said softly. "I’m sorry that I haven’t been by to visit you. Janet has kept me informed…"

Jack shook his head impatiently and cut Daniel off, not wanting to get sidetracked.

"Yeah, it’s nice to be awake too! But imagine my surprise when I found out that you’d resigned and were packing up your things. After all this time, you’d walk away just like that?"

Daniel flinched slightly at the accusation, but said nothing.

"Why, Daniel? After everything we’ve seen, you’d walk away now?"

Jack tried to keep the anger out of his voice, knowing that Daniel would just get angry in return, but he wasn’t entirely successful.

"It doesn’t matter why I’m leaving, Jack, just that I am. General Hammond has already approved my resignation," Daniel replied tersely, fighting with his own anger.

"He shouldn’t have!"

"Well, he did. Now drop it and let me pack in peace," Daniel said, his voice icy.

Jack put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder to keep the younger man from walking away from him. Daniel flinched and took a step back and away from Jack’s hand, but he didn’t walk any further.

"What do you want from me?"

Jack let out an exasperated sigh and reached out to touch his head, hoping that the simple gesture would reduce the pounding there. He noticed Daniel watch him, concern clearly on his face, before being replaced by anger and cold indifference.

"I want an explanation, Daniel. You can’t be serious about this."

"Why not? This is what I want to do, Jack. This is what I need to do. Why can’t you accept that?"

"Maybe because you’ve yet to tell me why you’re doing it."

The silence in the room was deafening. Neither Jack nor Daniel spoke for a few minutes, each content to stare at the other. Finally, Daniel broke the stare. He picked up a few books and took them over to his lab table, where he put them gently in an open box. He continued to pack some other items on the lab table and Jack let him. He wasn’t going to go anywhere until he got an answer.

Finally, Daniel dropped his hands to his sides and looked up at Jack.

"I joined SG-1 to find my wife, Jack. That was my only concern. Well, I found her. She’s been dead for almost a year now and here I am, still here. I shouldn’t be."

Jack shook his head again, wincing as that only aggravated the pounding in his head.

"Come on, Daniel! Someone else might buy that line of bull, but I don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I know why you joined SG-1, but I also know why you stayed. And I don’t think there’s anywhere else you should be. So why don’t you stop lying to me, and to yourself, and tell me why you’re really leaving?"

He hated to do this to his friend, but Jack felt as if all of his other choices had been taken from him. He’d been in a coma when the general had accepted Daniel’s resignation, so he’d been unable to do anything about it then. Since he hadn’t been able to talk Daniel out of resigning, he was going to talk him into taking the resignation back. He had to. If it took a few harsh words and hurt feelings to do it, then so be it. Daniel would thank him later.

Daniel blinked, surprised at the harsh words. Immediately, Jack saw the younger man’s jaw clench, along with his fists. His eyes widened a bit, but other than that, Daniel was completely emotionless.

"Alright, you want it in black in white, here it is. But pay attention, Jack, because I’m only going to say this once."

Jack flinched at the insult, but figured that he had it coming.

"I didn’t do my job. It’s that simple, Jack. I mistranslated something that I should have been able to translate in my sleep. I was convinced that there was no danger and I convinced everyone else of it. Because of that, hundreds of people are now dead. Five SG teams are now missing several officers and the SGC in general is missing thirteen good people. I’m not a soldier, Jack, so the phrase "acceptable casualties" means nothing to me. One person dead is one too many in my book. If this happened once, who is to say that it won’t happen again?"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Daniel!" Jack replied, stunned at the completely honest admission, but even more stunned that Daniel felt that way. "It was a Goa’uld attack. There was nothing you could have done about that!"

"Did you not hear what I just said?"

"Okay, so you made a mistake," Jack allowed. "One mistake, Daniel. Tell me who on this base hasn’t made one."

"That’s not the point, Jack. The Goa’uld attack might not have been prevented, but we had five days in which we could have done something. If I hadn’t mistranslated those writings, we could have relocated the Aurorans or something. Anything but stay on that planet like fools, open to attack."

"Listen to yourself, Daniel. Granted, you’re an incredibly intelligent man, but you’re not God. Even if you had correctly translated those writings, would it have made much of a difference? You spoke to the elders yourself and know the way they viewed themselves and their planet. If you’d told them that they had to leave Aurora because they might be attacked, would they have left?"

Daniel’s eyes narrowed as he considered the question. The look on his face told Jack that he hadn’t considered that point before. The moment of consideration quickly faded, however, replaced by the steely determination that had been there before.

"They would have seen reason."

"No they wouldn’t have, Daniel. Those old men were stubborn and they would have stayed behind either way. There was nothing that you could have done. So why are you running away? Using this as an excuse to resign is the coward’s way out."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Jack wished that he could take them back. There were a lot of things he had called Daniel over the years, both in anger and in jest. Most of them he’d believed. But never had he believed that Daniel was a coward. But looking at Daniel’s reaction to what he’d said, Jack realized that if this conversation had been salvageable up to that point, it wasn’t any longer.

Daniel smiled, and the smile was bitter and twisted almost into a grimace.

"There you go, then. With me out of the picture, you’ll finally get that soldier you’ve always wanted. Maybe he’ll follow your orders and do what you say, something I never seemed to be able to do."

"Damnit, Danny, you know that’s not what I meant," Jack said, taking a step closer to his friend. ‘Soon to be ex-friend if I keep this up,’ he thought. "I just don’t understand why you’re letting what happened on Aurora drive you away. The attack wasn’t your fault and you know it. It wasn’t like you told the Goa’uld to come and kill those people so why are you letting it get to you?"

Daniel shook his head in defeat. "There is no point to this, Jack. You’re wasting your breath, since the decision has been made. I guess running away is what I do best," he added bitterly and slowly made his way to the door of the office. "If you’ll excuse me, I have to get some more boxes."

Daniel turned to leave the room, but Jack’s voice stopped him.

"What are you going to do when you leave?" Jack asked.

Daniel shrugged. "I’ll find something. I’m a survivor, I’ll find a way."

With that, Daniel left the room, leaving a confused, angry and spent Jack O’Neill behind.

**~~**

Jack closed his eyes, momentarily disoriented. He had stopped seeing the clouds outside his window and had seen Daniel’s face as he had walked out of the office that day. Jack’s hand traveled to that scar again, as it usually did when thinking about Aurora. His conversation with Daniel that day could have gone better, but he doubted that it would have done any good even if it had. Daniel had pretty much made up his mind about leaving long before Jack had been told about it. It wasn’t until a few months later that Carter had told Jack about the conversation she’d had with Daniel in his office, when he’d been using the coffee cups for target practice. His disappointment and anger at himself were fueling the decision. If Jack had known just how deeply the feelings ran before going into that conversation, he would have found something other than direct confrontation to deal with what happened.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Daniel had left and SG-1 had gotten another archaeologist, a hell of a lot other archaeologists.

Jack sighed and prepared himself for the conversation that was sure to come once he’d made it to UCLA. It was a conversation that wasn’t going to be easy for either of them.

****

Seven hours later, Jack found himself walking into UCLA’s Institute of Archaeology. It was an impressive building, which usually signified prosperity. From the file Hammond had given him, Jack knew where Daniel’s office was, so he immediately found the elevator and made his way to the fourth floor. Once he made it to the correct office, he was disappointed to find the door locked.

He did notice a plastic basket on the wall beside the door. Jack took a step closer to it and saw that a few sheets of what appeared to be research papers filled the basket. Apparently not everyone turned in their work on time. What was posted on the small bulleting board beside the basket, however, was what caught Jack’s attention. It was a schedule of Daniel’s classes. He immediately looked at his watch and saw that it was 3:15. Jack traced his finger down the Friday column of the schedule and saw that Daniel had a class from 3 to 3:50 on Friday.

"That explains why he isn’t here," Jack muttered to himself. "Hmm… I’ll just have to go and find him."

Jack noted the room number of the class Daniel was teaching and quickly made his way down to the first floor. He wasn’t sure if going to see Daniel while he was in the middle of a class was a good idea, but Jack didn’t have any time to waste. He had to get back to Colorado as soon as possible and if it meant interrupting a class, then so be it.

He found room 102 with little difficulty. Jack stood right outside the room for a few minutes, gathering up his strength. He brushed his hands down his dress uniform unconsciously, as if he were preparing for a difficult meeting. In a way, that was true. Jack had put on the uniform almost unconsciously and now felt somewhat overdressed. He should have just worn jeans.

Jack finished straightening out his uniform and looked at the room number once again, double-checking that it was the right one. All he had to do was step quickly inside the room, get Daniel’s attention and get the man out into the hall. That wouldn’t be so hard to do, right? After all, Daniel should be standing close to the door.

Making up his mind to be professional about the whole thing, Jack quickly opened the door and took a few steps inside the classroom. It wasn’t until the door had shut behind him that he noticed he wasn’t standing at the front of the room as he’d expected. Instead, he was standing at the back and very top of a lecture hall that descended the further you walked inside it. He had come in the wrong door.

Jack quietly watched Daniel, who was standing at the front of the lecture hall, as he pointed to what he’d written on the blackboard. His voice was precise and calm. His mannerisms were sure and confident and left no doubt that he was completely in command and knowledgeable of the subject. Suddenly, Jack felt bad for intruding on his friend in the middle of his work. He was about to retreat, when he noticed that a few of the students had turned to look at him and were murmuring amongst themselves. There was confusion and curiosity on their faces as they tried to figure out just who Jack was and what he was doing there.

"You all don’t get many visits from Air Force colonels, do you?" Jack asked the nearest face. The young man shook his head, and then turned his head away from the visitor and back towards his professor.

****

Daniel had his back to the students and didn’t notice Jack as he walked into the room. He heard the door open and close but had automatically assumed that it was a student walking in late. He ignored the distraction and continued to write on the board. He wrote a series of what appeared to be sticks, separated by groups of three or four before the murmuring in the class stopped him. He turned around, intent on finding out just what was more interesting than his lecture. Once Daniel did turn around, his gaze immediately fell on the Air Force officer who stood uncomfortably by the top of the lecture hall. His stomach suddenly clenched and he put the chalk down on the table beside the blackboard a little quicker than he’d intended as he realized who was standing there.

"Daniel," Jack said as soon as he saw Daniel turn around and stare at him.

"Jack," Daniel replied, surprise clearly evident in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

Jack cleared his throat and purposely moved towards the front of the classroom, having decided that it was useless to try and be subtle. Daniel couldn’t tell much from Jack’s completely controlled movements and expressionless face, but he knew the man enough to tell that he was nervous.

"Sorry, folks, I didn’t mean to interrupt this fascinating lecture on those chicken scratches your professor has written on the board," Jack said as he reached the front of the room. He turned towards the students, smiling slightly as he regarded the stunned group of youngsters.

"That’s cuneiform, Jack," Daniel seriously intoned.

Jack shrugged. "That’s why I’m the colonel and you’re the archaeologist-slash-linguist, Daniel. I never recognize those things."

Daniel shook his head, his frown deepening. "What do you want and what the hell happened to you?" he added as he noticed the pale color of Jack’s face and the way the man moved stiffly, as if he were in pain.

"We need to talk."

"There’s nothing to talk about, Jack."

"Oh, yes there is," Jack said.

He took a hold of Daniel’s arm and started to drag the younger man towards the door to their right, before turning to address the students again. "I’ll only borrow your professor for a little while, I promise," Jack said and quickly pulled Daniel the rest of the way out of the room.

Once they were in the hall, Daniel jerked his arm out of Jack’s grasp and took a step back, his face angry.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing, walking into my class like that? What do you want?"

"Like I said, I want to talk to you."

"I already told you there’s nothing to talk about."

"Damnit, Daniel, will you stop being so hard headed for just a second?"

Daniel watched as Jack took a deep breath and held it, which was a sure sign that the man was trying to regain control over his emotions. Whatever Jack had come to see him about, it wasn’t a good thing.

"SG-1 was on a mission and it went wrong. Sam and Teal’c are missing on a planet riddled with Jaffa," Jack simply stated.

Daniel’s eyes widened momentarily at the blunt delivery, a frown immediately forming on his face.

"What happened?" he asked, then shook his head. "No, we can’t talk about this here. Come with me," Daniel said and made his way back into the lecture hall, Jack obediently following behind him.

"I’m sorry to do this to you, but something has come up," Daniel informed his still confused students. "You’re dismissed. Have a nice weekend and remember that the midterm is next Wednesday."

The students murmured softly as they looked at each other wearily. Daniel was not known to cancel his classes halfway through, so this was definitely a first. Daniel noticed that the youngsters hung back and watched him and Jack for a brief moment, before putting up their books and making their way out of the room. Daniel busied himself erasing his notes off the blackboard and packing up his assorted papers, while the students filed out of the room. Once they were all gone, he turned to regard Jack.

"Let’s go to my office. There will be no chance of anyone overhearing us there," Daniel said and without another word, made his way out of the room. Jack was left with no choice but to follow his once-close friend.

****

General Hammond sat behind his desk, contemplating his next move. He hated the feeling of helplessness more than anything, but it happened to be a common thing with his current position as head of the SGC.

He missed his days in combat. Well, not combat per se, but he missed the days when he was one of the field officers, out doing what needed to be done. Of course, in his day, they weren’t dealing with alien attackers, but the feeling was the same. He would go through the Stargate and aid in the search for Major Carter, Captain Michaels and Teal’c if he could. However, his job was to stay where he was and make sure that things were being taken care of.

He had seen Jack O’Neill off at the airport the day before and had wished him luck in retrieving Dr. Jackson. George shook his head at the thought of the conversation those two would have to have regarding the current situation. He had yet to meet two more stubborn and hard headed men than Colonel O’Neill and Dr. Jackson. They were complete opposites, yet had managed to forge a tremendous friendship. Because of that friendship, however, each of them knew just what to say to push the other’s buttons, making their arguments and disagreement that much more volatile.

George sighed and wearily rose from his comfortable chair. He was fully aware that there were other linguists that he could send to the planet to translate the glyphs on the temple walls, but George also knew that none would be more dedicated to the task than Daniel Jackson. Samantha Carter and Teal’c were his friends, after all. And even if Daniel didn’t know Captain Michaels, George was sure that Daniel would be worried for him too.

He glanced at his watch, then made his way to the control room. They were sending a MALP through to the planet every few hours to see if there had been any change. George didn’t want to risk sending any more SG teams until he was sure that there was something for them to find, so the MALP would have to be their eyes and ears for now.

"We’re dialing PTX-612 now, Sir," the sergeant on duty reported, as he called off the chevrons. A few seconds later, all seven chevrons had locked and the Stargate activated, bathing the embarkation room in soft, blue light. "Sending MALP."

George watched and waited. As soon as the MALP had crossed the event horizon, he stepped back a bit and turned his attention to a computer monitor to his right, where the MALP video feed would be displayed once it reached the planet. There was a momentary lapse, before the blank screen flickered and images of the Stargate platform on PTX-612 filled the screen.

"Maneuver the camera to get a better look of the surroundings, Sergeant," the general ordered and the sergeant immediately complied. The camera’s angle changed so that they were seeing the grassy area to the left of the Stargate. In the distance, George could see the temple that SG-1 had gone to study. But other than the single structure, there was nothing else to be seen. Just like it had been the many other times a MALP had gone through to the planet.

George sighed heavily and was about to order Lieutenant Jordan to go through the gate to retrieve the MALP when something caught his eye.

"Sergeant, move the camera to the right about twenty degrees," the general ordered, leaning in closer to the monitor to get a better look at what he thought he had spotted.

Sergeant Montgomery did as ordered and turned to his own monitor to see what the general was looking at.

He found nothing at first, and then he saw it. There were shadows visible, off to the distance directly ahead of them. Without waiting for the order that was sure to come. Montgomery panned the camera further, until he came to what was making the shadows.

"Those are Jaffa," General Hammond intoned as soon as he got a good look at the men who purposefully marched away from the line of sight of the MALP. Their direction was fortunate for the SGC, since it meant that their MALP would not be detected. However, George hated to think about where those Jaffa were headed and what they were planning on doing.

"Sergeant, get SG-3 geared up immediately," General Hammond ordered. "I want them through that gate in five minutes before those Jaffa disappear again."

"Yes, Sir," Montgomery answered and immediately carried out his orders.

****

"We’ll be able to talk in here," Daniel stated as he opened the door to his office.

He set his briefcase and assorted papers on his desk before taking his chair. He watched Jack as the older man looked around the office, an interested look on his face. Jack walked over to the wall next to Daniel’s desk and examined the framed degrees on the wall.

"I had never seen these," Jack said as he leaned closer to read them.

Daniel shrugged, but Jack didn’t see it. "It didn’t seem necessary to put them up at the SGC. Everyone knew that I was a Ph.D. so having those on the wall seemed out of place."

Jack frowned. "The people around here don’t know that you’re a Ph.D? Is that why these are up?" he asked, his voice hinting at a trace of humor.

"They know. This is an academic setting, very competitive. You’re supposed to have those up. Why don’t you have a seat and tell me what’s going on?"

Jack looked at the degrees once more, before turning to Daniel and taking the offered chair. "Don’t you get tired of writing all of those letters after your name?" Jack asked, still avoiding the topic.

"I don’t write all those letters, Jack. That’s what the term ‘doctor’ is used for," Daniel explained, exasperated. He knew that Jack was stalling and he was beginning to grow tired of it. "Why don’t you just get to the point of why you’re here?"

Jack’s humor faded into seriousness and he glanced down at his clenched hands, apparently deciding whether to just blurt it out or try to soften the blow.

"Like I told you earlier, SG-1 went to PTX-612 on a reconnaissance mission. Sam, Teal’c and Jason Michaels, who is SG-1’s archaeologist, are missing," Jack blurted out, taking his eyes off his hands and focusing them on Daniel’s stunned face.

"What?"

Jack opened his mouth to repeat what he’d said, but Daniel’s raised index finger cut him off.

"I heard what you said, Jack. What does this have to do with me? I’m sure that in the year I’ve been gone, you’ve all had more than your share of dangerous missions. You certainly didn’t come running to me then," Daniel stated a bit harsher than he’d intended. He inwardly winced at how bitter he sounded.

Daniel knew that he had no right to be bitter. After all, his leaving had all been his doing. However, a small part of him regretted that he’d left and longed to be back there. He did miss the adventure that came with being on SG-1. An assistant professorship, while safe, was not adventurous at all.

Jack sighed but didn’t take his eyes off Daniel. "There are some writings on a temple that you may be able to decipher."

Daniel winced, immediately remembering that last writings on a temple wall he’d had to decipher and the results. "What makes you think I can be of any help?"

Jack took a deep breath and slowly released it. "We’ve gone through this before, while I was trying to get you not to resign, remember? Daniel, why don’t you cut yourself some slack about what happened on Aurora?"

Daniel’s eyes fell away from Jack, landing instead on the manila folder that contained his yet unfinished midterm.

"Do you know what it’s like to walk down the hall and have people look at you, outright accuse you, of killing someone else?" Daniel asked suddenly. "Better yet, do you know what it’s like to stare at your reflection in the mirror every morning, and accuse yourself of the same thing?"

Jack’s eyebrows raised in surprise. "I’m a colonel in the Air Force, Daniel. Of course I know what it’s like," he replied before he could stop himself. "I’ve done some things while following my orders that I’ve disliked, things that have gotten others killed, things that have led to innocents dying for the good of the mission. It’s part of being in the military."

Daniel nodded, but said nothing else.

"Daniel?"

"What about Michaels? Why didn’t he translate the writings?" Daniel asked, picking up the conversation thread before it skewed further away from them.

He had schooled his voice and features so that he now sounded calm and mildly interested. He was incredibly concerned for Sam and Teal’c, however. After all, one just didn’t vanish out of thin air on an alien planet without something going wrong to get you to that point. Daniel just didn’t want to let Jack see that he was concerned and afraid for his friends. Not yet.

"He did translate the writings, Daniel. It’s his job," Jack stated, his tone taking on a slightly defensive quality.

"Then why do you need me?"

"Why are you making this so difficult, Daniel?"

Daniel’s eyebrows shot up immediately, and he leveled Jack with an icy glare. "Difficult? Need I remind you that we’re sitting here in my office, after I canceled the second half of my class because you said you needed to talk to me? Now we’re here and yet you still refuse to tell me why the hell you flew halfway across the country, looking like death warmed over. What happened to you and your team, Jack? What happened that was bad enough to make you come all this way to talk to me? I do have clearance for the details, remember, so you don’t have to play games with this!"

His voice rose higher than he had intended and he winced.

"I’m not playing games, Daniel," Jack said, his voice dangerously low. "You want the gory details, here they are," he stated and proceeded to tell Daniel everything he knew about the planet and what had happened there. When Jack had finished, Daniel was frowning.

"You said that Michaels mentioned Seshat, the goddess of writing?" Daniel asked, his mind going into overdrive as he tried to piece everything together.

"Yes, that was the one. Why do you ask?"

"Did he tell you anything else about her?"

Jack’s eyes narrowed as he tried to remember what the captain had said to him. Daniel inwardly smiled, knowing that Jack would have more than likely ignored half of what the captain had said to him.

"He said that she was a scribe and dedicated herself to write down the experiences of someone of her choosing. That she was not violent."

Daniel sighed, wondering why General Hammond would let an archaeologist who wasn’t fully prepared out on the field with SG-1.

"Seshat is the Egyptian goddess of writing, Jack. She does dedicate herself to writing down the life experiences of a deity or a pharaoh. However, she doesn’t get to choose her employer, he chooses her. According to Egyptian myth, Seshat was the scribe to Horus, who is the son of Isis and Osiris. Sound familiar?"

Jack’s eyes widened at what he’d just learned.

"I take it Captain Michaels didn’t tell you that."

Jack shook his head, speechless as the possibilities of what Daniel had just said ran through his mind.

"That’s not all, Jack. Horus is also known as Heru’ur. I believe we’ve met him already. If what you say happened on the planet, then it’s very likely that Seshat is there with someone else, someone who *is* violent and is not above taking prisoners to get information. Especially if that someone is Heru’ur."

"We have to go back to that planet, Daniel, before something else happens to Sam, Teal’c and Michaels."

"What’s this ‘we’, Jack? I’m retired remember? You came here for information and I’ve just given it to you. You don’t need me there to slow you down."

"Like hell I don’t!" Jack stated as he leapt up from the chair, wincing as his back protested the abrupt movement. He glared at Daniel, whose expression was still blank. "All of that stuff in your head is useful, Daniel, and there’s no one else at the SGC who knows all of it. We can’t find the rest of SG-1 on that planet and it could be because we just don’t know what we’re looking for. But if you’re there, you might be able to read something in the temple, or pick up something that the rest of us missed. You may not have faith in your abilities after what happened on Aurora, but I do. I understand the guilt and the self-reproach, Daniel, I really do. But right now, we don’t have time for it. Teal’c and Sam need you. Come back to Colorado with me. If you can’t do it for yourself or even for me, then do it for them!"

Daniel sat back on his chair, his fingers tightening around the armrests. He heard Jack’s plea loud and clear and could see the desperation in the older man’s eyes. He wanted to be angry at Jack for walking in here and turning his life upside down again, but Daniel found that he really couldn’t do it. Sam and Teal’c were out there somewhere and he had to find them. He took a deep breath and let it out.

"Fine, let’s go."

"Where the hell am I?" Samantha Carter muttered groggily as she sat up.

She felt softness underneath her hand and glanced down to see that she was laying on a bed. She squinted to clear her vision, not believing what she was seeing. She opened her eyes again and yes, she was lying on silk sheets. She immediately glanced down, afraid that she would find herself clothed in a flimsy excuse for a dress. Instead, she found she was still wearing her fatigues.

Sam sighed in relief, having experienced enough embarrassing situations during her time on SG-1 to know that anything was possible. She could recall one particular incident on PT5-754 where the entire team had been knocked unconscious upon their arrival to the planet. When Sam had woken up, she had found herself dressed in a long, white gown made out of a material as thin as silk with a slit up one side and a plunging neckline that concealed nothing. She had felt incredibly self-conscious about her attire and would have been mortified to be seen in that get up, until she’d seen her teammates. She had found the colonel and Daniel dressed in their own white gowns, except that theirs had been short and very tight, definitely leaving nothing to the imagination. Teal’c had been the only one spared the embarrassment of the attire. The rulers of the planet had thought that Teal’c was one of the Gods and that Sam, Jack and Daniel were his servants, so they had dressed the humans in their version of servant’s attire. When everything was straightened out and the team had returned to Earth, Teal’c had given each a gift: a little figurine dressed in Roman attire similar to the one they’d been made to wear. Sam kept hers by her computer, glad to recall the image of her two teammates in their gowns.

Sam smiled slightly at the memory, but immediately sobered up when she remembered her current situation. Now was not the time to let her mind wander, no matter how drugged she was. She looked around the room, wanting to get every possible detail.

It was a fairly large, lavishly furnished place with a few comfortable couches and chairs upholstered in a white, silky fabric. Blood red pillows accented the couches, giving stark contrast to the colors in the room. The bed itself was also done in white with red pillows and sheets. The walls, while not completely devoid of decoration, contained only a few wall hangings. They, too, were done in reds and whites and appeared to depict images of different battles. The images on the wall hangings were made even more grisly and gruesome by the liberal use of the color red. To her left, Sam could see a door, which probably led into whatever passed for a bathroom in this place. Directly in front of her was another door, this one closed.

"That’s probably the way out of here," she mumbled to herself as she struggled to get to her feet. She felt drowsy and uncoordinated, which were probably the after-effects of whatever drug she’d been given.

She couldn’t remember much about what had happened or how she had gotten to the room she now found herself in and she didn’t know where her teammates were. The last thing she remembered was fighting the Jaffa. She had been standing beside Captain Michaels when something had struck her. She now realized that it had been a tranquilizer dart. Was she the only one that had been drugged, or were the rest of her teammates somewhere else in the complex? Where was this complex? It couldn’t be the temple they had found, could it? Sam glanced around the room once more but found no windows.

She was about to walk towards the door in front of her when it opened. Sam stood her ground and watched as a woman and two Jaffa entered her room.

"Greetings," the woman said as she walked to stand in front of Sam, her voice conveying the arrogance that was typical of the Goa’uld. "I am Seshat and this is my place of residence. I presume that you have not been injured?"

Sam frowned, examining the woman who was dressed in a flowing, emerald green gown adorned with gold at the wrists, waist and neck. ‘Gaudy and overdressed as always,’ Sam internally commented, before returning to her examination of the Goa’uld in front of her. Seshat carried no weapons, except for the ever-present ribbon device, and Sam couldn’t help but think that anything was possible with a Goa’uld. Immediately, her eyes went to the open door behind Seshat where she found a couple of Jaffa standing guard.

"You’re the Egyptian Goddess of writing," Sam stated, remembering what Michaels had told them earlier.

"I am. This is my lord’s planet."

"You’re also a Goa’uld."

Seshat narrowed her green eyes before nodding slightly. "You know of my people, how clever," she commented. "Your master must be kind to let you learn of things you have no business knowing about." Seshat smiled, but the smile contained no humor, just fleeting interest.

Sam’s eyebrows rose at the insult and her fists immediately clenched in response to the anger flooding through her at the casual dismissal. She squared her shoulders and faced the Goa’uld. "I don’t have a master. And even if I did, it would be none of your business," Sam finally replied, adding the last part quickly, in case Seshat didn’t know of the Tau’ri. If that was the case, Sam didn’t want to tip her had too soon.

"Foolish child," Seshat said and shook her head, amused. "However, you are correct in one thing: your master’s identity is none of my concern, for now."

"Where are the others that were with me and why did you bring us here?" Sam asked, not wanting to get the Goa’uld too angry just yet.

Seshat motioned for the two Jaffa standing guard by the door and they momentarily left the room, only to return carrying a tray full of food and a container with what appeared to be water. They placed the items on one of the small tables in the room and stood at attention, awaiting further instructions. Seshat said something to them that Sam didn’t understand and the Jaffa obediently left the room.

"Please, have some of our fruit. You have been unconscious for some hours and need nourishment. If there is a need to bargain with your master for your freedom, I would like the merchandise to be in the best of shape," Seshat explained.

Sam shook her head, annoyed at the Goa’uld’s casual acceptance of her as a slave. "I want to know where my friends are."

"They will be brought here momentarily. My two guards went to retrieve them," Seshat said. She walked over to the table where the food was and began to uncover the dishes that had been brought in.

Sam saw several things that looked similar to what she was used to, but she still wasn’t going to touch anything. She could usually handle eating purple apples or red bananas, but only if she knew where they came from and who had brought them. She wasn’t going to trust this Goa’uld, no matter how harmless she seemed.

"A Jaffa walks among you, yet neither you nor the other man with you is Jaffa. How can that be? Are you his slaves?"

Sam didn’t know just how much to tell the woman. She didn’t seem to know or recognize Teal’c, which would probably work to their advantage. Most of the Goa’uld wanted SG-1 dead and if this particular Goa’uld didn’t know about them or about Earth, then it was for the best. Sam wasn’t about to give her more information than was absolutely necessary. Seshat thought that they were slaves to some unnamed ‘master’, which was fine with Sam. It would probably keep them from being killed right away.

"We are not his slaves, but he is the only one among us. He chooses to associate himself with us."

Seshat frowned. She finished pouring the water into the small, golden cup and set it down next to the fruit. "Does his God not object to this choice? Or is this a training exercise of some kind? Perhaps it is to test his loyalties and resourcefulness?"

Sam wasn’t given a chance to reply, because the door opened and the two Jaffa returned. They walked quickly into the room, Teal’c and Michaels behind them, followed by two more Jaffa. The two men seemed unharmed. If anything, they looked well-rested and calm.

Seshat smiled condescendingly at Sam. "Your colleagues are unharmed for the moment, until you give me a reason to change that."

"Teal’c, Michaels, are you two okay?" Sam asked, ignoring Seshat. She looked behind them, fully expecting Colonel O’Neill to be there. When she didn’t see him, her frown deepened.

"We are fine, Major Carter," Teal’c replied.

"We’re okay right now, though I’m not sure how long that’ll stay true," Michaels said, his voice betraying the nervousness he was feeling.

"There was one more with us, Seshat. Where is he?" Sam asked the goddess.

Seshat turned to her Jaffa, then regarded Teal’c and Michaels before turning back to Sam. "There was no other. My Jaffa found only the three of you and brought you here."

"Where exactly is here," Michaels asked, speaking up as he looked curiously at the woman.

"This is an underground complex, used mainly for habitation. The surface of this planet is not safe for us, because of the enemies who wish to find and destroy my lord. We remain underground where it will be most difficult to find us. This complex is fully functional and is capable of housing several hundred people. Only the Jaffa leave the complex to hone their fighting skills. They do so once a day for a few hours."

"We meant you no harm. We came only to explore, so why have we been brought here?" Sam asked.

"You are intruders on our world. Without knowing your intentions, it was necessary for me to neutralize you and bring you here. I have not harmed you, because you have given me no reason to do so. However, if that changes, rest assured that I will take action. I am a scribe awaiting the return of my lord so that I can return to my work. He left these Jaffa here to protect me from his enemies, but I am more than capable of protecting myself if the need arises."

Sam nodded, fully comprehending the threat that had just been made.

"Whatever it is you’re doing here, Seshat, we don’t care. We came to the wrong place at the wrong time, but believe me, we’d be more than happy to take our leave and get out of your hair if you’d just kindly show us to the front door."

Seshat smirked and deliberately brushed back her jet-black hair with one of her jeweled hands. "That is not possible. My lord will be returning soon and it will be up to him to decide your fate. I will leave you now. Eat the fruits I have provided. If you do not, no more will be given to you. Two Jaffa will be posted outside of the door if you require anything."

‘Or if we try anything,’ Sam thought, finishing the threat.

With that, the Goa’uld left the room, leaving the remaining members of SG-1 staring after her. The woman moved gracefully and confidently as if she were walking on air. She was tall and slender but managed to seem harmless and vulnerable at the same time. If Sam hadn’t known the woman was a Goa’uld, she would have felt compelled to feel sorry for her. When the door had closed behind Seshat, Sam turned to Teal’c.

"She didn’t recognize you, and she doesn’t know about us or Earth. Or at least that’s what she wants us to believe. I don’t like her attitude, but at least she hasn’t been openly hostile."

"Not yet, but I’m sure if we give her time, she’ll be plenty hostile," Michaels added, staring at the door the Goa’uld had disappeared through.

"If she is a scribe, then she wouldn’t have been told anything unless it was to be recorded," Teal’c explained. "There is no reason for her to know about the Tau’ri."

"Do you think she was lying about Colonel O’Neill?" Michaels asked.

At the mention of their missing teammate, Sam paled slightly. She hated to think of the possibilities of why he was not with them. They couldn’t be good either way.

"I’m not sure if she was lying or not, Captain," Sam replied. "She seemed honest about everything else, so why would she lie about the colonel? She has us locked up and in control, so what difference does it make if there are three of us or four of us?"

"Good point," Michaels said.

"If that is the case, then O’Neill could still be on the surface," Teal’c mentioned.

"Or he could be dead."

Sam shot Michaels a glare but he wasn’t looking at her. Jack O’Neill couldn’t be dead. He was their only hope out of this place.

"So if we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the Goa’uld she works for, then she wouldn’t have a reason to know anything about us, right?" Sam asked, changing the subject.

"That is correct, Major Carter."

"Then let’s hope it stays that way."

****

"Welcome to American Airlines Flight 750, non stop service to Colorado Springs. We have been cleared to take off and will be doing so momentarily."

Daniel heard the flight attendant’s voice come over the intercom system and settled in his seat. He glanced to his left where Jack was sitting on the aisle seat, his head back and eyes closed. Jack’s jaw was set and Daniel knew enough about Jack to know that he was in pain. Daniel wanted to ask Jack if he was okay, but decided not to.

At one time, the simple matter of asking Jack if he was hurt or in pain would have been automatic for Daniel and he would have pushed until he got what he decided was the right answer. However, that had been a long time ago and now he didn’t quite know what to do. It was obvious that Jack was going through something, but Daniel didn’t think he had the right to pry into Jack’s life anymore. After the somewhat heated argument the two had in Daniel’s office, both men had remained quiet during the ride to Daniel’s apartment, where he’d packed on overnight bag, and during the ride to the airport.

He knew that there was a lot more that needed to be said between them if there was any hope of salvaging their friendship, but he’d leave it alone for now. Besides, Daniel wasn’t even sure if it needed to be done. After all, Jack could simply be dragging him to Colorado so that he could save Sam, Teal’c and the new archaeologist. Never had Jack mentioned Daniel staying on or taking his old job. Once SG-1 was back, Jack could just as easily drag him to the airport again and put him on a plane back to L.A. After all, he’d have his team back in one piece, so what would he need Daniel for?

He shook his head, forcing the dark thoughts away. He had more important things to worry about.

He turned to the window and watched as the mechanics and other airport employees went about their business. He hoped that he was doing the right thing, going back to the SGC. He couldn’t explain it, but he had an incredible feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. It was almost as if he knew that something was going to happen and he wasn’t going to get there in time to do anything about it. He felt as if he would get there only in time to pick up the pieces, as he’d been forced to do on Aurora.

Aurora, now that was a place Daniel didn’t like to think about very often. The name brought along a feeling of such responsibility and guilt that at the beginning, he’d thought it was going to crush him. Walking the halls of the SGC back then and seeing the looks of hatred and disgust that people gave him had been incredibly hard. Daniel hadn’t blamed people for holding him responsible for the injuries and the deaths, because he held himself responsible. He had even tried to talk to Dr. Lovell after he’d found out about her cousin, but she had refused to see him.

He had overheard her and a couple of the other archaeologists on the base discussing him one day. Dr. Lovell had mentioned that if General Hammond didn’t get rid of Daniel, she’d resign because she couldn’t work with him anymore. Ordinarily, a comment like that would have simply annoyed him, because if there was anything that Daniel was sure of, it was his ability to do his work and he had never let anyone else belittle that. On that particular day, however, he had lost his faith in himself and in the one thing he’d been able to hold on to his entire life, his love of archaeology and his knowledge that he was the best at what he did.

Perhaps it had been rash, Daniel could see that now, but at that time, it seemed like the right thing to do. He’d gone to his office after overhearing that conversation, typed up his letter of resignation and then preceded to take it to the general. Hammond had been surprised that Daniel wanted to resign. He’d wanted to know why he felt he had to leave the SGC, but all Daniel would tell him was that it was something he needed to do. After a very uncomfortable conversation, General Hammond had accepted the resignation, but had made it clear that if Daniel changed his mind, he would tear it up. Daniel had been grateful for the support but knew that he wouldn’t be changing his mind.

He sighed and closed his eyes, letting his mind relax. It had been a year since he had resigned from the SGC and a lot of things had happened since then. There was no point thinking about things that he couldn’t change. Not now, at least. Not when in just a few hours, he’d be back there again, face to face with what he’d run away from. He would have to face everyone at the SGC again and with that came the resurgence of all the feelings that had led him to resign in the first place. However, right now he had a choice and he chose to put it out of his mind until he and Jack walked back into the SGC. For now, Daniel cleared his head and let his breathing even out.

After a few minutes, he fell asleep and dreamed.

**~~**

"Damn it, Dr. Jackson, wait up!"

Daniel heard the man, but didn’t stop his quick pace. He’d gotten back from Earth as soon as Hammond had rounded up six SG teams to help out SG-1, but was afraid of what had happened to his team members in the meantime. He was holding an MP-5, which he normally didn’t carry, and was on alert to any approaching Jaffa. He hadn’t had much trouble getting to the Stargate when he’d left Aurora so he didn’t expect much trouble in that area now.

"Daniel, you’re going to get yourself killed," Feretti remarked as he finally caught up with the archaeologist. He hadn’t been the one to yell at the doctor earlier, but he was the one closest to him. "We’re in this together, you know. We should all attack in force."

Daniel turned to the Major, annoyed. When he saw the concerned look on Feretti’s face, however, Daniel’s annoyance disappeared.

"It’s been so long since I left, Feretti, and they’ve been here by themselves all this time," Daniel said. "I just want to get to them to make sure that they’re not already dead."

"Don’t even think that, Daniel. They’re fine, you’ll see."

Daniel nodded but didn’t slow down. When he reached the outskirts of the village, he could hear the sounds of the battle. He motioned to the SG teams, indicating where the fighting was and left them to organize themselves into whatever attack pattern they wanted. All he had been told to do was take them to the village. He knew that they were all highly trained men and women who knew what to do.

"Feretti, I’m going to find SG-1. Don’t worry, I’m armed and will shoot first and ask questions later," Daniel added, knowing that Feretti was aware of his dislike for using violence to solve all problems. In this case, Daniel was glad to take the military way and shoot first.

"Be careful, Doc. We’ll get to you when we get there," Feretti said and Daniel watched him take off with the rest of SG-2.

Daniel nodded and disappeared into the trees, following his earlier path. He was heading to where he’d last seen Jack in hopes that Teal’c and Sam would be with him. As he got closer to Jack’s last position, Daniel could smell the gunfire and the blood and charred bodies of the victims. His stomach started to heave, but Daniel fought it down. He had more important things to worry about at that moment. He kept right on going, not bothering to be quiet since he couldn’t be heard over the sounds of the battle. Behind him, Daniel heard gunfire that was probably coming from the reinforcements. Ahead of him, he also heard gunfire, which only meant that SG-1 was still alive and fighting.

When he came to a break in the tree line, Daniel carefully peeked out and saw the outcropping where he’d taken shelter a few hours earlier. Beside that, he could see the small formation and Jack, taking cover behind that as well as he could, while shooting at the Jaffa. One of the Jaffa broke loose from his line and approached Jack on his left side. Daniel stepped out of his cover and began to shoot at the Jaffa approaching Jack, hoping to drive the attention away from Jack long enough for him to take cover. Daniel was close enough to the trees that he could retreat if he had to. A couple of the Jaffa and began shooting at him, but Daniel used the cover of the smaller trees and was able to dodge the staff weapon blasts, while taking down a more than a few of the Jaffa.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Jaffa go after Jack. Jack was able to avoid the blast and take cover behind a tree. That was not entirely fortunate, as the Jaffa managed to dislodge a branch and send it crashing into Jack, who took the hit on the head. Daniel immediately took off towards his friend’s position, firing as he went. The Jaffa turned his attention from shooting Jack and began to shoot at Daniel instead. He didn’t know if it was adrenaline or terror at losing his friend, but Daniel hit the Jaffa and killed him as he ran towards Jack. When he got there, he kneeled besides Jack and saw the bloody gash on the man’s head. He was about to reach down to see the extent of the damage, when Daniel heard something behind him. He quickly stood up and turned, coming face to face with a Jaffa who swung his staff weapon like a baseball bat. Daniel raised his arm to try to block the blow and was only partially successful. The staff weapon impacted with his left arm, but also caught Daniel high on the side of his face. Daniel cried out as his arm took the brunt of the blow, but still managed to hear the crunch of his glasses as they broke, and he felt the lenses cut into his face. His vision started to black out, but he raised his gun and fired into the Jaffa before the man had a chance to kill him. With a satisfied grunt, Daniel watched the Jaffa fall. He looked around, expecting more but was surprised to find himself alone in that particular part of the village.

He raised his hand up to his face and removed what was left of his glasses, wincing as he saw the blood mingled with the bent frames and broken lenses. He could feel it trickling down his face and into his eyes but he ignored it. He dropped the useless glasses on the ground and made his way over to Jack, who was still unconscious. The throbbing in his head made it impossible to do much of anything, and the vision out of his left eye was tinged with red, but he had to be sure. He kneeled next to Jack again and reached out to feel for a pulse. Daniel sighed in relief when he felt one. Jack was lying on his back and Daniel could immediately tell that he hadn’t been shot. He took his radio out of his vest pocket and quickly spoke into it.

"Captain Rodriguez, this is Dr. Jackson, can you read me?"

"I read you, Dr. Jackson." Ellen Rodriguez was the commander of SG-12. Since that team had two medics, it operated as an unofficial medical unit and Daniel desperately needed a medic now.

"What’s your position?"

"We’re hanging back, covering the rest of the SG teams. I’d say that we’re northeast of the center of town. We were with SG-2, but Feretti moved his team closer to the village."

"Good, you’re pretty close to my location, then. I found Colonel O’Neill. He’s been hit on the head with a falling branch and the injury looks serious. Could you have one of the medics come to us? You can disappear into the tree line that should be to your left and just follow it north until you start to see small hills and rock formations. We’ll be here."

"I’ll go with the Lieutenant to your position and leave the other two members here to wait for SG-2. Are you okay?"

"I’m fine," Daniel replied, glancing down at Jack. "Just get someone here quick."

**~~**

Daniel felt someone shaking him and calling his name. He didn’t know where he was or who was manhandling him, so he immediately reached out and tried to fight off whoever had him. The grip on his shoulders tightened and he forced his eyes open. He saw that he was on an airplane and that Jack’s hands were on his shoulders.

"Wake up, Daniel. You’re going to draw attention to yourself," Jack said, not worried that Daniel was being loud. It was what Daniel was mumbling about that he was worried about. After all, Jack was sure that the rest of the passengers knew nothing about SG teams and approaching Jaffa.

"What?"

"You were dreaming and mumbling in your sleep. You weren’t very loud, but you were mumbling about top secret stuff, so cut it out."

"Oh," Daniel replied, embarrassed that he’d fallen asleep. His hand unconsciously went up to his glasses and the spot around his left eye that had taken the brunt of the blow from the Jaffa, the one that had left the scar on his eyelid. He could still remember his dream and hoped that Jack hadn’t caught most of that. He pulled away from Jack’s hands and settled down in his seat.

"Here," Jack said, handing Daniel a lukewarm cup of coffee. "The flight attendant came by a little while ago and I figured you’d want this."

"Thanks," Daniel said and took the offered cup.

He took a sip, willing the warm liquid to calm his frayed nerves. He felt out of it, disoriented as he usually did when he dreamed about any of the missions SG-1 had been on. It was a shock to get out of a vivid dream from a mission only to find that he was asleep on a bed in a dark room, or in the middle of an airplane in this case. The adrenaline flowing through his body was real enough, after all. His body reacted to the images his mind conjured up and it was a hell of a shock to realize that it wasn’t really happening.

Daniel had seen so many things in his travels with SG-1, things that he could never have imagined. Some of those things, like Sha’uri’s death, were very violent and brutal and had left a deep imprint in both his mind and his heart. Others, like being tortured or interrogated, had left physical scars as well as the mental ones. Other still, like losing a friend or being close to losing one, also left deep marks. It was things like these that usually haunted his dreams. The images and feelings of those missions would enter his mind in the dead of night, where they were free to play and do what damage they could.

But for every bad experience, Daniel could think of a wonderful, incredible one. Proving his theories immediately came to mind. For a while there, he’d begun to believe in what everyone else was telling him. He’d been afraid that he really was crazy. Seeing Ra’s pyramid on Abydos had changed all of that. Meeting Sha’uri and spending a blissful year with her was worth more to Daniel than anything he’d been given since. Discovering Ernest’s planet and the knowledge of the races that had gathered there had been the find of a lifetime.

He’d seen so many things and met so many cultures that his fellow archaeologists would never get a chance to see. During his time at the SGC, he’d gotten to do what he loved to do without fear of being ridiculed or shot down for his "out there" theories. He knew that he was respected and that his opinion did matter, which had made his sojourn back into academia all the more difficult. He’d had to return to a place where he had to keep to himself because he was once again considered "the quack" and because of the top-secret knowledge in his head. He’d been forced to become a loner, which he’d already been used to. But after five years of camaraderie and a feeling of belonging, solitude was a hard thing to deal with.

Daniel took another sip of his coffee, forcibly dragging his thoughts back to the present. He felt silly for allowing himself to fall asleep on the airplane. It was one thing to have drams about top-secret missions while in the privacy of his apartment but it was another thing entirely to have them in public.

"You want to talk about it?" Jack ventured,

"It’s not important, Jack," Daniel replied, immediately defensive.

"Are you sure? I’ve had a few of those over the past year."

"What do you mean?"

"We were both there, Daniel, we both saw what we saw during that mission. It’s perfectly okay to have nightmares about it."

Daniel frowned. So much for Jack not having heard what he’d mumbled.

"What part was it this time?"

Daniel didn’t reply for a while, choosing instead to sip his coffee while it was somewhat hot. How could he bring it up now? He hadn’t been able to talk to Jack about the events on Aurora when it first happened, so how could he do it now, a year later? He sighed.

"I saw you when you went down, when the branch hit you. I shot the J.. man that tried to kill you."

Jack frowned, unsure of what Daniel was talking about. "That was you?" he asked when he remembered the moment Daniel was referring to. "I remember seeing the leering face on that guy and wondered why he hadn’t finished the job."

"I got there too late, Jack. You were already down and all I could do was finish what you started."

Jack turned to Daniel, whose face was turned towards the window.

"You didn’t get there too late, Daniel. I would have been killed if you hadn’t killed him first. I didn’t know that it’d been you, since you never told me. Thank you."

Daniel turned towards Jack, frowning. "Thank you? For what, for getting us all there in the first place? For not seeing enough to expect the attack and save all of those people? You don’t need to thank me."

"You saved my life, Daniel. That should count for something."

****

Jack shook his head sadly as he watched the strong emotions play over his friend’s face. He was familiar with some of the emotions Daniel was feeling because he’d felt them himself.

That planet had haunted his dreams for much of the past year and Jack was sure that it had done the same to Daniel. Everyone involved in the attack had been traumatized by when they’d seen or done on Aurora and a few of the other people involved had been in to see Dr. Fraiser about their inability to sleep. Jack knew about this from the doctor’s reports. He had never gotten to the point of going to Janet about his dreams, choosing instead to sit in front of the television at home and pretend that nothing was wrong. He had seen the change in Sam and Teal’c as well, but they’d never talked about it as a team. It had been too difficult for all of them and they had chosen to move on and deal with the situation they were left with. But even if they hadn’t actually talked about it, Jack had enjoyed the benefit of two other people, not to mention an entire base full of people, who knew what had happened and why he was jumpy and moody. Daniel had a bunch of college students and a lonely apartment to help him deal with the situation. It was no wonder that he was having nightmares now.

"We shouldn’t have been there in the first place," Daniel finally said, turning away from Jack.

"But we were and we did the best we could, Daniel. That’s what matters."

He was never going to get through to Daniel and make him believe that what had happened on the planet wasn’t his fault. Jack wasn’t even sure if he was going to have enough time to try to get through to him. Daniel’s comment to his students kept replaying in Jack’s head. He’d told them to remember that the mid term was next Wednesday, which to Jack meant that Daniel planned on being there to administer it. He was hoping that bringing Daniel back to the SGC would make him realize that he’d been wrong to leave in the first place. But if he was set on returning to his students next week, when he assumed that the situation with Teal’c and Sam had been resolved, what could Jack do to stop him? He hadn’t been able to keep Daniel from resigning the first time. What was he going to have to do to keep him in Colorado now?

He had to think of something, because SG-1 hadn’t been the same since Daniel left and neither had Jack. And it was becoming incredibly clear to Jack that Daniel wasn’t the same either. SG-1 had been a unit which worked well together only because of the four members. They’d been able to go through hellish missions and returned sane and relatively unscathed only because the four of them had made it happen. Jack longed for SG-1 to be that way again and he was going to do his best to keep Daniel from deserting them once again.

"Tell me about ancient Egyptian scribes," he said suddenly, wanting to get his mind away from his dark thoughts.

Daniel turned to face him once again, his eyes widening in surprise. "What?"

"Tell me about them. It doesn’t have to be Seshat, but information on her would help. I just want to be prepared. And don’t worry, Daniel, I’m not letting you off the hook. We will discuss that mission, we just can’t do it right now."

Daniel allowed himself a small smile at the look of determination on Jack’s face. "You’re telling me that you actually want to hear me lecture?"

Jack shrugged. "We have a couple more hours to kill and I can’t think of any other way to pass the time."

Daniel shook his head, but complied, launching into a lecture about Egyptian scribes.

****

"Move out and be careful," Major Thompson told his team as they carefully made their way towards where the Jaffa had been spotted.

His orders had been simple. All he and his team were to do was observe what was going on, try to figure out where the Jaffa were coming from, and find out why there was no sign of them on the surface. That way, a better rescue effort could be mounted once they had more information at their disposal. At present time, they did not know where Major Carter, Captain Michaels and Teal’c had been taken, which made finding out where the Jaffa were coming from a bigger priority. SG-3 was not to engage the enemy, just observe and hopefully leave unharmed.

"Major, the MALP video showed the Jaffa in this direction," Captain Forester informed his commanding officer, pointing to a direction immediately north of them. The tree cover seemed fairly dense in that direction, which would probably give them the advantage of stealth.

"I’ll take point. Sosa, you take the rear. The rest of you, fan out but not so much that we’re not always within ear shot of each other. Keep low and move very quietly. Remember that there are people on this planet, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Whoever took Major Carter, Captain Michaels and Teal’c is still around here and we want to avoid becoming the next kidnapping victims." He paused and studied his team. "Let’s try not to get separated."

The four members of the team moved out in their respective positions, with Captain Forester keeping track of where they were and where they were supposed to go. Every now and then, he would signal with a finger and the team moved in the direction indicated. After an hour walking within the shade of the forest, Thompson called a stop.

"Haven’t we passed the area already?" he asked Forester. "Hammond saw the Jaffa from the MALP, which was stationed by the gate. We should have seen or heard them by now."

"I’m not sure, sir," Forester frowned. "The MALP video showed the Jaffa to be only twenty or so feet away from the gate, so we should have run into them by now. But we haven’t seen or heard anything."

"These trees are pretty dense," Lieutenant Roberts commented. "Could we have missed them completely?"

Forester shook his head. "It’s possible, but I don’t think so. Jaffa are pretty loud, especially if they’re in groups. We would have heard them if not seen them."

"There is more going on here," Thompson said. "Colonel O’Neill mentioned that SG-1 had also been ambushed. They didn’t know that the planet was inhabited so they weren’t looking for signs of life, at least not at first. We knew what we were looking for. We even knew where to look and yet we found nothing. Something is up. I don’t know how, but the Jaffa knew that we were here when we arrived and must have hidden themselves." He looked at each of his team, silently asking them if they had any other ideas. When no one volunteered anything, he continued. "Let’s head back to the gate to report what we’ve seen. If Hammond wants us to continue to look, then we will. Otherwise, we’ll go back."

SG-3 quickly turned around and headed back towards the gate. They were halfway through the dense forest, almost to the clearing where the gate stood, when they saw the Jaffa. They were coming out of what appeared to be a whole in the ground behind the raised platform of the Stargate. They were exiting in a single file, their staff weapons at the ready.

It was a group of about thirty of them, all dressed in the traditional armor associated with a Jaffa. They all had a tattoo on their foreheads that looked somewhat like a hawk. This didn’t make any sense to Thompson or anyone else on the team, since none of them had any background in Egyptology. If they knew who the hawk like symbol represented, they’d know what Goa’uld they were up against. He sighed softly. This wasn’t the first time that Thompson wished he had an archaeologist on the team.

As they watched, the Jaffa cleared the opening and the one in the lead waved what appeared to be a ribbon device over the opening on the ground, causing a low rumble to reverberate through the clearing. Thompson could see a cloud of dust and dirt form over where the Jaffa had exited, which led him to believe that there was a passageway to an underground complex. No wonder they hadn’t been able to locate the missing members of SG-1 on the planet, or any other signs of habitation. The people of the planet weren’t on the surface, they were underneath it.

He waited a few minutes more after the Jaffa had left the clearing, making sure that the soldiers were well away from the four humans before making his way over to Forester. He motioned for the other two members to join them and they quickly complied.

"That’s why we couldn’t find them. They must have gone underground before we got here."

Forester nodded. "Did you see how they closed that opening? We won’t be able to open it on our own, because we don’t have one of those devices."

"It doesn’t matter. Our orders were to observe and gather information, not take action. Now we head back home to report what we’ve seen and come up with a better plan."

****

Jack and Daniel stood quietly in the elevator that would take them down to Hammond’s office. Neither man had said much since they were picked up at the airport by a cranky airman. One look at Jack, or rather, the silver eagles on his shoulders, had straightened the man out. Daniel had almost smiled when he saw the young man’s reaction, but had been able to keep his face stoic. He was pretty sure that Jack had noticed, but he hadn’t said anything.

He felt odd being back here. For the past year, Daniel had gotten used to the noisy halls of UCLA, full of bright, young, and carefree kids. Being back on the base again, where the halls were quiet, drab and full of very serious people, just seemed wrong. He recalled the first time he’d stepped into the base. At least at that time, Catherine had been there to talk to him and show him the ropes so he hadn’t felt completely out of place. Daniel doubted that any of his colleagues on the base would be happy to see him now.

"You look nervous, Daniel." Jack commented in a voice that said he knew he was right and shouldn’t be argued with.

Daniel shrugged and turned his head to look at Jack. "It’s nothing, Jack, nothing at all."

The elevator doors opened and Daniel immediately exited the elevator, wanting to show Jack that he was mistaken, that there was nothing wrong. Since he’d been turned away from the door, Daniel failed to see the woman who stood in front of the elevator until he collided with her. He hadn’t been going very fast, so he didn’t knock the woman over, but he did succeed in knocking her off balance. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders to steady her, before he realized who he was looking at.

The woman immediately took a step back, pulling herself out of Daniel’s grasp.

"Dr. Lovell," Daniel said when he realized who he’d run into.

"Dr. Jackson," she replied, her voice cold. The woman seemed caught off guard, as if he were the last person she’d ever expected to see on base again.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there."

She shrugged. "It’s not a problem. What are you doing here?"

Daniel couldn’t help but notice the bitterness and defensiveness of her tone, but he ignored it. He wasn’t about to get into an argument with her, no matter how much she might want one.

Before Daniel got a chance to answer, Jack stepped up beside him.

"He’s here because I brought him here," he stated, his voice condescending, as if he were addressing a child, and showing every bit of the contempt he had for the woman. "We needed a good linguist, someone who can actually do the job, and I went to find him. Is that all right with you, Doctor, or should I have cleared my actions with you first?"

Lovell narrowed her eyes at Jack, unconsciously straightening her shoulders. "No, Colonel, you don’t have to clear your plans with me. But since you are making an addition to my staff, I should have been informed."

"I’m just here temporarily," Daniel muttered, but neither Jack nor Lovell were listening.

"If I may, Dr. Jackson’s record as a linguist isn’t exactly pristine, Colonel. Anyone on the base can do what he can. Whatever it is you brought him here for could probably have been done by me or anyone in my department."

Jack chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "You take yourself way too seriously, Doctor. You got lucky on one translation, nothing more. Daniel’s one mistake pales in comparison to the numerous ones you’ve made during your time as head of the department of Archaeology on this base. At least Daniel could delegate the workload and actually finish the translations the other SG teams gave him. When he got behind in his work, it was because he was off-world with SG-1. What’s your excuse?"

Daniel opened his mouth to ask the two of them to shut up, but Jack quickly glared at him and motioned for him to keep quiet. Against his better judgment, Daniel did as he was told.

Dr. Lovell’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the colonel. "I don’t have to justify myself to you," she said.

Jack’s eyebrows rose in bitter amusement. "I’m second in command of this base, Dr. Lovell. Therefore, you do answer to me. Are we clear on that? Whoever I bring in to help me find my missing teammates is my business, not yours. While Dr. Jackson is here, you and your staff will treat him with the respect he deserves, understood?"

She nodded and glared at Dr. Jackson, who stood off to one side, glancing from O’Neill to her. The look on his face conveyed his discomfort and embarrassment at the situation.

"Good. As long as that’s clear," Jack said. "If you’ll excuse us, we must be on our way. The general is expecting us," Jack said and pulled Daniel down the corridor with him.

"What the hell was that about?" Daniel asked when they’d rounded the corner, glancing towards the elevators. Lovell was the last person he’d wanted to see. However, in typical Daniel luck, it was the first person he’d ran into. "And what’s with the "shut up, Daniel" look? I hadn’t gotten that one in a while."

Jack shrugged, the corners of his mouth twitching up slightly. "She lobbied for your job and got it after you resigned. Ever since then, she’s turned into an egotistical bitch. She just needs to be reminded of what her position really means."

Daniel’s eyebrows rose. "Egotistical bitch? Isn’t that a little harsh?" He had never really liked Lovell while she’d worked for him, but she was good at her job. Egotistical was not something he would have thought to use to describe her. "Wait, you’re saying that she’s the ranking civilian around here in charge of the archaeological teams?"

"You got it."

Daniel shook his head. "But she doesn’t know the first thing about being out in the field, much less about managing an entire department. It was hard enough for her to manage her section and even that was a stretch. I mean, yes, she’s a brilliant archaeologist or else she wouldn’t be here, but as a department head, she leaves a lot to be desired." He was quiet for a moment, considering. "That would explain why Michaels was assigned to SG-1. I would never have recruited someone who wasn’t completely versed in the mythology needed to deal with the people the SGC deals with."

"What do you have against Jason? You’ve never met him," Jack asked, his tone slightly defensive.

"I don’t have anything against him, Jack. But from what you told me in my office, the current situation could have been avoided if he’d been fully versed in the Egyptian myths."

Jack shook his head and smiled slightly despite the grim situation. "Not everyone can fit all that crap into their head like you can, Danny. You’re one in a million." After a brief pause he continued, "Thank God for that too. Can you imagine what the world would be like with more than one of you running around?" He stopped speaking when he realized what he’d said.

"Oh, I’m sure that if there were more of me, they’d all make their way down here and plant themselves in your office. You’d have to work overtime to keep up."

Jack chuckled. Daniel never ceased to surprise him.

****

Monica Lovell stood in front of the elevators once again, her fists clenched tightly. She heard the amused voices of the two men as they walked away from her, which only served to maker her angrier. She didn’t quite catch what they were saying, but she didn’t need her advanced degrees to know that they were probably talking about her.

‘How dare O’Neill bring Jackson back?’ she thought, glancing to her left as if she could still see O’Neill through the wall of the corridor. ‘After everything I’ve tried to do for the last year, why does he still feel the need to go over my head and bring in an outsider? He doesn’t even consult me on the translation job he needs done, but he goes and brings Jackson back instead?’

Monica knew the answer to those questions as well as she knew her name. She’d known it from the moment she was given Daniel Jackson’s job. It hadn’t been easy, jockeying for the position she’d wanted ever since she’d been transferred to the SGC. But she had been right and Jackson had been wrong on that translation from Aurora, which had given her more power over him than she had ever though she’d have. She had wasted no time in using the knowledge and had been greatly disappointed when General Hammond had refused to cooperate and get rid of Jackson. She had gotten what she wanted anyway, because Jackson had resigned, leaving his position wide open.

Monica had received a rude awakening, however, when she’d finally taken over Jackson’s job. She was immediately made aware of her position at the SGC, which was that she basically had no say in much of anything. She’d wanted Jackson’s job because of the respect he’d been given by the officers and the other scientist on the base, but she’d found out that she hadn’t received the same respect once she’d been head of the department. She had never figured out just what was so special about Daniel Jackson, and why the officers and other scientist didn’t treat her the way they treated him. What was worse, she had made an enemy of Jack O’Neill when she’d asked for Dr. Jackson’s job and now she had to live with it.

"Damn him," she cursed. "Damn them both."

The elevator doors opened and Monica quickly made her way inside, not paying attention to the other occupant of the car.

"Is there something wrong, Monica?"

Monica was startled to hear the familiar voice, but turned around immediately and smiled sadly at her friend.

"Things just keep getting better and better, Denise," she said cryptically to one of her dearest friends. "O’Neill just finds more ways to drive the knife in further."

"What are you talking about?" Dr. Denise Summers asked, confused.

"Daniel Jackson is back on the base."

"Why? I didn’t think he’d be welcome back here after that messed up translation."

Monica shrugged. "Are you kidding? He’s the golden boy, Denise. Everything he does is okay with O’Neill and Hammond. What’s one lousy translation in the grand scheme of things?"

"Where did you see him?"

"I saw him in the corridor, just before the elevator arrived. He was with O’Neill, who mentioned something about needing Jackson for a translation. I think it has something to do with the disappearance of the rest of SG-1 on that planet."

"Why would they have to bring Jackson back if they’ve got linguists here? Leave it up to that Air Force to do everything in a more complicated manner," Denise said.

"They sent Harrison and Meyers to the planet and neither one could finish the translation Michaels started. They never even bothered to ask me to go and take a look at it, they just went over my head and brought back Jackson. I swear that man is going to forever be the thorn in my side."

"What are you going to do about it?"

Monica shrugged. "It’s my department now, Denise. If he’s going to come in here and ruin everything I’ve worked so hard to achieve, I’m going to do my best to make him realize just what a bad idea it was for him to return."

****

Daniel and Jack walked the remainder of the way to Hammond’s office in silence. A few people passed them in the halls, some staring when they recognized Daniel, others staring at the civilian who wasn’t wearing an SGC uniform walking with the 2IC of the base. Daniel ignored everyone, intent only on getting to where he needed to go. Once they reached the office, Jack knocked on the door and waited for Hammond’s voice to invite them in before opening the door.

"Mission accomplished, General," Jack stated by way of greeting, pointing at Daniel. "I had to drag him out of a class, but he’ll survive. I think his students were glad for the break. I believe I actually heard them cheer when we left."

"They weren’t cheering," Daniel mumbled.

"Of course they were cheering. You were too busy threatening them with that midterm to notice."

General Hammond got up from his chair, smiling at the familiar banter as he made his way over to Daniel to shake the younger man’s hand. "I’m very glad you could make it, Dr. Jackson," he said, a smile on his face. "It’s been a while."

Daniel shook the general’s hand, feeling a bit better with the reception he’d gotten from Hammond. He didn’t know what he had expected, but this wasn’t it.

"Yes sir, it has. Thank you, by the way, for getting me the job at UCLA. I can only imagine the strings you had to pull."

Hammond shrugged. "I didn’t have to pull anything, son. All I had to do was find someone willing to listen. And it was my pleasure. It was the least I could do."

"You got him the job? You mean Daniel could have been back here where he belonged months ago if you hadn’t found him a job?" Jack asked, his voice radiating mock indignation, "Sir."

Daniel glanced uncomfortably at Jack, looking for any signs of resentment at his departure, but found none.

"Good things come to those who wait, Colonel. Just remember that. Speaking of those who wait, we need to discuss a few things."

Hammond motioned for Jack and Daniel to take the two chairs in front of the desk while he sat down on his chair.

"Has something happened?" Jack asked, all trace of humor and teasing immediately forgotten.

"Yes, Colonel, it has. This morning, we picked up some video from the MALP clearly showing a group of Jaffa on the planet. I sent SG-3 to investigate and they found nothing when they first arrived. Major Thompson began to get suspicious and ordered his team back to the gate. As they approached the platform that houses the Stargate, they saw a group of Jaffa emerging from an underground tunnel of some sort that was located directly behind the Stargate. Major Thompson reports that it was a group of thirty Jaffa. One of them used a hand held device of some kind to close the opening, so SG-3 was unable to explore further."

"Did they return safely?" Jack asked, dreading having another team missing.

"Yes, they did. They immediately reported to me and I’ve been waiting for you to return so that we can take the next step."

"Which is?"

"I want you to go back to the planet with SG-3 and find a way to get into that tunnel. We believe that Major Carter, Captain Michaels and Teal’c are being held underground and we need to get down there to get them out."

Jack nodded already feeling better that they finally had a plan of attack.

"Sir, there is something else. Daniel believes that Heru’ur is the Goa’uld in charge of that planet."

Hammond eyed Daniel. "What makes you believe that?"

"Well, sir, Jack told me what Captain Michaels translated on the planet and according to Egyptian myths, Seshat is the scribe to Heru’ur. If she is on that planet, then it is very likely that Heru’ur is also there or will be returning soon. That would probably explain the Jaffa and their training exercises."

Hammond nodded. "Major Thompson mentioned something else. He said that the Jaffa were wearing a tattoo on their foreheads that looked like a falcon or a hawk. What does that mean to you, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel’s eyes immediately widened. "The hawk is used to depict Heru’ur, just like the snake is used for Apophis. Which means that the Jaffa SG-3 saw on the planet and the ones that attacked SG-1 serve Heru’ur."

Hammond and Jack were silent, absorbing what they’d just heard.

"Very well," Hammond said. "Colonel, Dr. Jackson, the two of you will accompany SG-3 to the planet at 0700 tomorrow morning. Your goal will be to infiltrate the underground compound and extract the rest of SG-1, before this situation gets worse."

The commissary was nearly empty when Daniel entered.

It was almost two in the morning, so he hadn’t expected to see many people up and about. He was out of luck, however. As soon as he entered, four sets of eyes turned towards him. Daniel immediately recognized Louis Feretti and realized that SG-2 must have just come back from a mission. Feretti had a habit of dragging his team to the commissary after being discharged from the infirmary, which must have been what had happened today. There were a few other people scattered around the commissary, some he recognized and some he didn’t. Daniel nodded in acknowledgement towards SG-2 and quickly made his way towards the coffee machine, where he poured himself a cup.

He felt uncomfortable, as if everyone was watching him and judging him. It didn’t help that he was the only one in the room dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. He felt as he had when he’d first come to Cheyenne Mountain, like an outsider. Even though he’d worked with the people sitting at the table a few feet from him for years, he felt as if he didn’t know them. Daniel fought the urge to walk out of the commissary as fast as he could, instead choosing to sit at one of the empty tables close to the back of the room.

He had been assigned one of the VIP rooms for the night to rest for the early morning mission he and Jack were to go on with SG-3. While he’d tried to get some sleep, he’d been unable to do so. His mind had been on overdrive ever since he’d set foot on the base and nothing Daniel did got it to slow down enough to grant him some peace. When he did manage to relax enough to fall asleep, Daniel ended up having dreams that were disturbing enough to wake him up. He’d decided to come for coffee after several hours of fitful sleep had left him tired and on edge. He didn’t want to talk to anyone, but he didn’t want to be cooped up alone in the VIP room either.

"Hey, Doc," Feretti said as he took a seat directly in front of Daniel. "How’s it going? I didn’t expect to see you back."

"Neither did I, Feretti," Daniel replied. "How was the mission?"

Feretti smiled. He seemed at ease with Daniel, as if a year hadn’t passed since the last time they’d done this. Daniel returned the smile, feeling a bit better about being there. It seemed like old times, sitting in the commissary, talking to Feretti after staying on the base to finish up some work. He’d often wandered to the commissary for coffee after one of those nights only to find Feretti with his team. The Major would always make it a point to come over and talk to him, and they’d spend the time mostly reminiscing about old times or talking about their various missions. They’d developed a friendship, which Daniel had missed.

"The mission was fine. You know, the kind that we all wish we had all the time. Friendly natives, no Goa’uld. What brings you here?"

Daniel took a sip of his hot coffee and grimaced slightly at the taste. "I’d forgotten how bitter this was."

Feretti laughed. "Civilian coffee is that much better, huh?"

"It is when I buy it for myself," Daniel replied, also laughing.

He relaxed a bit as he usually did when talking to Feretti. Talking to the major wasn’t like talking to Jack, because Feretti didn’t know everything about him like Jack did. Daniel could evade and avoid subjects knowing that Feretti would never catch it.

"You’re avoiding my question, Doc."

Daniel sighed. "I take it you haven’t had a chance to talk to either Jack or the general?"

"No. SG-1 is off-world on a mission, or they were when I last checked in a few days ago. What happened? SG-2 has been off-world for two weeks and I haven’t had a chance to catch up on everything."

"Jack is actually on base," Daniel corrected. "He’s probably sleeping somewhere. The rest of SG-1 is missing," he stated and filled Feretti in on what happened. "That’s why I’m here. Jack went to Los Angeles to find me because he thought I could help. We’re going to the planet tomorrow with SG-3."

"I want to go with you," he immediately stated. "I’m not sure if Hammond will approve the mission, since SG-2 just returned, but I’ll do my best."

"What about the rest of the team? Will they be okay with it?"

"Are you kidding? SG-1 is legendary. You know that, Daniel. Anyone on the base would do anything for them, and for you," Feretti said. "They’d be happy to help."

****

Jack O’Neill was wandering the halls of the SGC. He had tried to sleep but had been unable to relax enough to do so. Instead of lying in bed, tossing and turning, he’d decided to walk. A good, brisk walk had a way of clearing his head that worked better than anything else he’d ever tried, and at this point, Jack was desperate. The events of the last few days, plus his injuries from his last mission, had left him cranky and irritable. He wasn’t going to be any good to anyone tomorrow if he didn’t get some sleep and settle down, but he didn’t see how he could do that.

It was late at night so he didn’t expect to run into anyone and hadn’t so far. He walked quickly, hoping to work off some of his excess energy. He stopped suddenly, unaware that he had been heading in any particular direction until he’d reached it. Jack looked up and was surprised to find himself in front of what used to be Daniel’s office. He hadn’t been in this part of the base since the office had been reassigned about ten months ago and it surprised Jack to realize that just because Daniel was on the base, he’d expected to find the archaeologist in his office. What surprised Jack even more, however, was the fact that he’d immediately headed in this direction when he started feeling restless, automatically assuming that Daniel would be willing to listen to whatever was troubling him as he had done for many years. It was ironic that old habits died hard, no matter how much time passed.

He wanted a friendly ear right now, someone to talk to about the mission and about what could be happening to Sam, Teal’c and Michaels. Daniel always listened, which is probably why Jack had headed to the office in the first place

Jack was worried about his missing team members. For all he knew, they could be dead or in the process of being tortured. The thought of them suffering somewhere below the godforsaken planet frightened Jack, especially because he wasn’t there to experience the situation with them. He might not necessarily be able to help them escape or prevent the torture from happening, but he would be where he belonged. Jack was a military man, a man of action, who was intimately familiar with the dark hearts of jailers and torturers. He didn’t have to use much of his imagination to imagine what prisoners went through during capture. What made this situation worse was that SG-1 was possibly being kept by Heru’ur, a sadistic and deadly Goa’uld who had no qualms at all about killing for information, or simply for the sheer joy of it.

At the same time, Jack was worried about Daniel, who had never really stopped being a member of his team. Daniel might not have physically been around for the past year, but in Jack’s thoughts, he had been. He’d managed to pay attention to the archaeologist enough times and had learned a bit about the things the man held dear. It was hard not to pay attention to Daniel, because the man spent much of his time talking about one thing or another that had caught his fancy. No matter how hard Jack tried to ignore him, some of the things Daniel had told him over the years had made their way into his head and gotten stuck there. But Jack would never tell Daniel that. It would spoil his fun.

Jack smiled and stared at the closed door to what used to be Daniel’s office. He didn’t know who occupied the space at the moment, nor was that fact important. In a way it was disheartening for him, because if by some chance Daniel decided to stay, his office would be gone. But just as quickly as the thought had come, Jack pushed it away. Daniel probably didn’t want to stay at the SGC anymore. Why would he, when he could go back to his quiet life in academia and his attentive students?

"Old habits die hard?"

Jack looked away from the door, startled. He found Daniel standing a few feet away, starting at him.

"I could ask you the same thing."

Daniel shrugged. "I just wanted to see if anyone had occupied the office."

"Why, did you want it back?" Jack asked, the question coming out a bit harsher than he’d intended. His anger at himself for wanting Daniel back at the SGC, even though he was sure Daniel didn’t want to stay, tinged his response before Jack could help it. The reply sounded almost accusatory to him and he wished he could take it back, especially after seeing the frown appear on Daniel’s face.

"No, I don’t think so," Daniel replied quickly, reacting to Jack’s tone more than to the question itself. "Besides, I never really belonged here."

"What makes you say that?" Jack asked, his voice a bit softer and less edgier.

"Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s the military atmosphere." Daniel took a couple of steps closer to Jack and leaned against the wall, watching the older man. "Or maybe it’s the fact that I could never quite get myself to follow orders."

"That never stopped you before. As a matter of fact, you seemed quite content to point out to anyone who’d listen, namely me, that you were a civilian and didn’t have to follow orders."

"It must be nice to finally have someone who does, then."

The silence that followed was deafening. Both men stood uncomfortably, avoiding each other’s eyes. Daniel crossed his arms and sighed.

"It has its moments," Jack finally replied. "I bet you’re happy where you are, having people actually listen to you and hang on your every word."

"It has its moments," Daniel stated, deliberately using Jack’s own words. "Those kids don’t have a choice but to listen to me. If they don’t, they fail and won’t be getting that doctorate they’ve been working so hard for."

Jack nodded and decided to just get it over with. He had nothing to lose, so he might as well ask Daniel what he’d been wondering since he’d stepped into the lecture at UCLA. "Are you happy there, Daniel? Is teaching what you want to do?"

Daniel frowned and seemed caught off-guard by the question.

"I was teaching before I joined the SGC, Jack. I started teaching right after getting my doctorates, so yes it’s something I love to do."

Jack stared at Daniel, finally hearing the answer he’d been looking for. It hadn’t been the one he wanted to hear, but it was the one he’d gotten and he couldn’t do much about it, just as he hadn’t been able to keep Daniel from leaving in the first place.

"I’m happy for you, Danny. I’m glad that you’ve found the place where you belong."

****

"Okay, this is strange," Jason Michaels remarked as he poked at the assorted trays in front of him. One particular dish of what looked to be diced beets caught his eye. "What the hell is this stuff?"

"That is called potem’k," Teal’c replied, glancing at the dish the captain was pointing at. "It is the chopped liver of a Tomak beast. It is considered a Goa’uld delicacy."

Michaels made a disgusted face at the dish. "Are we supposed to feel honored at being given this stuff?"

It was night time, or at least he thought it was. His watch read 1900 hours which would be approximately dinner time. He had no way to tell if it was night, because they had no windows. On the upside, the three of them had been moved to what appeared to be a suite, with a central area and three separate bedrooms. He’d been concerned that they’d be separated and had been glad when it hadn’t happened. They could better plot their escape if they were together.

"Indeed you are, Captain Michaels. Seshat is behaving in accordance to Goa’uld tradition. Until her lord arrives, she is the ruler of this world and it is her duty to see to her guests."

"So she sees us as her guests?" Sam asked, taking a peek at the dish Michaels was making faces at. "Or are we just prisoners?"

"Unless we give her a reason to mistrust us, she will very likely be courteous and attentive and she will not kill us. However, she will not release us. She must await the arrival of her lord to do so."

Sam nodded, agreeing with what Teal’c had just said. It just seemed strange to be a guest of the Goa’uld. Prisoner would be more like it. At least they didn’t have to put up with a cold, damp cell. "So who is her lord and how long until they get here?"

Neither Teal’c nor Michaels said anything and Sam could see that Teal’c had something on his mind. "Teal’c, do you know what is going on?"

Teal’c nodded once in affirmation. "I believe that Seshat is the scribe to Heru’ur."

"What? How can you be so sure?"

"The Jaffa in this complex bear his symbol of the hawk. I did not see it at first, while we were on the surface, but I noticed it when we were taken out of our rooms. It could be no one else."

Sam sighed, trying to stop the panic from climbing up from the pit of her stomach. "This is wonderful, just wonderful. Why couldn’t we catch a break just once?"

Michaels looked from one to the other, confused. "Have you had dealings with Heru’ur before?"

"Oh, yes… with him and both of his parents," Sam replied.

Michaels frowned, his confusion growing. He recalled everything he knew about the man to see if he could make sense of what the major had said. As far as he knew, Heru’ur was one of the Egyptian Sky Gods and the God of Revenge. He was the son of Hathor and Ra, two of the most powerful Egyptian deities, who had also been two very powerful and influential Goa’uld System Lords.

"How exactly have you had run-ins with him and his parents?"

Sam narrowed her eyes at the Captain. "You didn’t read all the mission reports before joining SG-1, did you Captain?"

"No, Major, I didn’t. I was attempting to familiarize myself with Egyptian culture, myths and languages because I knew I’d need that."

She shook her head, radiating disappointment.

"Colonel O’Neill and Dr. Jackson killed Ra on Abydos and freed the Abydonian people from Ra’s rule," Sam explained. "Hathor was freed from her sarcophagus on Earth and made her way to the SGC where she drugged all of the males and attempted to procreate," Sam shuddered at the images of Hathor in that vat of water, surrounded by the men of the SGC. She shuddered even more still at the image of Daniel, disheveled and disoriented, in the VIP room.

"She tried to take over?"

"Hathor was later killed by Colonel O’Neill after she implanted him with a Goa’uld. As far as Heru’ur goes, SG-1 ran into him on Cimmeria where he invaded the planet and tried to take over. The people of Cimmeria, and SG-1, with the help of Thor and the Asgard, managed to get rid of him."

"Those are some dealings," Michaels muttered, in awe of the action his new team had seen in their travels through the Stargate. He would have loved to be with them during that time.

"That is not all, Captain Michaels," Teal’c said. "Daniel Jackson led Apophis to believe that Heru’ur had kidnapped his newborn son when in reality, Daniel Jackson took the boy and left him with Kasuf, the leader of the Abydonian people."

"Why would Dr. Jackson want to do that?"

"He did it because Daniel Jackson’s wife, Sha’uri, asked him to take care of her son."

"I thought you said Dr. Jackson took Apophis’ son?" Michaels asked, clearly confused.

"It was the child of Apophis and Sha’uri that Daniel Jackson was protecting, at the request of his wife."

"Read the reports, Captain. You’d be surprised at how much you can learn," Sam interrupted. "The point is that Heru’ur knows us. Two members of our team are responsible for the death of both of his parents, which isn’t something that he particularly likes. Not because he’s mourning their deaths, but because Heru’ur has inherited a lot more power since then. However, the deaths of Hathor and Ra were an attack on a Goa’uld System Lord, something no respectable System Lord would let us get away with. Not to mention that he blames us for not being able to conquer Cimmeria. He is not going to be happy to see us here."

Sam paused momentarily, as if debating whether to say what she wanted to say. After a small pause, she returned her gaze to Michaels. "If you would have taken the time to familiarize yourself with our missions and the enemies we’ve made, as you should have done before stepping through the Stargate, you’d be a lot better prepared to deal with the situations that arise in the field." She turned away from the man. "Daniel would never have been that unprepared," she muttered under her breath, but loud enough so that both Michaels and Teal’c heard the comment.

Michaels tensed and glared at the back of the major’s head, but kept silent.

"That is why we must escape before Heru’ur arrives," Teal’c added, noting the rising tension in the room. "I do not believe that he would undertake a long journey without his scribe, so it is likely that Heru’ur will be returning in a short span of time."

"I agree. First thing tomorrow, we try to get Seshat to show us around the complex. You know, a general tour of the place. From there, we’ll be better able to see where we are and how to get out of here. For now, we eat and rest. We won’t be any good tomorrow if we’re weak and sleep deprived," Sam made her way over to the dinner trays. She picked up some fruit and settled down on one of the comfortable chairs, lost in her own thoughts.

Michaels followed the major’s lead and put some of the food on one of the small plates. He walked over to a couch and sat down, turning away from where Major Carter had sat. He could see Teal’c on the floor, meditating and winced a bit at the thought of sitting on the floor in a fixed position for any length of time.

He couldn’t help but feel a bit like an outsider. He had only been part of the SGC, known everything there is to know about the enemies of Earth, for only four months. That was hardly ample time to become familiar with it all, much less comfortable. The major’s expression while telling him about SG-1’s previous missions had been one of impatience, which he resented. He’d tried to do the research, but he’d decided to concentrate on Egypt and the other ancient cultures instead of SG-1, because he figured that SG-1 would fill him in on anything he needed to know. He had heard that SG-1 had undertaken some interesting and dangerous missions, but he’d never thought that they’d gone up against Egyptian Gods. And to think that during every one of those missions, they’d had a civilian archaeologist with them to baby-sit. It had to have gotten irritating for the officers having to put up with the guy. On the other hand, the way SG-1 and several other people on the base defended Dr. Jackson, he must not have been that much of a nuisance.

Not for the first time, Michaels wished that the shadow of Daniel Jackson didn’t travel with them wherever they went. He couldn’t help but feel that the remaining members of SG-1 couldn’t give him a shot at actually fitting into the team because Jackson was always along in their minds. They couldn’t look at him as a competent person in his own right, because all they could think of was what he couldn’t offer them that Jackson had been able to. He’d already proven them right on this mission, having completely missed the fact that there was even a connection between Seshat and Heru’ur. Not that there was any way he could have realized that there was a connection to be made. After all, the Egyptian mythology stuff was very new to him. Michaels wondered if Colonel O’Neill would have turned back if he’d told him that on the surface. Would they have gone back to the Stargate instead of exploring the forest? From Major Carter’s reaction, he was starting to think that the colonel would never have endangered them and would have ordered them back home.

He sighed and glanced down at the food on his plate. If it was ever appetizing, it wasn’t any longer. Michaels took the plate and set it down next to the trays. He was going to retire to his room, but Major Carter’s eyes on him stopped him. He didn’t know why, but instead of continuing on to his room, he made his way over to her.

"With all due respect, Major, I’m not Dr. Jackson and I never claimed to be. It’s not my fault he decided to resign."

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Once they were out, he was shocked at what he’d said.

"I’m sorry, Major, that was out of line," he said quickly and began to make his way towards his room.

"Captain, wait," she called to him and he stopped. Slowly he turned around and saw her motioning for him to sit on one of the chairs beside the couch. "I think we need to talk."

Michaels reluctantly did as he was told and settled down on one of the chairs. He looked up at the major momentarily, before looking away.

"What makes you think that we expect you to be like Daniel?" she asked.

"You never talk about him, but he’s always with us. The colonel doesn’t say it, but I can tell that he’s always impatient with me and I can’t help thinking that in his mind, he’s saying something like ‘Dr. Jackson would have done this faster’. You and Teal’c seem to expect me to know this stuff, but ancient cultures aren’t my specialty. I learned the history and the ancient languages so that I could better fit into SG-1, but so far it hasn’t done any good."

Sam remained quiet, digesting what the man had said. After a few uncomfortable minutes, she offered a reply.

"We don’t talk about Daniel because it’s hard for us to. His resignation was a sudden and completely unexpected thing that none of us were ever able to understand. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a bit betrayed that he left us, but he had his reasons. He was our friend and we’d gone through many hard situations together. That builds trust and a bond that we still have, even if he isn’t here. But just because I still think of him and consider him my friend doesn’t mean that I can’t accept you or your talents and what you bring to the team."

Michaels heard the words and noticed the sadness that underlined them. He’d heard rumors that Major Carter and Dr. Jackson had been dating, but he had never believed them. He didn’t believe them now. Whatever Major Carter had felt for the man, it wasn’t that kind of love.

"What about the colonel?"

Sam smiled. "He’s a unique individual, believe me. Daniel was a very good friend to him and his departure hit him very hard. I’ve read the mission report from the first Abydos mission, so I know a bit of how they met and how their friendship started. Daniel used to say that the colonel taught of him as ‘an allergy ridden geek who was not good for much.’" She smiled as she quoted Daniel’s version of Colonel O’Neill’s initial impression of him. "The point is that Colonel O’Neill is impatient with you, as he is with any of us who are taking too long or when he gets bored. Trust me, he yelled at Daniel plenty of times for taking too long or for going on and on about subjects he didn’t think were interesting or necessary. It’s not you; it’s the colonel’s personality."

Michaels nodded once, hearing and understanding everything she’d said. "I’m a military man, Major. I plan on being one for the rest of my life. Being assigned to SG-1 was an incredible boost to my career and I’m very happy to be here. I want to be an active member of the team, not just a reminder of someone you’ve lost."

"Daniel Jackson will always be a part of SG-1, Captain Michaels. But that does not mean that you can not be a part of SG-1 as well," Teal’c said from his position on the floor. He’d apparently ended his meditation when he’d heard what they were talking about.

"He’s right. Don’t misinterpret what we do or how we act, Jason. Give us a couple of years and you’ll get used to us," Sam said, smiling slightly.

"Thank you, Major, Teal’c. I understand the situation a bit better now. Have a good night," he said and retreated to his room, leaving a worried Sam Carter behind.

****

"Would you care to tell me what you’re doing here?"

Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath when he heard the grating voice. He slowly released the breath but did not get up from the chair he was sitting on, nor did he turn around to face the woman. He waited until she had fully entered the room and was standing in front of him before speaking.

"Half of these books used to be mine, which gives me a right to use them," he said, gesturing with his hands to the bookshelves that lined the walls of the small room.

Daniel had set the room he was in as a mini library for the entire department when he’d first arrived at the SGC and had used a lot of his old books so that everyone would have access to the same research materials. He had rarely had to use it himself, since he had his own research materials in his office. He didn’t have his books with him right now, so he had been forced to come to the library to read up on Seshat in particular and Egyptian scribes in general. He hadn’t expected to run into Ms. ‘Huge Chip On Her Shoulder’ at that hour of the morning.

"It’s almost seven in the morning, Dr. Lovell. Give it up," Daniel added when the woman’s face contorted with barely controlled rage.

"You have some nerve, you know that Dr. Jackson? You come in here as if nothing had happened. Need I remind you that you willingly left your job because you couldn’t face the fact that your mistake cost hundreds of people their lives? How dare you just show your face again? Believe me, the pain isn’t gone and it will never be," Lovell said, standing in front of Daniel’s chair, her hands on her hips.

Hearing the woman standing in front of him remind him of the events leading to his resignation made Daniel’s blood boil. He set the book he’d rested on his lap aside and quickly got up from the chair, making Lovell take a step back.

"You have no idea what happened on Aurora, because you weren’t there," Daniel began, his voice low and very cold. "Furthermore, you have no idea what I’ve already put myself through because of the innocent lives that were lost. Believe me, it hasn’t been a picnic for me either. Daniel paused and glared at Lovell. "Jack was right; all you did was get lucky on one translation. That doesn’t make you any better than me or anyone else for that matter."

Daniel took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and not overreact to Lovell’s hurtful words. She wanted to hurt him and was doing an admirable job of it. Daniel didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him lose control.

"I’m not after your job, Dr. Lovell. I’m here because I want to help my friends make it back from whatever hellhole they find themselves in. It’s a noble concept you know. But I’m sure you wouldn’t know anything about that, seeing as how you don’t do anything that doesn’t suit you."

"Oh, and you expect me to believe that you’re some kind of saint? How many times did you manage to talk people into giving you what you wanted while you were here? As I recall, you could do no wrong," Lovell snapped at him. "You ran the department however you wanted and no one ever said anything to you."

"At least I ran the department. All you’ve managed to do is hire incompetent people who have no clue about what they’re supposed to know."

Lovell frowned. "You’re insulting my staff now, too? How pathetic."

"I wouldn’t be here if Captain Michaels, who had to have been approved by you prior to his assignment to SG-1, had known the first thing about Egyptian scribes," Daniel said. "He made a mistake and Sam and Teal’c are now paying for it."

Lovell actually smirked at the comment. "You would know something about making mistakes, wouldn’t you Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel looked at the woman, momentarily speechless. After a few minutes, he began to laugh. It was a bitter, harsh sound that made Lovell wince.

"You’re definitely a piece of work, Dr. Lovell. However, you’re not worth it, not by a long shot. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a mission to go on," Daniel said and without another word, left the room.

****

"Daniel, you’re late!" Daniel heard Jack yell as he entered the embarkation room.

"Sorry, Jack. Too much coffee and too many things on my mind, not to mention a certain pissed off linguist," Daniel absently mumbled as he tried to get the holster properly situated around his thigh, Lovell’s words still screaming though his head. He’d always hated the thigh holsters, because they were heavy and tended to come loose. The old fashion waist holsters would have worked much better. He glanced up and saw Jack standing at the end of the ramp facing SG-3 and Louis Feretti of SG-2. He wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go, so Daniel made his way to stand next to Feretti.

"I told you I’d be coming along, Doc. Hammond wouldn’t allow the rest of my team to tag along, though," Feretti said and clapped Daniel on the back.

"Thanks, Feretti."

"Okay, people. For those of you who don’t know, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson, SG-1’s former archaeologist, now retired," Jack said to the gathered team. "He’s come out of retirement to join us on this mission because of his expertise in ancient Egyptian culture. He’s already given us some information on who we’re going to find on that planet, so I hope you all read your pre-mission reports." Jack rearranged his MP-5, before continuing. "Our orders are simple. We are to infiltrate the underground compound and extract the rest of SG-1. Hopefully, we can do this with as little violence as possible. However, that is usually not the case when dealing with the Goa’uld, so be prepared for the worst. Major Thompson, since your team has already done reconnaissance on the planet, you will take point and lead us to where you saw the Jaffa exit. Are there any questions?"

The Stargate burst to life behind Jack, giving the room and its occupants a bluish glow.

"Good," Jack said when no one spoke up. "Let’s move out."

As SG-3 was making their way up the ramp, Daniel caught a bit of a conversation.

"What the hell do we need with a civilian on this mission? He’s going to get us all killed," Forester of SG-3 was telling one of his team members.

Daniel, who would have normally let a comment like that go, was not in a good enough mood to put up with it. He’d had practically no sleep the night before and was feeling particularly irritable, especially after the heated conversation with Lovell. Without a word to either Jack or Feretti, who had both heard the comment, Daniel made his way over to the two members of SG-3.

"Don’t worry, guys. I was on SG-1 for four years and either witnessed or participated in the deaths of several Goa’uld System Lords. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about baby sitting me," Daniel said to the men.

They turned quickly towards him, embarrassed that they’d been overheard. "Sorry, sir," they mumbled.

Daniel shrugged. "I’m a civilian, remember? You don’t have to call me ‘sir’."

With that, Daniel turned around and went back to stand next to Jack and Feretti.

"Go, Doc Jackson," Feretti commented, grinning as they made their way up the ramp behind SG-3.

"Methinks someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Jack mumbled softly. The look Daniel shot him told him everything he needed to know. "Or maybe he didn’t make it all the way to bed in the first place."

"Don’t we have a mission to get to?" Daniel stated.

"Yes, we do," Jack replied. "But first, you do remember how to shoot that thing, don’t you Daniel?" he asked, pointing to the sidearm strapped to Daniel’s thigh.

Daniel raised his eyebrows and leveled Jack with an easy glance. "After all that time you and Teal’c spent teaching me self defense, you think I’d forget?"

"Well, it’s not like you need to be armed when you’re sitting at your desk in your cozy office. I just want to make sure that you’re okay with shooting the gun if you have to."

Daniel nodded and gave his reply in a voice bordering on annoyance. "Yes, Jack, I remember how to shoot the gun. Ill be able to defend myself, don’t worry."

Jack nodded. The seriousness of the situation returned quickly, and he straightened his shoulders and confidently led his team of three through the Stargate to the unknown world beyond.

****

"Okay, Thompson, lead the way," Jack called out as he exited the Stargate into the bright, hot morning. He made his way towards the Major so that he could walk next to him. "Daniel, you’re with me. Feretti, take the rear. The rest of you, fan out but stay within sight."

"Jack, I’d like to get a look at the writings that Michaels couldn’t translate," Daniel said.

Jack turned away from Thompson and narrowed his eyes at Daniel. ‘Here we go again. He’s only been back for a day and he’s already arguing for a change of direction.’

"Why? We already know where the rest of SG-1 is," Jack said.

Daniel shrugged. "Just humor me on this, Jack. You never know what you’re going to find. Whatever is on that wall may just give us a history of this planet and how Heru’ur and Seshat came to be here. I’m sure that information like that has some kind of tactical advantage."

‘Damn it! Why does he always have to sound so reasonable?’ Jack thought. ‘And since when has Daniel given a damn about tactical advantage? Then again, he wants me to let him go, so he won’t tell me that he simply wants to see those stubborn hieroglyphs that three other linguists couldn’t translate.’

"Jack, are you okay?"

Jack blinked, realizing that he’d been staring at Daniel. He sighed, resigned to the fact that Daniel’s habit of making him change his orders was still alive and kicking.

"Yes, Daniel, I’m fine," Jack finally said, his voice full of long-suffering impatience. "Okay, fine, we’ll go and see the wall so you can gawk at those chicken scratches you love so much. But don’t take too long. I happen to have a fully loaded weapon in my hands."

"After all the trouble you went through to bring me here, you’d really shoot me?" Daniel deadpanned.

Jack chuckled. He’d really missed bantering with Daniel. "Don’t push your luck, Daniel. You never know what I’m going to be in the mood for. Feretti, cover our six. SG-3, fan out but stay close while I lead the way to the temple. Daniel, you’re with me."

Jack led the way to the temple, covering the distance in a shorter amount of time, now that he knew where he was doing. He looked at his watch as he reached the wall in question, and then glanced at Daniel.

"You have exactly thirty minutes, Danny. Get to translating. We’ll just hang out here and watch for incoming Jaffa," Jack said, tightening the grip on his weapon.

Daniel ignored him, as Jack knew he would. Instead, the archeologist made his way to the inscriptions and began to run his hands over the weird writing. Jack sighed and found a nice, comfortable rock to sit on.

"You might as well make yourselves comfortable for the next half hour. Daniel will be in la la land until he translates all that stuff," Jack said.

"Do you think he’ll be able to read that?" Thompson asked as he settled down beside the colonel.

"Sure. Daniel can translate pretty much everything. Some things take longer than others, but this should be a piece of cake to him."

"But the other three linguists weren’t able to," Thompson added.

Jack shrugged. "He’s got all these arcane and really old languages in his head that seem to come in handy every once in a while. I trust him."

Thompson nodded and glanced over to where Daniel stood. "I guess we don’t have another choice."

****

Exactly thirty minutes later, Jack got up from his rock. He rubbed the sore spot on his backside gingerly, wincing at the discomfort. ‘That’s all I need,’ he thought ruefully, ‘as if bad knees aren’t enough.’

"Okay, your time is up. Give us the correct answer now, or go home with the consolation prize," Jack said as he walked up to Daniel.

"If the consolation prize is a trip to Hawaii, I’ll take it," Daniel replied as he turned away from the wall to face Jack.

"I’m afraid not," Feretti piped up. "The Air Force is too cheap, so we can’t afford Hawaii."

"But there is always Minnesota," Jack added.

Both Feretti and Daniel groaned. "Not Minnesota," they both said at the same time, earning them a scowl from Jack.

"So what does it say?" Forrester asked as he and the rest of SG-3 joined them at the temple. "Were you able to translate it?"

"Oh, yeah," Daniel replied, his voice taking on that self-depreciating tone he sometimes used.

Jack couldn’t help but wonder if the younger man was thinking back to what had happened with the translation on Aurora, and hoped that Daniel wouldn’t let that affect him now.

"It’s Old Egyptian, but those aren’t actual hieroglyphs. That’s what was confusing everyone," Daniel continued, switching into lecture mode automatically. "In ancient Egypt, hieroglyphs were used to adorn the tombs of the kings and other important monuments, and to write formal manuscripts. They were time consuming to write and were practically useless as a form of every day communication. For less formal methods of communication, such as daily notes or reports, the Egyptians of that time adopted Hieratic. Hieratic is the cursive form of hieroglyphs. As you can see," Daniel pointed to a section of the text that was directly under a line of hieroglyphs, "it’s much easier to write. Since not many of the everyday documents have survived since the time of Egyptian civilization, Hieratic isn’t widely recognized."

"But you know it, of course," Jack muttered.

"As a matter of fact, I do. I specialize in ancient languages, and this is one of them. It’s just part of all that crap in my head, right Jack?" Daniel replied.

"So what does it say?"

Daniel took a breath. "Well, it basically depicts the arrival of Heru’ur on this planet. There were no natives on this planet when they arrived, which was why he chose it. Heru’ur came here after a fairly brutal battle with one of his enemies, a Goa’uld by the name of Geb, who is the Egyptian God of the Earth. They were fighting for control of a solar system a few hundred light-years from here, but Heru’ur was not a match for the troops that Geb rallied. Heru’ur caused as much destruction as he could, before fleeing to this place. It says that he went underground to avoid detection and to better plot a counter attack, so I’m guessing that there is not a pyramid on this planet. Landing the mother ship on the surface would be unwise," Daniel trailed off as he glanced at the writings once more. "My guess is that Heru’ur uses the transporter rings to get to and from the underground complex."

"If this planet is uninhabited, who built this temple?" Feretti asked.

"Heru’ur had it built for Seshat. He wanted to give her a place to write the history of this planet. I’m willing to bet that this door leads to Heru’ur’s throne room."

"Ah, yes, well we’re not going to find that out, are we Daniel? And speaking of Heru’ur and transporter rings, we should get going before he comes back. Thompson, you and SG-3 lead the way towards where you saw the Jaffa. I’ll cover our six. Feretti, you and Daniel fan out, but stay close."

Everyone nodded their understanding and quickly made their way back towards the Stargate.

****

After what seemed like a never ending walk in the hot suns, Thompson finally spoke up.

"I believe it’s in this area, sir. The small rocks covered the bottom of the door and all we saw was the Jaffa exiting. I’m not sure how we’d find it now, though."

Daniel glanced at where the major was pointing and frowned. The ground appeared to be undisturbed, covered in dirt and various other things native to the forest that surrounded the area. There was nothing to indicate that there had ever been an opening there.

"Daniel, do you have any ideas?" Jack asked.

Daniel walked slowly around in a circle, glancing at the ground as he went. He stopped every now and then and leaned down to see something then straightened up again.

"Daniel!"

Daniel’s head jerked up so fast at Jack’s voice that his glasses, which had already been halfway down his nose, fell off his face. With quick reflexes, Daniel reached out and caught them before they hit the ground.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly as he put the glasses back on again. "I think Major Thompson is right. The door is here. However, I’m not sure how to get it open without a ribbon device."

"Why a ribbon device?" Feretti asked.

"Goa’uld use the ribbon device to control much of everything they operate. It’s convenient, I suppose. It makes it easier for them to have control over their surroundings as well as their people. However, not all Goa’uld carry a ribbon device and Jaffa don’t carry one at all," Daniel added, his voice taking on that lecturing quality. Jack and Feretti exchanged knowing glances, while the members of SG-3 looked on. "Which means that there would have to be something here to manually control the door. I just have to find it."

Daniel made his way over to what looked like a small mound of dirt. It was no bigger than an ant hill and it didn’t look out of place with the rest of the scenery. To Daniel, it looked like it was too well-placed. He didn’t know whether the planet had ants, but he did know that two ant hills weren’t likely to be placed directly next to each other, exactly one foot apart. Daniel leaned down to remove some of the dirt, when Jack’s voice interrupted him.

"Don’t touch it, Daniel. Not until you tell us what you’re doing."

Daniel rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. "I doubt this is going to kill me, Jack."

"I’ve learned not to take any chances with you, Daniel, now spill."

"Do you all see these two mounds?" Daniel looked up and saw everyone nodding. "Does it not strike you that they happen to be perfectly positioned, exactly a foot apart?"

Jack glanced down at where Daniel’s foot was and really looked at the things. They did seem to be perfectly positioned.

"What does that mean, Dr. Jackson?" Major Thompson inquired.

"I think they’re handles, used to pull the door open when a ribbon device isn’t present to do it. If they are handles, then it stands to reason that there is a lock somewhere in the vicinity. I was about to brush away the dirt when Jack stopped me," Daniel said, glaring at Jack.

"I’m not taking any chances with you, Daniel. You’re dangerous when you touch things without telling me. A certain alternate reality mirror comes to mind."

"Yeah, Jack, but think of the good that came from that. We saved Earth. I’d say that pardons me from not following your orders to pack up and leave."

"So what was your excuse the other times?" Jack added, a smile on his face. "Go on, open the thing."

Daniel nodded and bent down to disturb the dirt that formed the mounds. Underneath the mounds, he found two narrow strips of metal, each about five inches long and two inches thick. He cleared the area between the two handles and discovered a square plaque covered in Goa’uld writing. After reading and translating the writing, Daniel reached out and touched three of the symbols on the plaque. A low rumbling sound could be heard and Daniel could feel the ground shaking underneath him. He immediately got up and stood off to one side where the ground didn’t appear to be shaking. The place he’d just been standing on seemed to retract and disappear, leaving a wide opening in the ground.

"Open sesame?" Daniel muttered, getting a couple of chuckles from the gathered officers. "There’s the door."

"Good work, Daniel! I knew I’d brought you along for a reason," Jack stated, moving closer to the opening. As he passed SG-3, who were staring at the opening in admiration, Jack’s eyes met Forester’s. "You still think you have to baby-sit him?"

Forester, to his credit, had the decency to look apologetic. "No, sir," was all he said.

"Come on, kids, let’s go. I’ll take point; Feretti, you and Thompson cover the rear. Everyone else, file in between. Daniel, you’re up here with me. Let’s go see how much trouble we can get into."

****

"This is impressive," Michaels noted as he, Sam and Teal’c wondered down the halls of the complex. Three Jaffa followed their every step but generally stayed out of their way. Seshat walked ahead of them, showing them around the place. "The architecture is exquisite as well as practical. It’s also very beautiful."

"Yes, it is impressive, is it not?" Seshat said, turning back to glance at the young man. She gave him a pleased smile as she walked closer to him. "It was built many years ago when my lord Heru’ur first came to this world. We have resided here ever since. These writings tell the history of this palace," she told Michaels, taking his hand and leading him towards the closest wall. "I have written them over the years. If you would like to examine them, I can arrange for you to do so."

"Yeah, I think I’d like that, Seshat," he replied. He wasn’t particularly interested in the writings, since he had trouble reading Egyptian hieroglyphs. He was, however, interested in being given a little time away from their room. The more he was out here, the more he could explore for possible ways to escape.

"Would you like to remain and look at them now while I take your companions through the rest of the complex? We will return for you when we are finished."

Out of the corner of his eye, Michaels glanced at Major Carter, who nodded slightly, giving him her okay.

"That would be fine. I’ll wait here until you get back," he replied.

"Very well. You stay with him," Seshat said, motioning to the Jaffa closest to Michaels. "We will return when we are finished."

Seshat nodded once towards Michaels, and then motioned for Sam and Teal’c to follow her down the corridor.

Michaels stood in front of the wall and watched Seshat and the other two members of SG-1 as they walked away. When they had rounded the corridor and were out of sight, he turned to glance at the Jaffa who stood a few feet away from him, watching intently.

"Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to escape or anything," he told the imposing man. "I’m only going to walk around a little bit so I can figure out where the story starts."

Without another glance at the Jaffa, Michaels made his way a bit further down the hall to the closest doorway and tentatively peeked inside. It was a completely empty room. He shrugged, figuring that since there was nothing inside, the room was not important. He glanced up at the wall, trying to figure out where to start reading. After all, he at least had to appear interested. He was interested, but wanted to think about getting out of the complex more than he wanted to read some ancient story. Michaels concentrated on a hieroglyph that looked familiar and started from there. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept tabs on the Jaffa, who had not followed him but watched him intently. It was going to be difficult to work around the Jaffa, but it could be done. Lucky for him, the writings followed the wall to the other end of the hallway, so Michaels would be able to explore at least that much.

With a sigh, he ignored the Jaffa and began to read.

****

"You said that Heru’ur was your lord. How long have you served him?" Sam asked as they continued down yet another corridor.

So far, they hadn’t seen anything that would be of use to them. Seshat had shown them many rooms and corridors, but nothing that seemed to lead back up to the surface. Sam had caught a glimpse of a stairwell off the main corridor that lead upwards, but Seshat had taken them out of the room so quickly that Sam hadn’t had much time to really take a look.

"I have served him for hundreds of years, ever since he chose me. We have traveled to many worlds and met many races. I have taken great pleasure in recording his deeds over the years. He is a great and courageous warrior."

"Of course he is," Sam said sarcastically. "Why are we on this tour, Seshat? I thought we were your prisoners?"

Seshat turned her head slightly to regard the major, but did not stop walking. "You trespassed, therefore you have put yourselves in this position. However, you have not given me a reason to confine you, which is why I decided to treat you as my guests and show you the complex. Do you think you should be returned to your quarters instead?"

Sam shook her head, willingly leaving this battle for another time. They needed to look around and this was the best way they were going to get to do so. She took a deep breath and followed the Goa’uld to their next destination.

****

Teal’c walked besides Major Carted and listened to all that was being said. He had known that several system lords kept scribes and had understood their purpose. He had even met Apophis’ scribe on one occasion. His opinion of the man had been one of contempt, because the scribe had been small, frail and timid. One glare from Teal’c had been enough to frighten the man away. Apophis had been very fond of him, Teal’c did remember that. He would have sent a Jaffa to kill anyone who had tried to harm the scribe. Teal’c was sure that Heru’ur would do the same for Seshat.

"What are you going to do with us, Seshat? You’re not going to let us go, yet you’re showing us around as if we were your invited guests," Sam asked. She stopped walking and waited for Seshat to make her way back towards her.

"Are you being mistreated in any way?" Seshat asked, glancing from Teal’c to Sam.

"No we are not," Teal’c replied.

"What is the problem, then? I have not harmed you, I have fed you and entertained you. Why do you insist on leaving?" Her green eyes narrowed in apparent confusion.

"We don’t like being confined, without the right to come and go as we please. It makes us uncomfortable and we would very much like to leave," Teal’c intoned.

"You can not leave," Seshat exclaimed. "My lord Heru’ur has to see you before you can leave. Only he can decide what to do with you, not I."

"We mean you no harm," Teal’c added. "All we wanted was to explore the planet."

"Then you shall fear nothing from Heru’ur. He is a forgiving god and will overlook your indiscretion as long as you pose no threat to him."

Sam shook her head and cast Teal’c a look. He understood the situation well. They would not be able to get through to Seshat at the rate they were going and it was still imperative that they leave the compound before Heru’ur returned. Once he arrived and saw them, he was not going to let them go at all. Not alive, at least.

****

"Just how big is this place?" Jack idly wondered as he, Daniel and Feretti made their way through the mostly silent corridors of the underground complex.

The two teams had split up when they’d made it to the bottom of the passageway so that they could cover more ground. He’d instructed Thompson to check in every half hour just to make sure that everyone was still in one piece.

"It has to be big enough for a God, remember?" Daniel quipped. "It probably houses several hundred Jaffa, the Goa’uld, which I’m hoping consists of only Seshat and Heru’ur, and probably a few human slaves."

"Only Seshat and Heru’ur?" Feretti said. "Isn’t that more than enough?"

"Yeah, it is. But sometimes other Goa’uld, the lesser system lords, pledge their allegiance to the more powerful ones and reside with them."

"That’s Daniel, ever the optimist," Jack stated.

Daniel chuckled, but said nothing more.

Jack led the way through the endless, bland corridors for about an hour. SG-3 had reported in as scheduled, but they hadn’t found a thing. Their first objective was to find the cells, or whatever passed for prisoner rooms in this place, because he figured that’s where SG-1 would be. So far, they’d come across nothing but corridors that led into more corridors. The artificial lighting of the place gave the corridors an eerie, golden glow that under other circumstances would probably be regarded as cozy. Right now, however, it was annoying and revealing, making the team’s green uniforms stand out in the golden light. They hadn’t run into any Jaffa, which was always a good sign. Jack only hoped that the Jaffa were not in wait to ambush them somewhere.

"Major Thompson to Colonel O’Neill, checking in as ordered," came the soft voice from Jack’s radio. He’d turned down the volume to avoid accidentally giving their position away and now he took the radio out and held it to his mouth.

"O’Neill. What is your status, Major?"

"Nothing yet, sir. All we’ve found so far are corridors that don’t seem to lead anywhere."

"Same here. Keep looking, Thompson. O’Neill out."

Jack continued to walk forward, until he came to a split in the corridor that contained three branches.

"Hello," he said softly, glancing into each corridor. "I think I’ll take door number three."

Daniel smiled. "How about I take door number one? It always has the best prizes."

"I don’t think so, Daniel. We’re not splitting up."

"Why not, Jack? We have to get to Sam, Teal’c and Captain Michaels before Heru’ur gets here and I’m betting that he won’t be gone for much longer. If we split up, we can cover the distance much faster. We can keep checking in like Thompson and SG-3 is doing."

Jack looked from Daniel to Feretti, and then returned his gaze to the archaeologist. Finally he sighed. He hated when Daniel was right.

"Fine, you take door number one. That leaves number two for you, Feretti. Be on alert and have your weapons ready."

Jack glanced at Feretti, who was holding his MP-5 at the ready, then turned to Daniel and saw that he was taking his sidearm out of his holster. Jack suddenly reached into his pack and took out a zat gun. He handed it to Daniel.

"Take this too, Daniel. That sidearm isn’t going to do you much good if you’re up against more than one attacker."

Daniel took the offered zat gun and held it in his left hand, while the right held the handgun.

"Good. If you find anything, call someone immediately, understood?"

Both Feretti and Daniel nodded and the three men made their separate ways through the corridors.

****

Daniel made his way carefully through the corridor he’d chosen, his gun at the ready. He had pocketed the zat gun, but had it within easy reach in case he needed it. It had been a long time since he’d held a weapon, but he was sure that he hadn’t forgotten how to fire it. Some things you learned and never forgot. Self preservation was certainly one of them.

‘It’s amazing what a person will do to survive,’ he thought to himself, suddenly remembering the times he’d been forced to kill to save his life or the lives of his team.

Ten years ago, the thought of knowing how to defend himself in battle had never crossed his mind. Daniel’s worries then had amounted to acquiring the funding that he needed for whatever research project he had been working on at the time. Physical fitness and combat training had been things that Daniel only knew about through the stories of the cultures he had learned about in his studies, or through what he knew of the military. It was never something that he’d associated with himself. But here he was right now, walking down a corridor on an alien planet, a gun in one hand and another in an easily accessible pocket. He could shoot them both at once, one in each hand. A feat that had amazed even him when he’d realized that he could do it in the heat of battle.

He wondered what his students would think of him if they could see him now. To them, he was only a mild mannered and quiet linguist who taught them how to recognize different languages. He chuckled, thinking that they’d be surprised to find him going to the gym, much less holding a gun and going into battle. ‘Never judge a book by its cover,’ he smiled as he remembered the old saying. ‘There’s truth to that. You never know what a person is capable of, not at all."

He walked a little further, when another, unbidden though popped into his head. ‘What would my parents think of me if they could see me now?’

Daniel stopped in the middle of the corridor, frowning at the totally unexpected though. He rarely thought of his parents, mainly because it had been so long since they’d been tragically killed. It wasn’t that he didn’t love them or still miss them; it was just that he’d grown up used to not having them around. But the question was a valid one. What would they think of him and what he’d accomplished? What would they think of the way he’d gone about it? It saddened Daniel to know that he’d never have an answer to that question. He hoped that his parents would be proud of him regardless of what he had done, or failed to do, in his lifetime. He shook his head, clearing it of the distracting and painful images.

‘It would serve me right to get shot right now for not paying attention to my surroundings,’ he thought and began to move down the corridor once again.

It had surprised him how easily he’d fit back in to the SGC mold and how at ease he felt to be back on a mission. He was frightened at the possible danger, and yet he felt secure in the fact that Jack, Feretti and SG-3 were with him. It was like old times. Daniel had managed to conduct himself as much like a soldier as he could and do what was required of him, as if a year hadn’t gone by. What surprised him even more was how much more familiar this seemed, how involved he felt. He felt as if he belonged once again.

That was probably because of Jack more than anything. After all, he’d spent many years on missions with Jack giving him orders, so it was quite easy to fall back into the pattern. Daniel suddenly realized that he felt more at home here, in the middle of a strange planet ready to face a dangerous enemy, than he had in the halls of UCLA surrounded by his peers and students. Funny how it worked out that way, but he supposed that since he’d chosen the SGC, and SG-1 in particular, as his surrogate family, it should be no surprise that he hadn’t fit in anywhere else.

With that feeling of belonging, however, came a feeling of dread that he would more than likely have to leave again. He was the stranger here and the reason for that was his own doing. He’d run away from his work and his team when he had been unable to handle the situation after Aurora. SG-1 had been forced to move on and they’d done what they could with the situation he’d left them with. SG-1 was complete, Jack had his team and Daniel couldn’t imagine being at the SGC without being on SG-1. Besides, SG-1 might not even want him back on the team. He’d run away once, what was to stop him from running away again? He could understand why they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, trust him. He was still the odd man out, even if he desperately didn’t want that to be the case.

Suddenly, Daniel noticed that the walls changed. They were no longer the plain, barren ones he’d seen ever since they had descended from the surface. Now, the walls were covered with hieroglyphs. He stopped and raised his head to read the top of the wall. The particular wall he was reading depicted one of the battles that Heru’ur had emerged victorious from. As Daniel read on, he learned more and more about the various enemies Heru’ur had faced thought the years, as well as the story of how they’d come to settle on this planet. Daniel didn’t pay much attention to that one, since he’d already read it on the surface.

"He’s a bit paranoid now, isn’t he?" Daniel whispered to himself as he read on.

A noise to his left immediately caught Daniel’s attention and he quickly brought both weapons up. He felt, rather than saw that someone was approaching him and looked around for cover, but there was none. All Daniel could do was move further down the corridor, back the way he had come, until he came to a bend in the corridor. It would provide safety for a few seconds, but hopefully that would be enough for Daniel to disable the newcomer.

As the person approached, Daniel heard the tell tale sound of Jaffa armor hitting the hard surface of the floor. He decided to use the zat gun to draw as little attention to himself and as soon as the Jaffa was within his sight, Daniel fired. The Jaffa fell to the floor, unconscious. A second Jaffa charged towards the fallen Jaffa and Daniel also fired at him, knocking him out. He stayed where he was for a few seconds, waiting for more to come his way. When no more Jaffa appeared, Daniel stepped out of his semi-hiding place and approached the two Jaffa. They were both unconscious. A sudden move ahead of him made him bring up both weapons again.

"Don’t shoot, I’m unarmed."

Daniel frowned at the man standing in front of him, but did not fire. Realization dawned on him and he lowered the weapons.

"Captain Michaels, I presume," Daniel said and walked towards the man, scanning the corridor ahead and behind him for more Jaffa.

"Yes, that’s me. Who are you?" Michaels asked, examining the man standing in front of him.

Daniel saw the man’s expression go from surprise to sudden understanding and suddenly realized that Michaels knew who he was. He decided to introduce himself anyway, just in case.

"I’m Daniel Jackson. I’m here with Jack, Feretti and SG-3."

"It didn’t take him long, did it?"

"Excuse me?" Daniel asked, puzzled at the man’s behavior.

"You’re wearing an SG-1 jacket, so I’m assuming that Colonel O’Neill went and got you when we went missing."

Daniel’s frown deepened and he unconsciously clenched his jaw. Was that jealousy he detected in Michael’s tone?

"The jacket belongs to Jack, Captain. He let me borrow it because it was the only one available in such short notice. And as for why I’m here, that might have something to do with you. After all, we wouldn’t be here if you’d known that Seshat was the scribe to Heru’ur now would we?"

Michaels opened his mouth to reply, but said nothing. As much as he hated to admit it to Dr. Jackson, the man was right.

"I’m not here to take your place, Captain Michaels. I’m just here to help my friends. Where are they, by the way?"

Michaels glanced behind him, before turning back to face Daniel.

"Seshat was giving us a tour of the complex. Major Carter asked her to so that we could see where we were and if there were any escape routes. We came across these walls and I stopped to read them. Seshat wrote this and seemed interested in having me read them, so she let me stay. She left a Jaffa to guard me, and another one came to join him sometime later. Those were the two you just knocked out," the captain explained. "I don’t know where they are now, but they were supposed to come back for me when the tour was over."

"Have you read the writings?" Daniel asked, glancing over Michaels’ head at the wall.

Michaels shrugged. "Some of them. I’m not very good at Egyptian hieroglyphs. I’m a lot more fluent in the more recent languages. Can you read them?"

Daniel shook his head. "And yet, you were assigned as SG-1’s archaeologist. Unbelievable," he muttered. "Yes, I can read them. These depict some of the battles Heru’ur has fought in his life time. That one over there depicts his arrival to this planet and the building of this complex, as does the wall of the temple on the surface. It’s very interesting stuff."

"You were able to read that? What language was it?" Michaels asked.

"It was Hieratic, a cursive and less formal form of hieroglyphs. You should have at least been exposed to it before joining the team," Daniel said, his voice showing a trace of impatience.

"Look, I did my best when I was assigned to SG-1. I’m not as good as you are and I never tried to be. But it seems like it was never good enough for Colonel O’Neill."

Daniel looked away from the walls and regarded the captain. "I’m sorry. I don’t know you and I didn’t mean to insult you. Jack, Sam and Teal’c are like family to me and I hate the thought of them out on the field with insufficient information."

"It seems to me that you’re the one responsible for that," Michaels countered.

"We don’t have time for this. We need to find Sam and Teal’c and get the hell out of here before Heru’ur decides that he’s missing home. Now please come with me and I’ll take you to Jack."

Daniel started to walk back the way he’d come when a noise behind him stopped him in his tracks. He immediately whirled around and ran towards the other end of the hallway where the sound had come from. There, he found a door that led into a wide room that probably housed the transporter rings. Michaels followed close behind him and leaned his upper body inside the room to take a quick peek. As the two humans watched, the transporter rings were activated and three people materialized inside.

Daniel didn’t wait for the rings to disappear. He didn’t have to. He grabbed Michaels’ arm and dragged the man to the other end of the corridor. He stopped by the Jaffa and picked up one of the staff weapons, handing it to Michaels.

"I’m assuming you know how to shoot one of those," Daniel said as they continued walking.

"Yes, I know."

"Good, you’re going to need it."

Daniel quickly walked towards the branch in the corridor where he, Jack and Feretti had split up. Once there, he took out his radio.

"Jack, its Daniel, come in."

Seconds later, he heard Jack’s voice.

"What did you find, Daniel?"

"I found Captain Michaels. He says that Sam and Teal’c are with Seshat, getting a tour of the place."

"Where are you now?" Jack’s voice was tense, Daniel could tell even over the radio.

"We’re at the branch where we split up."

"Okay, Daniel, you and Michaels stay there. I’ll contact Feretti and meet you there."

"Jack you better get here fast, there’s something else."

Jack was quiet on the other end. When his voice came back over the radio, both men could hear the edge to it.

"What is it?"

"It’s Heru’ur," Daniel said, his voice betraying the anxiousness he felt. "He’s returned."

"It’s Heru’ur," Daniel said, his voice betraying the anxiousness he felt. "He’s returned."

Jack heard the words come over the radio and felt his blood go cold. They had to get out of this godforsaken place soon. The presence of the Goa’uld on the planet would bring them nothing but violence and blood shed, and he wanted his people back on Earth before that happened. Furthermore, while he was glad Daniel had found Captain Michaels, Jack was worried that he didn’t have Sam and Teal’c with him as well.

"Did he see you?" Jack asked.

"I don’t think so," Daniel replied. "I saw him arrive on the transporter rings, but we got out of there even before they had retracted back into the floor. He was with two Jaffa, so I think it’s safe to say that he’s probably got a ship in orbit, unless he’s figured out a way to land the ship underground."

"Okay, you two hold your position, Daniel. I’ll be there shortly. O’Neill out. Feretti, it’s O’Neill. Do you read me?"

"Yes, Colonel, I read you. Has something happened?" Feretti’s voice came over the radio.

"Daniel found Michaels and saw Heru’ur arrive. Meet us back at the corridor where we split up, because we need to rethink our plan of attack. I’m on my way there."

"Copy that. I’m on my way. Feretti out."

Jack returned the radio to the pocket of his vest and glanced around. He would meet up with his team first before contacting SG-3. That way, they’d have a better plan of attack to work from. He tightened his grip on the MP-5 and retraced his steps. He hadn’t found anything interesting or important down the way he had come, just more bland corridors. There had been a few rooms that he’d come across, but they had looked like meeting rooms, probably where the servants got together. Other than that, there had been no cells or dungeons, nothing to indicate that SG-1 had been treated like prisoners. If Seshat was giving them a tour of the place, it was likely that she didn’t consider them a threat.

That in itself was somewhat reassuring. Hopefully, none of the three missing members had been injured while being held captive here. Jack was sure that would not stay the same once Heru’ur found out who Seshat had brought to his complex.

With renewed purpose, Jack quickened his step and hoped that their luck would hold out this time and allow them to get out in one piece.

****

"So what are we going to do now, just wait?" Michaels asked.

Daniel narrowed his eyes at the captain. "I have my orders and for once, I’m going to follow them. Besides, I don’t want to walk through these corridors by myself with an insane Goa’uld somewhere in the vicinity."

Michaels nodded. "I thought you were retired."

"I’m still retired. I have classes to get back to and a midterm next week," Daniel pointed out, and then shrugged. "I’m just here to help my friends."

"So you’re not going to stick around after this is done?"

‘What is with this guy?’ Daniel asked himself as he regarded the captain. ‘Is he still thinking that I’m going to take his job?’

Daniel opened his mouth to reply that no, he wasn’t going to stay, but stopped. Was he going to stick around? Did he even want to? The honest answer to that was yes, he did want to stay. However, he knew that it wasn’t that simple. He’d willingly given up his position on SG-1 because he’d thought that it was the best thing for his team. Daniel didn’t regret that choice. Well, not all of the time. A part of him wished that he had taken more time to think his decision through and talked to Jack about it. SG-1 had been forced to cope and move on and it appeared to Daniel that they had done just fine without him. They would not want to be reminded of the fact that he’d ditched them when the going got tough. Who was he to barge back in and demand that they give up the routine they had now, which included their camaraderie with the captain standing in front of him, just because he wanted to be back? He didn’t have that right.

"Why don’t we focus on the mission at hand for now? I, for one, want to get out of this alive."

"Yes, the mission is important, and I want to get out alive too. But right now, we don’t have anything better to do and I would really like my question answered. I’ve been with SG-1 for 4 months and I’ve liked the assignment so far. I just want to know what to expect when we get out of here," Michaels insisted.

Daniel sighed. ‘Damn military types, always so insistent,’ he thought. ‘I bet Jack likes the guy.’ That last thought sobered Daniel quickly, once again reminding him how wrong he was to want to return to the SGC.

"In the 4 months you’ve been with SG-1, I bet this is the first exposure to the Goa’uld you’ve had," Daniel finally said.

"So what? That doesn’t mean that I’m a bad officer, or that I can’t handle the pressure," Michaels replied, his tone slightly defensive.

"I didn’t say that. However, this kind of stuff takes time to get used to."

Michaels chuckled. "You did it, Dr. Jackson. You survived all the shit the universe threw at SG-1, so I see no reason why I can’t do it too."

Daniel shook his head sadly. "There’s so much more to his job than just that, Captain. But I guess you’ll have to find that out on your own."

Suddenly, they heard scuffling coming from one of the branches of the corridor and both men immediately raised their weapons. There wasn’t anywhere to hide, so all they could do was stand their ground and hope they could take out whoever was coming before he took them out.

"Whoa, guys. Hold your fire." Feretti walked towards the two men.

Michaels and Daniel visibly relaxed and lower their weapons when they saw the man.

"The colonel isn’t here yet?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, he isn’t. I spoke to him before I spoke to you, so he should have already been here."

"He was probably further down the corridor than I was. I stopped to investigate a room that looked like a commissary and hadn’t gone very far. Where did you get the staff weapon?" he asked Michaels.

"Dr. Jackson knocked out a couple of Jaffa to get to me."

The three men turned as one as a staff weapon blast hit the wall directly behind Michaels.

"Shit," Feretti exclaimed. "It looks like they found the guys you left behind. Take cover as best you can." He took out his radio. "Colonel O’Neill, SG-3, we’ve got company. Dr. Jackson, Captain Michaels and I are going to take cover, but I suggest that you all proceed with caution. Shit!" Another blast hit the wall, this time directly above him. He shut off his radio and put it back in his vest pocket, needing to concentrate on the attack.

The blasts were coming from the corridor that Daniel had originally taken, where the two unconscious Jaffa were. Feretti darted to one side of the doorway leading into the corridor and motioned for Michaels to take a position on the other side. He saw Daniel walk to stand next to him, his zat gun at the ready.

"Did you kill those two Jaffa?" Feretti asked.

"Nope, just knocked them out," Daniel replied, looking wearily in the direction of the blasts. The Jaffa weren’t taking any chances. "I shot them with the zat, so they shouldn’t have woken up yet. Whoever is coming was probably with Heru’ur."

Two Jaffa approached and were immediately knocked out by fire from Feretti and Michaels. They cautiously entered the corridor, seeing if there was anyone else coming.

Daniel stayed behind, watching the other corridor for any signs of Jack. The whine of a ribbon device being activated made Daniel turn around and he turned in time to see Feretti and Michaels thrown out of the corridor and into the opposite wall. He immediately ran to them and kneeled to check their pulse. Both men were breathing, but unconscious. That was a relief. There wasn’t anything else he could do for them, not if he got himself killed. Daniel didn’t want to be in the vicinity when Heru’ur finally reached him.

He got up to dart into the corridor Jack had taken when he was suddenly slammed into the wall behind him by a backhand that caught him in the face. His glasses went flying, shattering against the wall next to him. Daniel slumped down the wall, dazed, his vision blurred. A strong hand grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up, and Daniel found himself face to face with Heru’ur. He wrapped his hands around the wrist that threatened to crush his throat, but didn’t succeed in loosening the grip.

"Well, what do we have here," the Goa’uld roared at him, the voice sending chills down Daniel’s spine. "An intruder who has been attacking my Jaffa. An intruder who no doubt wishes to die." The grip around his throat tightened, making Daniel gasp at the further loss of oxygen. He saw Heru’ur’s eyes narrow as the Goa’uld examined him. With growing dread, Daniel realized that Heru’ur recognized him. "You are the Tau’ri that betrayed me to Apophis. You led him to believe that I had stolen his child when it was you who stole it. I should have killed you when I had the chance."

He heard the words and for a split second, remembered the confrontation he and Teal’c had with Heru’ur on Abydos after Sha’uri’s child had been born.

‘Shit. I knew that would come back and bite me in the butt one day,’ Daniel irrationally thought to himself. ‘Whose idea was that anyway? Oh, yeah, it was mine.’

Daniel could do nothing more than stare dumbly at the angry face of the Goa’uld. His vision was fuzzy and he felt as if a couple of elephants had held a tap dancing competition in his head.

"You were there to steal the child anyway, so what difference does it make who actually took him?" Daniel managed to say, despite his better judgment.

The Goa’uld sneered and pushed Daniel back against the wall, further injuring his head and crushing his throat. His vision started to dim around the edges and he knew that he was about to lose consciousness. With a last burst of strength, Daniel brought his legs up and planted his feet against Heru’ur’s chest. He used the wall as leverage and pushed with all of his might, managing to knock them both to the floor. As soon as they hit, Heru’ur lost his grip on Daniel’s throat and Daniel quickly rolled away from the Goa’uld, breathing as deeply as he dared so as not to launch into a coughing fit.

Daniel managed to roll to where Feretti lay and he blindly reached out to see if he could find the MP-5. With a sigh of relief, Daniel clasped his hand around it, grateful that Feretti hadn’t had the weapon’s strap around his neck. He fired quickly, aiming at Heru’ur’s middle. As soon as the bullets got anywhere near the Goa’uld, they sparkled a golden color and were diverted out of the way. Damn, he’d forgotten about the personal shield Heru’ur carried.

"It is useless to fight me, Tau’ri. Your insignificant little weapons cannot penetrate my shield," he said, raising the ribbon device and pointing it at Daniel.

Daniel scooted back, reaching behind him for the knife he kept on the holster strapped to his vest. If a bullet couldn’t penetrate the personal shield, a knife probably could. His fingers clasped around the knife handle and he pulled it out. He aimed it as well as he could as he shakily got to his feet and threw it at Heru’ur, just as the Goa’uld discharged the ribbon device. Daniel’s aim wasn’t the best and it was made worse by the fact that he wasn’t wearing his glasses, but the knife struck Heru’ur in the forearm, instead of on the hand. It was enough to redirect the brunt of the energy from the ribbon device away from Daniel, but some of it still reached the archaeologist, sending him reeling to the floor.

****

Michaels had regained consciousness just as Daniel had sent himself and Heru’ur crashing to the ground. He’d immediately tried to get up in order to help the doctor, but he’d been unable to move. Whatever he’d been hit with had taken his body and frozen it. After a few minutes, feeling in his limbs had returned. He’d watched Dr. Jackson fire Feretti’s weapon at Heru’ur with no effect, so he knew that his own weapon would be ineffective. Instead, he’d reached for the staff weapon. When Heru’ur knocked Dr. Jackson to the ground, Michaels swung the staff weapon like a club, hitting the man’s legs and knocking him down to the floor. Clumsily, Michaels got up and once again brought the staff weapon down on Heru’ur, this time he drove the knife Dr. Jackson had thrown deeper into the Goa’uld’s arm.

From the corner of his eye, Michaels saw someone move towards him. He raised his weapon and was about to fire when he recognized the man. Jack O’Neill was standing in front of him, blood oozing from a gash to his forehead. He aimed his zat weapon at Heru’ur and fired once, watching as the energy bounced harmlessly off the shield.

Heru’ur roared in anger, working to get the knife out of his arm.

Jack didn’t want to be there when the Goa’uld accomplished that. "Grab Feretti and let’s go!" he yelled.

Michaels did as he was told, while the colonel bent down and grabbed Daniel. He helped the archaeologist up and started running down the corridor, away from Heru’ur. Since Daniel was on his feet, just a bit dazed, Jack reached out and took half of Feretti’s weight from Michaels. Together, they ran as fast as they could away from the demented Goa’uld, in the direction SG-3 had taken.

"Sorry I was late to the party, I was ambushed by a couple of Jaffa," Jack said as they quickly walked down the now deserted corridor. "It took me longer to get rid of them than I thought."

"Not a problem. We were ambushed as well. Feretti and I were knocked out with some kind of energy field. When I woke up, Heru’ur was chocking Dr. Jackson," Michaels stated. "Where are we going?"

"I don’t know, I’m just trying to get away from Heru’ur enough to regroup. He’ll be wanting to tend to that arm. Did you do that?"

"No, sir. Dr. Jackson threw the knife."

"I was aiming for his hand and I missed," Daniel mumbled. "He knocked my glasses off."

"Either way, you got him through that damned energy shield. I remember Apophis having one of those things," Jack muttered. He glanced to his left where Daniel was clumsily walking beside him. "Are you okay, Daniel?"

"Oh, yeah, I’m just fine, Jack. There’s nothing to worry about."

Michaels glanced over at the archaeologist and doubted that the man was fine. He was limping slightly and had one hand on his throat. His voice was raspy and soft, which probably meant that Heru’ur had done plenty of damage. Michaels wondered if he should say something to O’Neill. After all, if Jackson was lying about his condition, it could mean that the man would not be functioning at 100 percent and could potentially put the entire team at risk.

‘Hell, O’Neill has dealt with the guy a lot longer than I have, let him deal with it.’

Jack chuckled. "That response usually means that you’re only holding on by a thread, Danny."

‘There, O’Neill knows that Jackson is lying," Michaels thought, relieved that he wasn’t going to have to say anything.

"I’m going to live this time, Jack, don’t worry," Daniel said. He shook his head and walked ahead, scouting the area for more Jaffa. He had lost his zat gun in the fight, but still held the sidearm.

Michaels noticed the easy camaraderie between the two men and wondered about how they’d gotten to be like that. He could tell that things were currently strained between them, but there was an underlying bond of friendship there. He knew that it was silly to think about that right now, but it got him away from thinking about his own injuries, which were beginning to make their presence known.

"How about you, Michaels, how are you holding up?" Jack asked, turning towards the other man.

"Just some bruises, sir. My back took the brunt of the damage. We should probably be worrying about Major Feretti."

Jack nodded and made his way over to an opening off the corridor which led into a wide room with several chairs strewn about. He and Michaels lay Feretti down on the floor and checked him over for injuries.

"It looks like he hit his head, Colonel," Michaels said, showing Jack the blood on his hand from a wound on the back of Feretti’s head. "He might not be waking up for a while."

"He has to wake up. We can’t carry him with us and we’re not leaving him. Come on, Feretti, wake up!" Jack said to the unconscious man, slapping him lightly on the cheek. "Heru’ur is going to come after us shortly and we can’t afford to stay here for very long. You have to wake up and walk out of here."

Feretti moaned softly and slowly opened his eyes. "Stop yelling, will you? I’m awake."

Jack smiled. "Good. We were beginning to wonder if we were going to have to abandon you here."

Feretti slowly sat up, holding the back of his head and cursing. "Damn, I must have hit really hard. What happened?"

"Heru’ur got to us, knocked us out then went one on one with Dr. Jackson," Michaels replied. "Dr. Jackson won."

"Daniel, you okay?" Feretti asked.

"I’m fine, Feretti, just worried about you," Daniel replied as he knelt besides the major.

"Geez, Daniel, you look like shit," Feretti said as he noticed the bruise on the man’s right cheekbone and the finger sized bruises on his throat.

"You don’t look much better. Come to think of it, neither one of us does. That’s why we have to get you up so we can go find SG-3 and Sam and Teal’c," Jack said. "Can you walk?"

Feretti used Jack’s arm to help himself stand up and nodded. "Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go."

Jack nodded and glanced at each of his team members. Then led the way back onto the corridor to see what else they could find.

****

"Where is that coming from?" Sam said when she heard the gunfire. She knew what she was hearing, yet she didn’t want to believe it.

"I believe that sound was made by Tau’ri weapons," Teal’c replied.

They had been left in a sitting room while Seshat was called away by a couple of Jaffa. They had seemed nervous, which had pushed Sam’s discomfort up a notch. Whatever was going on, she had a feeling that it wasn’t a particularly good thing. She and Teal’c had tried to figure out why the scribe had looked nervous as she left, but they hadn’t been able to come up with a plausible reason.

The sound of gunfire had been very close to them, maybe only a few dozen feet away, and had immediately gotten both soldiers to their feet. If the cavalry had arrived, they were sure going to do their part to aid in their rescue.

"Maybe they finally found us," Sam whispered. "Or maybe Michaels found our weapons and attempted an escape. If he’s running, then he’s probably heading this way to get us."

"Would that not be foolish at this time?" Teal’c asked.

Sam shrugged. "Maybe, but he’s a trained soldier and knows how to handle himself. If he saw the opportunity to regain our weapons and escape, he would probably take it. That is why we left him out there by himself."

Teal’c nodded his agreement.

They made their way towards the door, hoping that the Jaffa that had been guarding them had been ordered to the battle, but were disappointed to find the two still standing there. The Jaffa closest to her motioned for Sam to close the door, which she did. However, she and Teal’c remained by the door and listened to the sounds of a battle being fought. She wanted very much to be out there in the middle of it, but understood that she had no choice at the moment but to wait and be rescued. Sam could hear the fire from automatic weapons, along with what sounded like a zat guns and staff weapons.

"How many weapons do you make out, Teal’c?" Sam asked.

Teal’c turned his head slightly towards the closed door and listened intently. "I am unsure. However, it seems as if at least one Tau’ri automatic weapon is being fired and one zat gun. Two or more staff weapons can be distinguished as well."

The numbers weren’t comforting to Sam, and she hoped that whoever was out there waiting to rescue them had gotten a hold of several staff weapons on their way in.

Suddenly, the door in front of them was opened and three Jaffa walked into the room, their weapons pointed at them. The one in the lead walked towards Sam and stood directly in front of her.

"You will accompany us," he said, leaving no room for discussion. Without giving Sam or Teal’c a chance to say anything, he motioned for the other two Jaffa, who took positions behind them. They roughly pushed them forward, indicating that they should lead the way.

Sam and Teal’c were escorted back the way they’d come earlier, towards the area where the captain had been translating the writings on the walls. Sam had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that something had gone terribly wrong and that the weapon’s fire she’d heard was from Seshat’s troops killing Michaels, not from the captain trying to escape. She looked around quickly, half-expecting to see Michael’s dead body at any moment. After all, if the Jaffa were still in charge, then Michaels had failed in his escape attempt. Instead, they were rushed through the place where they’d left him and marched further down the corridor for a few more minutes. Suddenly, the Jaffa stopped and stood at attention.

Sam and Teal’c both looked past the Jaffa and saw Heru’ur standing in front of them with Seshat standing to his left. Sam’s gut clenched when she saw Heru’ur. Whatever hope she’d had for a bloodless rescue had just gone out the proverbial window. She frowned when she noticed that he was holding his arm against his chest. Upon further inspection, Sam could see something that looked suspiciously like an SGC issue Bowie knife sticking out of his forearm. Maybe Michaels had managed to put up a fight after all.

Heru’ur glared at them, and Sam could tell that he immediately recognized them.

"These are the intruders, scribe?" he asked Seshat, his voice harsh.

Seshat nodded meekly. "Yes, my lord. They came through the Chappa’ai a few days ago and were captured by the Jaffa. I showed them hospitality because I did not know who they were." The woman sounded apologetic and when she glanced at Sam and Teal’c now, they could see anger and hatred in her eyes. "There is one missing."

Heru’ur turned to her, his eyes glowing dangerously. "Explain yourself!"

Seshat seemed to withdraw into herself momentarily, before squaring her shoulders and facing her lord. "Three intruders were captured, a male, the female and the Jaffa. I left the male by the writings, because he was interested in reading them."

Heru’ur narrowed his eyes momentarily. "He was with the others," he commented, then turned his attention to Sam and Teal’c. "These two are part of the group who foiled my attempt to capture Cimmeria. I have seen a member of their group already and here are the other two. Their leader is missing, but I am sure that he is somewhere in the complex." He addressed the Jaffa next to him, his First Prime. "Find all of the Tau’ri in the complex and bring them to me. I want the pleasure of killing them myself. I will hold these two for now."

His First Prime bowed obediently and ordered a few Jaffa to accompany him.

Two of the remaining Jaffa moved to stand behind Teal’c, while one guarded Sam. They were forcefully pushed forward and made to follow Heru’ur and Seshat down the corridor. The Jaffa behind Sam was rather forceful in ‘guiding’ her along and he managed to push her hard enough to make her trip. She fell unceremoniously to the ground, and after a brief hesitation let herself be hauled up by the Jaffa.

After about fifteen minutes of walking down endless corridors, they were led to a smaller room than what they had previously been given. It was also lavishly decorated, even more lavish than the other rooms they’d seen. The dominant color of this room was white, with green thrown in every once in a while. There were pillows on almost every surface, which led Sam to believe that the room they found themselves in was probably someone’s sleeping quarters. The Jaffa marched them inside, and then took positions on either side of the door.

"Scribe, this was your error, therefore it will be your responsibility to see that these two do not escape. They will be left in your rooms until I see fit to end their lives and that of their comrades," Heru’ur instructed, glaring at Seshat. "Instruct my Jaffa carefully, Seshat. If the prisoners escape, you will pay for it with your life. I will leave you with these Tau’ri, as I have more important things to attend to. Join me when you are finished," he said and left the room.

Seshat watched Heru’ur leave, and then turned towards Sam and Teal’c.

"You deceived me," she said, her voice low and her eyes full of hatred. "I welcomed you into my lord’s complex and you betrayed me."

"We did no such thing," Sam countered, squaring her shoulder’s against the Goa’uld’s glare. "Your Jaffa attacked us on the surface and kidnapped us. You’ve kept us here against our will under the guise of hospitality. If there was any deception, then you deceived yourself."

Seshat’s eyes glowed angrily at Sam’s words and she took the few steps necessary to reach the major. She raised her hand, the ribbon device already glowing a fiery red from the Goa’uld’s anger. She reached out for Sam, but Teal’c stepped in front of her.

"You will not harm her. Not until you have killed me," he intoned as he glared at Seshat.

"That can be arranged," Seshat replied, discharging the ribbon device, aiming the energy at the center of Teal’c’s chest. She watched as the two were flung halfway across the room, where they impacted with the nearest wall. Her mouth twisted into a bitter smile as she watched them lie on the floor, disoriented. "However, that is for my lord to decide. Until then, you will stay here or die trying to escape."

With that, she turned around and left the room.

Teal’c shook his head in order to clear it. He was dazed from the blast but not as bad as it could have been. He felt something underneath him and with horror realized that it was Major Carter. He immediately rolled to one side and got up to his knees, seeing that he’d been lying on the major’s legs. He reached out and shook her slightly, relieved when she opened her eyes.

"I’m okay, Teal’c. Thanks," she murmured as the Jaffa helped her sit up. She did a check of her body, grateful that nothing seemed broken or out of place. Outside of a really bad headache, she felt fine. "I really hate those things."

"As do I," Teal’c stated.

"Did you hear what they said, Teal’c?" Sam asked once she had gotten into a comfortable sitting position on the floor.

"A rescue team is in the complex," he replied.

"Yes, I got that. But did you hear the rest of it? He said that he’d already seen one of us and that our leader was missing. That means that the colonel is okay and trying to rescue us."

"That is good news. The other one of us Heru’ur was referring to had to have been Captain Michaels. We should assume that he is with O’Neill."

Sam shook her head. "That’s not necessarily true, Teal’c. When I fell in the hallway, I found these. I picked them up and stashed them in a pocket before I was hauled up." She reached into the front pocket of her jacket and retrieved a bent pair of glasses with one broken and one badly cracked lens.

Teal’c frowned. After a long, thoughtful pause, he spoke. "Those appear to be Daniel Jackson’s spectacles."

Sam smiled slightly. "Yes, they do, don’t they? Heru’ur doesn’t know Michaels, since he’s never encountered the guy before. Daniel, on the other hand, is known to Heru’ur. If the leader he referred to was Colonel O’Neill, then the other one of us he saw must have been Daniel."

"Why would Daniel Jackson be here?"

"I don’t know, Teal’c. But I hope that he, Colonel O’Neill and Captain Michaels are okay. I don’t like the look of these glasses."

"O’Neill, Captain Michaels, and Daniel Jackson will be fine, Major Carter. O’Neill will take care of himself as well as anyone else who has come with him. In the mean time, we should try to find our own way to escape."

****

"Colonel O’Neill, come in!" Major Thompson quietly said into his radio, hoping that the noise wouldn’t give their position away. He took the radio away from his face, lowering the volume on it as far as he dared.

"O’Neill here. What it is, Thompson?"

"We just saw Major Carter and Teal’c. They were taken out of a room by three Jaffa and escorted towards the opposite end of the complex. We followed as far as we dared but have a pretty good idea where they are."

"Good. What’s your location?"

Thompson looked around at the intricately carved walls and at the wide room beyond them. He motioned for his team to dart into the room and conceal themselves as best they could. As he walked inside, he noticed the circular pattern on the floor and immediately recognized what he was looking at.

"We’re in the room that houses the transport rings."

Thompson heard silence from the radio, and then a softer voice came through. "I know where that is. We saw Heru’ur use that room."

Thompson frowned. "Is that Dr. Jackson? Are they okay?" he asked, hoping that the three men had gotten out of the firefight in one piece.

"Yeah, that’s Daniel," O’Neill replied. "We’re all a little beat up, Thompson, but we’re still here. Daniel knows where you are, so stay put until he takes us to you. Defend your position as well as you can and if you have to move, let us know so we can meet up with you. After that, we’ll all go and get Carter and Teal’c. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

He ended the transmission then turned to his men. "You heard the man; we hold this position until they get here."

****

‘We need to stop,’ Daniel thought for the tenth time since they’d managed to wake Feretti up. ‘We really need to stop.’ He clenched the hand that wasn’t on his chest and willed his lungs to expand enough to allow him to breathe properly.

He hadn’t thought anything about the slight twinge in his chest, because he’d thought it was merely a bruise from being slammed against the wall. As time passed, the twinge kept getting more and more pronounced, until he hadn’t been able to comfortably breathe. The exertion from the quick pace Jack set wasn’t helping either, but Daniel hadn’t said anything. If Feretti could walk with a concussion, then he could do it with whatever was wrong with him.

‘But if we don’t stop pretty soon, I’m going to pass out,’ he thought.

He closed his eyes momentarily and shook his head. He had to keep going. They had to get to Sam and Teal’c, before anyone else got hurt. Once he was back on Earth, he could lie in the infirmary for a long time and heal.

****

"How far away is this room, Daniel?" Jack asked.

He and the archaeologist were walking ahead of Feretti and Michaels, who were watching the rear. When a reply didn’t come, Jack glanced over at Daniel and saw the younger man wincing, with a hand to his chest. His breathing had become progressively short and shallow as they’d walked through the corridors, which had Jack concerned. Daniel had been unnaturally quiet ever since the altercation with Heru’ur, which immediately gave Jack a reason to worry.

"Daniel, you okay?"

When Daniel didn’t reply, Jack stopped walking. He had to reach out and grab Daniel’s shoulder to get the younger man to also stop walking. Feretti and Michaels also stopped, but remained standing a few feet behind them.

"Huh? I’m sorry, did you say something, Jack?"

"I asked if you were okay."

Daniel nodded, irritation radiating from his featured. "I told you I was fine, didn’t I? Michaels and Feretti told you the same thing and I don't see you pestering them. Is it because I’m the civilian that you can’t trust my judgment?"

Jack narrowed his eyes but continued to glare at Daniel. "Michaels isn’t holding his chest, struggling to breathe, Daniel. And he’s not a civilian, therefore obligated to answer his commanding officer’s questions with honesty. Besides, with your track record, you’re likely to say that you’re fine until you collapse. We can’t afford that right about now, so I’d like to know how you really are."

"I’m fine, Jack. I got into a little fight with a Goa’uld, who knocked me around a bit. I’m sore, my vision is blurry and yes, I’m having a little trouble catching my breath, but I’m not going to drop dead at any moment. Happy now?"

"Yes, actually I’m very happy right about now," Jack countered. "You’ve been so freaking quiet that for a moment there, I thought you’d been replaced by a clone or something."

"Yeah, right. It’s not like I can’t remember all those times you told me to shut up."

"I never told you to shut up," Jack stated, indignant. At Daniel’s glare, he admitted sheepishly. "Well, not in those terms."

"Oh, okay, so ‘Daniel shut your yap and get to the point, you’re not giving a lecture here’ wasn’t meant to tell me to shut up?"

"I said that?" Jack asked with mock disbelief. "Dr. Jackson, I do believe that you’re exaggerating here."

Daniel shook his head, his mouth twisting upwards just a tiny bit. "Just wait until we find Teal’c. He’ll remember."

Jack shook his head, relieved at the friendly banter. Daniel really was okay. "For the record, Daniel, I didn’t doubt your word because you’re a civilian. I doubted it because you have a tendency to keep quiet about what ails you until it’s too late. I’m concerned, that’s all."

Daniel glanced at Jack out of the corner of his eye and nodded reluctantly, which Jack did not miss. That was something else he and Daniel were going to have to talk about when they finally got a chance.

"Do you want to stay here for a moment to catch your breath, or are we good to go?"

Daniel took a couple of deep breaths and nodded. "I’m okay. The brief rest helped."

"Are you sure, Daniel?"

"Yes, Jack. We don’t have time for this right now, so let’s just go."

Jack sighed. He should know better than to argue with Daniel. "Come on, kids, let’s keep going."

****

Behind Daniel and Jack, Michaels slowed his pace a bit motioning for Feretti to follow.

"Do they always do that?" Michaels asked when he was a safe distance away from the two men.

"What, bicker?"

Michaels nodded.

"Oh, yeah. They spend entire missions like that. At least they have when SG-2 has tagged along. I think it keeps both of them from getting bored."

"For a while there, I thought they were going to start yelling at each other," Michaels said, referring to the beginning of the conversation.

Feretti smiled. "Daniel and the colonel disagree more than they agree, so they argue a lot. They’re both very stubborn, so they can get into some pretty heated arguments. But they have a great respect for the other, which allows them to bicker like they do. If you ask me, I’d say that they do it just for the principle of it, because everyone expects them to."

"I heard that!" both Jack and Daniel said from their position a few feet in front of the two men.

"You better watch it, Feretti," Jack warned. "I hear someone is up for review pretty soon."

Feretti shook his head and chuckled, while Michaels smiled.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the corridor with the writings on the walls.

"Which way, Daniel?" Feretti asked.

"This way," he replied and led the way to the room, his gun at the ready. He stopped right at the doorway and moved aside for Jack and Feretti to take positions on either side of it, while Michaels looked inside.

"Major Thompson, it’s SG-1," he called into the room.

To their left, Jack saw Thompson and Forester step out from behind a protrusion in the wall, followed by the other two members of SG-3. Jack, Feretti and Daniel entered the room slowly, still on guard.

"It’s good to see you, Colonel. We were beginning to get worried," Thompson said, his face serious and determined. "There has been no activity around here for a good half hour to forty-five minutes. All the Jaffa seemed to have moved toward the other side of the complex, where Major Carter and Teal’c were taken."

"Were they okay?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, they seemed unharmed. However, the Jaffa who were escorting them seemed very unhappy."

"We better get to them before anything happens then, kids. Major, lead the way," Jack stated and followed the SG-3 leader out of the room and into the unknown.

When Heru’ur left the scribe’s room, he was furious. How dare those insolent Tau’ri trespass on his domain? But the fault did not lie entirely at the feet of the Tau’ri. His scribe should have known better than to invite them into the complex. She should have killed them all when the Jaffa had captured them. Because of her failure, he would be forced to remind the scribe what happened when loyal servants failed to perform their duties. For now, however, he had other things to deal with. He would make due with the situation as it stood, even if the prisoners now presented him with a small problem. He didn’t know how the person he was expecting would react to the news, but Heru’ur had no doubt that he would be pleased with the situation.

He walked into his throne room and glared at the Jaffa who stood at attention beside his throne. He looked around the room, his frown deepening when he didn’t see who he expected to see.

"Where is he?" Heru’ur asked the Jaffa standing in front of him.

"He has been delayed, my lord, and will arrive shortly. We have already received confirmation that his ship is in orbit."

"It is in his best interests not to delay any further."

"Do not concern yourself with my whereabouts, Heru’ur. We were supposed to meet here, at your complex, and here I am. My tardiness could not be helped."

Heru’ur whirled around to face his visitor, who stood just inside the ornate main doors to the chamber, smiling coolly at him.

"Osiris, what kept you?" he asked, making his way to stand directly in front of the other Goa’uld.

Osiris smiled, the lips of his host turning upwards in a triumphant smile. He walked around Heru’ur inconsequentially, the robes he wore swirling about the host’s lithe body. Osiris watched in amusement as Heru’ur followed his movements attentively and knew that he was examining the body of his host. He settled himself in Heru’ur’s throne, paying no attention to the warning look Heru’ur gave him.

"My ship was delayed by the few pitiful remains of Apophis’ fleet. I took a slightly wrong turn and ended up in the middle of the fleet. Imagine my surprise," Osiris stated, his voice indicating anything but surprise. "I assure you, those Jaffa will bother us no longer."

"You disposed of them, then?"

Osiris shrugged. "I disposed of the ones who would not pledge their allegiance to me and to you. The rest of them have been added to the ranks of our armies, grateful to serve a strong System Lord once again."

Heru’ur nodded, pleased with the turn of events. "Soon, we will control all of the armies of the Goa’uld," he remarked. "I have to admit, the fruitfulness of our alliance has been quite a surprise to me. I would not have thought you ruthless, especially in that body."

Osiris’ smile widened as he ran his hands appreciatively down the body of his host. "This host has been rather unusual, I will admit that. However, it has its advantages. A body like this is enough to distract anyone."

He got up from Heru’ur’s throne and walked over to where the Goa’uld was still standing. "I had my doubts about the alliance as well, Heru’ur. However, at the time we made it, I had little choice. You, I believe, were in the same situation."

Heru’ur nodded his agreement to the accuracy of what Osiris had said, thinking back to the pitiful time after he’d been driven away from his latest attempt at conquest, only to find that Osiris was on his planet, thinking that he still ruled it. The temptation to take advantage of a lost and confused Osiris had been very strong, but Heru’ur had decided to fortify his rule and his army with the help of Osiris instead of challenging the Goa’uld.

"Yes, the Asgard had dispatched most of my fleet at the time and I was in need of reinforcements. I did not know whether I could trust you, but you have proven your loyalty time and again," Heru’ur replied. "It has been a fruitful alliance for both of us, seeing as how you’re officially recognized as a System Lord once again, thanks to my support."

Osiris nodded, conceding the point. The two Goa’uld were often at odds but still managed to work well together, without resorting to violence. At least against each other.

"Why have you summoned me here, Heru’ur?" Osiris glared at him, making his displeasure at being ordered to return to the planet before the scheduled time very clear.

Heru’ur left Osiris to go and settle on his throne. "Originally, I summoned you so that we could discuss our plans for the disposal of those Jaffa still loyal to Apophis. Without a God to lead them, they are useless," he remarked, smiling at the image of himself driving the knife deep into Apophis. They had left the Goa’uld in the deserts of Corets to die without the aid of a sarcophagus. Revenge had indeed been sweet. "However, it seems as if you’ve already taken care of that particular problem."

Osiris smiled. "I always was one to take the initiative. It has served you well."

Heru’ur nodded, waving his hand in dismissal. "We have a situation here. A band of Tau’ri has come to this world through the Chappa’ai. Three were captured by Jaffa who were performing their training exercises on the surface, but more have come to free the three."

Osiris frowned. "What band of Tau’ri? I would have thought your Jaffa better at keeping prisoners locked up and intruders out."

Heru’ur ignored the insult, choosing not to let himself be distracted by a petty argument.

"This particular band of Tau’ri is known to the System Lords as SG-1."

"Ah, those Tau’ri," Osiris stated, knowing full well who they were. Those four insolent humans had become the thorn at the sides of the System Lords and were wanted by one and all. They were wanted so badly that every System Lord had cooperated and volunteered any and all information about the four Tau’ri so that all would know them and recognize them on sight. Personally, Osiris was well aware of his host’s knowledge of a particular member of SG-1. "You have all four of them in custody?"

"Two are in custody, two have escaped and are roaming the complex with a few others. My Jaffa will find them and bring them to me for questioning and disposal. They will not leave this compound alive."

"You do realize, Heru’ur, what we could do with the knowledge that they possess? If we could conquer Earth, no System Lord would be able to stand against us."

Heru’ur nodded. "That was what I was thinking as well. If we can acquire their codes to the Earth Stargate, we can infiltrate through there. They will not be expecting us and we can be victorious in a short amount of time. It will not be easy, but I have many Jaffa well trained in the extraction of information."

Osiris nodded his agreement. "You said that all four members of SG-1 are here, which would include Dr. Jackson, correct?"

Heru’ur frowned. "Is he the one with the eye piece on his face?" he asked, unconsciously brushing his hand against the arm that had been impaled by the knife earlier. At the nod from Osiris, he continued. "Yes, he is here. Why do you ask?"

Osiris paced the room slowly, like a predator preparing to pounce on its prey. "My host knows Dr. Jackson well. We can use that to our advantage. After all, if my poor, defenseless host can gain his confidence, who knows what he’s likely to tell her."

****

"This way, Sir," Thompson stated as he rounded a corridor. He glanced back and when he saw Colonel O’Neill walking besides him, he continued his explanation. "We saw Major Carter and Teal’c being taken out of a room and brought in this direction. The Jaffa leading them met with Heru’ur, and then continued their trek. We followed as much as we could, until the tunnels began to get too well lit and too wide for us to properly hide. That was when we contacted you."

Jack nodded in approval. "Well done, Major. You did the right thing. Getting SG-3 captured would have only complicated things. Where exactly are we heading?"

"I believe we’re heading towards the main part of the complex, where the living quarters are. I’m not sure how the Goa’uld lay out their rooms, but this seems to be the most occupied part of the complex."

"The main or ruling Goa’uld, in this case Heru’ur, will have his living quarters in the center part of the complex, preferably very near his throne room," Daniel added from his position beside Feretti and Michaels. "The quarters of his subordinates, Seshat or his highest ranked human slave, for example, will be surrounding his in a somewhat semi-circular pattern, with a main hallway leading to this area. This lay out provides one way in and one way out, which is generally a good way to ensure that you’ll always know where your enemy comes from."

"Ah, yes," Jack added, seeing the reasoning. "Back someone into a corner and they have but one place to go, right? We come in this way and the Goa’uld know that we have but one way to escape. I don’t like this."

"You’re not supposed to like it, Jack. That’s why they do it this way, they’re paranoid."

"What about the Jaffa?" Thompson asked, glancing at the archaeologist. "Where are they?"

"They can be anywhere. Generally, the First Prime and a few others chosen by him, will be given quarters in this part of the complex so that they can be close to the ruling Goa’uld. However, many more are kept around as honor guards or to simply guard the entryways. The rest, have their own living areas at the other side of the complex."

"So how much resistance should we expect to get when we get there, Dr. Jackson?" Thompson asked.

"I’m not sure, but expect it to be substantial. Heru’ur alone could take us out with the ribbon device, because our weapons don’t penetrate his personal shield," Daniel said, his hand unconsciously going up to his bruised throat. "When you count Seshat and the Jaffa, we could be looking at some resistance."

"That’s Danny-boy for ya, ever the optimist. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve been spending way too much time with Jacob," Jack stated.

"Jacob is a professional pessimist, Jack. I’m just giving you the facts."

"And heaven knows no one else can keep all that stuff in their head. Lead on, Major Thompson and beware of the Jaffa," Jack’s tone was serious, but they could all hear the slight comedic undertone. Leave it to Jack to provide the entertainment.

****

Michaels glanced besides him to Dr. Jackson. He felt something akin to jealousy churning in his gut. Jealousy at what, however, he couldn’t tell. He wasn’t jealous at the knowledge Dr. Jackson had, because Michaels was smart enough to realize that the doctor had spent his entire life studying the myths and ways of ancient cultures. There was no way Michaels could ever compete. However, the man was a civilian who was being asked for tactical information by a colonel and a major. That little bit did bother Michaels greatly, because as a military man, he had much more tactical experience than the archaeologist. O’Neill should be asking him for that kind of information, not Dr. Jackson. It infuriated Michaels that O’Neill was more willing to trust and give his respect to a civilian, rather than give it to him.

"Is there something wrong, Captain?" Daniel asked, noting the man’s drawn expression.

"It’s none of your concern, Doctor," Michaels quickly replied and slowed his pace so that Daniel and Feretti walked ahead of him. He settled beside Forester, getting a sympathetic look from the man. They were far enough away from Jackson and Feretti so that they wouldn’t be able to hear anything the two men said and they wouldn’t be able to hear them.

"Is there a problem, Captain?" Forester asked him.

"Not unless a civilian who can’t keep his mouth shut is considered a problem," Michaels replied.

Forester chuckled. "I’m still worried that the man is going to get us killed, but Thompson and O’Neill don’t seem concerned at all."

Michaels shook his head. "Let’s just hope they’re not making a mistake. Look at the bright side, Forester. Once this mission is over, the good Dr. Jackson will be out of our hair for good."

****

Daniel heard Michaels and someone else talking, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

"Okay," Daniel whispered, "forget I said anything."

"Don’t take it personally, Doc. He’s just a little defensive," Feretti whispered in return.

Daniel turned to look at his friend. "He should be defensive. We wouldn’t be in this position if he’d known what he was doing in the first place. But at least now I know why he’s here."

"What do you mean?"

"Lovell," Daniel said, his voice carrying a hint of disappointment. "She couldn’t manage her way out of a paper bag, never mind hire good people and assign them to SG teams."

"Ah, so you know that she’s been running your department," Feretti replied. "She’s one defensive person."

Daniel chuckled lightly. "Defensive? I believe Jack’s phrase was ‘egotistical bitch’."

Feretti laughed out loud, getting several glances from the rest of the team. "He would say that," he continued, whispering again. "He doesn’t like her."

"I gathered that when they started yelling at each other in the hallway."

Feretti smiled again. "Ah yes, those arguments are legendary. They’re almost as legendary as the ones you and Jack used to have."

Daniel laughed, getting some more looks. "Yeah, I remember those."

"Remember what? You two seem to be having way too much fun back there," Jack stated and stopped walking so that Feretti and Daniel could catch up to him and Thompson.

"Oh, it’s nothing, Jack. Feretti was just reminding me of those arguments we used to have in the hallways while everyone else tried not to notice."

Jack’s face broke out into a smile. "They knew better than to notice."

The men settled into companionable silence, concentrating once again on the task ahead of them. Daniel could see Jack glance at him occasionally, and he figured that the older man was trying to gauge how he was feeling. It had gotten pretty bad earlier, when they’d first had the confrontation with Heru’ur. Since then, however, the pain in Daniel’s chest had subsided a bit, allowing him to breathe easier. He felt relieved, because he hadn’t wanted to let his injuries get in the way of the mission.

The group finally stopped when they reached a final corridor junction. Beyond it, they could see a single hallway. The lighting in that other part of the complex was bright and the décor suddenly changed from drab and dark to bright and well adorned in gold and other precious metals and gem stones.

"Heru’ur spared no expense, did he?" Jack quipped. "Okay, kids, here’s where it gets hairy. There is only one hallway now, with nothing else branching out so as soon as we step away from this wall, we will all be out in the open. Michaels, Feretti, Daniel and I will go ahead and as soon as the Jaffa come after us, SG-3 will open fire and draw them away from us. Retreat if you have to, but take as many Jaffa down as you can while you go," Jack looked at each of the men, making sure that they were all listening to him. "We will meet up where we first entered the complex. If you get there before us, wait half an hour. If we’re not there by that time, go back to Earth and brief the general. We’ll either be right behind you or we’ll all be dead."

"With all due respect, Sir, we can’t just leave you behind," Thompson stated.

"You can and you will, Major. That’s an order. I want to avoid as much bloodshed as I can, so if you and your team make it back to the exit, you leave, understand? No heroism, Thompson. Someone needs to get back to the SGC to tell Hammond what happened."

Thompson nodded reluctantly, but he had no choice.

"Okay, kids, here we go."

****

"There is it again, but closer this time," Sam said, hearing more gunshots. Her heart quickened its pace as she listened closely to the sounds coming from outside the room they were being held in.

"I believe the sound is coming from directly outside the room, Major Carter," Teal’c intoned, inching his way closer to the door. "I believe it would be beneficial for us to attempt an escape now. The Jaffa guarding our door will likely be involved in the battle."

"We have no weapons, Teal’c," Sam pointed out. "But we can take something heavy and use that as a weapon." She roamed around the room, finding nothing that could be useful.

Teal’c left his position by the door and walked to an ornate side table. Suddenly, he picked it up and smashed it against the floor, catching Sam off guard.

"Teal’c, what are you doing?"

Teal’c did not reply. Instead, he bent down and picked up the table’s four legs, which were now separate. The legs ended in a wicked point, where they’d been broken out of the top. He handed two of the legs to Carter.

"These will suffice as weapons until we can procure others," he said and she nodded her agreement. "I will go first and surprise the guards, you follow."

Sam nodded and positioned herself behind Teal’c.

Once Teal’c saw that Major Carter was ready, he tested the door to see if it was unlocked. He was relieved to see that it was. Without wasting any more time, he flung the door open. When he heard a grunt to his right, Teal’c knew that he’d hit one of the Jaffa guards. As he exited the room, he pushed the door open as far as it would go with all of his strength. He felt no resistance, and smiled at the small triumph. He turned around and saw that the other guard was pointing a staff weapon at him. The Jaffa primed the weapon, but wasn’t given a chance to fire it, because Major Carter flung the other door open, catching the man off guard and sending him to the floor. Teal’c quickly reached out and took care of him.

"Let us go find O’Neill," Teal’c said and led the way towards the sounds of battle. He picked up the staff weapons discarded by the two unconscious Jaffa and handed one to Sam, who took it and held it at the ready.

They only had to walk a short way before they could see the back of five Jaffa, firing their staff weapons at the invaders. Without hesitation, Teal’c and Sam both fired their weapons, quickly killing all five.

"Don’t shoot, Colonel!" Sam yelled, sure that O’Neill was out there somewhere.

"Carter, Teal’c, it’s good to see you two!" Jack yelled from the opposite side of the corridor where he’d taken cover behind an overturned servant’s cart. Sam saw him peek out from behind the cart, a wide grin on his face. Beside Jack, Sam saw Daniel also taking a peek.

Seeing Daniel again after a year caught her off guard at first and she found that she was unable to say anything to him. He looked a little different than he had the last time she’d seen him, but he was still Daniel. She had not expected to see him on a mission ever again, which made the sight of him decked out in full military gear that much more welcome in this instant. Of course, she had already suspected that he was around, but actually seeing him in front of her brought out different feelings. She was happy to see him, yet concerned for him at the same time. He was still a civilian, and Sam wondered how much a year living as a civilian had dulled his instincts.

"It’s good to see you, Daniel. I found your glasses," Sam said, smiling gently as she patted her jacket pocket.

"Thanks, Sam. It’s too bad they’re no use to me anymore."

"Who else is with you, O’Neill?" Teal’c said as he approached his team members. "We should leave this place immediately before more Jaffa come."

"We’re over here," Feretti called out, extricating himself from another overturned cart. "There aren’t many places to hide in this place."

"It’s a good thing they left these things lying around," Michaels added, emerging behind Feretti.

"SG-3 is also here, but hopefully they’ve already made it out of the complex," Daniel said as Sam reached him. "Are you two okay?"

Sam nodded, noting the concern in her friend’s eyes. He looked different to her, somehow, but she couldn’t quite pin point why. "We’re okay, Daniel. I just want to get out of here."

"Amen to that! Campers, let’s go home," Jack said.

Before they got a chance to go anywhere, they were hit from behind by a powerful energy wave. Sam felt herself thrown forward and collided with Daniel, who’d been walking in front of her. She landed on the ground heavily, her fall broken by Daniel’s body. She heard him grunt in pain as they landed and could hear her own expression of discomfort leaving her lips. Sam tried to get up off of Daniel, but was knocked back down again by another energy wave. The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was a woman’s laughter.

****

Osiris paced the length of the room Heru’ur had assigned him, attempting to regain his composure. The worst thing about having a relatively new host was that maintaining control of the body was still an uncertain thing. While a host’s mind could lay dormant and suppressed for months at a time, it could also rise up and cause trouble every now and then. Practice made this a non issue, but a Goa’uld generally needed years to fully subjugate the mind of a host. Osiris had not had years to do that, merely months.

His host, while young and immature, was feisty. As soon as she had realized what he’d done to her, she’d tried to block him and had been unsuccessful. Osiris had managed to frighten the woman into submission from the very beginning, easily mimicking her when he’d had the need to. At times, however, she became forceful and fought him with everything she had.

This was one of those times. Osiris was very pleased to find out that his host was concerned for her old friend, the good Dr. Jackson. As soon as Heru’ur had informed him of the capture of SG-1, the host’s mind had become active and had fought him for control of the body. She’d been very agitated and Osiris had been able to feel the fear and apprehension she felt for her friend. She didn’t want Osiris to harm him or his friends. She had put up a good fight, but Osiris had crushed her will easily and painfully. The host’s mind was currently withdrawn, having succumbed to his whim. The fight with his host had given him a splendid idea, however.

From the host, Osiris knew a lot of things about Daniel Jackson. Most importantly, he knew the man’s strengths and his weaknesses. If what he’d experienced on Earth after first awakening and taking over this body was any indication, Dr. Jackson still had feelings for his host. Osiris could definitely use that against the stubborn Tau’ri. If he relinquished control of the body to his host momentarily, she was likely to plead with him for assistance and might just get him to say something that would prove beneficial in the fight against the Tau’ri. It was a long shot, but it was worth the risk. He could always regain control of the host and get the information from the prisoner himself if his plan didn’t work, so there wasn’t much to lose.

Osiris smiled, pleased with his plan. Yes, it was definitely worth a try.

****

"Ah, hell. We were so close!" Jack exclaimed as he lay on the floor, trying desperately to clear the fog from his brain.

He’d woken up a few minutes earlier, finding himself in a small, undecorated room. He didn’t know what had happened, only that they’d been hit from behind by some kind of energy beam. He shook his head to get rid of the dizziness and when he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to, attempted to sit up.

"Ow," he said, as he felt his right side twinge under the pressure of sitting up. He felt for other aches and pains, finding far too many for his liking. The worst was his head. He had either gotten a new head injury or just aggravated his old one. Once he was sitting and in as little pain as he could manage, he looked around.

He found Teal’c, Feretti and Michaels sprawled out at different parts of the room. They all seemed to be coming around, since he could hear slight groans and mumbles. Jack looked around the room once again, his heart constricting with worry and fear when he realized that neither Sam nor Daniel were in the room.

"Oh, shit! Not again," Jack exclaimed.

"What has happened, O’Neill," Teal’c asked, pushing himself to a sitting position.

"Carter and Daniel aren’t with us. Whoever knocked us out took them."

"Oh, hell, not the doc and the major again," Feretti mumbled as he, too, sat up. "What happened?"

"It was a ribbon device," Teal’c answered. "It was discharged twice, knocking us all out."

"Where do you think they’ve taken Dr. Jackson and Major Carter?" Michaels asked.

"I haven’t the faintest idea. If I did, I wouldn’t still be sitting here, would I?" Jack snapped. He took a deep breath and held it, as he took in the looks the other men were giving him. "Okay, okay, I’ll try not to bite anyone else’s head off. But I don’t make any promises. I can’t believe we finally had what we came for and ended up in a much worse situation, with two people still missing."

"Our equipment is missing as well," Teal’c said. He’d gotten up and had walked around the room, finding nothing.

"Great, just great. We’re currently defenseless and in prison. This day just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?" Jack snapped as he got to his feet. "Is anyone hurt? Seriously, I mean."

"I am not, O’Neill. My symbiote is taking care of me."

"Go, Junior. I have lots of aches and pains, but nothing major, just a hell of a headache."

"Me too," Feretti answered, his hand tenderly exploring the back of his head. "I think I hit my head again."

"Michaels?"

"I’m fine, Colonel. I think I bruised my knee, but it’ll hold me up."

"So what do we do now?" Feretti asked.

"We wait for the perfect opportunity to escape, then get Carter and Daniel and get the hell out of here."

****

"I gave you the simple task of making sure our two prisoners would not escape from your rooms and you failed!"

Seshat stood in front of her lord, her head bowed and her hands clasped in front of her meekly. Her long, black hair cascaded around her face, blocking it from Heru’ur’s sight

"You failed the moment you brought them here, Seshat. It was fortunate that Osiris and I heard the sounds of the battle and interfered when we did. There are five Jaffa dead and two others unconscious because of the dereliction of your duties," Heru’ur’s voice shook with every word, the anger clearly palatable. "You will feel each death as if it were your own, Seshat. Of that, have no doubt," he took a step closer to Seshat and reached out to grip her chin, pulling her face up so that her green eyes were staring up at him. He didn’t care about the dead Jaffa because that’s what they were for. But he wanted to make an example of the scribe for anyone else who failed him. "You have been with me for thousands of years, scribe, and have served me well. However, your conduct during my absence in the last few days is abominable. You have failed to keep the security of this complex by bringing the enemy inside and now you will pay for it."

Heru’ur reached out with the hand holding the ribbon device and activated it. He did not release his grip on Seshat’s chin, keeping her face tilted upwards as he assaulted her with his fury. The ribbon device grew in power, glowing gold and yellow in the brightly lit room.

Seshat’s face contorted in pain but she did not cry out. She stood and received her punishment as it was her duty to do. She felt her knees grow weak and knew that she would crumble to the ground if Heru’ur was not holding her up. Her thoughts suddenly ceased as the only thing that filled her mind was incredible, never ending pain.

Suddenly the pain ended and Heru’ur released her. Seshat fell to the ground in a heap, never uttering a sound. Her entire body ached and her head felt ready to explode, but she knew that she would be healed soon.

"Get the codes from the human female, scribe, or next time, I will not stop until you lie dead at my feet."

Seshat made no move to get up. She heard her lord’s footsteps receding and relaxed slightly, forcing herself to regulate her breathing before she hyperventilated. Slowly, she got up on her hands and knees, and then sat on the cold floor. She glared at the door Heru’ur had exited from, and then caught herself. She couldn’t feel anger towards her lord, because he was right and just. She had failed in her duty to him and had deserved the punishment.

Had she, though? What had she done wrong? She was not a violent person and she’d never been. She was a scribe, nothing more. She had seen the three people the Jaffa had brought in as guests and had treated them as such, because they hadn’t attacked her or any of the Jaffa. Simply, they’d been at the wrong place at the wrong time. They had done nothing to her while Heru’ur had been gone. Where had her crime been?

It didn’t matter. She was a scribe and served Heru’ur for all eternity. That was never going to change, unless he killed her. Right now, she had her orders and would carry them out as she was told.

****

Sam awoke slowly. After a few minutes, she realized that she wasn’t really in pain, not much at least. She was disoriented more than anything. She was face down on the ground and slowly pushed herself up to her hands and knees. When the nausea receded, she proceeded to sit down and explore her surroundings.

She was in a small, empty room that reminded her of the dungeons they used to depict in old movies. There was nothing in the room, not even furniture, which led her to believe that she was finally in a cell. As she looked around, her heart sank when she realized that she was alone.

Where had they taken her team mates?

She wasn’t given much chance to ponder the question, because the door to the cell opened and Seshat walked into the room.

Sam immediately got up and faced the scribe, not wanting to be at a disadvantage.

"You insolent Tau’ri, you dare defy my lord Heru’ur," Seshat spat, glancing with contempt at Sam.

"Defy him? I don’t think so. All we want is to go home," Sam replied. "We didn’t do anything to you or to ‘your lord.’ Believe me, if we’d know that he occupied this planet, we would never have come."

Seshat frowned, confused by the admission. "Why did you come, then?"

Sam smiled slightly, but there was no humor in it. "We’re peaceful explorers from the planet Earth," she said, borrowing Daniel’s first contact speech. She’d heard it so many times during their four years exploring the universe together that she knew it by heart. "We mean you no harm; we were just exploring to see if this planet would serve us for anything."

"You did not know we were here?" Seshat asked disbelief evident in her voice that the Tau’ri were willing to steal resources from a Goa’uld controlled planet.

"No, we didn’t. The MALP, a device used to get readings on a planet to see if it is safe for us to journey to it, detected some deposits of naquadah below the surface of the temple. All we wanted was to explore and see if we could mine some of it."

Seshat’s frown deepened. From what Heru’ur had told her, these Tau’ri were a dangerous enemy that had come to destroy him. But the human standing in front of her said that they only wanted naquadah.

"Why?"

Sam didn’t reply right away, not sure of how much she should tell the Goa’uld. She could be stepping right into a trap and not know it. However, when she looked at Seshat’s face, she saw nothing but curiosity.

"We have several naquadah generators that we use to power the Stargate when the DHD is inactive. We need the naquadah to power them."

"What is a DHD?"

"It’s our name for the device used to enter the gate address of the planet you want to travel to."

Seshat nodded, understanding. She shook her head, conflicting feelings churning through her gut. She was loyal to Heru’ur, but she found herself believing this human as well. What was wrong with her? She looked up at Sam, her green eyes bright. "You are free where you come from, are you not?"

"Free?" Sam asked, confused. "If you mean do I do what I want on my planet, yes to a point. We have governing laws that keep us in check, but I have the right to do what I want with my life."

"How do you provide for yourself?"

"I work and earn money to provide a home and food for myself. Why do you ask? Are you having doubts about your status here?" Sam asked, her voice taking on a slightly condescending tone.

Seshat looked up, her eyes immediately hardening at the suggestion. "No! I serve my lord willingly!"

"If you were so happy with your lord, then why are you here, talking to me about my world? I wouldn’t blame you for questioning your desire to serve him. After all, I’m sure he wasn’t very happy to hear that we’d escaped. What did he do to you, Seshat?"

"You will be silent, human! What goes on between my lord and myself is none of your concern."

Sam shrugged. "It may not be any of my concern, but I can see that it has you thinking. Why did he punish you? What did you do wrong? You extended your hospitality, that’s all. There was no way for you to know who we were and that Heru’ur wanted us dead. Where is the crime?" Sam saw the Goa’uld’s vulnerability and wanted to use it to her advantage. Whatever reason Seshat had come to the cell to see Sam, she knew that it probably wasn’t a good one.

"Enough!"

"What’s the matter, you can’t even admit it to yourself? Why do you serve him, Seshat? What’s in it for you? He’ll kill you if he thinks it’s in his best interest, you know that. Why do you stay here and take it?"

"He’s my God, I have no choice," Seshat replied, her voice soft.

"He’s no God! He’s a Goa’uld, a parasite, nothing more than that. He’s a ruthless, power hungry instigator who relishes in terrorizing others. Why do you put up with it? You subjugate yourself to him for what, Seshat? What do you have to show for it?"

"I said enough!" the Goa’uld yelled, raising the ribbon device to Sam’s head. "I have had enough of your lies and insults. You will speak no more."

****

Sarah Gardner sat on the floor in a corner of the small room, shivering uncontrollably. Her blond curls cascaded down her face, shaking in rhythm with her body. She glanced down at the midriff top and tight pants that she wore and she shivered a bit more. She looked like a hooker, but she couldn’t do much about her clothing.

In the past year, she had learned more about ancient Egyptian civilization than she’d ever wanted to know. She had also learned about many alien races, including the one to which the parasite inside of her belonged to. Because of the blending that Osiris had subjected her to, she knew everything that he knew and he knew everything that she knew. Thoughts, feelings and desires were shared equally. She had also witnessed everything he’d done since taking over her body.

At first, she had been in shock about what had happened. She had no idea what had been done to her, or how to fight Osiris. She hadn’t had the power to fight him, or the knowledge of what he was and what he had done to her. All she’d been able to do was be a silent witness to the possession of her body. As days turned into months and Osiris completed his blending with her, she’d become aware of what had been done to her. She had tried to fight him then, only to discover that she had no will of her own anymore and could no longer control any part of her body. Osiris had been amused by her struggles and had taunted her daily about her situation. Every once in a while, Osiris would let her have control of her body and would then take it away in a short time. It was his way of putting her in her place, letting her know that he was and would always be in control.

Osiris hadn’t told her anything about what he was doing. He had simply gone to sleep, leaving her with control. The fact that she was in this room, coupled with what she’d witnessed between Osiris and Heru’ur earlier, had given her plenty of clues about what she was expected to do. However, Sarah decided that she wasn’t going to do that. Instead, she was going to do her best to warn the room’s other occupant of what was to come, of what Osiris and Heru’ur planned to do with him and his friends.

Quickly, she got up and walked to the other end of the room, wincing as her high heeled boots disturbed the silence. She reached the metal table and gazed down at the almost peaceful face. She would have easily believed the man was sleeping, except for the bruises on his throat and face and the still bleeding gash on his forehead. She felt her heart constrict at the sight, shaking her head at how everything had changed. The last time she’d gazed at him sleeping seemed like a life time ago to Sarah. They’d still been friends then, each respecting the other for what they were, colleagues and lovers.

She shook her head, drawing herself out of the painful memories that she did not have time for. She reached out and shook him, gently at first, but then more insistently.

"Daniel! Daniel, wake up! I don’t have much time and I need to talk to you."

Sarah closed her eyes, willing herself to remain calm. She reached up to Daniel’s less damaged cheek and slapped him lightly, while still desperately shaking his arm. She saw Daniel’s eyelids flutter slightly and encouraged by the reaction, Sarah shook his shoulder harder.

****

Through a haze of pain and endless darkness, Daniel heard a woman’s voice. It was soft and reassuring, reminding Daniel of the woman he loved more than anything. He felt her shaking him as she always did when he was in the middle of a nightmare. Her voice became louder as the shaking became more urgent and Daniel suddenly realized that he had to wake up.

"It’s okay, Sha’uri. The nightmare is gone. I’m awake," he muttered softly in English, knowing that his wife would understand him.

He struggled to get his eyes open and focused and when he finally managed to do so, he found himself starting not at his wife, but at another woman. Blond hair and blue eyes greeted him, instead of the beautiful dark tresses and deep chocolate eyes of his Sha’uri. Daniel quickly got to his feet, swaying slightly as his feet hit the floor. He felt as if he’d end up on the ground at any moment, but fought through that. He couldn’t be unconscious with her again, not if he could help it.

He quickly backed away from the woman, until his back hit a wall. He hadn’t expected to see Sarah again, not after watching her leave that temple in Egypt a little over a year ago. He felt a strong sense of dread and helplessness wash over him and he realized that he was looking at Sarah, but that it wasn’t her he’d be talking to. The guilt associated with the events of that time threatened to drown him, but Daniel knew that he didn’t have time for that. He had to calm himself if he wanted any hope of getting out of this alive.

"Osiris," he said, hatred and contempt clearly in his voice. "It’s been a while. I would say that I’ve missed you, but I would be lying."

He watched her frown slightly at his words, her face registering surprise.

"Daniel," she stated as soothingly as possible, her British accent giving the name an almost musical quality. "I need to talk to you."

"Nice trick, Osiris. Let the poor, defenseless Tau’ri think that he’s talking to the host," Daniel remarked, laughing bitterly. "You’re already pulled that one on me, remember? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I’m not going to fall for that again."

Sarah looked so desperate, sad and confused at the same time that Daniel almost felt sorry for her. Her blue eyes shone with unshed tears and her lips quivered slightly as she watched him. He almost softened and reached out to her, but the memory of Steven lying half dead on the floor of the temple in Egypt was enough chase those thoughts away.

"No, you don’t understand," Sarah pleaded, taking a few steps towards Daniel. "You’re talking to me, Daniel, not Osiris. He does this sometimes, gives me control. I don’t have much time until he wakes up again."

"Steven is fine, by the way," Daniel continued as if Sarah hadn’t spoken. "You didn’t kill him, though you came very close. I’m fine too. After all, what’s a brain scrambling between old friends?"

Daniel frowned as Sarah’s eyes lost their focus momentarily, as if she were remembering something. When she looked back up at him, her eyes were brimming with tears and her expression was one of sadness and regret.

"What did you tell Steven?"

Daniel laughed again and when he spoke, his voice once again held bitterness. "I, personally, didn’t tell him anything. He wouldn’t have believed me anyway. Someone from the Air Force, I’m not exactly sure who it was, told him that you’d been killed in a freak accident in the temple. He was very upset and mourned you terribly. I believe they held a funeral for you and everything."

Sarah’s tears finally spilled at the notion of her friends and family mourning for her back on Earth. The act was so convincing that Daniel almost believed her.

"I didn’t ask for this, Daniel. Believe me, I’ve gotten way more than I ever wanted," she retaliated, her voice becoming angry. "I don’t have time to argue with you, because I can already feel Osiris stirring inside of me. He’ll be awake and in control soon and is going to want this body back. I need you to know that Heru’ur and Osiris plan on torturing you and your friends for any information you can give them about Earth’s defenses. They plan on attacking Earth through your Stargate and want to use you and your friends to do so."

Daniel listened to the warning, wanting to believe. He’d known Sarah for a long time, which made it harder for him to disbelieve her. It was his instinct to trust her, but he’d already gone wrong with that instinct when Sarah had still been on Earth. If he hadn’t been so quick to suspect Steven of being the Goa’uld, he might have seen Sarah for the threat that she was.

"Why am I telling you this?" Sarah asked for Daniel when she realized that he wasn’t going to say anything. "It’s simple. I want you to believe that you’re talking to me, and not Osiris. And I want you to do something for me."

Daniel smiled bitterly, figuring that there was something more to this. There was always something more. "What do you want from me? Information you’re not going to get, so you might as well save your breath."

Sarah shook her head. "I don’t want information, Daniel. I want you to kill me."

"What?"

"Don’t look so shocked. I’ve seen quite a few things since I left Earth and believe me, I don’t want to see any more. I haven’t had any contact with anyone else I know for the last year, so you’re my only chance. Kill me, Daniel. I know that you don’t have any weapons on you, because Osiris took them all, but you can easily snap my neck. I’d have to be blind not to notice that you’re not the skinny academic you used to be, so I know you can do it."

Daniel opened his mouth to reply but realized that he didn’t know what to say. If Osiris really was trying to trick him, he was doing a really good job.

"I’m not going to kill you, Sarah."

"Why not? You’d leave me here, condemned to life as a prisoner in my own body?"

Daniel shook his head. "It’s not that. I’m sure that either Heru’ur or Osiris has a sarcophagus. If I kill you now, the Jaffa will just find you and revive you and you’d be back where you started."

Sarah stared at Daniel, her mouth slightly open. "Damn you, Daniel! It’s worth the risk. Why must you always be so reasonable?"

"It’s a curse, believe me."

Sarah walked up to Daniel and put a hand on his cheek. "I believe you now. I know that I gave you hell about your ‘wild’ theories and broke up with you because I didn’t want my career to suffer by associating with you. It was selfish of me and you deserved so much better than that. I’m truly sorry about what I did, Daniel."

Daniel nodded in acknowledgement of the apology, but said nothing more about it. His feelings surrounding his break up with Sarah had always been very close to the surface and he’d done his best to just shove them to the back of his mind where they wouldn’t bother him anymore. Out of sight, out of mind had worked wonderfully when he’d finally walked away from academia, but it wasn’t working now.

"How do we get out of here? I can take you to the Tok’ra, Sarah. They’ll get the symbiote out of you," he finally said, knowing that if Sarah was indeed herself, she’d reply to the question.

Sarah’s smiled at the possibility of freedom and sighed in relief. "The transporter rings go to the temple on the surface. Plus, there are several exit points throughout the complex. All you have to do is…. AH!" she yelled, her face contorting into a mask of pain. "He’s waking up, AHHH!"

Daniel watched as Sarah clutched her head and moaned in pain. He took a step forward to go to her, and then stopped. Osiris was probably going to be in control of that body pretty soon and Daniel didn’t want to be that close to her then.

Sarah’s head snapped up, her eyes glowing menacingly. She smiled, her mouth twisted into a sneer, her eyes cold and ruthless.

"My host is weak," Osiris said, the Goa’uld’s voce reverberating eerily in the room. "She tries to fight me, but cannot do much more than simply annoy me. However, she is a wealth of information regarding you." Osiris continued to grin, while advancing on Daniel. "She is very fond of you, despite what she said the last time you two met. She doesn’t wish to see you harmed. That can be arranged, if you cooperate with me."

Daniel swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. Sarah’s personality had completely changed before his eyes, as it usually did between a Goa’uld symbiote and its host. She’d gone from desperation and vulnerability to cruelty and hatred. It was disconcerting seeing the completely opposite emotions play out on the same face.

"Cooperate? Sure, I’ll cooperate," Daniel stated, his voice calm and almost goading. "I’ll cooperate as soon as hell freezes over."

Osiris frowned, his sneer turning into a ruthless grin. "You still oppose me and dare to act with insolence, even when I have you at a disadvantage? How amusing."

Daniel’s lips twisted into a bitter smile. "You are nothing but a parasite to me. Besides, you already know that I won’t give you what you want. Sarah wasn’t able to get the information from me and neither will you."

Osiris laughed, sending chills down Daniel’s spine. He took a step back, but was immediately halted by Osiris’ hand on his arm. The Goa’uld had moved quickly towards him and now held Daniel at arm’s length. Daniel tried to dislodge his arm, but Osiris’ grip was firm and painful. Suddenly, Osiris brought the ribbon device up to bear on Daniel’s head, making the archaeologist grimace in pain.

"You will give me the information I seek, Daniel. Even if you die, I can revive you and try again. Save yourself the pain and humiliation and yield to me now."

Daniel defiantly looked up at Osiris through the red haze of pain from the ribbon device. He gritted his teeth, intent on not giving Osiris the satisfaction of hearing him cry out. He could see Sarah’s face grimly silhouetted by the light from the ribbon device, just as he’d seen Sha’uri’s face right before Teal’c had killed her. The thought of Sha’uri drove a knife into Daniel’s heart, as it always did when he remembered her. But it also gave him courage and strength in a way nothing else could.

"I will never yield," he forced out through clenched teeth.

It was the last thing he remembered, before his thoughts were all overshadowed by excruciating pain.

"Does anyone know how long we’ve been in here?" Jack asked, pacing around the room once again. He looked at his watch and winced when he saw the cracked face. He’d smashed it against something or other during their various battles in the complex and kept forgetting that it was broken.

The four men had spent some time going carefully through the room, trying to find a way out. When that had failed, they’d attempted to find something that would help them pick the lock of the cell they were in. Neither of the two endeavors had been fruitful, which led to Jack’s current mood. He hated being unable to do anything, especially when two of his team members were missing. He wanted action, even if it meant fighting more Jaffa. Jack couldn’t see out of the cell, because there were no windows, but he hadn’t heard any movement outside either, which meant that at that moment, they weren’t being guarded. It was too bad they couldn’t open the door.

"I believe we’ve been in this room for six hours, O’Neill," Teal’c replied.

Jack turned to the Jaffa and found him sitting cross-legged in a corner of the room. His eyes were trained on Jack so intensely that it made Jack feel slightly self conscious.

"Perhaps you should attempt to relax, O’Neill. Pacing endlessly will not help Major Carter and Daniel Jackson.

"He’s right, Jack," Feretti added. "Maybe you should try to calm down a little bit."

Jack turned to Feretti, betrayal clearly written on his face. "Relax? How can I relax when, once again, two members of my team are missing? Anytime we’re knee deep in shit, I prefer that we’re in it together. That way, I can at least see how everyone is doing. This way, my imagination takes over and makes me imagine worse things. Damn! Who knows what those sadistic bastards are doing to Carter and Daniel right now."

"Why would Heru’ur want Major Carter and Dr. Jackson, Colonel?" Michaels asked.

Jack once again turned his attention to the young captain, only to find the younger man sitting on the floor at the other end of the room, as far away from him as possible. Annoyance flared briefly at the man, reminding Jack of the first few hours they’d been imprisoned. Michaels had been asking so many questions that he should already have the answers to, so Jack had made it absolutely clear that he’d been annoyed at the questions. Ever since then, Michaels had made it a point to stay out of the way.

"Oh, I don’t know," Jack replied, his voice still angry. "It could be any number of things, seeing how SG-1 has pretty much managed to piss off every major System Lord in the freaking universe. Maybe Heru’ur just wants to fry their brains for information. Isn’t that the way it usually works, take the woman and the civilian because they’ll crack easily?"

Jack knew that Heru’ur had no clue how resilient Carter and Daniel were. He was sure that whatever was happening to the two right now, they were putting up one hell of a fight.

"You’re going a little overboard, don’t you think? What would Heru’ur gain from killing Carter and Daniel now?" Feretti ventured, his statement carefully phrased so as not to anger Jack further. "If they die, then there’s that much less information for him to gather. It’s in his best interest to keep them alive."

"But that’s the trick, you see. Heru’ur probably has a sarcophagus somewhere on this God forsaken complex. He could kill them and then revive them to start all over again," Jack pointed out. "What I don’t get is why we’re being left alone."

"We could be here for insurance," Michaels added, "hostages to taunt Major Carter and Dr. Jackson with."

"Don’t do me any favors, Michaels," Jack snapped, sending the captain a look guaranteed to make anyone think twice about saying anything else.

Michaels shrugged and kept quiet, having apparently decided that he was better off just listening.

"Do not forget that Heru’ur was attacked by Apophis because of the child Daniel Jackson hid for Sha’uri. He would want revenge," Teal’c replied.

"Thanks a lot, Teal’c! That’s just what I wanted to hear. And here I drag Daniel all the way back from California, where he was safely enlightening young minds, only to be tortured and killed by an insane Goa’uld. No wonder he left in the first place!"

The four men were silent following Jack’s outburst until finally, Feretti spoke.

"Daniel wouldn’t have run away simply because of that, Jack. If he had the tendency to, he wouldn’t have lasted past the first year and you know it."

"He did just that, Feretti," Jack said. "The mission to Aurora got rough, the Goa’uld attacked, people got injured and killed and Daniel couldn’t handle it. So what does he do, he takes the easy way out and resigns. It’s that simple."

"You don’t really believe that, do you Jack? If that were true, Daniel would have left after the first time he’d ever seen combat, or the first time he’d been injured or killed on a mission," Feretti added as he got up from the floor and walked over to Jack. "If he really couldn’t handle the pressure, he would never have stayed as long as he stayed after dealing with as much shit as you’ve all had to deal with. More importantly, Daniel wouldn’t be here if this was all too much for him. If he really wanted an easier way he’d be back at his safe, academic job instead of here with us."

Jack examined the determined look on Feretti’s face and wondered if he really felt that Daniel had run away. There had been a time when he had felt that way, but it had been a long time ago. Suddenly, a conversation that had taken place a year ago surfaced into Jack’s mind and he had no choice but to remember it.

**~~**

"I can’t believe the son of a bitch actually did it. I can’t believe he really left. What a cop out," Jack said to no one in particular. He was standing alone in Daniel’s empty office, looking at the blank, concrete walls and getting angrier by the minute at the injustice of it all. "He couldn’t have stayed around and waited for me to wake up to talk him out of this stupid, stupid plan. He couldn’t have talked to Sam or Teal’c about it before going to Hammond. No, he had to go and do it on his own, run away on his own."

"You do not actually believe that, O’Neill," Teal’c stated as he entered the office and stood besides Jack. Sam entered the office behind the Jaffa and stood to one side of him. "Daniel Jackson is not a coward."

"Why the hell not? He left us behind, all of us. After four years of going through hell together, we hit one bad mission and he just leaves?"

Teal’c did not say anything, merely continued to observe.

Jack sighed. "I can’t help it, Teal’c. I feel like Daniel just ran away from us, you know? We’ve been through bad missions before, missions where we’ve lost people, missions where we’ve died ourselves, for crying out loud! We’ve managed to get through all of them before, together. Daniel didn’t even give us a chance to get through this one. He submitted his resignation while I wasn’t even awake to talk him out of it. That, my friend, is running away."

"Daniel should have talked to us first, given us a chance to help him through this," Sam added. "How could we fix something that we didn’t know was broken? I tried to talk to him while you two were still in the infirmary. I came to see him here and found him throwing coffee cups at the walls. He was so distraught… But he wouldn’t talk to me. I tried to get him to tell me what was wrong and he refused. All he said was that we deserved better. It’s funny, but since when was him leaving better for us?" Sam asked, her voice angry and slightly bitter.

"Daniel Jackson is an adult and prefers to handle personal problems alone," Teal’c added. "He has told me that he does not like burdening others with what is troubling him. That is why he kept it to himself and did what he deemed necessary."

"But this wasn’t a ‘personal problem,’ Teal’c," Jack replied. "This was a problem that affected all of us, because it had to do with the mission. Daniel made a mistake and I can understand why he would beat himself up over it. After all, Daniel isn’t anything if not a perfectionist. But was it worth resigning over?"

"You have not heard the accusations being thrown at Daniel Jackson, O’Neill. They have deeply affected him."

"General Hammond told me about those. And while I do agree that they’re uncalled for, they’re hardly an excuse. I mean, since when has Daniel given a damn about what others think of him? He does what he does, content in the knowledge that in the end he’ll more than likely be right."

"What if that’s the problem, sir?" Sam added. "What if being so confident now about something that he was so completely wrong about is what caused him to doubt himself enough to make him resign?"

"Again, that brings up the point about why in hell he didn’t talk to us. We’re his team, his friends. If there is anyone on this base, this freaking planet that he could talk to, it’s us. But no, what does he do? He jumps to conclusions, shoulders the guilt and resigns. God knows what he’s doing now. Where is he going to go?"

"According to him, he is not welcome in the archaeological community. That doesn’t leave him with many options," Sam replied.

Jack shrugged. "It’s out of our hands, kids. Daniel made his choice and left. It’s his problem now to straighten out his life. We have to straighten up ours and get our team back into working order. What’s left of it."

**~~**

"Colonel, are you okay?"

The question brought Jack out of his memories.

"I’m fine, Captain, just remembering a conversation from a year ago," Jack replied, glancing at Teal’c. The Jaffa nodded, signifying that he knew what conversation Jack was referring to.

They had managed to repair the team, though it hadn’t been easy. Despite all that had happened, all the anger he had felt at Daniel’s resignation, Jack was surer than anything that he wanted Daniel back on SG-1. However, he didn’t have the right to make that choice for his other team members. Sam and Teal’c had also been affected by Daniel’s resignation and had the right to be consulted.

Jack turned to the man who had asked the question and regarded him. Captain Michaels also had the right to be consulted. Jack might not like the guy, but he did owe the man the respect he was due as part of his team. He’d done nothing but try to fit in and do his job in the best way possible since being assigned to SG-1. The man’s only fault was that he was not Daniel Jackson. He could hardly be blamed for that. He could, however, be blamed for misreading the temple walls and putting them all into this situation. That was a matter to be dealt with later, once they were home.

"Were you going to say something, Jack?" Feretti asked, referring to their interrupted conversation.

"Daniel had his reasons for resigning and no, I don’t think he’s a coward."

The sound of a lock being opened caught the attention of all four men. They glanced at the door expectantly glad to finally be getting some answers. After what seemed like an eternity, the door to the cell opened. Seshat walked into the cell but did not close the door behind her. They noticed no Jaffa standing by the door, which gave them a little bit of hope.

"What have you done with our two companions," Jack growled, immediately on the offensive.

Seshat glanced at him, her expression blank. "You must be Jack O’Neill, the leader Heru’ur was referring to. I am glad to have found you."

"And you are?"

"I am Seshat, scribe to Heru’ur."

"Whatever information you want from me, Seshat, I guarantee you’re not going to get it. Now where are Carter and Daniel?"

Seshat held up her hand, the bright crystal of the ribbon device glinting slightly in the subdued light of the cell. She took a step towards Jack, who held his ground.

Teal’c, who’d been standing to one side of Seshat, prepared himself to tackle the Goa’uld to the ground before she attacked O’Neill, but stopped when he saw another figure enter the cell.

"Major Carter," he said, his brow furrowing in confusion. She appeared healthy, except for a burn on her forehead from a ribbon device and a few bruises and gashes on her face.

"Carter!" Jack exclaimed, glancing away from Seshat for a second, before settling his gaze back on the Goa’uld.

"I was not going to harm you, Colonel. I was merely going to calm you enough to listen to what I had to say."

"Carter, what’s going on?"

"It’s a long story, Sir, but Seshat is willing to help us escape. I’ll tell you the rest of it on the way to get Daniel."

"Where is he?" Feretti asked, beating Jack to it.

"Osiris has him."

"What? Oh, for crying out loud, not that one again," Jack said, shaking his head. Just how many insane Goa’uld were they going to run into on this trip? "What does she want with Daniel?"

"Osiris was convinced that your friend the scholar would be the best choice to interrogate," Seshat answered for Sam. "She has already done so. I’m not aware of his condition, which is why we need to get to him soon."

"Can I have a word with Carter?" Jack asked Seshat, who simply nodded and stepped out of the room.

"Do you trust her?"

Sam nodded. "She interrogated me, but it became apparent to me that she had her doubts about ‘her lord’ Heru’ur. I played on those doubts and got her to listen to reason. She has agreed to help us get Daniel and get out of here."

"In exchange for what?" Teal’c asked. "The Goa’uld do not do anything without a price."

"She didn’t ask for anything in return. I think she feels responsible because she held us here. Besides, I think she may have a thing or two to say to ‘her lord’ once she gets rid of us. I’m not sure why, but she doesn’t want us any more involved than we already are."

Jack weighed his options carefully. While he didn’t feel entirely comfortable trusting a Goa’uld, he didn’t have many choices at the moment. He trusted Carter and if she trusted Seshat, then he would go on Carter’s faith.

"Very well, let’s find Daniel before Osiris does any more damage to him."

****

General George Hammond stood uneasily in the debriefing room, staring down at the silent Stargate below him. Seated around the table behind him was SG-3, who had returned from the planet an hour ago. They had been examined in the infirmary and had taken some time to shower and change into clean clothes, before coming to the debriefing.

"Major, what happened?" Hammond asked when he finally turned to regard the team.

Thompson gave the general a quick overview of what had happened on the planet, concluding with the circumstances that led to their departure. "Colonel O’Neill ordered us to leave. He said that he wanted some of us to get out alive."

"What was the status of SG-1 when you left?"

"We were attacked by a group of Jaffa. My team managed to take out most of them as we retreated, but five were left. The rest of SG-1, along with Major Feretti and Dr. Jackson were holding their own against them. We didn’t see any more Jaffa arrive, but it’s a possibility."

"Were Major Carter and Teal’c with them?" Hammond asked, hoping that they’d at least managed to find the two missing team members.

"No, Sir. Major Carter and Teal’c had not been found."

General Hammond sighed heavily and dropped down into his customary chair at the head of the table. He had been relieved to see SG-3 returning from the planet with only minor injuries, but had been worried when SG-1, Major Feretti and Dr. Jackson had not been with them. Now, after hearing the report, he was even more worried. O’Neill had done the right thing in ordering SG-3 to return home. However, George knew that with less fire power, the chances of success were greatly lessened. The colonel and his team had surprised him on numerous occasions and Hammond desperately hoped that this would be another one of those times where SG-1 returned home safe and complete.

"There is nothing left for us to do but wait and hope that they all make it back in one piece."

****

"He is being held here," Seshat said, leading the group of five to a cell much closer to the main part of the complex. "He is alone at the moment. I would advise that only one of you go in to retrieve him, while the rest wait outside for any incoming Jaffa."

The scribe had walked ahead of them and dispatched of the two Jaffa who had stood guard outside of Daniel’s cell. She’d commanded them quickly in Goa’uld and they’d obediently left.

"I’ll go," Jack said. "The rest of you, hide as best you can and take out anyone that comes this way. And since we have no weapons, that should be very easy to do, don’t you think?"

"I have a zat gun, Colonel, and Seshat has a ribbon device. Hopefully that’ll be enough."

Jack nodded and left his team. He quickly walked into the room, his eyes immediately traveling to the metal table at the center of the room. It was empty, so Jack began to search the remainder of the room. In a corner, he could see Daniel unconscious on the floor, lying on his side facing the wall. Jack walked over to his fallen friend and put a hand on his left shoulder. As soon as his hand touched Daniel, the archaeologist swung his left hand as he rolled his body to the right, catching Jack squarely on the jaw.

"Oh, damn it! Daniel, for God’s sakes, it’s me!"

"Jack?" Daniel stated, confusion and disbelief in his voice. He walked over to Jack and kneeled next to him, tentatively reaching out to touch him. "Oops, I guess I should have looked first," he stated when he saw Jack’s split lip.

"What’s the matter with you? I come in here to rescue you and you hit me?" Jack glared at Daniel. He reached up his mouth and wiped away the small trickle of blood.

"I’m sorry. I thought you were one of those Jaffa coming back for an interrogation session. I figured if they were going to beat me up anyway, I might as well get a few punches in."

Daniel got to his feet and reached out a hand for Jack, who took it gratefully.

"Who knew you had such a punch," Jack quipped.

Daniel smiled slightly. "All those years of teaching me how to defend myself must have paid off."

"Not too good, I take it," Jack said, pointing at Daniel’s disheveled appearance. There weren’t too many outward signs of any further abuse, nothing besides the bruises and cuts Daniel already had. There was that burn mark on Daniel’s forehead, which was a telltale sign of a ribbon device. Jack also noticed how shallowly Daniel still breathed and how pale he looked. "So what’d they do to you? I hear Osiris is responsible for most of it."

Daniel looked at the floor, which to Jack meant that Daniel was hiding something. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever it was had to do with Sarah Gardner.

"Yeah, Osiris is here. He wanted information that I wouldn’t give him. He wanted it badly enough that he let me talk to the host."

Jack’s eyes widened, knowing how that must have affected his friend. "What happened? Did Sarah try to pump you for information?"

Daniel shook his head. "She warned me that Osiris and Heru’ur were going to torture us for information that would help them invade Earth. It seems they are planning an attack on our planet to prove their worth to the other System Lords."

"Great, just what we need, two more would be Gods wanting to mess with Earth," Jack muttered. "When are they going to get it through their thick heads that we’re not going to go down willingly?"

"I don’t think they ever will, Jack. They’re so egotistical that they can’t imagine not being able to conquer one tiny, little planet."

Jack chuckled despite the situation. He became serious again, however, when he once again glanced at Daniel. "Are you okay, Daniel?"

Daniel nodded. "Let’s go home, Jack. How did you find me here, anyway? Where is here?"

"I’m not sure exactly where we are. All I know is that you’re a lot closer to the main part of the complex than we were. As for how we got out of our own cells to find you, we have an ally of sorts that got us out and brought us to you. Come on out and you’ll get to meet her," Jack replied and motioned for Daniel to exit the cell before him.

As soon as the two men stepped out, a woman with black hair and green eyes, dressed in ornamental robes, greeted them.

"You must be Seshat," Daniel said as soon as he saw her. "Why are you helping us?"

"Major Carter has convinced me that Heru’ur is not a God and that he has no right to abuse me. I want to have the right to choose and I choose to correct the error I made when I decided to hold your friends hostage. If not for that, none of you would still be here, in danger. You have done nothing to me personally, therefore I have no need to see you harmed."

Daniel smiled at the woman. He turned towards Sam and smiled at her too "Sam is right; you do have a right to choose."

Seshat nodded. "We must hurry now. The Jaffa I sent away will have reached Heru’ur by now so we don’t have much time before he’s made aware that I have freed you. He will send more Jaffa after all of us, or he will come after all of us himself. We must leave the complex before he reaches us."

She led them through the complex, back towards the place they’d first entered from. They first stopped by another small room, where all of their gear had been stored. Seshat allowed them to take possession of it, giving them the weapons they so desperately needed.

They reached the exit with little difficulty, which raised the hairs on the back of Jack’s neck. Nothing was ever easy for them and when it was, it usually turned ugly. Jack was grateful to see that SG-3 had gone back to Earth. That left fewer casualties for them to deal with.

"Okay, campers, up we go. Let’s be careful now, there could be an ambush on the surface."

Jack motioned for Michaels and Feretti to go through first to deal with any possible attack from the surface. Sam and Daniel followed, and Jack and Teal’c covered the rear.

"What is going to happen to you, Seshat?" Jack asked.

"I have failed and betrayed my lord, so I will more than likely be killed," she replied calmly.

"You could come with us and join the Tok’ra. They would take you in," Daniel said.

Seshat smiled. "I have been with Heru’ur for thousands of years. I would not know what to do away from him. If it is his choice to kill me, then so be it." Further words were cut off as a staff weapon discharged and burnt a whole in the middle of Seshat’s chest. Her eyes widened in surprise, before she fell to the floor, dead.

"She is right. It is my choice to kill her," Heru’ur stated. He signaled for his Jaffa to continue the attack at the same time Jack signaled for Daniel, Sam and Teal’c to take cover.

"Feretti, Michaels, dial it up and go home!" Jack yelled, as he ducked to avoid a staff weapon blast, hoping that they’d listen to him. It was better for some of them to get out than none at all. He saw Daniel fire the zat gun he carried several times as he headed towards one of the corridor junctions to take cover. He continued to fire his weapon, taking down as many Jaffa as he could.

****

Michaels made his way tentatively back down towards SG-1, leaving Feretti to dial the gate and get back to Earth on his own. His team was still in trouble and he wasn’t about to abandon them.

He brought his automatic weapon up to the ready position, preparing himself for the Jaffa he was sure to encounter. As soon as he became visible to the Jaffa, a few of them switched their attention from O’Neill and concentrated at him, firing their staff weapons. Jason dove to his right and hit the floor rolling, using the momentum to better position himself. He fired his weapon and took down two Jaffa, while at the same time trying to find his teammates.

He could hear a zat gun in the distance, which Michaels figured was Jackson. To his left, and ahead of him, he heard automatic weapons, which indicated O’Neill and Carter. Teal’c’s staff weapon got lost among the ones used by the Jaffa and Michaels hoped that the Jaffa was uninjured.

A blur to his right caught Michaels’ attention, and he turned in time to see a Jaffa advancing behind O’Neill. The colonel was busy with the three Jaffa in front of him and had not noticed the one coming up behind him. Michaels quickly got to his feet and immediately ran towards the colonel, firing his weapon as he did so. The Jaffa, caught off guard, could do nothing to defend himself. Jason smiled, satisfied, as the Jaffa went down.

"I thought I told you to go to the surface and dial the gate," O’Neill growled at him as he dispatched of the three Jaffa he’d been fighting off. Both men retreated to a safer location in the corridor to await the next wave of Jaffa.

"You needed me down here. Besides, Feretti can dial the DHD on his own," Michaels replied.

"What if there had been patrols on the surface?"

"There weren’t. We checked it out first."

"You deliberately disobeyed an order, Captain."

Michaels grimaced at the cold tone of the colonel’s voice. Maybe he hadn’t done the right thing after all.

"With all due respect, Colonel, I just saved your life. I disobeyed an order because my team mates were still in danger. I believe it’s your philosophy not to leave anyone behind. Well, sir, I wasn’t about to do it either."

Michaels saw the emotions play out over O’Neill’s face until the man finally took a deep breath and held it for a moment, before releasing it.

"Fine, Michaels, but don’t ever do it again."

Michaels nodded and sighed a huge sigh of relief.

****

Sam dove towards the body of Seshat and winced at the Goa’uld’s lifeless eyes. With a mumbled apology, Sam took the ribbon device from Seshat’s hand and slipped it onto her own hand. She hated using those things, but she knew that in this case, she had to. Bullets wouldn’t penetrate the shield Heru’ur used so there was no chance that the ribbon device would either. However, if she could disable the shield, she could then use the energy from the ribbon device to disable him.

She brought her own weapon up and fumbled with it. It was hard to grip the automatic weapon while wearing a ribbon device, but she managed. She slowly made her way towards Heru’ur, being careful to stay out of his sight. The Goa’uld simply stood there, watching as the Jaffa went down in the enemy fire. Any bullets that reached him were harmlessly ricocheted away.

Quickly, she took a few steps towards Heru’ur and fired her automatic weapon at him. He turned towards her, bringing his ribbon device up and aiming it at Sam. She stopped her forward motion and let the weapon she was holding fall to her chest. The strap anchored it to her body so that it didn’t fall on the floor and get in her way. She reached behind her for the knife and once she had it in her hand, threw it, hoping that it would find its target.

Sam rejoiced only momentarily as the knife easily penetrated the shield and imbedded itself into Heru’ur’s hand, disabling the ribbon device and the personal shield. She concentrated as hard as she could and willed her anger and rage at the events of the last few days, fueling the ribbon device. She brought her hand up and aimed the energy at Heru’ur, letting it go, hoping that she hadn’t just made a mistake that would get them all killed.

****

Daniel rounded the corner into another corridor, three Jaffa on his tail. His chest burned with the effort it took to breathe, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He aimed the zat gun and fired as best he could with his faulty vision and was rewarded by seeing two Jaffa go down. The third managed to dodge the energy from the zat gun and was able to continue to fire at Daniel. The staff weapon blasts sailed past his head as he dove to the floor. Quickly, with more strength than he would have thought possible, he rolled onto his back and fired two shots, killing the Jaffa before he had a chance to fire.

Relief washed trough him and Daniel allowed himself a few minutes to catch his breath. He was so busy concentrating on drawing a breath that he did not hear the approaching footsteps until they were right in front of him. He looked up and saw Osiris sneering down at him, the ribbon device hanging menacingly in front of his face. Daniel brought his zat gun up to fire, when a single energy discharge coursed through Osiris, dropping him to the ground.

Daniel looked behind him and found Teal’c watching Osiris with hatred. "Don’t shoot her again, Teal’c!" he pleaded as he struggled to his feet. "Help me bind her. We can get her back to the base and get the Tok’ra to get that thing out of her."

"Is that wise, Daniel Jackson?"

Daniel snorted. "God, no, but I have to try."

Daniel watched as Teal’c used the robes that Osiris wore to bind Sarah’s hands and feet. He hoisted the body onto his shoulders easily. "We must return to the base before he awakens, because I will not be able to hold her for long."

The two men began to carefully walk toward the sounds of the battle, when they suddenly realized that there were none. Daniel carefully peeked into the corridor he’d come from only to find Sam, Jack and Michaels all standing, looking at the numerous bodies that surrounded them.

"What happened?" Daniel asked as he moved towards the three officers. "Where is Heru’ur?"

"Dead," Jack said and pointed to where the Goa’uld lay. "Sam used Seshat’s ribbon device to kill him. Are you okay? Where is Teal’c?"

"I am here O’Neill."

"Why are you carrying Osiris?"

"Daniel Jackson wants to get the Tok’ra to remove the symbiote from the host."

"I know I don’t have the right to ask this, Jack, after all I’ve done and put you all through, but we have to do this. Please, Jack. I owe it to Sarah," Daniel pleaded, looking from one former team mate to the next.

Jack looked at Daniel, knowing how much this meant to him. He would have done it in a heart beat for Sha’uri, of that he was sure. Could he do it now for Sarah?

"How safe is it, Teal’c?" Jack asked the Jaffa.

"Osiris is unconscious now, but we must get him restrained before he awakens, which will be soon. The symbiote counteracts the effects of the zat gun much faster."

"Sam?"

"She doesn’t deserve to be condemned to a life as a prisoner of her own body and since she’s only been a host for a year, it shouldn’t be as traumatic to get rid of the symbiote. We could study Osiris and learn from a live symbiote what we can’t from a dead one," she replied, glancing at the woman in Teal’c’s arms, then at Daniel.

"Okay, so what’s keeping us? Let’s go home, kids."

****

George Hammond stood in the embarkation room, his eyes boring into the active wormhole. He had been talking to one of the sergeants in the control room when the Stargate had become active and he’d immediately made his way down. Beside him stood Jacob Carter, who had come to Earth a few hours ago to visit his daughter and had decided to stay and help out when he’d been briefed about what had happened. Behind them, Janet Fraiser and a medical team stood ready to treat any injuries.

Suddenly, a figure came through the wormhole. The man immediately turned back towards the Stargate as if he were waiting for someone else to come through.

"Major, where is the rest of your team?" Hammond asked.

Feretti turned away from the wormhole and found the general staring intently at him.

"We were on our way out of the complex, Sir. Captain Michaels and I were sent ahead to make sure we’d find no trouble on the surface. When we didn’t, we assumed that things were okay with the rest of the team. Until Colonel O’Neill shouted at us from below to dial up the Stargate and get home. I came through, but I think Michaels may have gone back to SG-1. They may be right behind us, so we should probably keep the Stargate active."

"Did you find Major Carter and Teal’c?"

"Yes, Sir, we did. They were with us as we made our way out."

"Was anyone seriously hurt?" Jacob asked.

"Not really, no. Everyone has bruises and cuts, but nothing too major."

They all stood in the embarkation room, tense with anticipation. After what seemed like an eternity, the wormhole rippled and out came Major Carter and Dr. Jackson, both looking like they’d seen better days. Behind them, Colonel O’Neill and Captain Michaels emerged, with Teal’c bringing up the rear. George frowned when he realized that Teal’c was carrying someone. He looked around the room and saw that everyone was accounted for.

"Teal’c, who are you carrying?" Hammond asked as Teal’c stopped a few paces away from him.

"It is Osiris. We should restrain him until the symbiote can be removed."

"I still don’t see why you would want to bring that Goa’uld back here," Michaels stated.

The glare Daniel gave the captain could have melted steel, but he ignored the comment and addressed the general instead.

"I’m sorry, General Hammond, it’s my fault. I couldn’t leave Sarah behind." When he caught sight of Jacob Carter, Daniel immediately went to him. "Jacob, you can help her, can’t you? Remove that thing from her."

Jacob nodded at the archaeologist. "With George’s permission, I will retrieve the necessary items for the process." He looked at George, who nodded his approval. "Sammie, how are you?" he said to Sam.

"I’m fine, Dad, just a little beaten up."

"Let’s get you to the infirmary, before I go on my way," Jacob said and led Sam out of the room.

"That’s a good idea," Hammond stated. "Everyone to the infirmary, immediately. Teal’c, restrain Dr. Gardner until the Tok’ra can remove Osiris. You can keep her in the infirmary in one of the secure rooms. Dr. Jackson, you can stay with her if you like, after Dr. Fraiser sees you. We will debrief tomorrow at 0930."

Teal’c quickly walked out of the room, Daniel and Jack following behind him.

"Dr. Gardner? What the hell did I miss?" Michaels asked the room in general.

"You really should read those mission reports, Captain," Feretti said and with that, left the embarkation room, leaving Michaels standing alone.

"Lay still, Daniel. If you don’t, I’m going to restrain you and give my nurses free reign to do what they like with you," Janet Fraiser teased as she tried to keep the archaeologist from fidgeting too much on the bed.

Daniel sighed in mock resignation. "I knew there were some parts of the SGC I didn’t miss. I haven’t had to go to the doctor once since I moved to California."

"You mean you didn’t miss my lovely bed side manner and glorious disposition? Why, Daniel, I’m *wounded*. I thought that after all that time you spent in the infirmary, we had gotten to know each other better than that."

Daniel actually laughed. "I missed you, Janet, not the infirmary itself. Or the nurses," he added, his voice lowering to a whisper. "But don’t tell them I said that, or they’ll really come after me."

"Believe me, no one misses the infirmary or us poor, unsung doctors who work here night and day. Now hush and let me take a look at you," Janet said and went back to her examination.

She had noticed that Daniel was having trouble breathing as soon as he’d stepped into the infirmary with the rest of SG-1 and Feretti. She decided to check Daniel out herself and had sent the rest to be seen by the nurses, since their injuries didn’t seem to be as severe. She took out her stethoscope, lifted Daniel’s shirt to place the end of it against his chest and gasped at what she saw.

"My goodness, Daniel, what did you do to yourself?" she asked, glaring at the nasty black and blue marks spread across Daniel’s chest and abdomen. When she looked closer, she could see that some of them extended towards his back.

Daniel sighed and laid his head back against the pillow, blinking at the brightness from the infirmary lights. "Heru’ur did most of it. Osiris had his turn also, as well as one of his Jaffa. I’m a regular punching bag, I tell you."

"That’s not funny, Daniel, now take a deep breath," Janet ordered as she placed the end of the stethoscope against his chest.

Daniel did as he was told, only to wince in pain when he tried to breathe deeply.

"That hurts, huh? Let me take a closer look." Janet released the stethoscope, letting it fall back onto her chest, and gently probed Daniel’s chest. She moved her hands as gently as she could down from his chest to his abdomen, trying not to inflict any more pain.

"Ow, don’t do that," he snapped at her, wincing. He tried to pull his shirt back down, but a glare from Janet stopped him in his tracks. She examined him for a little while longer, while he tried not to yell at her to get away from him.

"Okay, Daniel, I think you’ve broken some ribs and punctured a lung," Janet said, using her best ‘I’m in charge so don’t you dare mess with me’ voice. "I’m going to take you to x-ray to confirm the diagnosis, and then I’m going to fix that lung so you can get some oxygen into your body. Understood?"

"Would it help to say that I feel fine?" He meekly tried to get her to hold off on the x-rays. "I want to see how everyone else is doing first."

"Listen to yourself, Daniel. You’re gasping for breath and are clearly having trouble speaking. How can you lay there and tell me that you’re fine?"

"It’s a God-given talent, I swear," he replied so suddenly and unexpectedly that Janet couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

"Enough. No more delays," she said as she patted Daniel’s shoulder reassuringly. She called for two orderlies and they carefully got a hold of the stretcher and began to wheel Daniel over to get x-rays. "Let me know when the films are developed so I can take a look," Janet called out to them and then turned and walked over to her next patient, who was lying in the bed next to Daniel’s, separated by a curtain.

"He always hated it here," Jack said as soon as Janet parted the curtain. "I don’t think he likes being helpless."

"He always managed to end up here, though," Janet replied as she made her way to the colonel’s bed.

She carefully examined him as well, starting with the nasty looking gash on his forehead.

"How’d you get this one?" she asked, curiosity getting the best of her.

Jack smiled. "I head-butted a Jaffa. He didn’t like it very much."

"I bet he didn’t. It’s going to need a few stitches, but it’s nothing major," she informed him and returned to her examination. "You have cuts, bruises and contusions, but nothing terribly serious. I will give you some antibiotics to fight infection and some painkillers for the pain. I want you to go, take a shower and then go to one of the VIP rooms and rest. I’m putting all of you on stand down for a couple of days to recover, so there’s no hurry. You can go home after the debriefing tomorrow."

Jack nodded. "Rest sounds very appealing right about now."

"Good. I’ll have one of my nurses stitch the gash on your forehead while I go and repair Daniel’s lung."

Jack shook his head. "I knew there was something else wrong with him when he was having such trouble breathing but he kept saying that he was fine."

"He’s stubborn, colonel. I don’t think anything will ever change that."

****

Four hours later, Daniel lay in the infirmary, trying hard not to get out of bed. Janet had ordered him to stay as still as possible so he wouldn’t aggravate his broken ribs and punctured lung. After repairing the lung and pumping him full on antibiotics, she’d given him a long lecture about how the puncture had been borderline severe and he’d been very fortunate not to have injured it further and drowned in his own blood. Daniel winced, thinking of the possibility. The rest of his injuries, mainly cuts, bruises and a slight concussion, were minor and required no further medical attention. He’d been given pain killers but had declined to take them. He still had some people to check on, before he allowed himself to succumb to sleep.

Daniel glanced at the curtain that separated the infirmary from the intensive care ward and wished that he could get up and get over there to see Sarah. Jacob should have already extracted the symbiote and Daniel was eager to find out what had happened. So far, he’d gotten no answers out of anyone and Jack, Sam and Teal’c had all disappeared.

Janet had told him that Jack was resting in one of the VIP rooms and that Sam and Teal’c had both been released with minor injuries, which was a relief. Feretti was still in the infirmary on a bed a few feet away from Daniel. He was sleeping, having been diagnosed with a severe concussion. Janet assured him that Feretti was going to be fine, however. Michaels had also been released with minor injuries. Daniel sighed, content that everyone had gotten through the mission with relatively minor injuries. In the end, it had been just another day fighting the Goa’uld.

The fact that Jack, Sam and Teal’c were all okay and had stayed away from him anyway was discouraging. He’d come to the conclusion, as he’d been fighting the Jaffa on Heru’ur’s planet, that he really wanted to come back to the SGC and had hoped to be able to broach the subject with any one of his former team mates. The fact that they all seemed to disappear told him that maybe he wasn’t as much a part of the team, at least as a friend, as he’d thought. When he’d been on SG-1 and had been injured, one of the three remaining team members would be here at all times until Fraiser had sprung him. Today, however, he was alone with the nurses.

He closed his eyes and laid his head back on his pillow, considering taking some of the pain medication Janet had given him. His entire body ached, especially his chest. Escaping from reality for a few hours was tempting, but out of the question.

"How are you feeling, Daniel?"

Daniel’s eyes snapped open in surprise, because he hadn’t heard anyone come in. He saw Sam standing somewhat uneasily beside his bed and he smiled reassuringly at her.

"I’m okay, just a little banged up. I’ll be fine. How are you?"

"I’m good, Daniel. I’m glad to be home."

Daniel nodded, silently echoing the sentiment. He couldn’t remember things ever being so tense with Sam, but he figured that a year away had changed both of them.

"Dad just left. He and Aldwin managed to remove Osiris from Sarah’s body."

Sam remained on her feet, as if she were unsure whether to sit on the bed like she used to or stay away. Daniel wanted to tell her that it was okay, that everything was okay between then, but couldn’t bring himself to do it for fear that she wouldn’t feel the same way.

"That’s great, how is she doing?"

"We won’t know until she wakes up, but dad says that she’ll be fine. I was thinking that you’d like to be there when she does."

Daniel nodded. "I would like to be there, very much. Thank you for telling me, Sam. I’ll see if I can get Janet to let me go."

Sam smiled "Good luck." She turned to leave the infirmary, but he stopped her. "Is there something wrong, Sam?"

"What do you mean?"

Daniel fumbled for words, finally realizing that he wasn’t going to be able to come up with the perfect ones. "I don’t know, Sam. You just seem tense around me. I guess after what happened a year ago, it’s hard to know what to say to me. I don’t blame you. If I were you, I guess I’d be angry too."

Sam frowned and took a few steps closer to her former team mate.

"I was angry, Daniel. But mostly, I was confused. I didn’t understand why you left without talking to us, without letting us help you with whatever it was you were going through. I thought we were a team, four people who stuck together through thick and thin. What happened?"

Daniel swallowed the lump in his throat, but kept his gaze on Sam. Her eyes held no anger or resentment now, just a need to understand. He owed her an explanation just as he owed it to his other two team mates.

"I felt incredibly guilty about Aurora. What I missed in the translation and how many people died because of it," Daniel explained. He clasped his hands tightly in his lap to control their slight trembling. "All I could think about then, after listening to almost everyone else on the base blame me for the people that died or were injured due to the attack, was that I couldn’t do it to you, or Jack and Teal’c. I didn’t want to put us all in a position where I’d make another mistake and ended up getting the three of you hurt or killed. I realize now how stupid and selfish that was and how unfair it was to you all." Daniel paused to organize his thoughts. "If I want to be honest, I have to tell you that I didn’t talk to any of you about resigning because I knew you’d talk me out of it. You’d try to get me to stay and I didn’t think it would be right. At that time, all I wanted to do get away from the blood and the violence, because I thought it was the right thing to do."

"Was it?" Sam asked, finally taking a seat on the side of Daniel’s bed.

Daniel smiled sheepishly. "Teaching students for six hours a day, five days a week… grading papers… making up exams is a great thing to do. Believe me, I’ve enjoyed having a captive audience for the last year. However, being back here, being on the field, facing down insane Goa’uld has made me realize that I’ve gotten way too attached to this sort of thing. I miss the adventure, the adrenaline rush." He chuckled, "I never thought I’d say that."

Sam also smiled. "You miss it, huh?"

"Yeah… however, I do realize that my place isn’t here anymore, Sam. SG-1 is complete again. I can’t even begin to imagine what lurch I left you all in when I took off, but I’m sure that it was hard to put the team back together. It’s not my place to tear it apart again."

****

Jason Michaels sat behind his desk in his small office and sighed heavily.

He’d spent the last five hours reading all of SG-1’s mission reports from the last five years. It had been extensive reading, but after having both Carter and Feretti tell him to, and after what he’d learned about SG-1 on this mission, he’d felt compelled to read and see just what had happened to make the four original members of SG-1 such a special group of people.

Michaels had heard SG-1 referred to as legendary and until today, he hadn’t fully understood why. But after reading every report, from all four members of SG-1, he truly understood what had made that group unique.

From their initial formation, SG-1 had been an oddball team. After all, who would have ever thought that a hardened colonel, a genius female captain, a civilian archaeologist and a turncoat Jaffa would work well together, much less achieve what no other SG team has managed to? Their missions were never easy and always involved a measure of self sacrifice and an unshakable faith in each other an in what they were doing. Because the four had managed to blend so well together, they’d gotten through everything they’d encountered, and then some.

Because of that, Jason knew that he would never have fit on that team, a team that was still missing a member. When he’d been assigned to SG-1, Jason had known that it was an incredible opportunity to work with the best the SCG had to offer. What he hadn’t realized, however, was that SG-1 would suffer greatly because of his addition. His team, his SG-1, wasn’t anything like Dr. Jackson’s SG-1 had been. And no matter how hard Jason tried to fit in and be the best he could be at his job, his team would never be like it once was. Jason would never be able to contribute as much as Dr. Jackson had. The mission on Heru’ur’s planet had been a shining example of that. He had gotten them into the mess in the first place by not being prepared and Dr. Jackson had gotten them out of it. Michaels had seen first hand how the former SG-1 worked together and had realized that he’d never be able to bring that kind of a contribution to the team.

He got up from his chair, determined to do what was best for all four of them. He walked out of his office, intent on finally making a contribution to SG-1.

****

"An hour, Daniel, that’s all you’re getting," Janet admonished as Daniel slowly got up from the bed he’d been lying in. "You go, make sure Dr. Gardner is okay, then come right back here to let your lung and ribs heal, deal?"

"Yes, Janet. I think I’m too tired to argue with you anyway," Daniel replied.

With one last look from Janet, Daniel left the main area of the infirmary and headed to where Sarah still slept. He slowly pushed apart the curtain and simply looked at her. She looked at peace on the bed. Her golden hair fell around the pillow, giving the white surroundings a splash of color. She was dressed in a simple hospital gown and covered with a white hospital blanket, a start contrast to the ornamental robes she’d been wearing only hours before. Her complexion was rosy and she seemed healthy, which Daniel hoped was the case.

As he sat down, Daniel inadvertently hit his side and a low moan escaped his lips. He clutched his chest, hissing as he sat down the rest of the way. When he looked back up at Sarah, her eyes were open and she was looking at him.

"Hey," he said, smiling slightly.

"Hi," she looked at him, confusion clear in her eyes. "What happened, Daniel? Did Osiris go to sleep again?"

"Osiris is gone, Sarah. The Tok’ra took him out of your body."

Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise and a hand instinctively went to the back of her neck, where the Goa’uld had resided for the past year. "He’s gone?"

"Yeah, you’re free. You’re yourself again."

"After all that time, seeing but not being able to do anything to stop him from doing what he wanted with my body. It was a nightmare, Daniel. The Goa’uld are so hateful and cruel. I never would have imagined anything like that, not in my wildest dreams," Sarah said. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed and her fists clenched, but her eyes remained fixed on Daniel.

"Sarah, what’s wrong?" Daniel asked, leaning forward slightly.

She continued to look at him, until the moment passed. She closed her eyes and a tear slid slowly down the side of her face.

"Sarah?"

"I’m sorry," she said, her voice husky. She opened her eyes again and they were full of tears. "I just had an image of you as Osiris forced that ribbon device on you. God, Daniel, I wanted to stop him from doing that to you, but I couldn’t. I was so helpless… and so were you."

"It wasn’t you, so you shouldn’t feel guilty about that," Daniel said, but Sarah didn’t calm down.

"I was there, I ordered that Jaffa to beat you. I stood there and watched and listened. I even felt the pleasure Osiris was getting from seeing you beaten. I’m so sorry…" she trailed off as a sob cut off her words.

Daniel got up from his chair and walked towards the bed, where he leaned down and enveloped Sarah in his arms. He gently stroked her hair until she calmed down a bit.

"You said so yourself, you were as helpless as I was. If we’re going to blame anyone, why don’t we blame Osiris? He deserves it, don’t you think?"

Sarah’s muffled chuckle put a small smile on Daniel’s face, and he released her. He made his way back to his chair and sat down, wincing as his ribs protested once again.

"Thank you for saving me. You had no obligation to, after the way I treated you when we parted ways. I was awful to you, Daniel. I didn’t want to associate myself with you because everyone thought you were insane and I’m sorry for being so selfish. Boy, how wrong we all were."

"It’s okay. You didn’t deserve to spend the rest of your life as a host to a parasite," Daniel stated, his voice bitter at the thought of an innocent person being forced into a life as a host.

Sarah immediately picked up on the change of tone. "This is really important to you, isn’t it? Did something like this happen to you? I mean, were you ever a host?"

Daniel shook his head and lowered his eyes, attempting to control the anger that entered his mind when he thought about the people he’d lost to the Goa’uld.

"My wife was kidnapped and made into a host against her will. She’s now dead. My brother-in-law was also made into a host, but we managed to save him. Also, Robert Rothman was killed last year after an incident with the Goa’uld."

Sarah gaped, completely caught off guard. Wife? And what was that about Robert Rothman? The last she had heard of the man, he had been working at Boston University.

"It’s a long story, Sarah. One that I’ll hopefully be able to tell you later," Daniel said when he saw the questioning look in her eyes. "Right now, you need to rest. Dr. Fraiser will be in here to examine you as soon as I leave. Which I should probably do right now, before she sends her nurses after me."

"Daniel, you look awful," she replied, apparently just now noticing his appearance. "Are you okay? Those look painful," she said, pointing at the bruises on his face. "Did someone try to strangle you?"

"Yeah, Heru’ur gave it a try. But I’m rather hard to kill," Daniel replied. "I’m fine. I’ve had worse."

"How? You’re an archaeologist, Daniel. How could you possibly have had worse?"

"It’s part of that long story I’m going to tell you later. For now, I need to go back to bed before Janet comes after me. I’m glad that you’re doing well. The people here are great, Sarah. You’re in good hands," Daniel said. He slowly got up from his chair and with one last look at her, left the room.

****

Sarah stared after him and then sighed. So many things had happened to both of them in the last few years. Daniel wasn’t the same person she’d been dating at all. He had always been reserved and quiet, carrying a great weight on his shoulders. But he seemed even more reserved now. At the same time, however, he was a lot more confident and self assured. She wondered what had happened to change him. She pledged to herself that she would find out.

She closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath, but opened them quickly when images of her time as Osiris’ prisoner began to play out in her head. She could still remember everything Osiris had done while in her body. The slaughters and violence he’d inflicted on innocent people were as clear to Sarah as if they’d happened a week ago. Her stomach churned at the thought that when those people remembered what had been done to them, it was her face they would curse. She had never before felt such cold, calculating fury and hatred and she hoped that she would never feel anything like it again. Worse yet, she still retained the memories Osiris had left behind. She knew everything he knew, which frightened her. She didn’t want to remember. She could do without his terrifying thoughts and feelings, but she didn’t seem to have a choice in the matter.

"Oh, God, how am I going to get through this?" she said to herself.

"With a lot of help and a lot of time."

The voice startled Sarah. She looked up and was surprised to see a petite, dark haired woman standing at the foot of her bed.

"Hi, I’m Dr. Janet Fraiser. I’m the Chief Medical Officer."

"Hi. You must be the ‘Janet’ Daniel was referring to. He wanted to get back in bed before you came after him," Sarah said, smiling slightly.

"He knows better than to disobey my orders," Janet replied as she walked to Sarah’s bed. "He was pretty badly bruised up and should be in bed, but he wanted to come and see you and I could hardly deny him that."

"Are his injuries very serious?"

Janet smiled slightly. "I think he got off easy this time, just some broken ribs and a punctured lung. He’ll be fine, with some rest."

Sarah nodded. "I’m glad."

"Now, back to what we started talking about," Janet said as she checked the various monitors surrounding Sarah, "you are going to get through it, but you have to talk to someone. You can’t do it alone."

Sarah took a deep breath then slowly released it. "For the last year, I was helpless to do anything to stop him. Now, it’s like I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m me again, but everything I used to hold dear doesn’t apply anymore and I don’t know what to do or what to think. Everything is so different now. The only familiar thing around here is Daniel, and even he is much different than I remember him."

Janet finished recording Sarah’s vitals and took the chair Daniel had occupied moments before. "I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to go through what you have gone through. But I do know that it’s possible to work through it as best as you can. You should talk to Sam Carter. She was host to a Tok’ra for a short time and knows what it’s like to survive it. I think that the two of you could be good for one another."

Sarah smiled, grateful to the doctor for her kindness and understanding. "I will do that, thank you. How am I?"

"You’re fine, Dr. Gardner. Your body is completely healthy and in working order."

"That’s good to hear. Where is Osiris now?"

Janet shrugged. "I’m not sure, but I think he’s with the Tok’ra. Sam, Jacob and Alwdin took him back to the Tok’ra base to study him further."

Sarah shivered momentarily. "I’m glad he’s gone."

Janet nodded and got up from the chair. "I am too. If you need anything, use the call button. I’ll be on duty tonight so if you want to talk to me, just ask one of the nurses and she’ll get me."

"Thank you, Dr. Fraiser."

****

"Sir, can I have a word with you?" Sam asked as she walked into O’Neill’s office. She’d gone to look for him in the VIP rooms, where Janet had said he would be. After not finding him there, she’d come to look in his office, grateful too see him sitting behind his desk.

She wanted to talk to him about what Daniel had told her, about missing the SGC and SG-1. She didn’t know why, but it seemed like a good thing to her and she wanted to see what the colonel thought about it. She wasn’t aware of how the colonel and Daniel had been dealing with each other for the last few days, considering how angry he had been at Daniel’s resignation. From what she’d seen on the planet, however, both men seemed to be almost back to normal. The colonel’s absence from the infirmary made Sam feel a little more uncomfortable about what she was going to say, but she felt that she had to discuss it with him anyway.

The colonel looked distracted but he waved her in and motioned her to a chair.

"What can I do for you, Carter?"

Sam frowned as she noticed his appearance. "Colonel, what’s wrong? Did something happen?" she asked, noticing the colonel’s frown and look of surprise.

Jack was quiet for a few moments, staring intently at her. Finally, he shook his head and turned his attention to a folder on his desk.

"Michaels just came in here and requested a transfer off SG-1."

"What? Why?" Sam wasn’t really surprised that it had happened, just that it had happened so soon after their return from the planet.

Jack shook his head and leaned back on the chair to give Sam his full attention.

"He came in here a little while ago and told me that he’d finally read all of our mission reports for the past four years," Jack began to explain. "He said that he’d focused more on the years when Daniel had been a member of SG-1." Jack stopped speaking when he noticed Sam’s nod. "Do you know something about this?"

"About him requesting a transfer, no Sir, I don’t. However, I did get on his case while we were in Heru’ur’s complex for not reading our mission reports."

"Why?"

"Teal’c and I were discussing SG-1’s various run-ins with Heru’ur, Colonel. Michaels kept asking me questions, which annoyed me because he should have been versed on our previous missions before ever stepping foot on the field with us. I told him that he should have prepared himself."

Jack was thoughtful for a moment, glancing once again at the folder on his desk. "Did he mention anything about Daniel while you two were discussing our previous missions?"

Sam seemed surprised by the question, until she recalled what she and Michaels had talked about. "He did say that he wasn’t Daniel and would never be, and that we shouldn’t expect him to be something he’s not."

Jack nodded as if he had expected her to say just that.

"Why do you ask, Colonel? What did Michaels say?"

"He said that he never stood a chance of blending in with us like Daniel had and that it was going to be stressful for all of us if we continued to try and fail. But he also said something else."

Sam frowned. "What did he say?"

Jack smiled, but the smile was sad. "Michaels said that he wasn’t the best thing for SG-1 and he knew it. He mentioned that he was seriously lacking in the knowledge required in our missions, which the last mission plainly showed. And that because we’re the best SG team at the SGC, we should have the best archaeologist for the job."

Sam chuckled lightly. "Who exactly did he have in mind? Sadly, Michaels is the best we have, which is why he’s on SG-1."

"Daniel. He said that since Daniel was back at the SGC, that he was requesting a transfer off SG-1 so that Daniel could have his old job back. The ironic thing is that Daniel wants nothing more than to get the hell out of here and go back to his job in California."

"Are you so sure about that, Sir?" Sam asked, taking advantage of the perfect opening she’d just been given.

Jack looked at her, surprised. "Yeah, I’m sure. He told me so himself a few days ago. He said that he was happy where he was."

"Did he actually say it like that, or was it something that you concluded?"

"What the hell is this, Carter, Twenty Questions? The guy doesn’t want to be here."

"I just left the infirmary, Colonel, which is why I’m here. I wasn’t sure how to approach Daniel at first, because of my lingering resentment towards him for leaving. However, he did drop everything to come back and help us, so I owed him my thanks. In the process of informing him about Sarah, we talked about what happened after the mission to Aurora and why he took off the way he did. I won’t go into the details of it, but we came to an understanding." Sam paused, watching the colonel to see that she had his undivided attention. "He misses this, Sir. He said that he never thought he’d say it, but he does miss the adventure. At the same time, he knows that what he did was rash and harmful to all four of us and that he has no right to waltz in here and take everything apart again."

Jack’s eyes narrowed and he leaned closer to Sam. "Carter, are you saying that Daniel wants his job back?"

Sam smiled at the hopeful expression on the colonel’s face. "He didn’t say it in so many words, but I think he does."

Jack’s mouth curved up into a small smile. He suddenly saw someone standing at the door and was surprised to find Teal’c waiting respectfully at the threshold, waiting for them to finish before interrupting. "Teal’c, come in. Have a seat. Did you happen to catch any of that?"

"I did, O’Neill," Teal’c replied as he took the offered seat. "I have just spoken to Captain Michaels who informed me of his transfer."

"Okay, so Daniel wants his job back and we seem to be without an archaeologist at the moment. Any thoughts?"

"Daniel Jackson’s contributions to SG-1 are unmatched. He is the best person for the job," Teal’c responded immediately.

"So you’d have no trouble accepting him back?" Jack asked.

"No, I would not. Daniel Jackson did nothing wrong, he simply decided he wanted to do something else for a time."

Jack nodded, taking that as a yes. "Carter, what about you?"

"Daniel is great at what he does. And, as we’ve discovered, we’re not going to find anyone else like him. So yeah, I’d like to have him back. What about you, sir? How do you feel?"

Jack cleared his throat, knowing that the question would get back to him eventually. "I have to admit that I was royally pissed at him for resigning, especially because he didn’t give us a chance to help him. However, it was nice to have him on a mission again. I jokingly told him a few days ago that I was glad there were no more like him, because they would all drive us insane. In reality, though, he really is one of a kind." Jack glared at his two team mates in mock warning. "And if either of you tell him that I said that, I *will* shoot you myself."

****

The next morning, George Hammond paced the length of the briefing room, glancing every now and then at his chief medical officer. It was 0800 and he’d already been on base for a few hours. It was an hour and a half before the briefing was due to start and he had a couple of things to take care of first.

"What is the condition of SG-1, Major Feretti and Dr. Jackson? Hammond asked, finally sitting down on his chair at the head of the table.

Janet Fraiser sat to his right and at his question, opened up a thick folder she’d set on the table.

"Colonel O’Neill suffered a slight concussion, two bruised ribs and various other cuts and bruises, nothing major. He’s been given antibiotics and painkillers and ordered to rest," Janet began her report efficiently. "Major Carter had a few bruises and a burn mark on her forehead from a ribbon device, but otherwise was unharmed. She was also given antibiotics and painkillers an ordered to rest. Teal’c’s injuries were healed by his symbiote before he even got to my infirmary, so I released him immediately. Captain Michaels was treated for a bruised rib, along with some minor bruises and abrasions. He was released immediately."

Janet paused and gathered her thoughts, while reading the information from the folder on the table. "Major Feretti suffered a severe concussion and is currently still in the infirmary. I sedated him after they returned so that the swelling in his brain would go down. He should be back to normal after a few more days of rest and inactivity. Dr. Jackson suffered two broken ribs, one which punctured his right lung. I’ve repaired the lung and bandaged his ribs, while administering antibiotics. He also has some bruising on his neck, chest and face, but nothing too serious. He spent the night in the infirmary, but I’m going to release him this morning, since there’s not much else I can do for him. Not to mention that he’s driving my nurses crazy with his constant demands to be let out of the infirmary. I’ve given him painkillers, but I’m not sure if he’s taking them." Janet closed the folder and regarded the general. "They’re all very lucky, General. It could have turned out much worse for any or all of them."

Hammond nodded, taking in the information and giving a silent thanks to whoever was looking out for his people.

"What about Dr. Gardner?"

Janet closed the folder she’d been reading and opened up another one. "Dr. Gardner is in perfect health. She’d only been host to Osiris for a year, which did not give her body enough time to deteriorate beyond repair. She’s suffering no withdrawal symptoms from the sarcophagus, so I can only assume that Osiris regulated that for her. She’s shaken and a bit dazed, but that’s to be expected."

"I spoke to the President about her yesterday afternoon and he’s agreed that she could be a very valuable asset to our fight against the Goa’uld. She’s been given clearance to work at the SGC if she so desires. If not, she’s welcome to choose any one of our allied worlds to reside on."

"She can’t stay on Earth and live as she used to, can she?" Janet asked.

"I’m afraid not," Hammond replied. "She was declared dead a year ago, after she first left Earth. There is no way to reverse that."

Janet nodded. "I think in a way, she knows that her life here is over. That’s probably why she’s having such trouble adjusting to being back here."

"I’m going to meet with her momentarily and give her the news. Do you think she’s up for it?"

"I think Dr. Gardner is going to be fine, Sir. Just give her a little time to deal with it all."

****

"Are you ready to go?" Daniel asked as he peeked into the curtained off area where Sarah had spent the night.

He stood respectfully at the end of the bed, watching as she placed her foot inside a pair of regulation boots she’d been given to go with the fatigues she now wore. Daniel, in contrast, wore his civilian clothes, a pair of slacks and a button down blue shirt. He stood stiffly, his chest and ribs still sore, but he was breathing much better and with less effort. Of course, the fact that he was no longer a prisoner in the infirmary had a lot to do with his good feeling as well.

"I guess I’m ready. I’m not sure what the general wants to talk to me about," Sarah replied, finishing lacing up the boot. She stood up and walked towards Daniel. "Thank you for going with me, though."

Daniel smiled. "It’s my pleasure. Don’t worry about the general, though. He’s a great guy."

Daniel pulled the curtain aside for her to exit the area then followed her. He made his way towards the exit, when a voice stopped him.

"Hey, Doc, do you know where Fraiser is? I want to get out of here."

Daniel grinned and turned around to find Feretti grinning at him from his bed. He walked over to the Major, Sarah following.

"I don’t think she’s ready to let you out, Feretti. I do believe I heard her say something about how close you came to cracking your skull open. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit, but I think I’ll live. My head hurts, but I’m glad to be rid of those damned drugs. They always make me groggy. What are you doing up and about? I thought you were pretty beat up."

"It was nothing major, just a couple of broken ribs and a punctured lung. Dr. Fraiser treated me and released me a little while ago."

"Lucky you, Daniel."

Feretti’s gaze shifted to a point behind Daniel and he turned slightly to one side. "Feretti, this is Dr. Sarah Gardner. Sarah, this is Major Louis Feretti, commander of SG-2."

"It’s nice to meet you, Major," Sarah said and extended her hand.

Feretti took it and shook it heartily. "The pleasure is mine, Doctor. I’m glad to see you without that snake."

"I’m glad to be rid of it too. It’s too crowded in here for two of us," she quipped, her hand pointing at her head.

Feretti nodded. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"We have to meet the General, so we have to go. The debriefing for the mission is at 9:30, but I think you’re excused from going. We wouldn’t want you falling flat on your face again, now would be?"

"You joke about it now, Daniel, but the next time you’re in here, I’m going to make sure and enjoy the hell out of it," Feretti called as Daniel and Sarah left the infirmary. "And it’s ‘0930’ around here."

"He seems like a nice guy," Sarah commented as they made their way toward the briefing room. "How did you meet him?"

"We met on a mission that we both went on and we used to talk a lot at night, when I’d stay and work late and he’d come back from a mission."

"What missions would you go on?"

"That’s classified for now, but I’m sure the general won’t have any trouble getting you clearance. After all, you already know the major secret."

"You mean the Goa’uld and the fact that the Egyptian civilization was built by aliens?"

Daniel couldn’t help but grimace when she put it that way. It reminded him way too much of conversations they’d used to have when they’d been dating.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Does it bother you to be right and not be able to tell anyone about it?"

Daniel stopped walking and turned to regard Sarah. "It did at first. Mainly because the rejection of my peers and my friends hurt so much," he said, noting the expression of guilt that flittered across Sarah’s face. "But now, I’m just content to know that I was right and that I’m not crazy. I staked my reputation on an idea and it paid off. That’s all that matters to me these days. I don’t care what everyone else thinks."

"It’s amazing, though. Everything we learned in school, everything we spent countless hours agonizing and debating over is incorrect," Sarah commented, resuming the walk down the corridor. "If this ever got out, the entire foundation of archaeology would be up in the air. It would be incredible to see."

"I think we’re better off keeping it to ourselves. The horrors of the Goa’uld should not be shared, not until we have no choice but to tell them."

Further conversation ceased when they reached the briefing room. Daniel carefully opened the door and followed Sarah inside.

"I can wait for you outside, if you like," Daniel said, motioning for Sarah to take a seat beside the general.

"Can you stay with me?"

Hammond looked up at the woman and saw how uneasy she looked. "You’re welcome to stay if you’d like, Dr. Jackson."

Daniel nodded, accepting the invitation. He moved to the table and took a seat on the opposite side of the table, beside the general and directly in front of Sarah.

"Dr. Gardner, I’m Major General George Hammond. I am in command of the SGC. How are you feeling?"

Sarah nodded in greeting and swallowed hard. "Honestly, General, I’m not sure how I am. At this time yesterday, I was watching and listening as Osiris and Heru’ur planned to interrogate their prisoners to get any information they could in order to attack Earth. Today, I’m sitting here, talking to you. It’s such a drastic change that I’m still getting used to it."

"I understand that, Doctor. I wish I could give you some more time to get acclimated to what has happened, but there are a few things we must take care of first."

"Of course, General."

"First of all, how much has Dr. Jackson told you about what happened after you were first invaded by Osiris and left Earth via the ship in Egypt?" Hammond asked, glancing at Sarah then at Daniel.

Sarah frowned, apparently trying to remember if Daniel had mentioned it at all. "He hasn’t told me anything. No wait, he said that everyone thought I was dead."

Hammond nodded. "That is correct. Because of the secret nature of this project, we have to protect the information given to the public at all costs. We can’t risk this getting out. We concocted a story for Dr. Rayner about what had happened in the temple. We told him that there had been an accident which had gotten both you and him caught in a rock slide. We told him that you, too, had found an artifact you thought was a key, and wanted to test the theory, which is how you ended up in the same place. Unfortunately, we were unable to save you from the rock slide and you perished. Dr. Rayner did the rest. There was a funeral for you and you were legally declared dead by the state of Illinois."

Sarah looked from the general to Daniel, who was looking at her with an apologetic expression on his face.

"It’s not as bad as it seems, Sarah. I’ve been declared dead a few times myself," Daniel quipped, trying to lighten the mood.

"Where does that leave me?" she asked, her uncertainty tainting her voice.

"You have been given the security clearance necessary to work on this base, on the Stargate program. Or, if you choose, you may live on another planet with one of our allies. However, you can not return to your former life. That would be impossible."

Sarah nodded. "What would I do here?"

"We have the best archaeology department on Earth, Dr. Gardner. Many of our missions involve the discovery of the remains of ancient cultures that were transplanted from Earth to other planets by the Goa’uld. You would have the chance to study many of these artifacts and would even get to travel off world to the ruins. That, and your extensive knowledge of Osiris and the Goa’uld would help us in the war with them."

"Think about it, Sarah. No need for grants or any bureaucratic bullshit ever again," Daniel supplied. "The Air Force has limitless funding and I can tell you from experience that we do find the most incredible things out there."

"So I’m assuming that you run the archaeology department, then?" Sarah asked, looking straight at Daniel.

"Um, no. I used to run it, but I resigned a year ago. I teach at UCLA now."

"Why?"

Daniel’s eyes left Sarah’s and he looked down at the table top. Before he had a chance to respond, General Hammond spoke.

"That can change, Dr. Jackson," Hammond added, causing Daniel’s head to swivel quickly. "I haven’t been happy with Dr. Lovell ever since I gave her your job a year ago. She can’t manage personnel and all SG teams have suffered greatly for it. I can’t give you your position on SG-1 back, because Captain Michaels has filled that position for the last few months, but I can sure use you back as a civilian consultant."

Daniel was quiet for a moment, at a loss of what to say. He noticed the slight smile on the general’s face and wondered if the man was feeling satisfaction at finally being able to render him speechless.

"Sir, with all due respect, how could you want me back here after what happened on Aurora and how I left?" Daniel asked, still surprised.

"You made a mistake, son. Dr. Lovell made it much worse than it should have been and you took it rather hard. It’s been a year since then. Don’t you think it’s time you stop punishing yourself for it?"

Daniel nodded. "I’ll think about it. Thank you for the vote of confidence, Sir."

"It’s my pleasure, Dr. Jackson. How about you, Dr. Gardner, what do you say?"

"I’d like to think about it too, General. It’s too much to take in right now."

George nodded. "Very well, take your time. You might as well stay here, since the debriefing is going to start in about ten minutes. After that, you two are dismissed. Don’t leave the base, but go and get some rest. You both look like you need it."

****

Daniel made his way to the surface quickly after the debriefing was over. He’d taken Sarah to one of the VIP rooms so she could rest and then had left her as soon as he could. He nodded to the guards at the main entrance, showing them his visitor’s pass. Even though he knew them, they still needed to follow procedure, especially since he didn’t work at the base anymore. General Hammond had told him not to leave the base, but he wasn’t really leaving. He was just going to another part of it.

With practiced efficiency, and quite a few moans and hisses of pain, Daniel climbed up the mountain to the small clearing he’d found the first month he’d started working at the base. He’d been feeling depressed and desperately alone and had wanted a quiet place to mourn the loss of his wife and his brother in law that was away from prying eyes. He’d climbed up here to see what he could find and had been very pleased to find the clearing again. The view it offered of the remainder of the beautiful Colorado landscape was breathtaking and very soothing.

He needed to think. His emotions were all jumbled and had been ever since Jack had shown up in California. At that time, the matter of Sam and Teal’c had been more pressing and Daniel had put everything else out of his mind so he could concentrate only on the task ahead. Now that the mission was over and everyone was back safe and sound, the adrenaline was gone and he felt depressed, tired and deflated. He was confused and unsure of himself, just as he’d been the last few years he’d spent in academia. It was a feeling he’d hoped to never experience again and he found himself struggling with it just as badly as he’d done back then.

General Hammond’s offer was tempting, Daniel had to admit that. He had already decided that he wanted to be back at the SGC. However, the idea of simply being a consultant had never truly appealed to him. It was too much like a desk job for Daniel’s tastes. Besides, he had responsibilities in California. He had his students to get back to. He owed them that much. Where Daniel really wanted to be was SG-1, but even the general had said that was impossible. Daniel understood that, he really did. But he couldn’t help still be disappointed.

"Is this seat taken?"

Daniel’s head whipped around at the unexpected voice and he found himself staring into the concerned eyes of Jack O’Neill.

"You’re welcome to it if you like. But I warn you, I’m not very good company right now."

"When were you ever good company?" Jack quipped, taking a seat on the ground besides Daniel.

"Good point," Daniel replied and returned to gazing at the view. The sun was high in the sky, beautifully lighting the green trees and gray mountains that surrounded them. The birds flew eagerly in the sky, accenting the perfect day with their song.

"How is Sarah?"

"She’s holding her own, though I can tell this is all really confusing for her. I think she’ll be okay, though. She was always pretty resilient."

"That’s good to know. How are you feeling?"

Daniel remained silent for a moment, debating whether to give his patented reply or to be honest and tell Jack how he really felt.

"I’m fine, Jack." Who needed honestly anyway?

"Are the ribs okay?"

"I’m fine, Jack. I’m not having trouble breathing anymore, see?" Daniel took a deep breath of the clean, mountain air to prove his point. "How are you?"

"Oh, you know me. I get beat up by a Goa’uld and some Jaffa but just keep on going. Call me the Energizer bunny, with a lot more gray and a lot less pink hair."

Daniel chuckled at the image.

"I’m glad to see that not all of your humor is gone," Jack said. "I looked everywhere for you and finally remembered how you used to like this place. I’m glad I found you."

"Was there a specific reason why you were looking for me?"

"Hammond told me about the job offer he made you."

Daniel didn’t raise his head, choosing instead to doodle on the dirt with his finger. "Yeah?"

"Are you going to take it?"

"I don’t know. I’d be a fool to say that I don’t miss all of this, but Aurora is never going to go away."

"No, it won’t," Jack stated. "The trick is to learn to live with it, Daniel. We all make mistakes at some point or another, because we’re humans. The real test comes in dealing with them and moving on. I think you’re ready to move on."

"You think that I should take the job as a consultant?" Daniel asked, needing to hear that he had Jack’s blessing to do it. He couldn’t explain why, but he had to know that his friend wanted him around once again, even if it was just around the base and not on missions.

"Not really," Jack said. "I don’t think that you should just take the job Hammond offered you."

Daniel’s heart sank. So Jack really didn’t want him around anymore.

"I think you should take another job too."

Daniel frowned. "What other job, Jack?"

"Well, I seem to have an opening on SG-1. My archaeologist decided to jump ship."

"What? Michaels quit? Why?" Daniel asked, surprised.

"He didn’t exactly quit, he just wanted to be transferred off SG-1. He said something about him not being right for the job," Jack explained.

"I’m sorry."

Jack frowned. "What are you apologizing for, Daniel?"

"I got on Michael’s case on Heru’ur’s planet about being unqualified to be with SG-1. I was angry and even though I meant every word, I shouldn’t have said it."

"You were right, though. Michaels didn’t cut it. He’s good, but not good enough, not for what we do and what we deal with. So, you interested?"

"What about Sam and Teal’c?"

"Don’t worry, they’re not asking for transfers any time soon. Not unless you drive them crazy, that is."

Daniel chuckled. "No, I mean what do they think? And what about General Hammond? He told me that a position on SG-1 wasn’t available."

"I’ve talked to Sam and Teal’c about this and they both agree that you’re the only man for the job. As far as the general goes, he’s agreed with me. Michaels has officially been transferred to SG-3. Thompson has been lobbying for an archaeologist, so he’s finally going to get one. Unless, of course, you want to go back to your students."

Daniel was speechless for the second time that day.

"What’s the matter, Daniel? All those languages of yours and you can’t think of anything to say?"

"I didn’t think you wanted me around," Daniel finally managed.

"It’s funny you should mention that, because I thought you didn’t want to be around. You said you were happy teaching."

"I was happy teaching, Jack. I’ve always loved doing it. But after being at the SGC, nothing else can compare. I love what I do here, and I didn’t realize that I missed this until we were in the complex, fighting Heru’ur."

Jack laughed at the comment. "Ah, so it takes an insane Goa’uld to remind you that you want to come back and fight some more?"

"Something like that."

"So is that a yes?" Jack asked, his voice hopeful.

"Yes, I guess it is."

Sarah Gardner quickly walked towards the small office she’d been assigned at Cheyenne Mountain, balancing a stack of reports in her arms. She’d had a lot to catch up on once she’d agreed to take the job at the SGC and Daniel had been keeping her supplied with reports that would help bring her up to speed. She found that she lost her way more often than not, because she was unaccustomed to being on an Air Force base.

Along with the new archaeological findings she’d learned about and the new experiences of being back on her own, there had also been a lot of painful memories to work through and deal with. She suffered from nightmares stemming from her year as host to Osiris, which usually left her scared and confused. She’d come to realize, with the help of Sam Carter, that those memories would become a part of her. They would one day become a helpful tool to her and the entire planet, which was the only thing that kept Sarah from going insane at the conflicting memories and thoughts that sometimes invaded her mind.

She’d also found a friend in Janet Fraiser, which had been a pleasant surprise. It was important as well, because she didn’t know anyone else on the base and it helped to have a friend to talk to when the nightmares got to be too overwhelming. Janet had shown her the ropes around the base and had given her tips on how to deal with the military protocols and regulations. Daniel had been supportive and helpful as well, which Sarah was grateful for. She had clung to him at the beginning, because he’d been the only familiar face around. But slowly, she was getting comfortable in her own skin again and dealing with more things on her own.

Sarah smiled, content to have found a happy medium in her life for the time being. She rounded the corridor that led to her office and immediately stopped in her tracks, frozen. Instead of seeing the now familiar concrete walls of the base, she found herself standing in the middle of a hallway on Osiris’ ship, complete with the golden, hieroglyph decorated walls. She clenched her eyes shut and shook her head in denial.

"No, not again," she whispered.

She kept her eyes closed, slowly counting to ten. She opened them again, hoping that the nightmarish vision was gone. Instead, she found herself in another part of the ship, one just as gaudy as the last one had been. Sarah shook her head harder, willing herself to calm down. She turned away from the offending corridor intending to walk away as fast as she could, only to bump into someone. The reports in her arms dropped to the floor, and she could do nothing but stand there and watch them fall.

"Dr. Gardner, are you okay?"

Sarah heard a man’s voice speaking to her, and she looked up to see who she’d run into. She wanted to apologize, but found that she couldn’t find her voice. Concerned brown eyes met hers and after a few moments, she managed a slight smile.

"I’m very sorry. I didn’t see you," she managed to choke out. She leaned down to pick up her discarded reports, but his hand on her arm stopped her.

"I’ll get them," he said and began to do so.

Sarah watched him, trying to remember who he was. The sudden jolt of running into the man had thankfully brought her out of the twisted images she’d seen and she found herself once again surrounded by concrete. He gathered up her reports and handed them to her, concern clearly written on his face.

"Thank you. You’re Major Feretti, aren’t you? Daniel introduced us in the infirmary about a month ago," she said as she took the reports from him. "I’m glad that you’re doing better."

Feretti smiled. "You can call me Louis. What happened over there?"

Sarah sighed. "I get these flashes every once in a while where I see myself in Osiris’ ship. It’s very unnerving and somewhat frightening."

"I bet. So they just pop up, out of the blue?"

"Something like that. They’re getting better though," she added, managing a smile. "I’m sorry again for bumping into you."

Feretti smiled. "It’s not a problem. It’s nice to get bumped into by a pretty lady instead of an ugly soldier," he said, making Sarah laugh. "Why don’t I walk with you to your office, if you don’t mind, of course. That way, if anything else does happen, you won’t have to be alone."

Sarah smiled at Feretti, genuinely touched at his kindness. "Thank you, I’d like that very much."

****

"Hey, Doc, how are you settling in?" Feretti asked as he walked into Daniel’s office. He’d been in the general vicinity after escorting Dr. Gardner to her office, so he’d decided to drop by. He took a look around, smiling at the still unpacked boxes that littered the place.

"I’m still trying to get all of my stuff back and it hasn’t all gotten here from California yet. Luckily, Jack had most of the artifacts stored here on base, rather than having them sent to Washington."

"I remember that conversation," Feretti said, his smile widening. "I believe Jack’s exact words were: ‘If anything happens to these rocks, Daniel will kill me.’"

Daniel laughed out loud as he picked up a box and set it on the desk in front of him. "That sounds like something Jack would say. I am a bit surprised that he didn’t have all my stuff trashed. I mean, I didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms."

"All of the artifacts are highly classified, so the Air Force would have wanted to keep them anyway. Jack just figured that since you’d found or been given most of those, you should keep them."

"Wow, I’m touched. Who knew Jack actually cared about my ‘rocks’?" Daniel replied, a slight grin on his face. "I do wish he hadn’t kicked Dr. Collins out of here to get my office back, though."

"Don’t feel bad, Daniel. Collins didn’t like being down here very much."

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked, puzzled why the man wouldn’t like the spacious office.

"I head him talking to Lieutenant Rogers once. He was complaining that the office was too far away from everyone else’s. He said that he felt isolated."

"That’s the great thing about the office, though. People generally leave me alone down here, unless they need me to translate something. I love that," Daniel stated as he unpacked several more books from the box. "The office is closer to the embarkation room, too."

"Well, Collins wouldn’t have any need for that particular amenity," Feretti pointed out. "That man is never going to get off world."

Both he and Daniel laughed at the joke, since it was well known throughout the base that Kevin Collins was not fit for field duty at all. The man was claustrophobic, which always surprised Feretti to think about. After all, how did one become an archaeologist while being claustrophobic? In addition, Collins was so incredibly clumsy that he would never be able to gain certification for field duty, much less survive a mission if he did. Feretti watched as Daniel unpacked even more books from another box as he tried to bring up his courage to ask what he’d come here to ask. He had not wanted to be as forward as this, but Feretti couldn’t think of another way to do it.

"So, Feretti, what can I do for you?" Daniel asked.

"What makes you think I came here for anything?"

Daniel looked up from his unpacking and regarded the major. "I have a strong feeling that you didn’t come here just to watch me unpack."

Feretti sighed. He might as well get it over with. "Okay, Daniel, you win. I am here for a reason. I want to ask you something."

Daniel’s eyes narrowed at the sudden seriousness in Feretti’s voice. He gave up on his unpacking and took a seat directly in front of the Major.

"Sure. What do you need to know?"

After a slight hesitation, Feretti finally spoke. "How involved are you and Dr. Gardner?"

Daniel’s eyebrows rose in surprise and he was momentarily speechless. "What?"

Feretti could feel the warmth in his face and had to look away from Daniel. "Yeah, I mean, you’ve spent a lot of time with her over the past four weeks. I just want to know if you two are an item."

Daniel chuckled, then laughed, which made Feretti frown in confusion.

"I’m sorry, Lou, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just that the question caught me completely off guard. Sarah and I are just friends. We were involved once, but that was a long time ago. We were both very different people then," Daniel explained. "Why, are you interested in Sarah?" Daniel added, his mouth curving up into a smile.

"Is that so hard to believe? She’s a beautiful woman," Feretti replied, his tone defensive even while his cheeks flamed red. "I don’t know how or why, Daniel, but ever since you introduced her to me, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her, and now that she’ll be staying around..."

"Feretti, you were in the infirmary when I introduced the two of you. I’d hardly call that a romantic first encounter."

"I know, that’s why this is so hard to comprehend," Feretti replied and got up out of his chair. He began to pace, but stopped when he realize that there were too many boxes on the floor to allow for proper pacing, making it more irritable than cathartic. Instead, he rested his hip on Daniel’s desk and regarded the archaeologist. "I swear to God, Daniel, it’s like a high school crush. I see her in the hallways and I feel myself start to blush. I’m so nervous around her that I lose my ability to form coherent sentences. It’s very frustrating."

"You’ve got it bad, Feretti. Then again, I’d hardly call myself an expert in the matters of love," Daniel replied and looked down at the picture of Shau’ri he’d just unpacked from the box on his desk. "But I will tell you this: go for it. You never know until you try. It could very well be the best thing that ever happened to you."

"So you wouldn’t mind?" Feretti asked.

"Of course I wouldn’t mind! Like I said, Sarah and I were involved long ago."

"Why did the two of you break it off?" Feretti asked, genuinely curious.

Daniel chuckled as he set his wife’s picture down on the desk. "She didn’t want to be involved with a man who was considered a crack pot, because she didn’t want her career to suffer. I don’t think you have anything to worry about in that regard, though."

Feretti laughed. "No, I guess not. "Do you think she’d be interested?"

"I don’t see why not. Why don’t you ask her out and see for yourself?"

"I don’t know, Daniel…"

"Oh, come on," Daniel interrupted. "You’ve been stewing over this for four weeks, Feretti. Do something about it."

"Okay, okay… but what can I do? I mean, how do I approach her? I just ran into her in the hallway and walked her to her office, but couldn’t find the courage to say much of anything.’’

Daniel held up his hand and immediately got up and walked over to the table that held his computer. He rummaged around for a minute, before he found what he was looking for.

"Here, take this to her," Daniel held out a thick manila folder. "It’s an archaeological survey of PCD-989 that I want her to look over. You can tell her that I got held up and couldn’t take it to her myself."

Feretti shook his head, but took the offered folder. "You’re a sly one, Doc. Thanks,"

"It’s my pleasure, Feretti. Let me know how it goes."

The major nodded and left the office.

****

Daniel watched the major go, a smile still on his face. He found it funny that Feretti had felt the need to come talk to him about Sarah. From what he knew of the major, Feretti wasn’t one to hold back. If he wanted something, he went after it. This thing with Sarah must really be affecting him.

He shook his head and returned to his unpacking. It had been strange working with Sarah again. Daniel had to admit, however, that she wasn’t the same person she’d been the last time he’d seen her without a Goa’uld inside her. She had been somewhat self centered when they’d been dating, which is what had led to their eventual break up. She wasn’t that way anymore. All Daniel could see now was an intense interest in the work and in the cause they both now defended. She was open minded and determined, and much easier to work with.

However, there had been no romantic feelings between them at all. She’d held on to him, because he was the only familiar face around. And Daniel could see that she still cared for him, though not in a romantic way. That was the way he felt as well, so it worked out for both of them.

Daniel reached into a box and retrieved his framed degrees. He ran his hand over the first one, which declared him a doctor of archaeology and smiled sadly. He’d gone back to UCLA as soon as his lung had healed and just in time to administer the midterm he’d promised his students. After that, he’d made arrangements with the department to leave at the end of the semester and had managed to get them to allow him to leave a month early. All he’d done was shorten the curriculum he’d worked out for his various classes and had finished them early. His students had appreciated the extra month, and a few had expressed disappointment in his departure.

"I bet those kids are throwing a hell of a party right now."

Daniel smiled at the comment and put down the degrees. "They are not. Most of my students said they’d miss me."

"They would say that, especially since they hadn’t gotten their grades yet," Jack commented as he made his way over to the chair Feretti had vacated and sat down. "But believe me, they’re partying."

"I’ve only been gone for two days, Jack. They wouldn’t have gotten around to celebrating yet."

Jack laughed. "You are free to believe that."

"What brings you here, Jack?" Daniel asked.

Jack’s smile faltered slightly, but the humor was still left in his eyes. "Have you talked to General Hammond about your reinstatement to SG-1?"

"No, I haven’t. I just got here yesterday, Jack."

"Well, you won’t have to talk to him now. I’ve been ordered to get you recertified for field duty, Daniel. Yes, that means a refresher course in hand to hand combat, which Teal’c has already assured me he’ll be more than happy to provide. And," Jack added, before Daniel got a chance to say anything. "A refresher in the fine art of weapon’s handling provided by yours truly. I was thinking we’d start right now."

Daniel frowned. He’d known that he’d had to be recertified for field duty before the general would let him get anywhere near the Stargate, but he hadn’t truly given it any serious thought. Until now, that is, when the doubts started creeping back in. Could he do it? What if he couldn’t?

"Right now? It’s late, Jack."

Jack shrugged. "The sooner the better, Daniel. I, for one, want my team back. I’ve been relegated to a desk job for the past month and I really want to get back out there."

"Hammond grounded all of you? Why?"

"He said something about us needing the break. Carter used the opportunity to visit the Tok’ra so she could study Osiris and Teal’c went to visit his family. I, on the other hand, was forced to catch up on ALL of my paperwork."

Daniel shivered in mock horror. "Oh, I bet that was frightening. What about Michaels?"

Jack immediately sobered up at the mention of SG-1’s former archaeologist. "He’s going to be okay, Daniel. Don’t worry about him. It was his choice to leave the team, remember?"

"Yeah, but why did he leave? It seems like he threw away the best opportunity ever given to him."

"I don’t know, Daniel."

"But you do know. I can see it in your eyes, Jack. Michaels must have talked to you at some point."

"You’re the one that said he was under qualified."

"He was," Daniel replied, "but I hardly think that my opinion of the man was enough to make him want a transfer. He can’t stand me, remember?"

Jack sighed. "He said that he wasn’t good for SG-1, and that he wasn’t qualified enough."

"He was right. So what’s going to happen to him?" Daniel asked.

"I’m not sure. Hammond will probably assign him to another team. He still has a career at the SGC, Daniel, it’s just not with SG-1. Now come on, let’s get cracking on those self defense lessons. You look like you could lose a few pounds," Jack mentioned, patting Daniel’s stomach.

"Hey," Daniel said, stepping back from Jack. "I didn’t gain all that much weight."

"Oh, please. You did nothing but sit around and read stuff while you were gone. How much physical activity could that really provide? And don’t tell me that you went to the gym, because I know you didn’t."

"Okay, okay, so I didn’t go to the gym," Daniel finally admitted, somewhat embarrassed. He *hadn’t* gained that much weight, but was a bit afraid that he couldn’t pass the certification exams. That was part of the reason he was putting off going with Jack and Teal’c.

"Then what are we waiting for, Danny-boy. Come on!"

Jack reached out, grabbed the sleeve of Daniel’s jacket and proceeded to drag the younger man out of the room.

Daniel followed dutifully, knowing that it was probably better to get it over with as soon as possible. They were halfway to the gym when they ran into someone neither one wanted to see.

"Dr. Lovell, it’s a pleasure to see you again," Jack said as he caught sight of the woman exiting the elevator.

The woman stopped in her tracks and glared at Jack, then at Daniel. "I was just going to see you, Dr. Jackson. I am a bit confused about my reassignment."

"You didn’t expect to keep running the show, did you Doctor?" Jack quipped, but Lovell ignored him.

"What is it that you’re confused about?" Daniel asked.

"General Hammond said that my performance as the department head was unsatisfactory. He also mentioned that you would be reassigning me at your discretion," she answered through clenched teeth, making it clear that she was not at all happy with the turn of events.

Daniel raised his eyebrows in surprise. The general hadn’t told him anything about being responsible for reassigning Lovell. "I haven’t spoken to the general, Dr. Lovell, since I just got back yesterday. You’ll have to give me a few days to get back up to speed on everything that has been going on before I make any decisions."

"What am I supposed to do in the mean time, since you’ve taken over my job?"

"Which, I remind you, was his job to begin with," Jack added, unable to keep from commenting.

Daniel shot him a look, before turning back to the woman. "You can help the linguists with their translations for now. I’ll let you know if that changes in a few days."

Dr. Lovell nodded, but made it clear that she resented the change in management, and that she wouldn’t let Daniel forget it. Without another word, she turned around and walked away from them.

"Nice woman, isn’t she? She’s a joy to be around."

"It’s not funny, Jack. I did just come back here and took her job. I wouldn’t be happy either."

"It was your job to begin with, Daniel. She should never have had it."

Daniel sighed, wondering just how many other people would resent his return. It didn’t matter much anyway, because he wasn’t about to leave again. He would have plenty of time to find out.

"Ah, forget her. Come on, you and I have a date with the gym," Jack said, and quickly dragged his charge to their destination.

****

"Captain Michaels, please come in," General Hammond said.

The captain did as he was told and waited patiently for the general to speak. He didn’t know why he had been called to the general’s office, but he hoped that it wasn’t bad news that he was about to get.

"After careful consideration of your request for transfer, I granted it and removed you from SG-1. I assigned to you to the base simply to give you, and myself, time to figure out how to deal with what’s happened in the last month. However, I want to you understand one thing. While I did offer Dr. Jackson his job back as a consultant the day he was released from the infirmary, I made it clear to him that his spot on SG-1 had been filled and was not available. He wouldn’t have been assigned to SG-1 had you not requested a transfer."

Jason stared at the general, unsure of whether or not he was expected to answer. Generals usually did not give explanations to captains, which made this conversation strange to begin with.

The general smiled. "I bet you’re wondering why I’m telling you this."

"Yes, Sir, I am."

"It’s simple, Captain. You’re a fine officer and a good linguist. We’re very happy to have you on board. What happened on Heru’ur’s planet was regrettable, but it was one mistake. That’s hardly cause enough to kick you out of the program. You’re only human, as are we all. Major Thompson of SG-3 has been lobbying for an archaeologist for a while, but there hasn’t been one available. I realize that you’re not an archaeologist, but you have the expertise in ancient cultures and languages that SG-3 needs on their missions. You have also already worked with the team, so there is familiarity there. I believe the assignment will be beneficial for all involved.

Jason nodded his acknowledgement. "Thank you, Sir. I appreciate your vote of confidence." He was also relieved that he would not be punished for his major mistake on the planet. He had fully expected a reprimand or dismissal and had been surprised when it never came. When he’d received the summons earlier that afternoon, Jason had assumed that the general was going to fire him.

"Very well. Meet with Major Thompson as soon as possible so he can bring you up to speed on the team. Dismissed."

Jason stood up and saluted the general, before leaving the office.

SG-3 is a good team and Michaels already knew several of its members. It was going to work out fine in the long run. SG-1 will be back to normal and he would finally get to be on a team that would take advantage of what he did have to offer.

****

"I had forgotten how much this hurt," Daniel mumbled as he walked back into his office. He rubbed his shoulders and arms and winced at the bruises he was sure would be there in the morning.

"You didn’t get into a fight, did you? That wouldn’t be like you."

Daniel turned his head to the right and found Sarah sitting by his desk. She had been reading one of his books but put it down when he’d entered.

"No, it wasn’t a fight. I have to be recertified in hand to hand combat before I’m allowed back on SG-1. Jack, Teal’c and I just spent the last two hours going over the basic maneuvers. I’d forgotten how painful it was. And if it fit hurts now, it’s going to hurt even more tomorrow morning."

Sarah continued to examine Daniel, the expression on her face unreadable.

Daniel walked over to where she sat and stood in front of her, while still massaging his sore arms. She didn’t move or say anything, just continued to watch him.

"What, is there something on my face?" he asked when Sarah didn’t say anything.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, it’s not that. I’m just trying to picture you as Osiris remembered you."

"What do you mean?"

"I still have the memories that Osiris gave me and the ones that I experienced while he had control of my body," Sarah explained. "I remember Heru’ur talking about the famed SG-1 and how dangerous you all were. I found it hard to picture you like Heru’ur described you, armed and ready to fight, willing to go up against someone like him. I couldn’t see you as the gun toting renegade that Heru’ur made you out to be."

Sarah laughed a little at the way that sounded. "Seeing you again now, in the place you’ve obviously made home since you disappeared from the face of the Earth, I can see how you’ve changed, how you’ve grown and evolved. I’m not sure I can picture you as a gun toting anything, but I can’t picture you as the guy you used to be either."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Daniel asked. He took a seat beside Sarah, his sore muscles forgotten for now.

"It’s a good thing, Daniel. We all change and evolve. I do want to know one thing, though."

"What’s that?"

"Why did you do it? What happened to make you go from the guy you were to the guy you are now?"

Daniel was quiet for a moment, trying to figure out how to reply to that. "Love, desperation, despair, guilt, failure… all of those had something to do with it. My wife was kidnapped and I was willing to do anything in my power to find her. At the time, the answer was to be on SG-1. But before General Hammond allowed me on SG-1, I had to become skilled in hand to hand combat and learn to handle the various types of weapons the Air Force used in combat. I wasn’t particularly happy to do it, but I knew that I had no choice."

He paused momentarily, his eyes flickering toward the picture of Sha’uri. "As time passed, it became necessary to know how to defend myself and my team so that now, it’s second nature. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll go for the non-violent approach whenever possible, but as you know, that’s not always possible."

Sarah nodded, understanding. She reached out and picked up the picture Daniel had just been looking at. "She was beautiful, Daniel. She looks so happy. I’m glad that you found the one."

Daniel sighed, the loss hitting him as hard as it had the first day Sha’uri had been gone. "I am, too, even if it was for just a year. So, what can I do for you?" He changed the topic, before it got a lot deeper than he was willing to go.

"Oh, I wanted to talk to you about Major Feretti," Sarah said as she set the picture down on Daniel’s desk.

"What about him?" Daniel asked, feigning ignorance.

Sarah’s face lit up slightly and Daniel felt a bit of hope for Feretti. "He asked me out."

Daniel couldn’t help but smile a little, making Sarah frown.

"Daniel, do you know something about this?"

"Me? What makes you think that I know anything?"

"That smile tells me all I need to know."

"Feretti came to talk to me this morning. He wanted to know if you and I were still involved," Daniel finally replied.

Sarah laughed. "Oh, I can picture it now. Wait a minute, it seemed odd to me that the major, who has nothing to do with the archaeology department, would have the survey for me to study. You gave that to him so he could take it to me didn’t you?"

"He told you as much, didn’t he?"

"Yes, but he said you’d been unable to get the survey to me. I’m beginning to think that you were playing match maker."

"Well, did it work?"

Sarah shook her head, trying to hid the grin that threatened to spread. "You’re too smart for your own good, Daniel."

"So I take it you said yes, then."

"Yes, I did," she replied and looked up at him, her face conveying her happiness. "Thank you."

"Like I told Feretti, it’s my pleasure."

****

"SG-1, SG-5, we have a serious situation on our hands," General Hammond told the assembled teams as they all sat around the briefing room table. "One of our trading allies, the villagers of PXD-555 have contacted us and asked for our help in resolving their current dispute with the other inhabitants of the planet. Dr. Jackson, fill us in on the history of the planet."

Daniel nodded and raised his voice so that he would be heard by everyone in the room. "As you all are aware, PXD-555 is inhabited by two different races. One race is indigenous to the planet; the other is a group of transplanted humans left there by the Goa’uld. They’ve co-existed for thousands of years with minimal conflict, each believing the other unworthy of a mere passing glance. Technologically, they are similar. They exist somewhere along the level of technology Earth enjoyed during the middle ages. Culturally, however, they vary significantly. They religious beliefs vary most of all, because one race believes in a single God, while the other, the humans, believe in numerous Gods. Fortunately, neither race has felt the need to change the other, until now."

"What are you saying, Daniel?" Sam asked, glancing up from the mission report to look at Daniel.

"The Atu, who are the indigenous species of the planet, have begun to attack the Ratamar, who are the group of transplanted humans. According to E’shan, the leader of the Ratamar, the Atu have bombarded their villages, claiming many lives. They want us to try to negotiate a truce between them, before they are forced to go to war to defend themselves."

"Is it our place to get involved in someone else’s civil war?" Jack asked.

"It is when they are our allies and have requested our help. The Ratamar, who are the ones we have the treaty with, mine naquadah. They are a very important source of the mineral, which is why the President has already authorized this mission," Hammond explained. "Dr. Jackson, you will make every attempt to resolve this conflict with diplomacy and with a minimal loss of life. The rest of your team and SG-5 will be there to back you up if necessary. However, if that’s not possible, I have been authorized to send additional troops. This conflict will be resolved one way or another, is that understood?"

Everyone nodded their agreement without saying anything further.

"Very well. You leave in an hour."

****

Daniel stood at the foot of the ramp in the embarkation room, staring in awe at the shimmering event horizon of the Stargate. He wondered, for the thousandth time, what had possessed him to abandon all of this in the first place. He’d been foolish to give it all up, and he thanked whatever God was up there watching out for him that he had such incredible friends and co-workers. Without them, Daniel would still be pretending that everything was fine at his job in sunny California.

It didn’t matter anymore. The important thing was that he was back where he belonged, having been given a chance to live again. For the last year, he’d been running away from the one thing that made him feel alive. That was never going to happen again, not if he had anything to say about it.

"Nervous?" Jack asked as he walked up to stand next to Daniel.

"A little bit. It’s been a while since I’ve stepped through the Stargate."

"Don’t worry, it hasn’t changed much. I actually didn’t think you’d be back on active duty so soon. How about you Carter?"

"I had every confidence in you, Daniel," Sam replied as she moved to stand on the other side of Daniel. "Especially after I heard about those sessions Teal’c and the colonel put you through."

"Oh, yes. Those were definitely intense," Daniel said, grimacing slightly at the memory, before turning back to Jack. "Why didn’t you think I would qualify so soon?"

Jack shrugged. "You passed all of the certification tests in only two weeks, Daniel. That’s impressive. Especially for a guy who had just spent the last year submerged in the wonderful world of academia."

"I had no doubt in your abilities, Daniel Jackson, and am pleased that you were able to rejoin SG-1 in such a short amount of time," Teal’c added, as he stood to Jack’s right.

"Thank you, Teal’c. I’m glad to have all of that over with too. I was as eager to get off world as you were, Jack," Daniel replied, smiling slightly.

"I have no doubt that it’s going to be just like old times. But, if at any time, I get the urge to shoot you, just remember that I have a year to make up for."

Daniel laughed, drawing the attention of most of the other people in the room. "Okay, I’ll keep that in mind as long as you keep in mind that I’ve spent the better part of last year lecturing to a captive audience. That’s a hard habit to break in such a short time."

He turned to face his friend, and was gratified to see a smile on Jack’s face. "It’s good to be back, Jack. It really is. Thank you for helping me realize this is where I needed to be." He then turned to Sam and Teal’c. "And thank you both as well."

"It was not a problem, Daniel. I’m glad that you’re here too," Sam said, smiling.

Jack took a few steps forward, and then turned around to address the two assembled teams. "Okay, kids, we have our orders. Remember that we’re going to try for a peaceful solution first, before all else." He paused for a moment and regarded everyone in the room.

"Let’s go, campers. Our adventure awaits."

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is my first Stargate story, so I'm a complete novice when it comes to this stuff. Many thanks go to my beta, Katherine, for doing such an amazing job of editing this story. It ended up so much better after she got her hands on it.

© April 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.