Title: Not in Kansas Anymore

Author: Melyanna

Email: lady_of_doriath@yahoo.com

Rating: PG13

Archive: SJD yes; others, please ask first. I usually say yes, but I like to know before my stuff ends up on someone else's site.

Summary: A routine mission goes awry during an altercation with the indigenous people, but when SG-1 is forced to flee, forces of nature may prove to be the greater threat.

Disclaimer: I don't own SG-1. Nor do I own the original character Amelia, who is on loan with permission from Sache8, her creator, from the story "Amelia's Violin".

Spoilers: Spoilers through Season 7; speculation for Season 8.

Status: Complete.

*~*~*~*

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting this. Few things to note -- I am forever indebted to Laura, Laura, and Faith for their wonderful work in getting this fic up to their impeccable standards.

The aforementioned Faith, who is also known as Sache8 in various places around the web, has been kind enough to loan me an OC. You can read more about her in a Season 6 story entitled "Amelia's Violin," which you can find at fanfiction.net. I'd highly recommend it, as there are some adorable S/J moments in it.

You can also find this fic at FFN: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1982620/1/

One last warning: SPOILERS THROUGH SEASON 7.

*~*~*~*

Not in Kansas Anymore
by Melyanna

*~*~*~*

Prologue: Original Glazed

It was probably fair to say that Jack O'Neill was a lot less interested in what Daniel was saying than in the doughnut he was eating. And it never ceased to amaze him that mission briefings weren't much different now that he was a general, and in command of SGC. Carter and Daniel still said things he didn't get, Teal'c only spoke up when he had something profound to say, and Jack himself usually had to tell Carter to repeat things, speaking slowly and using smaller words and less math.

Jack stared at the last bite of doughnut -- Krispy Kreme, original glazed -- for a minute, pondering its perfection, before sticking it in his mouth and sucking the extra sugar off his fingers. Having done with that last moment of pleasure, he sighed and kicked his feet up on the corner of the table. "Sir?" Carter prompted. "Were you listening to Daniel at all?"

"Of course I was," he said, pulling his feet down and sitting up straighter. "I just don't see what he's getting at."

Daniel sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Jack, the point is that there's evidence of a civilization here, and we should try to make contact."

"And why's that?"

"Because, as you'll see in these pictures," Daniel continued, flipping through images on the screen in front of them, "these fields have obviously been sown by machine. The rows are really close together, and they're perfectly straight, even though the terrain isn't exactly flat."

Jack picked up a pen, but dropped it as soon as he realized that his fingers were sticky. Carter passed him a napkin. "Why was it you brought doughnuts today, sir?" she asked.

"Because _I_ like doughnuts, and I thought some of you might appreciate it." He picked up the green and white box and waved it under Teal'c's nose. "Come on, Teal'c, you know you want one."

"On the contrary, O'Neill, I have no desire to consume one." Jack glared at him, and Teal'c said: "However, that has not prevented me from eating things before."

He took one out of the box and obediently ate it with extraordinary care. Jack, meanwhile, turned his attention back to Daniel. "So who should I send? SG-4? They haven't been off-world for a week or so."

He glanced at Carter for a moment. "Jack, we were hoping you'd send us."

"SG-1?" said Jack. "You got some special expertise that puts you ahead of SG-4 or 7?"

"Sir," Carter began, "we haven't been anywhere in three weeks. The last two missions we were scheduled for either got cancelled or reassigned."

"Let's see," Jack replied, "I didn't let you go to P4X-778 because the MALP blew up and you," he emphasized, pointing at Carter, "couldn't explain why."

"And you wouldn't let us invest-"

"Uh-uh, Carter," he interrupted. "General Hammond would have done the same thing, and you know it."

"And you would have been arguing his decision for the next six weeks, sir."

Jack gave her a look, and she backed down. Daniel, however, didn't. "Jack, it's like you're trying to _keep_ us here."

"Now, why would I do that?" Jack asked.

"I don't know, but you've been acting very weird every time we've gone off world since you took over from Dr. Weir." Daniel shifted his weight and shrugged, tossing his papers down onto the table. "I guess it's natural. You get shifted a desk job, you get soft, you forget what it's like."

Jack started to protest, but Teal'c interrupted him. "It is not surprising, Daniel Jackson," he said, holding up the last morsel and squishing it between thumb and forefinger. "I believe any could become soft if one consumed this food, as satisfying as it is."

"Hey! No insulting the Krispy Kremes," Jack said, grabbing the box. "Daniel, Teal'c, you've lost your Krispy Kreme privileges for today. I hope you're happy." He slid the box over to Sam. "Carter, have as many as you like."

"No, thank you, sir," she replied. At his raised eyebrow, she said: "I mean no disrespect to the Krispy Kremes, General. It's just that we need to be out there doing something. We can make contact with these people, and you know Daniel's good at that."

Jack sat back, annoyed. It wasn't so much that Carter was right; it was that Daniel was right. He'd been keeping SG-1 off the duty roster in part because he just didn't want them going anywhere without him. Well, there was one way to fix that.

"Fine," he said. "You leave for P4X-242 in two hours."

"Thank you, sir," Carter replied.

They started to file out, but Jack said: "Colonel, one more thing."

"Yes, sir?"

"I'll be going with you."

*~*~*~*

Chapter 1: Endeavors

Sam was still adjusting to seeing the words "J. O'Neill" on the door to what used to be General Hammond's office. She supposed that it might not have been so bad if it had read "Jonathan O'Neill." That at least _sounded_ pretentious enough to be an Air Force general's name.

Not that Jack wasn't fully capable of doing his job. On the contrary, he was very good at it, just a little. . .unorthodox. Of course, that was probably why he'd been chosen to lead the first Stargate mission to begin with.

She rapped on the door, and from within she heard a voice muffled by something. Figuring it was okay to come in, she opened the door and stepped inside. There, behind his desk, Jack was finishing up another doughnut. Sam smiled a little. He was already geared up, his sidearm strapped to his leg. "Well, sir, I was going to ask if you still remembered where everything was. . ."

Attacking his hands with a paper napkin, he glared. "Watch it, Carter. I may be old, but I'm not senile."

In former days she might have apologized, but instead she just smirked at him. She watched as he swiped at his mouth with the napkin and threw it away, and then he looked up at her oddly. "What?"

Sam shook her head slightly and glanced down at the desk. "We've got about twenty minutes before we leave for P4X-242," she said. "And I'd like to know why you're coming on this mission."

Jack stood up and shrugged, shifting some papers around on his desk. "It's like Daniel said." He looked up at her then. "Do you have a problem with me tagging along?"

"It's kind of unusual."

"You questioning my decisions?"

"Of course not, sir." She shifted her weight uncomfortably. "It's just that. . .Sir, are you trying to prove something? You know you don't have to, everyone here knows your reputation—"

"I know that."

Sam blinked. There was something distinctly unspoken in his abrupt answer. She lifted her chin, but decided not to ask him if he was proving this to himself. He'd never admit to that.

Jack flattened his palms on the desktop and looked up. "Hey, I know it has to be weird having your commanding officer coming along on your mission," he said. "I just want to keep the action fresh on my mind. I'm sending people into danger all the time. I want to be damn sure I know what it's like out there." Sam opened her mouth to protest, but Jack held up his hand. "Don't get me wrong, General Hammond was great at his job," he said. "But he never really saw what was going on out there, and that's not the way I want to run this place."

"So this is your way of being hands-on?"

"Exactly."

Sam thought about that for a moment as he came around the desk and leaned against it. Then a sudden, intense urge to giggle struck her as she remembered something from a memo the previous week, and Jack looked at her oddly. "Something funny, Colonel?"

She looked down for a moment, trying rather unsuccessfully not to smile. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Jonas, would it?"

"Jonas?" he repeated, clearly feigning ignorance. "Jonas. . .Quinn? What would it have to do with him?"

By then it was too much work not to smile. "He's arriving this afternoon, sir."

"Oh, darn," he replied. "What a shame that I'll be missing him."

"Well, I'm sure he and Amelia would be happy to extend their stay."

Jack shuddered suddenly. "It still freaks me out that he married a Kinsey."

"They say love knows no bounds, sir."

Their eyes met as she spoke, and Sam almost regretted having said anything. Any subject which might result in a conversation about their relationship had been strictly and tacitly taboo for years now, even after Jack's return from Antarctica. But despite that, there were moments when being near him felt like being too close to a van der Graaf generator. The smallest change could send sparks flying, and regulations out the window.

Jack cleared his throat, and the moment was over. "That's the _only_ way a guy like Kinsey could have ever gotten married," he said. "And I _still_ say Amelia was left on the doorstep."

She suppressed a laugh. "Well, despite her family connections, she and Jonas seem to genuinely love each other. I'm kind of sad that I won't get to see them."

"Oh, I am too, no doubt about that." He picked up his paperweight — a small ceramic figure of a fish flopping around — and turned it over in his hands. "They'll probably decide to stay longer anyway, once they know that SG-1 is gone."

Sam nodded. She didn't have a reason to stay there anymore, but it was still bothering her that he was going along, and apparently Jack could see that. He touched her shoulder, and their eyes met. It wasn't an overly intimate gesture, but there had been so little physical contact between them since the Antarctica incident that anything was a little overwhelming. She finally broke the gaze, thinking of Pete and wondering why he'd been so slow to come to mind. Then Jack broke the silence. "Listen, Carter," he said, "it'll be just like old times, okay? We'll build a nice campfire, sing some songs. . ."

"Sir, we never sang songs around a campfire."

"Right, because we were too busy saving the galaxy. We're taking a break from that this time and singing songs."

She laughed softly. "I'll see you in the gate room, sir."

*~*~*~*

On her way to the gate room via her lab, Sam heard the sound of a short person in big shoes running toward her. There was, of course, only one truly short person around the SGC who wore combat boots on a regular basis, so it was no surprise when she heard Captain Hailey call: "Colonel Carter!"

Sam didn't stop walking, knowing that Hailey would catch up to her in a moment. "Captain," she replied as the young woman reached her. "I was just on my way to leave you a message. SG-1 is going off-world in about fifteen minutes, so we're going to have to postpone that research session."

Hailey was unfazed. "That's all right, ma'am. I was just on my way to tell you that I wasn't going to be able to make it either."

Sam threw a curious glance at the captain. Jennifer Hailey had just returned from an eighteen-month hiatus from the SGC in which she completed her master's degree at the University of Chicago. She'd had a research position at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and now she spent most of her time with Sam, helping out with everything in the lab. It seemed that research had agreed with her quite well.

The two walked through the door of Sam's lab, and Hailey asked: "Did you get a mission this morning, ma'am?"

Sam nodded, picking up a few more instruments she'd be taking with her. "P4X-242," she replied. "General O'Neill gave us the go a couple hours ago." She turned a meter over in her hand and looked up at the captain. "What about you? Why were you going to have to cancel?"

"General O'Neill called me into his office about half an hour ago. He wants me to babysit some guests," she said. "Is he going somewhere?"

"He's going with us, Hailey," said Sam, laughing softly. "One of those guests, I'd imagine, is Jonas."

Hailey nodded. "But what I want to know is why there's a Kinsey on the other side of our gate, and what she's doing coming back through it."

Sam looked at the girl curiously before she realized why Hailey had never heard of Amelia Kinsey. "Oh, that's right," she said. "You would have been at Chicago already by the time she came here the first time."

"First time?"

She gathered up as many of the instruments as she could carry and nodded toward the rest. "Here, help me with this. I'll explain as we go."

The two headed out of the lab, and Hailey prompted: "So, Amelia Kinsey's been here before?"

"Several times," Sam replied. "The first time was back before the assassination attempt on her father. She'd been diagnosed with breast cancer."

Hailey frowned. "How old is she, then?"

"Not too much older than you, actually. But that's part of the reason why she came here. Most doctors don't even think about a woman that young having breast cancer, so by the time she was diagnosed, it was too late for chemotherapy or surgery to do any good."

"So let me guess," said Hailey, "her father offered to pour lots of money into the program if we could find a way to help her?"

"That'd be it," Sam replied. "He knew about Tretonin because at the time he got all our mission reports. So he told us if we could get the Tok'ra to help her, we'd get some additional funding. It was too much money to really refuse."

"And she can't help who her father is anyway," Hailey commented. "So why's she off-world?"

Sam laughed as they walked in the gate room, where Daniel and Teal'c were doing some last-minute packing. "I'm guessing that General O'Neill failed to mention that Amelia's last name is now Quinn."

Hailey stared at her blankly. "She married _Jonas_?" Sam nodded, and the younger woman grinned broadly. "I bet Kinsey _loved_ that."

"Yeah, he did," said Daniel, walking up to them and taking some stuff from both women. "From what I understand, she told him she was marrying Jonas with or without his approval, because his political career was over and she didn't need to stick around and be a poster child for his campaigns anymore."

"So what is she like?" Hailey asked.

"She is little like her father," said Teal'c. "Even if I did not know her, I would know this from Jonas Quinn's affection for her."

"You'll be meeting her soon enough," Carter added. "You'll probably like her."

"Carter's obviously forgotten how much she was annoyed by Amelia's violin the first time she came here," said a new voice, General O'Neill's. He came up to the group and towered over Hailey, not that most people didn't do that. "You won't have to worry about Mrs. Quinn getting into trouble," he said to her. "Just keep an eye on Jonas."

Before she could reply, the gate started spinning, and a voice announced over the intercom: "Unscheduled off-world activation."

Jack planted his hands on his hips and yelled: "We got any idea who this is?"

The technician in the control room leaned into the microphone. "The signal is Jonas Quinn's, sir," he said. "He contacted us earlier to inform us that he would be arriving a few hours ahead of schedule."

"Well, I'm glad someone told me," Jack muttered. Louder, he added: "Let `em in."

A few minutes later, Jonas walked through the gate, with a woman right next to him. She was pretty, a little shorter than Colonel Carter, and dressed in clothing that probably wouldn't be considered mainstream or trendy, but did give her an aura of classiness. They were both smiling, and as they descended the ramp, the grin Jonas was wearing broadened. "General O'Neill!" he cried. "It's great to see you again."

"Hello, Jonas," the general replied flatly. A little more warmly, he nodded to the woman. "Hello, Amelia."

Jonas looked around at SG-1 and Hailey. "You guys look like you're getting ready to go somewhere."

"That's right, we are," O'Neill replied. "So, since I won't be here in five minutes, I've assigned Captain Hailey to take care of anything you need while you're here."

He motioned to Hailey, and she stepped forward. Jonas smiled at her. "Hey, it's good to see you again, Hailey," he said. "And congratulations — I think it was still Lieutenant the last time we spoke."

"Thank you, Jonas."

He gestured to the woman. "You haven't met my wife, have you?"

"No, I haven't. I was in Chicago when she was here in the past."

Jonas' wife smiled and extended her hand to Hailey. "Amelia Quinn," she said.

Hailey took her hand; whatever she didn't have in common with her father, Amelia _did_ have a politician's handshake. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Likewise."

"Well, glad we've got that out of the way," O'Neill said, "so if you'll excuse us, we'll be getting out of here now."

There was a look of disappointment on Jonas' face, but Amelia laughed. "Come on, Jonas," she said. "Let's get out of their way before Jack or the wormhole kills us."

As they walked off, General O'Neill turned around. "Jonas, did I ever tell you how smart your wife is?" he asked.

Jonas just laughed.

*~*~*~*

Chapter 2: Lessons in Geography

The team stepped through the gate, and Jack adjusted his sunglasses, surveying the landscape and seeing nothing but some kind of grain crop as far as he could see. "Carter," he said as she walked up beside him, "how'd we gate into Kansas?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it Kansas, sir," she replied.

"Fine. Southern Illinois." He looked over his shoulder. "Daniel!"

Daniel was walking down the steps of the gate, looking around. "Yeah?"

"Was it supposed to be this hot?"

"Well," said Daniel, "if you judge from the similarity between this and the usual grain crops in the American Midwest, then yeah. We're probably here in spring."

"Well, can we get on with finding these people? I'd rather not be here in summer."

"Sure, Jack."

So they walked. And walked, and walked, and walked. Jack knew what the rural Midwest was like, but driving across Iowa on Interstate 80 was quite different from walking through a field of. . .something. His only hope was that he'd let Daniel pick the right direction. Otherwise they were going to have to walk back in the heat of the afternoon and pick a different direction. They didn't talk much as they made their way north from the gate. It was too hot to think about conversation.

They crossed a dried-up gully after about a mile, at which point they headed into a forested area that seemed to encircle the gate. To the east, the gently sloped terrain turned into hills, and beyond them mountains, and Jack stopped suddenly, looking at Carter and Daniel. "Are you two _sure_ we're not in Kansas?"

"What makes you say that, sir?" Carter asked.

"You ever been to Kansas, Colonel?" he replied. When she shrugged, he pointed at the mountains rising in the east. "Look! Ozarks! This creek bed probably feeds into a major river when there's water running in it."

Carter looked over at Daniel. "What do they grow in Kansas?"

"Wheat?"

Jack sighed. "That's _Oklahoma_ with the waving wheat."

"Actually, Jack, I think it's both," said Daniel. "Their agricultural products are probably pretty similar."

"'Where the waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain'?" Jack prompted. Getting nothing but blank stares from Carter, Daniel, and Teal'c, he turned back to the north and started walking. "Right, moving on."

And as they continued north, Jack made a mental note never to mention musicals around them again.

*~*~*~*

SG-1 was through the forest before they saw any more signs of sentient life on the planet. Daniel had apparently chosen the right direction -- not far from the edge of the clearing was a large building of some red material. "Clay," said Sam, as if reading Daniel's thoughts. "Some kind of adobe, I'd think."

"I think you're right," he replied. "Looks to have some kind of carvings too."

"Should be lots for you to investigate, then," said Jack, as they moved closer to it. "Any signs of inhabitants?"

"Uh, no, doesn't look like it," Daniel replied. "At least, not right here. There are some paths--"

"Yeah, we'll cover those later," Jack said shortly. "Let's get in there, see what it's about."

The quartet headed through the knee-high grass for another five minutes before reaching the building. It was a good deal closer than he had anticipated, and therefore smaller than he had assumed. "Kind of hard to judge distances here," he commented.

"No point of reference," said Sam. "Especially away from the forest."

"Uh huh. What's with that?" Jack asked, waving his gun at the doors.

"It appears to be some kind of metal inlay, O'Neill," said Teal'c.

Daniel walked up to the doors. "Teal'c's right," he said. "It looks like a precious metal of some kind, like silver or something." He ran his fingers over a silver curve. "Reminds me of the Baptistry of the Duomo."

"The who of the what?"

"The Duomo -- the big cathedral in Florence."

"Florence?"

"Italy, Jack, Italy." Daniel grabbed his digital camera and started taking pictures. "The doors to the Baptistry have these gold sheets on them that have images from the Bible engraved in them. Of course, they're mostly anachronistic. . ."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam move from his left over to where the general was standing. "Sir," she was saying quietly, "what other Florence did you think he was talking about?"

"The one in Alabama," he replied, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Only Jack would think of that one first.

"So," Jack said, louder, "what are these pictures?"

Daniel, now squatting down, ran a finger around the perimeter of one of the inlaid squares. It, like the rest, was about a handbreadth across. "I'm not sure," he said. "I'll have to study them as a whole more carefully in order to determine the meaning."

"Perhaps they tell some kind of story, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c stood behind him and placed his hand on the center seam. "Or perhaps they tell the secrets of entering this place."

"Wait, what do you mean, secrets of entering?" Jack asked.

Teal'c leaned into the door. "It does not appear to push open, O'Neill," he said. "Nor does there appear to be any device with which to open it from the outside."

"Well, let's see if there's another way in."

So they walked around the building, and ten minutes later were back at the inlaid doors. "So we're back where we started," Jack said. He turned to Sam. "Carter, is there a reason why the doors won't open from the outside?"

"To keep people out, sir."

Daniel looked over his shoulder to see Sam with her face toward the ground as she smiled. Jack shifted his weight and rolled his eyes. "Okay, smart woman, how do people get _in_?"

"Well, it's not like we haven't seen matter transporters before," she replied, looking at the doors herself. "Could be rings for all we know."

"Great. Just what we need, a snakehead outpost."

Meanwhile, Daniel had turned his attention to the inscriptions on either side of the door. "Looks to be a variant on medieval Latin," he said. "But not the same as Ancient. Not anywhere close."

Jack adjusted his sunglasses as Daniel looked over his shoulder. "Can you. . .translate?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem." He pointed at the words as he translated, working his way from the top down. "'Let all praise the. . .wheel of life,' I think."

"'Wheel of life'?" Jack repeated. "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"Many cultures honor the passage of life, even on your own planet, O'Neill," said Teal'c. "Life stages are often met with much ceremony."

"He's right," said Daniel. "And at this point, it's the best clue we've got on how to get into this place."

"Well," Jack said, "get to work."

For the next several minutes, he and Teal'c stood in front of the doors, studying the images on each. In the meantime Jack and Sam walked about twenty yards down one of the paths. Daniel cast an odd glance at them, wondering what they were talking about. Unfortunately, they were out of earshot.

Suddenly one of them sneezed. "Bless you!" Daniel called. Sam waved back with one hand while the other cupped her nose and mouth.

"That is an odd custom, Daniel Jackson," said Teal'c.

"What, saying 'bless you'?"

"Indeed. What need has a person for blessing?"

"Oh, it's an old custom," Daniel replied. "People used to believe that the body could be infested with evil spirits, and when you sneezed, they were expelled."

"Intriguing." Teal'c leaned forward, examining a panel. "Perhaps the Goa'uld can be expelled from the host body in this fashion."

Daniel looked at his friend sharply. The Jaffa turned his head slowly, and Daniel saw that he'd been joking. "Jack's really rubbed off on you, Teal'c," he said. "Of course, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"It's a good thing, Daniel, it's a good thing," Jack said. He was walking back to the group, and when he reached them he clapped Teal'c on the shoulder.

"Where's Sam?" Daniel asked, looking up for a moment.

He was answered by another high-pitched sneeze. "Carter, get out of there!" Jack called. He turned back to Daniel. "Looks like she's allergic to this grass stuff."

Teal'c turned a questioning glance at Jack. "Why did you not bless Colonel Carter?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, I was just explaining how some cultures on Earth used to believe that sneezing expelled demons," Daniel interjected as Sam approached, wiping at her eyes. He pulled a pack of tissues from his pocket and tossed them to her. "Here you go."

"Thanks," she said, catching it.

"Sneezing demons out?" Jack said. "So that's how the Tok'ra get the symbiotes out."

Sam started to laugh, but that aborted prematurely when she sneezed again, this time into a tissue. "Sam, are you okay?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, I'b fine," she replied, muffled by tissue. "Just hurry."

"I'm working on it." Daniel turned his attention back to the doors while Sam kept sneezing.

Twenty minutes later, Sam and Jack walked away, because it was taking longer than anticipated with the door and she was still sneezing. She seemed better in the forest, so she retreated there, Jack accompanying her. "'Wheel of life,'" he mused. "Teal'c, you have to start somewhere on a wheel, right?"

"I do not comprehend your meaning, Daniel Jackson."

"Well, if you're going to go around a circle, there has to be a starting point, right?"

"Indeed," said Teal'c.

"So if you're going to go around the 'wheel of life,' you need to start at the beginning of life," he said. "Quick, help me find a birth."

They found it a couple minutes later, and Daniel took a deep breath. "Well, let's see if this works." He pushed his palm into the panel, and to his mild surprise, the panel depressed and the metallic inlay started to glow.

Several minutes later, Daniel heard footsteps behind them. "Hey, Daniel!" Jack called. "You made something light up, must mean something's working."

He pushed his glasses up. "I'm hoping," he replied. "This should be the last one." He pushed the panel that illustrated death -- and aside from the panel lighting up, nothing happened.

"I do not understand," said Teal'c. "Was this not the proper combination?"

"Must not have been," Daniel replied. "But I don't see what else it could be. Birth, rite of passage, marriage, ascension to eldership, and death. What have we missed?"

Jack walked up behind him, and Sam sneezed again. It didn't seem to faze the general, who narrowed his eyes as he looked at the lighted panels. Then he reached out his hand, tentatively, and pushed the first one Daniel had pushed. Suddenly the lights extinguished, and there was a heavy groaning sound as the doors swung inward.

Daniel looked at Jack in amazement. "How did you--"

"It's a circle, Daniel," he said. "You have to go back to the beginning at some point."

"Uh, right." Daniel traded a look at Sam as Jack and Teal'c entered, and she just shook her head. And sneezed.

"May the Goa'uld be far from you, Colonel Carter," said Teal'c.

"Yeah, thanks."

*~*~*~*

Chapter 3: Bad Luck

"I'm telling you, Carter, it's their year."

"Sir, you said that last year."

"Yeah, well, I mean it this year."

Sam sneezed again, half hoping that it would distract the general from his lecture on baseball this time, but she knew it would never happen. Maybe it was something about being a Chicago native, but the man would never give up hope that the Cubs would somehow be amazing "next year." Clearly, hope sprang eternal.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah." She pulled out another tissue and wiped her nose. "I'm sorry, sir, but I just can't see how bringing a goat into the stadium is supposed to lift a curse."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I bet Daniel has lots of stories about goats and curses."

Several feet in front of them, Daniel stopped to examine a wall. "Yes, Jack, but none of them have both."

"Well, that's your loss, then," Jack said. "You spent all that time studying curses in Egypt where it's all hot and stuff when you could have spent your time studying the goat curse at Wrigley."

"Does that involve studying the bottoms of beer bottles?" Sam asked.

"Occupational hazard." He looked at the wall Daniel was facing. "Something interesting there, Daniel?"

"Yeah, I don't think it was a coincidence that pushing the first panel again unlocked the doors," he said. "From this mural, it seems that the people who built this place believed in reincarnation."

"Makes sense," Jack replied. At Sam's quizzical look, he waved his finger around in a circle. "Wheel," he said. "It goes around."

"Yes, I'm familiar with the concept, sir," she replied, looking at anything but him for fear of laughing.

He waited for her to look back at him, though, and when she did, he jabbed his thumb at Daniel and Teal'c. "Well, these two can play art critic for a while. Let's see if there are any toys for you to play with."

They walked off a little way, and Sam shook her head. "You ended that sentence with a preposition."

"Colonels can't correct generals' grammar."

"You correct my father's grammar all the time," she protested.

They turned a corner, and Jack waved his hand. "That's different."

Sam decided not to press the issue. They completed their circuit of the temple and came up empty, but Daniel was apparently finding lots with which to occupy himself. "Sam's going to love it here," the archaeologist was saying as the two returned.

"Why's that?" she asked.

Daniel looked up briefly. "Oh, it looks like the culture that built this had a tradition of the rich men owning lots of concubines."

It was Jack's turn to laugh as Sam rolled her eyes. "Sir," she said, "promise me something."

"What?"

"Promise me I won't end up in a harem this time."

"But that dress was such a nice color for you. . ."

*~*~*~*

The Quinns' visit to Earth was far more than a mere social call. The Langaran government had recently asked Jonas to put together a gate exploration program, and as Earth was the only place they knew of with humans running such a program, they decided to send him back to the SGC to observe.

The other major reason for them coming was for Amelia to meet the Tok'ra for some examinations. She had been one of the first humans on whom Tretonin had been tested as a remedy for an illness. Jacob Carter had taken a symbiote to cure his cancer, but four years later, Amelia had had another option.

The drug had been more experimental than she would have liked, but there had been no getting around it: without treatment, she would have died from breast cancer that had gone too long undetected and unchecked. When given the option, she had taken the risk that came with Tretonin rather than the certainty that came without.

So she had become the Tok'ra's guinea pig of sorts. While they had managed to reverse the dependency in the original users of the drug, the process of synthesizing it had its own complications, and dependency was still a concern. Amelia had been their test subject, and so far there had been little cause for worry. She was showing no signs of relapse, and as the traces of the drug continued to leave her system, she had had no problems. The Tok'ra would be very pleased about this.

She had to remind herself of this, that what she was doing was for the good of a lot of people, maybe even the good of the galaxy, as she sat on a cold examination bed. The new doctor at SGC, a Doctor Martin, wasn't nearly as likable as Doctor Fraiser had been, she thought sadly. Amelia had heard about the heroic circumstances in which the woman had died, but it didn't really help her that much. She still wished that the woman was still there.

Or that any woman was there, for that matter. Her doctor back in Maryland had been male, and she'd always been uncomfortable with him during these examinations. Doctor Martin was nice enough, but it still felt odd to have him doing a routine examination for lumps on her breasts. And she could tell that Jonas _hated_ this. He stood three feet behind Doctor Martin, his eyes narrowed and his arms folded across his chest. Fortunately, the doctor had placed them in a corner of the infirmary and pulled up some privacy screens during this examination, so Jonas didn't have to give death glares to anyone who came through the door.

"Well, ma'am," the doctor said, picking up his charts, "it would appear that you have no signs of relapse now. I'm sure the Tok'ra will be running tests of their own once they arrive, but for now I think the cancer has been completely eradicated."

Martin backed up, writing something down, and Jonas stepped forward. He immediately started buttoning up Amelia's blouse with a vengeance. Amelia could only smile and suppress a laugh. "That's good to hear, Doctor Martin," she replied.

"And I must say, it's been nice to deal with something like this again."

"Excuse me?" Jonas said, looking over his shoulder.

The doctor apparently didn't catch the tone of Jonas' voice, and he wasn't looking at them to see the glare either. "Trust me, a case like Mrs. Quinn's is a cake walk in comparison to some of the stuff I've seen here lately," he replied. "Even taking into account the fact that breast cancer is so rare in a woman her age. I've been here for two weeks, and I've seen more stuff that belongs in a science fiction movie than belongs in a real hospital."

Amelia frowned at this. A _real_ hospital? What did he think this place was if it wasn't the frontier of medical research?

"Oh," said Jonas, relaxing somewhat. "What happened to the last doctor?"

"Only lasted three days," Martin replied, finally turning around. "Couldn't handle the stress, I guess. What they told me when I got transferred here was that SG-9 had come back when all of them turned blue with pink polka dots. They'd contracted some kind of virus, and they were fine after a week. Of course," he added, "that doctor didn't last long enough to find out that they were okay."

"Really?" said Amelia. "Polka dots?"

Doctor Martin shrugged. "I didn't see it myself, and there's no photographic evidence."

"That's a shame," Jonas replied. "Though I think I can understand why they wouldn't want pictures taken."

Briskly the doctor moved away. "I'm going to take some samples down to the lab so the Tok'ra don't yell at me for not doing their job for them. You're free to go."

He left without another word, and Amelia buttoned up the top button of her blouse. "Well," she said, "I'm glad that's over."

"You know, something tells me that he's not going to last much longer," Jonas commented. "Especially if he comes across some virus that changes skin color."

"Probably not." Amelia looked at her husband. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he said, drawing the word out as he crossed his arms over his chest again. "I just wish you didn't have to go through this. I don't just mean the examinations — I mean the whole thing."

She smiled and looked down for a moment before meeting his eyes. "I know," she replied. "Most of the time it's not so bad."

Jonas smiled and stroked her cheek. Then with both hands he cupped her face, and she tipped her chin up as he leaned down to kiss her. This was hardly unusual, but Amelia couldn't truthfully say that she minded the fact that the honeymoon phase of their relationship seemed to still be going strong after a few months of marriage. It wasn't like she was going to object to him kissing her whenever he felt like it. Jonas was incredibly good at it — after all, he was a quick study.

With the privacy screens drawn, there was no reason to keep this one short, so it was a long time before either of them relinquished. Occasionally it was nice just to spend their time alone like this, without the pressures of the galaxy around them weighing down on them heavily. Amelia felt a little lightheaded when Jonas pulled away, her lower lip caught between his for the longest time. He rested his forehead against hers, and she threaded her fingers through his hair lazily. "See what I mean?" she asked. "Not too bad at all."

"Mmm, no, I don't see what you mean," he replied, more than a hint of mischief in his voice. "You'll have to explain it again."

Amelia smiled broadly at the challenge. "I think I can do that," she murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him once more.

*~*~*~*

Three hours later, Daniel had completed very cursory study of the paintings in the building, which he now determined was a temple of some sort. He wanted to do some more analysis of it, but for now he'd have to be content with studying pictures and rubbings back in his lab at SGC. Jack was getting bored.

He and Sam had been sitting on the ground in the first passage for a couple hours now, talking about everything from old missions with Jonas Quinn to ice skating. Jack was determined, it seemed, to get Sam up to his cabin in Minnesota somehow, and maybe the prospect of snowmobiling and skating would do the trick. Of the four of them, she was the only one who hadn't ever been there. Daniel had only been there once. He'd never had much of a stomach for alcohol, and, well, Jack liked his beer.

There was a lull in that conversation, and Jack cleared his throat. "How much longer, Daniel?"

"I'm packing up," he replied. "Some help would be nice."

They both stood, but Jack walked toward the exit while Sam came over to help Daniel gather up his equipment. She smiled at him apologetically. "Sorry I haven't been more help."

"It's okay," he said. "Someone has to keep Jack out of trouble."

Still smiling, she looked down. "Yeah, it's a full-time job."

"Besides, it's been a while since you two got to sit around and talk," Daniel commented.

"Yeah, it has." Sam glanced over at Jack for a moment before stuffing a roll of paper into Daniel's bag. "Don't get me wrong, I like being in command now, but it's just not the same without the general."

"I know what you mean."

He zipped up his bag and started to say more, but Jack beat him to it. "Teal'c," he said, "Carter, we've got company."

Sam pushed herself up and followed the Jaffa out of the building. Daniel was half a minute behind, and when he got there, he saw a man big enough to swallow him whole, and a gun that Jack could only dream of having. Flanking him were two men somewhat smaller, but armed enough to make Daniel just a little bit nervous.

On his left, Jack sighed. "I really hate it when this happens. . ."

*~*~*~*

Chapter 4: Up to Interpretation

"Daniel," Jack was saying, "I think it's your turn."

"Right," Daniel replied.

He took a step forward, opening his hands before the three men with the guns. But before he could say anything, one of the men said: "Sie betreten unbefugt auf heiligem Boden." Surprised, Daniel blinked a few times. "Wie heißen Sie?" the man continued. "Woher kommen Sie?"

Daniel looked over his shoulder at Jack. "They seem to be speaking some form of German," he said.

"So what did they say?" the general asked.

"I think they asked who we are and where we came from."

"Then why don't you tell them?"

"Yeah." Daniel turned back to the men with their guns and cleared his throat. It had been a while since he had had to use German, of all things. "Wir, uh, wir kommen von einem Planeten als Erde bekannten."

The man waved his gun across the group before training it on Daniel once more. "Sie haben unbefugt auf heiligem Boden betreten!" he cried.

"Daniel. . ." said Jack.

"Yeah, I think he just said that we're trespassing on holy ground."

"He doesn't seem very happy about it."

"Yeah, uh, wir wußten nicht, daß es heilig ist."

The man's eyes narrowed, but his gun lowered. "Warum betreten Sie?"

"Wir sind Forscher--"

Suddenly all three guns were up again, cocked and aimed at heads this time. Daniel stepped back and raised his hands, trying to look like he wasn't a threat. Apparently it wasn't working. "Sie sind Forscher? Sie stehlen unsere Schätze!"

"No-- nein, nein!" said Daniel. "Daß machen wir nicht--"

"Daniel!" Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jack's gun raised. "What's going on?"

"I said we're explorers, they think we're thieves." Daniel kept his hands in the air. "Wir sind keine Diebe, wir sind Forscher--"

"I don't think they like that word--"

"Daniel, there's gotta be a way to explain--" said Sam at the same time.

And no one got any further than that. A second after Daniel was cut off, he felt himself getting shoved out of the way, and a shot rang out.

*~*~*~*

One of the first things Hailey did once Jonas and Amelia were settled was to introduce them to the base's executive officer, Colonel David Dixon of SG-13. He, knowing essentially what the Quinns were there for, led them into the command room to observe.

"How many teams are out now?" Jonas asked, glancing about at the various monitors.

"Three," Colonel Dixon replied. "SG-17 has been out for a week now. They're supposed to get home this afternoon."

From his computer, Davis said: "Colonel Dixon, attempting to contact SG-1 and General O'Neill on P4X-242."

Dixon nodded, and the gate dialed. The formation of the event horizon was not a new sight for Jonas, but he always watched, fascinated. Amelia did too.

"Never gets old," he said, putting his arm around his wife's waist when she stepped up to him.

"I think it'd take generations for this to get old, Jonas," Amelia said quietly.

Meanwhile, Colonel Dixon was trying to elicit a response from SG-1. "Colonel Carter, this is Colonel Dixon. General O'Neill, this is SGC," he was saying. He looked over at the Quinns. "They've probably wandered out of range or something."

"MALP readings?" Jonas asked, taking a step toward a computer screen and folding his arms across his stomach.

"Should be coming in now, sir," said a technician.

Accordingly, data from the MALP started scrolling on the screen, and Jonas leaned forward. "Whoa, would you look at that. . ."

"What is it, Jonas?" Amelia asked.

"Quinn?" Dixon prompted. "What's going on?"

"Oh, it's nothing major," he replied. "At least, I hope not. But they could be in for some nasty weather here in the next few hours."

Dixon frowned. "What makes you say that?"

Jonas pointed at the data. "Temperatures are in the eighties, dew points in the sixties. Strong winds, too, and I guess they're advecting moisture."

He caught the quizzical look the colonel shot at Amelia. "He's going through Weather Channel withdrawal," she whispered loudly.

Dixon looked down, laughing while Jonas lightly punched her arm. "Love you too."

"So what could they be looking at?" the colonel asked.

Jonas stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "I don't have a clue about this planet's atmosphere, except that it'll support human life," he answered. "But if it's anything like Earth's. . .well, I'd need an actual sounding, but they could be looking at a severe thunderstorm. You know, hail, strong winds, maybe a tornado."

"I don't know how you know all this stuff, Quinn." The colonel raised both brows and exhaled heavily. "Well, General O'Neill and Colonel Carter know what they're doing. Most of the time."

Jonas laughed. "Yeah, they've managed to get out of a lot of tight spots. I don't think this will be much of a problem."

"Yeah, it's Doctor Jackson you have to keep your eyes on. He's liable to up and die again."

Amelia looked at the colonel and laughed. "He's done it before," the man continued. "He can do it again without too much trouble."

She shook her head. "I still can't get over all the weird stuff you guys see every day."

"With all due respect, Mrs. Quinn," Dixon said, "you're married to a man who's genetically removed from you by about three millennia, and you don't live on the planet where you were born."

She laughed. "I guess you're right."

Dixon looked them over. "Well, Mr. Quinn," he said, "I really don't think that an armed escort is necessary for you two. I think enough people around here know you that Captain Hailey doesn't need to babysit you."

He glanced at the captain, who smiled. "Thank you, sir," she replied.

"Dismissed, Captain." The young woman exited, and Dixon turned his attention back to the Quinns. "Were you provided with cards?"

Jonas nodded, pulling his security card from his pocket. "Hailey said that this won't give access to the gate room, or to the armory and such."

"We'd rather not have people wandering around in there. You know how it works -- you only get in on official business," the colonel replied. "But otherwise, you'll have free reign of the base, and if you need to see those areas for some reason, just ask me."

"Thank you, Colonel," said Jonas, taking Amelia's hand in his. "If you don't mind, I think we'll go take a look around."

"Not a problem," said Dixon, and the two started to walk off. "Just don't be surprised if nothing's changed."

Jonas didn't bother mentioning that he was actually hoping for that. It was nice to think that, amid all the changes that had happened back home, this little home-away-from-home was still mostly the same.

*~*~*~*

If there was only one thing Jack O'Neill knew in life, it was that guns of any kind pointed at his people were generally a bad thing. He seemed to see where this conversation was going a lot faster than Daniel did. Him and his stupid tendency to trust everyone.

When Daniel tried to explain again, it was clear to Jack that they weren't buying it. He saw the man's finger twitch on the trigger, and that was enough of a warning. He pushed Daniel back with one hand and lunged forward, knocking the gun away as the man fired.

There was silence in the moment after the shot, and Jack looked around. Daniel had a look of mild surprise on his face, but he was still standing. The shot had gone wide. Then Jack heard a quiet gasp, and he looked past Daniel and Teal'c. A pale hand was grabbing the Jaffa's shoulder for support, and then Sam dropped to the ground.

"Daniel, fix this!" he said, shoving the gunman aside. "Carter!" Teal'c was already kneeling next to her, his hand behind her back to support her. Jack hurried to her other side. "Carter, where'd you get hit?"

"Leg," she said.

He looked down. On the outside of her left leg was a bullet hole, oozing blood. Jack swallowed hard. It didn't look good, but he wasn't about to say that. "I've seen worse mosquito bites, Carter," he said.

She gave him a small smile, then winced. "I want legs on my vest, sir."

"Yeah, well, I still want sleeves on mine." Jack looked down on the ground and saw something glint. He picked it up -- it was the bullet, and he rolled it between his fingers. There was an indentation in it, and he ran his hand through the grass between Carter's legs. "Damn it."

"What, sir?"

"Bullet splintered," he said. "I can't find the rest of it."

"Oh." Jack happened to glance up and see a flash of concern on her face. But she shook her head and changed the subject. "How's Daniel doing?"

"He wasn't shot."

"Not what I meant."

"Oh." Jack looked over his shoulder and saw Daniel gesticulating broadly and saying something about "Wissenschaftlerin," whatever that was. "Could be better."

They passed a moment in silence. "Sir," Sam said, "you need to dress this."

"Indeed," said Teal'c.

He slung his pack from his shoulder and opened it up. Meanwhile, Sam began fishing in a vest pocket for something. Jack put his hand over hers. "Teal'c's got what we need, Sam," he said.

Still, she pressed something long and thin in his hand. "Use this, sir," she said. "It's faster."

Jack looked down and saw the brand name on the white plastic wrapper and dropped it like it was a snake. He looked up at her in mild horror. A tampon had been the last thing he'd expected. "Carter, is there a _reason_ you have this with you?"

"I never go off-world without them," she replied. "You wouldn't either."

"And I wouldn't know." He shuddered. "What do I do with it?"

"Oh, give it to me," she said, sighing and taking it from him.

As Sam began to unwrap it and Teal'c continued digging, Daniel squatted down beside Jack. "How's she -- Sam, what are you doing with that?"

"Not being a complete chicken," she replied with only Sam's matter-of-factness. Jack cringed as she started to insert the tampon into the wound.

"Oh." Daniel turned his attention back to Jack. "They said that the nearest village is half a day's walk away."

Jack sighed. "But?"

"They've offered to get her to their village healer, but I don't think they've got anything that'll really help. They were suggesting that Teal'c use a tourniquet."

"Right, because amputation is exactly what Carter needs. We're going home." He looked back at Carter, who was holding gauze down on her leg while Teal'c wrapped an ACE bandage around it. "Do you want me to -- I don't know, hold something?"

Sam nodded at the first aid kit that Teal'c had pulled out. "Get a biohazard bag out," she said.

Jack did as he was told, and she dropped the tampon, now soaked in blood, into it. "Oh, for crying out loud. . ."

"What, sir?"

"It's all -- bloody!"

She gave him a look that asked him what he expected, then turned her attention back to her leg. "It's not like I--"

"Okay, no more talking about that." In disgust, he sealed up the bag. "You two almost done?"

Teal'c paused a moment, finishing off the bandaging. "We are ready to depart, O'Neill," he said.

"Yeah," Jack replied, handing him the bag. "How are we going to do that?"

"If Colonel Carter does not object, I will carry her to the Stargate."

"That won't be necessary," she said. "We're not more than a few miles from the gate. I can manage on my feet with a little help."

"You sure, Sam?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah." She looked around at the three men. "Help me up."

Accordingly, Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c got her slowly to her feet -- or foot, as might be more accurate. Daniel turned to the onlookers again and said something in German. A couple of them responded, and then they all bowed to Daniel. He bowed in return, and then he looked over his shoulder at the rest of the team. "Okay, we can go now."

"You sure we don't need a permission slip or something?" Jack asked as he helped Carter get her arm around his neck so she could use him as a support. Daniel just rolled his eyes.

*~*~*~*

Chapter 5: Don't Look Back

As they made their way, slowly, slowly, to the gate, Sam found herself, for the first time in recent memory, praying. Praying that they would make it there before the storm got much worse.

The first couple hours of travel had been bad enough. Daniel and Teal'c had had a hard time keeping pace with her and Jack, who were inevitably slowed by the fact that Sam couldn't very well walk on a leg with a bullet hole through it — with a piece of bullet still lodged in muscle on top of that.

That was the worst of it, before the storm started. And maybe during, too. She couldn't put pressure on her left leg without wanting to scream. She held it in, of course, but Jack, pressed against her side with an arm around her waist, could probably feel the way she was holding her breath except when absolutely necessary. He didn't ask if she was all right. He knew very well that she wasn't.

Occasionally they paused so that Sam could breathe again and not want to cry. It was during these moments that she turned around to see the fluffy, unassuming towers of cloud building in the distance. But with every stop the travelers made, the clouds drew nearer and nearer, their texture hard like rocks. Eventually, though, there was no point in looking back, because the once-storybook clouds were now a roiling menace above them. While they were stopped for Sam's benefit for the hundredth time, the heavens opened and promptly began to drown them.

So they made their way through the forest again, stopping less often because they needed to get home faster now. Jack looked at her every time she made a sound, which was more often now. So she was praying, praying silently, praying incoherently, praying in pain. Praying that at the least, there wouldn't be hail.

It was apparently too much to ask. The giant drops of water eventually turned into hailstones, first the size of peas, then gradually working their way up to nickel-sized. There it seemed to level off a while, but the repeated pinging was starting to sting. Sam wanted a helmet more than anything — except maybe enough Valium to tranquilize an elephant. That sounded nice too.

"Jack!" Daniel called, on Teal'c's far side. The wind was now strong enough that they had to yell to be heard. "Jack, are we going the right way?"

"Yeah," the general shouted. "Why?"

"'Cause there's a river up ahead that wasn't there before!"

"We crossed a creek bed, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. "This may be the result of flooding."

And it was. Sam had thought it odd earlier that the creek bed was so large — nearly as wide as a city block, and much deeper than any of them were tall — but now it was obvious: this river obviously only appeared during floods. It wasn't terribly uncommon on Earth, but it was a little unnerving now. They had walked across on dry land earlier. Now they had to cross a raging torrent.

Sam looked up and saw the angry thrashing of the river reflected in the dark clouds above. "How deep do you think it is?" she asked as they finally made their way to the river bank. Teal'c and Daniel were already into the water up to their hips.

"Ten, twelve feet, maybe more," Jack said loudly into her ear. "Think you can swim it?"

"I don't think I have a choice, sir," she replied. Then by herself, she waded out into the water. General O'Neill was maybe six feet behind her.

By the time she'd gotten into the water up to her knees, Teal'c and Daniel were swimming for shore, though their paths were more at a diagonal than straight across, due to the current. Sam could feel the bandaging on her leg, which was never intended to be worn while walking for miles, loosening and wriggling. But she kept going, hoping to get out of the shallow area soon so she could swim across like Daniel and Teal'c.

Daniel yelled something she couldn't decipher. Then suddenly, with the force of a zat, the water surged and Sam, just as she was ready to go from wading to swimming, felt her feet getting swept out from under her, and the water buried her.

More than slightly panicked, she instinctively tried to breathe. Clearly that had been a huge mistake, and her lungs started burning. Regaining some sense of composure, she started using her arms to try to get back up to the surface, but the more she struggled, the more the current forced her down. She felt her left knee scrape the floor, and as dirt crept into the gunshot wound, Sam wanted to scream.

Abruptly she felt herself being yanked up from behind. Something strong had hooked under her arms and was now pulling her to the surface. The scream was caught in her throat through the ascent, but once the water broke around her, she had to cough out all the water she'd tried to inhale. By the time she was breathing again she was too tired to scream.

"Carter!" Jack's voice sounded distant, but after a minute she realized that he was holding her up in the water.

"I'm okay, sir," she called as loudly as possible.

She looked around a little and saw Daniel and Teal'c running after them on shore. "Get to the gate!" the general was yelling. "Come back with help!"

Daniel hesitated at the water's edge, but Teal'c apparently urged him on. The pair hurried off into the gathering darkness, leaving Jack and Sam in the heavy current.

The next she knew, General O'Neill had wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned back, riding the current on his back with her lying atop him, like he was a raft. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was better than drowning, she supposed. She only wished that she wasn't facing the sky, that she could look at something other than the clouds beginning to rotate as the river carried them in its midst.

*~*~*~*

Daniel had a habit of remembering his studies at inopportune times. Now he remembered the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities destroyed by God because of their wickedness. Only Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and his wife and daughters escaped the destruction. But Lot's wife didn't get to safety, because she looked back on the city when God had instructed them not to, and she had turned into a pillar of salt.

He didn't dare look back now.

Now, without Sam's condition to slow them, he and Teal'c ran through the grain fields toward the gate. The storm was getting much, much worse. Hail that had started out as pea-sized had grown to quarter-sized stones that were, to put it quite bluntly, painful. Daniel didn't really have a whole lot of experience with this kind of weather, and he didn't really want it.

Jack and Sam were out there somewhere, and Daniel could only hope that that river was carrying them away from the worst of this storm. He was pretty sure that he and Teal'c were remaining in its path.

As they ran, it got harder and harder to see, with the rain and hail obstructing their vision. So when they finally saw the gate, it was a lot closer than they had expected. It was a good thing, too. The wind was picking up enormously, making it very difficult to hear.

"Daniel Jackson!" Teal'c was yelling. "We must dial home immediately!"

"Yeah, thanks for the reminder," Daniel muttered under his breath. Within a few seconds he had made it up to the DHD and was dialing. The ring began to spin accordingly, though he could barely hear its motion over the storm. Teal'c, meanwhile, was looking back.

There was a look of awe on the Jaffa's face, and Daniel risked a glance. Not far from them was a wall of cloud stretching from earth to sky. Through the forest it crossed, its rotation uprooting trees and hurling them in every direction. For a moment Daniel could only watch in amazement. He'd seen movies about tornadoes before, but none of them compared with this.

And this was growing larger. Rapidly.

"Teal'c, we have to go now!" he yelled, punching their iris code into his GDO. The two ran up the steps to the gate amid debris being thrown around them. Daniel stopped and looked over his shoulder once more. The storm was moving faster than he'd thought, and in the time it had taken the wormhole to be established, the base of the twister was perhaps only a few hundred feet away.

It was going to pass right over the gate, and as Daniel turned and leapt through the event horizon, he could only hope that the gate would be strong enough to withstand it.

*~*~*~*

Captain Hailey had less to do than usual, given the fact that General O'Neill had pulled her from her usual duties in order to escort the Quinns and then Colonel Dixon had pulled her from this duty too. So she ended up joining them during lunch, which turned out to be highly entertaining.

Amelia Quinn would never be described as shy, despite the fact that she was rather a quiet, calm person. Hailey never would have guessed she was related to Senator Kinsey if she hadn't been told the woman's maiden name. However, conversation with her was quite interesting, and in great supply. The woman seemed thrilled to be talking with someone who shared a common planet of origin.

Hailey's fork was halfway to her mouth when the klaxons went off and Harriman's voice rang through the base intercom. "Unscheduled offworld activation!"

Quickly the table evacuated. Hailey didn't usually jump up and run to the gate room whenever there was an incident like this, but since Colonel Carter was off-world, someone had to be in the gate room in case there was some sort of malfunction with the gate. She wasn't the world's expert in gate technology, but she was better than nothing.

Jonas and Amelia went along, and soon they met up with Colonel Dixon in the control room. "What's going on?" he demanded of the technician.

"Receiving IDC, sir," said Harriman. "It's SG-1."

"Open the iris."

Harriman did so, and soon what appeared to be a large tree branch came flying through the gate. It smashed into a wall, and several SFs ducked. "What the. . ." Dixon muttered.

Half a second later, Doctor Jackson and Teal'c ran through the gate. "Close it!" Daniel yelled. Harriman didn't need to hear the order twice. The iris spun shut, and a few seconds later, after a few thuds against it, the wormhole dissipated.

Colonel Dixon grabbed the microphone. "Where are General O'Neill and Colonel Carter?" he demanded.

"Sam's been shot," Daniel said, breathing heavily at the bottom of the ramp. He and the Jaffa were drenched. "Jack stayed behind with her. He told us to come back with help."

The group in the control room hurried down into the gate room. "Sam's been shot?" Jonas repeated as they entered.

Daniel nodded. "We ran into some people who didn't like us very much. Sam got shot in the leg."

"Why didn't you stay behind to help them? Why'd O'Neill send you back?" Dixon asked.

"And why are you all wet?" Amelia added.

"There was a great storm," Teal'c replied. "We were forced to cross a flooding river, and O'Neill and Colonel Carter were swept downstream."

"Storm?" said Jonas. "Did you get pictures?"

"Jonas!" said his wife, as she backhanded his stomach.

"Sorry."

"_Anyway_," Colonel Dixon said, "we need to get back there as soon as possible, right?"

"Negative," Daniel said. "There was a, uh, a. . . This is going to sound really crazy — there was a tornado on the ground."

"Really?" said Jonas.

"Yeah." He sighed. "It was headed straight at the gate. Couldn't have been more than two hundred yards behind us."

Hailey blinked several times before looking at the Jaffa. "The highest wind speed here on Earth was recorded in a tornado — it was well over three hundred miles per hour. Can the gate withstand that kind of wind speed?"

"I do not know, Captain Hailey," Teal'c replied. "But it is possible that this tornado will damage the gate of P4X-242."

"Well, isn't that just peachy," Dixon said. "How long do you think till we can send a MALP through?"

"Safely? Probably another hour," Daniel replied.

"Damn." The colonel waved Daniel and Teal'c toward the door. "Get to the infirmary and let Doctor Martin check you out. We'll try dialing out again in an hour. If it works, you're taking SG-11 and a medical team with you." He stopped suddenly. "There weren't any unfriendlies, were there?"

"Other than the people who shot Sam?" said Daniel.

"There was no indication of Goa'uld presence, if that is what you mean, Colonel Dixon," Teal'c interrupted. "However, we had little contact with the indigenous people of the planet."

"Right, 'cause Colonel Carter got shot." Dixon nodded toward the door again. "Infirmary."

*~*~*~*

In reality, it was more like half an hour later that they attempted to dial up P4X-242 again. Jonas explained to Colonel Dixon that the worst of the storm would pass with the tornado, which would probably take much less than an hour. It didn't take long for Dixon to authorize the attempt, since he knew as well as anyone else that time was critical for Sam.

So, by the time Daniel and Teal'c returned from the infirmary, the gate had already encoded the first three symbols. "Hey, what's going on?" Daniel demanded upon entering the control room. "I thought we were waiting an hour."

"Mr. Quinn talked me into trying sooner," Dixon said.

"Chevron four encoded," Harriman announced. Down below there was a flurry of activity in the gate room.

Daniel, meanwhile, turned his attention to the man who had once replaced him on SG-1. "And why is it a good idea to dial up now? There isn't even a team assembled to get back there."

Jonas shrugged. "The worst of the storm is probably past. We can try to establish a wormhole now, and if it works, we can send a team through when they're ready. But it's entirely possible that we're not going to establish a wormhole, so we'll need as much time as we can get to figure out what we're going to do."

By then the fifth and sixth chevrons were engaged, and then, instead of the familiar whoosh of the wormhole, they heard only the clank of the chevron refusing to lock on the point of origin. "Chevron seven will not lock," said Harriman.

In obvious frustration Daniel turned around, running one hand through his hair. "It could be a problem here, couldn't it?" Amelia asked gently.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied.

Half a second later, the gate activated again, which startled Amelia slightly. Of all the people in the control room, she was certainly the least experienced at this business. "Close the iris," Colonel Dixon ordered.

"Closing iris, sir."

Meanwhile the klaxons had gone off all over the base, though the steady rhythm was starting to settle into comfortable nothingness in Amelia's brain. The iris closed abruptly, and Dixon addressed the technician once more. "Are we getting any transmissions?"

"Uh, yes, sir. Receiving IDC." Harriman looked over his shoulder. "It's the Tok'ra, sir."

"Let 'em in." The colonel looked over at Amelia and Jonas. "It's probably for you."

"Yeah." Amelia looked out to the gate room and watched the watery circle appear from behind the iris. "Should I go down there?"

Dixon shrugged as he headed toward the stairs. "Up to you."

Daniel sighed heavily then. "I'll be in my lab," he said, distantly, heading out of the room.

Teal'c followed him, and Jonas touched Amelia's arm. "Hey, you stay here and say hello to Malek, okay?" he said. "I'm going to see if I can help Daniel."

"All right," she replied. Jonas kissed her cheek. "Don't let him have any coffee."

Her husband laughed. "Don't worry, I won't."

He went up the stairs while Amelia headed down, following Colonel Dixon through the heavy steel door of the gate room. Just as she was walking in, Malek came through the event horizon and the wormhole destabilized behind him. "Malek," she said, smiling broadly.

"Amelia," he replied, managing a less-than-serious expression upon seeing her. "It is good to see you again."

At the foot of the ramp, he bowed, and she nodded back to him. "You too."

He exchanged greetings with Colonel Dixon, and then looked around curiously. "Is your husband with you?" he asked.

Amelia nodded, a little surprised that the Tok'ra had heard of her sudden, unprecipitated marriage to Jonas. "He's with Doctor Jackson at the moment. There's a. . . situation."

"I see," Malek replied. "Please accept my congratulations on your union, and extend them to Jonas Quinn."

"I will."

"Malek," said Dixon, "as much as I love pleasantries, we do have a situation, like Amelia said, and you may be able to help us. Why don't you come with us?"

"Certainly," the Tok'ra replied. "Please, lead the way."

A few minutes later they had joined the trio in Daniel's lab, and the events of the day had been explained to Malek, who, along with Amelia, Jonas, and Colonel Dixon, listened attentively to the story explained in more detail. At the end, he made a careful study of the concrete floor. "The High Council of the Tok'ra is meeting today," he said. "Our resources are limited currently, so that would be the best way to petition them for help. We might be able to spare a ship to take you to the planet in question."

"That. . . would be perfect," Daniel said, as though he hadn't thought of it, even with a Tok'ra sitting in his lab for a quarter of an hour.

"I cannot make any promises," Malek qualified, "but I will try."

"We are in your debt, Malek," said Teal'c, nodding.

Malek looked at Amelia. "I will return as soon as possible to conduct the tests we had planned." She nodded in reply.

Dixon and the Tok'ra left the room, presumably heading toward the gate room. It was quiet in the lab after they left, which was understandable. The three men were all very close to Sam, and the thought of her being hurt and them being unable to do anything about it must have been difficult. Standing next to Jonas, Amelia touched his hand and leaned her head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. "She'll be all right," she said.

"Yeah," Jonas replied, but distantly. "I hope so."

*~*~*~*

Chapter 6: Till the Storm Passes Over

By the time Jack managed to get himself and Carter to shore, he figured that they'd gone several miles, around a big curve in the river. The storm had also caught up with the flood. "Okay," he said, pulling Carter a few feet from the bank. "Let's take inventory."

He looked down at her leg. She didn't have to say anything. The gauze had wormed its way out of the bandages, and blood was trickling down her leg in watery rivulets. Jack looked up at the ever-darkening sky and down again. "We've got to get to shelter," he said, gingerly tucking the gauze under the bandage. "We'll deal with that later."

"Shelter, sir?" Carter asked as Jack pushed himself to his feet.

"Yeah. . ." He turned to his right, then to his left, and pointed at a darkened spot in the low hills. "If we're lucky, there's a cave about three hundred yards from here."

As he pulled her to her feet, Carter coughed. "Good. We could be getting more hail any minute now."

Jack looked at the sky again, contemplated the possibility of hail, and without further ado hoisted her onto his shoulder. "Sir?" she cried, her voice alarmed. "What are you—"

"We don't have time for you to walk up there," he said.

"I can walk just fine, sir."

"I won't tell anyone I had to carry you, Carter." He started up the hill, and with every step he was more and more surprised at how much she weighed. Sure, she was soaked and wearing bulletproof armor, but she wasn't exactly a twig — too much muscle.

Technically he was supposed to wrap his arm around her thighs for this particular carry, but, wary of damaging her already-injured leg, he settled his arm across her backside, his fingers digging into the fabric of her pants. "What are you doing?" Sam suddenly demanded, her voice high.

"Groping you?"

"_Sir_!"

"For crying out loud, Carter," Jack said through gritted teeth, "I'm trying to save both our butts here. Now _really_ isn't the time to be feeling yours up." He paused, considering something that'd rile her up again. "Although. . ."

"Just because I'm injured doesn't mean I can't zat you, sir."

Jack smirked. "Yeah, but you'd land on your head, and then where would you be?"

"Shut up, sir."

Had he not been carrying her, he would have laughed.

Carter had stopped protesting by the time Jack got up the hill — a task more difficult than anticipated. When he set her down on one foot in the cave, her face was flushed and her hair disheveled from hanging upside down like that. "You okay?" he asked.

"No, General, I got shot," she snapped, reaching behind her to rest her hands against the wall.

There was a sudden flash and a crack of thunder, nearly simultaneously, and Carter jumped, only to wince a moment later. "Come on," Jack said. "Let's get back away from the mouth of this cave."

He held her arm as she hobbled deeper into the cave, and with every step Jack wanted to wince. She was clearly in a lot of pain. Once he'd had enough of watching her limp, he pulled her vest off along with his own. "Let's get you situated," he said, helping her settle down to the cave floor.

There was another close flash of lightning, and Carter winced again. "Sorry, sir," she said at Jack's perplexed look. "I never liked storms."

"Just means you're normal," he replied, grabbing his pack and pulling his first aid kit out of it.

"Got scissors? Probably not." She reached for her vest and started rummaging in pockets again. "Get your knife or something and cut the fabric away."

Jack did as he was told, carefully cutting her pants leg off at the knee. Meanwhile Sam procured a pile of gauze pads, wrapped in cellophane, and more bandage, along with a small bottle. "Iodine?" said Jack.

"Yeah." Carter looked at the bottle and frowned. "We don't have a whole lot, but it's better than nothing. Get the old dressing off too."

The fabric and the used gauze removed, Jack took the small bottle from her and opened it up. Its strong smell, like every infirmary he'd ever been in, seemed to smack him in the face as soon as he got the cap off. "I really hate this stuff," he muttered.

"Me too." Her expression was uncertain, but she tilted her knee toward her other leg. "Go ahead."

He took a deep breath and tipped the bottle over slowly. The brown liquid looked as unenticing as ever, and he heard a tiny gasp from Carter as it made contact with the wound. Jack resisted the urge to shake his head. She really never did cease to amaze him. She'd been shot, and so far she'd gasped twice. That was all the reaction she'd had. Most men he knew would have put up more of a fuss than that.

"Okay, stop," she said hurriedly. Immediately Jack turned the bottle upright, and Carter let out her breath. Then she tilted her leg to the outside, and he finally got a good look at that exit wound. He knew, of course, that exit wounds were almost always worse than entrances, but this one was particularly nasty. And he'd used up at least half the bottle of iodine on the comparatively minor entrance wound.

There was no gasp the second time he started pouring the liquid, but when Jack happened to glance up, he saw two wet streaks on her face. And he was reminded suddenly of his son. He remembered teaching Charlie how to ride a bike — Charlie had begged him to take the training wheels off before he was really ready, but Jack did it anyway. The result had been scraped knees and a bruised ego, and Jack had used up most of a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on the abrasions. Charlie had put up a lot more fuss about it than Carter was doing now, he reflected as the last drops of iodine fell from the bottle.

She tilted her head back, and when she spoke again her voice was light and breathy. "Gauze pads," she said. "Exit wound first."

"I _know_, Carter."

"Sorry, sir."

She held a large gauze pad down over the back of her leg as Jack wrapped bandage around it. Meanwhile, he heard the hail starting. Carter heard it too, he figured, and her breathing started getting more and more erratic. By the time he had knotted the end of the bandage over the wound, she was whimpering softly. "Sam?" he said.

"Other one," she breathed. "Just do it, sir."

So he did, hating himself every time she made a sound. Another bolt of lightning struck very close, and she jumped several inches. This only caused her more pain, and Jack finally realized that they'd been doing this with no anesthetic, no pain killer of any kind. "Damn it, Sam, why didn't you tell me to give you something?"

"We don't have anything strong enough for it, sir," she said through clenched teeth. "Please, just finish it."

She didn't have to tell him twice. He finished wrapping the bandage around her leg and tied it off to put pressure on the wound. Then Carter choked off a sob, and Jack looked down. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't," she said, swallowing hard.

Above the roaring of the storm, like a jet taking off, there was another echoing roll of thunder, and she winced again. This time the tears started flowing down her cheeks more freely, and Jack touched her hand. She was freezing, he realized, and her breathing was getting erratic and labored enough to worry him. Most likely, she was going into shock.

He glanced around, looking for something on which to prop up her leg. It was a quick inventory: he had their two packs. Jack grabbed them and situated them beside him. Gently he grasped her ankle with one hand and slipped the other behind her knee. "Carter, I need to move your leg now," he said. She nodded, but as soon as he actually started moving, she started getting a little hysterical. She was just in shock, he told himself. But that didn't seem to help either one of them.

Once he'd gotten her leg elevated on the two packs, he rummaged through the first aid kit again and found one of those blankets that looked like a big sheet of tin foil. Once he had it unfolded, he draped it over her. Then he moved, settling himself between her and the outward-sloped cave wall. He pulled his legs up on either side of her, and she looked over her shoulder at him in confusion. "Conserving heat," he explained shortly.

"Oh."

With a little bit of hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her stomach and pulled her to him, so that she was leaning against him heavily as he in turn leaned against the wall. At the next flash of lightning, which seemed to be just yards from the mouth of the cave, she jumped again, and Jack moved to rub her arms, which were very cold. He thought it was a little odd that she was reacting so strongly to a storm, but she had been shot. She was in a lot of pain, so she probably wasn't thinking clearly.

After a minute or two, Jack realized that Carter was shaking some, and when he looked closer he saw that she was crying. "We'll be okay, Carter," he murmured. "Daniel and Teal'c are coming back. They'll bring help."

By then she was sobbing and shaking. This was more than a little surprising, but Jack reminded himself that she was in shock, and not reacting with her usual scientific manner. So he continued rubbing her arms, and with every lightning strike he thought of his son.

Charlie had been three years old. Sara had been somewhere else that night — Jack couldn't remember where. A storm had come in, one of those storms that last for hours on end, and Charlie had been terrified from the first bolt of lightning. He'd run out of his room as fast as his legs would carry him, straight to Jack, who had been watching TV on the couch. The boy had buried his face in the curve of his father's neck, clinging to him as the storm raged. He'd fallen asleep eventually, but Jack had stayed with his son asleep in his arms until Sara had returned.

"The storm scared him," he'd explained to her. "He just needed to know he was safe." And that was what Carter needed now. Despite the fact that she was one of the strongest people he'd ever known, she was in no state to handle everything calmly now. No one would be. He'd been in tough situations before, injured and alone, and there were always times when he thought he'd never make it back alive, though he never voiced it. He was human, after all, as were all the other members of the SG teams — well, except for Teal'c, but that was an entirely different barrel of fish. The point was, Samantha Carter was no exception to this. But fortunately, she wasn't alone.

Of course, what was fortunate for her might not have been best for him. Surrounding her was a faint but pervasive scent, something undeniably female. Most of the time he could bury things under regulations and insignias, but there were other times when he couldn't help but see an attractive woman in that uniform — a woman for whom he cared very deeply. Right now, it was hard to ignore, but he had to set it aside. Whatever Jack felt for her, Sam didn't need his internal conflict. She needed to know she was safe.

As he told her over and over that everything would be all right, Jack concluded that this was, for lack of a better phrase, decidedly weird.

He hadn't been keeping track, but he figured it was another half an hour before the lightning became distant enough that Carter didn't jump at every flash, and a few minutes after that he had relaxed her into sleep. Her head rolled to the side as she leaned against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her once more. The sun had set completely during the storm, and it was now almost perfectly dark in the cave. If only he'd thought to build a fire.

But he couldn't move her now, not when he'd finally gotten her to rest. And now that he thought about it, sleep sounded really, really enticing.

It wasn't comfortable, but he leaned his head back against the rock wall. In a few minutes he was asleep. But through the night, he seemed to wake at the tiniest sound, though Carter slept on in his arms.

*~*~*~*

Chapter 7: The Unexpected

Malek arrived at the Tok'ra base on Enna, a lush, mountainous world which had been described once in legend as a garden of the gods. Trees were not uncommon, though not so prevalent as they were in other parts of the galaxy, but the real beauty of the planet was the rich variety of flowers that covered the valleys. However, he knew he would have little time to enjoy the place, especially on this visit. His arrival was a surprise to those there who guarded the gate. "What brings you here, Malek?" said the leader of the guard. "You are not expected."

"The Tau'ri are in need of our aid," he replied. "I have come to address the High Council."

The other man nodded curtly and directed one of his men to escort Malek into the tunnels. They did not speak on their way. As soon as they had reached the rings, the guard left for his post again, leaving Malek to make his way alone.

It was not difficult to find the meeting place. The Tok'ra had managed to keep this base's location secret for nearly two years, so Malek knew his way around it very well. He soon arrived in the chamber in which five Tok'ra stood around a large table, with others behind them.

"And so we are all agreed that—" Persus was saying, but he stopped upon seeing Malek enter. "Malek, what brings you here? You were to meet with the Tau'ri."

"And I did so," he replied, bowing before them. "Shortly before I arrived on Earth, a problem arose there." He looked around and frowned suddenly. "Where is Selmak?"

"Selmak is returning from a mission," said Grand Council Garshaw. "He is scheduled to arrive within the hour." She looked at him with calm curiosity. "What news do you bring from the Tau'ri?"

Malek paused for a moment, wondering if the whole story needed to be told, but decided against it. "General O'Neill and Colonel Carter of the SGC have been stranded on a planet which they were exploring with the other members of SG-1," he said. "The colonel has been injured, and the Tau'ri were unable to establish a wormhole to the planet after Doctor Jackson and Teal'c returned. They fear that a storm which they barely escaped may have damaged the planet's gate."

"I see why you asked after Selmak," Kleyon of Orithia commented. She was a relatively recent addition to the Council. "Or more precisely, why you would wish that Selmak's host were here."

Malek fought back a moment's frustration. He had actually hoped for the opposite, that Selmak would _not_ be present for what might well be a difficult argument to win. By now he was fairly certain that some among the Tok'ra were growing weary of providing interstellar transport for the Tau'ri whenever they needed it. This wasn't strictly true, his host was reminding him, but others probably perceived it that way. At any rate, he suspected that Jacob Carter's love for his daughter would translate into absolute determination to help her, no matter what the Council decided. This would not bode well for Selmak's position among the Tok'ra. Malek hoped to convince them to help O'Neill and Carter before Selmak arrived.

Garshaw, however, stepped in before Malek could reply to Kleyon. "To what extent is Colonel Carter injured?" she asked.

"She was shot in the leg, I understand, by a weapon similar to the projectile weapons which the Tau'ri carry," he replied. "While I do not believe the injury itself is necessary life-threatening to her, she and General O'Neill may not have adequate supplies to keep her healthy until they can be retrieved by other means."

"Do not the Tau'ri have a ship of their own at their disposal?" asked Terin, whose host was a dark-skinned man who towered over the other Council members. "What of _Prometheus_?"

Malek nodded to the man. "_Prometheus_ is half a galaxy away from the planet, whereas we may have a ship capable of reaching them in a few days."

"This is true, Terin," said Alanik, who had until then watched Malek speak in silence. "If the situation is as dire as Malek suggests, then we may be their only means of assistance."

Alanik's position was somewhat surprising to Malek. She had, after all, been one who had agreed that Jacob Carter was becoming a liability to the Tok'ra. But when she looked at him, he could see that she knew what he was thinking. "You are surprised, Malek," she said. "But I know that what you request on behalf of the Tau'ri is no less than what they would do for any of our own."

"Alanik speaks wisely," said Garshaw. "Who here agrees with her?"

Terin shook his head. "We cannot always be holding Tau'ri hands and pulling them from their mistakes."

"And if we do not agree to help them," said Alanik, "then we lose two formidable warriors in the fight against the Goa'uld."

"Why do you assume they will die if we do not help them?" Persus asked.

"The Tau'ri may have knowledge of medicine, but it is limited," Garshaw replied.

"And even more limited is the extent of medical supplies which O'Neill and Carter may have with them," Malek interjected. "The SG units do not typically carry supplies for long-term treatment. If Colonel Carter is not properly treated soon, she will likely die from infection of the wound."

"The journey for _Prometheus_ would take months," Alanik added. "Many things could happen to them in that time, even if Colonel Carter does not succumb to complications."

Silence fell for a few moments, and Malek wondered how else he would convince the remaining Council members to agree. "We have two agreed, three opposed," said Garshaw. "We can assume that Selmak would agree to assist the Tau'ri, and so we are evenly split."

Malek exhaled slowly. The Tok'ra High Council ruled by consensus, not by majority. His position was now tenuous at best, but he had one more card to play, as the Tau'ri would put it. "Yes, we can assume that Selmak would agree," he said. "This Council has lately been divided often. Should we allow it to be divided again, over giving aid to an ally who has never failed us?"

This silenced the naysayers, and even Kleyon's expression softened, though Malek detected annoyance from her. After a few moments, Garshaw looked around. "Are we agreed?" she asked.

The four other members gestured their consent, and the Grand Council addressed Malek once more. "Do you have the coordinates for the planet in question?"

"Yes, madam," he replied, stepping forward to hand the data to her.

She looked at it for a moment. "This is not far from here," she said, surprised. "When Selmak arrives, we may send him to help Jacob's daughter."

"Some of the Tau'ri will wish to join him," Malek said.

"Of course," she replied. "Return to Earth and send them here. By the time they arrive, Selmak should be ready to depart."

*~*~*~*

Daniel's lab was occupied for the next few hours after Malek's departure with little variation. Teal'c started doing some kind of meditation — Amelia wasn't quite certain what he was doing, actually — and while Jonas and Daniel started looking over rubbings from a recent expedition, she amused herself by examining various artifacts strung out all over the lab. It seemed that Daniel and Jonas shared a fondness for clutter, something she'd always found distracting in her husband's behavior. Fortunately Doctor Jackson wasn't quite as bad about it.

When she got to the point where she'd spent at least half a minute staring at anything that wasn't covered by big sheets of paper, she turned around and sighed softly. Jonas looked up immediately. "Amelia?" he said in sudden concern. "Is something wrong?"

She felt a tiny pang of guilt. She hadn't meant to distract him. "I'm sorry," she replied. "I'm just. . . bored." Her voice had dropped off by the end.

"It's okay," he replied. "Understandable, actually. There isn't much here for you to do."

"I should go back to the VIP room and find something to read."

"No, no," said Jonas. He looked over at Daniel, who had turned in frustration to pacing. "Come here."

He was seated on a stool, and when Amelia stood beside him he wrapped his arm around her waist and laid his head against her shoulder. In response, she started rubbing his back as he explained the runes he and Doctor Jackson had been looking at. But now she was the one who was distracted, and as she rested her head against his, she asked, "Why did Malek think he might not be able to help?"

"Because," Daniel said, still pacing, "a few months ago, the Tok'ra practically broke off all contact with us."

"Why?" Amelia asked, somewhat startled by this news.

From his meditation position, Teal'c looked up. "The Tok'ra survive through secrecy," he said. "When the Tau'ri insisted upon knowledge of Tok'ra operations, they felt they could no longer continue to operate on such grounds."

"It wasn't just the Tok'ra, though, the Jaffa pulled out of the alliance too," Daniel added, running his hand through his already messy hair. "The Tok'ra and the Jaffa may not trust each other for a very long time."

"I suppose it's understandable," Amelia said, "though not really excusable." After a short pause, her curiosity got the better of her. "So why is it that Malek is still checking up on me?"

"Perhaps for one of many reasons, Amelia Quinn," said Teal'c. "You have been most cooperative with them in their Tretonin research, an operation which will benefit them greatly."

"And," Daniel added, "you're not part of the SGC. You haven't been asking questions about their operations."

"I see." Amelia bit her lip for a moment. "How bad is it?"

Daniel leaned against a counter. "Sam hasn't seen her own father in months."

Amelia was about to reply, but she was interrupted by the klaxons and the announcement of an off-world activation. A few minutes later she was still standing with Jonas as Malek entered the room, looking a little tired. "My apologies for the delay," he said. "But the High Council has agreed to give you what aid you require. You are to depart for the Tok'ra base and meet the ship which will take you to the planet in question."

Daniel and Teal'c headed for the door immediately, and Amelia looked down at Jonas. "Aren't you going with them?" she asked.

He appeared to waver for a moment, but that was all. "Thanks," he said softly. Then he stood and kissed her briefly. "I'll see you soon."

"Be safe." Then he disappeared through the open door with his friends.

So Amelia and Malek stood for a moment in silence. "Do they not need you to accompany them to the base?" she asked.

"No," he replied. "Colonel Dixon has the coordinates to Enna, and they will be met at the gate by Selmak."

"Selmak?" she said. "You mean Jacob Carter?"

Malek nodded. "He will be taking them." He glanced about the room for a few moments. "Doctor Jackson has many interesting things here, but I would like to conduct my examination of you as soon as possible. I do not have much time to spare here before I must return to Enna."

Amelia nodded, armed with her new knowledge of the problems between Earth and the Tok'ra, and wondering if perhaps some among the Tok'ra disapproved of Malek's current work. "Certainly," she replied, giving him a small, almost forced smile. He gestured to the door. "After you."

*~*~*~*

Chapter 8: The Long Haul

Jack awoke for the final time the next morning long before the sun's rays had begun creeping into the mouth of the cave. Of course, for all he knew the sun had been up for a while by the time he had woken up. The cave faced the other direction, but he couldn't get up to check it out.

It was actually a little disturbing when he did wake up. A second later he remembered the events of the previous day, but apparently he'd adjusted to desk life a little too well. Waking up with his head against a rock and Carter half on top of him was something he could have lived without.

Carter.

He didn't dare disturb her, despite the fact that she was sprawled on top of him in a rather awkward and painful way. Had their arrangements been somewhat more lacking in rocks and cold ground, it might have been quite pleasant, if quite torturous at the same time. But she was still warm, still breathing, so he just wrapped his arms around her waist lightly and tried to ignore the thought of standing up after spending all night in this rather unnatural position.

She awoke an hour later, groaning as she tried to move her leg. "Easy there, airman," Jack said, putting one hand on top of her head to keep her from trying to sit up too quickly. "Let's try not to hurt anyone today."

"Sir?" she said, groggy. "Where are we?"

"P4X-242," he replied. "Remember? We got the scenic tour yesterday."

"Yeah, I think I got a souvenir bullet." She began to move off of him, much to his relief. "Where are Daniel and Teal'c?"

"Haven't got a clue, actually." Jack slowly moved away from her, glad to stretch his limbs. "I haven't heard the radio yet, but I told them to get back here with help. They'll be here as soon as they can."

"I know, sir."

He looked at her cautiously. "You feeling okay? Aside from the obvious."

"Yeah," she said, frowning. "Why?"

"You were acting a little weird last night." He paused. "Why don't you like storms?"

"Because no sane person would?"

"Carter."

She sighed. "When I was really little Dad was stationed at Tinker, outside Oklahoma City. Some of my earliest memories are of running for a storm shelter."

"Oh." That made sense. "You mean you lived in Oklahoma and never learned the state song?"

She gave him a confused look, so Jack stood up then and stretched, ignoring his knee's protests as he wandered around the cave a bit. It was fortuitous, he reflected, that there hadn't been any other. . . things in this cave. Somehow he didn't like the idea of coming across lions or tigers or bears in the middle of the night.

He looked around at their supplies. "Where's your P-90?" he asked.

She got a confused look on her face before closing her eyes and tipping her head back. "Aww, crap. I gave it to Teal'c yesterday."

Jack sighed. "Sidearm?"

She drew it from its holster on her leg. "Right here."

"Good." He squatted down in front of her and gingerly pulled his pack from under her leg. "I'm going down to the river to get some water." Retrieving a thermos, he started to walk away.

"I'll try to be here when you get back."

Jack stopped mid-stride as she said that, but then just shook his head as he went on.

The world outside the cave smelled wonderful. It had been a long time since Jack had been stationed anywhere where he was surrounded by mostly farm land, and he'd forgotten how sweet the soil could smell after the rain. And there had been a lot of rain the previous night. Long after the worst of the storm had passed, the rain had continued to fall. He was actually a little surprised that he and Carter had managed not to get any wetter than they already were during the night.

He made his way down a slick incline, rather amazed that he'd made it up that hill with Carter slung over his shoulder. It wasn't something he wanted to attempt again. And actually, he didn't really want to go up this hill again, even without carrying Carter, but he also knew he didn't have much choice. So he filled up the thermos at the river as quickly as he could and headed back up, trying to ignore his knee again. But before he reentered the cave, he made the short trek up to the top of the hill and surveyed the view.

The sun was just finally peeking over the mountains in the east, casting brilliant beams of light into the hills and plains below. Jack turned around, and in the cultivated prairie he saw the gate rising up from the fields, and what he saw almost made him panic.

The naquadah ring was mangled and twisted now. He wasn't an expert in the field, certainly, but he had a feeling that the gate wouldn't work properly if it was all bent up like that. He wondered what had happened during the storm that would damage the gate that badly. Carter would know.

As he headed down into the cave once more, he realized that this explained why Daniel and Teal'c hadn't shown up with help yet. At least now he knew.

He came into the cave, trying to look slightly less worried than he actually felt. "What is it, sir?" Carter said immediately. Apparently the ruse wasn't working.

Jack sat down in front of her and started rummaging. They had a small supply of water purifying tablets, and just to be on the safe side he dropped one into the thermos and let it do its work while he pulled the metal cups out of their packs. "Thirsty?" he said.

"Yeah." She shifted uncomfortably and accepted the cup of water he poured for her. "What's wrong?"

He sighed. "I don't think the gate is operational anymore."

She froze, the metal cup at her lips. "What do you mean?"

"It's all. . . bent." He used his hands to try to model it, but gave up when she gave him a blank stare. "I don't know a whole lot about how those things work, but I don't think it'll work when it's been twisted around like that."

"Oh." She was silent for a few minutes, lost in thought. "It explains why Daniel and Teal'c didn't come back," she finally said.

"Yeah."

"So. . . what are we going to do?"

"Wait," Jack replied, looking over his shoulder to the mouth of the cave. "And if that doesn't work, you'll come up with something."

*~*~*~*

Daniel, Teal'c, and Jonas stepped through the gate on Enna and were met by a disturbingly large contingent of Tok'ra warriors. But one on the edge of the group called for them to lower their weapons, and Jacob Carter stepped forward. "Daniel, Teal'c, Jonas, it is good to see you," he said in Selmak's voice.

"Hi, Selmak," Daniel said, hopping down the stairs with the other two close behind. "It's good to see you again."

The older man lowered his head and Jacob surfaced. "Yeah, and I wish we had time for small talk. Come on, we'll talk on the way out of here."

Jacob's ship wasn't far away, and the four men traveled to it in silence. Even Daniel's inner archaeologist was mute as he saw a ruin not far from their path. But at this point, he was having a hard time forgetting about the blood, and how much pain Sam had clearly been in.

"So what's going on?" Jacob asked, as soon as the ship was no longer requiring his full attention.

They were gathered in the cargo area by then. Teal'c had settled into meditation, despite the fact that kelnoreem was no longer necessary or possible, and Jonas looked like he was having a hard time keeping his excitement at going off-world with them hidden. "How much did the High Council tell you?" Daniel asked, clapping his hands together lightly.

"Not much," Jacob replied. "They told me that Sam had been shot, and that was enough for me to get the ship ready."

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that." The archaeologist let out a long breath. "We had an incident with the locals. We'd been exploring what was apparently a sacred temple of some sort, and they accused us of trying to loot their treasures."

"Were you?"

"No!" Daniel sat up straighter, a little offended. "No, we were hoping to gain some appreciation of the culture on the planet."

"Yeah." Jacob sighed and sat down across from him. "You know, on some planets that would be considered looting."

"Well, I guess that's a debate for another day." He pushed his glasses up. "Anyway, Jack was letting me handle it, but—"

"Whoa, hold the parade," Jacob interrupted. "What was Jack doing off-world?"

"He went with us," said Daniel, rather haltingly. "Don't ask me why, because I really don't know."

Jacob sighed. "I sincerely hope that Jack wasn't responsible for this, or else I'm going to have to have a very long chat with him."

Daniel decided not to address how badly Jack would take a lecture from a Tok'ra, despite the fact that he on occasion seemed to like and respect Jacob. This decision was based in part on the fact that Jacob then asked another question. "Where the hell is Jack, anyway?"

"I was getting to that, actually," Daniel replied. "He's with Sam."

"I see."

"So can I get back to the part where I tell you what happened?"

"Sure."

"Anyway, Jack managed to keep them from shooting me, but a stray bullet hit Sam in the leg," he replied. "I managed to convince the locals that we were scholars and wanted to study their planet. They had a hard time buying it."

"Yeah, I'm sure we can have a good talk about anthropology later," said Jacob. "Sam was hit in the leg?"

"Indeed." Teal'c startled them and Jonas a bit when he finally spoke up. "O'Neill believed that the bullet had splintered and that a part of it remained in her leg."

"Lovely," Jacob replied dryly. "So what possessed you two to come back without them?"

"We left by O'Neill's orders," Teal'c replied. "A great storm came upon us, and Colonel Carter was unable to cross a flooding river. O'Neill stayed behind to assist her, and he ordered us to return to Earth."

"It's a good thing you did, too," Jonas finally interjected. He looked over at Jacob. "We tried to dial P4X-242 a couple more times. Never could establish a wormhole."

Jacob closed his eyes, and they were talking to Selmak again. "I understand that some of the Tok'ra attempted to establish a connection with this planet as well, and were unable to do so," he said. "However, it was not one the Tok'ra had ever visited, so we do not know the gate's conditions."

"The gate was in working order when we arrived on P4X-242," said Teal'c. "I have seen and used much worse."

"So why isn't the gate working anymore?" Selmak asked.

"It was the storm," said Jonas. Selmak looked at him oddly, and he elaborated. "Doctor Jackson told us that this storm produced a tornado, and that the gate was sitting in its path. Even if the gate is still standing, it's entirely possible that something was damaged."

"Jonas Quinn is correct," Teal'c stated. "Many things may have transpired to render the gate inoperative."

The Tok'ra sighed, and when he spoke again, it was Jacob. "Well, it's going to be about six days before we get there. I guess we have lots of time to discuss what happened to the gate."

As Jacob rose and left the room, Daniel closed his eyes and sighed. Six days suddenly sounded like a really long time.

*~*~*~*

Malek ended up having to go back to Enna to run his tests. Doctor Martin, for whom Amelia was feeling an increasing dislike, insisted that Malek wait until all his tests were done for the day. Of course, the Tok'ra was hardly pleased about this, and in an effort to spite the human doctor he walked out of the infirmary, taking with him the vials and flasks he had borrowed from Martin, and left the planet.

And he was still wearing a look of cold annoyance when Amelia arrived in the infirmary the next morning. When she walked in, he sighed. "Forgive me for my delay, Amelia," he said. "When I arrived on Enna, I was presented with other matters to address."

"It's all right, Malek," she replied, taking a seat on one of the examination beds. "So, what's the verdict?"

Malek frowned. "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that phrase in this context."

"Sorry." Amelia cleared her throat. "What's the result?"

"It's been six months since we took you off Tretonin," he said, "and your immune system is functioning normally. According to the records you've provided, you've been exposed to several new diseases since you arrived on Langara, correct?"

Amelia nodded. "The first couple were a little scary. The Kelownans don't have much in the way of antibiotics, even with what Earth has provided them."

"But you recovered without incident?" When she nodded again, Malek gave her a small smile. "Then the Tretonin has functioned as it is supposed to, as a supplement to your body's ability to fight disease rather than as a replacement."

She smiled in return, but that faded as a gentle wave of sadness washed over her. "So if the drug works," she said softly, "I guess this is goodbye."

He looked up at her then, an oddly bemused smile on his face. "Don't be ridiculous, Amelia," he said. "No true scientist would take six months' worth of observations as proof of success."

She looked away, feeling a little silly about her assumption. "Sorry," she said. "What can I say, I'm a musician, not a scientist."

Malek set something aside (Amelia rather believed it was the Tok'ra version of a Palm Pilot, but had never asked, for fear of having to explain personal digital assistants) and leaned against a counter. "When you have mastered a composition, do you cease to practice it?"

"Of course not."

"The same is true in research. One cannot take a handful of results and treat them as fact." He stood up straighter and picked up his data device again. "I have two other humans who have been kind enough to assist me in this. Their ailments were drastically different from yours, but they are faring well. I hope to have another test subject soon, but as you know, it can be difficult, given the Tok'ra's situation at present."

Amelia nodded. "But you think it has promise?"

"I do." Malek let out a long breath. "I hope to test the drug soon to determine if it can be used in a more short-term manner than your treatment, and a more generic version which would not require the genetic customization I did with yours." He paused. "Forgive me, I should have told you this earlier. Your husband and his companions left Enna safely yesterday."

"Thank you," she replied. "I'm glad to hear it."

"Are you concerned about him?"

Amelia laughed lightly. "No more than usual. He's good at getting himself into trouble, but that just means he's had lots of practice getting himself out of it too." She sobered. "I'm more worried about General O'Neill and Colonel Carter, to be honest."

Malek smiled sadly. "Jacob Carter would do anything for her," he said. "It is said in some cultures that nothing can surpass a father's love for a daughter."

Amelia nodded, thinking of her own father and wondering how much Robert Kinsey had done and would do for her, considering the coldness of their relationship, then of Jonas and how much he had done and would do. "I'm not sure I entirely agree," she said. "I think a man's love for a woman could surpass that."

"Then in that we agree."

*~*~*~*

Sam's butt was really sore by about halfway through the first day. This whole thing was getting really inconvenient. Aside from the pain in her leg, there was a lot of general discomfort too. And then she and the general had realized exactly how awkward it was for the both of them when she needed to. . . relieve herself.

She was hobbling back into cave after insisting that Jack let her go outside for some fresh air. He was being wonderful about all of this, which was making matters worse in some respects. If he hadn't been taking such good care of her, she might have been able to take her mind off the pain and focus on getting off the planet. It had almost been easier when she was hurt and alone and being chased by bad guys.

But for now, she had Jack, his company, and his care. He kept her amused throughout the day, talking about how he was going to have to do a ton of paperwork on this incident and that he'd left two doughnuts in his office. (He was sure that Jonas was going to eat them.) They talked about missions Sam had led recently — she questioned her decisions and he confirmed them. If he'd done anything in seven years, he'd taught her how to lead, and he was obviously proud of that.

Then, as the sun was setting, he sat across the cave from her and asked, "So how's Pete?"

The question was innocent enough, but he didn't look at her as he asked it. "He's fine," she answered shortly. "Haven't seen him in a while. We've been kind of busy with other things lately."

"No trouble in paradise, I hope."

The sardonic edge to his voice was enough to make her wince. Unfortunately he looked up at just that moment, and rendered her completely unable to answer him. Instead, they watched each other, and Sam wondered when she'd seen him look that bitter, or if her eyes were merely playing tricks on her. Finally she couldn't take much more of it, and she looked away.

"Do you love him?"

Shocked that he'd asked, Sam looked up sharply. But then he shook his head. "That was out of line," he said. "You don't—"

"No," she suddenly replied. "I don't. But I think I could, if. . ."

She let the word hang in the heavy silence between them, wishing for once that she could complete the phrase aloud. If you told me to move on, not some hallucination of you. If you told me you didn't care anymore. If you told me it'll never work. But the words wouldn't leave her mouth, and the air between them seemed electrified. Though they were six feet apart, his presence was very real to her, as though she were near a generator putting out an EM field. There was a potency to the silence, and Sam couldn't bring herself to ask him to break her heart.

The conversation ended then. Jack stayed for only a minute more before he got up and walked out of the cave. Darkness was coming by the time he returned.

*~*~*~*

Chapter 9: In Starlight

The sunset on P4X-242 was spectacular. If Jack was completely honest with himself, he knew that it wasn't all that different from the sunsets back home, but it had been a while since he'd actually watched one. Now, he and Carter were sitting at the mouth of the cave, watching the sun sink below the horizon in a splash of orange and red. It was almost enough to make them forget.

"Wish I had my telescope," Jack said, tossing a rock down the hill as the stars began to pierce through the twilight.

"I'm glad you don't." At his surprised look, she shrugged. "I suspect it would have been me or the telescope."

Jack shook his head. "I would have sent the telescope back with Teal'c and Daniel."

She smiled. "Recognize anything up there, sir?"

Another pebble went tumbling down the hill. "Nope. Wasn't really expecting to."

"We're too far away to find our sun," Carter said. "Even if we knew where to look."

Jack pointed up at a group of stars. "Does that look like a duck to you?"

She followed his gesture and blinked. "No, sir," she said. "It looks like an elephant."

"Nah, it's a duck." He pointed elsewhere in the sky. "That's an elephant."

"If you say so, sir," Carter replied, sighing. "I guess this is what the ancient Greeks did for entertainment at night."

"Them and everyone else in history." He looked over at her suddenly. "Oh, you mean the stargazing, not the arguing."

She looked down and smiled. His attempt to cheer her up had evidently worked, to a degree. "Daniel would probably tell us all about the Greeks and the constellations."

"Yeah, sometimes I think they should have stayed in more," Jack said. "Some of their pictures were really stretching it."

"Maybe it was the Goa'uld who picked out the constellations."

"Yeah, like I needed one more reason to shoot them."

Carter laughed a little at that. "It would make some sense, sir," she said. "They would have had a more vested interest in the stars than the Greeks would."

"It's funny how we still navigate by them."

"Why try to fix what isn't broken?" She paused. "Have you ever had to navigate by them on Earth, sir?"

"Yeah." He threw another rock. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Her apology was immediate and contrite, but the damage was done. He didn't like thinking about Iraq, and he knew he was going to for a while unless he did something about it.

Suddenly she started coughing, and Jack put his hand on her back. "Carter?" he said as the coughing fit subsided. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, sir." The response was predictable, though her voice sounded like rocky soil through a sieve.

"No, you're not," he said. "Don't make me order you."

"Really, sir, I'm fine," she said, though coughing again. "Aside from getting shot yesterday."

He waited until she had stopped coughing. "Carter, look at me," he said. She turned her head. "When I'm asking that, I'm not asking as your commanding officer, or even as your friend. For now, I'm asking that as the closest thing you have to a medic."

"Yes, sir." She looked back out to the stars. "It hurts, sir."

Jack took a deep breath. They'd had one shot of anything stronger than ibuprofen, and he had given that to her that morning.

"Don't worry about it," she said, taking a deep breath. "I should be able to sleep without much difficulty."

They went a long time before either of them spoke again. Then it was to discuss the storm the previous night, and what might have caused the gate to be deformed as Jack had described. Finally, she said, "There's no way they could get Prometheus here in any reasonable time."

"I know."

"The Asgard are busy too, and there's no telling what the Tok'ra are up to—"

"Carter." The gentle reprimand was enough to get her to shut her mouth. "They'll find us," he added. "Don't get all worried about it."

She took a deep breath. "Yes, sir."

In another couple hours, Carter was getting tired, so Jack helped her move away from the mouth of the cave, to the darkness within. But through the night he sat at the entrance, periodically tossing pebbles down the hill, but more often watching her as she slept, her rhythmic breathing interrupted by weak coughs that prevented Jack from getting any rest.

*~*~*~*

Through the darkness of space the Tok'ra shuttle traveled, and Jacob Carter sat at the controls, deep in thought.

It had been months since he'd seen his daughter, and he missed her so much that sometimes he wanted to quit this whole Tok'ra business and go back home. He'd spent his entire adult life in the defense of his country; hadn't that been enough? But then, Selmak would remind him in less-than-gentle terms that what was going on out there was a lot more than anything he'd ever faced on Earth. He didn't like admitting it, but the symbiote was right.

Still, Selmak was also quick to remind Jacob that he liked Sam a lot too, and missed her just as much. It was an odd facet of blending with a symbiote, according to Selmak. He'd never had a host who had children, so finding out just how deeply his host's feelings ran for the woman was quite an experience. But it hadn't taken long for Selmak to realize that there were plenty of reasons to love Jacob's daughter.

His odd, internal dialogue was interrupted when Teal'c entered the bridge, taking the unoccupied seat. "Do you not need to rest, General Carter?" he asked.

Jacob started to speak, but then closed his eyes to allow his own voice to take over. "No, I'm fine," he said. "Selmak and I have been having a good time worrying."

"I understand your concern," Teal'c replied.

"Yeah, you know what it's like, maybe better than I do." Jacob sighed. "Hell, your kid's still a kid. Sam's an adult. She's been taking care of herself for a long time now."

"My son is a warrior, General Carter, and has been trained as such from his childhood," said Teal'c. "He can, as you say, take care of himself."

"You know, this is exactly why I never ask Sam about this kind of thing," the Tok'ra replied. "There are some things I'd just rather not know if I can't do anything about it."

"I concur," said the Jaffa. "That Rya'c fights against the Goa'uld and fights well is all I must know."

A long pause followed, highlighted by the brilliant streaks of the hyperspace window as they traveled. The silence was only broken when Jonas entered. "Wow," he said, and both Jacob and Teal'c turned to look at him. "Oh, it's just. . . it's been a while since I'd seen this," he added, gesturing at the view of space. "I'd kind of forgotten how beautiful it can be." He paused. "I wish my wife could see this."

"When did you get married, Jonas?" Jacob asked.

"Few months ago," he replied, his voice muffled, as he'd just taken a bite out of a candy bar or something.

"I'll assume my invitation got lost in the wormhole."

Jonas grinned and took another bite. After chewing a bit and swallowing, he said, "Yeah, I guess it didn't make it."

Jacob looked back out at space and shook his head, smiling. "You really are something else, Jonas."

"Why, thank you, Jacob. That means a lot, coming from you."

Teal'c looked over his shoulder, one eyebrow cocked. Jonas just smiled.

"So do you really think a tornado could do that kind of damage to a gate?" Jacob asked, out of the blue. "I mean, sure, I saw Twister, but—"

"Twister?" Jonas repeated. "What's that?"

"A movie, came out a couple years before I joined the Tok'ra," he said. "It's about some meteorologists chasing storms. Of course, an old buddy of mine was a meteorologist in the Air Force, and he said it was the most wildly unrealistic thing he'd ever seen."

"Oh, I think Sam mentioned that movie once," Jonas replied, leaning against the doorway. "The sensors available on Earth aren't resilient enough to withstand the wind speeds that have been produced by some tornadoes, so we really don't know what they're capable of. And we are talking about a different planet here, so there's no telling what could have happened."

Jacob sighed. "You know, that doesn't make me feel better."

"Sorry," Jonas replied. "But I think you can be pretty sure that General O'Neill's taking good care of her."

And the Tok'ra shook his head, though smiling. "You know, that still doesn't make me feel better."

*~*~*~*

Chapter 10: Hedging the Bet

On the third morning, Carter awoke unable to feel her toes on her left foot. After a few minutes of panicky wriggling of her toes, she got that horrible pins-and-needles feeling, but at least it was a feeling. Unfortuately, the motion sent spikes of pain through her leg again, and she gasped, pushing herself up onto her elbows.

"Carter?"

Jack's voice was deceptively calm. He didn't say anything else, and he didn't need to. She opened her eyes with some difficulty, after having squeezed them shut, and saw him sitting next to her already, not bothering with the usual military facade of disinterestedness. "Carter, talk to me."

"You've gotta get this thing out of me, sir," she said, her breathing labored. "I think the bullet splinter is moving around in there, doing more damage."

"What happened?" He was already digging through the first aid kit.

"I woke up and couldn't feel my toes —" She groaned something unintelligible. "Please, sir, it hurts!"

He held out something to her. "Ibuprofen. It's the strongest thing we've got — it looks like we lost some stuff in the river the other night."

She took it gratefully. It was better than nothing. "Thank you, sir."

"Can you roll over?" he asked, gently.

She nodded, and with his help she turned over to her stomach. Jack began unwrapping the dressing on her leg. It stung as he pulled the gauze off, but Sam didn't mind that so much. It would have had to come off that day anyway.

When she looked up again, he had taken off his jacket and balled it up, and was holding it out to her. "Here, use this as a pillow, or something." There was a look of grim determination on his face as he took off his belt too and handed it to her. It was leather, and she knew what he meant by it. "I know it's cliché," he said, "but I don't want you biting your tongue during this."

While Sam braced herself for this, Jack pulled out his Swiss army knife and his lighter.

She'd tried to get herself ready, but when Jack touched the hot knife to her skin and made an incision, it was all she could do to keep from screaming. The knife seared through skin as he hunted for the splinter. She was alternating between groaning and biting down on Jack's belt as the pain continued.

Vainly Sam tried to concentrate on elementary calculus, but until the knife was out of her leg, there was no mental respite in math. In the haze of pain, she thought she heard the general say something, but she couldn't respond. Instead, she buried her face in his jacket, her arms over her head.

Hot metal touched her skin again, and she couldn't keep the primal scream from escaping her throat. As stoic as she liked to be sometimes, she just didn't have the wherewithal to handle this right now. She heard him say something again, but she couldn't decipher it, because she was too occupied with blacking out.

When she regained consciousness, she was still hurting tremendously, but the pain was much, much duller than it had been. "Sir?" she said after lifting her head and spitting his belt out of her mouth.

It was then that she noticed Jack was rubbing her back. "I'm right here, Carter," he replied. "The bullet's out."

"Thank God," she mumbled, just before passing out again.

*~*~*~*

"Okay, Jonas, what's your bid?"

By the fourth day the boredom on the tel'tak had descended to the point that Jacob had produced a set of cards, ostensibly kept on board for solitaire. But now he had three passengers with him, and Daniel figured that he was ready to play something other than six hundred different versions of that.

"Uhh. . . I'm gonna go with. . . three."

"You sure?" Daniel said.

"Hey, stop second-guessing me. I'm new at this."

"Teal'c, what's your bid?" Jacob said.

"I will predict five, General Carter."

"Daniel."

"Three."

"And I'll go. . . six. Gentlemen, we're four tricks over."

Daniel didn't pretend to know what that actually meant, figuring that if he didn't know by the end, Jacob would explain it. He vaguely remembered his parents playing spades with each other when he was a kid, but this didn't feel familiar at all.

"Jonas, you're up," Jacob declared.

"Right." After a moment's deliberation, he tossed out the ace of diamonds. "Might as well start off on the right foot."

"Do all humans have this aversion to left feet?" Teal'c asked as he played the five.

Daniel placed the nine of diamonds on Teal'c's card. "No, actually, it's a phrase dating back to—"

He was interrupted by Jacob suddenly snorting. "Right," Daniel said. "That was a joke."

Jacob played the two and nodded to Jonas. "Your trick."

"Yeah, I'm dead for a year and Teal'c develops a sense of humor. Who would have thought," said Daniel, as Jonas collected his cards and laid out the queen of clubs.

Next came the two, the four, and the three of clubs, and Jonas smiled. "Hey, I'm doing better than I thought I would," he said, gathering up the book.

"Don't get cocky, kid," said Jacob. "We're not