2026: Like Father, Like Daughter

By: ChristianGateFan

CATEGORY: Drama

WARNINGS: Major Whumping, Physical and Mental

AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:

http://christiangatefankat.110mb.com/

CHAPTER 1

The smell of fresh coffee pulled Daniel Jackson from his work, and he put down the photos of the parchment from SG-1's latest mission. Stretching, he rubbed his eyes, careful of his contacts, and scrubbed a hand through his short gray hair before standing and wandering out of his study. He could hear Charlie and Adrian playing in the living room, and smiled to himself as he slipped into the kitchen. There he found Vala pouring herself a cup of the freshly brewed coffee, her back to him.

Daniel came up from behind and wrapped his arms around her once she'd finished. She jerked a bit in surprise, but then set her coffee down and turned to him, putting her arms around him as well in return.

"What are you doing?" she asked, the corner of her mouth quirking.

He smiled back. "Well, I was just going to get myself some coffee, but you were in my way."

"Oh, I was? I'm sorry; I'm done," she smirked. She was backed up against the counter, and with Daniel in front of her she was trapped.

"Nope, too late. You've got to pay for it now," he replied menacingly. Then he leaned in and kissed her. Vala's arms came up from his waist to go around his neck, and she returned it heartily.

Daniel pulled back after a moment and pushed a graying lock of black hair out of his wife's face, grinning. "Congratulations; sixteen-and-a-half years of parenting, and we've got one of them through high school."

"And she's such a smart one, too--but she got that from you."

"Oh, come on, you contributed to that plenty. Now you have to kiss me again for selling yourself short."

Vala just shrugged, so he kissed her again. This one would have lasted longer, if it wasn't for the sudden chorus of 'ewww!' that came from the doorway into the living room. They stopped and turned to see their six and seven year old sons, Adrian and Charlie, respectively, standing there.

"What?" Vala questioned. "You've never seen a kiss before?"

"Yeah, but not up close!" Charlie complained. "Yuck! Right, Adrian?"

Adrian only nodded, wrinkling his nose a bit. He was both the younger and the smaller of the two, almost dangerously thin. He was healthy enough, thankfully, but he would always be small. He had been born a month premature, thanks to complications in the pregnancy due to the fact that Vala had been recovering from a stab wound in her torso inflicted when she was about a month or so pregnant with him. It had been a wonder the fetus had even survived that. Adrian was their own little miracle.

Daniel chuckled. "Why don't you two go upstairs and play in your room?"

Adrian bolted off immediately, and Charlie shrugged and followed him. Daniel turned his attention back to his wife. "Well, that was easy enough."

"Mm-Hmm," Vala commented, before pulling his head back down. A few moments later they were interrupted again by the sound of pounding feet above their heads and a frustrated yell.

"Mom, Daaad! The boys won't leave me alone!"

Daniel sighed. "I'll take care of it. You drink your coffee."

"All right. I'll fix yours for you."

"Thanks," he smiled, then let go of her and headed for the stairs. He took them quickly, but he didn't run up them very often anymore. He only had one sort-of bad knee, not two definitely bad ones like Jack, but his friend still teased him about it sometimes. He'd gotten used to that by now, especially since his hair had gone completely gray four or five years ago and he'd looked even more like the retired general.

At the top of the stairs Daniel turned left. He didn't have to open the door to go into Janet's room, because the boys had already pushed it open and were inside pestering their older sister.

"Boys, I thought I said go play in your room, not bother Janet," he said as he stepped in, hands on his hips.

The two younger children looked up at him from where they stood next to her bed, pelting her with questions about what she was doing and fooling with the things on her bedside table. Though mostly Charlie was doing to talking and Adrian the messing with things.

Janet, cross-legged on her bed with her lap-top computer (which was a whole lot smaller than the ones Daniel remembered…), looked up as well and sighed.

"Thank you, dad, to the rescue."

Charlie pouted. "But Janet's more fun than the stuff in our room."

"But she's trying to get some work done. She'll play with you when she's finished. Right, Janet?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, of course, once I'm done with this insane speech."

Daniel nodded at the boys. "See? She'll play later, now go on, out of here for now, let her work." He shooed them out and closed the door behind them, then went over to Janet's bed and sat on the edge of it near her.

"How's it coming?"

She sighed and shook her head, and her straight brown hair, highlighted with strips of blonde, fell over her shoulders. "I don't know. All right I guess…I never asked to be Valedictorian."

"But you deserve it," Daniel smiled. "Don't worry too much about the speech. You'll do fine."

Janet ducked her head, a bit embarrassed. "If you say so, dad."

Daniel reached out and nudged her face back up with a finger under her chin. "I do say so. Come on, you can speak eight regular languages, two dead earth languages, and three alien languages fluently. Just writing a speech in little old English can't get you down," he encouraged.

Janet smiled back now. "Thanks…but it's still nerve-wracking."

"I know. But you can do it." Then he hugged her, and stood. "Okay, I'll leave you alone now. If you need any help, I'll be downstairs--probably working on that new translation."

"It still giving you problems?"

He shrugged. "A little bit, but that's all right. It's not Ancient or anything so important, but I'll get it eventually.

"Want some help?"

"If you want to take a crack at it, that's fine with me, but not until after you finish that," Daniel chuckled, motioning towards the computer. "Graduation is next weekend."

"I know," she grinned.

Daniel started to go then, but when he got to the door, he remembered what it was he'd been meaning to tell her all day. He'd been waiting for the right time, and now seemed as good as any. He turned back around.

"Hey Janet?"

She looked up again. "Hmm?"

He started back toward her. "Can I ask you a question?"

Janet nodded, and he sat back down. "What are going to do this summer?"

"Well, I was pretty much just planning on getting a job to save more for college; I've put an application in at a few places."

"Have you heard back from any of them yet?"

"Not yet; it's only been a few days."

"So you don't really have a job yet."

She blinked at him suspiciously. "No sir….why?"

Daniel smiled, enjoying this already. "Well I know of an offer that's open, if you want it."

She raised an eyebrow. "What kind of offer?"

"I've talked to Sam, and she said that there's enough extra money in the SGC's budget to pay a temporary addition to SG-1 for the summer…"

Janet's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

"You mean…I can go on missions with you guys and stuff?"

He nodded. "Yep. Granted, you won't get a lot of money or anything, just a little bit more than you would make working at a fast food place or something, but it's still getting paid."

Janet grinned. "I don't care about the money, dad. If I can do that, I wouldn't care if I didn't get paid at all."

"I thought that was how you'd feel," Daniel laughed. "So that's a yes?"

"Of course it's a yes!" Janet giggled. She sat forward and hugged him again, squeezing hard. "Thanks dad!" Daniel returned the embrace, and after a moment she sat back and looked at him curiously.

"What is it?"

She just studied him for a moment. "Are you sure you're okay with this? I haven't been through the stargate since I was eight. You and mom have been really paranoid about me getting near it since what happened then."

Daniel sighed. "I know, but that's only because we were so worried about you then….we didn't want anything like that to happen again. But we've talked, and you're older now, and we know you want to go again…" It had been hard at first, deciding to let her do this if she wanted, but they couldn't keep her locked up on earth forever, as much as she wanted to get off of it sometimes.

Janet nodded in understanding, and smiled a bit. "Thanks, dad," she said again, and this time it was just as heartfelt, but in a much different way. He knew she couldn't completely understand, but she seemed to have something of an inkling of what it had taken to agree to that when Sam had suggested it.

"You're welcome." Then he stood again. "But now I'd really better get out of here. You have to work on that, and everyone will be over here in a couple hours so I should leave you to it."

She smiled. "Why am I having two graduation parties again?"

Daniel smirked. "One for those with security clearance, and one for those without." At any type of gathering with all the family and friends involved or linked to the stargate program, conversation inevitably turned to something to do with the SGC as well. So they were having one party tonight for close family and friends, and another next weekend after graduation for her friends from school and the neighborhood and such.

"Oh, right," she grinned back. Then she sighed. "I wish Travis could be here though…I know even if he was here he would have to come to the 'non-security-clearance' party, but still….Why does he have to be stationed halfway across the United States? It's not fair."

"It could be worse. He could be in another country," Daniel pointed out.

"I know," she answered miserably.

The sound of the doorbell ringing came from downstairs, and suddenly Daniel was grinning. He stood. "I'd better go get that."

"Won't mom get it?"

He shrugged. "She busy in the kitchen, I think." That may or may not have been true, but it didn't matter. Vala wouldn't get the door because she had instructions not to.

Janet sighed and got up, the corner of her mouth coming up a bit. "You'll never get down there fast enough." With that, she bolted out the door, and he followed her as quickly as he could out of her room and down the stairs. By the time he hit the ground floor, he heard the door being flung open, but silence followed.

Grinning madly to himself, he waited just around the corner out of site, and Vala came up beside him, smiling as well. They exchanged amused glances, and then the silence broke with an overjoyed squeal. That was joined by a young male chuckle, ansd that was when Daniel and Vala chose to make their appearance.

What they found just inside the front door was, as expected, a very happy Janet hugging an equally happy and grinning Travis Heiman.

CHAPTER 2

Janet squeaked as Travis lifted her of the ground for a second while he was hugging her, then set her back down and let go. She untangled her arms from the jacket of his air force uniform, which no longer looked very uniform. Her parents showed themselves, coming around the corner from the stairway. Janet threw an amused, accusing look back at them--both were smiling.

"You knew about this, didn't you?"

Daniel shrugged. "Guilty as charged."

She looked back at Travis. "What are you doing here?" she asked curiously.

"Can't a guy visit his home town to see a friend gradate?" he asked with a teasing look. She eyed him, and he sobered up. "Okay, to be honest, I'm being transferred back to Colorado."

Janet felt her face light up. "Really?" To be honest with herself, she wasn't really sure why that thought made her so happy…

He just shrugged and looked at her strangely for a moment, then looked up at Daniel and Vala, then at Charlie and Adrian, who were now pounding down the stairs to find out just what the heck was going on. Then he shook his head in bewilderment.

"I knew there was something different about you people."

Both Daniel and Vala just smirked.

The Travis looked back at her and smiled. "I know."

"You know?" she echoed.

Daniel nodded and jerked his head toward the boys in warning. "Yes, Janet, he knows."

That was when she got it, and her eyes shot open wide. "You know?" But of course, that was all she could say in that statement.

Neither of the boys knew about the stargate yet. Or about the fact that their mother was an alien. There was more than one reason, such as that Charlie, who was now the age Janet had been when they had told her, wasn't quite as mature a child as she had been, and then of course there were two boys. If they told Charlie, he would want his brother to know, as well. Despite the fact that Charlie was the athletic, outgoing one, and Adrian the smaller, quiet, and shy one, they were inseparable and fiercely protective of and loyal to each other even at their age.

Travis nodded, but thankfully seemed to have caught on to Daniel's warning. "Yeah….a spot opened up there….and I got it," he answered vaguely.

Janet didn't quite know what to do with that information. "Oh….wow."

But then the boys launched themselves at Travis, who still remembered him even though he hadn't been around very much since his transfer out of state three years ago.

"Travis, you're back!" Charlie whooped enthusiastically. "Mom and dad didn't tell us; was it supposed to be a surprise?"

"Yep," Travis grinned, and bent down to hug both of them.

Adrian, who didn't remember him as well, smiled back shyly and hugged him in return, but only for a second. Travis chuckled and stood up, ruffling the little boy's floppy brown hair--from what Janet had seen of pictures of her father when he was younger, Adrian was pretty much a clone of him. In his office, she had seen a picture of Daniel with his parents, when he was about Adrian's age, a year or so before they had been killed, and the resemblance was uncanny.

"It's okay, little buddy. Hopefully now that I'll be around more we can get to know each other better.

Yeah, especially since he might be your brother-in-law someday. Janet stopped short and immediately pushed the thought away. Just where the crap had that come from?

Janet sighed, shook herself and followed her family and their first visitor into the living room.

* * * *

It wasn't until half an hour or later, once Charlie and Adrian had gotten bored and gone back upstairs and her parents had gotten up to get ready for the rest of the gang that would arrive later, that Janet was able to talk to Travis about, well--what he now knew.

The boys had been taking up the other two seats on the couch where Travis was, so now she moved over from her chair and sat at the other end of the couch.

"So you really know everything?" she asked curiously.

"Well, the basics….about the Stargate program and its history, that humans an actually go to other planet--a whole lot of them--and there really are aliens out there, and that not only was your mom once host or something to one, but she is an alien…" He shook his head. "For some weird reason, that part didn't surprise me."

Janet laughed aloud. "That's mom for ya. I was sure she was an alien or something, just for fun like all kids do, but then I found out she really was and, well, anyway…"

"But that means you're half alien--that was a little harder to swallow," Travis admitted.

"It's not a big deal. Mom's 100 human, except for the naquadah in her blood and all, but that's the only difference besides that's she's just from another planet."

"Just from another planet? You sound like that's no big deal."

"Well it isn't, for me. I've known this since I was seven. Half of the people I'm close to are from another planet--mom, Cassie, Skaara, Teal'c, and me, Charlie, and Adrian are yeah, I guess, half alien if you wanna put it that way. And even though she was born here I guess Shara would be an alien too, since 'both' of her parents aren't from here…"

"Shara is Cassie and Skaara's daughter, right?"

"Right," Janet nodded. "She's the same age as Adrian. Although the story you heard was that they named her that because Cassie had had a best friend name Shara back in high school, and that's truth but it's not the whole thruth. It was also the closest in an earth name they could get to Sha're."

Now he was a little confused. "Isn't that your middle name?"

She smiled and pulled her legs under her. "Yeah. That was the name of my dad's first wife. She was from another planet, too. She died though. She was a host to a Goa'uld too--that's what those whacked alien parasites are called. The only difference was, she wasn't rescued in time."

"Oh…gosh, I didn't know anything about that…."

"Of course you didn't; it was classified information to you before," Janet answered. "But it's okay, you don't have to be really sad about it or anything. It was a long time ago and dad doesn't mind talking about her. He's told me stories before and stuff. She sounds really cool. I kinda wish I could've met her, but then again that would probably mean either I didn't exist or I was her kid instead and I didn't know mom or something…which wouldn't exactly be that great."

Travis just shook his head. "No, I guess not." Then he looked at her sheepishly. "Sorry. I found out about three days ago before they flew me out here, but it's still a lot to take in."

"It's all right, I understand. If there's anything else you want to know, just ask."

"Thanks," he replied appreciatively. "Right now I think I'll rest my brain though."

"Good idea," she snickered. Then she sat forward more. "Oh, I'm really glad you're here though, and that you know. This means you get to stay for the security clearance party tonight."

Travis's face twisted into a confused/amused smirk. "The what?" he asked, his voice almost a laugh.

She rolled her eyes. "That's how we keep them straight. Most people have one graduation party, for everybody; friends, family, acquaintances, people they passed once in the mall, you know…but nooo, I have to have two, because my parents were convince that would be 'safer'," she said, making quotation marks in the air.

"Safer?"

"Yeah…usually when we have a get-together with all the family and friends who do know about the stargate, the conversation goes that way, or we make comments about off-world stuff, or the SG-1's next mission, yadda, yadda….and it would be no fun to have a party where we couldn't talk about what we wanted. So the usual gang, everybody who's part of the stargate program or has been, it coming over tonight. Then next week, after graduation I'm having a party for my school friends and the neighbors and everybody else who doesn't know. You can come to both though, if you want to."

Travis just stared at her for a moment, then shook his head again. "I knew it. There's always been something strange about your family."

Janet smirked and whacked his arm. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Ow! I'm kidding, I swear!" he yelped, out of surprise, not pain because she hadn't hurt him. "I said 'different' before and that's all I meant," he laughed.

She nodded, still smirking playfully. "Good."

* * * *

Two hours later, the Jackson home was full. Daniel was pretty sure that Janet had thought that all of them would be wondering why Travis was there, but in fact, all of the adults had already known he was coming. That seemed to annoy her a bit at first, but now that she was enjoying herself it didn’t bother her so much.

Jack and Sam were the last to arrive, and somehow that cued the boys to come down from their rooms, finally. Charlie went straight for Jack, who scooped him up and dropped onto the couch with him, grinning.

“Hey, Daniel,” he waved in greeting.

“Nice of you to show up,” Daniel smirked from where he stood, plastic cup in hand. The retired general only shrugged, and turned his attention back to Charlie, who was trying to tell him about whatever it was he and Adrian had been playing upstairs all day.

It wasn’t unusual for Jack and Sam to be a little later than the other, these days. He liked to pretend he was still in his 40’—or even his 50’s—but the fact was that the retired general was almost 75.

Adrian went to Teal’c and climbed up on the jaffa’s lap to sit.

“Hi, Uncle Teal’c,” he smiled. Adrian didn’t speak much, but for some reason he tended to open up to Teal’c a bit more.

“Hello, Adrian. It is good to see you. Are you well?” Teal’c asked, offering a smile in return. The boy nodded.

Travis man had been hanging back at the edges of the small crowd. Most of them he didn’t know very well, though he had met all of them at one point or another.

Everyone was there: Jack and Sam; Teal’c; Cameron and Carolyn, and their kids—the twins, Zach and Tiffany, and the youngest, Lily, who was Adrian’s age; and Cassie and Skaara. They had only had one child, Shara, until just a few weeks ago. The unusually lively newborn was appropriately named Jack. O’Neill had been thrilled.

Tiffany and Zach were fourteen, and they and Janet had been hanging at the edges with Travis, until Jack spoke up, which was after the smaller children had gone upstairs to play after they were done with their food.

“So, you’re one of us now, huh?”

Travis looked up and blinked rapidly for a moment before realizing that O’Neill was talking to him. “Oh, uh…sort of. I guess so, sir…”

“Sir? Don’t call me sir. I retired over fifteen years ago. It’s Jack, please.”

Daniel smiled good-naturedly. “Not gonna happen, Jack. I can’t even get him to call me Daniel.” But now the poor young man was turning red, and he quickly amended what he’d said. “That’s not a bad thing, Travis. It’s all right. It was just a comment.”

He sighed. “Right. I know."

"Don't worry about it, Travis. You'll get used to it," Cassie smiled, from where she sat holding her new baby. "And you'll have a few weeks to do that before you actually have to go through the 'gate."

"Yeah, they told me I'd have to get extra training first."

"Right. And after that, you'll be part of SG-13. That's my team."

"Really?" Janet grinned.

Cassie nodded. "That's the spot that opened up."

Tiffany leaned over the back of the opposite couch. "Wow. That I didn't know."

"Talk about keeping it all in the family," Zack smirked. Janet hit his arm, and he yelped. "What? I didn't mean anything by it."

"You better not have."

"Kids," Cameron said in warning.

"We're not kids…" Tiffany protested.

"You're teenagers. That's even worse," Carolyn supplied cheerfully.

"Moom!"

Daniel could see the relief that flickered across Janet's face when the humorous exchange between Zach, Tiffany, and their parents deflected attention away from her. Not sure what to make of that, he turned his attention back to Travis.

He seemed to like the idea of working with people that maybe he didn't know well himself yet, but was known well by those he did.

CHAPTER 3

"Are you ready for this?" Janet grinned.

Travis shrugged and smiled. "I guess I'd better be."

It had been about a month now, and today Travis would go on his first mission. He'd never been through the Stargate before, and Janet could tell that even though he insisted he was fine, only excited, that he was also a little nervous. That was to be expected.

SG-1 was teaming up with SG-13 today. Travis had gotten to know the other members of his team: Cassie, Skaara, and team leader Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Hailey, during his training, but they'd all decided that it might be easier--and more fun for all of them--if the first time he went out with all of them. It was just a simple reconnaissance to a new planet that didn't appear hostile, so having nine people instead of four or five didn't matter. Janet couldn't wait to see the look on Travis's face when he stepped (well, probably fell, since it was his first time) out on the other side of the stargate.

Janet shrugged. "I've been doing this for three weeks, and I love it. You'll do fine," she encouraged.

The 'gate burst open, and General Samantha O'Neill gave the teams a go from the control room. Then Sam stood back and waved through the window. Janet waved back enthusiastically, and Travis tentatively raised his hand for a second, before turning and heading up the ramp behind the other. Janet stayed back with him, and the diminutive Colonel Hailey stood at the top of the ramp next to the open wormhole, waiting for her new team member.

Janet knew her dad had known Hailey since she was just out of the Air Force Academy, and Aunt Sam, Uncle Jack, and Uncle Teal'c had too. She had been the SGC ever since, and when SG-13's previous commander had retired about four years ago Jennifer had gotten her first command.

"Come on, kid; it's not that scary," Hailey said, addressing Travis, a slight look of amusement on her face.

He glanced at her. "Give me a break, ma'am, I didn't even know this thing existed until a month ago."

"I know, and I agree it is a bit much to take in, but you've had weeks, and you're holding the mission up." She sounded dead serious, but that smile was still pulling at the edges of her mouth. "So if you don't go through in the next five seconds, I'll push you."

"And I'll help her," Janet intoned in all seriousness, holding back a giggle.

Travis glanced at them, realized he was being ganged up on, and sighed. "All right, all right…here goes nothing." Then he stepped through. Janet and Jennifer exchanged amused glances and went through after him.

* * * *

Daniel, waiting on the other side, had been starting to get concerned when suddenly Travis stumbled through the event horizon. He staggered to a stop several feet from the 'gate, admirably managing to keep his feet, and turned around quickly to look at the ring as Janet and Jennifer Hailey stepped smoothly through.

"Whoa."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Cameron smirked.

"No kidding." The wormhole disengaged, and Janet patted the ring affectionately. "I love this thing." Well, Daniel loved it too, but not that innocently or simply. She hadn't seen the things he and many of the others had while traveling through that thing…

He cut off the thought and focused on the mission at hand. Cameron was already starting to give assignments.

"Okay, there's nine of us, so lets do three groups of three. Two groups go, and one stays here. So Jacksons, you can stay together, my group stays at the 'gate and Teal'c you're with me, and…well, Colonel Hailey, the rest is up to you."

Jennifer glanced at her team. "I'll stay here and complete your group. Cassie and Skaara can take wonder-boy here," she said, nodding toward Travis.

"Hey, I resent that," Travis protested.

Janet elbowed him. "Deal with it, buddy."

Cameron interrupted them. "Okay, get a move-on people. Everybody meet back here in four hours."

"Yes sir," Travis answered.

"If you say so," Vala answered.

Cameron rolled his eyes. "That's what I get for having a team made up completely of civilians…"

Janet laughed, the others smiled, and Daniel chuckled and started toward the tree line with Vala. "Come on, Janet." She caught up with them, and they went on, checking their radio signals to make sure they were strong before they got too far away.

"Okay, so what's supposed to be here?" she asked.

"The M.A.L.P. didn't seem anymore than what you see," Daniel shrugged. "No evidence of civilization or anything, really. And the trees are thick for the U.A.V to have been able to see much else from the air."

"But there could be something in the woods neither could see, so that's why were here," Janet nodded.

"Exactly," Vala agreed. Daniel reached one around his daughter's shoulders and squeezed.

"Dad, dad, not on missions," she scolded, pulling away.

"Yes, dad, not while we're on duty," Vala agreed in amusement. Daniel shook his head and they started into the trees.

After a mile or two, Janet pointed out something almost hidden in the brush and vines from the trees, and once they got closer and pulled aside the vines they found themselves on the edge of a small clearing, where a small-ish stone building stood. It was too small to be any kind of real temple, but it had the appearance of a place of worship, like a shrine. The only inscription on the outside, in an alien language, was just above the door. It was probably a title for the place or the name of who the place was meant for.

"Whoa, hey look, dad!" Like the eager little girl Daniel still saw her as a lot of the time, Janet rushed to the structure. The front door was made of thin tree-trunks tied together, with ropes in cut-stone rings in the doorway for hinges. She pulled it open carefully…and behind the blank stone on the outside and the plain wooden door, there was a plethora of inscriptions and carved pictures on the inside walls and the side of a single stone alter-like platform in the center.

Janet's mouth opened. "Wow." That much was right for her, anyway. It was small, but it was more than they'd found in the three weeks since she'd began going out with SG-1. It was a great find. And the forms of the written language didn't look very familiar either; Daniel liked a challenge. It would be a great learning experience for Janet, too, and he found himself grinning.

"You can say that again," he answered.

Vala smiled for a moment, then shrugged. "Still a bunch of rocks and gibberish to me. You geeks have fun, and I'll be outside keeping watch."

"Good idea," Daniel nodded.

"Okay, mom," Janet said without a second thought. She was still looking at the walls, and didn't even turn to look at her mother before Vala retreated back out the door of the shrine.

Daniel set his pack down, pulled out a notebook and pen, and started his own observations. Now that they were inside, he could see the other walls, and the back one had several large windows. It was breezy inside, comfortable. He was going to enjoy this.

* * * *

"You've got about 15 minutes before we need to head back!" Vala called inside.

Daniel sighed. "Yes, mother!"

"Don't push it, mister," her voice replied.

Janet giggled and continued rubbing over the paper she had set over a particularly interesting inscribed set of pictures. Daniel went over to take a look at her work. She was doing pretty well for a beginner. Not that he would have expected anything less. He complimented her, then wove back around to where he had been working, and picked up his camera to take more pictures and video before they had to leave for now.

After another few minutes, he looked up at Janet again, and she was gazing out one of the windows. "Hey dad, did you hear something? I though I--" There was a faint whizzing sound and she stopped short. Eyes wide, she turned to look at him, confusion and fear on her face. "Dad…?"

Then she crumpled.

"Janet!" Daniel lunged and just barely caught her before her head hit the floor. She was out cold. It only took him a few seconds to find the small dart stuck in her neck. He pulled it out and checked her pulse, which was fine; she was only unconscious. But his heart was already pounding much faster. There were hostile natives out there somewhere…

Vala vaulted through the door and gasped when she saw Janet on the ground. "Daniel, what--?"

Daniel looked up from his knees and motioned her to get down like he was. "Shh!" he urged quietly. "Get down and be quiet! Hopefully they didn't see you. Since you haven't been knocked out even though you're outside maybe they're all on this side," he said, motioning toward the windows he was making sure to stay under.

Vala got down. "What are you talking about??" she whispered. "Is Janet all right?" he nodded.

"It was just a knock-out dart; she's fine."

"A dart??"

"Yes, a dart; why do you think I told you to get down!"

She sighed and frowned, looking worriedly at their daughter. "What should we do?" she asked.

Daniel racked his brain, but couldn't think of a better alternative than to run. "Go," he said.

"What?"

"Go. Get up, start running back toward the 'gate right now, and radio and tell the others what's going on. I'll come with Janet if I can, but I'm staying with her."

Vala looked at him like he'd grown two heads. "You can't carry her by yourself!"

"I'll have to," he hissed. "Somebody has to go get help, and you're the most likely candidate. You're in better shape than I am, and Janet's unconscious. Now get going."

"But--"

"Vala!"

She stared at him for another moment, then gulped and nodded. "I'll be back with the others soon. You probably shouldn't try to come; that could be too dangerous. Just stay in here and stay low, and we'll be back as soon as we can."

Daniel nodded. "Well, fine, as long as they don't come in here."

That didn't seem to sit very well with her, and she frowned. "I'm going as fast as I can." But he saw her reluctance to move.

"I'll take care of her; I promise," he assured her.

She swallowed, nodded once, and then was gone. He waited anxiously for the zip and thump that would tell him she had been knocked out too, but thankfully it never came. Vala had gotten away. Sighing, he looked at Janet and shook her a bit, patting her cheek and trying to rouse her, but of course it didn’t have any effect. Now all he could really do was wait.

* * * *

Vala ignored the leaves smacking her in the face until she was a few hundred yards away, and she stopped, breathing hard. She still couldn't be sure that who ever was outside of the shrine wasn't still near her somewhere, but, she had to breathe. After a few moments, she was able to speak, and reached up and keyed her radio.

"Vala to Colonel Mitchell. Cameron, we've got a problem."

She let go of the button, and the radio crackled for a moment. "Vala, what is it?" Cameron answered.

"Daniel and Janet. They're trapped in a small stone structure about two miles from the 'gate, and surrounded by natives. We haven't seen any of them yet, but Janet was knocked out by some type of dart," she said in a rush.

"Whoa, calm down. I got all that, barely, but what are you saying?"

"We need backup--or they do. I'm coming back, and I'll lead you to where they're pinned down. We've got to get them out; we have no idea just what those natives want with them."

"Agreed. Hurry back; we'll be here getting ready."

Vala nodded to herself and started moving quickly. "On my way."

* * * *

Daniel tensed when he heard several pairs of footsteps coming closer to the shrine and around toward the door. They were barely audible, as if maybe the feet weren't wearing shoes--either because the culture didn't call for them, or simply for stealth reasons. He pushed Janet against the wall in-between two of the windows and stayed in front of her, facing the door and glancing warily around at the windows.

We're not going with you without a fight…

He pulled in a silent breath when the door started to creak open. A moccasined foot stepped through the crack, answering the question he'd had in his mind. Then a bit of black hair was visible, and part of an arm…then there was another whizzing sound, and he felt a small, sharp stab in his neck.

Yelping, Daniel reached up and yanked out the dart, but it was too late. His vision was already beginning to blue and go dark around the edges. No no no! I'm supposed to be protecting Janet…

He didn't look to see who was coming into the shrine, but he could hear several of them coming in through both the door and the windows. Instead, Daniel's eyes strayed to Janet's unconscious body on the floor beside him. His vision went completely dark seconds later, and he sensed himself dropping to the ground, though he never felt the impact. But the image and the worry stayed with him into unconsciousness.

CHAPTER 4

Daniel opened his eyes, and found himself staring at a dirt floor. His head was pounding, and at first all he wanted to do was close his eyes again and rest, but…Janet. Where was Janet? Grimacing, he sat up slowly, one hand to his head and the other on the ground supporting him. He looked around, grateful that his contacts were still in place, and saw that he was in a small, simple wooden hut with a thatched roof. Sunlight filtered in through cracks in the logs. Janet was a few feet away on the other side, her back to him, in the process of sitting up, and he heard a soft groan.

"Janet, are you ok?"

She jerked in surprise and turned around, wincing. "Dad? Oh…I'm okay."

"Sorry…"

"It's okay." Unsteadily she crawled across the short space to him, not bothering to stand, and sat back against the wall next to him. Daniel put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. "Dad, what's going on?"

"I'm…not sure," he answered uncertainly. "There's no way to know yet what they want us for."

"Oh…"

But that was when the door creaked, and she stopped. Daniel let go of her and stood quickly as it opened. He saw her stand too, out of the corner of his eye, but his attention was on the three primitively dressed men that appeared at the door. The one in front of and in-between the other two was more elaborately dressed, even though all of their clothes consisted of dark, rough cloth. This one also had a couple of furs draped over one shoulder. Perhaps he was their leader.

The front man, hands clasped behind his back--or it seemed, but Daniel couldn't tell for sure--dismissed the other two, then stepped inside and they closed the door behind him. He looked around for a moment, then looked straight at him and smiled.

"Well, if it isn't Daniel Jackson."

That would have thrown him off enough, if it hadn't been for the fact that the man's voice was no longer human. It was Goa'uld. Daniel could feel his eyes widening involuntarily.

"I see you're surprised," he smirked.

Janet's nervous voice came from just behind him, and her hand clamped onto his arm. "Dad, do you know this guy?"

Daniel's head started to shake automatically, because he had never seen the man before. But then again, with a Goa'uld that made no difference.

"Dad? So you grew up and started a family, did you? Surprising, considering how poorly it seems you dealt with the opposite sex in the past. You couldn't even tell the difference between me and an old flame of yours."

By now there was an unpleasant buzzing in his ears that came with the sudden realization of who was speaking to him. Daniel swallowed hard. "Osiris…"

"Bravo, we have a winner."

"But you're dead."

"Did you think that? Yes, the Tok'ra took me, but unfortunately for you there was someone on the inside who was able to get me out and provide me with a proper host. By then though, the rest of the System Lords had been defeated, except for Ba'al, so I chose to come here."

Daniel smirked. "You mean you were forced into hiding."

The Goa'uld glared, and let his arms fall away from his back, allowing them to see the hand device that covered his left hand. "I would advise you not to anger me, Doctor Jackson. I am god here."

"What do you want?" he glared back.

"That is simple. I want the current code for those quaint little devices you have that open the iris on your stargate. I am the only System Lord left, and with you here, I have the perfect opportunity to take your planet, and others from there."

Daniel felt Janet's hand on his arm tighten, and saw her move up some. He swung that arm back to push her back behind him. She made a muffled sound of annoyance, but stayed there.

"I don't think so," he said firmly.

Osiris raised an eyebrow and took two steps closer. "Oh really? Have you forgotten that I have no objection to using force?"

In the next second that orange light was in his face. The beam of the hand device drilled into his skull, dropping his knees out from under him and making his breath catch.

"Dad!" Janet yelped in surprise. He felt her hands appear under his arms when he started to go down, and had enough time to be thankful that it kept his knees from hitting the ground to hard. But that was all he thought before he was left staring helplessly up into the beam, the pain pounding through his head.

Daniel groaned. Osiris smirked. He sensed Janet stand back up.

"Stop it!" she shouted.

Don't do that! You'll just make him more angry…

Osiris ignored her. Janet jumped him. Osiris used his free arm to toss her off of him and across the room without breaking the beam. Janet hit the opposite wall hard, with a loud 'omf!', and sank to the ground, gasping hard.

On the outside, Daniel looked no different, but on the inside he was going wild with worry and anger. And if that wasn't bad enough, Janet got up again and came back.

"Leave him alone!"

Osiris stopped her before she was even close enough to try tackling again. He snapped the beam off and turned on her, turning it on again in her face.

Daniel saw that much before collapsing, and was flat on the floor again when he heard his daughter's shriek of pain. "Janet!" Shaking it off as only a veteran of the device could, he sat up and started trying to stand. "Don't!" Osiris only persisted a moment before deactivating the device again. Janet dropped, and he took a step closer and caught her, going back to his knees with her.

He held onto her tightly as she pulled in a shaky breath, glaring up at the Goa'uld. "What are you doing; she's just a child!"

Osiris glowered back at him. "I warned you that I would use force if necessary. Perhaps I should leave you to think about that. I don't bother attempting escape through the roof; you will be seen. There is a guard at each of the four corners outside, as well as the door." With that, he turned on his heel and left, slamming the door behind him.

Daniel swallowed and turned his attention to Janet. She was shuddering a bit in his arms, but he couldn't see her face. He tightened his embrace. "Janet, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…." His throat was tight. He'd never wanted to see that: Janet on her knees, caught in the clutches of a Goa'uld hand device, pain and helpless fear etched on her face. The image was burned into his mind now, and he wasn't sure it would ever go away.

She was silent, only pulling in deep breaths until she stopped in the middle of one and coughed, doubling over. That pulled her face out of where she'd buried it in his jacket. Ignoring the lingering pain in his own head when he moved, he kept her from toppling face-first into the dirt until the fit of coughing stopped and she slumped back against his chest. Now Daniel could see that her face was damp, and that didn't help the lump in his throat any.

"Are you okay?"

She must have heard the choke in his voice, because she looked up at him and pasted on a smile. "I'm fine, dad."

"You know, just because you're my daughter doesn't mean you have to be stupid and act like me," he replied shakily, wiping the dampness from her cheeks with his jacket sleeve. "If you're not, don't tell me you're fine."

"But," she tried to sit up, "I a--ow!" An arm went around her middle and she flopped back against him, grimacing.

"Janet?" he asked in alarm. It should have been her head hurting, not her chest. But…oh. He hadn't been seeing too clearly at that moment, but when Osiris had first pushed her away, his arm had smacked across there. With the strength of a Goa'uld in that arm, there could be some damage to her ribs. "Is anything broken?"

She shook her head, which confirmed there wasn't. If she had broken ribs, she would probably know it. "Just--sore," she answered. Then her other had went to her forehead. "And my head hurts."

"I know…" he gulped. "It'll wear off in a few hours."

"Great…."

Daniel winced. Why did she have to be so much like him?

"I'm not a child," she mumbled a moment later.

Definitely way too much like him.

* * * *

Vala stopped just short of the edge of the clearing where the shrine was and ducked down behind the surrounding brush. Behind her Cameron, Teal'c, and Colonel Hailey did the same.

"I don't see anything," Hailey whispered after a moment.

"Nor do I," Teal'c observed quietly.

Cameron nodded. "Let's hope that means they just gave up. Come on."

Vala swallowed and stood when he did, then ran ahead of him and to the entrance of the shrine. "Daniel--??" She stopped dead in the open doorway. There was no-one there. "Oh no…"

Cameron and the others pulled up beside her. "Crap," the colonel agreed.

"They are not here."

"I can see that Teal'c, thank you!" Vala glared back.

"Look, let's calm down," Hailey suggested. "We'll find them. They'll be fine."

Vala took a deep breath. She sure hoped so.

* * * *

It had been a couple of hours since Osiris had left. Janet was on her feet, but she was leaning against the wall, still a little wobbly. Her dad seemed fine, and at the moment was working around the edge of the hut, seemingly trying to find a way out. She had to wonder how he could recover so quickly. Nothing she'd ever felt had hurt as much as the beam from that hand device. Her head was still pounding mercilessly.

She took a deep breath, but decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Her chest hurt more than Daniel probably thought it did, because she'd tried not to let on too much. She knew nothing was broken in there, but she couldn't be sure that one of her ribs wasn't cracked. Right now, that was actually seeming rather likely.

Janet knew from reading through old SG-1 mission reports that these kinds of things happened, well, not on a regular basis, but often enough not to be surprising. Though the fact that Osiris was still alive--and here, of all places--was a bit of a shocker. And to be honest, back when she'd agreed to do this, Janet had never even thought about the possibility of something like this happening. SG-1 had always come out all right, so she had never been concerned.

And now she was wondering if either of them would make it out of this alive.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Pulled out of her reverie, she realized that Daniel was standing right next to her. He must have noticed that look on her face a moment before.

"I'm sure, dad," she assured him, mustering a small smile. He smiled back weakly and carefully pulled her into a gentle embrace. She suppressed the squeak that wanted to escape anyway and hugged him back.

"We'll get out of here, okay? And I won't let him hurt you anymore."

"I know you'll do your best, dad," she said quietly.

There was a loud creak, and he let go of her. She turned to see Osiris returning, still not looking happy.

"What?" Daniel demanded. He moved in front of her like he had last time. She'd figured out then that he would push her back if she tried to move, so she just watched the scene over his shoulder. Though she still wasn't entirely happy about it.

Osiris glared. "I hope you've decided to cooperate, because there will be serious consequences if you do not."

"We're not going to tell you anything," Janet snapped without thinking.

"Janet," Daniel hissed. That meant 'Be quiet and let me handle this because I don't want you to get hurt.' Uh huh. Like she was just going to stand here.

The Goa'uld smirked at her, then looked at her father. "Do you feel the same way, Doctor Jackson?"

Daniel's back straightened. "Yes."

Go dad!

Osiris didn't seem surprised. "I suspected so." He clapped, and the door opened again. The other two men that had been with him the first time stepped inside. Both of them were tall, dark-haired, and big, with scowling faces. Not exactly physical features conducive to remaining calm. Janet gulped.

Daniel stiffened, and though she couldn't see his face, he didn't seem surprised when they grabbed his arms and started to drag him toward the door. He struggled, but when she could see his face, she could see that it definitely wasn't surprised. A little worried, maybe, but not surprised.

"Hey! Let go of him!" Janet insisted, surging forward. She knew what would happen to him if they got him out that door. She couldn't let it happen.

But Osiris stopped her himself. That arm shot out and caught her across the chest a second time, and this time it didn't just smart from the impact. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Janet shouted and fell, landing on her backside and involuntarily curling up.

"Janet!"

Dad! She forced her eyes back open, and saw Daniel struggling even harder against the two men pinning him between them. They had him out the door, and Osiris was reaching for the handle to close it again. Get up! Stop them!

Janet got halfway up and fell back again, gasping. "Dad--!"

Daniel kicked one of the guards in the shin, slammed his elbow back into the other one, but the first retaliated by punching him viciously in the stomach. He cried out and crumpled.

"No! Don't hurt him!" she yelled. But that earned her a coughing fit, and by the time she uncurled and glanced back toward the door, it had long since been slammed shut and locked again.

Janet lay where she was, gasping and heaving dry sobs and moans of pain and frustration, but she would not cry. He would be okay. He had to be. He'd been taking care of himself in situations like this for thirty years. It would be okay….

But she couldn't get rid of the horrible feeling she had.

CHAPTER 5

The two big guards dragged Daniel across what appeared to be a small village of huts just like the one he and Janet had been in. All of the inhabitants he could see appeared to be a simple tribe of Indian-like primitives.

They pulled him to another hut on the opposite side of the settlement, one of them kicked open the door and both hustled him inside, pushed him into a sturdy wooden chair and tied his wrists to the arms. Great.

Osiris stalked in after them, fingering his hand device. "I warned you, Doctor Jackson."

"Yeah, you did, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't let you infiltrate earth."

The other two men left again, and Osiris glared at him. "I have been stuck on this primitive planet for too long, Doctor Jackson, and I will stop at nothing to get off of it."

"You could leave if you wanted to."

"Yes, but without an army larger than these people under my control, I would be hunted and killed."

Daniel smirked. "Coming face to face with your own mortality, huh?"

"And you are not? Look at you. You would be approximately sixty of your earth years old by now."

"Don't push it, mister. I'm still out here making sure our galaxy is safe from scum like you, and all you're doing is hiding."

Osiris hit him, backhanded him with the one that had the ribbon device on it. He couldn't shut his mouth before he cried out in surprise, and at the same time felt a couple of scrapes open up on the left side of his face.

"You will give me that code, Doctor Jackson. I will not limit my attention just to you to get it, and you already have evidence of that."

Daniel snapped his head back up to look at the Goa'uld, glowering deeply. "You leave Janet alone. She has nothing to do with this."

"But she would also know the code, would she not?" Daniel said nothing. Osiris smirked and brought his left hand up, activating the hand device in his face again. He gasped. "No matter. I will get what I want from one of you before I kill the both of you."

* * * *

When Vala, Colonel Mitchell , Teal'c--who was not, in fact, named Murray as Travis had thought for years--and Colonel Hailey got back to the 'gate, Travis was waiting with Cassie and Skaara. Mrs. Jackson didn't look very happy at all.

Travis bounded the last few yards over to them and walked back with them. "Where are they? What happened?" he questioned worriedly.

"They weren't there," Mitchell reported. "We need a new plan."

"W-what kind of plan? How are we going to find them? What happened to them?"

"A good one, we'll probably send out a UAV, and I don't know."

"Oh…"

Suddenly, this wasn't as fun anymore. His first 'gate mission, and something went horribly wrong. What next? He just hoped they found Janet and Doctor Jackson all right.

* * * *

The pain stopped again. Daniel's head dropped forward, his scattered thoughts slowly piecing themselves back together again. He wasn't sure how long Osiris had been at this, but she kept turning the ribbon device on him, asking questions, turning it off, asking more questions, turning it on again…over and over and over. His forehead probably looked like a wreck. It felt like a wreck.

"Still not helping you," he hissed, just to make sure she knew. He was sure the Goa'uld was smirking, but he could see because his head was still down.

No. That's bad. He'll think you're weak. Or that you're close to giving up. Pick it up, Jackson! Biting back a groan, he pulled his head up again and glared. Osiris actually looked surprised for a second or two. Good for him.

Then the Goa'uld smirked again. "You know, one of the more redeeming qualities of these people is that they have quite effective unconventional methods of extracting information. But I don't suppose you'd like a demonstration."

Daniel swallowed. "No, not really. But I can't really stop you if you feel like it, can I?" he said dryly, pulling at the ropes for a moment. He couldn't pull hard anymore, but it worked to get the sarcasm across. Why, oh why had he turned into Jack O'Neill 2.0? This wasn't helping any.

Osiris smiled and went over to a shelf full of small clay jars. He pulled one of the top shelf. "Now, this is fun. It's from a local plant. The bush carries a defensive mechanism that makes the skin burn for a few seconds if brushed against it, but they have discovered how to gather and concentrate the substance. It's quite potent in this form. And lasts longer."

"That's nice. Why don't you let me and my daughter go, and then go take a bath in it?" he suggested tiredly.

The Goa'uld didn't respond to that. And just why did a long lost snake in hiding have to come out now? Why did it have to be now, when Janet was with SG-1? Why couldn't this have happened a couple of months from now? Or oh…never?

Osiris came back and pushed his left sleeve up, leaving his forearm exposed.

"You do know that's not going to help you, right?"

"We will see."

Daniel pulled at the ropes around his wrists again, but his arm wouldn't budge. His throat tightened. He didn't know just how bad Osiris meant when he said 'quite potent', but he'd really rather not find out. Unfortunately, he had no choice.

He watched warily as Osiris opened the jar and poured a thin film of a sticky substance over the top of his forearm. At first, he felt nothing but the cold stuff hitting his skin. But as Osiris pulled the jar away and closed it, the thick liquid on his arm began, strangely, to evaporate.

And with that came the pain.

Daniel sucked in a sharp breath when the burning started. For a couple of seconds it felt no different than if he'd been scratched, or encountered a similar plant on earth or another planet--and he had before--but then it got worse. A lot worse. It felt like his arm was on fire. His eyes and jaw clenched shut at first, but it kept hurting. He gasped. After another few moments, he moaned. But it wouldn't stop.

He could just feel Osiris smirking at him.

He cried out.

Daniel knew he was sweating. And it wasn't just left over from when he'd been using the hand device.

Finally, finally it stopped. The burning faded, leaving his arm tingling painfully, pin-pricking like it was waking up from being asleep. He didn't realize until then that his chest was heaving.

Osiris smiled. "That was only a taste of was this can do, Doctor Jackson. And it is not the only thing I have, either. We'll stop for now, and I'll leave you to think on that."

* * * *

Janet looked up anxiously when the door creaked again. Her ribs were still rather sore, though they did feel better than they had over an hour before when her dad had been pulled out of the hut.

The same two men shoved Daniel inside. He stumbled inside and landed on his hands and knees, face down and breathing hard.

"Dad!" As the door was shut again, she scrambled on her hands and knees over to him, ignoring the twinges in her chest. She started to help him sit up. "Dad, are you okay? Dad?" She let out a strangled cry of alarm when she saw the awful red burn on his forehead. She almost wished she didn't know what had done it. One of his sleeves was pushed up halfway, and that arm was red, too. She had no idea what that was.

"I'm okay, Janet, I'm okay," he breathed, waving her off and sitting up himself--slowly.

"Okay? You look like a wreck and you're trying to tell me you're okay?"

He sighed. "Janet…I'll be fine."

"B-But. He--" He tortured you. She knew it had happened to him more than once in the past, but she hadn't wanted to see it.

"I know," he said quietly. "But I'll be all right."

"But what did he--?" What did he do to you?

"It's not important," he said quickly.

Janet swallowed back tears and went back to the wall. She sat down against it again and crossed her arms, wincing. Daniel came and slowly lowered himself down beside her.

"How are you doing? He hit you pretty hard," he said in concern.

"I'll be fine too," she swallowed. "Nothing's cracked or broken. How are we getting out of here?"

Daniel sighed. "Well, not through the roof. He was telling the truth; there are guards at all four corners out there."

"We're going to need outside help, aren't we?"

He grimaced. "Probably. But that's not a huge problem, I hope. Your mom went for help, so I know they'll be looking for us when we're not there."

* * * *

"What is that?" Vala asked, leaning over Cassie and pointing at something on the edge of the screen on the control room. SGs one and thirteen were gathered around the computer, with Cassandra in the chair in front of it.

Cassie manipulated the controls and the UAV camera turned just enough to get a better view.

"It's looks like smoke," Sam observed.

"A village," Skaara extrapolated.

"That must be where they are," Vala said hopefully.

Cameron nodded. "Probably. Fly that thing closer, Cas, Let's see what it looks like. Maybe we'll get an idea of where they're holding them if that's the right one."

"I hope so," Cassie agreed, complying. The UAV sailed closer to the clustered various small towers of smoke and went lower, but just before it topped the trees that would probably have given them a good view of whatever was on the other side of them, the ground rushed up sharply, then nothing but static.

"What happened?" Vala asked sharply.

"Wind turbulence?" Teal'c asked.

Sam shook her head. "I don't think so. The trees weren't moving enough. It must have been shot down."

"With what? All I saw that those natives had were dart guns and bows and arrows," Vala pointed out.

"Well, I said 'shot' down, but it was flying low enough that it very well couldn't have been a rock tossed hard at it or thrown with a slingshot. I'm not sure."

Cameron crossed his arms. "They must be there."

Sam sighed. "And I can't authorize sending another UAV to give us a better idea of what we're dealing with. We can't risk the waste, as much as those things cost. But I can give you a go on a search and rescue toward that village. There doesn't seem to be anywhere else they would have taken them. It's the only sign of civilization."

Vala only nodded wordlessly.

Cameron spoke next. "All right. We leave in half an hour. Everybody wear your hiking boots and bring plenty of ammo. That place is about eight miles from the stargate, and we don't know what exactly we'll be dealing with when we get there. But we're bringing them back."

* * * *

If Janet had been worried the first time Daniel was dropped back into the hut, she was upset the second time. He came back after another hour with his forehead in even worse shape than before and the entirety of both arms and half of one leg red.

He'd thought that maybe when Osiris used that strange gooey substance on a larger surface, maybe the pain wouldn't be so concentrated, but a larger surface only made it worse. After they dumped him back in and managed to calm Janet down, he'd pulled his sleeves and his pant leg back down now that he had the chance.

The slight warmth helped ease the lingering pin-pricks.

Wearily he lowered himself to the ground again, and convinced Janet to try and get some rest as well. It was only mid-afternoon, but he could see that she was still hurting, and probably needed it. But until now she'd refused to slow down.

After some argument she relented and lay down. She fought it for another few minutes, but then fell asleep, exhausted. Daniel stayed beside her for a few moments, stroking her hair gently, wondering what else he could do.

But there was nothing. They were trapped, and he had no options. If he could, he would spare her all of this, but now there was no going back. He couldn't reverse time. But he could protect her now. None of them would hurt her again. He wouldn't let it happen. And on that note, he rested, but wouldn't allow himself to sleep. He stayed awake, keeping his eyes glued on the door.

CHAPTER 6

"Buck up, people; we're almost there," Colonel Mitchell announced from the front of the group. Travis perked up a bit.

"We are?" he asked, glancing at the graying sky anxiously.

Teal'c looked up. "There are still traces of smoke just ahead."

Vala frowned. "Then shouldn't we start being quieter? We probably don't want them to hear us coming."

Not that it would help anyone who heard them much, Travis thought. The forest was high and dense here, and it would be difficult to see them.

"Thank you, but let me do my job," Mitchell smirked. "I was just about to say that."

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. Along with the others, Travis purposefully slowed his pace and stepped more quietly, bringing his weapon up too. Warily he watched ahead of him, glancing off to the sides on occasion. The others were doing the same. But they saw nothing.

That is, Travis saw nothing until Colonel Mitchell pulled aside some foliage to go in-between a couple of trees and walked right into a hidden wall.

"Ow!" the colonel hissed, jerking back and holding his nose.

"It's rock," Colonel Hailey told him.

He glared, "Thank you; very astute observation." His voice was a bit nasal.

Everyone else, who had tensed up at his outburst, relaxed.

"Now what?" Travis asked quietly.

"Now we go around," Mitchell said, letting go of his nose. He wiggled it a bit and grimaced, then seemed to decide that he would be fine. Then he led the way on, snaking around trees and through dense underbrush that all but made the rock wall invisible.

But after several minutes, they hadn't found an end. By then, it was almost dark. Mitchell stopped.

"What are you doing? We have to keep going; we don't have much time left," Vala said urgently.

"Vala, it'll be dark in a few minutes."

"We have flashlights!"

"But even if we do find the village or town or whatever it is, we won't have enough light to find them, not to mention that a bright beam of light bouncing around in the middle of town might give us away, don't ya think?"

"But--"

With the argument between Colonel Mitchell and Mrs. Jackson went on in the background, Travis look frantically around him for anything that might be an opening in the rock. Janet had to be on the other side somewhere. What he found instead was a twisted hunk of gray and yellow metal half buried in fallen leaves from the trees and ivy from the rock.

"Uhm, you guys might want to see this," he called.

Colonel Hailey came up behind him immediately. "The UAV."

The others followed seconds later.

"It wasn't shot down at all; it ran into the rocks," Cassie observed.

"Then the village is on the other side of this rock formation."

"Very astute observation, Colonel Mitchell," Hailey replied, deadpan.

Mitchell rolled his eyes and continued. "And it looks like this thing goes all the way around. So there has to be an entrance of some kind."

"Then let's find it," Travis said immediately. Vala was nodding.

"We'll never find anything in this light, and we won't have any in a few minutes," he sighed. "We'll have to camp tonight, get up early and start looking."

"But we don't know what they're doing to them; by tomorrow they could--could be--" Travis stopped there. It was enough to worry about it.

"We don't have a choice, son," Mitchell said quietly.

* * * *

The door opened.

Daniel sat straight up. Osiris didn't come in himself this time; only the two guards that had been with him all day. He got up on his knees and was starting to stand when one of them grabbed his arm. The other snatched his other arm and proceeded to drag him toward the door. He struggled hard, but it was no use. Both of them were bigger and probably thirty years younger than he was.

"Dad, no!"

Their surprise allowed him to jerk free and turn around. Janet was awake and on her knees, eyes wide. Before he could be stopped, Daniel went to her.

"Janet, it'll be okay," he swallowed, getting back down on his knees to hug her. She latched onto him.

"No it won't; if they take you he'll hurt you more," she answered angrily.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see both of the natives watching with frowns, but they seemed to realize that what he was doing was to their benefit. He blinked back moisture that clouded the image.

"Please don't do this; don't make them hurt you. I don't want that to happen, but if you make them angry they'll try too. Let me go," he told her softly.

"No," she said stubbornly, tightening her grip on him. He heard her subsequent speak of pain, but still she held on. Daniel could see that the guards were getting impatient.

"Janet, please," he pleaded quietly.

And then she did something he hadn't expected.

She started to cry. She had handled herself well so far, when even the most disciplined of civilians would have been breaking down. It wasn't much, but she cried, her face pressed into his jacket. And he could understand why. She knew as well as he did what would happen when they took him.

But if they stalled any longer they would hurt her, or Osiris would, and he couldn't let that happen.

"No," she cried softly. "You can't go with them. Please don't."

"It's not my choice," he answered weakly, swallowing hard. "I'll be okay, just let go, please…"

On a good day, in this position, maybe she could have held him there, but she was injured now, and he probably could have pulled away on his own forcibly. But he wouldn't do that to her. "Janet…"

She shook her head again, her face pressed against him.

That was when the guards lost their patience. Both of them grabbed an arm and started to pull him away.

"No!" Janet yelled, grabbing him. But one of the men pushed her back against the wall with his other hand, and before she could get back up to her knees they had her father halfway to the door. She started to get up.

"Don't, Janet!" Daniel ordered firmly. Surprised, she looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"But--"

"It'll be all right, just stay down…." That gave the guards time to yank him out the door and shut it, closing Janet inside and dragging him into the night toward the other hut.

Needless to say, by the time he was tied to the chair again, and Osiris showed himself, Daniel was not feeling very charitable.

"You're wasting your time. I'm not going to tell you anything," he said immediately, before the Goa'uld could say anything.

Osiris smirked. "I think you will. In time. Maybe even before the sun is up."

"In your dreams." The snake hit him. His head ducked, his face smarting. "That's not gonna help you," he winced.

"It was not meant to," Osiris snapped. "I have already decided on my course of action."

Daniel looked back up at him. "And what's that?" he glared.

The Goa'uld sauntered over to the same cabinet as before and pulled out a different jar. The guards had stayed inside this time, and they seemed to know what was in the jar. When they saw it, both of them took up positions on either side of him.

"What are you doing?" he frowned.

Osiris made his way back to them, and both of the other men took hold of his head. For one panicked moment Daniel was afraid that somehow Osiris had gotten hold of some of that Blood of Sokar stuff. But then he opened the jar, and he realized it was a different smell. The liquid was clear, not reddish. It was something else.

But his relief was short-lived when he remembered that it couldn't be good, whatever it was, and that they were still going to force it down him.

It took both of the men on either side of his chair, but even though he fought them Osiris got the liquid into his mouth. When the guards held both his mouth and nose closed, he had no choice but to swallow. Whatever it was going to do couldn't be as bad as suffocating to death.

He hoped.

At first, he didn't feel any different at all.

But that was before he gasped in a deep breath.

Sharp pain stabbed into his chest, and his throat burned like the oxygen was acid. Immediately he coughed, but that only hurt more. Close to panic, he stopped breathing at all. He waited a moment or so, then slowly started to take another small breath.

But that hurt too, and Daniel grunted in surprise.

He didn't see Osiris sneering down at him, but he could sense it easily.

"The dose I gave you will take approximately ten to twelve hours to wear off. But I do have a counter agent if you tell me what I want before then."

Hours? How could the Goa'uld expect a human to survive that long like this? He had to breathe...But of course, he realized, the snake knew that. His body would make him breathe to keep him alive, because it wasn't that he couldn’t. It just hurt. And Osiris knew it; that was why he did it.

He had to breathe again, or he was going to pass out. He breathed in just a little, even more slowly than before, and it didn't hurt as much. His throat still burned uncomfortably and there was a prick in his chest, but it wasn't as bad. Picking his head up, he glared.

Osiris raised an eyebrow. "Now. Are you going to tell me? Or do I have to have you brought back and leave you like this all night?" When Daniel didn't answer, he pressed. "Are you going to cooperate?"

Daniel thought about ignoring him. But that would give the Goa'uld the satisfaction of seeing him try to avoid the pain.

He took a deeper breath he needed to talk, clenching his jaw against the pain. "No," he grated out.

Osiris frowned and hit him again. The impact shot through the bruises already on his face, and he cried out. Unfortunately, that sent more air through his throat, which didn't help the pain factor at all. The world fuzzed out as he shouted again, and by the time Daniel had it under control and the world took shape again, he could hear Osiris laughing. Really.

He scowled at the Goa'uld venomously, taking small breaths again. All Osiris did was motion for the guards.

"I shouldn't have expected him to be cooperative immediately. Take him back and lets give him a few hours like that. He will come around."

The guards did just that--shoved him back into the hut. He landed hard and coughed. That prompted a sudden breath, which brought pain….which cascaded into everything fading out again. When it came back, Janet was leaning over him, calling to him in alarm.

"Okay," he rasped. She stopped shaking him and looked him in the face.

"Are you sure?"

Daniel nodded and sat against the nearest wall, the one by the door; going any farther would require more air.

"What happened?" Janet asked worriedly, sitting beside him. "Dad?" He waited another moment, hoping she'd drop it, but she asked again. Grimacing, he sat forward. For once he was glad to have the dirt floor. Quickly he scratched what she needed to know into the loose particles.

Weird stuff…makes it hurt to breathe too much--so can't talk.

Daniel didn't really want to even tell her that much--but otherwise she wouldn't understand why he wasn't talking to her, and that could end up even worse.

Janet looked up from the message with shocked and worried eyes. "But…how long will that last?" she questioned.

He erased what he'd written and answered.

Tonight.

"All night?" she gasped. He shrugged, grimacing when he accidentally brought in too much air once and the pang in his chest flared. "But--butbut--" Her worry was quickly turning to anger; her eyes were narrow and she was sputtering. She looked like she was about to say something very unladylike.

Daniel took hold of her shoulders and pulled her toward him. Janet resisted at first, obviously not willing to just let it go, but when he looked her in the face hard for a moment she relented, and came to him.

"Why does he have to be so cruel?" she whispered angrily, hugging him.

Daniel just held on.

For a little while he was fine, but it didn't take very long for the tiny breaths he'd been taking to be insufficient, and as the night wore on he was forced to breathe more and more to stay conscious. He didn't dare lose it, because he had no idea what would happen if he was out. Luckily, it had been late when he was brought back to the hut. Janet had long since fallen asleep, and didn't hear his muffled cries.

CHAPTER 7

"Dad…Dad! DAD!"

Daniel's eyes opened to see a fuzzy image of Janet leaning close to him. He was sitting propped up against the wall…but his chest was burning from lack of air, he realized, and his vison was fading again.

Instinctively, he gulped in air, but of course it only brought more pain, cascading…and when it all finally toned down and he could open his eyes again, he felt Janet's arms around him, holding on tight, sobbing quietly.

"-'m fine…" he gasped softly, trying to ignore the pain.

"I-I woke up, and you weren't breathing," she cried.

So he'd been right that he shouldn't fall asleep. But he had anyway--or lost consciousness from the pain, one. As much as it hurt to breathe, he needed to be awake to make himself do it. Daniel swallowed and brought his arms up around his daughter, but not too tightly--still being careful of her ribs.

Janet cried softly for a few moments more, and he held onto her, stroked her hair until she calmed down and just sat next to him, both with their arms still around each other. Daniel closed his eyes.

"I love you," he whispered.

Her arms tightened their grips. "I love you too," she answered tearfully.

Concentrating on not breathing too deeply, Daniel glanced toward the door. They couldn't see outside, but the line of blackness under the door was not nearly as thick as it had been the last time he remembered looking. It was almost dawn, which meant that hopefully he wouldn't stay like this much longer. Whatever it was Osiris had given him would wear off in a few hours.

Now that he thought about it, the shallow breaths weren't as annoying as they had been. Maybe it was already beginning to.

The two of them sat where they were for a while. He didn't know long it was, but finally, finally breathing started to get easier. Neither of them moved, and he didn't think either of them wanted to. He didn't want her to go, and she didn't want to move probably because she wanted to make sure he kept breathing. He could understand that, after the scare she'd had, and he was sorry for it.

After what must have been a couple of hours, dim light was coming in from under the door, and Daniel could breathe normally again. His throat was sore and his chest ached, but it was because of before, and wasn't directly related to breathing anymore. Janet seemed just as relieved as he was; she finally relaxed her grip on him, but she still stayed right there.

And that was when Osiris decided to come back.

It wasn't just the guards this time. Osiris stepped into the hut, and he felt Janet tense up beside him as the guards came in. Before she could say or do anything, he kissed her cheek and stood on his own, stepping away from her. He didn't care what they thought of him; he just didn't want her to get hurt.

Janet looked up at him, silently pleading with him not to let them take him, but he sent back his own silent message. I love you. It'll be okay. Reluctantly, she sat where she was. He thought he might have seen tears in her eyes again, but she didn't move when they took him. Finally, she was beginning to trust him more. He only hoped it wasn't in vain.

Osiris led the way into his hut on the other end of the camp, and as usual the native men forced Daniel into the chair and tied his wrists as the Goa'uld circled around in front of him. But this time they also tied his ankle to the legs before they backed off behind him. That couldn't be good.

"Throat still hurt?"

"A little; thanks for asking," he rasped.

Osiris smirked. "I can do that again. A larger or more concentrated dose could leave you like that for forty-eight hours instead of ten. And I could give it to the girl too."

Daniel glared. "No."

"Then give me the GDO code, at least. Otherwise, I won't keep her out of this anymore. Actually, what I just threatened would be generous. I should kill you now. A pure dose of what I gave you last night kills almost instantly--and it's quite painful. I can get what I need from the girl."

His hand tightened on the arms of the chair. "You're not getting anything," he grated out angrily.

"Are you certain? I suppose I could continue doing what I did last night to you and your daughter for longer and longer periods of time until you eventually broke. But that could take a while, I'm seeing. It would happen, but it would take time. I'm not in the mood to take time. I need that code, Daniel, and I need it now."

It wasn't until then that Daniel noticed that the two native men had left after tying him to the chair. He looked back at Osiris in confusion.

"They'll be right back," he smirked.

He just blinked at the snake for a moment, soaking in the probable meaning of that statement. "No…"

"Tell me what I want to know, and nothing has to happen to either of you."

"No! Leave her out of this!" he shouted, ignoring the lingering pain that flared when he did.

Osiris ignored him, and he pulled on the ropes for a short moment, until he could hear the sounds of shouting and struggling from outside. He turned his head as far as he could, but couldn't quite see the door; the chair was facing away from it. Daniel heard someone kick it open, and he heard scuffling as the guards dragged in his energetic daughter.

"Let go of me you--" She stopped. "Dad!" The two natives brought her around where both he and Osiris could see her. Daniel whipped around in that direction.

"Janet…honey, it'll be okay," he told her as confidently as he could. He couldn't let anything happen to her…he couldn't! But what could he do if Osiris demanded information? The whole of Earth was more important…well, to those on Earth it was. Not to him, except for the rest of his family and friends there. But it was his duty to protect their planet if he had to. He felt like screaming.

Janet looked at him. He knew she was terrified by the way she stood, but only some of it was leaking out onto her face. Her eyes were wide, and she looked a little intimidated, but beyond that, he didn't think the Gould would be able to tell anything else. Maybe being too much like him could be helpful, sometimes. He couldn't help but feel proud of her, even though he was terrified himself.

Osiris smirked. "No, it won't be 'all right'. Not for you, anyway." He reached beside him and picked up a jar from his shelf that looked exactly like the one he'd grabbed the night before. This one, however, was sitting right next to that one, and was much smaller. He continued, "You see, Janet, if neither you or your father tell me the iris code for your GDOs--which I have and need to get through the stargate on your planet--in the next two minutes, then I am going to kill you."

Daniel half expected her to do something then, but instead, she only swallowed and straightened her face, hardening her expression. "You…you don't have to threaten like that. We're not telling you anything." Her voice wasn't loud, but it got the point across. She wasn't budging. She'd had parents that did this job every day. She'd been told. She'd seen. She knew that Earth was more important than their lives just as much as he did. She was probably the only teenager on Earth that understood.

He felt tears pricking at his eyes. He was not going to let him kill her. "No. You can't do that," he said angrily. "She's just a girl. Leave her alone, for crying out loud."

"In case you have not noticed, I can do anything that I want," Osiris sneered. "And I am telling you that if you do not tell me the information I require, she will die. You now have one minute."

"No! I told you to leave her out of this!"

"Give me the code, and I will."

"Dad, you can't tell him…" Janet said shakily.

"I'm not, Janet, and you're going to be fine," he growled fiercely.

Osiris seemed to find this amusing. "Thirty seconds."

"This isn't going to help you!" Daniel shouted. His sore throat was becoming even more so, and his chest didn't feel any better, either, but at the moment he didn't even notice. "There's no point!"

"Twenty seconds."

"I won't tell you!"

"I'm not either…" Janet said again, quietly but no less certainly.

"Ten seconds," Osiris intoned cooly.

He looked at Janet desperately, at a loss. She looked back at him, and shook her head slightly, even though her eyes were moist, and she was shaking. Daniel bit back a sob. Why did she have to be so damn much like him!

"Don't," he pleaded. Time was up.

Osiris ignored him, and strode over to Janet and the two guards, the small jar in hand. He popped the cork out of it as he walked, and dropped it on the ground.

The native men held onto her that much tighter, pressing her between them as they kept her in place and one brought up an arm to keep her head still. She struggled, clamping her mouth closed because she saw what was coming, and Osiris started attempting to get her mouth open. Daniel jerked and pulled as hard as he could at the ropes keeping his arms and legs to the chair.

"NO!" The chair shifted and jerked around with him, but it wouldn't move enough. Not enough to help him anyway. He was helpless.

Osiris was focusing on Janet. "Come now, dear, once it's swallowed it's almost instantaneous. It won't hurt too much, but I will hurt you if you don't cooperate."

She clamped her jaw and shook her head back and forth to keep it out of the way. Finally the Gould called in another guard to hold her head still while the original two focused on keeping the rest of her from moving as Osiris could get her mouth open.

Daniel kept shouting. "You'll never get what you want if you do this! Leave her alone! Stop this! Osiris!!"

Osiris got her mouth open. Janet screamed in defiance around his hands, her chest heaving in fear. She didn't want to die. He didn't want her to either.

"DON'T!!"

He didn't bother to make her swallow it. He and the third guard made sure her head was tilted back, and he poured it right down her throat.

"Janet!!"

All of them let go of her. She stumbled to her knees, her throat choking and swallowing on impulse. Then she screamed in agony.

"NO! Janet, hold on, don't! Janet!!" he shouted.

She heard him; she looked up at him, tears spilling from her eyes. Daniel felt his own falling. He could almost see the life draining out of her. "Daddy--" she choked tearfully.

"Janet!" But if he'd been given a much diluted dose and speaking had hurt as much as it had, he couldn't imagine how much the word hurt her. Janet screamed again, the sound fading to nothing as she stopped and dropped face-down to the ground, unmoving.

"Janet! Janet!" he yelled desperately. Nothing. "NO! JANET!" Still nothing. "JANET!"

Daniel felt something brush his wrist, and realized that the natives were untying him. A fleeting part of his mind thought about striking out at one or all of them when he was free, even though he didn't know why they were untying him, but once his wrists and ankles were free he went immediately to Janet. He dropped to his knees, not even noticing the pain in the joints, and scrambled to her side.

"Janet!!"

Her eyes were closed when he turned her over, and he was hopeful for a moment. He checked for a pulse in more than one place, but there was nothing. Breathing hard, he lowered his face near to hers, but felt no breath hitting his cheek. There was nothing. Nothing. He sat up quickly, pulling her with him and hugging her to him.

"No," he sobbed. "Janet, no, nooo…." he moaned, his body wracked with sobs. He forgot about Osiris, forgot about the natives. They didn't matter. All he could do was hold her, some not-quite-sane part of him hoping he could will the life back into her. For a moment he was transported back to an icy ledge on a distant planet, in the same situation…and the insane hope grew for a moment.

But when nothing happened, the snow disappeared, and he realized that it was no use hoping.

Osiris said something he couldn't understand through his sobs. Then someone grabbed him from behind, and he realized that the guards were trying to take him away from her.

"No!" he shouted. He struggle, kicked, tried throwing a few punches, all the while keeping a grip on his daughter. "LET ME GO!" But they jerked him away from her. He lost his grip, and she fell back to the ground like a useless sack of flour.

They dragged him out the door and back toward the prison hut, as he called it in his mind, and Osiris didn't follow, but stood in the doorway of his own hut watching them go.

"You can't do this!!" Daniel sobbed, still struggling as he was dragged away. "Bring her back! You have to have a sarcophagus somewhere! BRING HER BACK!"

The Goa'uld scowled. "Sadly, no, I do not. If I did, I already would have killed the both of you at least once or twice. I'm afraid she's gone. But if you decide to cooperate, perhaps I'll consider not killing you, as well." Then he shut the door.

"NO!" The natives pulled him across the rest of the village and dumped him into the prison hut, closing and locking the door quickly. Chest heaving, veins pumping with adrenaline, Daniel jumped back to his feet and pounded on the door. It shook, but didn't budge. He threw his body into it, and almost the whole hut shook, but nothing moved or broke. He tried the walls, but they were too well-made.

Sobbing, he dropped to his knees in the middle of the floor and pounded on the dirt, because he had nothing else to try. But he realized, slowly, that that would do nothing. And nothing would bring Janet back. She hadn't ascended, and there was no sarcophagus. She was gone.

And Daniel screamed at the sky.

* * * *

Vala jerked awake, and she wasn't even sure why. Dawn was just breaking, and Cassie and Colonel Hailey, in the women's tent with her, were still asleep. It wouldn't be long before the camp got up and going, but even if she'd wanted to catch a few more moments of sleep, she knew she wouldn't have been able to.

Because that was when she heard it. A faint, echoing, chilling sound. It was hard to tell what it was. It stopped for just a second, then started again, or so she thought. She couldn't even be sure she'd heard it. She jumped up and went outside the tent, looking around. She could see the wall of foliage that was the rock face several yards away, and the faint sound seemed to be coming from the other side of it. Vala shivered and wrapped her arms around herself; it sounded like it might be a scream.

After another moment or so, it stopped, and she glanced back at the tents. Suddenly something told her that they needed to get moving. NOW. She stuck her feet in her boots that sat just outside the tent, and on her knees went back inside and woke up the other two women. She didn't explain, just told them to get up. Then she pushed aside one of the flaps of one of the two tents the men were in, and was relieved to see that Mitchell's head was by the door. She didn't have to go in.

It wasn't hard to wake him up. "Mitchell!"

He jerked and looked up at her groggily. "What?"

"Come on, it's time to move."

Teal'c was stirring too, and the colonel looked at his watch. "Yeah…yeah, we're coming. Tell Skaara and the kid to get moving for me, will ya?"

"Gladly," Vala nodded. She tried to ignore the chill running up and down her spine.

* * * *

Only when his throat was too raw to scream anymore, did he stop. It didn't take long. Daniel collapsed, curling up on the ground and crying softly.

"I'm sorry--" he choked. "I'm so sorry."

Jack's words from so many years ago were already running through his mind.

I'll never forgive myself, but sometimes I can forget…sometimes.

He would never forgive himself.

But he would never be able to forget, either.

* * * *

Pain. It was all she could feel. Her wrists were bound behind her back, and her arms hurt. Her ankles were tied together, and she was on her side on a rough surface, probably dirt, not comfortable, and what must have been little rocks and pebbles were digging into her side and thighs, and that hurt. Her head was pounding, and there was a gag around her mouth, and another balled in her mouth behind it, and that didn't help the fact that her chest was burning, and she couldn't get enough air without it hurting anyway. It was dark; she couldn't see anything.

This was where she'd woken up, just a minute or two ago. The last thing she remembered was Osiris forcing some strange liquid down her throat, dad screaming, pain…then blackness. And it was still black. But now she knew she was awake. He'd said she would die. Was this hell? It was awful enough, maybe.

Sudden light cut into her yes, making her squint in pain. A wide strip of light opened over her, and she realized that it was some kind of horizontal door, like maybe she was in some kind of cellar, some shallow underground storage place.

And Osiris was smirking down at her.

"Wonderful performance, Janet. Your father is quite convinced that you're dead now, though that of course was mostly because of the ability of the substance I gave you to simulate death for several minutes, when given at that potency. I wasn't lying when I said a pure dose would kill instantly, but what I gave you wasn't quite one hundred percent."

Dad! He thought she was dead. But she wasn't! She was here! She started to struggle, tried to make noise, but she was tied too tightly, and the gag wasn't budging either. Almost no sound escaped, and it only left her chest aching more.

"It will hurt to breathe for a few days. Not as badly as it hurt your father when I gave him a different dose--most of the energy of what I gave you was used up at the beginning--but it will still be painful. That's the price I pay for wanting him to believe you're dead, but oh well. I can wait a few days to question you, if he doesn't crack. Eventually one of you will, or I'll kill the both of you for good. Oh, and don't bother screaming, even if you do get the gag out. You're in a beta storage facility almost a mile from the village. Your father won't hear you."

The Goa'uld smirked. "Have a nice day." Then he dropped the door again, and it slammed shut over her again, bringing back the darkness.

No!

Janet screamed and screamed, but finally stopped and cried silently. No-one would ever hear her.

CHAPTER 8

They took all of the morning and the first part of the afternoon looking for an opening in the rock face. It formed a complete circle, a valley at the far edge of the forest, and it was large enough to take a while to walk around. On top of that, they had to search meticulously through the foliage creeping up the rock, or they would never find a way to get it. They didn't stop, and didn't talk much. It wasn't until a couple of hours past midday that Mitchell finally stopped the group.

"Cameron, what are you doing? We have to keep going!"

"We need to rest and eat," he insisted. "If we don't, we'll be low an energy when we do find them, and we might not be able to get them out. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

There were nods all around, and Vala sighed. "All right…but we can't take long."

"We won't. Now sit down."

She reluctantly obliged, and Mitchell took his pack off of his back to search for MREs. In the process, he leaned back against the vine-coated rock wall behind him--and fell through.

"Colonel Mitchell!" Travis yelped.

"Cameron!" Vala jumped back to her feet, but Mitchell was already sitting up, pushing vines out of his way.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…" he assured them. The leaves had been hiding the small opening in the rock to a passage just wide enough for one or two people.

Vala smiled for the first time all day. "You found it!"

"Good; we can get moving right after we eat," Cassie added.

"Do we still have to--"

"Yes," every single one of them answered.

She sighed and sat back down. It was easier to do this time; because now she knew there was a way to get to her family.

Lunch was hurried, but they made sure to eat plenty to keep their strength up. Then they quickly packed away the remains, shouldered their packs, and headed cautiously took out flashlights and headed into the passageway. Mitchell and Hailey led the way, with Vala close behind, Teal'c took up the rear, with Skaara, Cassie, and Travis in the middle. They had to keep it almost a single-file line, with the width of the tunnel.

The passage sloped gently upward at first, and curved around, and then suddenly went up more sharply for a short while, before they rounded a quick corner and saw light again. When they peered out the opening of the tunnel, they saw that they were now at the top of the rock, looking down at a lush valley where a good sized village sat. That had been the source of the smoke they had seen on the UAV camera, apparently.

"They must be down there," Vala said softly.

Mitchell glanced around. "We're too exposed here. Anyone down there could look up and see us. Let's take cover for now and gather more intel."

Colonel Hailey nodded in agreement, and pointed out an outcropping of rock just a few yards from the opening. One at a time, they scurried from the tunnel and behind the nearby shelter, keeping their eyes on the village below.

"Should I try the radio?" Vala asked.

Mitchell thought for a moment. "Yeah…won't hurt to try."

She tried calling both Daniel and Janet more than once, but got no reply. It wasn't surprising, and it shouldn't have made her worry anymore than she already was, but it was still unnerving. "Nothing."

"Makes sense," Hailey muttered.

"How are we going to find them, sir?" Travis questioned.

"We'll keep an eye out down there for a little while. If that's where they are, it would be better to go in when it's dark anyway," Cameron told him.

He nodded. "Right."

Mitchell and Hailey assigned each ember of the two teams a specific area of the valley below to keep watch on, and they began their vigil.

* * * *

Daniel was tired, hungry, thirsty, and hurting, but none of it mattered anymore. Part of his mind wondered how he was supposed to tell Vala what had happened, while another part still refused to believe that Janet's death was anything but a dream, and yet another part just wanted to die with her.

For hours after he was dumped into the hut and left alone, he stayed curled on the floor, not daring to move, or do anything lest he be forced to face the reality of his situation. He was still in the hands of Osiris--who really could do anything he wanted with him--and his daughter was dead. For a little while he tried to think about Vala, and Charlie, and Adrian, and it helped a little at first, but not as much as he'd hoped.

He didn’t know how long it had been, when the door finally opened again. Part of him ridiculously hoped that maybe it was Janet, and she was all right and they were bringing her back to him…Daniel sat up and turned toward the door quickly. But it was only a couple of the native men, probably come to take him to Osiris again.

He was right. The two men strode into the hut and picked him up off the floor with little effort. Daniel didn't bother to resist; he let himself be dragged. There was no reason to struggle anymore.

* * * *

It was Skaara who suddenly pointed out suspicious movement, a couple of hours or so after they'd taken up watch. It was a good thing, too. They were all getting worried that it wasn't the right place.

"There!" he said excitedly. "I think those two men that just went into that hut over there are bringing someone out. Maybe it's them." It was the only hut that was guarded, and they'd been paying special attention to it since they'd gotten to where they were.

All eyes turned to where he indicated, and a moment later two big native men stepped out of the hut--dragging Daniel Jackson between them. Vala sucked in a quick breath and watch them drag him across the village toward another hut, one that was sort of set apart from the others. Daniel wasn't unconscious, or at least she didn't think so. He just wasn't resisting at all. His body was limp, and his head was down, though he didn't appear hurt. They dragged him into the other hut, the door was closed behind them, and they were gone again.

"We just have to keep watching," Cameron said quietly. "We'll know if they bring him back, so we'll know where he is tonight so we can go in. Janet's probably in that hut they took Daniel out of. That's why it's guarded."

"Thank you for stating the obvious," Vala said dryly.

* * * *

Osiris was waiting for him again, but the chair was not. The guards dropped him on the ground in front of the Goa'uld, but all he did was grunt. All of them probably assumed that he was too weak and/or too grief-stricken to cause any trouble that way.

They were right. Daniel hadn't had anything to eat in almost thirty-six hours, not to mention no water, his chest, throat, and stomach still hurt, and his head was pounding. He wasn't going anywhere. He didn't bother looking up, and just let his head rest on his arms. He could hear Osiris smirking above him.

"Perhaps now you are ready to cooperate," he snorted harshly.

Daniel didn't respond, and was rewarded with a foot smashing into his gut. Crying out, he doubled over, choking and coughing. When he still didn't answer, the Goa'uld kicked him again, and then a few times more. It wasn't until he was sprawled on his side, moaning and spitting out blood, that he was given another chance.

"I suggest that you tell me what I want to know, Daniel. I can and will do whatever I wish to you until I have it; I don't have your daughter to worry about anymore. She's taking a permanent vacation at the bottom of the lake near the stargate."

Daniel tried not to--he really did, because he didn't want to give the Goa'uld the satisfaction of anything--but he flinched at that, shuddering.

Osiris drew back as if to kick him again, and Daniel shouted and drew up his arms in front of him. "You don't have to do that!" he coughed for a moment as the Goa’uld looked at him curiously, and then continued, voice cracking. "Don't you get it? There's no point to…telling you now. You…you took everything here worth protecting!" He wanted to smirk, but just couldn't make himself do it. Not now. "You screwed up, Osiris."

Needless to say, the Goa'uld didn't appreciate that very much.

* * * *

Vala and the others watched the hut Daniel had been dragged into anxiously, while also keeping watch for any signs of Janet. There was nothing else but the minimal bustle of village life for too long. Women cooked and hung laundry to dry, after they'd washed it in a nearby stream. It seemed that many of the men were gone; probably hunting. Children ran between the huts, playing. When Daniel had been dragged out, most of them had glanced in his direction, and then gone back to what they were doing, not seeming to care. Somehow, it was disturbing that it wasn't an unusual sight for them.

Finally, the door of the hut opened. The same two men came back out, dragging Daniel again--but this time he looked much worse, though it was hard to tell exactly how much worse from where they were. But it was obvious that he'd been beaten, and this time he really was out.

Vala gasped. "Daniel!" She started to move instinctively, not even remembering how far away she was. Mitchell and Cassie held her back.

"Easy, Vala, easy!" Cameron soothed. "It'll be dark in a couple of hours, and we'll get them out of there, okay? He'll be fine. They'll both be fine."

Vala swallowed and nodded, watching anxiously as the native men on the valley floor dragged her unconscious husband back into the first hut and came out again without him, closing and latching the door.

The two men dispersed back into the village, and another man now came out of the other hut. He was taller, more handsome, and as he strolled through the village it was obvious that he was well respected. Or feared. At first it didn't seem unusual. This man was obviously the chief, or leader of the village, and he had been questioning Daniel about…something. And now they had to get both Daniel and Janet out of there. The situation didn't need anymore explaining.

But then the chief spoke.

None of them could tell what he was saying, but he spoke to the men, and even from where they were hiding, the tone of his voice was unmistakable.

He was a Goa'uld.

Teal'c scowled deeply. "This is not good."

Vala swallowed. "No, it's not."

"I thought we killed them all a long time ago," Cameron groaned.

"We did indeed, Colonel Mitchell--but there are still many minor Goa'ulds in hiding. They are of no consequence, so we do not bother to locate them.

Unfortunately, I fear we were wrong in that decision."

"Ya think?" Cassie hissed.

Nightfall couldn't come fast enough. They started moving surreptitiously down the slope at late dusk, and when the village seemed to have finally settled in for the night, they went in. Cassie and Travis stayed halfway up the slope for observation and cover, and the other five of them crept through the foliage at the edge of the village until they were behind the hut they knew Daniel was in, and were hoping Janet was in as well.

There was a guard on each side of the hut. Vala and Mitchell zatted the two they could see from the back. When the two from the front came around to see what the sound had been, they were brought down. Thankfully, the spaces between the huts were enough that no one else should have been able to hear it.

Mitchell looked back and silently motioned for Skaara and Hailey to stay back while he, Vala, and Teal'c went in. Vala followed him around the hut, Teal'c behind her. Carefully, they slipped into the hut and closed the door behind them. She spun immediately, but there was no light, only the moonlight filtering in under the door. She had to turn on a flashlight to see.

Immediately her heart sank. She swept the purposely dim beam back and forth, but still she saw only one figure huddled inside the hut. It was Daniel, over by one of the walls, and he was still out.

One of Mitchell's hands squeezed her shoulder gently. "We'd better wake him up. We don't need him waking up on his own, freaking out and giving us away. And don't worry…we'll find Janet."

Vala nodded wordlessly and hurried to her husband. She rolled him onto his back and swallowed hard. It wasn't as bad as she'd feared, but his face was bruised, there was a nasty cut above one eye and a couple more on one cheek. His body had been curled around his middle as if protecting it, and she didn't have to guess why.

* * * *

Someone calling his name, and lips pressed to his forehead brought Daniel out of the darkness that had taken over. At first he couldn't see anything, but as his vision cleared, he realized that he was on his back looking up at…his wife.

"Vala…" he said hoarsely.

She smiled a little. "Hey."

He smiled back, just a bit, just for a moment, before he remembered where he was and what had happened. And panic took over. How could he tell her? He didn't want to.

Before he could think further, he coughed, and everything from his throat from his abdomen hurt. He grimaced in pain, but his worry must have slipped out onto his face as well, because Vala wasn't only soothing him because of the pain.

"Shhh, easy, it'll be all right. We're here now. We'll get out of here, and go home, as soon as we find Janet. Do you know where she is?"

For some reason, the completely trusting tone of her voice did it. Daniel started to cry again, softly, but he couldn't stop it. He barely noticed when Mitchell and Teal'c came over to help. Cam knelt next to Vala and tried to help calm him down.

"Hey, Daniel it's okay. What's wrong?"

He shook his head, not wanting to say it. He couldn't say it.

"Daniel?" Vala asked. Now she sounded worried. That hurt too.

Mitchell put a hand on his shoulder. "Jackson, what is it?"

He wanted to answer. He didn't want them to keep wondering, not knowing. But he didn't want to tell them either. And he still couldn't stop the tears.

Vala gently pulled his head and shoulders into her lap, and stroked his hair back. "Daniel, please," she said in a strained voice. "Tell me what's wrong."

"I'm sorry," he choked out finally.

He could almost hear her swallow. "For what?"

Daniel tried to slow the tears, but couldn't, not entirely. "I tried….but couldn't stop it…"

"Stop what?" Now her voice was more urgent, and he could see her, Mitchell, and Teal'c looking at each other in alarm. Oh how he didn't want to say it…

* * * *

"Osiris," Daniel whispered next.

Osiris? But he had been taken care of before she had even met Daniel…Vala didn't believe her ears. The fear tightening in her chest didn't help either.

"Daniel, Osiris is dead," Mitchell pointed out.

He shook his head. "He was…helped, and escaped here…He's been hiding." His breathing was a bit labored, and Vala feared for his safety as well as worrying about Janet. What was he trying to tell them? Tears still tracked down Daniel's cheeks.

She took a breath. "And what happened, Daniel? Where's Janet?" she asked again, voice rising in pitch.

Daniel all but flinched at the question, and just shook his head. He started to cry harder again, and Vala held onto his shoulders tighter. She looked at Cam, and his eyes clearly read Something's not right here.

You think? She thought bitterly.

"Daniel, what?" she pleaded quietly. They couldn't risk being found, but she had to know. "What about Janet?? Is she here somewhere?"

His head just continued to see, and both of the men looked worried now. That didn't help any, and Vala could feel tears pricking her own eyes as a horrible idea of what was happening slowly formed in her mind.

"Daniel, tell me she's here," she pleaded desperately. "She has to be. They captured both of you. She's in another one of the huts, Daniel. It's the only explanation. Just tell me where, please, where is she??"

Daniel sobbed and gripped her jacket. "Gone," he cried.

"Gone?" she echoed unbelievingly.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed. "I'm so sorry…"

Teal'c's head lowered Mitchell took a shaky breath. "Oh no…"

Vala looked up sharply. "No. He can't be right. They beat him, and Osiris is a Goa'uld. He could have made him believe anything…"

"That would be pretty hard to fake," Cameron said quietly. "I'm sorry."

She blinked rapidly. "No…" One of Teal'c's arms went around her shoulders, but she pushed it away. "No. We're going to get him home. He needs medical attention as soon as possible. Then we'll come back." It couldn't be true. Janet had to be alive…somewhere…

Teal'c and Mitchell pulled Daniel up together, and draped him between their shoulders. He groaned, but not loud enough to give them away, they hoped. His crying stopped, but he didn't say anything else. To keep her mind off of…well, everything, Vala took point as they crept out of the hut and back to Skaara and Hailey, and then back up the rock face to pick up Travis and Cassie. Surprisingly, they got back to the woods without incident.

* * * *

Travis couldn't believe his ears. He didn't know what to think. Doctor Jackson hadn't really said anything since they'd gotten out of the valley and headed back for the stargate. Mrs. Jackson had only said briefly that they weren't sure about Janet, but that they couldn't find her tonight. Colonel Mitchell had said quietly that Doctor Jackson had said she was…gone. Apparently the plan was to come back as soon as they knew more--as soon as they could get Daniel to tell them what had happened.

But how could they leave at all, without her? Was she really gone? he refused to believe it until he heard more. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be.

* * * *

Jack waited anxiously in the control room with his wife. Sam was pacing the room nervously. SG-1 and SG-13 should have been by now. Maybe search-and-rescue was unpredictable, but they still shouldn't have taken this long. It was past midnight, and they were all starting to worry. Jack had come as soon as he had heard what was going on. He wasn't going to leave Sam here by herself to deal with this, when he could be here.

Finally, finally the 'gate opened.

"It's SG-1's code," the 'gate tech announced. Walter Harriman had finally retired--just recently, actually. He was missed, but they all saw him around.

"Open the iris," Sam ordered immediately. He did, but no one came through immediately.

"Stargate Command, this is Colonel Mitchell."

Jack stood as Sam nodded to the tech to open the radio frequencies and replied. "This is Stargate Command. We read you, Cam. Did you find them?"

There was a hesitation. "Uh…about that…"

Sam swallowed, and Jack felt his throat tighten.

"We did…sort of. But we uh…we think we've got one casualty."

Crap…

"Just get over here, colonel," Sam gulped.

"Yes ma'am," Mitchell sighed.

The radio transmission cut off, and a few seconds later the teams started coming through the 'gate. SG-13 came first, and then Vala, and Mitchell and Teal'c supporting a barely conscious Daniel…but no Janet.

Oh god no…

One of Sam's hands shot up to cover her mouth, but she said nothing; only headed immediately for the stairs, shooting a worried glance at him. Jack followed as quickly as he could with his blasted screwed-up knees, and reached the 'gate room shortly after he did. Both teams were still at the base of the ramp; they hadn't moved, and none of them were saying much. Mitchell and Teal'c had sat down with Daniel on the step. Travis looked dumbstruck and lost, Vala had plastered on a neutral expression, and the rest of them just didn't seem to know what to do with themselves.

"What happened?" Sam asked quietly.

Vala shook her head. "We don't know."

Daniel sobbed. Jack's attention snapped to his friend, and while Sam got an abbreviated de-brief from the others, he went to him. Mitchell moved and let him sit next to Jackson.

Jack gripped his arm lightly, pulling in a breath. "Daniel..?"he didn't respond at first. He only stared at the floor, arms around himself. "Danny…it's me. It's okay…"

He shook his head. "No it's not," he cried softly. "It's my fault…"

Memories he didn't want right now pushed forward in Jack's mind, and he battered them back so he could focus on his friend. "What is?" But he was afraid he already knew what. And he didn't like it.

"I couldn't stop him…" was all he said. Then Daniel looked up, and Jack saw his eyes. And he had to stifle a gasp.

It was the same look he'd seen in the mirror, all those years ago. That haunted look he'd had after he'd seen Charlie—

Suddenly there were tears in Jack's eyes as well as Daniel. "Oh Daniel…" he wrapped his friend into his arms and held on tight while he cried, trying hard not to cry himself.

Because he knew for sure that there was no 'we think' to it. Daniel had seen his daughter die.

* * * *

Janet didn't know how long she had been in the storage cellar. With no light, she had no sense of time. She knew she'd fallen asleep again for a while, and that she'd been awake again now for what must have been several hours. But she wasn't sure. She was still hurting, and much more hungry and thirsty. When the door above her finally opened again, the light, though dim, drove a spike of agony through her head.

Eyes closed, she struggled as two men pulled her up out of the hole, untied the ropes around her ankles, stood her on her feet and pushed her forward. She fell to the ground again immediately, unable to coordinate her feet to walk so quickly after being held still for that long. She cried out in pain, her eyes popping open. She immediately squinted again, but could still see that she was lying on the forest floor, in the early morning light.

The men dragged her to her feet again and made her walk, but after only a few steps she fell again. It was hard enough with her legs aching from being tied and cramped, but the fact that her hands were still tied behind her back didn't help either. They made her try again, and again she tripped and fell--but this time on purpose. She was beginning to form a plan in her mind. Her sides were bruising by now, and she glared at them angrily when they pulled her up. They made her start walking twice more, and twice more she fell. Her bruised, cracked, or however damaged ribs had healed some, but it still hurt to hit the ground. But if it worked, it might be worth it.

Finally, when they pulled her up the sixth time, one of them untied her hands so she could balance more easily.

Janet broke into a run, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head and chest. She had to get away. She had no idea which direction the stargate was, but she would find it. She had no other choice without a radio or anything else…

One of the natives slammed into her from behind, bringing her down. He landed on top of her, and she shouted in pain when she felt something in her chest snap. This time, there was no guessing what had been damaged and how.

Gasping, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, Janet could only struggle weakly while the other one helped hold her down and they retied both her ankles and wrists. At least they tied her arms in front this time. Then the bigger one picked her up over his shoulder, which didn't help her rib cage any. Pain stabbed into her chest as he walked, and she didn't even know where they were going. She tried beating on his back with her tied hands, but he ignored her. She screamed, but they didn't try to quiet her. She still had a gag on; no one would be able to hear her anyway.

They walked almost a mile, she thought, and then came to what looked like a solid wall of foliage. But then they pushed a few vines aside, and she saw that it was rock, as they went into a tunnel, and up. They came out at the top of a valley, and as he two men started down the trail with her she saw the village.

Dad! Maybe they had decided to stop the charade. Maybe she would be able to see him…

But Osiris met them at the edge of the village, and he did not look happy. He followed the two men back to the prison hut, and for a moment Janet felt hopeful again, but when they opened the door and dropped her inside, and she saw that her father wasn't there, her heart sank again. One of the native men bent down and cut her bonds. Finally, he even took the gag off as well.

Janet coughed and tried to clear her throat, but it hurt. Breathing was still a little more difficult than usual, and there was no moisture in her mouth.

Osiris stormed into the hut. "I hope you are more cooperative than your father," he glared.

"Where is he?" she croaked.

"He's dead," the Goa'uld replied brusquely. "He refused to tell me anything. He would say nothing at all because he believed you dead. I had no choice but to kill him."

Janet stared at him for a full minute. "No…you're lying," she whispered.

"I know you have no reason to trust me, because I lied to your father about your alleged death, but I assure you that your father is quite dead. I killed him myself, with my ribbon device."

"No!" she shouted hoarsely. "He's not dead!"

The Goa'uld smirked. "Where you were hidden was the only off-site storage facility the village has. And I'd be glad to show you around the rest of the village so you can be certain that he's not here."

No…no that couldn't be right! "No…"

"And I do hope he likes swimming; that's what he'll be doing from now on."

Janet sobbed. "No. Nonono!" Osiris shrugged, and all of them left, closing the door behind them. She leaned against the wall and cried, not even sure why. She didn't know what to believe.

CHAPTER 9

Daniel had passed out again soon after getting back through the ‘gate, and been brought to sickbay. Vala wandered the halls of the SGC looking for someone, anyone, to talk to. She called Charlie and Adrian out at Carolyn’s. She did some long-overdue paperwork. Anything to distract her mind from the possibility that what Daniel said might be true. That Janet might really be…

It was early morning when they returned, and it wasn’t until late that night when Daniel woke up again. By then Carolyn had needed to come in for work, and Charlie, Adrian, and the Mitchell children had been dropped off at grandpa Landry’s.

Vala was beside him by then, and saw when he stirred. She took his hand as he woke. “Daniel?” It took another moment or so before he was awake enough to open his eyes. “Hi…”she trailed uncertainly.

Daniel only looked at her for a moment before grimacing to himself and turning away evasively. “Daniel…please don’t…” She stood from her chair and sat on the edge of his bed. “Talk to me,” she pleaded, squeezing his hand. He tried to pull it away, but she held on too tightly; not hurting him, but enough to make sure she kept it. “Please.”

Daniel’s eyes clenched shut. “I can’t,” he whispered.

“Can’t what?”

“I just…not right now.”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek gently. “Just talk to me.”

He pulled in an unsteady breath. “Vala please…I can’t do this. Not yet…”

“You can’t tell me?”

He didn’t say anything, and Vala had her answer. The dagger that had been stuck in her chest since they’d found him twisted again. She had to fight not to gasp for air. She swallowed hard. “A-All right…” She stood reluctantly. “Would it help if I left you alone for now?”

“Please…”

Vala blinked back tears and let go of his hand. “If you’re sure…”

Daniel was silent again, and she didn’t risk trying again. She stood where she was for another moment or so, looking at him. His back was to her. Finally she couldn’t stay there anymore.

She ran from the infirmary.

* * * *

Jack was heading for the infirmary to check on Daniel when he literally ran into Vala. She cane around the corner in front of him faster than his dwindling reflexes could counter for, and she wasn't paying attention. He managed to stop her, but when he tried to keep her from running off again she fought him.

"Whoa! Take it easy!"

"Let go of me," Vala growled, jerking her arms from his hands. Then she crossed them over her chest. "What?"

"Well, I was going to go check on Daniel…"

"He's awake," she told him. Then why did she sound so disdainful?

"Isn't that…good?"

Vala looked away. "That depends."

"On what?"

"Are you going to leave me alone?"

Jack looked at her unwaveringly. "No."

She fell silent at that, and still wouldn't meet his eyes. Jack sighed and gently pulled Vala into the nearest empty exam room just off the main corridor and shut the door so they could talk undisturbed. She came with him not quite reluctantly, but not happily, either. "What is it?" he asked quietly. There was no way to know what was going on behind those eyes, and with the current circumstances, it couldn't be pretty.

At first she still refused to say a word, but after he had stood there looking at her long enough, she finally blurted. "He won't talk to me."

Jack made a face as he caught what she meant. "You mean he won't tell you what happened," he ventured, voice barely above a whisper.

She shook her head. "He wanted to be left alone."

"I can understand that," he swallowed painfully.

Vala looked at him sharply. It only took second for her expression to change to horrified and nervous. "But--but that can't be it! There has to be some mistake! I won't just believe that--that she's-"

Jack could see the tears pushing at the corners of her eyes, and he didn't want to do what he knew he had to. But, as much as it was in his power, he couldn't let her delude herself any longer than she already had. The longer she did, the more it would hurt when she stopped. He knew that much from experience.

He shook his head slowly. "There's no mistake."

"Of course there is!" she practically yelled at him.

He took a deep breath. "Vala…I've been there. I know what it feels like. I know what it looks like, and I know what I'm seeing. As sorry as I am about it, I know why he's acting the way he is."

Vala was already shaking her head is vigorously in defiance--and denial. "No." She gulped past something and kept going. "No. We almost lost her once. We went through so much to keep her." Her voice was rising in pitch as well as volume again. "You know what we went through! You helped keep her here! It can't all be for nothing!"

Jack hesitated before putting a hand on her arm. "It wasn't for nothing…So far you've had eight more years than you would have otherwise." He couldn't bring himself to put Janet in the past tense completely. Not yet. They had only known for a few hours, and they weren't even sure how it had happened. If it had really been Osiris, then it wasn't hard to guess--and he grimaced at the thought of one of those hand devices--but still…

It was much too soon.

And it was too painful. Just because he was outwardly holding himself together a bit better at the moment than Vala was didn't mean that his heart wasn't breaking over this, too.

Vala pulled away from him again, but with much less force this time. He saw a pair of tears escape her eyes. "No! She's not gone…"

Jack gulped again. "I'm so sorry…"

"No…" Her head lowered into her hands, still shaking weakly. She staggered, he caught her arms again, and she all but fell against him. "No," she sobbed.

Jack didn't know what else to do but hold her, and inwardly cry with her--for her sake, his own, for dear Janet's…and for his best friend.

Why was fate doing this to him? Why did he and Vala have to suffer the same tragedy Jack and Sara had? Why? It made no sense.

It wasn't fair!!

* * * *

Janet struggled against the ropes holding her to the chair, wondering why she even cared.

Dad was dead.

But wouldn't the others still be coming for them? If they did they would only find her…and then what would she tell them? Part of her couldn't help but still feel that it was her fault. But that was all she felt.

The rest of her didn't care about much else anymore.

"I'm not to going to tell you anything," she told Osiris bluntly, straight-faced.

"Well, I'm sure you'll come around," the Goa'uld smirked.

Janet felt her jaw clench involuntary and her fingernails dig into the arms of the wooden chair. "You killed my father."

"Funny. You're father said just about the same thing after he thought you were dead. That was why I was forced to kill him. I admit; maybe it wasn't the best choice of tactics. But what's done is done. Now I would suggest that you cooperate. You wouldn't want to end up like him, would you?"

She said nothing; only looked away.

Osiris sauntered closer and shoved his face close to hers. "Is that you agreeing? Or are you going to continue to be stubborn like that fool of a father of yours?"

She couldn't stop herself. Janet snapped back around toward the snake immediately--and spit right in his face.

Osiris jerked back in surprise, howling in anger. "Insolent Tau'ri!" he shrieked, lashing out with a wildly thrown arm. It struck her across the chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her chair backward. But the Goa'uld caught it and sent it back on all four feet before it could fall. He wiped his face, and the guards looked ready to jump on her at any word from their god.

But instead, he took care of it himself.

Seconds later, Janet found herself trapped for the second time in the excruciating orange-yellow beam of the ribbon device. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help but scream. And this time it wasn't only several seconds. It was much longer before the beam finally snapped off and she slumped forward, gasping hard and barely able to put a coherent thought together.

Osiris's voice, now silky and placating, came from out of her line of sight--which was pretty much the dirt.

"Now now, dear. There's no reason to make me hurt you anymore. Just tell me what I want to know. A pretty little thing like you shouldn't be--"

"You…will get…nothing from me," Janet hissed without looking up.

"Don't worry; you will come around. Surely you want to see the rest of your family again, however large or small it is."

Now she did look up, and glared at him vehemently. "And just how would I do that if you're going to take over our planet? We'd all die anyway if I told you anything."

"Oh come now; if you help me, of course I'll spare your life. If you help me enough, then I would consider sparing your family's lives as well. Maybe even a few close friends…but only if you give me the information willingly."

That made Janet do an inward double-take. Travis…And she couldn't forget her mother…and Charlie and Adrian. She couldn't let them die. But she would keep everyone out of danger if she refused to tell Osiris anything. But then again…if he killed her, they would still be hurt. She would be gone.

But they were already hurt. Dad was dead.

That snapped her quickly back to being angry.

"Then you can go rot," she snarled.

Osiris didn't seem the least bit surprised by this answer. Only annoyed. "Like father, like daughter, I suppose."

"You'd better believe it, snakehead."

The Goa'uld glared at her and started for the cabinet. "All right then. We will continue to do this the hard way."

* * * *

Vala wasn't the only one Daniel wouldn't talk to. He hardly said a word to anyone the rest of the night or the next day, either. Finally, Vala decided just to go get the boys and go home that night. She'd been away from them for long enough, and Daniel would be in the infirmary for at least a week.

Hank was surprised to see her when she knocked on the door, but didn't ask questions. He went to get the boys, and they came quickly, with their bags in hand.

"Mom! Mom!" Charlie called worriedly. "Is Daddy okay? And Janet? Where are they?"

Vala sighed. "Dad is back at the base. He needs to get better, but he'll be fine."

"What about Janet?" he asked again.

She shared a glance with Landry. He'd been told what was going on, but he couldn't offer much help. Still, he opened his mouth as if to assist, but she spoke before he did. "We don't know, Charlie," she answered quietly. "Janet…she might have-" She cut off there, gulping back the tears that wanted to come. "Might have gone somewhere else," she finished lamely, feeling how useless that explanation was. How could she tell two little boys that there sister was…was gone?

"Might have?"

"We think so," she whispered.

Landry help the boys bring their bags out to the car. As Adrian climbed into his seat, he finally spoke.

"Mommy?"

Vala wiped away a tear before he could see it and crouched down outside his door. "What is it?"

"Is Janet coming back?" he asked softly. From the look on his face, he'd seen the tears anyway. He was so much more perceptive than his older brother, even though he was only six. She loved him for it, but right now she wasn't sure she could take it.

"I don't know, sweetheart," she answered. She knew now that…whatever had happened…there wasn't much chance. But she wouldn't tell them that their sister was never coming back until she knew for sure or not. And when that was would depend entirely on Daniel.

Adrian nodded slowly and buckled his seatbelt as she stood up. She kissed his forehead and got out of the way so he could close his door. Then both of the children were in the closed car, and she was left standing on the sidewalk with Landry.

Hank gave her a friendly embrace. "Just hang in there," he urged gently. "We don't know yet."

Vala shrugged as if she understood, but still couldn't hold out much hope beyond the part of her that would always be stubborn.

The part of her that would always want her baby back.

She thanked him half-heartedly and climbed into the vehicle herself. Charlie wasn't asking questions anymore, and looked like he was beginning to understand that something was wrong. She wished she could do something about it, but it was out of her hands.

At the house, the boys asked hesitantly if she would read them a story before bed. Vala wanted to--to do something normal, something that wouldn't remind her that things were changing forever. But in the end she had to decline that, too.

"Not tonight, boys. It's late, and Mommy needs sleep. It's late, and I've been working for a long time." Not to mention that if she tried to do that now, she might not make it through it. They would doubtlessly want to reads their favorite book, which had been Janet's favorite book at that age too, and--"Maybe tomorrow, okay?" she choked out, masking her strangled voice as much as she could. Then she kissed them and left as quickly as she could, before they could see they tears that broke from her eyes soon after.

* * * *

Daniel couldn't bear to look at any of them. He couldn't talk to them. He knew it was irrational, but he was scared of what they would think of them if they heard what had happened. As much as they told him they just wanted him to talk to them, he couldn't.

Because if he did, he was sure that they wouldn't want to talk to him again.

They would hate him. How could he ever really face any of them again?

So he lay where he was, letting his body heal and trying not to think at all.

If he did he might not be able to deal with what showed up in his mind.

Jack came and sat by him for hours at a time, just waiting for him to talk. That was the way Jack was. Sam came every now and then, when she could get a few minutes away from her busy schedule, but he couldn't even look at her, because she would talk to him, trying to offer comfort, even if he didn't reply. Teal'c and Cam, they came too at times. After a few days Vala stopped coming. It hurt, but he decided it was for the best. Charlie and Adrian needed her much more than he did.

He didn't deserve her anymore.

Daniel wasn't fooling himself about the legalities, either. He knew he would have to tell them what had happened eventually. A debriefing would be required, at some point. It was just procedure. The Powers That Be would wait until he was out of the infirmary, probably, but they would still ask of one. They would certainly want to know everything he could tell them about Osiris. A handful of them wouldn't care at all that his daughter had died while he was there. That was bureaucrats sometimes. They only cared about squashing the threats.

Why? Why did they have to be like that?

And why was this happening to them!

CHAPTER 10

Sam was wondering what she was supposed to do with herself, when there was a knock on her office door. "Come in," she called.

To her surprise, it was Travis who slipped in and shut the door. "G-General…" he swallowed. It wasn't because he was frightened of the rank; he knew her, to some extent. It was more than likely the circumstances more than anything. She didn't particularly like them, either.

Then there was the fact that he hadn't showed his face on the base since returning from the planet. Everyone on those two teams had been given the week off, so that was fine. But the others were still around; he hadn't been, and they'd all been worried.

"Lieutenant," she nodded. "Come in…what's on your mind?" She offered him a seat, but he still stood, fidgeting. Sam knew better than to push. She waited.

"Ma'am, I…" he trailed off and looked like he was quickly thinking through something yet again, before he nodded to himself almost imperceptibly and looked up at her more strongly. "I don't think I can do this," he told her.

"This, meaning…?" She knew what he meant, but he had to say it if he was going to get it past her. Not that she was going to let him do that anyway.

He sighed. "Just this; working here, being a part of an SG team…I don't think I'm cut out for it."

She pierced him with a look that said much. "You wouldn't be here if you weren't cut out for this at all. We pick our personnel carefully. It doesn't matter that you're a personal friend of one men who made all of this possible; if you hadn't had what it takes, you wouldn't have been let into the program."

"Maybe…but it doesn't matter what I do," he answered clumsily. "I can't do this."

"Why?"

His eyes flashed. "It was my first mission, ma'am! And someone--someone died!" he said quickly, before becoming somber again. "Someone I cared about…and I knew that was a risk here, but I didn't understand, I guess. Now I do and…I don't think I can handle that. I'd prefer to be transferred back to a standard Air Force base."

"Those risks still exist here on Earth."

"Not like that."

Sam inclined her head just a bit. "Well…I suppose I have to give you that. It is different out there. But in other ways, no more or less dangerous that staying planet side. We all knew that when we signed on. You said you did too."

"Yes ma'am…but like I said…I can't handle this. I'll never be able to go back out there again…not after--" He stopped, and she could see him desperately trying to keep the tears back. He was already doing an incredible job keeping his voice in check. It was no wonder he was having trouble.

Sam didn't know when she would feel any better, either. Not if Janet was really gone. And according to Jack, there really wasn't much question.

"I understand," she told him, a little quieter, trying to encourage while still maintaining her professionalism while on the job. "You know that I was part of SG-1 once; part of a field team. I was part of a field team that went through a heck of a lot. We lost people. Friends. I understand what you're going through. But I'm still here."

Travis swallowed. "But not like…" He sighed. "I know it may sound crazy, but I…how I feel…felt…about her…it's different."

She looked at him hard, wondering if she was understanding him right. She was pretty sure she was. "I know. And I still understand."

He looked at her, almost in surprise. "I…"

Sam stood and crossed her arms over her chest. "Lieutenant, listen. I don't like this either. I…I loved--I loved Janet too. Besides Cassandra, she and her brothers, and the Mitchell's children…I love them all just as much as if they were my own. So does my husband. This is not easy for us, either. But we're not going anywhere."

She felt a trace of tears in her eyes, too, and blinked them away quickly. "Yes, things can happen out there. Yes, sometimes the worst does happen. We hate it when it does. But that does not change the fact that what we do out there is worth it. Being a part of this is a privilege, not a right--no matter how skilled or not you are. You do have the right to quit, but if you give this up now, you may never get another chance at it. I wouldn't if I were you. You can still make a difference out there. You can still do something; you can get past this. I understand…and I know that you can. Not a single one of us would be here if we all quit whenever we lost someone, or something bad happened. We accepted the possibilities when we opened that 'gate."

She paused, and looked him in the eyes for a long moment. "Do you understand?"

Travis looked back at her an even longer moment, and finally swallowed. He nodded slowly. "Yes, ma'am," he said quietly.

Well, no. Not yet, he didn't. But he would.

Sam nodded at him in release, and he turned quietly and left again. She watched him go and sighed to herself, wondering where the good old days of being on SG-1, of not being in command, had gone.

* * * *

Jack shifted in the stiff plastic chair again and looked at Daniel, who was staring at the ceiling. As usual.

Finally, he'd had enough of silence.

"Well…the doc says you can get outta here tomorrow, probably. Though in my humble opinion, you'd have been out of here sooner if you hadn't shut up on us. I've heard that there is a bit of a mental component to getting better, and all that. This can't be helping the whole healing thing."

Daniel's eyes closed.

Well, at least he got a reaction.

Jack swallowed. He hadn't been sure what to say before, and that was part of the reason he hadn't tried to initiate conversation on his own until now. He still didn't know, really; who could? But he had to say something. It was too much just watch his friend do this to himself.

"Daniel…you don't have to do this to yourself. Just…tell us what happened. We're not going to blame you."

Daniel's eyes opened again, and his head turned farther away as he pulled in an unsteady breath. Jack pushed on, hoping he was getting through.

"Please? Come on, buddy. We love you. I know this is hard…it's hard for us too, but we can't help each other if you won't talk to us." He paused, and gulped back a lump in his own throat. "Right now we need you back, Daniel."

His friend's shoulders hunched down even further, and shook. Jack heard the sound of muted tears from the other side of the bed. Gently he reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, applying just a little pressure, enough for him to understand that Jack wanted him to turn over. He rolled to his back, at least, enough that Jack could see that his face was damp. Almost immediately he brought up an arm to swipe at it.

Jack gave his shoulder a squeeze.

"Jack…"he muttered.

O'Neill's eyebrows went up, but he managed to smile a little. "Yeah?"

He let his arm drop from his face, which was dry now; but his eyes were still wet. "How did you do it?"

Jack winced. And it had to be that, didn't it? "I don't know, Daniel."

Daniel finally looked at him, tentatively. "How can you not know? You…you know." He grimaced in apology and looked away. "What am I supposed to do?"

The words of the utterly lost.

He sighed heavily and paused, searching for the right words. He would never find the perfect answer. But he did know he could help. It was just the question of how to tell him that.

"Daniel…listen. Yes, Sara and I lost a child. I know what you're feeling. Mostly. But it was different, too. That was then, and that was you. This is now, and this is you. It's not going to be exactly the same. I can’t give you step-by-step instructions on how to get through this. It doesn't work that way. If anything, I don't want you to follow my example; because obviously, I did something wrong, because Sara and I didn't stay together. I don't exactly regret it anymore, because now I have Sam, and I love her a lot. But I know that Sara and I could have worked it out somehow…but it didn't happen.

"But that's not going to happen with you and Vala. Not if I have anything to say about it. You two are going to stay together, and you'll work this out. You'll get through it. I promise."

Daniel looked at him for a long moment. "H-how…can you know?" he asked finally, licking his lips anxiously. How long had it been since he'd done that? What was this really doing to him? Jack almost felt like he was talking to the kid of a Daniel he'd known thirty years ago, when he was hurting over Sha're.

Jack looked at him firmly. "Because you have something we didn't. You still have a family that loves you. You have the rest of us. Sure, we had friends…but not like you guys. Nothing quite that strong. Without Charlie…there was just no reason to stay together. Not according to us then, anyway, I guess…" He trailed off and stared at the floor for a second before looking up again. "We messed up, Daniel. But you'll do better, because I know you can. You're a lot smarter than I was then. You've…You've always been a better man than I am.

"Like I said, I can't tell you what to do, but I can be here. We're all going to be here. For all four of you."

Daniel swallowed hard and took a deep breath. It didn't shake as much this time, but he did look away again. "Thanks."

Jack just nodded, and then there was silence again. He waited it out this time. Daniel finally did speak again, but it was barely audible.

"He poisoned her," he whispered in a pained voice, and Jack grimaced. Of all the…! He had no details yet, and already he wanted to throttle the Gould. From the sound of his friend's voice, it could not have been pretty.

But at least he was talking.

God….Janet…

He gulped and looked up at Daniel again, but he wasn't talking any more. He was laying back against the propped-up pillows, silent again. That was as far as he was going to get today.

* * * *

"That's all he said about it?" Vala questioned. She was having trouble keeping her fists unballed.

Jack ran a hand through what was left of his white hair. "Yeah…I'm…I'm sorry…"

She blinked back the tears mercilessly. "Why are you apologizing? Nothing is your fault. You're trying to help."

"Not doing much good, am I?"

"You're doing plenty…and…and thank you for just telling me…"

Jack crossed his arms and gave her a mournful look. "You don't deserve to have things hidden from you; not after everything you two have been through."

Vala looked away. "I still want to know the rest; just that still doesn't narrow it down enough. And know the powers that be will wanted a lot more details in the official report; they always do, especially when someone--" She couldn't finish that sentence. This wasn't just someone. This was her little girl.

"I know," he nodded wearily. "But you just have to give him time."

She answered with a nod of her own, and then fell silent again. When she didn't say anything else, Jack spoke up again.

"She'll uh, she'll still be listed MIA until we have more details…but…well, you know…as much as I'd want too, we can't really…"

Vala nodded again before he could finish what he was saying, because she knew what he meant. He cared, but he didn't want her to be hurt more later, either. He'd been right before. She needed to know the odds, the probabilities…the truth. She had to press a hand over her mouth to keep from breaking into tears again, and Jack hugged her for a long moment until the wave of agony passed, and she pushed away herself. "Thank you," she whispered.

He nodded. "You gonna be okay here...? Or should I stay and help out the boys or something…"

Vala looked toward the stairs; the boys were upstairs playing, or something. "I'll be all right. I…I guess have to do something," she told him, swallowing hard.

Jack looked toward the stairs too, seeming to understand what she meant. Then he looked back at her with concern. "You sure you don't want me to stay?"

She shook her head. "No. I need to do this. I know…I know Daniel is hurting right now. Even though I don't know exactly what happened…I guess I can't blame him for not being ready to come home yet. But if he can't be here yet, I need them to know that I can be here. That I will be here."

Jack looked at her for another long moment, and then nodded. "All right. But just remember that you can call Sam and me anytime, whatever you need, okay?"

"And Cassie and Skaara, or Cameron and Carolyn, or Teal'c, or any of you. I know. Thank you."

He nodded once and reached for the door. "Okay…I'll see you later then."

"Right."

Once he was gone, Vala faced the stairs again. It took a few minutes, but finally she started up, wondering how she was supposed to do what she meant to when she got there. The boys were in their room, on the floor playing with their toy cars, and both looked up expectantly when she walked in.

"Who was that?" Charlie asked. "Was it about Janet? Or Daddy?"

"Are they coming home yet?" Adrian asked quietly.

Vala didn't say anything immediately, or she would have cried. Instead, she slowly sat down on the edge of one of the beds. "Come here.." she told them quietly. She must have conveyed the seriousness of what she needed to tell them, because they both climbed up onto the edge of the bed one either side of her and gripped her arms.

"What is it, Mommy?" Charlie asked, frowning.

She had to take a deep breath. "That was Uncle Jack downstairs, and it was about Janet." Both of them looked at her attentively. "Remember how I said she might have had to go somewhere?" They nodded, and she had to pause and gulp back the lump in her throat a few times before she could go on. It still came out strained. "Well…we were…we were right. Janet had to…leave."

Both boys looked upset immediately. "For how long?" Charlie demanded.

"A long time, Charlie. Listen, boys…I need you to be good for me, okay? Because…daddy's still getting better, and it might be a little while before he can come home. But he will be fine, okay?"

Adrian looked up at her with sad, imploring eyes. "Can Janet ever come back?"

Vala pushed his hair out of his face and bit back a sob. "No, sweetie." Why did he have to look so much like Daniel? So much like her?

Adrian's head dipped, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and held on. Charlie jumped up and scowled.

"No. You're lying. She’ll be back. She will! Daddy goes sometimes, too, and you do too, but you always come back. She has to!"

Vala looked at him helplessly. A few traitorous tears escaped, and she wiped them away quickly. "I wish I could change it, sweetheart, but I can't."

"Yes you can! You're the mom! Make her come back!"

More tears. She tried to wipe them away, but more took their place. "I can't."

"You have to!" Charlie stomped his foot angrily, nearing hysterics. Adrian's arms tightened around her waist as he curled up more. "You have to! You have to! I want Janet! I want Janet! I want Daddy!"

She was sobbing now, but she couldn't stop herself. "Ch-Charlie, please, calm down..."

"NO! Make Janet and daddy come back!"

Suddenly Adrian let go of her and stood up quickly. "STOP! Stop it! Stop yelling! You're making Mommy cry!" he screamed. In shock, Vala stopped crying immediately.

The outburst was so incredibly rare that Charlie shut up immediately. He stared at his brother for a moment, and then looked at his mother for the first time since he'd started yelling. When he saw that Adrian was right, he teared up immediately and started to cry himself.

"I-I-I'm sorry," he cried pitifully. "I didn't mean to." Vala pulled him into her arms, and brought Adrian in too. Each of them helped, climbing up onto one of her knees and holding onto her tightly. Adrian started to cry too, softly.

"I m-miss Janet," Charlie said after a moment.

"Me too," Adrian whimpered.

Vala held her sons close. "Me too."

* * * *

Around noon the next day, Cameron Mitchell sat in the commissary at the SGC, staring at his food. He hadn't touched lunch, and he didn't really think he was going to. He'd been sitting with Daniel that morning, and he'd only left because Jack had shown up, and Carolyn had insisted that he go eat something.

That wasn't working out so great.

He looked up when someone all but dropped an almost empty tray on the table. It was Teal'c; the jaffa sat down right across from him, but didn't look any more interested in eating than he was.

"Not hungry either?"

Teal'c shook his gray head. "I am not."

Cam sighed. "Not anymore I'm not." He pushed his tray off to the side. "So you heard what we've got on…what happened."

"Indeed," the jaffa answered grimly. "I do not like to imagine what that entails. Knowing the Goa'uld, I cannot hope that it was quick."

"You had to say that part out loud," he grimaced.

"I am sorry."

He waved it off. "It's okay…" He shook his head. "After everything those two have been through…why did he have to take her away from them?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "He? Do you refer to Osiris?"

"Not exactly…"

After another moment, he said, "To God, then?"

Mitchell nodded. "Yeah…I guess."

"Do you, in fact, believe in God, Cameron Mitchell?"

He shrugged. "Depends on the day, most of the time. I used to, when I was kid. No question then. Then I wasn't sure at all for a long time…and then I got this job." He smiled a bit. "I don't really know what I believe now, but being out there makes me think there must be a real out there somewhere, ya know? I mean, it's such a popular topic out there, not to mention how big 'out there' is. There has to be, I guess. It's just when things like this happen that I question more."

Teal'c nodded slowly. "That seems reasonable."

"I guess."

"Hey." Carolyn sat down beside him, and he looked at her in surprise.

"Oh. Hey. How's it going?"

She sighed. "All right, I suppose. I'm letting Daniel go."

"Vala came to pick him up?"

"No. Jack talked to her yesterday after he managed to get Daniel to talk a little more. He's the only person he'll talk to at the moment. He's physically well enough to leave the infirmary--the base even--but he's not ready to go home."

Cam frowned.

Teal'c spoke up. "Then what is Daniel Jackson to do?"

"Well, he's going to stay with the O'Neills for now," she answered, and he gave his wife a confused look. "What? I didn't see a problem with it. It'll get him out of here, give him some space to heal--in other ways, if you know what I mean. And he'll talk to Jack. It was the only logical solution. He would have been miserable at home or staying here. Maybe this will help. Jack and Sam have known him a lot longer we have, Cam."

"As have I," Teal'c added. "And I do believe this course of action to be the most wise, under the circumstances."

Cameron sat up more and grabbed his tray. "If you guys say so. I just hope it works."

CHAPTER 11

Travis stared at the walls of SG-13's locker room, wondering how he'd gone from an upstart air force cadet to here.

And if he could really stay.

He understood everything the general had told him but…he couldn't help wondering, still, if this was where he really belonged.

It didn't help that he couldn't get Janet out of his mind. He'd cared about her, but now…she would never grow up.

"Mind if we come in?" a female voice asked gently.

"What?" He looked up in surprise, and saw that it was Cassie and Skaara at the door. "No…it's fine. I'm just…sitting here."

"We can see that," Skaara told him, coming in to sit on the bench across from him. "What is on your mind?"

Cassie sat next to her husband, and Travis looked at them bleakly. "That you guys shouldn't get too attached to me. You may have to find somebody else to fill the spot on your team."

"Why is that?" Cassie asked, sitting forward and crossing her arms on her knees.

He shook his head and stared at the floor. "It's hard to explain."

"Samantha told us that you came to her," Skaara began slowly. "She thought that, as your teammates, we could help. We hope we can. We would not wish to see you go."

Travis looked up quickly, but averted his eyes again almost immediately. "I…but…I've only been here a month. Barely. I've been on one mission that turned out to be a disaster. Why would you care if I left?"

"Because you're part of the team now," Cassie told him firmly. "And we've known you--or of you--for a lot longer that that. We know we want you working with us. Maybe things didn't get off to a good start, but that doesn't mean you have to leave." Her expression softened. "We've both known…knew Janet since she was born. We've known her parents a lot longer than that. This is hurting us just as much as you or General O'Neill, or anyone. We understand." Her voice clammed up, and she stopped.

Skaara put an arm around her shoulders, and looked at Travis. "We would miss you if you were to quit now. We want you to stay."

"I want to stay," he sighed. "I want to be able to stay. But I just…I don't know if I can handle this."

Cassie sniffed and swiped at her eyes before leaning forward to put a hand on his arm. "You can. And you don't have to do it alone. We're all going to have to be here for each other." She gave him a small encouraging smile. "That's what team members do."

"She's right."

All three of them turned again to see Colonel Jennifer Hailey step in and cross over to them. "We're a team, and you're a part of it now whether you like it or not, Travis Heinmann. Why do you think we've been looking for you? Teams look out for each other." She smiled a little too. "And we learned that from the best."

It didn't take a genius to know who she was talking about.

Travis swallowed and looked around at his teammates…his friends. Maybe someday, not so far in the future, he would see them as family, too. He couldn't throw away that chance.

Hailey looked around at the three of them and raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing still sitting there? No more moping for this afternoon. My house. All of you. Now. Don't make me make that an order."

* * * *

Daniel avoided looking at anyone as Jack guided him out of the base. He didn't speak until they were alone in the elevator. "Isn't Sam coming?"

Jack shrugged. "She drives her own car here, remember? I'm not usually around here all the time. She’ll come home when she can--all the paperwork associated with being 'The Man' and all…"

He nodded in understanding and focused all of his attention on an obviously very interesting bolt in the floor. Jack sighed.

The ride home was silent. Daniel stared out the window even after the truck had stopped, until Jack nudged him to let him know that they were there. He jerked in surprise, glanced around, and quietly climbed out of the vehicle. Inside, Jack pulled out the leftovers, and Daniel ate enough. Not a lot. But enough, at least. Then he announced softly that he would be in the guest room.

Jack frowned a little. "You sure? We could watch hockey, or something…"

Daniel shook his head and stood from the table. "No thanks. I'm…I'm tired anyway. I'll probably just sleep. I don't want to bother you."

"What kinda nonsense is that? If I'd thought you would bother us, you wouldn't be here," he told him, raising an eyebrow.

Something that would have been a smile if it had made it all the way to his face passed briefly through his eyes. "Thanks," he answered, but then he turned and started down the hallway anyway.

Two hours later, when Sam came home, he had to tell her that he hadn't come out yet; he probably was asleep by now. They waited up a little longer, but he didn't come out, and when Jack knocked on his door once there was no answer. But it was his first night out of the infirmary, and finally they decided it best to leave him alone.

At least for now.

* * * *

The floor of the prison hut was as cold as ever. Wasn't dirt supposed to be a little warmer? Offer some type of insulation? Maybe something about this planet's ecology made it even harder and colder than normal…

Janet couldn't stop half a chuckle from escaping at that the stupidity of that one, and ended up doubled over in pain from taking in too much air. Not that doubling over moved her much; just curled her up on the floor. Osiris was using that respiratory stuff again tonight…and it didn't help that she was pretty sure she had a couple of broken ribs.

How long had it been? A week? Two? Where were they? They should have been here by now. Why was it taking so long?

Osiris hadn't let up since he had brought her back into the village. Every inch of Janet's body ached for one reason or another. She could never focus on anything she tried to think about--or not think about--as well as she knew she was capable of. She knew she was slipping, but she didn't know what to do about it.

Maybe Osiris had a way to keep them away. But they would get here eventually…right? They wouldn't leave her here. Nobody gets left behind…Right?

* * * *

Jack jerked awake and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was two in the morning. Why had he woken up…? When he heard the sound of movement elsewhere in the house, he knew why. He sat up slowly and quietly, but Sam was already awake anyway.

"What?" she asked groggily, pushing up on one elbow.

He shushed her, and she listened for a moment. Then she sighed. "Jack, Daniel's here, remember? It's just him. Maybe he got hungry; you said he didn't eat a lot. Go back to sleep."

"That's the wrong direction for it to be coming from the kitchen."

Sam groaned and flopped back against the pillows. "He has to get to the kitchen. Just lay back down."

Jack shook his head and pulled his legs out from under the blankets. "I'm gonna go check, okay? Stay here."

She nodded. "Okay…let me know if you need me or anything…"

He stood. "I will." Either she didn't think there was any reason to answer that, or she was asleep again. Jack crept out of the room and down the hall silently. There was no light coming from anywhere that he could see, but the guest room door was open. So it was just Daniel. He sighed to himself.

No need to find a weapon, then. And Sam could sleep. Walking more normally now, rounded the corner, and glanced into the kitchen.

Not there.

He kept going until he was at the living room entrance, and he could see a dark shape sitting hunched over on the couch, not really doing anything. But he couldn't see much more than that because of the angle of the couch.

Jack reached for the lamp by the entrance, flipped it on and came into the living room. On the couch, Daniel jerked and shoved something in-between the cushions.

"Jack…"

"Yeah…what'd you think? Santa Claus?" he didn't get a laugh from that, but then again he hadn't expected to. But Daniel didn't even smile. Not even a little bit. Then he realized that he hadn't even really looked at him once, and that made him even more suspicious of what he'd been doing--specifically of what he may or may not have shoved into the couch cushions. "Daniel?"

"What?" he asked, too quickly.

Jack looked at him hard. "Why are you in here?"

He shrugged. "I just couldn't sleep…"

"So you decided to come sit on the couch in the dark?"

He just shrugged again. Jack took another step closer to the couch.

That set him off. "Jack, I just wanted to get out of that room for a few minutes, okay? I'm fine. Look, I'll get something to eat, maybe, and go back to sleep, okay? I'm fine," he repeated, emphasizing it a little more this time. He looked up, too, looking at him but not in his eyes. He was suddenly tense, almost pleading in not so many words for him to leave him alone.

It wasn't hard to tell why, either. He didn't want Jack to see what he'd hidden when he walked in.

And Jack had a terrible feeling that he knew what it was.

But he'd give him the chance to tell him himself--to talk about it. Hopefully he'd take it. "Daniel, what are you hiding?" he asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" he asked innocently. But he was still avoiding his eyes.

That was when Jack was sure that, whatever it was, he didn't want to see it. But if he didn't deal with this now, he would regret it later. "Don't lie to me."

"I--" But he couldn't get any farther than that, because he knew he was. "Jack, please…"

He shook his head. "I can't, Daniel. You know that." He stepped forward and reached between the seat cushions, and Daniel didn't stop him. He looked away like a teen caught sneaking out when grounded--one who knew what was coming.

Jack felt around for only a moment before he hit it--the cold metal that he'd wanted more than anything to be absent. His eyes closed in pain, and he could sense Daniel flinching.

"God…" He didn't want to, but he pulled the offensive thing out anyway, and stared at it for a long moment, breathing in and out slowly, deliberately. He was not going to yell at him. That wasn't what he needed. And truthfully, anger wasn't really what he was feeling. Maybe a little…but that wasn't all. Not in the slightest. No, what he was feeling was...was…he didn't really know.

Sadness, though directed at what he wasn't sure. Disappointment, for certain, at both of them. At himself. Was it his fault? Had he not done enough for his friend to prevent this? Jack's hand tightened around the weapon before he took two steps away and set it down again, on the mantle out of reach. Then he turned back to the couch, and suddenly found himself gulping back a lump in his throat.

Daniel stood quickly, looking appropriately ashamed, at least. "J-Jack, I--"

"Don't 'Jack' me. What were you doing?"

"I wasn't going to…."

"Then why did you have it? Where did you get it?"

"It's yours," he answered miserably, staring at his feet, hands clenched.

"I know that! But I keep that cabinet locked!" He'd never forgotten to lock it again.

Daniel winced. "I've known you long enough. I know where you keep the keys by now," he whispered.

Jack swallowed, and fell silent for a long moment. Finally he looked up again. "Why?"

"I don't know…"

"What were you thinking? You have a wife and two sons, Daniel. You can't just-"

"I know!" he said suddenly. "I know…" His eyes closed. "I was going to put it up. I was, I swear...you never would have known if you hadn't walked in."

Jack took a step forward. "That doesn't change the fact that you picked it up, Daniel. I thought you were better than that. I never thought you would ever even consider…" He head shook back and forth slowly in disbelief, not knowing what to make of this, unable to believe he was really having this conversation.

Daniel's shoulders shook, and when he finally picked his head up Jack saw that silent tears were trailing down his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. But something told him that he really meant it now. "I just…it wasn't just that. I felt like…like such an idiot. I've ignored them, and you, all of you…I felt horrible. I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry…"

Maybe he'd assumed too much at first. When he looked into his friend's eyes, he could see that, now…he did understand. He wouldn't have done it. He'd figured it out for himself, sitting there. Jack looked at him for another moment, silent.

"I guess I've been right all along…you are better than I am. Or at least how I was then, anyway," he sighed.

Daniel shook his head and choked out a sob. "I'm not. If I was any better I wouldn't have thought about it in the first place."

Jack stepped forward again, so he was standing right in front of him now. "Are you sure about that? No one's perfect, Daniel…and I know you're hurting. But you didn't…if you're telling me the truth you decided for yourself not to. The only thing that stopped me was two men from the Air Force showing up on my doorstep, and then I didn't because they gave me a better to do it. And the only thing that stopped me from doing it that way was you."

He sobbed and looked down again, and Jack hugged him. "Don’t ever scare me like that again, go it?"

Daniel started to cry in earnest then, but he nodded, and he meant it.

But that didn't mean he wasn't still in pain.

"I just let it happen, Jack," he cried. "I could have stopped it. I should have done something else."

* * * *

Sam woke up again, much sooner than she'd expected to. She glanced at the clock and saw that it had really only been twenty minutes or so since Jack had left. But he wasn't back. Frowning, she got out of bed, pulled on a robe, and slipped out into the hallway. The soft light of a lamp was coming from the living room, though not really any noise. At the end of the hallway she looked cautiously around the corner, and then realized why Jack hadn't returned yet.

Both he and Daniel were sitting on the couch, and Daniel was crying softly. Jack had an arm around him still, but he wasn't saying anything; it didn't seem to be needed at the moment. A flash of something metallic caught her eye, and she saw the gun abandoned on the mantle. Her heart sped up for a moment, but she didn't want to know what had happened.

Daniel was all right, and he needed them. That was all that mattered right now.

Sam came in quietly, sat down on Daniel's other side, and put her arms around him from there. His head leaned on her shoulder some in thanks, and she exchanged glanced with Jack, who seemed grateful, too.

It wasn't too much longer before Daniel had calmed down and sat back, and the three of them were just there, sitting. Jack looked up and glanced around at the three of them. "You know," he said, "this is nice, but we're missing something."

"What?" Daniel asked quietly, curious.

"Teal'c," he said matter-of-factly.

Sam gave a small smile. "If he was here we'd have all four of us."

Jack sat up and scooted forward on the cushions. "You know…I think we should call him."

"At three in the morning?" she frowned.

Jack looked at Daniel, who shrugged. "I'm not going back to sleep after that."

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't let you go back to sleep now if you wanted to. You're staying in here where we can keep an eye on you," he said, standing. He smiled, trying to make light of it, to cheer Daniel up.

Sam thought it worked a little. Something in his face brightened a little. For a moment. It was a start. She looked up at her husband. "Well, he lives alone. We wouldn't have to worry about bothering anyone else. Maybe we should."

Jack nodded. "Sure. And he'll come. I'll be right back." With that, he went into the kitchen, leaving Sam with Daniel. She looked at him, but couldn't help seeing the gun, too. Daniel noticed.

"I'm sorry," he told her quietly. "I should never have worried you like that. I wouldn't have, I…For a minute I thought I could, but I couldn't. I feel like a coward. I am a coward." His eyes filled with tears again. "I want to be able to get through this. But Jack's right…I can't do it alone."

Sam swallowed hard and embraced him gently. "It's okay. We're here."

* * * *

Half an hour later, Teal'c knocked on the door--and brought pizza with him.

"I told him to do that," Jack admitted. "You have to have pizza to talk over," he insisted. "For old times' sake."

The three of them surrounded Daniel protectively without even thinking. Daniel was stuck in the middle of the couch between Sam and Teal'c, and Jack pulled one of the armchairs right up in front of the couch. The pizza was left on the coffee table, and they ate with paper plates. All of them were still in nightclothes--even Teal'c. It wasn't clear whether Jack had told him to do that too, or not, but it wasn't hard to guess.

At first they didn't say much, but slowly they got Daniel to talk more. It wasn't about anything that had happened, but at least he was talking It was almost as if the thirty years that had passed disappeared, just for a little while.

Sam set her empty plate on the floor and looked around. "How long has it been since we've done this?"

"Done what?" Daniel asked.

"Anything. Just the four of us--no more, no less--just the four of us."

They all looked at each other, not sure how to answer that.

"I am not certain," Teal'c said finally.

"Years, at least," Jack answered, shaking his head. "There's been more than just us for so long…we haven't really to be able to do things with just the four of us."

Sam had to smile. "It's nice."

And then Daniel, of all of them, smiled too. "Yeah. It is."

Teal'c looked at him in surpise and smiled then as well. "Indeed it is."

Jack was just smiling, even if all of their smile were a bit tinged. That couldn't be helped, right now. But the feel of genuine happiness to be together was still there.

"But that doesn't change the fact that we still have things that need to be dealt with here," he said finally. Daniel winced, and he looked at him. "You know we have to talk about this. You need to talk about it. We don't even know how it happened."

He sighed. "I know…you should know…" He looked away. "Vala should know."

Jack looked at him for a minute. "If she came here, and we stayed with you, would you tell her?"

His head popped up. "Don't bother her now."

"No, not now. Tomorrow."

Daniel glanced around at all of them. "Well...if you were all here too…maybe…"

Sam leaned toward him and put a hand on his knee. "If you'll do that, I'll make sure you don't have to tell it again. I'll put what's relevant in the report that we need, and that'll be that."

He gulped and nodded. "Okay…thank you." He looked at Jack. "You can call her tomorrow then."

Jack shook his head. "Nope. She's your wife, Daniel. You're going to call her and invite her over here yourself."

Daniel mouth opening to protest, but then shut again, and he sighed and nodded.

* * * *

Vala woke with one little boy snuggled up on either side of her, and she couldn't help but smile a little around the lump that was still in her throat. She got up quietly, not wanting to wake them, and went downstairs to make coffee.

What she didn't expect was for the phone to ring so early. It was barely eight.

The caller I.D. reported that it was O'Neills, but she knew Daniel was there. She scolded herself for being hesitant to pick it up just because of that, and answered slowly.

"Hello?"

"Vala?" came the hesitant voice from the other end of the line.

She almost collapsed in relief. It was Daniel, and it was the first time he'd said a word to her since the day after they'd rescued him from Osiris almost two weeks ago. "Daniel…I'm here. Are you all right?"

"Not really…but I guess I'm getting there. I guess I have to eventually. Thanks."

She nodded at thin air. "You're welcome…Do uhm…do you need something?"

"Yeah…could you come over here? Just you? We need to talk."

Vala swallowed and gripped the phone harder. She knew what he meant. "Well, I'd need to get the boys up and feed them and, and get them over to Carolyn's, or Hank's or something…"

"Okay…just as soon as you can, I guess…"

"R-right. I'll be there." She paused a moment, not sure where to go from there. "I love you," she said quietly.

"I love you, too." His voice broke, but she knew he meant it. She hung up and pulled her robe around her tighter, shivering just a little.

Then the doorbell rang.

Frowning, Vala went to the door. When she opened it, there stood Hank Landry.

"They called me, too," he answered simply. "I'll stay here and watch the boys."

* * * *

Sam cooked breakfast, and the four of them ate in the kitchen before they all went to get dressed. Then it was waiting in the living room again, for Vala to arrive. They didn't talk much this time.

When the doorbell rang, Daniel was the first on his feet, to the others' surprise. He hurried into the entryway, and they followed him.

He hesitated at the door, but they didn't rush him. They stood back and let him take his time. Finally, he swallowed and slowly opened the door. Vala stepped inside hesitantly, shutting the door behind her. Her eyes were on Daniel alone, and as he looked back at her sheepishly she didn't seem to know what to say.

Neither did the rest of them.

After a long minute or two, Daniel did the only thing he could at the moment.

He pulled his wife into his arms and held on tight. Vala hugged back just as hard.

CHAPTER 12

By the time Daniel was able to get the whole story out, he was sobbing in Vala's arms, and she had tears dampening her own cheeks. Their friends had been gathered close the whole time, offering as much support as they could.

Daniel sat up, but his head stayed down in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees as he shuddered while he tried to compose himself again. Vala had settled into an easy rhythm of rubbing his back; the repetition helped to keep her from thinking too much about what he had just told them. She drew in a quaking breath of her own.

She glanced up at the others. Sam was crying, Teal'c was grim and misty-eyes, and Jack, typically, looked like he was ready to cry and kill something at the same time. Vala looked to him, and he swallowed back the emotion and made a questioning jerk of his head toward the door. She nodded just a little in response, and he stood, gathering his wife up with him and motioning for Teal'c to follow. The jaffa nodded and stood, but he paused to lay a hand on her shoulder for a moment before retreating with the others, leaving Daniel and Vala alone for the first time.

Daniel must have been paying more attention then it had seemed, because he spoke only seconds after the other three had withdrawn into the back of the house.

"I'm sorry." His voice cracked, but he wasn't crying anymore. He let his hands fall from his face and hang off of his knees, but he didn't look up yet.

Vala swallowed hard and turned his head herself, to face her. It took everything in her to not break into uncontrolled sobs then and there, but she had to get out what she needed to say. He needed to hear it, even if it was repeated message.

"Daniel…listen to me. I love you. You know that, don't you?" He nodded slowly and started to open his mouth as if to respond, but she held up a finger. "Wait, just let me finish. Please?" He closed his mouth again and looked at her through moist eyes.

"I love you, and I-I don't blame you. I'd already told you that, if not in so many words. It was not your fault, Daniel." He tried to look away again, but she held his face in place with her hands. "You did everything you possibly could have, and I know that because I know you. It doesn't matter what you think. You did. You did. It's true, even though I know it's hard to accept. We're human, Daniel. We second-guess ourselves. It's in our nature. That doesn't mean you should, or that it means it would have turned out better if you'd done something different. You have to believe me on that."

Daniel looked at her for a long moment, then reached out and pulled her to him again. "I know," he whispered. "In my head, I know it. Thanks to all of you I'm starting to believe it…just give me a little more time."

She nodded against his shoulder, letting a few more tears squeeze out then, too. When he let go he pulled back some and looked at her. "What about you; are you all right…?"

Vala puffed out a breath of air. "Of course not. You aren't either." She looked at him with care. "But we can be," she amended after a moment. Daniel looked satisfied with that then, but then he seemed to think of something else.

"What about the boys--?"

"They know," she told him, wincing. "There's…nothing else we can really tell them, really. Not until they're older, anyway…"

Daniel swallowed, and stared at the floor for a second. "Right…" They fell into silence for a minute or two, until he broke it again.

"I should come home with you," he said quietly. "Today. Right now what they need is both of us, and I've been ignoring that responsibility. I'm sorry."

"You had things to work out on your own--"

"That's not an excuse. A reason, sure, but not an excuse," he sighed, looking up again.

Vala put her arms around him again, from the side. "Nobody's perfect, Daniel. Everybody makes mistakes. Even stubborn previously-ascended archeologists."

Daniel didn't seem to know what to say to that but to wrap her in his arms again. Vala didn't mind at all.

* * * *

The guards dropped her on the floor of Osiris's hut. Janet barely grunted, and she didn't move. She'd managed to come up with something of a plan, at least, when she could concentrate at all. It had been another week…or two…she thought. But she'd been focusing on trying to act weaker than she was, hoping he would let up some, so she could gather her wits some. It had worked a little. She could think more clearly than she'd been able to too several days before, at least.

She'd been trying to get her strength back, too. Right now, when no one was looking, she could walk back and forth across the inside of the prison hut a few times. But she didn't do it much, to save energy, she hoped. As far as Osiris and his native goonies, she couldn't even stand on her own. Hopefully that would count for something later.--help her somehow.

Osiris just glared down at her. It seemed like he was losing patience again. Usually, that wasn't a good thing. When he got too frustrated, he went wild, and usually she ended up really unable to move for a couple of days. Janet tried to squash the fear, but it stuck in her throat.

"This is getting ridiculous, ya know," she whispered in a scratchy voice--maybe just for something to say, to keep her from thinking about what he might do this time.

The Goa'uld scowled angrily. "What is ridiculous is your silence. Do you not understand that you will die if you do not give me the code for those devices of yours?"

"It's ridiculous you ever thought we'd tell you," she coughed.

"You humans are ridiculous! Pathetic! Do you care about your own lives at all?"

Janet shrugged just a little, making sure it looked like it hurt. Not that it didn't. A little. "Sure…but there are billions of other lives at stake he--AHH!"

That landed her a foot in stomach, which sent her into a coughing fit that set her chest burning in agony. Her eyes were wet by the time it stopped, and Osiris was circling her prone form on the floor.

"You have been spoiled, being kept in that hut and fed every day--even if it is only a little. Maybe it's time to leave you out in the storage pit for a while--see how your attitude is after that."

Janet cringed to herself, but she forced her mouth not to protest. She sense the guards moving in, felt them grab her arms, made a production of trying to struggle but being too weak too. In reality, they were underestimating her at the moment and she might have been able to jerk right free if she'd tried at a sudden moment to try, but she wasn't going to do that now, with Osiris right here. Maybe once they were out in the woods…

The more she thought about it, the idea seemed plausible. She could break free outside the natural stone walls of the valley surrounding the village, then run to the storage hole and hide there. No one would suspect she was taking cover where they were going to put her, anyway. If she could get far enough ahead of them to get in without anyone to see her, it would work.

She wouldn't have to worry about not being strong enough to run too fast or too far. She just had to get to that storage pit, and then when they stopped looking for her, she could get farther away during the night.

One of the guards threw a coil of rope over his shoulder, and between them the two burly men dragged her out of the hut and toward the outside of the village. After she stopped attempting to struggle, Janet remained limp but for a weak pull every couple of minutes or so.

Once they got to the hills that led up to the stone passage exit from the valley, they stopped, and one of them picked her up and swung her over his shoulder. She couldn't help but let out a scream then, because her ribs were still incredibly sore. They carried her up, through, and out, but now she worried how she would break free from this position.

But then, once they were out in the woods, he swung her off, either to trade with the other guard or so they could drag her again. It didn't matter. She bolted.

She broke away from them. For several exhilarating, short seconds, she was free, but they recovered more quickly then she'd thought they would. They caught up, grabbed her and once and wrestled her to the ground again. Not that it took much wrestling. The two of them were more than a match her. It was no more success than her last escape attempt while in the woods.

Keeping her pinned to the ground, they turned her over roughly, slammed her back into the ground again, and the bigger one started yelling at her in the native language she'd heard around the village. It was theirs. Though, she'd heard a few of them speak in broken English with Osiris. Never among themselves, but to Osiris. He must have taught it to them--or to a few of them anyway; the ones who served him most closely.

At the same time, the other one pulled the coil of handmade rope off of his shoulder, and uncoiled a few feet of the end. The bigger one shoved her back onto her stomach. She struggled.

"Stop it! Get off me!"

She didn't quite realize what the smaller one was doing until the rope bit into her back through her shirt. It didn't offer much protection, and her jacket had been taken away long ago. And the rope didn't work nearly as well as a whip might, but it stung enough.

Janet jerked. "Ah! Hey! No!" She tried to move, roll over, away, something, but the bigger one was pinning her arms to the earth, and the smaller one with the rope in his hands was standing now, with a foot pressing her ankles down. She twisted her head around to protest, and the second blow caught her cheek sharply. She shrieked and twisted her face down again; she felt blood on her face trickling from the cut.

"Stop it!"

The blows after that didn't really cut--her cheek was softer and had been caught by the very end of the rope--but they hurt. A lot. They weren't satisfied until Janet was sobbing into the dead leaves under her face, and they didn't give her any time to recover, either. When the one above her stopped, they picked her up from either side again and proceeded to drag her on toward the storage pit.

* * * *

Both Charlie and Adrian were in the living room early that afternoon, not really paying attention to a movie playing on the TV, when Vala got home. Hank looked up from where he sat on the couch with the boys, and gave a satisfied expression when he saw that Daniel was there, too. The too kids jumped up from either side of him and ran over into the entryway as soon as they saw their father.

"Daddy!" they called together, more in relief than joy. "You're back!" They stopped in front of him at the same moment, and didn't run into their parents' legs as they might have under other circumstances. Daniel knelt down immediately and wrapped an arm around each of them, drawing them close so they wouldn't see the tears leaking from his eyes again.

"I love you guys," he said softly, and kissed both of them on the head gently.

"Mommy too?" Adrian asked as Vala crouched down beside them. She put her arms around the boys from the other side, and managed to take one of Daniel's hands in hers, too.

"Mommy too," Daniel reminded them with a nod, swallowing.

Charlie snuggled in closer to his brother and his father. "We love you too, daddy."

Hank slipped around them unnoticed and left silently, leaving the healing family to themselves.

* * * *

When they reached the storage site, the natives held Janet tightly while they bound her ankles and tied her wrists behind her back. They didn't bother cutting the ropes in two pieces, either, which left a length of it between her wrists and ankles. One of them swiped a leg under hers, knocking her to the ground and driving the breath out of her while the other one opened the storage pit.

"W-wait!" she gasped, struggling to get words out before they pushed her in. They stared at her. "Wait…"

The bigger one spat something at her in his native tongue. She made a made. "Would stop that…I can't understand you." He said something else, a little more angrily this time. "Stop it! I know you can understand me!"

Both hesitated for a moment, until the bigger one that had been talking narrowed his eyes. "Yes. Can understand you."

Janet pulled in a breath. "Thank you…please listen to me."

"You speak language of gods."

Her eyes almost rolled by themselves. "Oh for--it's called 'English', thank you…" She had to pause for air, and she pushed up on her elbows, though she was still on her back on the ground, and that wasn't do comfortable right now. "And Osiris isn't a god."

The smaller one still didn't say anything, but he kicked her, and she rolled over with a shout. They tried to push her in while she was distracted with the pain, but she yelled at them until they stopped shoving at her, and they backed up a couple of steps, eyeing her warily, as if to say what do you want.

Janet caught her breath somewhat, and glared at them. "If…he's a god…and this is a god's language…then why can I speak it perfectly?"

The larger one was still the one talking. "You are evil god. Against Osiris. He tell us so."

"I'm not an evil god! I'm just…I'm just a human…I'm just like you."

"Could not speak gods' language well if not a god."

"He's not a god!" She jerked. "Don't kick me! Just listen…" They glared at her, but let her keep going. "If I…was an evil god…then why can't I fight back very much…when he hurts me? Why can't…I make my voice and eyes do what…his do? Why can't I do anything special?"

They looked at each other, and she knew she had them.

But then there a soft whistle, and the big one dropped with an arrow through his heart. Janet screamed. The smaller one--and that was relative term; he was still big--spun, looking, as he pulled an arrow from a quiver on his own back and drew his bow, while his foot stomped down on her arm to keep her from trying to get away. Janet bit her lip and glanced around worriedly, looking for where the arrow had come from.

She heard another whizzing sound, a grunt, and the man's foot was off of her arm. She looked up and saw that he'd been hit in the leg.

Then a small swarm of different natives swarmed from the undergrowth.

Their hairstyles and the basic designs of their clothing were slightly different than the people she'd been seeing for weeks in the village. These people must have been a different tribe.

A rival one at that, from the way they acted.

They kicked the bigger one's body into the storage pit, and knocked the injured smaller one into unconsiousness before beginning to drag him away. Janet tried to slip down into the hole unnoticed, but they saw her.

These new natives, all speaking a language she didn't understand at all, dragged her off, too, looking please that their added prize was already tied up and ready to go for them.

Janet kicked and pulled and screamed. If she let herself be taken by this new tribe, her people wouldn't know where she was when they came. Since her position with SG-1 was only temporary, and it was unclear if she would work at the SGC later in life, it hadn't been approved to implant her with a subcutaneous transmitter yet. They would never find her. She might never get home.

But these new people obviously wanted to make a clean getaway with their prisoners. When she started to make too much noise, one of the men quickly hit her over the head with the butt of his spear, and her world fell into darkness.

* * * *

When Janet woke, her head hurt, and she was flat on her back--which meant that her back hurt, too. She kept her eyes closed, almost not wanting to know where she'd ended up. The surface under her wasn't as hard as the floor of the prison hut, and it fact it was…soft. Sort of. A little rough, but soft.

But at the same time, she could sense something just at the edge of her hearing, something almost far off. It was…shouting…screaming…pain…shouted questions in that language she didn't know. A few words she picked out, from hearing the language from being here for a little while. Tell…leader…plans…It was someone from this tribe…questioning the man from the Osiris's tribe…and they'd captured her too.

Gasping in sudden fear, Janet sat straight up, and her eyes snapped open, her chest heaving.

She was in another hut.

But this one was different.

She looked around in confusion. There was a fire burning in a fireplace in the center, and there was a hole in the middle of the ceiling for the smoke to escape through. She was lying on a wood cot, and her tattered BDU pants, t-shirt, and boots had been exchanged for a simple, brown, rough spun dress that was sleeveless and reached just past her knees, she noticed as she pushed back the thin blankets. There was nothing on her feet. But then again, it was summer.

When she looked harder, she saw that a middle-aged woman knelt by the fire, cooking something. It smelled good; she wondered if she would be allowed to eat any of it. Probably not though. Prisoners of war--or tribal disputes--or whatever this was--in primitive setting like this…probably not so much. Her stomach growled in protest.

Unsurprisingly, the woman heard it. Or she'd heard Janet move. But it didn't matter; she looked up--and smiled kindly.

What?

The woman must have seen the fear on her face, because she stood, and came closer, saying something in a comforting tone. She sat beside her and gave her a pat on the leg. Then Janet had another thought.

The men of this tribe had to have seen her situation when they attacked. Her skin and hair were lighter than anyone else's, too. Maybe they realized that she had been a prisoner of Osiris's tribe. They wouldn't hurt her anymore. Maybe they could help her find the stargate.

Eyes widening, Janet jumped up and headed for the door quickly, ignoring the lingering pain in her back, chest, stomach…She didn't bother saying anything yet. She had to figure out how to make herself understood, first. The woman grabbed her arm and spun her back around, and she pointed toward the door frantically.

"The stargate! The ring! I need to get to it. Can you help me? I need to go!"

The woman scowled now, and held her back, shaking her head and pointing firmly down as if to tell her to stay put.

"No, no I have to go!" She lunged for the door, and the woman grabbed for her. She jerked free and kept going--but ran right smack into too big men right outside the door. "Not again," she groaned. They hauled her up and much too kindly nudged her back into the hut with the woman, and this time more visibly blocked the door. The woman had her hands on her hips, and she didn't look happy. She started talking again, and Janet talked over her.

"No! Listen to me! I have to go home! I have family! I have to get out of here!"

The woman ignored her, took her by the shoulders, and steered her back to the beds, where she pushed her back down to sit on the bed.

"Let go of me! I can't stay! Please just let me go…Please! Listen! Can you understand me at all? Please!!" She tried to get up again, and this time the woman shoved her back down hard. She was stronger than she looked. Janet's head hit one of the hard beams in the wall, and she sat up, rubbing it and grimacing.

The woman made some type of threat with a finger n Janet's face, and it was obvious that they didn't want her to go anywhere, even if she couldn't answer questions about the other tribe or help them. Janet felt her hope fall under the feet of these new people and be stomped to peices.

She was still a prisoner.

* * * *

The Jackson family had been given two more weeks in peace, just to be with each other and to help each other, before there was any type of memorial service--so that Homeworld Security could come up with a cover story. There was always a cover story. And then, there had to be two of them. A small, short service in the 'gate room at the SGC, where the truth could be told, and then a more typical funeral service at a church nearby to the base, where the rest of those that had known Janet could come.

The story was simple. It just so happened that the week of the mission had been the week of a visitation day for the incoming freshman of that fall at the college she would have attended, and there was also heavy rain; visibility had been horrible. As far as the Jacksons' other friends knew, Daniel and Janet had been on the way to the airport. Their car had hydroplaned, gone off the road, flipped a few times--Daniel had made it with serious injuries, and Janet hadn't survived. The body hadn't been presentable for viewing.

They buried an empty casket that no one ever saw the inside of.

Travis didn't quit the SGC. With the help of his own team, he was pulling through, as much as it hurt that she was gone. He still talked to the Jacksons. They were still his friends. But for a while he left them mostly alone, not wanting to interfere.

Daniel and Vala tried to help Charlie and Adrian as much as they could. It wasn't easy. They missed their sister. For a couple of weeks or so after Daniel came home, they both slept with their parents. Charlie, ever trying to be tough, had left first. Adrian stayed for a while. He was just starting to try to sleep in his own bed again, but he would still run in in the middle of the night. Neither adult minded much.

Now that the formalities were over, and they were facing starting life again…it helped to have a reminder right there between them that they still had family to live for, that they still had two little boys that loved them.

* * * *

The people of the new tribe treated her all right, but they wouldn't let her go. The man they captured must have either refused long enough, or given them information they wanted, because a few days after she'd been brought to this village, she saw several men dragging his body out and burying it at the edge of the village.

Janet didn't know what to do. She wasn't even sure what they wanted of her. She stayed in the hut she woke up in. There was another cot in the hut, and that was where the woman she'd first seen slept. The door was usually guarded, though of course the woman could come and go as she pleased. No one would give Janet her things back--not even her boots. No one would tell her anything more than what to do from one moment to the next, in the few words she understood. Body language conveyed the rest. It seemed she was mostly expected to follow the woman around, and do what she was told by her.

It all felt so cliché. She was beginning to feel like she was in another of those captured-by-Indians novels. Except these natives were on another planet. Were they planning on keeping her forever, like those stories? Planning on making her one of them? Janet was horrified just at the thought.

She didn't want to live a story from a book! She wanted to go home!

But…what if she tried to escape? If she remembered those stories at all, she didn't think the consequences would be lenient. What was she supposed to do? Two weeks passed, four…more…she lost track. Where were they? She knew it would be harder for SG-1 to find her now, but were they even looking? Why hadn't they showed up before this had happened in the first place? Where were they!

More often than not, Janet spent any time to herself she was allowed sitting curled up against the walls on the cot, sobbing until she was above and beyond the point of having no more tears to cry.

CHAPTER 13

The new school year started almost sooner than they’d wanted, but once it was underway it was clear that the stability of the scheduled school days helped Charlie and Adrian to calm back down some, to get back into things. Daniel and Vala had never been more thankful for school.

Both boys were just as smart as their older sister, though Charlie sometimes didn’t appear as if he took as much advantage of it as his brother. He was more what Daniel thought Jack O’Neill would have been like as a child—though that seemed appropriate, and not very surprising seeing how much he loved to spend time with ‘Uncle Jack.’

Not long after school started, SG-1 decided, as a general consensus, that it was time to start going out again, even if they only started with basic reconnaissance. There were still plenty of addresses in the huge database that had never been dialed. The Jacksons had been back at work for a few weeks, but had only been working on base—which meant that Cameron and Teal’c had only been able to work on base as well, beyond occasionally going with another team to help out. The mood at the SGC itself was getting back to normal, even if SG-1 and those who knew them well were still a little more subdued.

But they were getting there.

Daniel pulled in a deep breath as he walked into the 'gate room with Vala.

"Are we ready for this?" Vala commented under her breath. They were at work, on base; she wasn't clutching his arm like she had been all morning. But she stayed close enough that their shoulders were pressed together. He didn't mind. It helped.

"Not really," he winced. "But…I guess we have to start somewhere."

"Why don't we just retire? We're old enough, aren't we?" She managed to make that statement sarcastic. Well, it was a step in the right direction, anyway.

Daniel shrugged. "Not really…not anymore, anyway. Improving medical technology on Earth's been changing all of that…"

"Whatever," she huffed.

Cam and Teal'c were geared up and waiting for them. They both looked over and smiled encouragingly. That was when they realized that their friends SG-13 was there, too, standing off to the side and doing the same, there to see them off. Daniel swallowed. He saw that Vala was a little surprised, too. But she quickly composed herself, and took a deep breath and let it out.

"Let's do this," she said quietly, resolutely. Discretely she wrapped her hand around his. "For Janet."

* * * *

It had been fall when she had first seen this planet. Now winter had passed and spring was in full bloom. Janet shivered in a brisk breeze, glad that she hadn't yet put away her few winter dresses and leggings--even if most of the chill was inside her. It would be winter on Earth now, December or January…she had no way of knowing if she was 17 yet. If she wasn't, she would be soon.

She decided then to begin thinking of herself as 17; 17 was older. If she was older, maybe she could handle this better.

Janet had stopped looking down the trail every day for someone to come for her months ago, as the winter came and pressed on. She still held out hope that someone from earth, what was left of her family…would find her….someday. But she could no longer hope that it would only be a little while. And where else did she have to go before then? These people had rescued her from Osiris, cared for her…but according to their customs, that her made her theirs just as much as if they had captured her from an enemy tribe. They wouldn't let her leave.

She understood them better now, even if she didn't like the part of their culture that kept her bound here to their village. She'd discovered that she really did have her father's knack for languages, in the field and not just in learning them under his tutelage. It had taken her a couple of months, but she had picked up their language easily. Granted, Daniel Jackson could have been speaking it fluently in a week, but she was still learning. He had been doing it for sixty years. He'd lived in a foreign country with many language groups since he was a small child. She'd only been at it since she was eight.

It hurt to think of her father almost as much as it hurt to think of mom, Charlie, and Adrian back home. But Janet struggled not to let herself shut any of them from her thoughts. She knew these people's language--they called themselves the Leska--and she lived with them, but she would not become one of them. At least they let her keep her own name. That had been different from the similar Earth stories she had heard.

She had to remember them all. She had to get home, someday.

"Janet! Come!" Janet spun from where she stood at the edge of the village looking out at the forest-covered hills. Hadda, the woman she lived with--the one that had been there when she woke here the first time--was waving from the entrance to the hut. She had been married once, Janet had learned, but had never had children. Her husband had been killed in a skirmish with another neighboring tribe, thought it hadn't been Osiris's tribe. Apparently this planet was full of tribe of primitive people, not so unlike America back on earth had been long ago.

"We must tend to the garden; the seeds will not grow if the weeds choke them out," Hadda called.

Janet called back in the native language; the one Hadda was speaking. "Coming!" She hurried back to the hut, and was handed a wooden gardening tool not unlike a hoe.

"Those weeds will not pull themselves; I asked you to see to them this morning," the older woman scolded gently. She wasn't unkind, but Janet wasn't entirely sure that she was exactly adopted, either. She wasn't really sure what their technical relationship was supposed to be. She wasn't a slave, but she wasn't a daughter, either. No one would discuss it. Maybe it was because she was really too old to be adopted. She noticed girls her age in the village being betrothed to young men of the tribe.

But that was all right. She didn't want to be adopted. She was going to get out of here. "I am sorry," she sighed, and follow Hadda back to the garden behind their hut. Each dwelling had a small one behind it that the family within tended too themselves, for fruits and vegetables. The larger fields, with crops similar to corn and wheat, were tended by the men, who also did the hunting for the meat.

Hadda was silent for a while as they worked, until she suddenly spoke up.

"It is time to find a husband for you."

Janet's head jerked up from her work. She'd been dreading this moment. "What? No! Hadda, I told you--I can't marry here. I'm not from here." She refrained from mentioning other reasons. As much as she hated being stuck here, she knew it wasn't the woman's fault she couldn't leave. It was their custom--it was the men who upheld it.

"What do you mean you cannot marry here? You live here now. And you must know that many of the men look at you. You are different. Your skin and hair are lighter. They like that."

She scowled. "I don't want to be with someone who only cares about me because of how I look."

"Some of them appreciate your spirit as well. A few would make a good husband for you. You would be loved, well cared for."

Janet dropped her tool, stood up and argued. "But I can't get married here. I can't stay here. You can't keep me here forever."

Hadda shrugged. "That is not up to me. By our customs, you are ours, at least until you are twenty-five summers. Then, if you still do not wish to stay, we cannot stop you from going."

"Twenty-five! But I'm only seventeen now! I can't wait that long!"

"You have no choice."

"Hadda, please; you have to help me…"

She frowned and shook her head firmly. "I cannot. You know the consequences. Do not speak of it again."

"But--"

"Silence!" Janet stopped and glared at her. "Until that time has come, you are one of us; which means that, as a woman now, you will take a husband. If you do not wish to choose him yourself, I will choose for you. I would make the choice I thought best for you, the most compatible man I thought, but you would be happier if you made the choice."

She swallowed hard, biting back the tears that solidified in a lump in her throat and tried to escape in a sob. "But--but I can't…"

Hadda looked at her for a moment, and her expression softened. She approached Janet and put a hand on either of her shoulders. Janet would have shaken her off, but something about the woman's expression stopped her.

"Janet…I know that this is hard for you. But can I tell you something?"

She could only nod, blinking back the tears and hoping they weren't noticed.

"It is a secret. I have never told you this, nor have I let anyone else tell you. I thought it should wait for the right time. I believe now is that time. Janet, I am not originally from this tribe. I as born to a tribe high in the mountains north of here. I was captured in a raid many many summers ago, when I was a little younger than you and this tribe lived closer to my people.

"I went through the same thing. But when I was seventeen summers, a husband was chosen for me by my keeper, and I was married to him. I still resented it then, and it was two more years before I even treated him kindly. And then, I began to realize that my keeper had indeed made a good choice. He was a good man. I fell in love with him just as much as if I had chosen him myself. I mourned greatly when he was killed six years later. "We had not been blessed with children yet, and by that time I was a year past my twenty-fifth summer. I could have gone home to my own people. But I stayed. I am Leska now. One day, you will be happy. On day, you will also be truly Leska."

It was meant to make her feel better. It was meant to give her hope that everything would turn out all right. Maybe some small part of her did feel better, but the rest of her rebelled at the very thought of still being here at Hadda's age. She didn't want to be here for thirty years. It wasn't that she didn't like these people at all, but she wanted to go home!

Janet's breath quickened. She realized she was trembling. "No!" she cried. He pushed past Hadda, abandoning the garden work. She past the hut, out of the village and down the trail. Many saw her go. No one stopped her.

She had learned later that after she had been knocked out when she had first been taken from near Osiris's village, that she had been drugged with the juice of a plant the hunting party had with them when they went foraging for meat and possible prisoners. It had kept her half asleep, unaware, but awake enough to be given food and water to keep her alive. They had kept her and the man they had captured also then, that way for almost a week's march to the village, to make them easier to transport. It had been a log-range party, and they had come a long way back here.

The Leska weren't afraid to let her outside of the village by herself anymore. They knew she wouldn't go far, because she knew that she would never find the stargate even if she did strike out on her own.

Janet ran blindly, until she realized that her feet had brought her to the stream that ran beside the village, only this point was a place she had found about half a mile outside of the village, if she judged right, where a small cave in the rocks left a place just large enough for a person or two to sit and hide, or think, or sleep protected from the wind.

She had come here often to think, in the past few weeks that she had been allowed to roam freely, since she'd found it. Crying softly, she pulled herself up into the small alcove and curled against the wall, her knees tucked up under her chin.

* * * *

"We're done, Daddy!" Charlie announced as he tromped into the kitchen, Adrian trailing behind.

Daniel stood up from where he'd been leaning against the counter. "With your homework?"

"Yep! We did it, good, too. It was all easy. It's no fair that Adrian doesn't have as much, though," Charlie pouted.

"He's younger than, you, dear; he's in a lower grade. Of course he has less homework," Vala commented. She was standing at the counter, back to them, looking a recipe over in preparation for making dinner. A second later she made a sound of frustration and turned around toward Daniel.

"What?"

"We're out of something I need for this recipe."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Then make something else."

"But I really wanted to make this one. We haven't had it in a while," she protested, putting on that pouty face of hers.

"No. No you don't. We'll be fine eating something else."

"Please…"

He looked at her for a few moments, and finally couldn't help but give in. "Fine," he sighed, defeated. "What do you need?" She told him what and how much, and he headed for the entryway. The boys stopped him, insisting on giving him a hug even though he would only be gone for a few minutes.

The boys ran off to play in their room, free now of the meager schoolwork of 2nd and 3rd grade. They were both a year ahead, too…just like their sister. Daniel had his boots and coat on, and was working on the zipper when he felt Vala wrap her arms around him from behind. He turned silently and returned the embrace just tightly enough, and they stood there like that for a moment.

He knew why she wanted to make that specific recipe. Or he knew a couple of reasons that might be the truth, anyway. Either she'd chosen it because it had been one of Janet's favorites…or because it took quite a while, in all, to prepare, and she wanted the distraction. Or both. He had never really been planning on denying her to right to do it today; the banter had been an attempt to stave off the tension.

Today was January 23rd--what would have been their daughter's 17th birthday.

"Will you be okay here?" Daniel asked quietly.

Vala sighed and pulled back. "I'll be fine." She started to smile a little. "When are you going to stop asking every time you have to go somewhere without me?"

"Because I want to know," he answered honestly.

She leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Don't worry about me. What about you?"

"I'll be okay," he shrugged, and kissed her forehead. "I won't take long." He let go, zipped his jacket up the rest of the way, grabbed his wallet from the entry table, and reached for the door handle.

"Thank you."

He turned back for a moment; her eyes said much more. I know you know why I want this--and it is both, if you must know. But thank you.

Daniel swallowed, and gave her a small smile. She returned it, and he left.

When he walked out the door, he thought he was all right. He thought he would be fine. But then he got to the store, and it seemed as if everything he saw was out to hurt him.

Travis, of course, hadn't worked there in years. The fact that he wasn't there only served to remind him that things were different now. They could never go back to that time--with the young man smiling as he rang up the total, and a hyper young Janet talking to him from beside her father. Nothing he did could bring Janet back.

It didn't help when he tried to ignore it, and went to find what Vala needed. Everywhere he looked, and strange as it seemed, something on the shelves sparked a memory he didn't want right now, even if it would have been pleasant otherwise. Daniel found himself almost stumbling through the aisles, looking at everything and seeing nothing but the past. By the time he remembered where he was, he realized that he was standing in the middle of an aisle, bent over with his hands braced on his knees, trying to breathe through the pain in panic.

The world spun, and someone was calling his name.

"Daniel? Daniel! What? No, he'll be fine…just let me get him out of here…Daniel, can you hear me? Daniel. Daniel!" He managed to look up, and saw a white-topped head with worried eyes looking down at him through the blur.

"Jack…?"

"Yeah, it's me, buddy…come on…let's get you some fresh air, okay?"

His friend that had come out of nowhere took his arm and gently pulled him toward the front doors, and Daniel almost collapsed when he tried to use his legs. He leaned on Jack, who helped him out the door and into the open air. The cold helped him snap back to reality, and he walked by himself as Jack guided him out to his truck, sat him in the passenger's seat, and climbed into the driver's side beside him.

Jack put his key in and turned it enough to be able to turn on the heating, and then finally looked at him. Daniel was collapsed back against the seat behind him, pulling in deep breaths. "W…what are you doing here?" he managed.

"Well, for the same reason you were here originally, probably--you know, for groceries." He paused. "What's going on?"

Daniel sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "I don't know what happened…"

"You had a panic attack…" Jack helped gently.

"Yeah…I guess," he answered, a little sheepishly.

His friend looked at him. "And? What happened?"

"I--" But he stopped. He didn't have anything to say. What was he supposed to say? "Jack…today…"

"I know what today is, Daniel," Jack said quietly.

That left him silent for several long seconds. "I was fine," he whispered finally. "It just…happened. I don't know why."

"It's okay…it happens like that sometimes. It doesn't mean you weren't doing fine handling it." Daniel didn't have to be told that. He'd seen his share of tragedy in his life. He'd experienced the aftermath more than once. Jack knew that better than anyone. But he also knew that sometimes it helped to be reminded. His friend gave him an appraising look, eyebrows up. "You want to talk about it?"

Usually, he would have said no. Six months ago, he would have said no. Three months ago, he would have said no. Yesterday, even, he would have said no. But not now. Daniel swallowed and looked at his friend--the man he knew would always be there--and nodded slowly.

"Yeah…I think I can do that."

* * * *

Janet didn't know how long she stayed by the stream--only that the light was dimming when she really looked around again. She swallowed and decided that she had better head back soon. As misguided as Hadda might be, strangely enough, she didn't want her to worry about her too much. She meant well.

She stared down at her feet in her moccasins, looked at the tanned skin of her legs that was visible even from under the longer winter dress. It was warmer today; she hadn't put on any winter leggings. As she looked down, her hair brushed the ground she sat on. It was twice as long now as it had been when she'd first set foot on this planet. The woman here didn't cut their hair unless it become overly cumbersome; they kept it as long as they could.

The highlights had grown out and only covered the bottom half, leaving an interesting effect; the top half of the length of her hair was only her natural, light brown color. It had been a darker brown when she was younger.

She had changed so much since then.

She had changed since she had come here.

Janet didn't like to think about it, but she was a little taller than Hadda now, where before she had just met her nose. Until now, she'd felt short for her age. She was pretty sure she was just as tall as her mother now, if not a little more, almost as tall as her father…had been. She grimaced.

She jumped at a touch on her shoulder. She turned and saw one of the girls her age from the village standing behind her, just outside the small cave. If she remembered right, the girl's name was Falah. Janet never associated much with the other young people of the tribe--or anyone that she didn't have to talk to, really. She didn't want to become too attached.

But Falah followed her sometimes, trying to befriend her, for some reason beyond her comprehension. They'd spoken a few times, about nothing important. She was kind.

The other girl jumped when she jerked, and apologized.

"I am sorry…I did not mean to frighten you, Janet. But Hadda told me that you had run off…and why. I hoped that I could help."

Janet sighed and let her chin rest on her knees again. "Thanks…but there's nothing you can do." She hoped the girl would just go away, but instead she sat down next to her.

"No…there is not much I can do. I cannot even offer understanding, because I was born here and have lived with this tribe my entire life. My family is here. I do not know what you are going through."

Janet frowned and looked at her, wondering where she was going with that.

"But…I can offer a listening ear. I can offer friendship.

She winced. "You must know why I haven't talked to you much before--or anyone."

Falah nodded slowly. "Yes…I believe I know why. I cannot blame you for it. But you cannot shut yourself from the world forever. You will never fell better if you live only for the day when you see your home again."

"Is it a bad thing to want to see it again?" she spat, maybe more vehemently than she would have wanted.

"No! Of course not; not to me. If one day your people come for you, and take you from us, then I will be happy for you. Yes, sad to see you go, but happy for you."

Janet looked at her sharply. "Why would you care if I left?"

Falah smiled at that. "Because I sense a good spirit in you; someone with whom I could become good friends." She became more serious again. "Janet, you must believe me---that it could only help you to open your heart to us. We want to care for you. I want to help you. I cannot if you do not let me."

Janet swallowed and closed her eyes, fighting the tears back, struggling to keep them from coming again. "I don't know if I'm ready for that. I just want to go home, Falah."

"Perhaps someday you will."

"That's the problem; I don't want it to be someday. I want it to be now."

"I know…and if I could help you, I would, but you know I cannot." She nodded weakly in response, and the other girl continued. "But right now, I can only offer what I have said. If…you are not 'ready', then I can wait. I will be here, if you need someone."

There was a long moment of silence, until Janet spoke up softly. "Do you really care so much? Would you really help me? If I let you? I still want to be home…but I don't want to be miserable either. I know I should make the best of it…my parents always taught me that. But…I can't do it by myself."

Falah looked at her for another moment, and smiled gently. "Of course." And then she held out her hand. "Come. We will walk back to the village together. We can talk."

Janet looked up, hesitated briefly, but finally took a breath, and reached out and took her hand.

* * * *

Daniel hurried in the door with the bag from the store. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to take so long," he apologized as Vala came to meet him at the door. She took his coat as he shucked it off, and hung it up while he pulled his boots off.

"What happened?"

"I uh…ran into Jack at the store. We talked for a while." He glanced up at her, and she seemed to understand. She didn't say anything about it when she accepted the bag from him.

"It's all right; there's still plenty of time. I was just getting a little worried, that's all," she told him.

"I'm sorry," he said again, standing and hugging her. He kissed her briefly on the lips this time. She still looked up at him in concern when he pulled back.

"Are you all right?" she asked, looking a little bewildered, too.

Daniel sighed a little and gave her an assuring look. "Yeah. I'm okay." And for once, it was true.

* * * *

"Soo…how does it work?"

Falah turned. "What?"

Janet sighed as they kept walking, approaching the village now. "What Hadda wants to do--the whole 'finding me a husband' thing? I was just curious…"

"Ah. Yes, well, usually during the spring when a young woman is seventeen summers, she and her mother--or in your case, your keeper, the woman who takes care of you--will look, and decide who is the right young man to be her husband. They are officially betrothed at the end of the spring, and have the summer to spend time together, to know each other more, and to prepare for the wedding while the man builds the hut they are to live in as a couple. At the end of the summer, they are married, and have the fall to make their home ready and stocked for winter."

"Oh…uniform, isn't it?"

Falah shrugged. "It has been the way things are for generations."

"Right…" she sighed. "What about you? How old are you?"

"I am sixteen summers. I will go through this process next spring," she smiled. "However, I do not have much to fear. I know who I wish to marry, and I know he will agree. Our parents know each other well, which will also help."

Janet had to smile, too. "That's good, then. I'm glad."

"Do not worry, Janet. There are several fine young men here who would wish to marry you," Falah assured her.

"That's what Hadda said."

"It is true! Look, over there," she pointed discretely. "That young man carrying the wood. He is handsome, is he not? He is the older brother of my boy! He has had eyes on you since you arrived, his younger brother tells me. He does not mind your strong will; on the contrary, he is in love with it--with you, I dare say. But he is a good man; he would never even ask you to consider him if he did not think you were certain you wished to marry."

Janet looked were Falah pointed, and saw a boy that was handsome, indeed, and about Travis's age. That thought stung, but she ignored it. It wouldn't help now.

"Huh…what's his name?"

Falah smiled. "He is Trinan. His younger brother is Jadas."

"Interesting name."

"All of our names are 'interesting' to you," she teased.

"Well, I guess that's true," Janet chuckled.

Falah nodded I what seemed to be approval at the levity, no matter how brief, as if to say You'll be fine. She hoped it was true.

* * * *

Sam motioned to him urgently from her office door, and Daniel changed course in the corridor to follow her inside. he closed the door, and she sat on the edge of her desk.

"We need to talk," she told him immediately.

"I kind of figured that when you waved me in here. What's up?" he asked, eyebrows up and arms crossed.

She crossed her own and let out a breath. "All right. You know the IOA let us not bother with Osiris because we were sure he had nowhere to go. They were fine with that then, surprisingly--then."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah…then. Why? Are they not now?"

Sam's mouth pressed into a thin line for a moment before she answered. "It's been almost a year, Daniel. Their personnel have changed. And no, they're not happy with that decision anymore. And they must be persuasive; the President is backing them now."

Daniel groaned. "Just what we needed…what does that mean for us?"

"That's the part I needed to talk to you about. It means someone has to go back there. They want Osiris neutralized," she winced.

He froze, and he felt his face go stony. "Go back…"

Sam held up a hand quickly. "You don't have to go--you or Vala. It doesn't even have to be SG-1 at all. It just has to get done. Those are my orders. I just thought you should be the first to know."

Daniel swallowed. "No…if anyone's going to do it, it should be us--SG-1, I mean. If they want to. If Vala wants to. But whoever goes, I have to go with them," he told her firmly.

She looked at him skeptically. "Are you sure…?"

"More sure than I've been in a long time," he answered grimly.

"We have to talk to the others first before I assign the mission to SG-1."

"Of course," he said quickly. "I wouldn't make any of them go anywhere near that planet again if they didn't want to."

Sam looked concerned. "You're sure you have to go?" she asked again.

Daniel nodded certainly. "I'm going, Sam."

CHAPTER 14

All Janet had done was mention what Falah had said about Trinan to Hadda; she hadn't even suggested she agreed. But in the end, the young man was chosen to be her betrothed, and she couldn't disagree. He did seem the best choice, if she had to make one.

As Falah had told her, they were betrothed at the end of the spring. The ceremony was short and to the point, and as it had been explained to her, they had to summer to get to know each other better. Janet had discovered that Trinan really was a good man. He was kind, polite, and she didn't have worry if he only liked her because she was something different. She knew he liked her for who she was. In fact, it seemed he was positively head-over-heels in love with her.

That didn't help any.

Not that she didn't like him. He was sweet. During the summer, he worked hard, building a new hut for them to live in when they were married. But she was still afraid of getting too attached to the Leska and their world. She didn't want to fall in love.

Of course, Trinan seemed to understand her hesitation, and he gave her her space when she needed it. That didn't help in the not becoming attached category. When she was afraid she was getting too close. She would think of Travis, even if it hurt because he wasn't there.

She did let Falah be a friend to her, and she was the best friend she could be in return. It was the least she could do, as much as the girl was trying to help her.

Janet eventually managed to convince herself that going along with what everyone here wanted was best for now. As Hadda had said, she could always leave later. She didn't really want it to be that long…but if by some chance she found no other way to leave before then, Falah was right. She shouldn't be miserable.

And even if she didn't feel about Trinan the way she had to admit she'd felt about Travis, he was still perfect in every other way. And he loved her. She couldn't ignore that. After much time reasoning with herself, she convinced herself that she would be all right. She had to be all right. She had to make it work.

For now.

In the final weeks before the wedding, she realized that she was happy. The longing to be home was there, but she had people here--a woman who had taken care of her, a good friend, and a man who loved her. She couldn't ask for more, here anyway. And it wasn't her fault that the old chief of the tribe was a stubborn man stuck in the ways of the people of this planet. It wasn't their fault that he wouldn't authorize letting her go. They cared about her. For now, if she couldn't be home, they were all she needed.

Janet fell into the preparations for the wedding with renewed vigor, and pushed back the remaining hesitation, found herself spending more time with Trinan, did more things with Falah and the other girls of the tribe.

She laughed. She realized she hadn't done that in months.

Maybe Hadda was right. Maybe she could be happy here.

"I know you miss your home," Trinan whispered to her one evening, when he held her in an embrace before she went back to her hut to help Hadda with supper. "But I love you. I hope you will be happy."

Their wedding day was two weeks away that day. Janet smiled and little and answered back quietly. "You know…I think I will be." She pulled back and looked at him. "But…you know I'll want to go home when the time comes. You could come with me…"

He shrugged. "We will see. If I cannot find a way to get you home before then. But…if nothing happens before then, and you love me enough to stay until then…I will follow you anywhere," he grinned.

They looked at each other for a moment, content. Trinan leaned forward slowly, and Janet realized he wanted to kiss her. She turned her head away and let go of him completely.

He sighed. "I am sorry…"

She shook her head. "No…it's okay, I--I'm just not ready."

"I understand. Perhaps I should go now."

Janet nodded silently, and he left. She stepped inside the hut, and Hadda gave her a knowing look. Maybe she'd heard it all, or maybe not. It wasn't important either way.

That had been two weeks before. Now, it was the day before their wedding.

She still hadn't let Trinan kiss her; but she was still telling herself that it would work. It would be all right.

Her resolve suffered a blow when she saw herself in the wedding dress she was to wear. It had been Haddas, and she and Falah were fitting it on her. It was made of material that had been worked more than the material of their usual dresses, so it was smoother, and it touched the ground. For Hadda, it had dragged, but it looked fine like it was, according to them. The sleeves were short, and ruffled a little, as much as homespun material could be--as Falah had explained, most weddings here took place in summer. They told her that a rare local plant was used to bleach the material white. Here, that was why only wedding dresses were white.

When Hadda and Falah were done looking, and adjusting, and pulling out or putting in a stitch here and there, making sure that the simply-designed dress fit her well, Janet looked at herself in the dirty scavenged metal these people used as mirrors. But even in that, she could tell that she looked like a bride, yes. She fit the dress perfectly now. By these people's standards, she was the perfect bride, at least by appearance. To them, she was beautiful, exotic…but all she saw in the makeshift mirror was a girl who was much too young to marry.

How could she get married? She still missed her own mother too much…she couldn't be one! Here, new couples were generally expected to have a child in the first year. Janet swallowed hard. By the time they had the dress off of her, she was nearly hyperventilating.

Falah put an arm around her shoulders. "What is wrong?"

She shook her head and pushed away, pulling her own shorter summer dress back on. "N-Nothing…"

Hadda looked at her, eyebrows raised. "You are having second thoughts."

"Well…yes! Look at me, Hadda…I know I'm taller than you. Maybe I can act mature if I have to…but am I really ready to be a wife? A mother, even? How can I do this now!"

Both of them surrounded her, and set her down on the bed. "Janet…listen to me," Hadda began. "I know how you feel. Even though with our people it is tradition to marry at this age, I still did not think I was ready when I was married. And if you recall, I still had not peace with my situation. I was much more angry than you. But it worked out for the best, even if we only had a few short years together. You will have much more time with Trinan."

"And he's wonderful," Falah smiled.

"It may take time for you to become comfortable being his wife, but you will be all right. I know you; you are strong, and you adapt. You will be just fine," Hadda agreed. "You must not doubt yourself."

Janet managed to smile at them a little, and it calmed her for the moment. It helped that she was out of that dress.

A voice came from outside the hut. "Are you women done in there? I'd like to see my bride one more time before tomorrow."

Hadda called out the closed door. "Yes, she is out of the dress. I have put it away. You may come in."

Trinan pushed open the door and grinned and Janet. "Are you coming?"

They had to spend time together now, because tomorrow they wouldn't be allowed to see each other until late in the afternoon, when the wedding took place. It had always seemed strange to her, how some things were similar wherever you went through the 'gate. Janet put a smile on her face, slipped her feet back in her moccasins, and followed him out.

"Come," he smiled mischievously. "There is somewhere I want to take you."

"Okay…" she agreed, bewildered. Trinan led her out of the village, and up the stream the other way from her hideout in the rocks. She had never been very far this way. She followed him to a rock outcropping, where the stream got wider. He took her hand to help her, and they climbed up and along the tope until they rounded a corner, and she saw that they were on the rocks, jutting out over a waterfall. She wouldn't have known the place was there. It had looked like the rocks ended, but then Trinan had pushed aside several branches, and pulled her through. It wasn't huge, and they weren't incredibly high up, seeing as the water was more a stream than a river, but it was enough to be beautiful.

"Trinan…" she breathed.

He smiled. "This is where I often come to think."

"How did you find it…?"

"It was while hunting, back when I was learning and I was boy. You see this?" he fingered the arrowhead necklace that he always wore. "This is not an arrowhead made by my people. It is one made by our ancestors, generations ago. I found it here."

"Huh. It's pretty…I always wondered where it came from."

"No one else knows where this place is. At least I don't think so. But…seeing as you are to be my wife, I thought I should share it with you."

Janet swallowed hard, suddenly fighting tears. "I-I…" She was touched, but that wasn't why she felt like crying. It was what it all meant.

"Janet?"

"I'm fine," she said quickly. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. She returned the embrace tightly. She had to do something about this. This had to work, if she wasn't going to be miserable here. Trinan cared for her. He loved her. She was sure she cared about him too, even if she was in love with him. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"You are welcome," Trinan answered quietly. "Do you like it?"

Janet pulled back, looked at him, and made herself smile. "I love it." That wasn't a lie. But she wasn't sure whether what she was about to do was or not. But if she didn't, she would never be able to make this work. Trinan was still smiling at her, and she felt him run a hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face.

While she had the chance, Janet tilted her face up, leaned forward, and kissed him. She ignored the tears that fell.

* * * *

Vala didn't answer for a long time. Daniel moved across their room to sit beside her on the bed. He put an arm around her, and she leaned into him.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Finally, she sighed and nodded. "I'm all right." She sat up and looked at him. "And I'm coming with you."

* * * *

Trinan had been surprised, to say the least, but pleasantly. They went back to the village hand in hand, and more slowly than they had come. Janet went to bed that night feeling better than she had before, and trying to ignore the lingering apprehension.

Her careful masking of her fear was shattered later that night when she jerked away, crying softly. It took a moment for her to even remember what had made her wake up, and wake up with a wet face. She didn't recall the dream being anything but normal.

And then she realized that everyone in every dream she'd had that night had been speaking Leska. There hadn't been a single word of English.

And it scared the breath out of her.

She had had scattered dreams with one or two people saying things in Leska every now and then. After all, it was the language she heard and spoke every day now. But she had never had dreams in such thorough Leska. Janet crawled out of bed quietly, breaking out in fresh tears that she struggled to keep muffled as she pulled her moccasins on through the blur. She ran out of the hut, and down the path out of the village, letting her sobs break loose.

When was the last time she had spoken English? She still thought in English, but she couldn't even remember the last time she had spoken it, now that she thought about it.

Janet jerked to a stop on the path. "I'm not Leska!" she shouted at the sky. She dropped her knees, crying. She racked her brain for English songs, poems, lines from movies, anything and everything she knew, and said it, or sang it softly. Eventually she dissolved into sobs again, gasping out a line from a song between breaths, mindlessly.

It took her a long while to realize that someone was holding her, once she'd calmed down a little, and finally they spoke. "Janet?"

She jerked back, sliding across the ground, and wiped at her face furiously. "Trinan! What…what are you--" She stopped when she realized she was still speaking English, and she switched. "What are you doing here?"

He looked at her with concern. "I could not sleep…I saw you run out of your hut. I was worried for you."

Janet swallowed. "I'm sorry…I'm all right."

"Is it about tomorrow?" he asked gently.

"No, not that at all," she said quickly, shaking her head. She slouched more. "All right…maybe a little."

"Perhaps a lot," he said grimly.

She looked at him sharply. "What do you mean?"

Trinan sighed. "I was here, Janet. You were saying things in your own language. I could not understand any of it…but when you did speak in Leska…and even when you did not, I know what you meant. You do not want to marry me."

"What? No! It's not that…you're wonderful, Trinan…it's just that I'm missing home right now. What with tomorrow…you can understand that, right? I still want to marry you…"

He smiled a bit. "Perhaps you do…but that is not the point. You do not love me, do you? Not really."

"I-I like you…"

"But you do not love me. You can tell me the truth. I will not get angry with you."

Janet sighed and looked away. "No…not like I should…not like I wish I could sometimes, because it would make this easier, but…no. I don't. I'm so sorry…"

"Was there someone else? Back on your world? Someone special?"

She started to shake her head, and then stopped. "Well, there I was farther away from typical marrying age and all, but…there was someone that it could have worked out with. Maybe. I don't know. He's a lot like you. Again, I'm sorry…"

He tilted her chin up to look at him. "It is all right. I suspected all of this time. I hope it would be all right. I suppose it still would be, mostly. But if you do not want to do this, then I can talk to someone…we can do something…"

She sat up straight quickly. "No. You know the customs, he rules…I'll have to marry someone, sometime soon. I want it to be you. And it might as well be tomorrow or I'll never be able to do it." She hugged him hard suddenly. "I want to make this work," she swallowed.

Trinan sighed and returned the embrace. "I do as well…but only if you are sure."

"I'm sure. I have to be sure about something," she sighed, sitting up again and drying her eyes.

He looked at her for a long moment. "Then we are going to do this?"

"Yes." She might have said something else, but a sudden mass cry pierced the air, and sudden light flickered from back toward the village. Trinan whipped around, pulling her behind him.

"What is it!" she cried suddenly. He pulled her off the path quickly, and running into the thick foliage.

"The village is being attacked by another tribe!"

"What?!" She looked again. The flickering was flames. The cry had been a battle cry. She could hear the sounds of a battle breaking out. "No! Hadda! Falah!" She started to lunge back toward the village, not sure what she could do, but Trinan held her back.

"No! Wait…"

She looked at him incredulously. "Why? We have to help!"

"Do you want to get home?"

"What?"

He took a deep breath. "I have a plan…but for it to work, you must stay here. You must not be seen in the village. Trust me. Stay here, and stay hidden--especially from the enemy, but even from any of our tribe. Stay out of sight."

"B-But--"

"Please! I can help you…I think I know how to make sure you get home…but if you want to stay that can be arranged too, but if you want a chance of getting home without struggle, and soon, then you must stay here." He looked her in the eyes. "Do you trust me?"

She nodded, and he sighed. "I will be back. If I am not…" He swallowed. "I will see to it that Hadda or Falah knows where you are. But do not move until one of us comes for you. Do you understand?"

Janet nodded again, quickly, and he kissed her forehead. "I love you." Then he left quickly, disappearing before she could respond. Stunned, she sank to the ground in-between stands of bushes and wrapped her arms around her legs, burying her head in between her knees to block out the sounds of battle and death.

* * * *

The next morning at the SGC, Daniel and Vala were the one to tell Cameron and teal'c about the mission Sam had proposed per the IOA's orders. Both looked at them in concern.

"Whoa…are you guys sure you wanna do that?" Cam wondered aloud.

"Of course we are. If we didn't want to do it, we wouldn't be telling you about it," Vala retorted.

Daniel sighed. "We're not saying it'll be easy for us to be there--but we have to do this. I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't."

"Then you are certain," Teal'c said, eyebrow raised.

Vala looked at her husband. "Why do they keep asking?"

Cam shrugged. "Okay you guys…if you're gonna do this, then we're with you." The rest of their own team weren't the only people they asked. They asked SG-13 too, and they all volunteered without question. Travis seemed just as determined. Now all they needed was a plan.

* * * *

Janet didn't know how long she'd been there, only that the sounds of battle had faded, and no one had come. She resisted the urge to cry, telling herself that Trinan and the rest of them were all right. She didn't remember how many times in the night she'd had to fight not to jump up and run in the fray--to do something. How could he expect her just to sit here? But he'd told her to trust him.

The predawn light was eerie, and the smoke drifting down the path didn't help any. She couldn't really see the village. She didn't know how much of it had survived.

Finally, she heard footsteps on the path. She looked up--and saw Trinan, Hadda, and Falah coming toward her.

"Trinan!" she cried. She jumped up and ran to him. He caught her in his arms and carried her back into the foliage.

"Shh! You must still not be seen."

"Why…?" She noticed that he had a bulging bag over her shoulder, and that Falah was carrying one of the portable water skin bags. It, too, was full. They saw she was looking at them, and Falah spoke up, looking sad.

"It was all we could bring unnoticed. These will not be missed later. The attackers took things, too. No one will know the difference."

Janet looked back and forth between them. "What are you talking about? How's the village, everyone…?"

"There are not too many dead…." Haded said sadly. "But we did lose men. And a couple of women who tried to help in the battle. All of the children are safe, thank the gods. Most of the village survived. We put out the fires with dirt, and it did help that we are close to the stream. Our men fought bravely…the other tribe fled soon after attacking. They did not get much to bring with them. We will survive."

Trinan continued quietly, pained. "If you wish to go home, then I will tell you how to get to the ring, and you will take the food and water and go. When we get back to the village, we will tell everyone that we looked for you, but either that we found you dead, or that you must have captured. That way you will not be missed, either. That is why I told you to stay here unseen."

She looked at Hadda incredulously. "You agreed to this?"

She raised her hands. "Perhaps I am an old woman who is stuck in many old ways, but I did not concoct this plan. I will not help either. I will not say a word. But I cannot stop them from saying what they wish." Then she smiled, and Janet knew that she, too, agreed with this plan, if she wished to take it.

Janet looked at the man who had made it possible. "Trinan, I…I don't know what to say."

He smiled. "You can take what we have for you, and go home and live a long, full life with you people.

Falah looked ready to cry. "Just do not forget us."

She swallowed, suddenly developing a lump in her own throat. Trinan took the bag off of his shoulder and draped it around hers. Falah handed her the water skin. Together they were a little heavy, but she would need them for the long trip. "Thank you…" she whispered. "Of course I won't forget you. Any of you…and not after this."

"Then you will go?" Hadda asked.

"Yes," she nodded. "I have to. I have a mother and two brothers at home who don't know where I am. And…maybe someone else. I have to go back to them if I can. You just gave me that chance." She choked out a sob, "Thank you."

Hadda was the first to pull her into a final embrace and bid her well and farewell, then Falah. "Thank you for helping me," Janet told her. "I would have been miserable until now if it weren't for you."

"What are friends for?" she whispered back. "I will miss you."

"You, too."

Trinan was last, and the two woman stepped away. Janet looked at him. "Thank you so much for this…you didn't have to do it."

"I know…but you will be more happy with your own people, your family."

"So how do I get there?"

"It is relatively simple, really. Follow the stream downstream for three days' journey until you come to another, larger stream that it meets. Perhaps you could call it a small river. But turn and follow it downstream as well for two more days, until it empties into a large lake. Then go around the lake and walk toward the setting sun. You will soon come to the ring. The lake is not far from it. But be careful; neither is it far from Osiris's tribe. Less than half a day's journey."

She nodded. "I will…thank you."

He looked into her eyes again. "I will miss you as well. Very much."

Her breath caught at the look in his eyes. "Are you asking me to stay?"

"I would…if I did not know how much you rather be home."

"Thank you for not trying to ask me." She smiled a little. "I might just have agreed. And hey…maybe I'll visit."

Trinan smiled too. "May I ask you something else?"

"I guess so…"

"May I kiss you again?"

"That I can do," Janet agreed. He kissed her gently, and she kissed him back. When he pulled back, he pulled the necklace from around his neck and pressed the arrowhead and beaded string into her hands.

"Please take this…I want you to remember us, too."

"No, Trinan, I can't take this from you…"

He kissed her forehead again. "It is all right. I can find another one. Please. For me. Bring it with you?"

She sighed. "All right…on one condition." His eyebrows went up, ready to hear it. "Put it on me." He nodded with a little smile, and she handed it back to him and turned around. He set it around her neck, and gently pulled all of her hair through ad let it fall again. Then he turned her around and straightened it in the front.

"Is that good?"

"That's perfect." She hugged him again, hard. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye," he whispered.

Janet let go and looked around at all of them, and said goodbye once more. "I won't forget you," she promised. Then they went back onto the path, and she hurried through the woods to find the stream. She soon found it, and started walking the right direction, adjusting the bags on her shoulder. She looked back, and caught once last glimpse of her friends on the path. They waved. She waved in return.

Then the trees hid them completely, and Janet turned her back on the village and walked toward home.

CHAPTER 15

Daniel kept his P-90 up as he and the rest of SG-1 slipped into the narrow passageway into the valley where Osiris's village sat. It was only the four of them now. They were through most of the passage, up the slope and about to creep out of the opening when suddenly they were blocked by three natives with bows and arrows, all knocked and aiming at them.

Well, they weren't outnumbered…they could zat them all. But then they heard movement behind them, and turned to see several more coming up behind them. They must have been hiding outside. Had Osiris upped security measures since he'd escaped last year? Maybe he'd been expected the SGC to send a team back for him.

But the bottom line was, they were outnumbered now. The four of them swung their weapons back and forth, between the two groups ambushing them, but there was nothing they could do if they didn't want to get killed. The opposition said nothing.

"Oh, crap," Cam swore quietly.

The natives seemed to realize that the earth team knew they were had. One at a time, so as to keep them covered, they exchanged their bows and arrows for their dart guns.

"Not that agai--" But Daniel didn't even get the sentence out before a sharp prick pinched the side of his neck, and everything shut down into darkness.

* * * *

Colonel Jennifer Hailey--recently promoted from lieutenant colonel--clicked on her radio in contact with the hidden marine teams that had come with SGs one and thirteen. They were all surrounding the entrance to the valley from different positions.

"Did all of you see the natives going in after them?"

One of the other team commanders radioed back. "Positive, colonel. Proceed with the plan?"

"Did you think we would do anything else?" The other commanders sent their confirmation of the order, and she let go of the radio.

"Didn't have to wait long for that," Travis commented. "I thought they wouldn't get caught until they were inside."

Hailey shrugged. "The plan's flexible." They waited half an hour, per the plan, for SG-1 to be brought out of the tunnel on the other side. Some of the natives that had been on the outside before, but unseen, came back out to re-take their posts later, and were zatted, dragged away and restrained so the entrance was unguarded. When the allotted time was up, SG-13 led the foray into the tunnel. The guards on that side weren't waiting for them, but they could be seen coming back up from the village after delivering the prisoners.

Hailey waved her team to duck back, and they waited. When the few men coming up reached the entrance, they zatted them. No one below noticed; they were too far up, and blocked by trees in most places. The marine team came through and took cover, to stay hidden from below, and some of them restrained the newly captured natives and dragged them back through the tunnel to be put with the other and the marines left behind to watch them, then returned.

They'd decided on the direct approach this time, seeing as they were planning on removing Osiris from office. These people needed to know what he was.

And it would help if that kept the natives from wanting to try to kill them all for kidnapping their god.

They'd brought plenty of forces through the job; by the time all of the teams and other marines had finished sneaking through the passageway and getting out of sight for the moment, there were about thirty of them inside, total. That didn't count SG-1 in custody.

Once all of them that weren't back outside watching their own captives were through, they proceeded to get as close to the village as possible without being seen. It was mid-afternoon, and there was much daily commotion in the village. They weren't seen until they were all in the trees right outside the relative village limits, surrounding it.

Then they chose to be seen. Hailey gave the signal, and the earth forces burst from the foliage, weapons raised. The villagers dropped what they were doing. The women and children screamed, but didn't seem to know whether to run for their huts or to get away. They just ran in circles. The men went for their weapons, rushing out to meet them, but when the SGC personnel started firing zats at the ground and into the air, all of the villagers froze at the lightning-like beams. A village of fifty or more stared at them.

Colonel Hailey motioned Cassie and Skaara off to the hut they knew prisoners were kept in, to retrieve SG-1. All of her people kept their weapons trained on the villagers. The native stared back--some angry, some afraid, some just confused. But all silent.

In the quiet, one more figure burst out of one of the largest huts, his eyes flaring orange-white in anger. That would be Osiris, then. He stared them down, but didn’t go any farther. He didn't have a weapon.

A moment later, Cassie and Skaara came back out of the other hut with a disgruntled and slightly groggy SG-1. But she noticed that Daniel snapped alert immediately. He looked right at the Goa'uld.

"Surprised to see us?"

Osiris glared. "Why are you here?"

"To kick you off the throne," Mitchell retorted, overcoming the effects of the dart. Funny. Usually things like that knocked people out for longer that an hour or so, as far as she'd heard. But then again, SG-1 was more than experienced in just about any kind of trouble possible.

"He our god!" one man protested in broken English. Daniel had explained that some of them could speak to some extent.

"If he's such a deity, can he do this?" Hailey shot back, firing her zat at the ground again. All of the natives jerked back simultaneously.

Osiris smirked. "That is only a weapon."

"Osiris can fling you across a field with on flick of his hand!" another villager cried. But they'd been prepared for that one.

Daniel stepped forward more, and raised his voice. "Listen to me! I know some of you can understand. Don't pretend you don't. Listen, and translate for those around you if they can't: Osiris also uses a device to do the things you see him do. It's just a thing, a machine, technology. It's based on science, not magic."

One woman answered. "We know he use hand thing. But if he not god, why rest of us not can use it? He let us try--so we know he god."

"It's something in his blood that allows him to use it; it's not magic. He's not the only one who can do it." He glanced back, and Vala had already pulled a ribbon device out of Hailey's pack and stepped up where he was, slipping it on as she went. All part of the plan, should it be needed. When she had it on, she held it up, letting the villagers see the crystal glow.

Osiris's eyes widened for just a moment, but he quickly composed him and glared again. "I know her--she is another god! She is like me. Her name is Ketesh. Though she should not be helping them; she betrays her station."

Vala smirked. "Sorry. She's been gone a while. I'm Vala. Nice to meet you." He obviously hadn't been expecting that, but he didn't show it much. She spoke to the people. "I'm not a god, either. I was implanted with a parasite--a snake--an alien that stole my body from me and used it for years without my consent. But now I'm just a normal human like you. But I can still use the technology they use. That's what he is. He's not a god; he's been tricking you."

"Liars!" Osiris shouted. Vala, appropriately peeved by this turned on him, aimed the hand device and blew the Goa'uld back a few feet, knocking him over. The villagers gasped and scrambled away from him. Vala seemed satisfied. She sighed and smiled in satisfaction. "Handy little thing, isn't?"

"Lame pun," Travis commented. She shrugged.

Face contorted with rage, Osiris stood up again quickly, but he knew he was helpless, and it showed. "You cannot do this!" he shouted.

Daniel's eyes rolled, and he reached back and grabbed Hailey's extra zat from her belt. Her having it and the hand device--as well as the rest of her team carrying extra weapons to pass over to SG-1 if the ones they'd had when captured couldn't be located--had been carefully thought out. Daniel, however, was only annoyed at the moment.

"You know what? Why don't you shut up," scowled. Then he promptly zatted the Gould, who fell the ground, unmoving.

The villagers reacted with another jerk, but most of them didn't seem too angry--more scared and confused than anything. Maybe they weren't used to seeing their usually stern, in-control-of-everything 'god' angry and flustered. Hopefully that and what they'd been told were planting doubts.

A few of the men, expectedly, were still ready to jump on the Earth people, but when they burst forward suddenly they were zatted down before anyone was really hurt. Maybe it wasn't the best way to do things, but it was the only way to keep anyone from being seriously injured. That hadn't been the intent. The point was to help these people become independent of the snake again.

Daniel sighed and spoke to the small crowd again. "I know you're confused. But please listen. We're here to help you. If you'll all calm down, and let us explain more, I promise that everything will be all right. Do you understand?" Many nodded. Others seemed to agree, but were turning to translate for other. Then most of those others nodded too, and those had had weapons in their hands dropped them. The real troublemakers were already unconscious. The ones outside with the remaining marines would be brought back in, so everyone else would know that they were fine, too, and so that they could hear the truth as well.

As the marines and other SG-teams spread out into the crowd to give instructions, Mitchell and Teal'c wandered forward to Daniel, Vala, and Hailey. "Well. That went better than I expected."

Hailey looked around. "We're not quite out of the woods yet, but it's a good start."

Daniel rubbed at his head and winced. "Didn't quite expect to be cornered that quickly. Those darts really leave some after effects."

Vala huffed. "No kidding. It's a good thing you're such a good actor," she smirked. He smiled just a little and hugged her.

"You didn't do so bad yourself. Good clincher with actually using it on him."

She returned the embrace for a moment, then pulled back and tugged at the ribbon device. "Thanks. Now help me get this darn thing off, would you?"

* * * *

It had been almost twenty-four hours since Janet had left the Leska village for the stargate. She'd tried sleeping in a tree that night, after finding a tree with a few low-hanging, wide branches. It had worked--sort of. But she'd fallen out a few times. She was sore, but then again she would have been sore no matter where she'd slept in the middle of the forest. She knew she didn't want to be found and eaten by anything. Maybe another night she would get lucky and find a cave.

She found that she really didn't need the water skin; her route was, after all, mostly by water. But then again, keeping it full did save her time. She didn't have to bend down by the stream to get water every time she needed it. And since she didn't know if she ever would be able to return at all, ever, she was reluctant to part with it. Trinan had probably known that she didn't really needed it, but maybe he'd wanted her to have more to take with her of them. He knew she was sentimental.

Janet swallowed and grabbed the necklace at her chest. It really was a beautiful piece of jewelry; it didn't matter that it was originally fashioned by and intended for a man. Trinan had made it himself, after finding the old arrowhead. The strap was thin leather, but was covered almost completely around with small beads in turquoise, yellow, red, and a few white--again, white dye was rare here. The designs were basic, because being a male he wasn't as skilled in the beaded arts, but it was still beautiful to her. Even if she never saw him again--especially then--she knew it was something she could cherish forever.

Her fists balled and her walked remained steady, but slowed. For several agonizing, insane moment she almost turned and ran all the way back to the village. She didn't even know what home would be like. With dad gone…what was her mother like? Her brothers? But of course, unless they had come back for them later and had somehow heard it from Osiris, they wouldn't know exactly what had happened to either of them. Maybe they thought she was dead, too…

That was what snapped her out of it. She knew she had to get back home. They had to know what had happened. They had to know she was alive.

Janet let go of the necklace, gripped the straps of her bags, and headed on resolutely.

* * * *

After the situation had been explained in more detail to the people of the village, and those still with doubts had been calmed down, SG-13 stayed with the other teams while SG-1 went back with a few marines to set up a base camp in the clearing by the stargate. They figured it would be better if they kept Osiris farther away in case any secretly still over-zealous villagers got it in their heads to try to break him out.

They didn't want to leave the planet or bring him back to Earth yet until they were sure the villagers were settled again, and they made sure there wasn't anything else they needed to know.

Osiris, however, wasn't happy at all when he woke at the base camp, restrained to a portable gurney and drugged with just enough sedative to make sure he couldn't just break the straps. He was still awake enough to harry them.

"You cannot do this. I demand that you release me immediately!"

"I suggest that you keep it down," Mitchell glared. "We could just kill you, you know." Vala could tell that he'd been struggling not to use should in place of could.

"Release me!"

Vala scowled. "Do you want more sedative?"

Daniel took a step closer. "You've been had, and you know it. You might as well cut the act."

Osiris fumed. "You cannot keep me long. I will escape, and you will be punished."

"I think not," Teal'c responded, eyebrow raised.

The Goa'uld remained silent for a moment, maybe thinking. Something must have donned on him; his face changed. "I have information that you would wish to know."

"Oh really? Like what?" Cam asked sarcastically.

"Release me first."

Vala snorted. "Fat chance. We release you, and you try to kill us all or escape, or both. I don't think so."

"Then you will not know."

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest, taunting. "Fine with me. But it's all over for you, you know. You'll be removed from your host, and this time we won't just let the Tok'ra taken you. Maybe we'll stuff you back in that jar you crawled out of thirty years ago. Or…"

Cameron caught on. "Tell us what you know, if there's anything else that you think we might like know, and maybe we can get you a nice tank to live in for the rest of your natural life."

Osiris glared a little more, then looked at Daniel. "It involves your daughter."

Daniel's expression became murderous immediately. "Don't even go there." Vala almost wanted to back away. She'd forgotten that he really could be quite frightening if he wanted to be--when he was very, very angry. She glanced up at Cameron and Teal'c--the only other two in this curtain-off 'room' of the heavy green military-issue tent in the base camp. They seemed a little surprised, too.

"I am certain you will want to know this," The Goa'uld smirked. Daniel gave him a look as if waiting impatiently for an answer. "Release me first."

"We already told you; that's not going to happen." He turned as if to go, as if telling the snake that he was done with this.

"She is alive," Osiris blurted. Vala froze.

Daniel spun back around immediately and slammed a fist down on the edge of the bed, making it shake hard. "I do not need you trying to lie your way out of this, either!" But his face was contorted with pain. He forced it away as much as me could, but they all knew.

The snake sneered. "It is not a lie. I tricked you."

"Shut up!" The other three of them didn't know what to do; they stood frozen. It was between Daniel and Osiris now.

"What I gave her was what you thought it was, but it cannot kill. It only mimics death for several minutes--puts the victim in something of a comma for a while. She was never dead."

"I'm not listening to this." Daniel turned and left quickly. Vala motioned to the others to stay, then gathered her wits and followed him. She found him out in the front of the large tent, leaning against one of the poles at the open flap door. He was breathing in and out heavily, eyes closed. She swallowed and wrapped her arms around him. He responded silently, bringing his around to hold her in return.

"He's just trying to mess with us," he sighed after a moment, swallowing.

Vala pulled back a little and looked at him. "But…" Her eyes fell away again. "What if he's not lying?" she whispered.

Daniel gripped her arms and made her look at him. "We can't listen to him. That's what he wants--to get our hopes up and then watch them crash again later. He's lying. There can't be any other explanation. I--I saw what happened."

"But he said that--"

"I don't care what he said!" he cried, letting go of her. "He's lying! Don't pay attention to him. He's a Goa'uld, Vala."

Vala blinked back tears. "But how can we know it's not true! What if it is?"

"It's not!" he grabbed her again, looking desperate now. "Don't you get it? He wants to mess with us! We can't start believing anything different from what we've known for almost a year now. I hate it, but that doesn't change it." Daniel choked. "She's gone, Vala. Nothing can bring her back."

He let go, and started to leave again, but she caught his arm when he turned. "Daniel, wait." He paused, and looked back at her tentatively. "Why?" she pleaded. "Why can't you at least consider it? Don't you want it to be true?" she asked softly.

"More than anything." Daniel turned away and whispered more. "But I can't let myself start hoping. If it's not true…when it probably isn't…" His fists clenched and he stopped, but she understood what he couldn't say. I couldn't deal with that pain. It's easier this way.

She couldn't blame him for that. When he remained silent after that, and walked away, she didn't follow. She didn't know what else to do, but she didn't follow.

* * * *

Janet had pushed herself for the first couple of days. She'd walked as far into the night as she could without risking hurting herself in the dark. She'd reached the stream junction barely an hour after beginning the third day, instead of at the end of it. Knowing she was ahead of schedule, she relaxed a little to keep from burning herself out, but she wanted to get home. Late the fourth afternoon, she reached the lake and slept near it. Today was the fifth day.

She woke from her perch in a low tree branch--she'd gotten the hang of sleeping like that now--and smiled out at the lake as the early morning sun sparkled off the water. The sun was behind her. She dropped from the tree, settled her bags on her shoulders, and started around the lake away from it. Trinan had said, from the lake, to walk toward the 'setting' sun.

She was chilly, exhausted, sore, and dirty, but Janet felt better that morning than she had all week. She knew she was close. She re-filled her water skin for the last time at the mouth of the stream, and then continued around the lake, eating what little was left of the food her friends had given her. Se tried to pace herself, but the excitement wouldn't abate. Soon she broke into a run.

She would be home on Earth today.

* * * *

After the first day of attempting to question Osiris, Daniel and Vala left it to the rest of SG-1 and the others and went back to the village to help the teams there helping the villagers. They spent several days there, making sure the villagers understood everything that was happening and helping them to reorganize themselves. They had to rule themselves again, with no 'god' to guide them. After almost a week, it seemed that they would be all right. The Earth contingent prepared to pack up camp and return to Earth, and bring Osiris there for the symbiote to be removed. He wasn't talking. There wasn't much point anymore in trying to make him.

Daniel, Vala, Cassie and Skaara, and the other couple of teams left the village for the 'gate clearing where the rest of SGs 1 and 13 were, along with several marines needed there to make sure that Osiris was kept under guard.

They expected to find the base camp calmly packing up, but instead they found chaos. Most everything except the tent Osiris was kept in was taken down and packed, but no one was calm.

"Daniel Jackson!" Teal'c was the first to notice the returning teams, and he pulled Mitchell with him to meet them. They hurried into the camp faster.

"What's going on?" Daniel demanded.

"Osiris has escaped," Teal'c intoned angrily.

"What?!" Vala gasped.

Cameron grimaced. "Apparently he's been faking the effects of the sedatives. They don't work as well as we thought they did. He broke the straps. He planned this."

"Oh, that's just what we need…" Daniel cursed. "Where is he?"

"That's the problem," Cam told them. "He broke through the back of the tent--quietly. He must have run off into the woods. The guards didn't see him. They didn't know he was gone until they looked in to check on him."

"But wouldn't someone else have seen him?" Cassie asked.

Skaara shook his head. "Not for certain. He could have slipped away. Obviously he did. He is not here."

"What are we doing now?" Daniel asked, trying to survey what was happening.

"Looking," Teal'c replied. "If he is not found hiding in camp, we will organize search-and-capture parties.

Daniel sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. "I guess that's all we can do…" But he knew one thing. He was not leaving this planet until that Goa'uld was subdued.

* * * *

Janet saw brighter light up ahead, something a little distant, but metallic, through the trees. She'd run out of steam and stopped running an hour ago, but she'd been walking fast. Now she ran again. The stargate! She could see it! But just before she broke out of the trees and foliage, she stopped short and frowned. She looked through the trees, not quite sure was she was seeing. She was too far away. She wanted to run to the 'gate right now--the ring on the far side of log, narrow meadow-- but strange shapes moved near it. A hill half hid them. Sighing, she took fifteen minutes to make her way down the clearing from the side, still in the trees and brush.

Finally, Janet rounded a corner, and could see out of the trees and around the small hill that had been blocking her sight before.

Her breath caught.

It was people--Earth people, she was sure of it. There was even one large military-green tent up. It looked like they were all upset about something, but she didn't care what she interrupted. Maybe they were here looking for her. Or they had met friendlier natives to start trade with. It didn't matter. She could go home.

Janet started to run out of the woods when a small group of people caught her eye, rounding the edge of camp, heading somewhere purposefully. Uncle Cam and Teal'c! Cassie and Skaara! She almost cried. Mom! She was about to call out to them when she saw someone else with them, and she stopped dead in her tracks, right in the middle of the clearing. No one from the Earth camp had seen her yet, though she was barely fifty yards away.

It couldn't be…dad?

She stood frozen in indecision and doubt. Could she be imagining all of this after her long journey? Dad couldn't be there…he was dead--dead for almost a year. Had she even imagine the trip? Could she be back in her bed in the Leska village, waiting to wake to the day of her wedding? Or…had Osiris lied?

And then something grabbed her from behind, and she screamed.

* *

Everyone turned at the sound of the scream from farther down the clearing, including Daniel. What he saw was Osiris fifty yards down the clearing, holding a knife to the throat of a tall, natively-dressed girl. He didn't looked closer, and neither did anyone else, just pulled out a weapon and ran down the clearing with Vala and everyone else to help and taking the lead of the Earth people as they pulled up in front of Osiris and more went farther to surround him.

"Put down your weapons or she dies!" Osiris snarled.

That was when Daniel looked at who the Goa'uld had snared, and realized that she was staring right back, just as shocked as he was. That was when his heart stopped, and he felt himself completely detached from the mentality of everyone else surrounding Osiris except for his wife. That was when he heard Vala's sharp intake of breath, and felt himself go dizzy with disbelief. That was when he felt his jaw drop without any help and his throat clog without permission.

That moment was when Daniel saw his daughter being held in the clutches of a bloodthirsty Goa'uld, and discovered to his shock and unmatchable relief that she was not, in fact, dead.

That was when Janet struggled and shouted in fear, and he heard her voice for the first time in nearly a year--a year of thinking she was dead.

"Dad!"

CHAPTER 16

Osiris smirked at their expressions. "Yes, I lied to you. Ironically, I was telling the truth about that. She was never dead. Now do you believe me?"

Daniel didn't snap out of it until Janet struggled again, and the Goa'uld tightened his grip and brought the knife closer to the throat, forcing a distressed whimper from her.

"Let her go." He went for deadly, but he was pretty sure it came out strange. And no one else seemed willing to talk here. Not when it involved the girl they'd all thought dead for several months; they didn't seem to know what to do but keep their weapons trained on the threat.

"Don't worry, Daniel; you can have your precious daughter back soon enough. Just let me through the stargate."

Mitchell spoke up then, finally. "We can't do that."

"Then she'll die." Osiris moved suddenly, and both Vala and Janet screamed. But when he stilled again, there was only a thin stream of blood trickling from under one corner of the knife, and she was still alive. Still alive. She'd never been dead! Daniel didn't know whether to laugh or cry or kick himself a million times over. But right now he couldn't do any of it. He had to keep her alive first.

How he hated déjà vu…

.

Osiris sneered. "It would be a little hard to fake slitting her throat, don’t you think? I would cooperate if I were you."

"Just leave her alone," Vala shouted angrily.

Daniel didn't know what else to do. They couldn't let the Goa'uld go, and they couldn't let anything happen to her either.

On the other side of the several-deep circle of SGC personnel surrounding Osiris, Daniel saw Travis pull out a zat. That would work. Sure, it was painful, but it was better than dying. Maybe no one had thought of it--or at least not acted on the thought--because he and Vala were there. They didn't know what they would want, as her parents. They were hesitant. All of these people were trained to the gills in combat and encounter situations. But put them here, and they had no clue what to do beyond protocol--don't let the bad guy get away, and keep the hostages alive. Pretty much.

He wanted to scream at them. Just save her!

But all he could do was look at Travis discretely, trying to tell him to do it without letting Osiris know he was telling him to. The young man looked understandably uncomfortable, but he needed to just do it!

Mitchell must have seen it, too. He stepped forward and held out both hands. "Okay…why don't we put the knife down and we can all have a nice chat about this?" His talking covered Travis opening the zat.

Osiris glared. "There will be no talking. Open the 'gate, let me go through, and you can have the girl. And do not worry about coming through after me. You will all stay far enough away that you cannot come through while it is still open, and once on another planet I will dial out again immediately--several times. You will not find m--"

Travis fired.

Both Osiris and Janet dropped with the crackling blue beam. Daniel wanted to move, but found he was still rooted to the spot he was standing on.

Travis dropped the zat as the circle around Goa'uld and girl broke up, and hurried to push the unconscious snake off of and away from Janet. Then he went to wake her up, rolling her onto her back and shaking her gently.

"Janet? Janet, come on, wake up…"

Daniel felt Vala grab his arm tightly, and together they stumbled a little closer, still in too much shock to do much else.

Janet groaned and opened her eyes. Travis sighed. "Hey…are you okay?" He still looked just as shocked that she was really there, in front of him, alive.

She grimaced. "Yea…I guess so…oww…thanks. I think."

Travis managed a nervous laugh. "Hey, you would have done the same for me."

"If you say so." She sat up and hugged him hard for a moment. By then Daniel and Vala were there, and she went straight from Travis's arms to her parents'. "Mom, Dad!" And she started to cry. "Dad…I thought you were dead…"

Daniel held on tighter than he thought possible.

"We thought you were…" Vala choked from her other side.

Daniel swallowed hard, trying to hold back his own tears. "He lied to both of us, baby, I'm so sorry…" But it was no use, and soon all three of them were sobbing. "I love you," he told her, over and over again. "I love you, I love you…"

"We love you," Vala repeated.

"I love you guys too," Janet cried. "I missed you so much.

Daniel sobbed. "You have no idea."

Sudden movement behind them. Janet was the only one of them who could see what it was. She shrieked. A zat blast rang out, a thump. Daniel and Vala both twisted, and saw Osiris falling back to the ground, unmoving. Cameron was holding out the zat he'd just fired. "He was going to attack you," he explained.

Daniel gaped a little. "Cam…he was just shot a minute ago…"

Mitchell shrugged. "Oops."

He shook it off and turned back to his wife and daughter. Janet was starting to stand, so he and Vala stood too, helping her a little.

"Mom, Dad, I'm fine…" she insisted.

"We know," Vala smiled, a little shakily. "But bear with us." She stopped and looked at her daughter when they were all standing. "You're taller than me." It wasn't a question, or something to be upset about--just a statement, a bewildered observation. Daniel noticed it, too. Where before she'd been a little shorter than them both, now she was a tad taller than her mother, but still just shy of his height.

"Look at that hair," he added, taking in the long locks that reached almost to her knees. That was certainly different.

Janet smiled shyly. "They didn't believe in women cutting their hair very often."

"They who?" Vala asked. Both of them had one arm around her from either side, holding her as close as possible. Daniel was sure it must have been difficult to breathe squashed between them like that, but she wasn't complaining. It was a good thing too, because he didn't think he could let go if he wanted to.

"Oh…I wasn't here the whole time; really only a few weeks. Another tribe captured me…They were a whole lot nicer, but they just wouldn't let me leave."

Daniel felt his arm tighten again. "Then how did you get here?"

"They were attacked by another tribe," she grimaced, as if it bothered her. They'd have to talk more later. "It seems there's a lot of tribal warfare around here. Skirmishes, anyway." But then she quieted, and didn't seem to want to comment on the subject further.

By then everyone else had cleared away and went back up to the base camp to finish packing up. Only the rest of SGs 1 and 13 had stayed close. Now, sensing a lull in the conversation, they all gathered closer to welcome Janet back--all still more than a little surprised. They all had to hug her through her parents, because neither would let go. But they didn't seem to mind.

Finally Daniel eyed them all, making them back away enough that he and Vala could guide Janet toward the 'gate. He sighed. "Let's go home."

* * * *

Jack crossed his arms and huffed impatiently, staring out the conference room window. "I wish they'd hurry up."

Sam raised an eyebrow at him from where she stood closer to it. "They're not due back for another hour. They have to finish picking up camp."

"I know, I know…but I'm worried about Daniel. I was never fond of the idea of him going back there. Vala either. I know they got him, but…well, you know Daniel. He'll find some way to get into trouble."

She just shook her head at him.

And then, as if on cue, the unscheduled-offworld-activation alarm went off.

"What'd I tell ya?" Jack said, getting up and headed down the steps to the control room ahead of her. Sam followed quickly.

"Jack, it could be anything…"

"It's SG-1's IDC, ma'am," the 'gate tech told them as soon as they stepped off the stairs. Jack gave her a look, and she rolled her eyes.

"Are we getting any other signals, or are they coming through?" she asked.

"Radio, ma'am."

"Ah, hey Sam?" It was Mitchell's voice.

Sam's head cocked up a little "What is it? Finish packing early?"

The colonel chuckled on the other end. "Not exactly. And don't worry, we don't have a problem either--well, except that Osiris almost escaped and now he's dead…"

"What??"

"Never mind. We're fine here. But we ah…kind of ran across…something…I think you should see."

There was a mischievous tone quality to his voice, and Jack spoke up. "Mitchell, what're you tryin' to pull?"

"Nothing," he answered innocently. "Just wait. Some of us are coming through now."

Sam sighed and rolled her eyes again. "If you say so, colonel. SGC out." She nodded, and the 'gate tech cut the transmission. They looked up to watch the 'gate.

SG-13 came through first, then Cameron and Teal'c. Last were Daniel and Vala--and…

Sam gasped. "Oh my god!"

"What the--" Jack followed his wife as she rushed down toward the 'gate room, unable to help feeling more than a little reverse déjà vu. Sam was running until she got just inside the 'gate room door, where she stopped and stared. The teams there were looking at both of them in amusement. Jack was sure he still looked just as stunned as his wife.

Sam sputtered. "W-what? I don't understand…"

Daniel grimaced. "Apparently it was a trick," he admitted quietly. "She was never…gone." Janet waved tentatively.

Jack saw Sam swallow hard before she hurried forward to embrace her. He stood still for another moment, not sure what to make of this. Really? She'd never been dead? Then where had she been? It wasn't until he realized that a few of them were looking at him that he snapped out of it and joined the huddle around Janet, smiling now. He didn't know what to say; all he could do was wait until Sam let go of her so he could have his turn. By then he was already choking up, no matter how much he might not want to.

"I'm back, Uncle Jack" she said softly in amusement when he hugged her.

He had to smile. "You are a Jackson."

Janet just laughed through her tears.

* * * *

The reception was just as interesting when her parents brought her to the infirmary to have her checked over. Aunt Carolyn dropped the folders she was carrying when they walked in.

"Couldn't someone have warned her first?" Janet asked her dad later.

Daniel just smiled. "It's more fun this way."

"You would know." He winked.

"I'm going to get this kind of reaction everywhere I go for a while, aren't I?"

He shrugged. "You'll get used to it; don't worry, it won't last forever."

* * * *

Not too much later that day, Janet had passed out on a bed in the infirmary after several tests, everyone else that had been following he and her parents around out of shock and joy that she was back had been cleared out and told to get back to work, and Daniel and Vala were in Carolyn's office. The doctor came in and closed the door behind her. She crossed to her desk and dropped into the chair, looking just a little overwhelmed.

How she felt, however, couldn't even begin to explain how the Jacksons looked.

"Well, she's healthy," Carolyn assured them. "In case you haven't noticed, she's also grown five or six inches and needs a bath and a haircut, but she's fine." They sighed together. "There are a few things you should probably know about, though."

Daniel looked like he'd been expecting that. "Like what?"

She sighed. "I say she's healthy, and she is. Now. But…she said she was still with Osiris's tribe for several weeks before she was taken by another, right?"

Vala nodded. "Right…and?"

"Well, that would explain what we found, and what we saw in the x-rays."

"What did you find?"

Carolyn winced. "Scar tissue, mostly around her midsection. A lot of its from ribs that were cracked or broken and healed a little off. That's not uncommon, when there is no sophisticated medical care available. And there is…a little bit of surface scarring from whatever caused it." A delicate way of saying that Osiris and his lackeys had beaten her. She frowned. "None of it's anything to worry about, not major enough to require that it be fixed, but I assumed you'd want to know that it was there."

Vala looked a little pale, and Daniel nodded slowly. "You're right; we do…Thanks for being honest."

She shrugged. "It's my job." Then she softened and became the friend they knew again instead of the doctor. "Are guys okay? Janet will be fine, I promise"

Vala offered a brave smile. "We'll be fine."

Daniel shook his head, not in contradiction but just in thought. "I can't believe I let this happen. We left her there…" But none of them had anything appropriate to reply to that.

* * * *

It was late. Vala was asleep on the next bed, movement in the infirmary was minimal, and Daniel was the only person her could see from where he sat next to Janet's bed who was awake. He knew Janet was fine, and that there was really no reason for him to be sitting here with her, but he couldn't leave. Vala couldn't either, but she'd also been exhausted from the day's events just like the rest of them.

Daniel would be asleep, too, if it weren't for what weighed on him.

The weight of Janet being gone had been lifted from his shoulders, and at least for a few moments he'd felt freer than he had in a long time. But then another guilt had settled over him, and he couldn't shake it any more than he'd been able to shake the guilt over her supposed death in the first place.

How could he have let it happen? He should have felt something…he should have known to look for her anyway, something…She shouldn't have been left there for so long.

Janet stirred, and he sat up a little more, wanting to be there for her if she woke. Moments later, her eyes flickered open, and she smiled at him. "Hi, daddy."

He got up to sit on the bed beside her and smiled in return, but she must have seen what was lurking in his mind behind the expression, because she sat up immediately on her knees and wrapped her arms around him hard.

"You're blaming yourself, aren't you?"

"I-I…" He didn't know what to say to that.

"You are," she sighed, still holding on. "You shouldn't. You couldn't have known I was alive…I know what you say happen to me. I would have thought exactly what you did. And I thought you were dead too…all he did was tell me that, and I believed him eventually. If either of us, I'm the one who should have known better."

Daniel swallowed. "Janet….it's not your fault either."

"You're right," she said softly. "It's nobody's fault, besides Osiris's. It just happened the way it did. We couldn't have done anything about it." Finally she pulled back and looked at him. "What matters is that I'm home now. That's all. You don't need to be blaming yourself about anything. We'll be okay. It'll be okay," she repeated, looking him in the eyes. And he knew she was right. She knew what she was talking about, and she was right.

He couldn't suppress a small sob. Janet hadn't only grown physically while she'd been gone.

She wasn't his little girl anymore.

* * * *

The next morning, Janet was more than glad to take a shower in the locker room. It wasn't a great as a bath, but she could always do that when she got home. Home…it was almost hard to believe she was really here.

"Sorry about the BDUs," Vala apologized when she got out. "I would have run home and dug out some of your own clothes, but I doubt any of your pants would have fit you anymore. They all would've been too short."

Janet looked down at the green pants and black shirt and shrugged. "It's okay."

Vala chuckled. "I guess we'll have to do some serious shopping soon."

"Considering where I've been the past ten months, that sounds great," she sighed, shaking out her hair some more. She scowled in frustration. "I have no idea what I'm going to do with it."

"In the long run or right now?"

"Right now. Back there, we were out in the sun all the time, so it dried our hair pretty quickly no matter how long or thick it was, and it dried your clothes quickly too, if they got wet from your hair. But here that's different. And I don't guess I'd be able to find a bow-dryer here on base would I…"

"Probably not," Vala agreed. She sat down on one of the locker room benches and beckoned to her daughter. "Come here, let me help. I'll braid it for you."

Janet sat. "That could work."

"Good," her mother said from behind her. Janet felt her start to braid her still damp hair. "You are much more tan," she commented after a moment.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, it looks good on you." Vala turned her around and looked at her. "Yes, definitely a good thing. But you were always a pretty girl." She smiled at her encouragingly, but almost regretfully. "Now you're a beautiful young woman."

Janet swallowed. "Mom…" And she leaned in and hugged her tightly.

Travis was passing the locker rooms when Janet and Mrs. Jackson came out of one of them. Janet stopped when she saw him. "Travis…."

Travis smiled shyly. "Janet…hi."

Vala patted her daughter on the arm. "I'll be around," she said shortly, and then went on. Janet looked after her for a moment before looking back at him.

"Hi…how are you doing?"

He shrugged. "I'm fine. I'm just glad you're alive. How are you holding up?"

She smirked. "You make it sound like something bad just happened. I just got home, Travis, I'm great. Sure, it's going to take a little adjusting to, but I'll be fine. Thanks for asking though."

"Right, sorry…"

"It's okay."

He swallowed and stared at the floor for a moment. "I missed you a lot when we thought you were gone," he said after a moment. "It was hard…thinking I'd never see you again."

When he finally looked up again, Janet was looking back, an inscrutable expression on her face. "I missed you a lot too," she said finally. She looked the way her mother had gone. "But, I'd better go. Mom and dad are taking me home." She smiled. "They've got to explain everything to Charlie and Adrian first, but then I can see them. I can't wait. I bet they've both grown. Neither of them is the same age they were when I last saw them."

Travis smiled. "Yea…and they're great kids. They've missed you too."

Janet stepped back a couple of steps. "Well, I'll see you around huh?"

"Sure…" She started to go, and he called after her. "It's good to have you back!" What else was he supposed to say?

"Thanks!" She waved back at him, and then was gone. Travis sighed.

* * * *

Vala glanced in the back seat. "Now stay down, and then come wait by the door once we're all inside."

Janet laughed from the back seat. "This is going to be fun."

Daniel grinned, then got out of the car. Across the street, Hank was already getting the boys out of his car and escorting them across the road to the house. He knew about Janet. Since he'd been keeping the boys he hadn't seen her yet, but he knew, and he was grinning.

"Daddy! Mommy!" Both of them called. When they were across the street and in the driveway, Hank let go of their hands and they ran to their parents. Charlie ended up wrapped around Vala's legs, and Daniel bent down to hug Adrian.

"Hey," he smiled. "How are you guys?"

"Good!" Charlie grinned.

Adrian looked up at Daniel curiously. "Daddy…"

He looked down at him. "Hmm? What is it?"

The boy tilted his head at him. "You're happy. Is something going on?"

He exchanged glances with Vala and stood, taking his son's hand. "Well, you'll find out. Let's go inside first, okay?"

All five of them went inside, but Daniel and Vala gathered their sons around them just inside the door.

"What is it?" Charlie asked, bouncing a little. He seemed to sense, too, that something was going on?

Vala took a deep breath. "Well boys…remember when I told you that Janet had to go somewhere for a really long time?" Both of them nodded, suddenly not looking so happy anymore.

Daniel continued quickly. "Well, we thought that was right. But then we found out that she didn't have to go for as long as we thought. We were wrong. We're sorry."

Charlie gasped. "Is she coming back?"

"When?" Adrian asked.

Vala stepped back casually and rapped on the front door. It opened, and the boys' eyes widened when they saw who came in.

"Janet!" they shouted simultaneously.

"Hey!" Janet got on her knees, and they both ran to her and wrapped their arms around her neck and arms. She coughed. "Whoa! Guys, I need to breathe…" They loosened their grip just a little, and she sighed and hugged them back hard. "I missed you guys so much. You're so big!"

Adrian still looked a little wary. "You’re not gonna go again, are you?"

"No…no, of course not. I'm not going to leave like that again," she promised, and Daniel could see tears in her eyes and she kissed them both.

When Charlie and Adrian finally let go, Hank was able to get a hug in once she'd stood. "I wish I could, but I can't really say I'm surprise," he grinned. "I always knew you were just like your father."

** The End **

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