Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters...yadda, yadda, yadda...don't sue please.

A/N: It is the usual deal. I get enough reviews for this chapter, and you get another chapter. Nothing messy. Just plain simple business. Ciao. R and R.

******** Colonel Jack O'Neil was walking down the underground corridors of the SGC when he heard the noise of typing coming from Major Samantha Carter's room. He turned towards her room. I shouldn't ask, but I am. He knocked on her door. He heard her voice call, "Come in." He opened the door and wasn't surprised to see Sam sitting at the desk, her head bent close to the screen of her laptop. "Jeez, Carter," he gasped. "Don't you every quit? We're on vacation for crying out loud!" Sam glanced at him and sighed. "I know, sir, but-" she began. "No buts," he snapped. "You are leaving this facility if I have to drag you out of here." Before Sam could respond, a young man entered the room. He saluted both Jack and Sam and they returned the salute. "Colonel O'Neil and Major Carter," he said stoically. "General Hammond wishes to speak with you." The young man left and Sam and Jack exchanged glances. Jack shrugged. "Let's go visit ol' General," he said sarcastically as he left the room. Sam shook her head, smiling to herself as she followed him.

*****

Jack swiveled his chair in the briefing room. Along with him, Sam, Jonas and General Hammond sat around the wooden table. General Hammond stood and looked at all of them. "A new gate has just been dug up," he said bluntly. "What?" Jack cried. "Where?" "On another planet," Hammond answered hurriedly. "Oh," Jack muttered sheepishly. "We've already sent a probe through and there is an atmospheric match," Hammond said, feeling the moods of everyone in the room relax. "I know you're on vacation but it is just a classic recon mission and I feel you are the best team for this." "For what, sir?" Sam asked. "We have a new recruit and since Teal'c is currently in the infirmary having blood work done from your last mission..." Hammond broke off as the team winced. Teal'c had been captured and injected with a virus. The virus had been eliminated but Dr. Fraiser was still wary. "Did you say new recruit?" Jonas asked, tilting his head. Hammond nodded. A young woman, barely twenty-five, entered the room. She had short, black hair that clustered around her slim face. She was tall, only slight taller than Sam from what the rest of the team could tell. "This is Doctor Alana Wolf," General Hammond said. "She speaks ten languages and fifty dead languages and has a degree in forensic, medical and agricultural science as well as a Major in biology and chemistry. She was trained under the FBI before she was recommended to me by-" He stalled.

"Yes?" Jack asked curiously. General Hammond sighed and looked down. Doctor Wolf also looked away. "She was recommended by Doctor Daniel Jackson shortly before-" He stopped again. He didn't need to say it. Jonas looked exceptionally guilty and Sam refused to meet anyone's eyes. "You have forty five minutes before launching time. Move out." Jack sighed and stood up. "Come on, Jonas," Jack barked mockingly when Jonas didn't move. "That's an order. Hey Carter, show Doc to the women's lockers, will you?" Sam nodded and motioned to Alana. After they left the room, Alana spoke. "This place is amazing," she said softly. "I never could have dreamed this." "You're not part of the military, are you, Doctor Wolf?" Sam asked, amused. "You can call me Alana, Major. No, I'm a civilian expert as Daniel was." Sam winced. Alana noticed and frowned. "I do not know you well," Alana said bluntly. "But I can see that losing Daniel hurt you very much." "I try not to let the others see it but-" Sam stopped at the door to the locker room. "Just because they are men and this is the military doesn't mean they won't understand," Alana scowled. "We're all human after all." She paused then grinned. "Or at least, most of us are." Sam grinned. Alana stepped into the locker room and Sam followed, her regrets aside...for now. Not too much time later, both Sam and Alana were dressed and ready. Alana was fiddling with her vest and gun as they moved Jack and Jonas in the gate room. "Can you actually shoot that?" Jack muttered. Alana deftly aimed the gun at Jack. "If I wanted to, Colonel, I could shoot you," Alana spat. Jack raised his hands in mock defeat and Sam smiled wryly. "Chevron seven is locked." The spout of illusionary water came out of the gate and the team proceeded up the ramp. Sam glanced at Alana when she hesitated. "Are you alright?" Sam asked as the others walked through. Alana nodded. "I'm fine. I've waited my whole life to do something like this." Sam and Alana proceeded through the gate. "Uh, sir?" Sam asked when the gate closed behind them. "What, Carter?" Jack asked, slightly annoyed. "Uh, where is the DHD?" Sam asked. Jack seemed startled by her question. "There's no DHD?" Jack asked, his voice wary. "No, sir." Jack sighed and punched the wall. "Ouch!" Jack yelled. "Where are we?" His voice rising with anger and his knuckles were red and bleeding. "In a cave," Alana answered. She was a few feet away staring out the mouth of the cave. She looked back at them. "On a mountain, surrounded by snow." Jack sat down hard and Sam knelt by him. "Sir?" It was Jonas. "What, Jonas?!?" Jack shouted. Jonas held up four pairs of snowshoes.

"Anyone for a walk?" Jack grappled with the snowshoe's lacings, his battered and newly bandaged fingers proving difficult. Sam reached down and laced her CO's straps. "Thank you, Carter," he panted and she offered her hand as she stood up. He took it and she pulled him to his feet. For a moment they stood there, their eyes fixated on were they touched. Jonas and Alana noticed from across the cave, their bindings already tied. Jonas moved to interrupt them but Alana stopped him. "Let them have this moment," she whispered softly. He seemed about to protest but he fell silent. After only a few seconds, Major Carter and Colonel O'Neil released each other and looked away. "Come on troops," Colonel managed to say sarcastically, his voice quavering slightly. They walked through the opening. The effect was immediate. It felt like they had walked through a wall of fire. All of their supplies and weapons vanished; they only had their clothes and snowshoes. "Just to make things worse..." Jack mumbled. "Come on. We had better find shelter. We might be here sometime." Slowly but steadily, the team trudged down the mountain. Jack led the way followed by Alana and Sam with Jonas bringing up the rear. The going was slow since every six or so steps they had to stop and shake the snow of the shoes. Sam took this opportunity to ask Alana some questions, her maternal instinct towards the newcomer setting in. "How did you get here?" Sam asked when they stopped again. "And how did you meet Daniel?" Alana concentrated briefly on the snowshoe. She straightened and began to carefully walk again with Sam staring intently at her. She kept her eyes fixed on the path ahead. "My town looked like a quite town on the outside but it wasn't," She began. "It was a serious of gang warfare and robberies. My parents were dead and I lived out my life in the back of a black van. By the time I was sixteen, I could hotwire anything with an engine. I managed to get enough money to go to college and I was accepted into Georgetown though now I'm not sure how. I spent my days as a happy college student, my nights as an online hacker and drug pusher. I was known under the alias Black Hawk, Specter of Death and Night Storm." "That was you?" Sam asked, amazed. "I got your friendly virus." Alana smiled in acknowledgement. "Yes, that was a virus that if you were polite to it and gave it an legitimate reason to leave you alone, it would come back to me without messing up your computer." Alana glanced at Sam. "I sent it to mostly military personnel to see their reaction. I sent it to Daniel." Sam looked down and so did Alana. They had to shake the snow off again. "He, of course, cracked it. He managed to trace it back to me and sent me an email. He gave me his name and said if I was smart enough to make an independently acting computer virus, I should be using my skills more wisely." Jack overheard and grinned. "Yeah, that's a Daniel response." Sam smiled and they began to walk again. "Not too much time later, I graduated. I spent two years of my life traveling the world. I went almost everywhere. In the last six months of those two years, I was in the U. S. And the FBI found me. They gave me a deal. If I worked for them for five years, which was my prison sentence, that would be considered my time that I would have spent in jail." Sam nodded. She was familiar with that type of deal. "And, again, I met Daniel. I talked to him, told him some things about me and we became friends. I got an email from him saying I was just right for the type of job that he does here. Then, a few months later, General Hammond contacted me and here I am. I had no idea he recommended me." "What about your FBI work?" Jonas asked from behind. "I was given an official pardon even though I have committed every Internet and computer crime the world has a law for." Jonas whistled in amazement. To everyone's surprise, the ground began to shake slightly and snow from the top mountains shook loose. "Avalanche," Sam yelped. They began to run as fast as they could but they were all unused to the snowshoes. The snow was gaining on them and they seemed to not be moving at all. Sam tripped and cried out as she fell. Jack stopped and pushed the others forward. Ambling to Sam as fast as he could, he picked her up for she was unconscious. He saw the others had reached an inn beyond the reach of an avalanche guard. He was over fifty feet away. He ran forward, only to be sucked under the quickly falling snow, buried in the avalanche along with Sam, who was still clutched in his arms.