Disclaimer: Purely for fan purposes; no copyright infringement intended.

This was supposed to be just a fun little story. I'd borrow the characters for a bit and return them right back into the show with no harm done and no one the wiser. It went along with that fine at first and then just sat around on my computer acting as though it wasn't even willing to go that far for months. Then one day, when it had me lulled into complacency, it took off like a runaway horse. I chased it for days and finally ran it to a standstill. As soon as we'd both recovered, I brought it to a speedy conclusion, but by then the damage was irreversible...much to my sorrow, there was no way I could get the characters back to where they'd left the show. My apologies.

Here We Go Again

"Here we go again," General Hammond thought when the radio signal came through. SG-1 was coming in hot. Extra security teams stormed into the Gateroom, and a medical team assembled just outside the door. They all waited at the ready...and waited. Repeated attempts to reach the team through the Gate drew no response and shortly thereafter it shut itself down.

"Get that Gate opened," Hammond ordered, but it would not activate. Of course. He gave the order to continue attempting to open the Gate to P4S-222 every five minutes until contact could be reestablished. A rescue team was to be assembled and ready to embark as soon as the situation could be assessed once it finally opened. There was nothing else he could do...again.

Without argument, his flagship team was the best out there. Unfortunately, not only were they the best at getting things done, they also seemed to be the best at getting into trouble. Colonel O'Neill's irreverent flippancy, Teal'c's reputation as a traitor, and the two scientists' curiosity made for problems. Time to think once again about breaking up the team...not that he would ever actually break up SG-1. When they weren't in trouble, and frequently even when they were, they were too valuable to the StarGate Project. Nevertheless watching one more failed connection attempt, he couldn't help thinking it might be for the best. Put the two scientists in charge of labs here on base, let the Jaffa and O'Neill put their military expertise to work on an all military team not charged with first contact, and they all might actually survive their tour at the SGC.

His thoughts were interrupted when an incoming wormhole was established.

"Receiving SG-1's code, Sir," Walter Harriman announced. "No radio contact." The general could hear the weariness and concern in the tech's voice and feel it in his own soul. Together they'd lived through this scenario way too many times.

"Open the iris," he ordered.

"Yes, Sir." The iris grated open. The wait began again. It dragged on until the general expected the Gate to shut down at any second. But finally Colonel O'Neill stepped through dragging Daniel Jackson with him. Three steps behind them came Teal'c and Major Carter supporting one another.

"Close it up, Son," the general told Walter as he ran towards the Gateroom. The medical team was already surrounding Dr. Jackson. Hammond couldn't tell how badly the archeologist might be injured. He hadn't observed any blood from his vantage point up above but that didn't mean anything.

A quick look at the three standing members of the team told him they weren't exactly ready to waltz back through the Gate to complete their interrupted mission either. They were all shaky on their feet and gasping for air. Hammond wasn't surprised when his "Report, Colonel" went unanswered or when O'Neill made a sudden grab for Major Carter as she collapsed beside him and then went down himself. With a sigh, he ordered Teal'c to take a seat before he ended up falling on his face as well and called for backup medical teams.

He followed his team to the infirmary and tried to pump Teal'c for information while the doctors and nurses scurried around poking and prodding the rest of SG-1. It was not a very successful venture. Each question elicited a wrinkled brow on the big man's face and a puzzled shake to his head. Hammond was only too happy to stand aside when a nurse came to take the Jaffa's vitals.

A quick look around showed him a still-unconscious Daniel Jackson being pushed rather quickly out the door...off for one scan or another no doubt. O'Neill lay on an infirmary bed, open-eyed but unseeing. His clenched fists at his side were the only indication he was not peacefully daydreaming. In the bed at his side, Samantha Carter did not look like she was peacefully doing anything. Her large eyes darted around the room in alarm like a frightened, trapped animal. Her breath came in fast gulps, and she flinched as people moved about her. He stepped towards her slowly and carefully.

Softly he said, "Major Carter?" Though she watched him closely, she gave no answer. He took her hand and feeling its coldness asked a passing nurse for a warm blanket. They waited silently and warily until it came. Then he gently covered her with it. He was relieved when she whispered a timid 'thank you.' At least the whole team hadn't lost their ability to communicate.

"What can you tell me about what happened out there?" he questioned.

"Nothing," she answered so quietly he wasn't sure if he'd heard her or only read her lips. Tears glistened in her eyes as she continued, "I can't tell you anything...I don't know anything." Something in the hollowness of her words set off warning bells in his mind.

"As in you don't know anything about what happened? Or...?"

"Anything. I don't know anything," she repeated.

"Are you telling me you don't know where you are, who you are, or what you're doing here?"

"Do you?" she asked him hesitantly as if afraid of his answer.

He gave her hand a gentle pat and shook his head in a reassuring 'yes'. "It's ok," he told her, "We know you. You're safe here." She moved her hand to clasp his as he went on, "Your name is Samantha Carter." No glimmer of recognition sparked in her eyes. "You work here...you're a scientist and a soldier." No light bulb. "You work with these men." He motioned towards Teal'c and O'Neill, neither of whom seemed anymore coherent now than they had before. Her eyes swept over them and came back to his.

Then she said haltingly, "We were together on the other...side. There was someone else with us?" She looked at him hopefully as though he held all the answers. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. Usually, when he needed answers, she was more likely than anyone to provide them-and that was the way he liked it.

"Yes, Daniel Jackson. The doctors are taking care of him."

"There was something...or maybe someone after us?" He shrugged his inability to fill her in on that and she went on. "He..." she motioned towards O'Neill.

"Colonel O'Neill."

"...said we had to go through that...blue circle thing?"

"The StarGate."

"He said we'd be safe on the other side. But then...we were in a room surrounded by soldiers."

Not quite, but almost he could hear an accusation in her statement. He chose to answer it, "We had gotten word your team would be coming through the Gate under enemy fire. The soldiers were there to provide protection." Her eyes slid away from his. She didn't know if she could trust him. He supposed that was to be expected. Yet, seconds later she met his gaze and nodded her head as though acknowledging his reliability.

"What do you remember before the colonel ordered you all through the StarGate?" he prodded.

She shook her head. "I remember lying in the hot sand. I couldn't think...didn't know how I'd got there, didn't know who I was...he..." this time her nod was towards Teal'c.

"Teal'c"

"Teal'c. He helped me up." She paused and then continued, "He is...rather formidable looking." There was a question behind the look she gave him though it took him a minute to guess what it was.

"You're wondering why he didn't frighten you?" A nod of her still too-pale head confirmed his guess.

"And I believed the other one when he said we should come through the... StarGate..."

Understanding her confusion, he tried to reassure her. "You're a team. You've been in some pretty desperate circumstances together in the past and earned each other's respect and trust. Whatever has happened to you, that much must have stuck with you." He gave her a small smile. "I'd say it's a good thing. And a good sign your memory will come back to you." She tried to answer his smile with one of her own but didn't quite pull it off.

Before he could add anything more, the med team appeared at her bedside to begin more testing. He squeezed her hand reassuringly. She nodded in acknowledgement, and he moved away to give them room to work.

Dr. Frasier entered the room and crossed to speak to him. "Daniel's vitals and tests seem normal, Sir. He's awake now, though extremely confused and disoriented."

Hammond nodded. "The major seems to have had a pretty big memory loss herself."

She narrowed her eyes. "How big is 'pretty big', Sir?"

"You name it, she doesn't know it."

The doctor flinched. "I assumed Daniel's disorientation would clear quickly. But, if the others..." she trailed off.

Hammond looked once again at Teal'c. Confusion clearly remained on his face while he watched the activity going on around him. If the Jaffa had also lost his memory, Hammond guessed the SGC infirmary would be a very strange and potentially threatening place to find himself. A confused and cornered Jaffa was not what he wanted loose in his infirmary. He motioned a guard over and gave a quiet order for a watch to be placed on the big man, just in case.

Seconds later a sudden outcry and the resounding crash of equipment hitting the floor drew his attention. The colonel had apparently come out of his stupor and now held a terrified nurse in a tight grip while taking in his surroundings with a hard, suspicious look. Too late, Hammond realized it was O'Neill with his black ops training and experience as a POW that should have concerned him.

"Colonel?" Dr. Frasier approached him cautiously, stopping without getting too close. O'Neill did not respond except to tighten his hold on the nurse.

Hammond tried, "Jack? You're among friends here...no one is trying to hurt you." O'Neill's grip didn't loosen, though his eyes swiveled to look at him.

"You said we'd be safe here," Major Carter spoke up from her bed whether to reassure the colonel or accuse him Hammond couldn't quite tell.

"That was before the guys with guns," O'Neill answered her pointedly. That again. Finding themselves in a room full of armed men aiming in their general direction when they had expected to find safety and help had obviously done a lot of damage. He sighed and applying what salve he could to the wound once again explained they had been there not to threaten SG-1 but to protect them and the base from an enemy incursion. His speech didn't seem to pacify the colonel.

"Our weapons are gone," O'Neill flatly stated.

Hammond recognized where this was going and headed it off at the pass. "You are confused and disoriented. For the safety of this base, we will not be returning your weapons to you. If you notice, you are holding one of my people hostage."

O'Neill looked down at the woman and then back up at the general. His look registered his understanding of the general's position. "You're in charge here?" he asked.

"This is my command."

"You give me your word, you aren't going to harm me or..." he flung his arm out in the general direction of Teal'c and Carter.

"I give you my word we won't harm any of you. We are your friends, Jack. You're safe with us." With a moan, O'Neill released the nurse and let her scramble away from him. "Thank you," Hammond told him. "These people are trying to find out what happened to you and your teammates...I need your word, you'll let them do their jobs."

O'Neill nodded his assent and then lurched himself over to Teal'c's side. He motioned with his head to Carter. She warily made her way over to his side while he asked, "So, who are we?" Hammond made introductions all around.

"And the other guy?" O'Neill asked. "The one out cold in the dirt? The one we brought with us?"

"Daniel Jackson, another member of your team," Hammond answered.

"He has been having a test done but should be returning here any minute," Dr. Frasier answered. "He's ok."

"You said we'd be safe here, and you were right," Carter interjected. O'Neill gave her a look clearly showing that as far as he was concerned the jury was still out on that one.

"Major Carter can remember nothing until right before you came through the Gate...do either of you remember anything before that?" Hammond asked.

O'Neill shrugged. Teal'c finally shook off his puzzlement to say, "I do not. I was on the ground, so were these others. I did not know them or myself. I did know we needed to get away quickly. This one," he nodded towards O'Neill, "said we would find safety through the blue circle."

"That's right, Teal'c. You are safe here," the general assured him.

Janet nodded her agreement and asked, "Do you remember kelnorim?"

He tilted his head at her. "Kelnorim. I believe I do. It is a state of rest."

"Yes, and I think if you feel safe enough here, it would be wise for you to put yourself in kelnorim. It can be healing for your kind. Perhaps, things will become clearer to you if you do."

Hammond was surprised when instead of making his own decision, the Jaffa turned to O'Neill. "Do you believe we are safe here amongst these people?" The general flinched imagining O'Neill's sure-to-be sarcastic and less than trusting response, but it didn't come.

"I guess I do," he answered quietly. "You go ahead and do that-thing...I'll keep watch."

Trusting the instincts of this man he could not remember, Teal'c told the doctor, "Very well." The doctor directed him to the end of the room where there would be less disturbances to keep him from achieving the level of meditation he would need.

"Where's the other guy?" O'Neill asked Hammond. "I thought she said he'd be coming."

"Here he is now, Colonel," Dr. Frasier said indicating with her hand Daniel Jackson's return to the infirmary in a wheelchair. "He's fine, though just as confused as the rest of you."

"You are looking for me?" Daniel asked the colonel. "You know me?"

O'Neill shrugged. "No. I don't know you but don't feel bad, I don't know me either or-come to think of it, I don't know a soul here. How about you?"

Daniel scowled at him. "No, I don't. And that bothers me, although it apparently doesn't you."

O'Neill scowled back. "Oh, it bothers me," he muttered in answer.

Nurses tried to help Daniel into a bed, but he pushed them away. "I'm fine," he said, climbing in without their help.

"Actually, except for the memory loss, you're all fine," Dr. Frasier stated. "I think you should try to rest. Sleep has amazing restorative powers and it's possible things will seem clearer when you wake up."

O'Neill snorted at the suggestion but stalked back to his own bed and sprawled on top of it. The others followed his example. The doctor motioned everyone else out of the room.

"We'll talk more in the morning," Hammond told them. "We'll figure this out." O'Neill's answering scowl following him out of the room, he joined Frasier in the observation room. On the monitor, they watched the colonel get back up and begin to pace the infirmary's narrow confines. The others watched him until he spoke something to them. Then they both settled down while he continued to pace.

Hammond wondered aloud, "If they've lost their memories, isn't it odd they all still follow the colonel...and he takes if for granted they will?"

"I don't know, Sir. It's apparent that at a deeper level, they all have some memory of each other and of the SGC...the way they assumed they belong together and the fact the colonel knew to come through the Gate have to be more than coincidence."

"You think they'll get back the rest of their memories then?" the general asked.

"I hope so, Sir."

"Whatever hit them had to do it in the very short window of time between when they input their GDO code to when they stepped through the Gate. I'm willing to bet their attackers were expecting the blast or whatever to leave them easy pickings. They didn't know what a stubborn cuss O'Neil is, so they never expected him to retain the thought safety was on the other side of the Gate. They wanted them for something. And if that something was information, either the effects are short-term, or they have a means of counteracting it."

He blew out a frustrated breath of air. "I don't dare send anyone through to find out until we know we don't have an alternative. I have teams reviewing everything SG-1 brought back with them to see what we can learn. Between your tests and that, maybe we'll find an answer. In the meantime, this is going to generate a mountain of paperwork, and I'd better get to it. Let me know if there is any change."

Hammond gave one last look at the monitor showing the colonel aimlessly pacing. "What do you think will happen to them if they don't get their memories back?" he asked and with a shake of his head he was gone.