Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG-1

General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, and Dr. Jackson stared at the stargate which Anubis in the Russian had passed through. The three had gone through the same experience of being possessed by the spirit of the Goa'uld and were now left to pick up the pieces, having been forced to attack each other, passengers in their own bodies, forced to watch as they attacked friends. They also had to deal with their own memories of attacking possessed friends or seeing friends attack them.

Daniel's wounded arm stood testament to the event, as did the fact that Jack was having difficulty getting vertical as his cells tried to restore lost balance. Sam too had only just recovered as her own body had run on pure adrenaline to prevent the self-destruct and change the gate destination.

Emotions still ran too high for any of them to discuss this latest disaster yet, so Sam and Daniel pulled the general to his feet and the three of them staggered first to the infirmary and then to Jack's office, where they dropped into chairs and stared at each other.

Jack opened his mouth to speak and then shut it. He could not think of anything to say, either useful or pointless. He had just attacked several people and almost let Anubis escape. And he had lied to everyone under his command except Teal'c who had overheard the truth. Well, that would be a good place to start. "The President only gave me twenty-four hours," he stated.

Sam and Daniel jumped in unison. "Huh? For what, sir?" Sam asked.

"To recommence regular gating," he clarified.

The other two looked at him incredulously for a moment and then started laughing hysterically. Which made him start laughing as well until Sam burst into equally uncontrollable tears. That sobered the two men up a bit as they rose to comfort her, though there was no real comfort to be had. They were feeling rather teary, themselves, actually.

"S-sorry, Sir," Sam finally managed to stammer out.

Rather than try to convince her that there was no need whatsoever for her to apologize, Jack said in an approximation of his old tones, "Then stop calling me 'sir,' at least in private. I know you'll say it anyway in front of others but it was bad enough when we were SG-1. Now that I'm general, everyone bows and scrapes so much it's pitiful. Just call me Jack. That's an order, Carter."

With a ghost of a smile, she snapped back, "Only if you call me Sam, Sir!"

He smirked back. "It's a deal, Sam!"

"Jack."

"Daniel," the last member of the group said with real humor, and they all chuckled. "So, Jack," the linguist continued, "I know I've frequently got on your nerves, but were you that eager to shoot me?"

Jack snorted, "Yep, I've been wanting to do that for a long, long time and Anubis presented me with the perfect opportunity."

Sam retorted, "Oh, yes, and you were dying to shoot me and then blow up the complex, weren't you?"

"I zatted you to prevent Anubis from escaping."

"Ah, yes, of course, so where did your plan go from there? Did you arrange for the poor lieutenant to come along?" Then she winced as they all felt true sorrow for his sacrifice. The expression on Jack's face undid her again as he was overcome with guilt. He could laugh off his nonlethal attack of his friends, but the Russian and overcome Anubis and brought him to his death to save Jack after the general had spurned him.

This time she reached out to him where he crouched before her, and Daniel put a hand on his back. Their tears were cleansing now, and all three felt much better. They still had a great deal of healing to do, but things were back to normal, as normal as they ever were for SG-1.