A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait. I had started posting this one a few weeks back but got many comments that it was pretty bad in grammar and had a few faults in basic plotline so I took it down to rework it. This chapter has been beta'ed(THANK YOU!) so it's much more polished. No pairings. No romance. No slash. Daniel/Jack friendship. Daniel Angst! Let me know what you think! And by the way, this story is COMPLETE! It's just a matter of getting lots of reviews and posting the next chapter! So reward me with cookies and reviews! Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Jack woke to distant groans, a pounding headache, and a distinct sense of confusion. He sat up with a complaint in his head and a spin of dizziness that settled after a moment. He blinked a few times to clear his vision. A cell, just lovely, they were locked up in a cell again. He looked around to see Teal'c sitting against a wall, apparently doing his meditation, though still very much alert and Carter on the ground a few feet away, evidently still unconscious. Daniel was nowhere to be seen.

"Teal'c, where's Daniel?" he asked. Why was it always Daniel?

"I am unaware of Daniel Jackson's location." came Teal'c's reply. Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance at their situation and regretted it as the room took another spin. A blow to the head, Jack didn't gingerly, Jack winced as his probing fingers found the large lump at the back of his head. Lowering his hand,Jack crawled over to Carter, not feeling like standing quite yet.

"Carter, hey Carter, wake up." he shook her shoulder gently.

"Five more minutes…. still spinning." she mumbled, sporting a bruised lump on her head similar to the one Jack had. Jack went to exploring their cell, peering out the little barred window in the heavy wooden door. There wasn't anything in sight except the opposite wall and a torch.

"Hey T, think you can break down the door?" Jack asked inquisitively.

"I have already tried O'Neill." Teal'c stated. Jack blinked and for the first time noticed the dents in the door. Poor door, it was only doing its job.

"So, any of you kids know why we're in cell number 5?" Jack asked, picking his most recent favorite number out of his head. Teal'c quirked an eyebrow in puzzlement.

"I don't know but whomever woke me up for a fight last night is gonna lose an eye." Carter growled, sitting up for the first time. Jack stared flabbergasted at her unusually harsh comment.

"Any idea what happened to Daniel?" he asked, keeping a safe distance away from Carter, whom sported a look that would kill.

"No sir." Jack was about to spit a smart remark about the space monkey always getting into trouble, when the cell door was loudly unlocked and three men entered. He recognized all of them from the village they'd been working a trade agreement with, until now, they'd been very friendly.

"What'd you do with Daniel?" Jack asked casually, allowing the annoyance at their predicament to seep into his voice.

"Your friend is awaiting trial." the leader, Jack thought for a moment remembering the name Jenks.

"For what?! He's the most benign man I know!" Jack shouted exasperatedly. What could Daniel have done, in their opinion, now?

"Murder."

0000

He wasn't sure where he was right now. His head felt heavy and fuzzy. Daniel blinked. He couldn't quite think. He shifted where he lay, and felt a painful tug in his side forcing him to hiss. He gulped down a wave of nausea as it swept over him, the room spinning again. It was painful and gradual, but eventually Daniel was able to sit up unsteadily, leaning against a wall. Flashes of a memory darted through his mind. Men charging at him, a sharp prick in his arm. Then there was a warm sensation and everything just faded to black.

"Drugged." Daniel croaked aloud to himself as the pieces fell into place. It gave him a little relief knowing that this muzzy, heavy feeling would fade as the drug left his system. He let himself drift off to sleep again, hoping when he woke the world would be clearer, and Jack and the others would have found him already. It was not too his team or clarity when Daniel woke some time later. There were two men in the room with him now.

Everything was still a little hazy and unsteady but the heavy lethargy seemed to have lifted greatly. He scooted to stand against the wall always keeping an eye on the two familiar men, though their names escaped him at this time.

"What's going on? Why did you bring me here?" He croaked his throat dry and raspy.

"You are here to pay for your crime. You already know this." one of them spat. Daniel's face contorted in confusion. He didn't remember doing anything wrong. All he'd done was make nice with the locals. Had that been a criminal act of some kind here?

"Wh-what crime?" Daniel stuttered. He felt so tired his focus slipping away like that slick bar of soap in the shower escaping his grasp.

"The murder of Naman, Kale's father. The boy was so trusting of you. There is no forgiveness for this." The other man snarled. Daniel shrank away from him as if he were a roaring fire, startled by the pure hate in his voice. They circled each other cautiously, Daniel sliding across the wall for balance. Then Daniel saw an opening. The way to the door was clear. He didn't take a second thought as he darted towards it with all his speed. He made it to one foot out the door, when a fist grabbed his shirt and slung him back into the room.

Daniel slammed into the wall to the right of the door, his head bouncing against the unforgiving stone, stars erupting before his eyes. This would have been enough to subdue him; but the second man careened into Daniel, shoulder-hitting his diaphragm, hard. He cried out loudly cut short abruptly, incapable of breathing. He blinked in and out of consciousness for a moment on the floor before settling into a very uncomfortable reality. A needle appeared in his blurred vision; another prick in the arm, and the warm fuzzy feeling returned. He didn't lose consciousness after they left the room haughtily, but Daniel was quite sure he wouldn't be moving any time soon.

0000

Carter, Jack, and Teal'c were eating the feeble amount of dry crusty food that had been brought to them, along with the measly amount of bitter water. None mentioning that they had habitually left Daniel's portion of what had been brought, when there was a loud thump against one of their cell walls. They all turned and stared at it when a very familiar voice cried out, then cut off in a horrendous gasp, muffled as the sound traveled through the wall.

All was silent again.

"Was that Daniel?" Carter asked, unsure if she wanted it to be him.

"You bet it was." Jack blurted, pressing his ear against the wall. At first, it was silent, and then he could faintly make out a strangled wheezing cough. He wasn't sure whether he was relieved or worried when it stopped a few minutes later. Jack thumped the wall twice with his fist.

"Daniel? Daniel, can you hear me?" Jack shouted through the wall, pressing his ear against it, as if to hear the answer that never came. He tried repeatedly to get Daniel to answer him, but there was no response.

000000

On the other side of the wall, lying on his side, back against the cool stone, Daniel drifted in and out of consciousness. He could hear and feel the thumping, hear the words and recognized the voice, but he could not answer. He was so tired, so heavy, his tongue thick, and his mouth like a desert. Daniel didn't understand where Jack was though. He couldn't see him anywhere, but he could hear him. The drug confused him. He was struggling to think, but his logic was seriously askew. He lay there listening to Jack call to him, wondering if he would ever be able to answer. Daniel was just beginning to feel the lethargy begin to lift, when his cell door opened again and the two men reappeared.

"Time to go. Trial time." the one that had slammed into him sneered. They dragged him to his feet and pulled him down the corridor, frustrated at his sluggish attempts to walk. They turned into a room filled with people, his mind too fuzzy to even estimate how many. He was taken deeper into the room, shoved onto his knees, and quickly abandoned. He stared at the floor before his knees, too tired to do any more and let the world happen around him.

The lethargy lifted slowly again, as if a fog burned off by the sun and he saw Jack, Sam, and Teal'c in the room, staring at him.

They were noting his every feature. How Daniel sagged on his knees as much as he could, shoulders hunched towards his chest, head weaving, and bobbing with the unknown struggle to keep it up. He stared at them, face pale, seeming to have just now noticed their presence. Jack meticulously took note of the how his pupils were the sizes of saucers, eyes glazed thickly and believed that this truly was the first time the archaeologist and become aware of them.

Movements clumsy and slow, Daniel started to stand, intent on moving to sit with them because they were a team. A guard shoved him back to his knees. He tried repeatedly, but the guard just kept pushing him back down. Finally, Daniel glared angrily as a child told to stop coloring, and not wanting too. With one great awkward plunge, he slammed into the guard's knees knocking the man off balance.

Jack saw it coming like a video in slow motion. Daniel trying to stand again, drugged state not helping in the least, the angered face of his guard, the raising of his spear, and the smashing of the butt viciously against Daniel's temple. Daniel dropped. He lay on the floor, groaning, and clutching his head. When the guard grabbed his wrists and tied them behind his back he didn't resist.

"Hey back off!" Jack shouted adamantly. Nobody did that to his team. He received a cuff to the head as a warning, but he ignored it, kicking backwards awkwardly still in the forced kneeling position. Jack missed, but followed up by mimicking his friend, and slammed a shoulder into the knees of the advancing guard. Teal'c took the initiative, lurched to his feet, and began an assault against the two guards nearest him. Sam leapt into battle with the other two guards next to her. Jack took advantage of his team distracting the guards to slip past the men guarding him and bolted to Daniel's rescue, slamming his full body against the vile man standing over him.

They tumbled against the wall together, then to the floor in a jumbled heap. Jack squirmed for a moment trying to get his balance, struggling with his hands tied tightly behind his back. The room of people was in a frenzy of panic. Teal'c was plowing through the crowds fiercely, beating them away from where Jack and Daniel were, except for the one guard Jack had bowled into; who was able to stagger to his feet before Jack could and dealt a bone rattling kick to the Colonel's temple causing a wave of dizziness to crash over him and black spots to dance before his eyes.

The brawl crumbled to pieces like a cotton sweater unraveling. Carter had a knife to her throat; the colonel was pinned by two beefy men. A little pressure was applied to make the enraged Jaffa back down as the knife on Sam's throat drew a trickle of blood. A hand entangled itself in Daniel's long locks of hair, yanking him harshly back to his knees. Daniel grunted in pain, but stayed where he was as the hand was holding him upright, still swayed with dizziness. The trial went on peacefully after that, once again in the native language. Daniel was too groggy to cause resistance, and Jack restrained by three guards was calm, as long as Daniel was left unharmed. Then abruptly, it was over. Daniel was dragged out of the room, stumbling along with his guards. The jury or whatever they were, dispersed.

"Wait, what was decided?" Jack asked, annoyed that everything had not been in English. The guards pushed them back into the cell harshly.

"Jackson is guilty. He is to be executed." they sneered. Jack glowered silently.

"What're we going to do sir?" Carter asked once the cell door was closed and the guards had moved away.

"We'll get him out of here tonight. You notice anything different about that door Carter?" Jack asked staring at it.

Sam looked the thick wooden door over carefully, then she saw it. "The hinges, they're on the inside now." Carter realized with surprise.

"Alrighty then, we'll wait a bit and then make our escape. We know where Daniel is and our guards aren't expecting anything" the team nodded, and sat quietly, waiting for a short while and checked their wounds pretending not to be up to something. Their captors were fooled.

0000

Daniel's head hurt. His chest hurt. It was painful to breathe, but it was worse when he tried to hold his breath. He could feel that the drugs were coming in heavier doses then before, but as drugged as he was it didn't dull the sharp pains shooting through his head and everywhere else he had been hit. He wished they would.

Abruptly someone was shaking his shoulder now calling his name, the sound echoing as if in a cave. He wanted to bat away the person so he could be let alone to sleep but his arms were too heavy. He couldn't move. He roused a little when the intruder peeled back one of his eyes, then the other open. The blinding light hurt his eyes. Words of a conversation filtered into his mind disjointedly.

"Unresponsive…. drugs…get…. out…back…. gate…quick…before…." Daniel just let it come and go. He wanted to sleep. Whoever was here could do the rest of whatever needed done. Abruptly he was on his feet and walking, supported heavily by someone…probably Jack, the memory of his face hovering above him finally registering. Daniel let himself be led blindly, too tired to think for himself.

He walked for a long time, his legs tired and shaking. He wanted to sleep. Occasionally his knees would buckle under him, the ground rising fast to meet him. It would take a couple of minutes of coaxing and Jack pulling him to his feet, with Teal'c's assistance, to get his legs cooperating again. His side was burning, the drugs slowly lifting as they walked, it felt wet and sticky, though he couldn't remember why. The drugs maybe? He thought these were strange sensations for a drug.

Jack's shoulders were killing him and he was immensely grateful that Daniel was supporting more and more of his own weight as they hoofed it towards the gate. They'd been walking the better half of two hours now and still had another two to go before they made it to the gate. Jack was a little surprised they'd made it this far without any resistance. Then Daniel's legs gave out again and Jack was cursing himself for thinking on their good luck so soon. He was about to start griping aloud at the archaeologist when he spotted the large bloodstain reaching from the left side, low on his waist, down to his knee.

"Carter get the med kit, he's bleeding." Jack commanded pulling the hem of Daniel's shirt up to see the wound, he hadn't known about. About four inches above his left hip was a gash that was about three fingers wide and the length of a hand and a half, oozing blood slowly. He pressed a wad of thick gauze against the wound firmly. Daniel groaned, trying to curl in on the wound.

"S-stop." Daniel ground out, breaking through another layer of drugged fog. Jack smiled trying to be encouraging. This was the first time Daniel had really talked since they had found him mumbling incoherently in the cell next to theirs.

"Sorry Danny-boy, you've been bleeding for a while it looks like. Gotta stop it." Jack retorted lightly. Daniel groaned again, gave a frustrated huff and let his head sink to the ground again in tired defeat.

When these drugs were out of his system, he intended to give Jack an earful about being thoughtful of another person's agony. Jack of all people should know about pain, as many times as he had been to the infirmary himself. He vaguely remembered someone clipping him with a spear and a flash of hot pain, very similar to what he was feeling now, just before there was the prick again, and that familiar warmth that faded to black. Daniel found himself longing for that little needle right about now. He would love to sleep through them pressing on the wound, even if it was doing him good. The only real benefit he could see right now though, was the adrenaline produced was clearing the fog out of his brain very quickly.

"Sir, hostiles six o'clock." Carter announced tersely. Jack growled in frustration. Just when Daniel is down and they don't have any weapons. He really wanted to shoot someone right now. Teal'c held the walking stick he'd found somewhere on their trek, which probably counted as a small log in reality, prepared for the attack. Sam and Teal'c charged aggressively while Jack played defense in front of Daniel. At first, they did really well, few of the attackers making it as far as Jack, and then things started to turn. More and more came and slipped past Sam and Teal'c.

Next thing Jack knew; there were ten people on top of Teal'c keeping him down, barely. Then Carter was pinned by three. Jack stood between Daniel and the five men remaining. Jack sighed heavily and raised his hands, palms up. The walk back to the village was silent and tense, their guards watching Teal'c the most. It was decided safer to let Jack assist Daniel; and Carter had three guards circled around her, hands bound behind her back. By the time, they made it back to the village Daniel was bleeding again, depending heavily on Jack as he stumbled along. Jack, Teal'c, and Carter were thrown back into the same cell as before, the door hinges once again on the outside, while Daniel was kept separate.

"Hey, where are you taking him?" Jack demanded through the door.

"He must atone for this most recent crime." Someone snarled through the door. Then they were gone and Jack, Sam, and Teal'c were left in silence, worried about what was being done to their friend.

0000

Daniel lay on his back in a new cell; being told to wait quietly while someone decided his punishment for his latest excursion. At the moment that was just fine with him. Daniel took the moments of actual quiet, quickly drifting off to sleep. At some point, he heard men speaking outside his door and listened to the discussion half-heartedly.

"What was it the council decided?" a voice asked softly. Daniel couldn't hear what the second person said but he did hear the reply of a third person in the conversation.

"We're to wait until the drugs are out of his system before his sentence is carried out for running." there was more talk, but Daniel did not hear for he drifted to sleep yet again. He slept deeply, the last of the drugs leaving his system. He woke with a jolt, clearheaded for the first time in hours, staring at the two new guards before him.

"Bring him." was the simple command. Down a series of corridors and through several doors he was ushered, the angry tension palpable from his escorts. His wrists were tied with rope high above his head and far out to the sides, his ankles tied in a similar fashion so he could not lift his feet more than an inch or two off the ground. Daniel felt immensely insecure and exposed in this position.

"What's going on? Why are you doing this?" he demanded trying to keep his voice steady.

The larger of the two men leaned in real close, eyes dark with rage, nearly nose to nose. Daniel gulped. "I don't know about your people; but here, no one gets away with murder."

A/N: So what did you think? You likies? You review? Please Please Please!