Panic runs rapid

Jack watched the gate, waiting hardly breathing. This was not happening – not a chance in hell was this happening again. Soon it dawned on him that the Gate was not going to start again – no spinning, no whirring noises, no blue splash. The damn thing was not going to operate. And the one person that could make it work was stuck on the other side of the Gate.

Panic searched through him like fire in a volcano. Looking back behind him at the man standing at the window, the panic slowly evaporated to something else. Something that caused a blind fury to eat him up on the inside. Hatred.

There was no other way to describe what he was feeling right then – the jolt from panic to hatred was so fast no one else even had a chance to see the color change in his eyes let alone see the grim set of his face change to the look of a trained killer. Taking the steps two at a time, he felt the arms of his best friend try to pull him back but there was no stopping him – he would kill the bastard if he got his hands on him.

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General Hammond pulled the man away from the glass and into his office. He had enough hope that Jack would use protocol and not just bust in but at this precise moment, he could not be sure. He could not even tell anyone why he felt the need to protect the slimy rat that he had in his office now except for the fact that he did not want his 2nd in command to be charged with manslaughter, and dishonorably discharged from what he loved the most – well except for what lay on the other side of the Gate.

Panic now played on the soul of another. Watching the man on the ramp turn and look at him, his insides grow cold from it. Panic was not something he was used to – usually what he wanted he got with no resistance. Now looking at the man standing in the office with him and seeing the look on his face, he realized that maybe this time he had crossed the line – maybe this time he had played his game just a little too hard. This time he may not live to play another one.

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Sam awoke with a start. Panic surged through her insides. She had tried to tell him that if they opened the gate before the testing was over something bad was going to happen. She had reminded him again when he sent her and the reconnaissance team through the gate that the worm hole was not guaranteed to open on the other side. The man was a hard-headed prick! Now here she was stuck on a planet they knew nothing about with only herself. She could not help it when her thoughts drifted to her commander. God, how she wished he had disobeyed the Senator's order and came through the gate with her.

Thinking of Jack did nothing to ease the panic, if anything it increased it. Now she was feeling it not only for herself but for her lover. Of course, no one else knew that – only the two of them. She knew that if he had realized the Gate was indeed stuck, he would commit murder. And she knew Jack was not as naïve as he liked to pretend. He knew the minute the reconnaissance team came through and she did not that there was a problem. That is if the reconnaissance team made it all the way back through the worm hole. Breathing became more difficult as the panic started to increase at that thought. Why hadn't she told them no – she was after all (as she was often reminded by Pentagon) the only brain qualified to work the Gate so why did she listen to that piss ant, slimy slug anyway.

The Senator laid at the feet of the General. He was alive but barely. The beating he had just received was nothing compared to what Jack had wanted to do to him but thanks to Rodney McKay, Sam would be coming home in a few minutes and the panic that had caused killer instincts to go hay wire in the Colonel were now calming down. Soon she would be here at the SGC and then they would be home, together. He no longer had to worry about anyone knowing they were together – he felt safe in knowing he no longer had to listen to the USAF. His true love had finally won out.

Panic was a strange thing. It could cause all types of emotions. However, Jack had to admit he was somewhat glad that he had given into this panic.