Sam was happy to be back at work, even though the last few days had been amazing. Jack had left the previous afternoon, but had stopped by with Daniel to say goodbye in person, before leaving. He hadn't made any specific plans on when he was coming for another visit, but told her that he would call her later in the day.

She sank into the chair in her lab, and opened her laptop, anticipating many emails that would require reading. Halfway through, Daniel sauntered in, bringing her a cup of fresh coffee.

"Hey. You're early." Sam accepted the offered cup of coffee, and turned back to the laptop.

"Vikki gave me a ride, and I wanted to get an early start. What are you doing here?"

"General Landry called me in. Teal'c checked back in. The Free Jaffa had a lead on Ba'al."

"And?" Sam whirled around to face Daniel.

"They went on a wild goose chase."

"Teal'c said that?"

"Well, not in as many words, but pretty much. They went to the planet where he was supposed to be, and the locals told the Jaffa that Ba'al had left."

"Left? Without terrorizing them?" Sam looked as puzzled as Daniel.

"Yeah. He came, wandered around, and dialed another planet, after hinting at the locals where he was going. Teal'c followed the hint, and found another planet with the same experience."

"That's weird. Any reports on how he acted?"

"Teal'c reported that one planet they visited, claimed that Ba'al was acting disoriented, not quite sure where he was."

"Remember when Loki cloned Jack?"

"You're talking about the 'mini'- Jack?" Daniel grinned at the memory of the sassy boy that sauntered in, claiming to be Jack.

"The clone would've died without the Asgard coming to his rescue. What if Ba'al's clones are becoming 'ill', for a lack of a better word, and starting to die?"

"I didn't think of that. If that's true, then all the other clones should be starting to do the same thing. This'll make it much easier to tell which Ba'al is the real one, if we can find him. I gotta go tell General Landry about this. I'll be back later." Daniel walked towards the door.

"Wait, will you need help?"

"I'll call you if we do."

Sam returned home the same way she arrived, thanks to Vikki. Sam was pleased to see that Vikki was slowly starting to recover from whatever had happened. She inquired as to Scott's whereabouts, and was told he had the flu, and had been sick for two days. Vikki made jokes about Scott behaving like a baby over an illness, and Sam remembered when Pete had had the flu. He too had acted like the world was coming to the end, even though he had only had a mild bout. She was halfway through a sentence sympathizing with Vikki before she realized what she was saying.

"Sam, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just didn't mean to say that."

"You were talking about someone who acted the same as Scott is. Why would that be a bad topic to discuss?"

"It's something I don't talk about. Someone in my past." Sam looked down at her hands.

"Ah, bad relationship. We've all had those."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Hey, there's this guy who works on one of the upper floors. He was asking about you the other day." Vikki turned briefly to look at Sam, then turned back to concentrate on the road.

"Really? Who?"

"Dunno. He knew you, was asking where you got to. Maybe he's interested in you?" Sam rolled her eyes at Vikki's statement.

"Nah. No thanks."

"You seeing someone, or just not wanting anything right now?"

"Yes." Sam didn't specify which question she answered, and changed the topic. "When do you think Scott will be back?"

"By the end of the week. It's not too bad, he's just not taking it like a man." Sam laughed as Vikki did an imitation of her fiance whining about being sick.

When Sam walked through the door, she noticed the phone blinking. She ran over and dialed the phone to check the message.

"Hey, uh, didn't want to call you at work, and I guess that's where you still are. It's Jack, er, just callin' to say hi. Uh, give me a call when you get in, if you want to."

Sam smiled and dialed his number.

"O'Neill." He sounded like she had woken him up.

"Hi. Did I wake you?"

"Uh, no." He was lying, she knew it.

"You called earlier?"

"Yeah, figured you'd get the message at home, as opposed to leaving one for you at the base."

"So, what's up?" Sam was relieved he hadn't left a message at the base. She didn't want to have any questions or rumours floating around just yet.

"Just wanted to compare schedules, see when you're free."

"Well, usually I'm off on Sundays, but I can usually take a day off if there's nothing going on. I either take Monday or Saturday off."

"Really? Sam Carter taking two days off in one week? How and when did this miracle occur?" Jack was mocking her, and she could hear the laughter in his voice.

"I'm trying to. Sometimes I get a little caught up in my work."

"Next weekend, uh, I've got a few meetings scheduled, wow, most of the weekend apparently. How 'bout the weekend after. I'll head down on Friday, stay till Sunday."

"Sounds good."

A visit scheduled, they continued talking about anything that came to mind. It was late when Sam hung up, having eaten supper while talking to Jack. Glancing at the clock she winced for Jack's sake. She had forgotten about the time difference, so he would be getting less sleep than he probably wanted.

The next few days passed quietly, almost too quietly. Scott had yet to arrive back at work, and SG-1 had joined Teal'c and Bra'tac tracking down the dying clone. Sam had spent the previous two nights at the base, doing some research on the information they had about Jack's clone. General Landry had asked her if she wanted to contact the boy, and have him tested to see if he held any clues to what the Asgard had done to 'fix' him. Sam had told the General that right now, that wasn't necessary. She was reluctant to contact the clone, as when he had left the base, they were supposed to end all contact. Sam guessed that he would be around 20 now, and if he followed Jack's footsteps, would be in the Air Force by now.

The phone rang in her lab, startling her out of her musings. Answering it, she heard General Landry giving orders in the background. She hobbled off to the gateroom at Walter's request, and found SG-3 ready to embark.

"What's going on here, Sir?"

"We've recieved word that SG-16 was captured, after exploring one of the planets the Ba'al clone was supposed to have gone to. SG-3 is going to the Alpha site to meet SG-1, and get the full story."

"What about SG-1?" Sam felt a lump begin to grow within her stomach.

"They're fine. I told them to stay put at the Alpha site, wait for SG-3 to arrive."

"Why do you need me?"

"Bra'tac wants to send the body of the clone Ba'al back to Earth."

"They have a clone?"

"One of the Jaffa teams, lead by Bra'tac, helping us search the planets, found him. He was already dead."

Landry turned back to the gateroom, and started issuing orders to SG-3. Dr. Lee joined Sam, and she filled him in on what Landry had told her. Shortly after SG-3 left, the gate activated, and Bra'tac, with several other Jaffa, arrived, carrying a body. Sam directed them to place the body on a gurney, and several scientists wheeled it towards one of the medical labs. She stayed behind to talk to Bra'tac, and followed as General Landry motioned them all towards the briefing room. Bra'tac took a seat, while the three other Jaffa stood by the window, overlooking the stargate.

"Bra'tac, what happened?"

"We arrived at the planet and discovered the villagers in a state of distress. They informed us that Ba'al had been in the village several days before, and they had chased him away. The inhabitants knew him from before, as it had been a planet ruled over by Ba'al. They panicked and hid from him, watching as he entered the village. One man claimed Ba'al seemed ill, and unsure of where he was going. A child threw a toy from one of the houses, and when Ba'al did not react, the others joined in."

"So they tormented him? Did they kill him?" Landry questioned Bra'tac, while Sam listened.

"I do not believe they killed him. The man we spoke to told us that Ba'al collapsed before he could leave the village. They dragged him to the forest and left him there."

"Didn't they worry that Ba'al would recover and come after them?" Sam had a hard time believing that the villagers would leave him alone and unwatched.

"It appears that during the night, Ba'al recovered sufficiently to leave, and that is why the villagers were distressed. We offered our assistance in searching for him, and found him located a days walk from the village. He was dead when we found him." Bra'tac finished, and stood up, pacing around the table.

"Why bring him here, not that we don't appreciate it, but wouldn't you normally have taken his body back to Dakara?" General Landry nodded his approval of Sam's question.

"I do not believe it wise to bring the clone to Dakara at this point in time." Sam opened her mouth to ask why, but General Landry interrupted her.

"As Dr. Carter stated, we are grateful you brought the body back here."

"I can not stay much longer. We must return to Dakara and inform the council of what has occurred." Bra'tac swept out of the room, followed by the three Jaffa, who had not spoken a word the entire time. Moments later, Sam could hear the gate dialing, and headed off to join the scientists and the body of Ba'al.

Several hours later the word spread around the base that SG's 1 and 3 had missed their scheduled check in. The lump in Sam's stomach grew larger, and she excused herself to go find out what was going on. General Landry couldn't tell her much, other than the MALP had been disabled, so they couldn't get a visual. There had been no communication over the radios, and he had given orders to keep dialing the gate at one hour intervals, to see if they could establish any communication.

Sam returned to the lab to find the other scientists calling it a night. She wandered back to her lab, and tried in vain to get some work done. Not able to concentrate by 0100, she went to her room on the base, and spent the night doing very little sleeping, but a great deal of worrying.