A/N: Sorry this took so long! I got sucked into another project that took four days and all else fell by the wayside. Soooorrry!

Chapter 4

Kale breathed in heaving puffs the crunch for grass loud beneath his pounding footsteps as he ran towards the direction he believed the foreigner O'Neill's friend were coming. He'd lost the track of how long he'd run full tilt. There was not even a drop of time to spare. The macabre image of Daniel lying in the hungry jaws of death kept alive only by the efforts of his devoted companion were seared into his mind fueling his waning strength as he ran. Every breath he took came shorter, shallower, more pained then before. The muscles in his legs were suffering from agonizing spasm and cramp. He couldn't push himself much farther.

Tendrils of fire red light streaked and swirled across the sapphire sky heralding the dawn. The dawn sky of blood and fire. An irrefutable omen to his people that innocent blood was spilled that night receding quickly from them now. If Daniel died this morning, on this planet, the gods would know. Their anger at the death of the innocent insatiable. The village will be destroyed. Kale thought ominously. He had to stop it. He couldn't let his home be destroyed by the gods.

Suddenly his foot caught on the ground and Kale hit the ground hard so swiftly that he didn't get his arms up to catch his fall. The wind was forced from his lungs and for a moment he gasped opening and closing his mouth like a suffocating fish as he rolls onto his back. A moment then two passed before he sucked in a wheezing gasp of oxygen his stunned diaphragm finally recovered. He sat up his whole body aching terribly as the his enduring run and subsequent tumble caught up with his body. He looked down at himself with a heavy sigh both knees skinned deeply, flecks of ivory white bone showing through the rent flesh, his left elbow in a similar state. When he looked up again the woman O'Neill had called Carter and the silent soldier Teal'c were but a few feet away from him fierce looks upon their faces. Their appearance was so surprising to him that he gave a startle cry and flushed red with shame. How could I be so stupid! Of course they were traveling in the shelter of the forest!

"Where's the Colonel and Daniel?" Sam growled at the ready to shoot it seemed to Kale. Teal'c looked to be in no more merciful of a state then Carter.

"Th-they're in the o-old city ru-ruins. O'Niell…O'Neill sent me to…to meet you and send you b-back to the gate for help," he stammered suddenly look and feeling like a helpless, fearful child.

"You have led them into capture?" Teal'c growled raising his staff weapon, recovered the rest of their things, threateningly.

"No, No!" Kale shouted desperately as he scrambled to his feet thinking he might be forced to flee for his life.

"O'Neill asked for…for medical h-help to come to…to them because Daniel's…Daniel's" Kale choked on the last words and went silent.

"Is he dead?" Teal'c growled stepping up to Kale so their bodies were but inches away from each other.

"N-no h-he's not dead…but…but he's…he's cl-close…" Kale stammered shaking slightly. Sam closed her eyes and gulped for a moment with fear for close friend. Suddenly he remember the little paper covered in words he could not read and clumsily thrust it forward. Teal'c handed it calmly to Sam after glancing it over quickly.

The fear stabbed through them like spikes terribly sharp. Grave was a gross understatement. Near dead, if not already, was far closer to accurate. Sam momentarily gave way to the cacophony of heated emotion and crushed the scrap of paper her clenched fist shaking with rage. Feeling Teal'c gaze settle on her Sam took a deep calming breath and loosened her grip on the unfortunate bit of paper her military mind regaining its presence. Without an ounce of gentility she snatched Kale by the collar of his loose fitted shirt and began dragging him towards the gate at a sharp, unforgiving clip.

"Start explaining. Why was Daniel accused of a murder we all know Daniel didn't commit" she ground out struggling to remain calm and coherent against the emotion.

"I'm so sorry…I…I didn't realize the council would do th-this to a p-potential ally," had time not been so urgently short Carter would have spun around to face him like a predator about to kill him.

"The Council! Your own people did this? You're people killed your father and blamed Daniel? Why?!" Carter was literally snarling now.

"Because they've been consumed by greed. There are neighboring villages and cities all around mine. Some of them are larger, some are not. Often we have traded peacefully with them and had good relations. Now though, now the elders have been talking of war. They seek to dominate the entire planet" Kale shook his head vigorously in anger before continuing with his long needed explanation.

"This is something that would require a unanimous vote to go ahead from the council. Luckily there are a few still holding out against the proposition of war. My father was one out of three that stood against war. One was already murdered, the other is on his deathbed with illness. They just had to get rid of my father, and myself as I would step into his place on the board should he pass, and they would have their war." Kale tripped and stumbled moment before regaining his balance and continuing.

"Then we came along the perfect scapegoats to divert suspicion. Just great" Sam scowled.

"And now I'm hearing whispers about everything being blamed on Daniel. They're starting to spread rumors that this was not his first visit to our world. That he'd snuck in cover of darkness for the other murder and began to poison Teems and the people are taking it all at face value." Kale despaired. He answered every question Sam and Teal'c asked as they walked up to the DHD and began to dial.

No one was happy.

Janet fell over them like a rabid animal cleaning and stitching them up. She shot questions about Daniel's condition that they barely had time to hear the first before she was on to the second. Hammond was a good deal calmer. He asked methodical, critical questions and his scowl only seemed to deepen. These people had seemed very promising when O'Neill had reported during check in time. It seemed like every time they found potential allies with no strings attached it was because of some deep dark secret that went against their morality.

They could never win.

Janet wasn't nervous as she stepped through the gate. She was furious. The list of injuries was haunting. It had been scrawled so quickly that it made it almost illegible. When Daniel was well enough he'd get such an earful he'd be deaf for a month when she was through with him. How many times had she lectured, scolded, and berated him about how often he was injured, nearly killed, or actually died and by some miracle was brought back to life while off world? Too many. He was her most consistent patient. She saw more of him then anyone else, even O'Neill didn't have one up on him, though he was certainly vying for the position of infamy. She set such a pace that the military types were amazed and struggling to keep up with her wrathful march. They didn't stop once. They drank and ate their rations as they walked speedily trying their hardest not to lose Fraiser. Driven by her worry, and righteous wrath they made it to the location in record time. The only person that had kept pace with her in perfect step was her head nurse whom she'd requested to come with her to assist. Janet burst into the room that Kale had indicated they were in, left at the base by unanimous decision, with all the air and authority of the tyrant dictator she was.

"Colonel how is he doing?" Fraiser asked adamantly sitting on the bed next to Jackson lifting his heavy chin and peeling back the bandages on his neck tenderly to examine the wound further. Thankfully it no longer bled.

"Colonel?" she looked at the man tucked in the bed slouched some with a protective arm wrapped around Daniel's shoulders the other beneath the blankets. She instantly noticed how he didn't move, his breathing far too deep and slow, face terribly bale, and unconscious. Immediately she moved to stand next to him taking pulse and blood pressure quickly. His heart was racing and blood pressure was dangerously low but there were no real signs of injury.

She yanked back the covers suspiciously to find the infusion line, still hard at work, pulling blood from O'Neill and putting it into Daniel, quantity gone unchecked.

"O'Neill you stupid fool" she swore and pulled out the line, "Elsa get him flat and start a drip line, he's given too much blood." the two women switched sides, Elsa having gone to Daniel and begun to lay him flat and elevate his legs prepping him for Janet.

The two women worked so efficiently they made the best of crews, and well oiled machines, look like sloppy lay-about nobodies. They cleaned and stitched wounds, administers Iv drips and medications. Daniel took several shots of epinephrine in the following hour to bolster his strength to endure the necessary treatment. The women barked and ordered at anyone they could see and expected to be obeyed. This was their arena, their domain, in the here and now, they were the generals. Their supplies were not the usual in-field equipment but it was exactly what they needed. The colonel was easily stabilized and Jackson wasn't dead yet. Their efforts were working.

Daniel climbed out of unconsciousness slowly. He was first only truly aware of an overwhelming heaviness that pressed down on his body. He tried once or twice to move but he couldn't even twitch a finger. It was just too much work, so he didn't bother anymore. He was so tired. If it didn't come instantly and with ease than he just wouldn't do it. In this way he drifted, just barely aware, but not really, only knowing self, and that self was beyond any exhaustion he'd ever known before.

Very slowly the awareness expanded, the shroud of oblivion fading away like the peel of an orange. He wasn't just heavy and exhausted, he was aching, cold. He was scared. His heart thudded against his chest in a panic he couldn't identify. Something was wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong and he didn't know what. Something, a buzzing of sorts, started and stopped nearby him, then very far away, sharp and then soft. It didn't make sense. He vaguely felt his brows knit together the only outward sign of his feeble awareness and confusion.

The buzzing was closer now, much closer, he could almost hear it distinctly. Soft and familiar his mind sluggishly connected that it was a voice. Someone was speaking to him though what they said was far beyond him. He listened to the cadence of the voice but after but a moment the oblivion curled back over him and he faded away entirely again.

When the darkness edged away from him once more he could connect things only just slightly better. He was in pain. He'd been alone and cold. He was still cold, the ache in his body was quickly becoming unbearable, and he wasn't alone. Several different voices floated over him softly. Sometimes they were hard and demanding while other times they were soft, soothing, gentle. He struggled to emerge from the oppressive darkness and piece together what they were saying. Were they talking to him? There was a pin prick of panic that grew like a wildfire. He couldn't remember what happened. He didn't know why he felt like he was freezing to death or his body was in such pain that he couldn't breathe from it.

Breathe. There was something wrong with breathing. It hurt. Breathing hurt. He could do it, easily, and that confused him. Like he wasn't supposed to be able to breathe but he could and it was worst pain he'd ever felt in his life. Daniel kicked out against the onslaught of pain and panic. There were stakes jammed through his arms and legs he was sure. He felt like his neck was being ripped to shreds. His lungs burned and his head spun. He tried to gasp when he felt something very low inside his throat. Choking. It was choking him. He heard the voices all around him now all soft yet sharp in insistence crashing over him in torrents. There were hands on each side of his face, hands on his arms and legs, hands everywhere. The ones on his face were firm but gentle and warm, oh so blessedly warm. He couldn't help but press into that warmth struggling to capture it even as he fought against the other hands that held him down and kept him drowning in the pain.

"Daniel, Daniel c'mon sweetie just calm down. I need you to calm down you're hurting yourself….just lie still" Janet urged as she, Elsa, and Major Matthews held him still as best they could. Daniel was fighting against them his hand drifting to the trachea tube that they'd put below the slit in his throat so he could breathe and was trying to pull it out. They couldn't let him do that, he couldn't breathe without it. He was making little gurgling grunts, all he could do around the tubing, from the effort.

"Daniel! Lie still please, you're ok sweetie calm down" tried again pressing her hands against each side of his bruised face. His eyes darted about in wild, glazed, confusion. They were unseeing and panicked. The exhaustion welled up around him, the pain was like an ever increasingly heavy anchor dragging him down. He couldn't make his limbs move anymore. He was so tired and sleep swallowed him up into that peaceful oblivion once more.

Janet sighed. The first couple of times Daniel had shown signs of waking it had been little things that told her. A hitch in the way he breathe, which while very dependent on the tubing, his lungs could still force the pace or depth without the machines. So far all they'd done was provide a clear path for the air and occasionally when his lung seemed too weak someone would use the manual pump to force them to function. It was very touch and go. Sometimes a frown would furrow his brow or he'd stir a little in the bed. Nothing more than that. It seemed like this time he'd been truly awake, almost. A slurred, rude course of swearing in the corner of the room drew her attention from Daniel to the corner of the room where they'd laid O'Neill out with his IV.

"What in carnation am I doin on the dang cold floor!" Jack groused pushing away some woman that looked like a Janet henchmen. It proved right, he recognized her now that he was mostly awake feeling intensely lightheaded and tired, she's just a henchmen, she' was head crony, second only to Janet herself. She just rolled her eyes, tucked the blanket back around him and walked away.

"You're there because you're an idiot Colonel. What were you thinking giving him blood without controlling how much you lost?" He didn't know when Janet had crossed the room but now she was looming over him hands fisted on her hips.

"He needed it more than I did" Jack argued defiantly. I almost sound as tired as I am…hope she doesn't notice.

"Bah! Colonel that was just plain stupid! You should have let yourself recover for a bit before giving him more, and don't think I don't notice how worn out and bad you really feel cause I do and your in a heap of trouble when I get you home I've got so many injection that I can give you without being questioned at the drop of a hat!" Crud. She's gonna kill me.

"Oh c'mon Doc…" Jack tried looking innocent and make his a little less deeper than it already was.

"Don't you even start. Drink this and be quiet. I want you resting." with that Janet shoved a canteen into his hand and stalked away noting how his hand shook holding its weight and gave him a pointed look to let him know she'd seen it. He sighed and drank slowly from the canteen hoping to win points for good behavior. Or perhaps he should look at it as losing points…needle points that is and watched as she hovered a over a very sick looking archaeologist.

He frowned as he looked over his friend's far too still form. He was paler than the sheets he was laying on and a sheen of sweat beading his skin. The tube they'd stuck in his throat so he could breathe and bypass the bloody mess that had prevented it before was a vile and garish thing to behold it was so unnatural looking. He felt a lump clog in his throat for a moment and swallowed it back with a quick swish of the canteen. Janet must think he was still too weak to move if they were still in the drafty ruin of a city. That worried him, a lot. She was the strongest chief supporter for packing up and getting everyone home for a sanitary place to heal. So if they were still here it was because she felt the trip would kill Daniel. And that thought scared Jack.

Then he looked down at himself and noticed the drip in his arm and a half empty back flopped over his shoulder scrunching his nose at it. He hated iv's. He fiddled with it tempted to pull it but Fraiser saw and slapped his hand with a scowl. Jack was sure she was teleporting cause once again he'd never heard her approach. It took an hour of fierce negotiations but finally, finally she let him curl back on the bed, under the covers at her insistence saying she knew he was cold whether he admitted it or not, and watched for Daniel to wake.