Chapter Seven

"I can't see Jack…and by that I mean I can't even see myself."

"Do you think I'd have a better shot at seeing?"

"I doubt it," Jack shook his head "it's smoke not dark that's clouding the view."

"Well if we're both blind…do you think you could put me down?"

"Hang on, I think I see a way out."

Jack had come to another solid wood wall, but unlike the other one this one looked weak enough from the flames to break through. He threw the shoulder opposite to the one Sam was currently on into the charcoal wood. Sam's next breath was a cool and refreshing compared to the acrid smoke filled palace. They had made it out into the garden.

"Shuushi!" A male voice barked with authority.

Sam figured that one of the guards had caught them and waited for Jack to shoot him. He still had his P90 slung around his neck. However as the seconds went by and Jack didn't do so much as twitch Sam began to wonder what was going on. As far as she could tell he wasn't making any attempt to fire at the guard or to put her down.

"Oite goshujin hiza." The guard snarled.

"Sir…what are you doing?"

"I…I…" Jack stuttered.

When Jack turned around Sam instantly assumed that he wasn't able to get to his own gun and was expecting her to take the guard down. Without hesitation she lifted the handgun she was still gripping and fired into the darkness. There was a breathless cry of pain that let her know she had at least struck her target.

"Did I get him?" Sam asked.

"Yeah…I…I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I don't know." Jack replied vacantly.

"Are you okay, Sir?"

"I'm fine, maybe a little dizzy from the smoke inhalation." Jack shook his head.

"Can you please put me down?"

"What? Oh, right."

Jack carefully put Sam down on the well care for lawn. She waited for orders or for him to take her hand and lead her back to the Gate. However a full minute went by and nothing happened. She reached out in Jack's direction, suddenly feeling a need to touch his skin. When she did he yelped and jerked back.

"Damn it, Carter, don't sneak up on me."

"Sneak up on you? Sir, are you sure you are okay?"

"Let's get to the Gate, hopefully Daniel and Teal'c are already there."

Sam nodded and held her hand out. Jack took it and headed off in a random direction at a fast pace. It took him a few minutes to realize that he was just running without really knowing where he was going. They were away from the blaze and the only light came from a small purple moon. The odd light cast a horrifying glow on the thick bamboo forest.

"Carter, I think you'll be able to see better than me out here."

"Okay."

Sam reached up and pulled down her blind fold. Looking around she tried to figure out which direction they should head. Without knowing where they had exited the building it was impossible to get her bearings. She looked at Jack and saw a glint of panic in his dark eyes that she wasn't used to seeing.

"Sir, which way did we come from?"

"Uh…behind us of course."

"Right, sorry." Sam smiled. "Okay, I guess we should go either left or right and start making a circle till we come to something we recognize."

"That sounds like a plan."

Jack was still holding Sam's hand so she decided to just guide him off to the right. As they started to circle the palace they came to the tea house. Sam knew the way from here and there was no one around to stop her. It would seem that all of the inhabitants were busy elsewhere. She glanced back towards the palace. Sam had to squint against the glow of the still raging fire.

"I'm sure they made it out, Carter." Jack said, reading her thoughts. "We need to get to the Gate."

Sam turned away from the fire and lead Jack across the garden. They hurried over the rounded bridge over the stream and went straight for the Stargate. When they got there they were alone. Jack looked around, his free hand rubbing against his stomach.

"Sir?"

"Carter, are you feeling…'off', in any way?"

"Not really, why?"

"I'm sure it's nothing." Jack shrugged. "So where are those two?"

"We should go back and find them."

"I'll go, you stay here."

"Wha…"

"In case they make it here, we can't be running back and forth all night because we all think we're saving each other." Jack explained. "I'll be back, in the meantime dial Earth, I know you don't have a radio or anything, but if we call them, they'll send someone."

"I…uh…" Sam stuttered.

"Carter?"

"Are you sure you want to go alone? I mean…shouldn't we stick together?"

"Car…"

"I'm sorry, never mind." Sam pulled her hand out of his. "I don't even know why I said that. Go find Daniel and Teal'c."

Jack took a hesitant step back and glanced at the distant glow of the fire. For a moment Sam didn't think he was going to leave, for a moment she didn't want him to. The both shook their heads at the same time. Jack's eye narrowed in determination, he took a deep breath and headed off towards the palace at a fast trot.

By the time Jack got to the building the fire was beginning to die down. Having burned hot it had quickly started to run out of fuel. He stopped at the edge of the burnt shell of the still smoldering palace and just stared into the murky darkness. Everything was eerily quiet. Jack tried to take another step forward but felt frozen to the spot.

"What the hell is wrong with you, O'Neill?" Jack growled at himself. "Get your ass in there and get your friends."

Having given himself direct orders helped him and he straightened his back and walked into the rubble. He didn't dare call out for Daniel and Teal'c, he didn't know who else might be listening. As he made his way closer to the center of the building he had to tip toe around near the walls to keep from falling down to the lower level through the fire eaten floorboards.

"Damn it, Teal'c!" Daniel's voice roared from the ashes. "This isn't funny!"

Daniel's angry snarl was followed by a deep chuckle. Jack furrowed his brow a the sudden sounds of a scuffle. He made his way over towards the noise and looked down into a large hole in the floor. Watching the young archeologist trying to remove the smug grin off the Jaffa's face was a very unusual sight. Jack rolled his eyes as Daniel took a swing at Teal'c and instantly got his hand caught in the Jaffa's large palm.

"Daniel, what the hell are you doing?" Jack called down.

"Teal'c thinks this is funny."

"It kind of is." Jack replied. "You've got a nice David and Goliath thing going on."

"Shut up, Jack. Just get us out of here."

Teal'c chuckled again and Daniel got that 'disgruntled wet cat' look on his face that he did so well.

"Teal'c, I'm proud of you." Jack smiled. "Normally I'm the only who can get under Daniel's skin like that."

"Ha ha." Daniel said dryly.

"Alright, enough play time," Jack said looking around "we need to get out of here before someone comes looking for us."

"I'm not the one mocking from on high."

Jack decided to ignore Daniel's grumblings and looked around for a rope of some sort. On the part of the floor that remained was a large silk tapestry that had mostly escaped damage from the fire. Jack tore it into strips to make it longer and threw it into the pit.

"Daniel come up first, I'm not going to be able to hold Teal'c's weight on my own." Jack said. "No offense, T."

"None taken, O'Neill."

Jack paused, having sworn that he had just heard Teal'c say something that wasn't completely literal. Before he could over think it there was a tug at the hastily put together rope. It took Daniel a few minutes to work his way back up to the ground level. Once there he helped Jack hold onto the silk while Teal'c followed.

When Teal'c got to his feet on the unsteady floor Daniel instantly dropped the silk. Without a word he started to stalk off towards the Gate. Jack felt his stomach churn and rubbed at it once again.

"Daniel? You okay?"

"I just want to go home."

"I second that." Jack agreed.

The trio made their way back to where Sam was waiting at the Gate. She was no longer alone, SG-7 had joined her. They were just about to head out looking for the rest of SG-1 when they had arrived. Sam came rushing up and threw her arms around the boys in a warm hug.

"Miss us, Carter?" Jack asked.

"We were just about to come looking for you." Sam smiled.

"Well we're here, can we just go home now?" Daniel said. "I really need a shower."

"Indeed you do, Daniel Jackson."

Daniel glared at Teal'c but just shrugged it off. He walked over to the DHD and physically moved the youngest member of SG-7 out of his way to dial it. Once the Gate was opened he stalked off towards it, barely giving SG-7 time to send the code through to open the iris.

Jack watched Daniel disappear through the event horizon with an uneasy feeling. When he felt a pressure at his side he looked over and found Sam had stepped up next to him. She looked as though she had recently been crying.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine…it's just…that was a close one, Sir."

"They're all close, Carter." Jack sighed. "And I'm not sure how much more closeness I can take."

Jack didn't give Sam much of a chance to reply. Feeling an overwhelming desire to be home he walked off towards the Gate. Back at the SGC he wanted nothing more than to take a shower and crawl into bed, however, he found himself in the infirmary for a routine off world check up instead.

A nurse was checking his blood pressure and whatnot while Janet turned her attention to the blood running down the back of Daniel's arm from the wound in his shoulder. She had him pull off his black shirt, exposing the deep cut. Jack's own foot was throbbing from the slice in it, but he kept quiet about it knowing that it wasn't deep enough for stitches.

Jack watched his team in silence. Sam had a new pair of dark glasses now. She and Teal'c were having a quiet conversation about nothing in particular. Daniel kept jerking his shoulder away from Janet as she attempted to clean the wound. Jack took a deep breath, but it did nothing to put him at ease. Something felt out of place, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Ouch!" Daniel cried suddenly. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry, Daniel." Janet apologized. "Is it painful?"

"It wouldn't be if you'd stopped messing with it!" Daniel barked. "Just leave it alone."

"I think you need stitches." Janet replied evenly.

"I think you need to calm down, Daniel." Jack said.

"I don't really care what you think, Jack."

"Daniel, I can get an anesthetic…" Janet started.

"Don't touch me!"

Daniel looked around and when he spotted his black shirt on the bed he grabbed it. Crawling into the damp cloth he got to his feet. Janet took a surprised step back as her unwilling patient pushed past her. Jack got up and stopped Daniel just as he got to the infirmary door. He turned Daniel around and for half a second it looked like he was going to take a swing at him. Daniel didn't lash out at Jack, but clearly it was taking effort for him to keep his temper.

"Daniel, what is going on?"

"I'm just a little annoyed right now, okay? I…I need some time alone."

"No, you need to apologize to Dr. Frasier." Jack said firmly. "She's trying to help you, you know that."

"I do know that." Daniel admitted meekly. "I'm sorry, Janet, forgive me."

"It's okay, Daniel."

"Thank you." Daniel turned to Jack. "Can I go now?"

"No." Jack shook his head. "Not until you tell me what is going on with you."

Daniel's blue eyes turned to steel. Jack found himself automatically taking a step back from the renewed rage in Daniel's expression. His friend looked like he was going to go for his throat at any moment.

"You want to know why I'm angry, Jack?" Daniel spat.

"I don't just want to know, as the leader of this team I need to know."

"Every time I trust someone I get hurt, I'm sick of it."

"Dan…"

"And that includes you." Daniel hissed.

"Me?"

"I trusted you, I trusted you and you betrayed me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Abydos, Jack, I trusted you to keep Abydos a secret…but you came back anyway, you told everyone we were still there. You ruined my life."

"Daniel…"

"You ruined my life and you cost Sha're her's. She would be alive if you could be trusted. I can't trust anyone…and that's why I'm angry."

"You're bringing this up now? Daniel that was years ago."

"It still hurts."