One evening a couple of weeks after getting shot, Maya was walking down the corridor towards Jack's office, her mind racing as it often was these days. Since the injury, Jack had visited her in the treatment room a couple of times, and she often ran into him throughout the day, but she hadn't been well enough to resume their evening sparring sessions, and while she had missed them, she wondered if she shouldn't back off. However, when she ran into him today, she couldn't stop herself from telling him that she was ready again and would stop by his office tonight.

When it came to men, she was a mess, had been for as long as she could remember, and the many sides of Jack were almost overwhelming to her. After their sessions, they would talk for a little while. Not about anything important, it showed her a bit more of the man. He told her about a sport called hockey that he loved, and she could see that. She told him about The Simpsons, a cartoon that he liked. They had cartoons on Anteria too, and they were children's programming. At first, she found it hard to believe a man like him would be drawn to a children's show, but then she thought it about and could imagine that. He could be a bastard, he could be a brilliant tactician, he could be the sweetest guy in the world, and he could be a big kid. But her fascination with him did little to assuage her fears.

When she got shot, she was immediately terrified when he ripped open her pants to dress her wound. Expecting to see something more sinister in his eyes, she looked up and saw concern. The tenderness with which he tended to her injury while she was panicking on the floor amazed her. Then he made the crack about her kicking his ass again in no time, and the feelings of relief and something powerful that she didn't even recognize swept over her. She would have grabbed his head and kissed him right there if they weren't in immediate danger.

And then later that same night, she went for a short walk on her crutches and overheard him in the prisoner's room. When she heard Jack the interrogator, it sent a shiver down her spine, and not the good kind. She was finding that he could be the most caring, wonderful man and at the same time, the most cold blooded, heartless man she had ever met. She wanted to know why it didn't send her running. No matter how much she trained, if a ruthless killer like Jack turned his ire toward her, she would be helpless to stop him from hurting her however he wanted. But she never saw even one indication that he would do that. She had seen him aggravated with her, disappointed in her evasion of his questions, but never once did she feel that he would hurt her.

And then her mind wandered to the revelations of that interrogation. He said he had been tortured, too many times to count. He had been beaten, stabbed, burned, shocked, violated. She didn't think he was lying either. The emotion behind those words in that holding room couldn't be faked. Was this part of the burden on his heart that Teal'c mentioned? If it was true, he could possibly relate to some of what she has gone through in life, and not even considering her romantic feelings, she wanted to find out if he was someone that she could confide in. Before she joined the resistance, she had friends on the streets that had gone through what she had, but they had never overcome it and were just as powerless to stop it the next time as they were to change how they were living to lead a productive life. Whatever Jack had gone through, he was obviously able to get past it to become a hero to people over many worlds, including this one.

She was only a few minutes away from his office now when she heard a voice.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Then she was grabbed and pulled into the adjacent tunnel with a hand held over her mouth.

...

Jack looked at his watch again and figured if she wasn't here by now, that she probably wasn't coming tonight. Maya was supposed to be there for their sparring match a half hour ago, but it certainly wasn't an order that she come, so maybe she found something better to do. Jack found that he was enjoying their sessions a great deal. She was a gorgeous woman and a real sweetheart. After their fights they would chat for a while about mostly inconsequential things, and it was nice to have someone to do that with, especially after nearly nine months of not talking to anyone but Teal'c. He knew she had some serious issues, but he also knew better than to push it with her. If she wanted to talk, he would be there, but he knew that he never wanted to talk about his issues, so he wasn't going to force her to do it.

He decided to walk around outside of his office to kill some time, and when he was a short way down the corridor, he heard a person squeak down one of the tunnels. He crept inside and tried to hear what was going on.

"That hurt, you bitch. I guess you like it rough."

"I hope you know that if you touch me, I will kill you, Redden," Maya replied with a steely calm that Jack wondered if she didn't learn from him. Almost hoped she did.

"I've told you for months that were mine, and now you think you are going to run off with someone else? I don't think so. And what are you going to do? Elias is holding you down. I can do whatever I want to you."

After a moment, she growled at him.

"Get your hands off of me."

"What, is O'Neill the only one who can have a piece of that? Not anymore, honey."

Jack had heard enough and silently turned the corner. He pulled Redden off of her and punched him in the side of his face, breaking his cheek and knocking him unconscious. This allowed Maya to flip Elias who was holding her arms behind her. Then she got down on a knee behind him and choked him out.

"Maya, you okay?" he asked her even though he knew she wasn't.

She just nodded but didn't even look up at him.

"Come on, let's go to my office."

He offered her his hand and he helped her up. He walked to her to his office and told her to sit down and that he would be back in a few minutes. Then he ran down the hall to get Teal'c.

"T, can you come with me. I need help taking two guys to the brig."

"As you wish, O'Neill."

Teal'c carried Elias while Jack slapped Redden's face to rouse him from his slumber and pointed his Beretta at him.

"Get up and keep your mouth shut."

They took them to a couple of rooms as far away from the rest of the base as possible and locked them up for the night.

"What is it that transpired, O'Neill?"

"They attacked Maya and were going to rape her."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and looked furious.

"I know, T. But for now I need to see if she's okay. We'll deal with them later."

When Jack walked back into his office, he wasn't surprised to find that Maya wasn't there. He was, however, surprised to find her in his quarters, seated on the edge of his bed with her face in her hands, crying her eyes out. After what just happened, he wasn't about to join her on the bed, or even touch her, so he pulled up a stool and sat down in front of her. He didn't say a word. He just watched her until she was ready to talk. After a few minutes, she looked up at him.

"I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? For what?"

"I shouldn't have come into your quarters like this. I should have taken care of Redden before tonight. I just...I'm sorry."

"Maya, enough of that. I don't mind you being in here. It's better that than me having to look for you out there. And don't apologize about what they did. It's not your fault."

"You kept asking me about it, and I kept telling you that I would handle it."

"Well, you did handle Elias pretty well. You did the best you could. I understand why you needed to do it yourself; I really do. You needed to try to maintain as much respect from the men as you could. I'm not angry with you about it."

She looked at him and gave him a sad smile. He reach out his hand and set it on her shoulder. When she didn't flinch or pull away, he kept it there and gave her a small squeeze.

"And I know I'm not the poster child for emotional openness, but if you want to talk about it, I'm here, okay?"

She nodded with her bright green eyes tearing up again.

"This isn't the first time this happened," she whispered hesitantly.

"I didn't think it was. Did anyone stop it the last time?"

She looked sharply at him, apparently surprised by his insight. Then she slowly shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Maya."

"How did you know?"

"When you were injured on that last mission, when I was dressing your wound, I could tell."

When she didn't say anything, he continued.

"How long ago?"

After a moment, she answered in a low, watery voice.

"Three years ago."

"It wasn't Redden then too, was it?"

This time she quickly shook her head in the negative.

"No, Jack. I don't know who it was back then."

"Is that why you learned how to fight?"

She again looked surprised, and then somewhat speculative at his question.

"It's the reason why I continue to learn how to fight."

He just nodded silently. He knew now that there was more to the story, but he wasn't going to drag it out of her. He was shocked she told him this much.

"Can I ask you something, Jack?"

"Sure."

"I overheard you when you were interrogating the Aelvan prisoner the night of that mission."

He immediately shuttered his eyes, but then noticed the hurt in hers when he did it. He breathed out a heavy sigh. He certainly didn't want to pile on to her pain tonight, so he guessed he had to talk. Then he lowered his guard.

"Okay, what about it?"

"You told him that you were tortured, burned, all kinds of awful things. And violated. Were you just using that in the interrogation, or did it really happen?"

The pure, unadulterated misery in his eyes must have been evident, because she let out a small gasp.

"It was true. All of it."

"Can you tell me about it?"

He couldn't even believe he was considering it, but if he wanted to help her, it would probably be good if she knew that he could relate. She looked hopeful and interested. It was better than the haunted pain he saw on her face the rest of the night, so he went on ahead.

"It was on my planet, Earth. I was in the military, and we were fighting a war against another country there called Iraq. We were caught in the middle of a firefight, and the rest of my unit escaped, but they left me there. I was captured and that's where some of the torture I mentioned happened. Then many times when they were done torturing me, they would hold me down on a table and some of the guards would..."

He had to stop because he could feel the bile rising in his throat, but he could tell that she got the gist of it. Tears ran down her cheeks and she stood up from the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I'm so sorry for bringing that back up for you."

"It's okay," he choked a whisper in her ear.

He stood and led her back to bed. He sat next to her and put an arm around her, and she leaned into him. They just sat there in silence for several minutes.

"You're going to be okay. It gets better. It doesn't go away, but it gets easier to live with."

"I know. I'll be fine," she mumbled into his chest. Then she looked up at him.

"Jack, thank you for tonight."

"Anytime," he answered and gave her a small, reassuring smile.