"Here's your pal," one of the guards tossed Avery into a corner. "He's not dead... yet. But the boss figured this way, he'll suffer more. And will persuade you both to work faster." With one last glance at both doctors, he narrowed his eyes. "Don't even think about wasting time to try and save his miserable life."

With a laugh, he turned and slammed the door tight behind him.

Jennifer tried to hide it, but as she passed off a stack of research papers to Carolyn, her hand trembled.

"Hey," Carolyn murmured quietly, "it's going to be okay. If Cameron found me once, he'll do it again."

Shaking her head, Jennifer quietly answered back. "He didn't find you- by himself, that is. The guy that broke into John's house had the warehouse address in his pocket. We got lucky." Cursing herself for revealing that information to Carolyn, she watched as the hope drained out of the other woman's eyes. "Besides, that's not why I'm upset. Even though Avery got us into this mess, I can't watch him die in front of us."

Carolyn nodded, showing Jennifer she was in agreement.

"Screw it," Jennifer said. "Keep working. I'm going over there."

Knowing full well the room had two video cameras monitoring their progress, Jennifer had a surge of anger rush through her body. It went against everything she stood for to watch a man suffer when she could help him. She rushed over, knowing she only had minutes until someone would come in and try to stop her.

The first thing she did was roll him over, examining the wound. "It's pretty bad," Jennifer called back over to Carolyn. "He's loosing too much blood, but the bullet went through. It was at a pretty close range. He doesn't have a lot of time."

Carolyn stopped working and looked around the lab. A few medical supply kits were lying in the corner of the room. After a quick inspection, she seemed satisfied it had the materials Jennifer would need. "Want to give it a try?"

Jennifer nodded. "I'll try to be quick. Someone's bound to see me out of camera range any minute and come in."

Sure enough, twenty minutes later as she was in the middle of stitching Avery's wound, two guards Jennifer had recognized before, burst through the doors. Seeing her in the corner of the room, they looked a little relieved. Then their anger kicked in.

"Keller's still here," Daniels barked over the radio. "She's trying to help Avery."

"Kill him, then, unless she stops," Jennifer and Carolyn heard another man call out over the radio. "I don't want either of them distracted."

Jennifer stood up, enraged. "Tell him that if he dies, we stop working."

Both men seemed a little shocked at her courage.

Shamoun stepped forward, gun raised. "How about ... if you stop working, I kill Dr. Lam?"

"You kill Dr. Lam, and I won't be done for days," Jennifer said, trying to cover her panic. She desperately hoped she wasn't making a mistake, but she caught the bluff in Shamoun's eyes. His hand had slightly shaken when he'd directed the gun at Carolyn.

Carolyn seemed to sense her thoughts. "Besides, we'll be dead anyways once we're done. So stop the threats and let her finish. She'll be done in a few minutes anyway." She looked away, as if she wasn't scared a bit at their threats.

The men glanced over at each other and shrugged. "You're really almost done?" one asked Jennifer.

"Yes," she replied quickly. "Just a few more stitches." Seeing that they were going to let her finish, she looked up at them. "Thank you. For letting me take care of him."

"What's his life to you?" Daniels asked, obviously wondering why she was saving the life of a man who had gotten them into this mess to begin with. "We know he brought you both here promising it wouldn't be for long. Our bosses found out he's IOA and probably planned this to get to them. Now thanks to him, your friends have no way of finding you."

Jennifer just shrugged. "What's his life to me? It's a life. No matter what a person has done... good or bad... they deserve help. Who am I to judge who gets the help and who doesn't?"

Not expecting her kindness, Shamoun stared at her.

She continued working. "If you were shot, I'd do the same for you." Now that she had his attention- and possibly a small piece of what little humanity he still had- Jennifer pressed on. "Back in Atlantis, I've learned to completely trust and depend on the people around me to survive. Even though I don't agree with your bosses- I'm sure you feel the same way about them. They'd watch your back or get you help if you ever needed it. Right?"

Both men averted their eyes.

"No?" Jennifer asked innocently, as she finished her final stitch. "Then let me ask you this... why are you working for them?"

Daniels put down his gun while the other still regarded her warily. "The money was better than anything we made for the military. We both have a wife and kids."

"Yeah?" Carolyn interjected, obviously not feeling sympathetic. "How do they feel about your line of work? Does you wife proudly kiss you when you get home? I'm sure the kiddos love to bring you to school to talk about what Daddy does for a living."

Reddening in the face, Daniels picked his gun back up. "Shut up. Yeah, my wife and kids may not know what I do, but at least there's food on the table and the bills are paid."

Jennifer tried to calm them. "No job is worth it. Your self-respect isn't worth all the money in the world. I'm sure your wives would rather see you work and make less than to do what you're doing."

Dejected, Shamoun nodded. "You may be right. But these guys... they wouldn't let us out even if we tried."

"Then help us," Carolyn said, looking up.

"Are you kidding?" Daniels asked. "This placed is locked down tight. You're not getting out of here anytime soon."

"Our friends will come," Jennifer said, still hoping for a miracle. "And when they do, help them."

"There's no way they'll find you," Shamoun said. "We don't even know where we are. We were brought in by a private plane. Your transmitters are gone. Face it, you don't have much of a chance of escape."

"Just help them when they come," Carolyn ignored them. "Trust us. They've worked bigger miracles. Besides, we have two irate Colonels on our hands." She gave a small grin toward Jennifer. "Never underestimate the power of an angry Air Force Colonel."

"Or a father," Jennifer added, leaning Avery gently against the wall.

The men each looked at them slowly. "Alright," Shamoun said. "We can't promise much, but if there's a chance of getting you out, we'll help." He looked at his partner, who nodded in agreement.


"Rodney—" John started, losing his patience. "We need that second location. Now."

Ignoring John's impatience, Rodney continued to work. Rodney knew not to push back at John right now. He'd seen something different in him the moment he'd boarded the Daedalus. Something had changed between him and Jennifer.

John was typically the calm one during times like this. Optimistic. Level-headed. But now, he seemed completely on edge.

"Alright," Rodney said, motioning for them to come over. "I wrote this program awhile back. It can pull up movements on a tracking device up to three hours in the past."

"But if all three were immediately taken out, how's that going to help?" Mitchell bit out.

Rodney glanced over at the Colonel. He, also, seemed a little unhinged at the moment. Understanding dawned finally... Carolyn Lam had been taken as well. And the last time he'd been to the SGC in the infirmary, Rodney remembered the young doctor sending occasional subtle glances over at Mitchell, who'd been treated for a nasty bug bite.

"I'm hoping they didn't discover this Avery fellow's device immediately," Rodney answered. Then his normal arrogance came through. "Colonel, you'll find many things that may be deemed impossible are quite possible when you put a little thought and faith in technology."

Mitchell just stared back at Rodney, clenched his hand, and walked away for a moment as Rodney entered the last few commands on the computer.

"You know, it'd go a lot faster if I'm not surrounded by male testosterone. Not to mention other emotions going on that I really don't want to know about," Rodney complained, trying to focus.

Cam, seeing that Rodney would work much quicker if not distracted, motioned for John to follow him. "I'm going to walk around for a few minutes. Go see your brother. Let him know what's going on and check up on him before we leave."

John agreed. "I'll be back in ten minutes. Ready to leave. Ronon's taking care of gathering together supplies."


John was never this nervous before a mission- even a rescue mission. He discovered that he was getting a good taste of what Cameron had gone through the day before when he set out to rescue Carolyn.

Once he reached the infirmary, John pulled the curtain to find his brother sleeping. He sighed and turned to leave.

"John?" Dave asked groggily. "Sorry. Must have dozed off."

John turned and stared down at his brother.

"I think that was the idea when Jen forced me to leave you a few hours ago," John said.

"Yeah, she said the blood loss would leave me a little off for a few days," Dave said, struggling to sit up. "Is she here?"

John frowned and shook his head.

Dave immediately picked up on something. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Turning away, John felt like punching the wall. "She's gone. Someone talked her into using herself as bait to bring down this group who got a hold of the stuff we told you about earlier."

Concerned at the worry in John's voice, Dave leaned forward. "She didn't tell you she was leaving, did she?"

"No," John spit out. "I'd have never let her go through with it. It was a bad plan."

"So why are you sitting here with me, then?" Dave said, now worried about the woman he'd grown to care about. "Why aren't you going after her?"

"Because," he answered tightly, "we don't know where she is. They transported her and another doctor immediately after they were beamed down. A friend of mine from Atlantis is here now trying to figure it out. He kicked Mitchell and I out so he could work faster."

"Ah," Dave said, now understanding. "And this Mitchell also has someone he cares about missing. This is the same man who rescued that doctor last night?"

"Yes," John confirmed, glancing at his watch. "Rodney has five more minutes of alone time left."

"Think he'll figure it out?" Dave asked.

"Yeah," John said confidently. "Rodney always figures is out. And my pal Ronon is here, too. Between the three of us and Mitchell, these people don't stand a chance."


"Rodney," John sad as he entered the room fifteen minutes later, "tell me you have the location."

Wearing a prideful expression, Rodney sent John a look of triumph. "Please, did you ever doubt me? Alright, here we go," Rodney said. "See, here's the first location. All three devices working..." they watched as two were eliminated. "And, as I said before, looks like Avery still had his when they left."

They watched the screen as the blinking light shone across the screen. "Where'd they go, Rodney?" John asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.

Rodney entered in several commands and the blinking light began to move quicker. "I'm able to fast-forward a bit." He frowned when the blinking light stopped. "Well, I can't be sure it was their final destination, but Avery's signal stops at this location." He wrote down coordinates. No sooner than he'd written the last one, Mitchell ripped it from the pad and began moving.

"Sheppard. Ronon. Come on," Cameron's face was unreadable, but John understood the anxiety that lay beneath the surface. "Caldwell, send us down."

"Hold on," Landry stopped them. "You're going down there with no plan? Colonels, let me remind you that my daughter is down there. One false move and her life is in jeopardy."

"He's right," John started to agree, despite his desire to leave immediately as well.

"Here's the plan," Ronon spoke up, pulling his gun over his shoulder. "We get in. Shoot anyone who gets in our way and get the doctors out."

Mitchell almost grinned. "Now that's my kind of plan," he said. "Let's not over complicate matters like Ronon said. I have a feeling we may be running out of time."

"Five minutes, Colonel," Landry refused to back down. "They've already been gone for hours."

His jaw set, Mitchell shook his head. "Did Carolyn tell you what they told her just before I got there, sir?"

"No."

"They were going to kill her," Cam revealed. As Landry's face lost color, he almost regretted the words as they left his mouth. "Sorry, but time is of the essence here. Now let's go get them."

Nodding, Landry stepped to the side, once again leaving the fate of his daughter's life into the hands of a man whom he knew loved her almost, if not as much as he did himself.