If the ride out to the House of Belith had been miserable, the ride back was pure Hell.
In the end, determination alone hadn't been enough to get Jonas through. Col. O'Neill realized Jonas wasn't going to make it, and sent Aniyuv to go and get Teal'c. The Jaffa's great strength would allow him to carry Jonas much more easily and rapidly than any of the rest of them. It was a good thing O'Neill sent Aniyuv when he did. Jonas made it to the bottom of his second staircase when he collapsed.
Teal'c arrived mere moments later. With tenderness surprising for such a powerful warrior, Teal'c lifted Jonas. Matter-of-factly and without hesitation he turned and made his way back to the garage, Col. O'Neill and Sam scrambling to keep up with him and wondering why they hadn't thought of it earlier.
A level above the garage, they ran into a pair of Enforcers. The sight of Aniyuv made the two men hesitate just long enough for O'Neill to swipe Teal'c's zat and shoot both of them with it. Rather than give it back, Jack elected to keep it until Teal'c put down his burden and was able to wield it himself.
"They're just stunned," O'Neill assured Aniyuv when the Enforcer paused.
"When they awaken, they will report my treachery," Aniyuv said.
"Hopefully we'll be out of town by then."
"But will you be through the Chappa'ai by then?" Aniyuv asked, "If not, they will contact those assigned to guard the Chappa'ai by radio. I trained many of these men myself, they will know at once where we are trying to go."
O'Neill paused thoughtfully. It was going to be a long drive back to the Stargate, possibly longer than the effects of the zat. He looked at Sam, but she just stared back. She knew there were a lot of ways of silencing them without killing them, but for the moment she couldn't think of what to do. Jonas, however, could. Barely clinging to consciousness, he nonetheless heard and understood the problem.
"The cell," he said quietly, so quietly that the Colonel had to ask Teal'c what Jonas had said.
"The cell level is one above us," Aniyuv supplied.
O'Neill nodded decisively, understanding at once that, if they were locked up, the men couldn't report in. Maybe other Enforcers would find them before long, but any delay at all would help.
He turned to Sam, "You and Teal'c keep going for the garage. Aniyuv and I will handle these two."
Sam nodded and O'Neill handed her the zat.
"You may need it more than we will," He told her.
Sam hesitated a moment while O'Neill and Aniyuv picked up one of the unconscious Enforcers between them. But then she saw Teal'c was continuing on and she hurried to catch up with him.
The rest of the journey to the vehicle in the garage was uneventful. Even though O'Neill and Aniyuv hadn't caught up with them, Sam went ahead and decided to get Jonas situated in the back of the vehicle. It was going to be pretty cramped with everyone in there, especially since they'd need to be careful not to squish Jonas. SG-7 and SG-15 didn't make any complaint as Sam tried to figure out how to fit everyone in the back. While she was shuffling bodies around, trying to make them fit, Teal'c stood by impassively. Sam vaguely noticed he was still holding Jonas, who looked very small and very fragile right about now. Jonas didn't appear to have the energy to be aware of what was going on anymore, and simply concentrated on continuing to breathe.
Sam, who regularly played the secondary role of field medic for SG-1, didn't like the fact that Jonas seemed to be having increasing difficulty breathing. But there was nothing she could do now.
Once she was satisfied with the personnel arrangement, Sam climbed into the back of the vehicle.
"Okay, Teal'c," she instructed, "Pass him to me. Easy now."
Jonas made no move to assist. At the Colonel's behest, Jonas had spent everything he had left trying to get down the stairs. He was very clearly completely done in now. Sam nestled him against her so that when the vehicle inevitably jolted she might be able to shield him from the impact somewhat.
Teal'c stood outside the vehicle watchfully until O'Neill and Aniyuv arrived. Only after Aniyuv got in front and O'Neill climbed in the back did Teal'c finally deign to enter the vehicle. Remembering the zat, Sam passed it to the Colonel, who handed it off to Teal'c.
When Aniyuv started the vehicle engine, Sam felt Jonas cringe against her and heard him make thin sound of pain. She knew that the worst was yet to come. She bit her lip, knowing this was going to be really hard to take.
"Easy, Jonas," she said softly, "Stay with us."
She looked up at Jack, and it was obvious he was thinking of the same thing she was. The road near the soldiers guarding the broken wall of Kiri was rough with debris from the explosions that had taken out the wall itself. If backing out of the garage was enough to hurt Jonas, Sam wasn't sure he would be able to be quiet when the time came.
Jack was concerned about the amount of noise that Jonas might involuntarily make if they hit a pothole, but he was more worried about what he hadn't seen. Carter had conducted a cursory examination before she started moving Jonas, even though it was obvious that there wasn't a lot of choice in the matter. The fact was, Jonas had to be moved, and fast.
They knew Jonas had a head injury, some manner of pain in his shoulder and what Jack guessed was a broken kneecap. But the damage a kara kesh did was beneath the surface. Feeling Jonas reacting to pain as they moved down the stairs had told Jack there was damage they hadn't seen. He couldn't help but flashback to Daniel sitting on the edge of a bed in the infirmary, calmly detailing his own medical condition and telling Jack in his gentle way that he was about to die, even though he outwardly appeared to be uninjured. The damage had been done inside.
Jack didn't know much about a lot of things, least of all medicine. But he did know that moving someone with internal injuries could potentially kill them, and they had hours to go before they'd be back at the Stargate. They had no choice, Jack knew that, but the idea that they might be killing Jonas just to get him back to the SGC was a heavy weight on his mind.
Jack wasn't sure which was the worse, the thought of losing Jonas or knowing what it would do to his team, most especially Carter. Of them all, Jack thought she had been the most hurt by the loss of Daniel. She was a very caring person, even in spite of herself. Her attempts to rebuff Jonas' overtures of friendship were all in vain. She just couldn't go around kicking puppies. She'd let herself care about Jonas, and Jack had seen that what was happening to him was tearing her up inside.
When Aniyuv slowed down, Jack knew they were coming to the checkpoint.
"Jonas," Jack said, "Jonas, I need you to listen to me."
It took longer than Jack liked for Jonas to open his eyes and slowly focus them. It took him a disturbingly long time to find where Jack was in the vehicle, even though the compartment was somewhat shadowy. But once he'd found Jack, his gaze was steady, patient, waiting for an order.
"The road's gonna get rougher from here on out," Jack said, "But you're gonna have to be quiet, because we're sneakin' ya across the border. Think you can manage that?"
Jonas nodded very slightly, and closed his eyes again.
The first major bump came a split second later. Aniyuv hadn't slowed down quite enough, and Jack was pitched halfway out of his seat. He collided with Major Kofield on the other side and they used each other to get back to where they'd started. The impact elicited a grunt from Jack, but Jonas successfully made no sound at all. Jack glanced towards the forward part of the vehicle, where Carter was still holding onto Jonas. She had gripped him tight when the vehicle jolted, keeping him as still as possible. Even so, Jonas' face had gone dead white, and he had clenched his teeth so hard the muscles in his jaw stood out. Aniyuv slowed the vehicle still further.
How the hell is he going to survive over two hours of this? Jack asked himself.
Somehow, they made it through the checkpoint without raising any eyebrows. Jack knew they were a long way from being out of the woods though. Ahead lay endless miles of punishing, unkempt road. Aniyuv couldn't risk slowing down too much, or they would miss their window with the guard change. The man seemed to be reasonably intelligent, but Jack would've bet money that he'd never tried to engineer anything like a jailbreak. He hadn't left much margin for error.
While they were transporting the stunned security Enforcers to the cell, Aniyuv had said they were behind the schedule he'd planned for. Jack hadn't bothered to tell Carter when they got back to the vehicle, but Aniyuv was going to have to make up for lost time over that torturous road.
The good news was that they shouldn't run into any Enforcers or indeed anyone out on that road. Jonas could scream if he needed to, and they should still be okay. If any of this could be considered okay.
Jack winced in sympathy with every lurch and jounce of the vehicle, but Jonas didn't make a sound. Really, Jack felt Jonas would be better off unconscious, but he clung to awareness with the tenaciousness of a bull terrier. Carter did her best to take the brunt of the shock when the road did its thing to the vehicle, but it was obvious she couldn't take enough of it.
He should never have been here, Jack found himself thinking, I should never have sent him here.
It struck him as odd now that he thought about it. He spent so much time comparing Jonas to Daniel, but this place wouldn't have been of much interest to Daniel, and Jack would never have even considered trying to make him go. Daniel was not one of Jack's soldiers to be commanded. In fact, despite having tried on various occasions, Jack had finally concluded that he could not control Daniel at all. It wouldn't even have occurred to him to make Daniel go on a mission. He might've asked, if the circumstances warranted it, but he couldn't make Daniel do anything he didn't already want to do.
Had Jack tried to force Daniel to go when the man didn't want to, Daniel would have argued vehemently, made his feelings known. Daniel was very open about such things, disinclined to keep his opinions and desires to himself. Jonas had barely given any indication that he even had desires or opinions. He just shut up and did whatever Jack told him, just as if he was a soldier.
Up to now, Jack had always taken that to mean he didn't have any reservations. Daniel would never have failed to vocalize if he was unhappy or discontent with how things were going. In fact, Jack had come to rely on Daniel's ferocity to cut through all the bullshit. When describing things which interested him, Daniel had a tendency to ramble. But when defending his beliefs, he cut straight to the point. On one of several occasions when Daniel was believed dead, Jack had described him as SG-1's voice, its heart, and its conscience. That conscience had now been silenced.
But there had been a final message which Jack had missed until now. When he was railing against the way the Kelownans had treated Daniel, and focusing on Jonas in particular, Jack had been brought up short by Daniel himself. In his calm and understanding way, he'd observed that Jonas was in a tough position. Jack had dismissed that in his anger, but Daniel -as usual- was right. Jonas had been in a difficult position, but he'd done the best he could, thereby placing himself in a truly impossible one.
Daniel had proven himself to the SGC, over and over. Even had they wanted to fire him, the whole place would have gone up in smoke inside of a week without him. Daniel made the SGC what it was, though officially he held little to no position of authority. Even if they got rid of him, Daniel still had a home to fall back on. He came from Earth, and was given freedom upon it. If Jonas displeased the wrong people or did the wrong thing too many times, failed too often... he had nowhere to go. Whatever friends, family and allies he might have had on Kelowna, he'd given all of that up.
And he'd done all that because Jack had indirectly demanded it of him.
Unlike Daniel, Jonas didn't have anything to stand on to support himself if he tried to make an argument. He had no fall back position. He had nothing and no one. No wonder he never argued with Jack. No wonder he just shut up and did as he was told. No wonder he constantly seemed to be sucking up to anyone who'd stand still long enough. He was desperate for a sense of security, trying to belong in a world that would not have him. And Jack hadn't given it a second thought.
Jack had gone to bat for Teal'c, ensuring the Jaffa was not only welcome, but put on the team. Jack had fought hard for that. If not for him, Teal'c would probably have been locked up somewhere, possibly even experimented on. The SGC had come a long way, but the key was that someone had made sure Teal'c was accepted. Jonas had to fight every inch of the way alone, struggling to earn enough trust and respect to even ask to join any team, let alone SG-1. He'd never been truly accepted, certainly none of them had done much to show they cared one way or another what happened to him.
Jonas' words from earlier came back to haunt him.
"I'm not worth it."
How did someone as educated and formerly successful as Jonas get to have that opinion of themselves? How did someone who had the courage to give up his entire world in the name of what was right, and then manage to not only adjust to a new life on a new world but train himself to be invaluable to that world come to think that his life didn't matter, wasn't worth saving?
Jack sighed, running a hand wearily down his face. The truth was he knew the answer to the question. Jonas didn't believe he was worth anything because nobody treated him like he was. They wanted the knowledge he had to offer, and then they were done with him. What few friendships he made were convenient and fun for the other people involved, the moment he became a nuisance there was no evidence that anyone he'd come to know at the SGC would stick by him.
Daniel had been the biggest pain in the ass, but the fact that he was a perpetual irritant and inconvenience to Jack from day one was enough to prove the solidarity of their relationship. The two of them could barely sit in the same room without having a disagreement about something. They were massively annoying to each other, and continually got in the way of each other's beliefs and way of being. But at the end of the day, each would have died for the other and they both knew it. No matter how upset they got over something, at the end of a mission they were still friends. That bond had transcended their beliefs and opinions and likes and dislikes. There wasn't a thing in the world that could break the chain that linked them together, and they both knew it.
Over the years, Jack had bonded with Carter and Teal'c almost as closely, but Daniel had been there with him at the start. Whatever the surrounding circumstances, it had been Daniel who gave Jack a reason on that first mission. A reason to choose life instead of death, when the whole damned world seemed just too dark to see and that stupid tunnel not only didn't have a light at the end, it was a one way road with a dead end. They'd never talked about it, but they'd both known that Jack owed Daniel more than his life. He owed him everything.
Daniel was gone now, beyond Jack's ability to help. So it was time he did the next best thing. It was time to pay it forward. It was time for Jonas to know there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and that his team would never leave him behind. To them, if no one else, he was worth the trouble of saving.
It was time he learned that. If he lived long enough.