Doc's sudden, unexplained bark during dinner was the only indication of the two intruders. She hadn't even heard the shot that they'd sent through his forehead to silence him. They probably had used a silencer, like in the movies.

Her lip quivered at the thought of her dog, who'd been the first casualty – who knew how many more there would be before they were released from this nightmare. She couldn't let Jacob know that she was thinking of the worst possible scenario – where the siblings essentially gave their lives for scientific advancement. No, as far as Jacob was concerned, their parents, though in DC at the time of their abduction, would save the day. Just like in all the stories he'd grown to adore.

"Grace?"

The strangely timid sound of her brother's voice brought Grace out of her thoughts.

"It's okay, Jacob," she whispered, softly, wishing that they weren't so closely confined so that she could put an arm around his shoulders and comfort him.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know." She admitted.

Their abductors, clad from head to toe in black with ski masks over their faces, had shoved pillowcases over their heads and twisted their arms behind their backs so that they could bind their hands with plastic ties which, as Grace had quickly discovered, were virtually unbreakable. All she'd managed to do in trying to break apart the plastic restraints was to injure her wrists with the constant struggle.

Then, through the pillowcase, she'd seen a bright light, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. It was quickly followed by the sensation of having a thousand pins pricking every pore of her body. But it only lasted a few seconds before she was relieved of the strange sensation and then shoved into a container of some kind.

Jacob had been shoved into the same container, a narrow, but tall space – like a coffin – which was giving Grace terrible thoughts about being buried alive. And then, it had been sealed, the darkness closing in on them slowly but surely, as if the container was sealed by something that was less like a lid and more like a mechanized succession of interlocking units.

"Grace?"

"Hm?"

"I'm scared."

"It's okay, Jacob." She said, softly. "Mom and Dad will find us."

"Are you sure?" He asked with the slightest modicum of hope shining in his voice.

"You bet." She said, more confidently than she felt. "They've saved the world a lot of times. Don't you think they could save us?"

"You're right." He said, brightening a little. "And Teal'c. He could help them."

"And no one would dare mess with Teal'c." Grace said, managing a smile as she realized that Jacob was feeling less afraid.

"Yeah, he'd kick their butts!" Jacob said, enthusiastically, as he rambled on and on about how the battle would unfold.

Grace sighed silently to herself. Maybe so, but there wasn't going to be the slightest clue to where their abductors had taken them. It would take a miracle to get them home again.

"Mr. O'Neill?" A nurse asked, approaching Charlie in the corridor of the Academy hospital.

He stood, instantly. "Yes?"

"Your wife's awake."

His eyes widened. "Awake?"

She nodded. "It's a very good sign. Since we haven't seen any residual slurring or paralysis, the chances are fairly good that she didn't have a stroke."

He exhaled in relief.

"As for the baby..."

He tensed as he waited for the news.

"Your wife's OB/GYN has checked in on her, and said that the baby's heart beat seems to be normal."

Another wave of relief coursed over him. "Can I see her?"

The nurse nodded. "She's been asking for you."

He couldn't help but smile as he hurried toward her hospital room. His heart began to beat more quickly as he approached the door, and with great caution to make his entrance as quiet as possible, entered.

It was a small room, but since it was in the maternity wing (Cassandra had told him that all pregnant patients, regardless of their complaints, were immediately shuffled to the maternity wing from the ER), it was decorated in faint greens and floral patterns in an effort to maintain a more "homey" atmosphere. Machines which might at some point be necessary were tucked in wooden cabinets while those which were needed remained in plain sight.

There, in the center of the room, was his wife with her eyes closed and one hand on her extended abdomen.

He inhaled, tears springing unbidden to his eyes as gratitude that she was still alive and resting peacefully flooded his being.

"What are you doing all the way over there?" Cassandra croaked as her eyes cracked open a tiny bit.

He smiled as he walked more sedately over to her bedside. "I wasn't sure I should bother you. You looked so peaceful sleeping over there."

"From what I hear, I've slept enough," she said with a goodnatured chuckle as she turned her head to look over at him.

"You had me so worried," he admitted as he reached for one of her hands and held it between his own. "A phone call that you might have had a stroke..."

Cassandra shook her head. "Wasn't a stroke."

"We know that now." He said, reaching a hand up to her cheek.

She smiled softly at the gesture. "Did you call Mark to stay with the kids?" She asked, closing her eyes for a moment as if the fluorescent lighting was hurting her eyes. "I know you well enough to know you didn't go home after you got the call."

Charlie swallowed. "I called Mark..." He said, nodding.

She could sense the turmoil behind his statement, and she turned to him with a searching look. "And?" She prodded.

"By the time Mark showed up," he said, his voice breaking with all of the worry from the last few hours. He swallowed, hard, willing himself to stay calm and positive. "They're gone, Cassandra."

"Gone?" She gasped. "Like..."

"Mark got there, Doc had been shot, and the kids were nowhere to be found."

"Sam and Jack have gone to look for them," she said, as if assuring herself that everything, though currently awry, would be well soon.

He looked down at the ground.

"The announcement didn't go well, did it?" She asked, studying his face.

He inhaled before he turned on the small television in her room.

"Reports coming from the White House indicate that yesterday's shooting was not actually an assassination attempt on the President's life, but rather a terrorist plot to assassinate retired Brigadier General Samantha Carter.

"Carter, a theoretical astrophysicist who worked on a top-secret Air Force project code named "Stargate", was killed yesterday at the press conference where President Brandon Marks attempted to disclose the nature of the Stargate Program..."

Charlie looked at Cassandra's face, now frozen in shock as the screen began to portray the footage which had been procured from one of the reporters who'd been on the scene.

"Turn it off," she whispered, still too stunned to speak, as she saw Jack dive to save his wife after the sound of the bullet being fired echoed in the reporters' microphones.

Instantly, he did as he'd been bidden. "I didn't know how to tell you."

"Sam's dead," she whispered, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "And Grace and Jacob are missing."

Charlie swallowed hard as he felt his eyes burn with the sensation of impending tears.

The silence in the room hung thick in the air as if the news of Samantha Carter's death had settled around them in a heavy fog.

"Who..." Cassandra managed.

"I don't know." He swallowed. "Dad...Dad hasn't even called...but I guess he didn't have to. It's all over the news."

"He could have another heart attack," Cassandra whispered as if she hadn't heard him. "With the stress of the kids and what's going on with the Stargate Program and S..."

Her voice broke before she could finish Sam's name.

Charlie swallowed. "Um...Mark was going to meet with the FBI so they can try to find the kids, but...if he's seen the news...I think Dad was going to call his contacts at the SGC so that they could help out, but..." He sighed. "I don't know how all of this is going to figure into finding those kids."

"They must be so scared," she whispered, softly, as tears came pouring down her cheeks more swiftly.

Charlie looked over at her, noting how red her eyes had become. Instantly, he sat beside her on the bed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Within a moment, she was shaking with the ferocity of her sobs as she buried her face into his chest in absolute despair. "It's like losing my mom all over again," she whispered, clinging to him as if her very life depended on it.