Thanks for so many reviews of the last chapter! That was so helpful, please continue to review each chapter. It helps to keep me motivated, and I love hearing from my readers. You all leave such wonderfuly reviews. So without further ado, here is the next chapter, so please enjoy and review, and I'll have the next one up ASAP!

Chapter 9

Samantha Carter fought hard to resist the urge to continuously look across the room at Daniel, who was resting on the opposite bench, his jacket off and balled up under his head to create the illusion of a comfortable position. He seemed to be asleep, even though he moaned occasionally, but still...

She sighed, her brow creasing in worry. As Daniel had hoped, the Goa'uld had waited at least two hours before returning for him, but not much longer. They had taken him away again, and he had returned over an hour and a half later, even more exhausted and the worse for wear than the first time, though at least there hadn't been anymore new bruises.

Now, it had been almost tow hours since then. It was late afternoon, and Sam was silently praying that the jaffa wouldn't come for Daniel a third time-at least not today.

Carter suddenly felt her hopes waver when she heard footsteps in the corridor. Jumping up, she moved to site next to Daniel, and shook him gently. "Daniel, wake up."

"Huh, what?" he said groggily, lifting tired eyes to look at her.

Sam frowned, "Someone's coming."

Daniel ears perked up when he heard the sound, and he quickly sat up, carefully masked fear on his face. Sam rested a hand on his shoulder, hoping it would help some. But all of her hoped shattered yet again when the two jaffa came into view, and one of the already present guards opened the door.

"Great," Carter muttered, and she could almost hear Daniel's own inward groan. Her hand tightened on his arm as the two newcomers stepped into the cell. Daniel, however, brushed it off and stood slowly, knowing he would only be pulled to his feet anyway if he didn't. He tried to keep a passive expression-probably just as much for his sake as for hers, but she could see that already his face was at least a couple of shades paler.

"Daniel…"

"Sam, don't try anything. I don't want anything to happen to you," he said quietly.

"Daniel, for crying out loud they've already taken you twice today-"

As the jaffa grabbed him and began to push him toward the door, Daniel shot her a withering look that quieted her. Sam growled low in her throat when they had led him away. She knew he was only concerned for her, but she wished he wouldn't go with them so quietly, when he knew what awaited him. Even if it got both of them zatted or something, it would be worth it if they would just leave him alone…Sighing, she sank to the bench again.

Daniel released a final cry as the jaffa guard pulled the torture stick away, leaving him to collapse back against the wall, gasping desperately for air. But his world hadn't even begun to assert itself again when, through the blur of lingering pain, he saw Amaunet raise her ribbon device. His breath quickened even more instead of slowing down, which at the moment was dangerous.

"No, Sha're, please…" he pleaded to his wife, hoping to reach her. Just maybe…Daniel's hopes rose when she frowned and pulled her hand back, but plummeted again at her words.

"You were warned not to call me that again," Amaunet said coldly.

"What…" But she didn't say anything else, only cast a glance toward the jaffa nearest him-the same one who had just finished torturing him, and the one who had tried to beat him up earlier.

Before Daniel knew what was happening, the man was on him, fists coming down hard., and soon the other jaffa in the room joined him, one or two using fists, another kicking him. Their victim was chained to the wall, unable to block any of it, and shouting helplessly in pain.

Amaunet did nothing as Daniel was beaten, standing away across the room, watching. The young archaeologist pulled against his chains despite the extra pain it caused his wrists; he cried futilely to her when he could, but it made no difference. After several minutes, a final, well-placed blow caught his jaw, knocking him into oblivion, and it didn't matter anymore.

Outside, on this world that was not P5R-316, the sky had become dark. The few sensors it had shut down for the night, or switched to passive mode, only making light general sweeps of a small area around the small compound. Most of the jaffa serpent guards retired, leaving only a few to play sentry through the night. After all, this was a small, insignificant, back-water planet. It was worthy to house a Goa'uld facility only because of its secrecy. If no now knew it existed, they didn't need to waste resources on large security systems--or so they believed.

The sensors no longer scanning space did not detect the single, incoming enemy mother ship taking orbit around the planet, and no one saw the troops being deployed, hiding away from the base in the forest and elsewhere, waiting until morning, waiting for their chance to strike…

Sam Carter shot to her feet when the two serpent guards dropped the unconscious Daniel Jackson on the floor and left. She hurried to him, and stifled a gasp when she saw how much worse he looked than either of the times before. His wrists were rubbed raw and bloody; his face was covered in fresh bruises and had several cuts and abrasions, and without his jacket, on his exposed arms she could see more bruises.

Gulping, Sam slipped a hand under his shoulders, starting to lift him from the floor, hoping to move him to the bench and that it would be more comfortable than the floor when he woke up. She stopped, however, jumping in surprise, when suddenly Daniel came to, crying out in pain from the movement and grabbing her arm.

"No, Sam, wait-!" he gasped.

"Whoa!" Carter yelped, putting him down again and nearly dropping him, which only caused him to shout again. "Sorry! Daniel…sorry," she apologized, wincing in sympathy.

"No…it's okay…just…wait a minute…." Daniel said, grimacing and still trying to catch his breath.

"What is it?"

"I just…really don't feel like being moved just yet," he answered, his heavy breathing slowly starting to taper off.

"All right…what happened?" Carter asked.

Daniel sighed. "They got considerably more aggressive this time, that's what happened."

"In other words, she didn't stop them from beating you this time," Sam re-phrased, frowning.

Daniel flinched. "Uh…yeah. I got pummeled." Groaning, he rolled onto his side, obviously finding lying on his back uncomfortable. That set him short of breath again, and brought one arm around his stomach protectively. He moaned again, and Sam sighed, trying to move it away.

"Let me see?" Daniel nodded weakly, allowing her to gently push his arm aside and lift his shirt.

Carter had to stifle a gasp of worry at what she saw. Daniel's his entire middle was black and blue, even with minor bleeding in places, and when she rose up on her knees to glance over at his back, she saw it was almost as bad there. She would probably find bruises all over his legs, too, if she were to look, Sam thought sourly.

"Gosh, Daniel. They really did a number on you, didn't they?" she gulped, glancing at him. He nodded, grimacing. "Do you think anything's broken? Any cracked ribs?" Carter asked quietly, carefully feeling him over. Daniel cried out softly when she hit a particularly sore spot, and Sam winced herself. "Sorry."

He shook his head, but now he was gasping again. " 's okay. No, don't…think anything's broken…Cracked rib or two maybe. Ohhhhh…." Daniel moaned.

"Where?" Sam asked in concern. He indicated an area to one side that seemed particularly bruised, and gently she began to probe the area, to her friend's grunts of pain. "Sorry, but we need to know how bad it is. I'm being as careful as I can, I promise…" Suddenly Sam stopped when she found the damaged ribs and Daniel yelled loudly. She pulled her hands away quickly and gripped his shoulder with one of them.

"Oh! Sorry!" she apologized fervently. Then she sighed. "No wonder that hurt so much. It's cracked all right-lucky it didn't break. A couple more around it might have minor cracks, and it's pretty obvious a lot of them are badly bruised."

"Oh…guess that explains it," Daniel gulped, trying to catch his breath yet again.

"You all right? I didn't mean to hurt you."

Jackson nodded his head slowly. "You're fine. I'll be okay."

"Are you cold? Do you want your jacket? Glasses? You left them here too."

"I want to get off this floor; that's what I want," Daniel replied, attempting to keep the pain off his face as he pushed himself up on his elbows.

"Are you sure?" Carter frowned.

Daniel nodded. "I'm sure," he grunted, pushing himself up farther, trying to straighten his arms under himself. For a moment it seemed as if pain would win, collapsing his bruised, hurting arms and sending the young scientist crashing painfully back to the ground, but before he had a chance to find out if it would Sam moved next to him, allowing him to drape an arm around her shoulders. The major, in turn, wrapped an arm around Daniel.

Once in position, Sam glanced at Jackson. When he nodded that he was ready, she nodded in return and then began to stand slowly, carefully pulling her comrade up with her. Daniel cried out, but helped her with his own legs as much as he could. His grip on Carter's shoulders tightened, and her free hand came up to grip his, giving him something a bit easier to hold onto and pull up on.

Thankfully, once he was up Daniel found that, though it was still painful to stand, move, or much less walk, it wasn't nearly as bad as getting to his feet in the first place. Carter seemed to realize this as well, and seemed relieved for him, but was still as gentle as possible as she helped him to the bench he had rested on earlier. But as careful as she was, she couldn't keep him from hurting enough to groan as they went, and when she lowered him to his seat she saw the pain on his face and wished there were more she could do.

Daniel pulled in a slow, deep breath, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes for a moment as he caught his breath.

"Daniel…?" Carter asked. After another moment his eyes opened again and he nodded.

"I'm fine, Sam," he said hoarsely. Her lips pressing into a thin line, she offered him his glasses, but he shook his head, pushing them away. "No thanks. I think I'm just going to try and get some sleep."

Sam put the glasses down. "That's probably a good idea. It's late, and I know you could use it," she said quietly.

"Yeah…" Daniel trailed tiredly. Grimacing, he lowered himself to his side and rested his head on the balled-up green BDU jacket that still lay in the corner. Lying on his side seemed to be the only comfortable position be could find--or rather, the least painful position for the moment. Nothing was very comfortable in his present state, but the moment he was lying down, and his head hit his improvised pillow, his exhaustion caught up with him, and he felt himself drifting of.

Daniel felt Sam's hand on his shoulder again, this time in a purely sympathetic gesture, and looked up to see the comforting smile she offered him. He mustered the best he could find to give back to her before he allowed his eyes to drift shut. The beaten archaeologist fell asleep almost immediately, oblivious to the added danger outside the compound.