Please review! Thank you to all who have been reviewing, and please continue to do so. :) Gotta have feedback fuel to keep the story going! Here's another nice long chapter for you. Enjoy! And please let me know what you think of it.

Chapter 18

The jaffa interrogating Danny was distracted when the door to the holding room opened, and he pulled back, allowing the younger Jackson another brief respite from the pain of the torture stick. Sam Carter had to bite back a sob when she saw the tears streaming down her friend's face as he sagged forward, gasping desperately for air that had been difficult to take in while screaming. She could still feel the tears on her cheeks that she had shed herself, and suddenly felt almost guilty for them as her Daniel continued sob. Sniffing, she pulled again against the hands that held her arms, wanting nothing more than to comfort her friend, for this to be over, but again it was useless.

Once the door had opened, another jaffa entered and stepped over to the jaffa holding to torture stick. The two conferred briefly in Goa'uld, and she couldn't understand a word of it. When the newcomer had finished replaying whatever message he had been sent to deliver, he left, but the door remained open. Then, to the relief of both humans the jaffa behind Jackson who had just received the message gave an order to the two on either side of Danny, and they bent to unbind him. Sobs of pain still shook his body, but he tried to keep them quieter.

As soon as his arms were free and the three jaffa around him had started toward the door Danny fell forward, but when his stiff arms touched the ground and the streaks of pain that shot up them made him realize that they wouldn't support him, he sucked in a quick breath and slowly sat back up. And he just sat there, crying, not knowing what else to do with himself as he rubbed his hurting arms. Sam wanted to go to him, and it was then that the jaffa holding her in place finally released her and left as well. She glared at their backs as they went, and then turned back to her friend just he began to sway, his exhaustion taking over as he tipped to one side.

Reacting quickly, Carter stepped forward, bent and caught him as he fell, gently lowering herself to the ground with him.

"Whoa, whoa," she said quietly once she was on her knees. "It's okay, Danny, I've got you. It's okay…" Still crying softly, he sank into her arms, and she kept them wrapped around his trembling body, helping him to rub his sore arms and trying to comfort him as she continued to blink back more tears of her own.

After a minute or so the younger Daniel's tears subsided, and he caught his breath. Only then did Sam venture to speak again.

"You all right?" she asked gently.

Danny sighed heavily and then spoke, his voice barely audible. "I will be…I guess…" But then he winced and slowly reached up toward his neck.

"What is it?" Sam inquired.

He didn't answer, but touched the back of his neck, which she couldn't see as his head was resting on her shoulder. His hand came away with blood, and Sam's eyes widened. Jackson only looked resigned as he gave another weak sigh. Carter started him in her arms to get a look at the back of his neck, suddenly even more concerned. He grimaced, but allowed it. Sam frowned at what she saw. The skin had broken and blistered from the continuous use of the torture stick, and blood had trickled down his neck and onto the collar of his jacket, but thankfully there didn't seem to be as much of it as there could have been, and the bleeding itself had stopped.

When Sam sighed and shifted Danny back into the position he had been in, he looked up at her. She could see the dark rims under his eyes, and the redness of his eyes themselves, how tired they looked.

"So?" he said, his voice asking a question even though it was obvious from his face that he wasn't really interested.

Carter answered anyway. "It's not bad. I think you'll be fine. Are you sure you're all right? It's never done that before…"

Danny nodded and then lowered his head again onto her shoulder again, staring into space. After a moment, as he felt her eyes on him, his closed and he sighed. "They didn't do it that way before," he finally answered as his eye opened again. "Sure, they used it plenty, but it was usually through the chains. It wasn't like that…" He grimaced, "That hurt a lot more."

"I think that's the way they usually do it," Carter said thoughtfully.

"Oh? What makes you say that?" he asked curiously.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know…something…I think it must be one of Jolinar's memories of that happening to her. I know it's not my memory so that's the only explanation I can think of…" Then she remembered something. "Oh, and besides, the colonel said that in the alternate universe that's the way they were, uh, torturing the, uhm, the alternate General Hammond."

Daniel's eyebrows went up. "Oh. That's…that's right...I guess that means I was lucky until now, huh?" He frowned. "Too bad it ran out," he complained tiredly.

Carter tightened her hold on him a bit. He didn't protest. "You can say that again."

The two sat for a moment, Jackson barely awake, until he looked around and frowned. "Hey…he, uh, the other me… isn't back yet?"

Sam shook her head in concern. "No…not yet. Look, Daniel, why don't you just get some rest, okay?"

Danny nodded slowly, his eyelids already lowering. "Yeah...that sounds like a good idea…" he trailed off. His head lolled, and seconds later Carter was holding a sleeping Daniel Jackson in her arms.

Sam smiled to herself. "Well, Danny, I didn't exactly mean right there, but whatever floats your boat…" She looked around for a minute, not quite sure what to do. Finally she sighed and scooted back to the wall beside the door, the only wall that didn't have a protruding bench obstructing it, and sat back against it with Danny's sleeping body still leaning against hers. Letting her head rest on the wall, she realized that she, too, was exhausted. Her arms still wrapped protectively around her friend, she soon also drifted into sleep.

Daniel felt himself wading once again out from under the veil of unconsciousness. Murky light found its way through his closed eyelids. The older Jackson didn't open them, knowing it would only aggravate the pounding headache he'd developed from the hand device. After a moment enough awareness came for him to realize that he was laying face down, feel the pain stabbing into his damaged ribs. Groaning, he rolled to his side. He laid there for another few minutes, adjusting to being awake again, adjusting his breathing so as to cause as little pain extra pain as possible. His entire body felt sore, after the beating, the torture stick, the hand device…

Finally, Daniel opened his eyes, hoping to find himself back in the holding cell, but instead he saw that he was still in the same room where he had been. A blurry shape stood above him, and that was when he remembered that he had lost his glasses hours ago, when Amaunet had brought him back to the room that held the device that had somehow brought him here. He hadn't had them the first time he woke up in this room, so he assumed that they had been knocked off while her jaffa had been beating him. Jackson blinked, and the indistinct figure became the Goa'uld, frowning down at him.

The archaeologist couldn't keep himself from moaning again, not looking forward to whatever Amaunet had in store fro him now. She obviously wasn't through with him, if he was still here. But instead of having her jaffa pull him up now that she knew he was awake, she knelt beside him. He was a little confused, but still too tired to really wonder.

A moment later it seemed clear when she raised her left hand, the one adorned with the ribbon device, toward his face. Daniel flinched, resisting the urge to whimper or plead. Then, however, instead of activating the hand device, Amaunet ran a gold-capped finger along his cheek. He looked up at her silently, with no idea what she was doing until she spoke quietly.

"I have done everything I know to do to you--both of you, and still you resist. You will not tell you exactly how you came to be here, or of the future, and your younger self will not tell me anything important of the Tau'ri now," she said, her tone slightly complaining. "I am beginning to see that Daniel Jackson cares more for others than he does for himself, no matter what year he is from." She frowned, "A strange and pitiful behavior to be sure, with no match among the Goa'uld, but I suppose one not unexpected among a race as wild and unpredictable as you humans."

Daniel gulped, finding his mouth as dry as his old home of the planet Abydos. He opened his mouth to speak anyway, ignoring how uncomfortable it was.

"Yeah, we like both our values and our randomness just fine, thank you very much," he rasped weakly. The comment smacked of Jack O'Neill attitude, and a few years ago that would have bothered him, as evidenced by something his younger self had asked him back in the holding cell, but by now he'd grown to not care much.

Amaunet made him care this time, however, when she swiftly stood and sent her foot crashing into his rib cage. Too weak to scream, Daniel gasped and doubled over on the floor, his body curling into a tight ball of agony. The Goa'uld stood, watching him, until his breathing slowed and he carefully uncurled. Then she smirked.

"Yes…maybe I am taking the wrong approach," she said thoughtfully. She looked pointedly at him then. "You care most for your wife, yes?"

Daniel looked sharply up at her, unsure of where she was going with the question. "Of course," he said quietly, cautiously.

Amaunet smiled at his answer. "I thought as much seemed obvious." She paused. "You wanted to know if I could hurt her?"

Daniel's eyebrows rose in alarm. "What?"

"I can," the Goa'uld answered suddenly.

Jackson's stomach tightened, and pushed himself up on one elbow, grimacing but otherwise ignoring the pain. "What?" he said again, but this time it was a hoarse, fearful whisper, and her next answer only made him feel worse.

"I can," Amaunet repeated. "The Goa'uld do have the ability to punish a host who does not cooperate with pain. It does not bother us, but it can be quite excruciating for the host mind. My host has been suffering since you drew her out earlier today, being punished for speaking to you." That sadistic smile appeared on her face again, and suddenly Daniel felt sick. The fears he'd had while Sha're was a host came back in full force and more as they were confirmed.

"N-No," he stammered, desperately trying to deny it. "You're bluffing. You can't do that to her…"

"Oh, but I can," she quickly confirmed. "Perhaps I should show you…"

Before Daniel could say anything else Amaunet had withdrawn, and Sha're's gasps of pain filled the room. "Dan'iel!" she cried, dropping to her knees as her hands went to hold her head. Daniel's eyes widened in horror as she shouted. "Help me, Dan'iel, please! It hurts-!" Quickly he sat up and took hold of her shoulders.

"Sha're, hold on! I'm here…" he fumbled.

A brief flick of her eyes in his direction told him she heard him, knew he was there for her, but then her eyes clenched shut. "Dan'iel, help me…" she cried in pain.

Gulping, he tried to get Amaunet to stop. He tried to speak to the symbiote, desperately pleading for her to leave Sha're alone as he gulped back tears that tried to obstruct his words, but he didn't even know if the Goa'uld could hear him when not in control of the body. Daniel failed to keep himself in relative calm for long, though, and by the time Amaunet chose to re-take control of Sha're's body Jackson was sobbing as he held her, helpless to stop what the snake was doing to her.

Amaunet roughly pulled away and stood, leaving the stricken archaeologist on his knees. For few moments she just stood looking at him, until his sobs faded to a few silent tears and shaky breathing.

At first Daniel was trying to calm himself, but suddenly he stopped as a new emotion rose--anger. Suddenly his conviction that the Goa'uld, everything that they stood for, everything they were, and everything they did was evil, was wrong, solidified, and he only felt angry at them, especially at this particular one. Right now he felt like if he could get the Goa'uld out of Sha're without harming her, that he would kill it himself right here. He knew that attitude wasn't exactly right, either, but at the moment he didn't care.

Then Amaunet spoke, pulling Daniel from his seething thoughts. "I can continue to hurt her for as long as it necessary, and I will continue to do so until one of you tells me what I wish to know."

Finally Daniel looked up at her, his eyes red-rimmed. "You monster," he spat. A dozen other words much worse than that rattled around in his head, but he refrained from saying them. Amaunet only found the human's reaction amusing.

The room fell into silence again except for Daniel's pained grunts when the jaffa pulled him up. But before he gained his feet Amaunet opened her hand, using the ribbon device and sharply propelling Daniel out of the jaffa's hands and slamming him into the wall behind them, delivering a final, painful blow before she turned on her heel and exited.

Jackson sank to the floor, gasping as tears filled his eyes again, but he gulped them back as he doubled over from the pain that stabbed through his battered body from the impact with the wall. How many times now did that make that he'd been thrown into a wall by a hand device or something similar? It was getting old, but at the present he wasn't really thinking about it as his thoughts sank into turmoil and despair. Daniel struggled to straighten them out in his mind as the jaffa pulled him up again. It kept his mind off the pain that came with being moved as they dragged him out into the corridor and back to the cell, and served to calm him somewhat.

At least one of his emotions he was still sure of, though, and it was his anger--his anger at Amaunet…and at himself. A single coherent thought penetrated the gloom. Sha're, I'm so sorry…

Samantha Carter was running. She was running, hiding, always moving. She wasn't sure where she was, but she recognized the Goa'uld design of the architecture, and the sound of jaffa marching. Their boots always made the same sound no matter what Goa'uld they served, that ominous sound that any SGC personnel that had come in contact with them had learned to be wary of, especially she herself an the rest of her team, who for some reason always seemed to have the most run-ins with their enemies foot soldiers.

That sound was what she running from, trying at all costs to stay away from, but no matter what she did it followed her. The jaffa were always a step behind her, always around the corner behind her, always gaining. Sam knew she had to stay ahead of them if she wanted to stay alive, but she couldn't shake them. She was exhausted, and finally collapsed, resting against a wall. If only she could just sleep for a few minutes, just a few, then she would feel better, be able to outrun her pursuers…

And then Carter realized that she was awake, sleeping against the wall of their cell next to the door, and that the dream must have been prompted by the very real sound of jaffa coming their way.

Sam tried to stretch, but found herself weighted down with something in front of her that was leaning back against her. Now fully wake, she glanced down and saw that it was Daniel--or rather, Danny, she corrected herself, so as not to get confused--his head on her shoulder, sleeping peacefully, and she remembered what had happened before she fell asleep.

The major's face went a bit pale again when she remembered why the two of them had been so exhausted, Jackson most of all, but at the sight of Danny's sleeping face she couldn't help but smile. And despite the fact that Sam thought of Daniel Jackson as a friend and co-worker, even as a brother and would have found it strange to think of him in any other way, she couldn't help but notice how cute he looked the way he was now.

But then Carter remembered the sound that had awoken her, and began to gently shake him, calling his name until he stirred. His eyes cracked open, and he looked at her blearily.

"What is it, Sam?" he quietly asked in mild annoyance. He only wanted to sleep, but Carter roused him out of it by shaking him again.

"Someone's coming. They're probably just bringing back…uhm…your counterpart, but you should wake up."

Groaning, Danny groggily sat up, pushing away from Sam. After yawning, rubbing his eyes and waking himself up a bit more, he suddenly realized where he'd been sleeping and started to blush profusely. "Uh, yeah, okay, thanks for waking me up. Uhm, I'm…I'm sorry; I didn't mean to fall asleep on you like that, I mean at least not literally on you, I mean, uhm…"

Sam silenced him with a smile. "Stop it. It's okay, Danny. If I'd been through what you had, I would have fallen asleep on the spot, too. Don't worry; I didn't mind." It was then that what seemed to be a bit of a blush crept up her cheeks as well. "Besides, I kind of fell asleep too."

Now Jackson smiled, too. "Oh," was all he said.

Their conversation was cut short when the door opened, and the anticipated jaffa stepped into the cell and dropped the older Daniel onto the floor inside the door, right next to them. Danny grimaced at his older self's cry of pain, all too aware of how unpleasant that particular treatment was. He couldn't even remember how many times he'd been dropped over the past two or three days.

Sam and Danny waited until the jaffa were well gone before they leaned over their visitor from the future to check on his condition. Daniel was half doubled over, and his arms were wrapped protectively around his middle. It was obvious that some of his ribs must have been damaged from the way he was breathing. There were bruises and tear stains on his face, his forehead was red from the ribbon device, and his glasses were missing. He was conscious, but barely, and didn't seem very responsive.

Gulping hard with worry, she put a hand on his shoulder. Carter had almost expected him to flinch away from it, but he didn't, just continued to stare into space and struggle with his labored breathing. She glanced back at Danny, who had paled, and then looked back to Daniel.

"Daniel?" she asked. When he didn't answer, she tried again. "Daniel, are all right?"

After a moment or so and a couple more tries, she finally got a response as his eyes clenched shut. "It's my fault," he whispered. Sam glanced back at Danny again, who shrugged.

"What's you fault? What's wrong, Daniel?" she asked with concern.

Grunting, he pushed himself up on one elbow, but Sam kept her hand on his other shoulder. Daniel shook his head and spoke to his younger self instead of Sam. "I didn't mean too, I'm sorry…"

"Didn't mean to what?" Sam asked, still trying to get him to tell them what was going on as she helped him sit up the rest of the way. He grimaced in pain, but was too distraught to cry out.

"What is it?" Danny asked, joining in, now worried.

Daniel sighed, and his head dropped. When it came back up, there were tears in his eyes. "I was…you were worried about Amaunet being able to hurt her…" he said quietly. He gulped, "You were right."

The younger Jackson snapped back as if he'd been physically struck, horror on his face. "What!" he cried. "You can't be serious…"

Daniel nodded wearily. "When she started to realize that what she was doing wasn't going to work on either of us, well…she decided to try a different tactic."

If he had been pale before, now Danny was as white as a sheet. "Oh no," he whispered.