She slumbered lightly at his bedside, having taken a few minutes to speak with Doctor Fraiser, before closing her eyes and lowering her head to the soft mattress, and feeling herself fall into dream. She half-felt her hand holding Jonas' as he slept, resting from his ordeal.

Her dreams flashed at the events of the last fourty-eight hours, and the images tormented her. She felt guilty at letting her newest friend fall to danger. He had barely been alive when they found him, and had barely survived the journey through the Stargate. Luckily, Dr. Fraiser and her team had been waiting on the other side, gurney at the ready, and Jonas had been taken immediately to the infirmary.

And that creature, the one that been so defiant in its actions, dedicated to taking Jonas back for its own. It had spoke, and that was the part that had frightened Sam the most. She knew that if it had never shown any real intelligence, she would have had no major problem with putting it to death, but after its little show of sentience, the thought of pulling the trigger and ending that life had bothered her more than anything she had forced herself to do in a long while.

But it had been to save her friend, and she supposed that made it all worthwhile, not that it was her place to decide which life was more precious, simply because she was biased in the matter. There was no doubt in her mind, that given what she now knew about the creature, she wouldn't decide to save Jonas again.

She startled awake when something tickled her skin, and her unfocused eyes settled on Jonas' hand as it twitched.

* * *

As he moved, his whole body ached, and he groaned lightly. The pain was less than it had been during his last moments of consciousness before passing out in the cave, but it still hurt. He felt someone's hand tighten gently around his, and he forced his eyes to open to the bright light of the infirmary. He couldn't remember it ever being this harsh.

"Sam?" he croaked, his voice rough, his throat dry.

"Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?"

He looked up at her, and took a breath before managing to say, "Terrible." He achieved a small smile for a few seconds.

"We were lucky to find you when we did," Sam said to him, her voice soft and soothing. Her blue eyes regarded him seriously. "If we hadn't have found that cave... well, I don't really want to think about that." She herself forced a smile, and her eyes wandered from his face.

"What happened?" he asked after clearing his throat a little, his voice louder now.

"We analysed a sample of the substance that was all over you, and Dr. Fraiser and I have come to the conclusion that it was somehow feeding off of you, and that's why you were so cold when we found you, and so pale."

Jonas felt his brow furrow.

"You've heard our legends of vampires," Sam muttered, just on the edge of audible, "well, we figure that was sort of what this creature was. It didn't feed directly from you, but rather through the mass it slept in. That's why I found blood inside."

"Blood?"

She nodded, and pointed at the IV bag hanging next to his bedside. "It was lucky that you and Dr. Keiran were the same blood type. We didn't want to risk giving you an Earth transfusion. We weren't sure whether or not it would help."

"Dr. Keiran?" Jonas mumbled, moving to rub his eyes, but realising he was even lacking the energy to accomplish so simple. He sighed lightly.

"Yeah. He was really worried about you." Sam paused, and fell silent.

After being able to bear the silence no longer, Jonas asked, "What happened to the creature?"

Sam sighed, and her head lowered. "I had to kill it, Jonas. If I hadn't, then you might not be alive now. But... it..."

"It spoke," he finished for her, seeing her nod in confirmation. "It spoke to me too. 'Life' and 'death'. That was all it said."

"All I heard was 'mine'. It was talking about you. It was claiming you, trying to take back what it thought was its property." Sam looked sad, as though she had done some great injustice in ending the life of a predator.

"For what it's worth," Jonas began quietly, "I'm glad you did what you did."

Sam looked to him suddenly; a ghost of a smile touched her lips gracefully.

He moved his leg, and winced, hissing through his teeth. He had forgotten all about the wound there.

"You have a mild concussion, and Dr. Fraiser had to stitch up your leg. You hadn't lost too much blood, but enough to make Janet frown." Sam smiled a little. She rubbed his hand.

"How did you find me?"

"We located the cave on the hill, and we went in. The creature wasn't there, and after investigating the sack it slept in, my flashlight glinted off this." She held up his ring, which she had in her hand. "If you hadn't been wearing this, we may not have even seen you."

He listened as she told him of how they had been forced to heat their knives to cut him free, and he was amazed that he had been unconscious through all of it. He couldn't even remember waking up once, if only for a few seconds. Apparently, he had said something about being cold, and then passed out again.

He felt her hand brush over the side of his face gently, and he smiled, closing his eyes, surprised at how tired he felt. Considering he had been unconscious for about eleven hours, he thought he would be wide- awake. He supposed it was due to the loss of blood, and the whole ordeal he had been through.

"Why don't you get some rest?" Sam suggested, her voice quiet and soothing to hear.

Taking in a slow breath, Jonas yawned and nodded, letting himself pass into sleep.

* * *

Sam smiled as she saw her friend fall asleep, and leaned forward, kissing his forehead lightly, before slipping away, releasing his hand, and keeping her other fist clenched tightly around Jonas' ring. She had pretty much kept a hold of it since they had taken it off him.

This last couple of days had really put things into perspective for her, and she had come to realise just how bad it felt to have a friend like Jonas in such peril. Daniel had been bad enough. Whenever he had gone missing, or gotten hurt, Sam had been the first one to don the worried face, and become concerned.

It was the same with Jonas.

* * *

Jack O'Neill sat in the control room, watching them rig the UAV, and he sighed. He had always wanted a really cool toy plane when he was a kid, and now that he saw just how big those toy planes got, he was even more envious. They never let him play with them either.

It's not fair, he grumbled subconsciously, and felt his head turn at an odd sound behind.

"Jonas," he said simply, shocked to his friend out of the infirmary on his own. Well, if you classed 'on his own' as having a nurse escort, then Jonas was alone... Jack was confusing himself again. With a shake of his head, he got up, and crossed to his friend.

Jonas was hobbling along on crutches, seemingly a little unaccustomed to them, and Jack reached out to help him, only to find the Kelownan shake his head stubbornly.

"I have to get used to them, Colonel," Jonas smiled, sinking down in the chair Jack offered him.

"What're you doing down here?"

"I heard you were launching the UAV, and had to come and see what you found," Jonas explained, sighing lightly, nodding to the nurse who asked if he was okay.

Jack patted Jonas on the shoulder and laughed quietly. Even after what the young man had been through, that good old curiousity was shining through as per normal.

At that moment, a woman arrived at Jack's side, and as he glanced over, Sam laid a hand on Jonas' arm gently, smiling down at him affectionately.

Jack raised a single eyebrow, but thought nothing more of the sudden bond the two had. True, they had always had a lot in common, and Sam had really been the first one to warm to the alien, but Jack had never seen this much closeness between them. He was a little jealous.

"Activating Stargate," Sergeant Davis announced, dialling up the Gate, calling out each chevron as it locked.

The light exploded out of the ring, and swirled forward, the blue ripples shimmering back into their place gently, the watery surface appealing to the eye.

"Launching UAV," Davis reported, pressing a button, sending the reconnaissance plane forward at a high velocity, and into the event horizon.

Carter took the seat next to Jonas, smiling at him momentarily, and typed something into the keyboard in front of her. "Calling up visual."

Immediately, a video link from the other side appeared, showing them the bird's eye view of what they had been traipsing through lately. The thick forest stretched as far as the eye could see, and every now and then, there were a couple of thin clearings.

"Wait," Jonas mumbled, and pointed at the screen, his ring replaced on his finger. "Can you zoom in on that?"

Sam nodded, and did as she was asked, calling up a closer view on a rather large clearing. "Wow."

"You can say that again," Jack muttered under his breath, and peered closer.

"Do you see that?" Jonas said quietly, his voice full of awe.

On the screen before them was a scene of apparent peace and harmony. A large family group of the creatures was collected, each one nuzzling the next, and caringly attending to young. A huge single creature stood with his paws on a rock before him, his claws gouging into the surface below.

"They did it," Jonas breathed in amazement.

"What?" Jack asked, simply not understanding.

"They carved the images into the rock I found," Jonas explained, shaking his head. "That's amazing."

"How?"

"They're building a civilization. Think about it... humans didn't start off so differently. Cave drawings have been found all over this planet. They're just doing it a different way," Jonas told the Colonel, looking up at him, his green eyes displaying his wonder.

"I think Jonas is right," Carter agreed, nodding, and zooming in closer. "This one is the leader, clearly. He's bigger and more dominant, and he's the one carving into the rock. My god, his claws must be so powerful."

"You can take my word for that," Jonas mumbled, considering one of the crutches he was holding, his eyes drifting.

"So they're intelligent," Jack thought aloud. Jonas had been right all along. There had been evolved life on that planet; Jack had just been too arrogant to see it. Maybe if he'd listened to the Kelownan... no, no one was to blame.

With one last look down at Jonas and Carter, Jack turned and left.

* * *

Jonas saw Colonel O'Neill, and he didn't really care. He was obviously annoyed that the Kelownan had been right again... he always got that way when he realised he wasn't right.

Don't be angry with him, he told himself, you can't blame anyone for what happened. Apart from yourself. If you had been looking out for yourself, maybe none of this would have happened, and Major Carter wouldn't have been forced to kill an obviously sentient being.

He shook his head, and got slowly and carefully to one foot, taking a hold of his crutches, and slipping his arms through them, gripping the handles tightly.

Sam stood, and looked at him thoughtfully. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jonas said blandly, shuffling off.

He knew he was being rude, and that Sam was only concerned for him, but the guilt was washing up in him, and he was finding it too much to bear. He remembered seeing something in those feral eyes he hadn't recognised in something so predatory... it had been intelligence all along, understanding.

How did he know that that creature hadn't been a part of that large group he had just seen? How did he know that the animal hadn't been off performing some sort of routine ritual? Maybe it had been the alpha male before it had been killed. Who knew? They would never know now.

Slumping into a chair in his quarters when he got there, he shoved the crutches to one side, and sighed loudly. He was to blame for the destruction of a sentient creature.

Get a grip, he thought, pressing on his eyes to force the moisture back. There was nothing you could do. Sam was just doing the right thing to save me, and I should be thankful.

Hopping over to the bed, he let himself fall onto it gently, and stared at the ceiling, his head heavy with the throbbing of a migraine.

Slowly, he passed into dream.

All he dreamt about was the creature.