SpitefulHope – A gooey consistency? That's an interesting way of putting it.

Heather – the dark side of Willow is fantastic, her resolve face is fantastic, she's such a wonderful character :)

Gaeriel Mallroy – Dawn and Stargates…I have big plans for that one.

Thank you to everyone else who reviewed, your questions and suggestions are all taken into account.

Chapter 4

Janet entered her house warily, Cassie was having a friend to stay the night and she wasn't sure what she should expect when she arrived. The downstairs lights were off but she could see that the landing light was on at the top of the stairs.

"Cassie!" she called up and cocked her head searching for a response. Within seconds footsteps thundered above her head and her foster-daughter made an appearance.

"Hi mom, this is Dawn." Cassie enthused giving Janet a big hug, the girl behind her bounced lightly on the balls of her feet and gave a small wave. She had big brown doe eyes and hair that fell to her hips, she was wearing a pair of jeans that flared at the ends and a dark sweater.

"Hi Miss. Frasier…uh, thanks for letting me stay." She said, a little unsure of herself. Janet gave her a reassuring smile and released Cassie.

"Hungry?" Both Dawn and Cassie nodded eagerly and Janet laughed, "OK, I'm going to get changed but go ahead and order. I'll have the vegetarian special." Cassie picked up the phone and pressed speed-dial, Dawn frowned.

"You have the pizza place on speed-dial?" The other girl grinned as she placed their order whilst Dawn tried to stifle her laughter. Cassie blushed as the person on the other end asked how she was, when she answered Dawn sneaked into the lounge and laughed into a cushion.

Willow listened to the snores of Jonas who was lying next to her on his back with his arms folded across his front. Colonel O'Neill was sitting by the dwindling fire with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. She shifted round a bit more so that he was in her line of sight and watched him as he poked at the dying embers. Silently he re-stoked it and sat back down still looking bored. She settled back, the day's events were beginning to cradle her gently into sleep. As her limbs relaxed and her eyelids drooped she could faintly hear Jack whistling to himself.

"Jack!" Willow jerked, the dawn was just breaking and yet she could swear she had only just bedded down for the night. Scuffling sounds met her ears and more yells, she ripped the sleeping bag off herself not caring that she was only wearing the black cycling shorts and tank top that were supposed to go under her uniform. There was another yell and this time it was accompanied by a slight breeze and pain flowed over Willow, Jonas' pain. Something had him by the neck and was dangling him a few centimetres from the ground. Just enough that the tips of his boots brushed the golden leaves but not enough to support himself by.  

"Jonas, don't move!" Jack's voice floated ethereally across to them. He was being pinned down by another creature and struggling valiantly to try and reach his friend. It was big – tall and muscular but not at all human. For a start it was covered in blue scales and its head, whilst vaguely human was drawn into a point at the back. It had no nose that she could see, its eyes were small black slits and its mouth was a gaping hole of pointed teeth. Its hands were clawed and a row of spines ran down its back all the way down to its stub of a tail. As she started forward she felt the magick stir and move to accommodate her acceptance of it, the pain her team-mates were feeling served only to fuel her anger. She reached out and felt only the presence of the four creatures inside their camp, which meant that there were none in the wild foliage that fenced them in.

"DR ROSENBURG!" Teal'c shouted out a warning, the monster he had been grappling with had turned away and was advancing on her, as was Colonel O'Neill's and the one that had knocked Sam unconscious. Jack and Teal'c raised their weapons to fire but were abruptly stopped when Willow lifted up her hands. She could feel the change, she knew that her hair and eyes were reflecting the evil of the magick within her. With a grin she ignited the tail of one, it only growled and continued on towards her.

"I like a bit of rough." Smirked Willow waving a hand. Jonas fell to the ground coughing and drawing in great gasps of air as the creature that had previously been holding him stood frozen. His hunting knife slid from his waistband and embedded itself in the chest of one creature. Colonel O'Neill's P90 began to fire of its own will effectively cutting down another. She approached the one that had almost killed Jonas and touched its cheek, it swiped out a handful of claws in a blow that would have killed her had it not ignited in flames, burning from the inside out. She turned to the final creature. It fled into the forest and all eyes followed it, silence fell over the small group, disturbed seconds later by a small explosion somewhere in the trees. With a wicked grin still playing over her lips Willow's eyes rolled up in her head and she crumpled to the floor.

Janet was curled up on an armchair holding a pizza box on her knee. She had wanted to put it on a plate but Cassie had argued heatedly that it was no fun to eat it that way and in the end Janet had given in. Cassie and Dawn had a box on the table in front of them while they watched a film. She was enjoying herself, she hadn't spent a full night with Cassie for a long time. She felt herself drifting into what she hoped would be a peaceful sleep when the phone shrilled. Rubbing her temples tiredly she mumbled a hello into the receiver and attempted to wake herself up. Cassie looked at her mother expectantly as she put the phone back in its cradle.

"Sorry, work. You girls can take care of yourselves?" both nodded emphatically at her, "OK, any problems Miss. Wilson's number is on the bookcase in the hall, my number's next to it." She kissed Cassie, bid goodbye to Dawn and left. She drove to the SGC on automatic pilot, she felt haggard and tired after weeks of physicals and dealing with the many injuries of the returning off world teams. She tried to calculate the amount of sleep she had had in total that week and came up with a very small figure. If she was counting undisturbed sleep – none. She was a Doctor, she really should know better.

"Your pass ma'am?" She hadn't even realised that she had reached the SGC, blankly she held up her badge in its plastic wallet and the gate opened to admit her. She pulled into a parking space relatively near to the mountain and turned off the engine. She knew she shouldn't be wasting time but she pulled out a mirror and ran some concealer over the bottoms of her eyes before locking up and racing into the facility. General Hammond met her as she exited the elevator.

"SG1?" she questioned and he nodded grimly. She hoped desperately that nothing too bad had happened to their newest member. The girl was barely out of high school yet she was extremely bright and had already been approached by one major software company for her skills. After coming across her file the SGC had been eager to snap her up before anybody else got there first. However, Janet believed that she would not have taken this job if the circumstances had not been as they were. If not for the death of her best friend the young woman would have turned them down just as she had turned down the software company.

"Doctor?" She raised her eyes to look around the room; Jack was pacing the room whilst Sam sat on one of the beds dressed in BDUs but around her neck livid bruises were beginning to appear. Jonas appeared to be sleeping he also bore marks around his neck and next to him with an oxygen mask over her still features was the newest and youngest recruit. Janet was by her side in an instant.

"What happened?" She demanded taking in her patient's sleeping form a frown etching itself on her features. The pillow was damp and stained an inky black, Willow's bright red hair was streaked with the colour. Great, black tracks ran the length of her cheeks almost as if she had been crying whilst wearing make-up.

"I think this is best saved for the debriefing." Interrupted Jack rubbing a hand over the back of his neck looking slightly nervous. He didn't exactly have a believable tale to tell.

Thanks for reading, sorry about the wait for this chapter but hopefully it was worth it :S