At first she had wanted him out of the way. Now, if she had any chance of succeeding in her mission, she needed him alive. It was a problem, of course, but problems were made to be overcome, just as rules were made to be broken. This caused a minor setback in her plans, but the Tau'ri would know that soon enough. They would pay with their lives. It should not have taken this long.

***

As Jack opened his eyes his vision was filled with the faint picture of a familiar face. The face smiled and Jack reached out his arms. "Charlie?" Charlie sat down next to Jack and held onto his hand.

"Hey Dad," He replied. Jack sat up and threw his arms around his son. He held him close and Charlie hugged back. A stray tear escaped Jack's eye as he held on tight. But suddenly the atmosphere changed. Jack felt something was wrong. He thought Charlie must have felt it too, as the boy broke the hug and looked up at Jack. "What's wrong, Dad?" Jack threw his head down and covered his face with his hands. He muttered to himself.

"No. This isn't right. Not right." Charlie reached up and pulled Jack's arms down from his face.

"What do you mean?" he paused as Jack regarded him with puzzlement, "you mean I'm supposed to be dead? That I'm supposed to have killed myself?" Charlie held onto his father's arms tighter.

"No!" Jack protested.

"That was your fault. Your gun. Your fault. You shouldn't have left it lying around. If you hadn't I would still be alive. I was just a child. You were never there for me and you never told me where you were. You killed me!" Jack pulled his arms back and curled himself into a ball. He didn't need this.

"It's true, Jack," a female voice broke through to him. He looked up to see his wife.

"Sara?… No. Not right!"

"You killed him, Jack," Sara walked over to Charlie and put her hands on his shoulders. "Your gun, your fault."

"Your fault Dad."

"Your gun Jack!"

The images of his wife and son filled Jack's head and he let out a cry.

"Colonel? Colonel!" Jack screwed up his eyes, "No! It's not real! Not real!"

"Colonel!" Jack woke up sweating. Alexa stood beside him, holding him down while he got his bearings. "Colonel, are you okay?"

"Charlie," he muttered.

"It was a dream, you're alright now. You were just dreaming," she explained

"No, it wasn't a dream… it was too vivid. Too real," Jack calmed and closed his eyes. "Too real…"

Alexa smiled sympathetically and checked Jack's vitals. Hammond was stood behind her. "Is he okay?" he asked. Alexa sighed.

"I'm not sure, sir. There's a chemical I can't identify in his blood. It could be the cause of his dreams or hallucinations. I'm not sure which they are," she hesitated and took a deep breath before continuing, "sir, there's another thing. There's no sign of the Goa'uld in the colonel's body."

"Where is it?" Hammond asked, as though expecting Alexa to have the answer, but he knew what would be said.

"I'm afraid I don't know, but the only other people in the control room when we found him were Teal'c and Major Carter."

"And a Goa'uld can't take a Jaffa as a host," Hammond jumped in, "which means that the Goa'uld is now in Major Carter?" Alexa nodded

"There's a good chance, sir."

"Stay here and keep an eye on things. I'll sort it out." He noticed the worried look on Alexa's face, "Don't worry," he comforted her, "I'll make sure Major Carter will be okay." Alexa nodded and smiled. Hammond walked away. At least I hope she'll be okay, he thought.

***

Sam had made her way into the Gate room and over to Daniel. She felt for a pulse and found a weak one. There is still time, she thought. Kneeling down beside him she leaned in close. She closed her eyes as the symbiote uncoiled from her spine and leaped out of her neck, into Daniel's previous entry wound. Almost immediately he woke with glowing eyes and forced the air into his lungs. Sam felt as though something hit her and she jolted up before looking down at her friend. "Daniel?" Daniel's eyes darted from the ceiling to Sam. They were cold and full of fury. Daniel thrust his arm forward and grabbed Sam's neck before she had chance to pull away. He sat up and held onto her arm with his other hand. Sam's remaining hand was working on breaking free, but Daniel was too strong. He pulled her towards him, a yell escaped from somewhere inside Sam as the symbiote left Daniel and once again burrowed into Sam's neck. Daniel took a sudden, deep breath and swallowed hard. He looked up at Sam. She rolled her head back and then met Daniel's gaze. His look changed to a wary one and he edged backwards across the floor. Sam leapt forward and grabbed Daniel by the arm. She dragged him back and pulled out the needle she had used on Jack first: the one she had informed him was a mixture of nishta and something else. As Daniel struggled to break free, Sam reached over and injected his neck.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Daniel immediately became relaxed and fell back towards Sam. She stood and pulled Daniel up with her. She dragged him over to the wall and sat him up against it. Daniel's thoughts were lost in a cloud of confusion so much so that he didn't have the strength to fight back. Sam took Daniel's gun from his side and stood up. She ran to the control room and started to dial up the gate.

***

The alarms blared around the SGC for unauthorised gate activation. Hammond was already on his way to the control room with a young lieutenant when he heard them. The two men picked up speed as they ran in. "Get the blast doors open!" Hammond ordered. The lieutenant complied and the blast doors opened in time for the two to see Sam stood before the event horizon of the gate, holding a weary looking Daniel and his gun. "Shut down the gate," Hammond said.

"I can't, sir," the lieutenant answered, "I'm locked out!"

The noise from the blast doors caused Sam to spin around to face Hammond in the control room. She pulled Daniel closer to her and held the gun to his head. "If you attempt to stop me in anyway, I will not hesitate to kill him."

Hammond held out a hand to stop the lieutenant. "Do we have the address of the planet?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," came the reply. Hammond nodded and watched as Sam stepped closer to the wormhole and stepped through, letting Daniel fall inches before it onto the ramp. The wormhole disengaged and Hammond ran down to the Gate room to help Daniel, all the time wondering where Sam had gone, and if they would ever be able to bring her back alive.