Here's chapter 2, once again excellently betaed by Naliza!!

Thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter, your reviews really do help me write faster.  So if you want more chapters get reviewing!!! ;)

*~*

"What did that mean?" Stone asked, looking down at Sergeant Davis.

"Colonel Carter and General O'Neill are a couple, Sir," Davis supplied the answer.

"Right," Stone said, slightly taken aback, it was the last thing he had expected to hear. 

"Let me know if anything changes," he ordered before leaving the control room and heading back to his office.

The General walked slowly up to his office.  He had never met O'Neill but had heard much about him from the officers who had been under his command.  He was not particularly looking forward to making this phone call.  He tracked down the necessary number and took a deep breath before he started to dial.

Jack was almost finished with the cooking and was beginning to worry slightly as the team was two and a half-hour overdue.  He smiled as the phone rang and snatched the phone from the counter.

"Hello," he said in a relaxed tone.

"Jack O'Neill?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"This is General Stone, from the SGC."

"What happened? Is Sam okay?" Jack asked frantically, his mind racing.

"For now," Stone admitted.

"What do you mean 'for now', what happened?" Jack asked insistently.

"I can't really discuss it over the phone.  Why don't you come over to the base, we can discuss it better here."

"I'll be there in a half hour," Jack said as he hung up the phone and turned off the oven.

Jack made it to Cheyenne Mountain in twenty minutes.  He made the familiar journey down into the depths of the mountain to the SGC levels where he was met on level 27 by a man who he assumed to be General Stone.  They shook hands quickly before walking to Stone's office.  The last time Jack had been in the SGC was to clear out his office; it was strange for him to be back.

"Why don't you sit down?"

"No really, I'll stand," Jack said impatiently, wanting to know what was going on.

"Okay.  We received a transmission from P4Y-543 almost thirty minutes ago."

"P4Y-543?" Jack asked.  He always had a hard time remembering the designations given to planets.

"SG-1's destination," Stone said simply, he watched as Jack's face fell slightly. 

Jack knew that there must be something seriously wrong for him to be called into the base.

"And?" He asked quietly.

"Why don't I show you the tape, I should warn you though it isn't pretty,"

"Show me," Jack replied shortly, he needed to know what was going on.

Stone lead the way through to the briefing room.  Jack sat down next to the table and closely watched the screen.  He stayed quiet throughout the viewing of the footage.  His face gave nothing away until he saw the man break Sam's arm whereupon he looked sickened at what he had seen.  This look changed to anger as he saw the man gently stroking Sam's face.  Stone heard him swear under his breath as the video cut out and he could not blame him for that, it summed up his feelings pretty well.

It hurt Jack to see Sam in that situation, to see someone casually cause her pain like that.  His blood boiled that the man was able to look at her in that way, to touch her so gently.  Having to watch it on video, a half hour after the fact made it so much worse, he was powerless to help her, Daniel and Teal'c.  He stared at the blank screen, hoping that it would show something more promising but no more images appeared.

"I thought the planet was uninhabited," Jack said calmly but anger was building up inside him.

"All indications showed that it was.  You must have experienced a similar situation?"

"Yes but no one there captured us and demanded weapons for our release," Jack answered barely keeping the volume of his voice down, his calm hold on the situation was rapidly failing.

"So what are you going to do about this?" Jack added, once he had cooled off slightly.

"What else can I do but give them what they want?"

Jack shook his head; he knew that if they did that then SG-1's captors would surely kill them.  Another thought came running into his mind and would not leave.  What if they killed Daniel and Teal'c while keeping Sam around for a while?

"You can't negotiate with these people.  They won't let SG-1 go no matter what you give them," Jack explained, doing his best to detach himself from the situation.  He was finding that impossible though since it was not some nameless team out there.  SG-1 was his friends, his family.

"Are you sure about this?" Stone asked.

"Completely.  There's only one thing people like this understand and that's violence.  I've been captured more than my fair share of times.  I know when people are going to release you and when they're going to kill you in the end no matter what anyone does.  Sam knows it too, you can see in her eyes," Jack explained. 

He could read Sam almost perfectly.  He was able to tell that she had been told what to say.  Her only unscripted line had been her plea to call him which in itself told him a lot.  She must have been frightened to ask for him to be called.  She knew that diplomacy could not help them this time.

"So what do we do?  They said they'll kill SG-1 if anyone goes in," Stone asked.  He was appealing to Jack for help.

"What choice do we have?  We must go and get them back," Jack implored.  There was no way he could leave them to die.

*~*

General Stone, Jack, Major Griff and Colonel Reid were in the briefing room putting the finishing touches to their plan.  Griff and Reid were going to lead SG-2 and SG-5 on the rescue mission.  They had just under an hour before the deadline expired and it was decided that they must go in before that time.  Jack kept checking his watch, willing the minutes to pass.  He was finding it very difficult to wait.  He did not know what was happening to SG-1 and the fact that he was not even sure whether they were still alive was eating at him.

After checking his watch again, Jack looked up towards the Stargate.  He was surprised when it started to activate.  The four men around the table shared similar looks.

"Who's off-world?" Jack asked.

"Just SG-1," Stone answered as he stood.

Jack, Griff and Reid followed him down the stairs to the control room.  They arrived just as the wormhole engaged behind the closed iris.  All eyes in the room were on the bank of computer monitors waiting for an iris code or any other incoming transmission.

"Receiving IDC Sir, it's SG-1," Sergeant Davis said, he was smiling slightly.

As soon as Jack heard this he bolted from the control room, rushing down to the gate room.

"Open the iris," Stone instructed Davis before using the PA system to order a defence team to the gate room.  There was not really any way to know what would come through the gate since, according to the last information they had, SG-1 were being held captive.

Jack watched the gate closely, waiting for someone to come through.  Teal'c was the first, blood dripped slowly from a large gash on his forehead.  He was carrying Daniel in his arms, Jack could see the shoulder of the unconscious archaeologist's jacket was dark with blood.

He vaguely heard a call for a medical team but he was firmly concentrating on the shimmering event horizon.  He exhaled as he saw another figure appear - it was Sam.  She was holding her left arm close to her chest; her P90 clutched tightly by her right hand.  She was weaving slightly, unsteady on her feet.

Jack rushed up the ramp to her side as the gate shut down.  He tenderly wrapped an arm around her waist and felt her fall against him.  He gently picked her up and carried her towards the medical team that had just arrived.  

*~*

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