He had to go to her house. As much as he would have liked taking the easy way out and calling her over the phone, he didn't know her phone number. So he had to go talk to her face to face. So he stopped in and checked on Daniel once more before he went, just to make sure he had the absolute latest update on his condition, and then went and gathered up Jaffer – who'd go ballistic if he knew Jack was off base without him – and headed for Sally's house.

He'd been there once, with Daniel, but only for a moment, and he'd stayed in the car. Still, Jack was impressed with himself that he remembered how to get there, and he pulled the truck up along the street and parked behind Daniel's car, looking at Sally's house and wishing Sam were with him. She was a lot better at these things than Jack was, and besides, she knew Sally a bit better.

The sun was going down, but there were lights on in her windows, proving that she was most likely there and he wouldn't be able to use that as an excuse to avoid this. Belatedly thinking that he probably should have changed out of his dusty BDUs, Jack let Jaffer out of the truck and headed for the door, and rang the bell.

She opened the door almost immediately, and was truly surprised to see Jack standing there.

"Hi, Jack. Is your emergency over?"

Oh, yeah. Jack didn't know her well, but he knew mad when he saw it. She was mad.

"Um... kind of." He looked over her shoulder into the house, uncomfortably. "Uh... can I come in? I need to talk to you."

"No. What, did Daniel run out of his own excuses and send you to lie for him, this time?"

Yeah, she was mad. He didn't need her to cross her arms over her breasts like she was for Jack to know she was mad.

"Uh, listen... I know you're mad. But..."

"But what, Jack? You know, I'm not stupid. I know when I'm being lied to. I don't know exactly what an archeologist has to do with deep space telemetry, but I'm willing to bet that the answer is absolutely nothing, which means that either he's not really an archeologist, or you're not really in deep space telemetry."

Yeah. Jack rubbed his face, tiredly, and changed the subject as quickly as he could.

"Daniel's been hurt."

"We've all been hurt, Jack. Relationships do that to-"

"Not hurt. Hurt. Injured. Hurt. Wounded."

"What? How?"

"Yeah... uh... I can't tell you that."

"What? Why not? Is it serious? Where is he?"

That concern told Jack she had feelings for Daniel, at least, and that they weren't all negative.

"Can I come in?"

She moved to the side to allow him and Jaffer room to walk past her, and Jack looked around uncomfortably, trying to figure out what he could and couldn't tell her.

"Nice place..."

"Where is he, Jack? Is he going to be all right?"

A small dark shape peeked its head out from a corner, and a moment later a very tiny kitten came into view, its head up and its tail up as it walked into the room to see who had invaded its territory. Jaffer eyed it with interest, his tail wagging idly as the kitten came over and looked up at him. Way up. Obviously, though, it wasn't worried about the black lab hurting it, because there was no hissing or spitting, and when Jaffer lowered his nose to sniff it, the kitten didn't so much as move.

"He's not going to hurt her, is he?" Sally asked, slightly anxious.

"Nah."

Jack was grateful for the distraction, but Sally scooped up the kitten and went over and set her on the back of the couch, where she was now just slightly higher than Jaffer, who walked over and continued checking it out.

"You didn't answer my question, Jack." Sally said, once she was positive Jaffer wasn't going to hurt her kitten.

There were so many he hadn't answered. Jack wondered which one she meant. He picked the easiest.

"He'll be fine. He just hasn't woken up, yet. Otherwise I'm sure he would have called you."

"He's unconscious?"

"Yeah, but don't worry. The doctor says he's going to be all right, and she's top notch."

"What happened?" She asked, and then raised a hand towards him to stop him from answering. "And don't tell me you can't tell me. I want to know."

"There are some things I can't tell you, Sally."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't."

"Then tell me what you can."

"He really is an archeologist."

She smiled, slightly, for the first time since he'd arrived. "I know that, Jack. I've read his books, and he's far too knowledgeable on the subject to not be. Which means you and Sam aren't really doing deep space telemetry?"

Jack shrugged. "Yeah, well... What do I know about deep space telemetry?"

"Nothing?"

"Less than that, I assure you."

"So what do you do?"

"Well, it's kind of classified," Jack said. "Actually, it's really classified."

"And Daniel does this, too?"

Jack nodded.

"Is he in the military?"

"No."

"Are you?"

"Oh, yes."

"Sam?"

"Yes."

"Murray?"

"Not exactly."

"How did Daniel get hurt?"

"Some friends of ours were... ambushed, and we had to go help get them out."

"Ambushed?"

Jack nodded.

"With guns and such?"

Jack shrugged. "We had guns... the... bad guys have a different kind of gun."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. That's what Daniel was hit with. But don't worry. It didn't kill him, and if you don't die immediately, then usually you're okay. We wear vests..." He pulled up the front of his shirt, showing her the bandages that were covering his own staff weapon injury obtained only the day before. "I got hit with one the other day, and I'm already on my feet. See?"

She walked over and held his shirt up, and actually ran her hand along the bandage until she reached the padded area on his back, where the wound was. "That's not a gunshot bandage."

"I told you it wasn't a gun, Sally," Jack said, stepping back and pulling his shirt down.

"It's like what you'd use on a burn..."

"Yeah."

"When did you get that?"

"Yesterday. But it wasn't very serious. My vest took most of the hit."

"Yesterday when Daniel was supposed to be meeting my parents?"

Jack nodded.