Author's Note: I'm sorry this chapter and the last one took so long to get out. The trouble I'm having with my laptop is really throwing me for a loop. I never realized just how much I use it in my fanfic writing! But here you go, and I'll try to have another up tonight sometime.

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"We'll split up," Sam said to the others the moment they emerged from the gate and Jaffer had charged over to welcome her back. She wasn't really in charge, but she knew the situation far better than any of those who had just come through with her, and with Teal'c looming behind her and Jaffer and Jack flanking her, no one was going to argue with her anyways. "Rescue teams 1 and 2 with me and Teal'c going east, Rescue teams 3 and 4 go north, and Rescue teams 5 and 6 go west."

"What about the south, Major?" One of the team leaders asked.

"Teal'c and I went south when we came in the first time, and didn't find anyone. We'll try the other directions first and if we don't find anyone, we'll retry that way last." Sam explained as she handed Teal'c a waterproof coat, which the Jaffa put on gratefully. He didn't like to be wet any more than anyone else did.

Jack and Daniel had gone east, which was why Sam and Teal'c were going that way – unless Jaffer could find Jack for them. Then they'd go whatever way Jaffer chose.

"Everyone watch your footing," She reminded them, watching as they all set out, then kneeling down by Jaffer. "Can you take me to Jack, Little man?" She asked him, rubbing his ears lightly. "Find Jack for me, Jaffer."

The black lab seemed to understand exactly what she wanted, because he turned and headed straight east of their position, disappearing into the gloomy night almost immediately so Sam had to call him back to slow him down. They couldn't afford to lose him, and she didn't want him to take a fall in his hurry.

She waved to the members of the home team, and called Jaffer to her side once more. "Let's go."

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"This is impossible," Thorpe complained, loudly so Daniel could hear him, as he slid about twenty feet down to the bottom of the bowl once more. A scattering of loose shale came down with him, and Daniel dodged it. It was almost completely dark, now, and the rain was still coming down furiously hard. The three men had been trying to get up the side of the slope for about half an hour and there had been very little success. Once Daniel had managed to make it about halfway – at least he thought it was halfway – it was hard to tell in the dark.

"We can't give up," Daniel yelled back.

As the lightest member of the three, he was having the easiest time with the rock, but still wasn't able to get out, and he was as close to frantic as he'd ever felt. Jack was gone. Jaffer was gone, and he had no idea where Sam and Teal'c and Jack were. For all he knew, they could have taken a fall as well and be laying somewhere dead or seriously injured and waiting for Jack and Daniel to come looking for them. The thought didn't help make Daniel any more patient when he made his tries at the side of the slope. If anything, he hurried too much, and that added to the reasons he couldn't get up.

"Why don't we see if we can find Colonel O'Neill?"

"He's too far down," Daniel yelled. "And the water's rushing too fast. We're going to need help!"

Thorpe raised his hands helplessly, and then moved out of the way as Lieutenant Dern came sliding down the slope, bringing another rain of shale with him.

"God, I hate this fucking planet!"

Daniel nodded. He did, too. He was just hoping that the planet wasn't going to cost him his best friends.

"My turn to try again!"

He headed up the slope, a little to the side from where he'd tried before, since in some places there the rocks were gone completely and replaced by mud, which was absolutely impossible to get any toehold or handholds on. He counted the steps he took with his feet, knowing that each one was about a foot and a half – more or less – and that he was sure he and Jack had fallen at least 100 feet when they'd taken their tumble. This way he could sort of keep track of his progress even in the dark.

Twenty steps later he stopped and rested. His arms were killing him and his legs were sore from the many scrapes and bruises that had to be all over him from all the falls he'd taken. He knew he and the other two had been lucky that they hadn't been seriously injured in any of their slides down the slope, and knew that eventually that luck was going to run out if they didn't get up soon. There was just too much chance of a nasty fall. Proof of that in the form of Geller's broken knee. His feet were numb with cold and he really couldn't even feel his fingers anymore, which was fine, since he knew they were cut up and scraped from scrabbling all over the rocky hillside.

He gave himself a minute or two to rest, then forced his tired body to get moving once more. The longer they waited, the less hope he had of finding Jack alive when he brought help. His hand went up, feeling for anything solid that might hold some of his weight, and his foot moved at the same time. Twenty-one. Twenty-two...

Something hit his hand. A piece of the shale. Daniel looked up the slope, since that was where the rock had come from, and he was suddenly worried that somewhere above him the entire mountain was giving way. Wouldn't that just be the capper for what was already a shitty day? Another rock came down on him, and then a small shower of them. Daniel was stuck debating what to do. Did he dare risk sticking it out on the side of the hill and hoping that was the worst of it? If it wasn't, he could take a fall that was just as nasty as anything Geller had taken. But he'd come so far already, he was loathe to stop and go back down and wait for the rocks to stop falling.

Then a large black form came barreling into him, and only the fact that Daniel had stopped on a fairly solid piece of rock kept the sudden added weight from sending him tumbling back down the hill.

"Jaffer!"

A cold nose stuck itself against his neck and Daniel didn't even flinch away from it. He was so glad to see the black lab again.

There was more rock falling, though, which meant the black lab must have set loose some kind of chain reaction from coming down the slope, and Daniel pushed the nose away from his neck carefully.

"We've gotta get back down, Jaffer, or we're going to bring the whole side of the hill down on Thorpe and Dern."

Suddenly a pale form came out of the darkness as well, in a shower of rocks that cascaded over Daniel's head and clattered as they fell the rest of the way down the slope. An excited bark sounded as Jack came crashing into Daniel, and this time the rock he was standing on wasn't solid enough to support it. Not the weight of Daniel and the two big labs. He felt the rock give way, and had the horrible sensation of weightlessness just before he started to fall.

"Shit!"

From out of nowhere a hand grabbed his wrist in a steel grip, stopping his plummet before it could start, and Teal'c's deep voice came out of the night.

"I have you, Daniel Jackson."