DISCLAIMER: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-1, the goa'uld and all other characters that have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of the people who made them up. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

Acquisition

Part five

Jack had ordered his team to position themselves a short distance from the 'gate, leaving SG2 to watch the 'gate itself.

'But we need to maintain a close watch on what goes on - if it were me, I'd have someone watching the gate ready to report back to base. Their only means of escape is through this gate but I don't want to scare them into doing anything stupid - we're going to get them back in one piece.'

And so they waited for nearly an hour. Teal'c silently approached Jack, receiving a nod from the Colonel to indicate that he too had seen movement. They waited a little longer until the shadows solidified into trees and the ruins of the temple. Getting to his feet, Jack searched the temple ruins with Sam while Teal'c looked a little further afield. While they were looking the sound of muffled cries alerted them.

Taking cover, they made their way silently towards the source of the disturbance, watching what was going on.

A struggle was going on, two men were trying to hold Daniel still, while the man who'd pretended to be Major Hutch kept a firm grip on a dishevelled figure who was also trying to free herself. Daniel, surprising both his captors and Jack, managed to free himself, snatching a zat gun from one of the guards and quickly neutralised them. Major Hutch grabbed his own zat gun and now had it jammed against Alison's head, succeeding in shutting her up and halting Daniel in his tracks. Deciding it was time they lent a hand, Jack motioned for Sam and Teal'c to show themselves.

'Hey!' Jack called out, startling the group in front of them. 'Put the guns down and put your hands in the air.' The response wasn't quite what he expected. Three people immediately took flight, running as hard as they could in the direction of the 'gate, surprising SG2 by the sounds of it. He could hear the gate activating and he half-listened as his radio crackled into life and Ferretti spoke a few words, but he had no time to worry about that. He still had the hardest part to take care of.

Then his job became that much easier - the two men Daniel had shot began to come to and Alison used her captor's momentary distraction to bite down hard on the hand holding the zat. That was all Jack needed. Yelling at Alison to get down, he fired off a single shot, taking the man in the shoulder, disabling him. Watching him warily all the time, Jack approached Alison and held out a hand to help her up. She looked at him for a moment as though she were afraid of him, then he saw her eyes clear and she took his hand, climbing stiffly to her feet. His eyes took in the stiffness of her movements, the way she favoured her left arm and tried to avoid twisting. He also saw the bruises on her face and a crust of dried blood on the side of her head.

Daniel moved up to join Jack, obscuring his view of what was happening behind him.

'Look out, sir!' The warning came just in time. The man he'd shot in the shoulder was not so badly injured as he thought and was on his knees, aiming a gun at Alison, his trigger finger already moving.

Jack threw himself at Alison, knocking her off her feet so she fell backwards, landing heavily with Jack's full weight on top of her just as a bullet whistled past them, stopped by a tree instead of Alison's back. A bolt of light from Teal'c's staff weapon flashed past and hit Jonas squarely in the chest. He dropped to his knees, a surprised look on his face before he slumped forward. Teal'c, ensuring he was dead, moved to stand guard over the other two men, securing their hands behind them and waiting for further instructions.

Alison lay still for a few moments, stunned by what had just taken place. Then she could feel the weight on top of her moving slightly, trying to ease off her, warm breath on the side of her face where his mouth was. She panicked. All she could think of were the memories of the last two nights and she lashed out even as Jack rolled off her, the heel of her hand crashing into his nose with more strength than she knew she possessed.

'What the…?' Jack cupped his hands over his nose, trying to stem the bleeding even as he got to his knees and tried to find out what had just happened. 'What was that for?' Jack asked, receiving no response, watching as Alison sat up and shuffled away from him, her eyes dilated with fear. 'Alison?' He spoke more gently, one hand reaching out, but only succeeding in making her back further away.

Daniel moved forward to help, but also without success. It wasn't until Sam shooed the others away, telling Daniel to treat Jack's bleeding nose, that Alison calmed down.

'Alison? It's Sam - Captain Carter. It's ok, you're safe now.' Sam spoke soothingly to her, crouching beside her, touching her lightly on her arm, realising that something else must have happened while she was being held captive.

'Captain Carter? Oh, god, I…I…'

'It's ok, it's alright, we're here to take you home.' Alison dissolved into tears, her shoulders drooping as she realised she was indeed safe, coupled with the shock of what she had gone through. Sam sat beside Alison, putting a comforting arm around her, reassuring her. At last the tears eased and she turned to Sam.

'I'm sorry. I…It…'

'Alison, did anything happen back there?' Sam asked gently, needing to find out exactly what had gone on.

'Not really. He tried…tried to…but…it was awful…he was there but I struggled…but he had a knife…then they got the message you had arrived - luckily for me - and they brought us out with them to try to get through the gate.' Alison stumbled over the words, shivering as she recalled events, then looked wildly around. 'Daniel? Where is he? Is he ok?'

'He's just checking out Colonel O'Neill - that was quite a punch you pulled there,' Sam grinned at her reassuringly, letting her know that none of them would take her actions personally. 'Are you injured at all? Can you walk?'

Alison nodded that she was alright and Sam helped her up, supporting her when she swayed and looked to be in danger of falling over.

'Whoa there,' Sam said as she realised that all was not well, easing Alison to a sitting position, her back against a tree for support. 'Ok, let's see what we've got here.' Sam checked Alison over, spotting the injured wrist in an instant. 'Guys, can you just go over there for a minute while I finish checking Alison?' Sam lifted Alison's shirt away and winced at the bruises forming on her stomach and on her chest. Gently probing the bruised areas with her fingers she was able to determine that nothing seemed to be broken and there wasn't any internal bleeding. She repeated the process on Alison's back, coming to the same conclusion. She finished up by cleaning the worst of the cuts on Alison's face and dressing the gash on her forehead, smiling sympathetically when she saw Alison wince as she applied the antiseptic ointment.

Sam sat back on her heels, helping Alison make herself decent again. As an afterthought, on noticing her shivering in spite of the warmth of the sun, Sam felt Alison's forehead and realised she had a fever.

'Colonel, we're ready to go,' Sam reported. 'How's Daniel?'

'Jack - will you stop being such a baby - the bleeding's stopped now and there's nothing wrong with you,' Daniel sounded exasperated.

'That's all very well for you to say, Daniel, you don't have a broken nose,' Jack replied, sounding sorry for himself.

'And neither do you. It's no wonder Janet tries to get you out of the infirmary as quickly as she does if you whine like this all the time,' Daniel retorted.

'I am not whining, I'm injured and I'm in pain. Oh, hi.' Jack sounded sheepish as he became aware of the two women watching the scene. 'Anything I need to know about Captain?' He kept his tone light, not wanting to probe too deeply at the moment.

'Not really, sir. I think Alison's left wrist is broken but I've bandaged that, she has a nasty cut on her head and a bit of a temperature and she's got a load of bruises but she should be ok until we get her back to Dr Fraiser.' Sam reported. 'Daniel?'

'Oh, I'm fine,' Daniel grimaced slightly, almost apologetically, ashamed he had got off so lightly while Alison had been used as a punch bag. 'Just a few cuts and bruises, nothing serious though.'

'Excellent!' Jack got to his feet and began putting his pack back on. 'Well, I can't see any reason to stay around here any longer - we'll head on back home. SG2 went after the three who got through the 'gate, they were going to signal General Hammond when they arrived and got things sorted out. Everyone ready?' Jack looked at Alison, receiving a small smile back for his efforts, thankful that she was not going to try to break his nose again.

They made their way back to the 'gate, keeping the pace steady to allow for Alison's injuries. Alison was walking between Sam and Daniel, Jack leading the way while Teal'c walked in the middle of the group keeping a close watch on the two captives.

'Daniel - you want to dial it up?' Jack said, watching Daniel press the correct symbols before hitting the central control crystal. The symbols were all alight but nothing happened.

Daniel tried again, then Sam tried but still nothing was happening.

'Daniel? Carter?' Jack asked in a quiet, undemanding voice.

'I don't know sir, it should be working.' Even as she responded to Jack, she was examining the panels beneath the DHD, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. After a few minutes she called Teal'c over to assist. Half an hour later the Colonel began tapping his foot impatiently, just as Sam approached him.

'It looks like they booby-trapped the device, sir,' Sam informed him. 'Probably just in case we saw the co-ordinates they gated to. I think they used…'

'What did you do?' Jack turned on their captives who were sitting to one side of the DHD looking smug. When he received no reply, he moved closer towards them, fingering the safety on his P-90 ominously. The two captives began to look nervous having heard of the reputation of the leader of SG1. They looked at each other, deciding whether to respond when Sam interrupted this silent interchange.

'Sir - I've got it figured now but it'll take some time to fix.'

'How much time?' Jack asked, trying to remain calm and in control. He'd a bad day and it looked like it wasn't going to get better any time soon.

'About four or five hours I'd say,' Sam informed him before her attention was caught by a light flickering in the sky followed closely by a long, low rumble. 'Sir, this could complicate things, if it's anything like the last storm we encountered here.' SG1 recalled the wildness of the storm, the lashing rain, the strong gusts of wind and the bolts of lightning that made contact with the ground at all too regular intervals.

'Ok.' Jack looked thoughtfully at Alison, standing there watching what was happening, her face flushed with a worsening fever. 'Daniel, you take Alison to that building alongside the temple. Carter, I want you and Teal'c to make a start here until the storm gets closer. I want you to join us before things get too bad - is that clear?' He glared at Sam, knowing that she would continue working in spite of the danger to herself, but also knew that Teal'c would ensure she got to safety if she did allow herself to get carried away.

'Sir.' Sam was already pulling out wires from the DHD, and talking rapidly to Teal'c, giving him instructions.

Jack scrabbled around in Sam's pack, pulled out a couple of items and stuffed them into his own before turning to the two captives, urging them to their feet to follow Daniel and Alison.

They were about half way to safety when a bright flash and a loud crack indicated the storm was right on top of them. Momentarily blinded by the lightning, Jack suddenly realised the two captives had escaped. Looking desperately around, knowing how dangerous it could be to be out in this weather, he finally spotted them making their way into a nearby wooded area.

'No!' Jack yelled after them, trying to warn them, but his voice was drowned by the next rumble of thunder that had accompanied a flash of lightning immediately over the trees. He caught a brief glimpse of a white ball of flame surrounding two figures, their dying screams drowned by the thunder. After only a few minutes there was nothing left but two sets of unrecognisable charred remains. Jack swallowed down the bile rising in his throat and turned to the two people under his command who he could help, thankful when he saw Daniel had continued to urge Alison in the direction of the building and had not witnessed the horrific death of those two men.