"Daniel, tell them to release them immediately. Then dial up the gate and leave with them."
"You'll need an interpreter."
"I think I can handle this on my own. For once just do as I say."
It seemed all too easy, the men were freed and the gate dialed. O'Neill shed his vest and all his equipment and handed them to Daniel; for the first time that day actually looked him in the eye. He grasped his arm as he handed over his weapons. And a soft, barely voiced 'thank you' was all he said.
His officers disappeared through the wormhole and he turned himself over to the village elders. They started the slow walk to the village, the road lined on either side with most of the village inhabitance and many from the surrounding country side. Some were there just for the novelty of seeing an off-worlder, some to join in the mourning of the dead child and many, many more there to exact vengeance. They threw whatever they could lay their hands on at him, those closer spit at him or tore at his clothing. The crowds were only admonished when a poorly aimed stone hit one of the elders. When he was flung into the cell, he was filthy and covered with bruises and scratches, but what he felt was the unadulterated hatred of the people seeping into his bones.
oooooooooooooooooooooo
Daniel realized in the moment the Jack look at him and thanked him that the man was divesting himself of more than his weapons. He was shedding himself of rank, of the SGC, of friends, of life. And he couldn't protest. This was Jack, this was the person he was. He didn't leave his men behind and would protect them even if it meant placing his own body in the line of fire. Daniel stumbled through the gate feeling angry and despondent. He wished that Teal'c were here, he would have hauled O'Neill bodily back through the gate but he was off with the newly forming Jaffa nation. Or maybe Sam would have thought of something but she was off with Pete.
Pete, now that was a surprise to Daniel. After all these years he always though something was going on beneath the surface with Sam and Jack, something deeper than the flirting of the earlier years. But lately Jack had gotten grouchier and Sam more distant so he guessed things had fallen apart. He figured Jack wasn't getting any and Sam was looking for something she didn't have to hide. But Pete, Geeze, next to Jack, the guy was a total looser. Maybe Sam knew something he didn't. Well, wasn't the old saw 'Comparisons are odious' and that fit the guy to a T – odious. Was this why Jack walked so calmly into the hands of these men so bent on revenge?
Christ what was he thinking as he headed to the General's office now inhabited by Colonel Reynolds. They needed to find a solution – they needed to get Jack back in one piece. On the way he ran smack into Sam.
oooooooooooooooooooo
"How could this have happened?"
"Actually I'm surprised this has never happened before." Daniel said, thinking of the accidental death of the child.
Carter, in fact, meant them allowing General O'Neill to turn himself over, to toss away his life for someone he didn't know. How could he walk away from everything so easily and embrace death? What the hell was wrong with him?
Reynolds asked the assembled team leaders for suggestions on how to approach this problem considering the General himself had settled it by buying back SG – 9 with his own life and would be royally pissed if any more lives were lost rescuing him either the lives of the members of the SGC or of the native population.
Lieutenant Colonel Carter suggested an immediate rescue mission the consequences be damned. It was easier to ask pardon than permission. But Daniel countered.
"What if their method of exacting punishment is the same as the original loss of life? What if Jack is in front of that gate right now waiting for us to do to him exactly what happen to that child?"
Hammond was on his way from D.C. to pick up the rein and no one envied him the task.