A/N: Okay, okay, sorry, sorry, sorry about all the loose ends left hanging after the last chapter! It was evil (yes Ruth!)... forgiveness? (By the way LanaJoy this is 'almost' a chapter a day now, isn't it?)

HEARTFELT Thanks also to csl, froggy0319, igotnothin, ann-sgcfan, janissima, aligewe, trtlsoup, jj, Gillian, stargatefan, ilovesg1,vamp, jaka, SLDM12, Samantha, ascifigirl, Kurnal Jack, O'Neill with 2 L's, Charlie, babmidnight, Natters, dottid, feb04, Gateseeker02, misstweedledee, BuckeyeBelle, GLE, Matt1969 for writing reviews! I used a lot of your questions/suggestions to figure out where to take this- thanks for all the great input. You are so encouraging!

So...down to the last few chapters now...

It was Saturday afternoon. Jack, Daniel, and Teal'C were driving much faster than the posted speed limits in their desperation to get to North Inlet. Jack had checked all the flight schedules and realized it would take just as long to fly and rent a car as it would to drive. So they drove, during which he filled in Daniel and Teal'C on all the events that had led up to this rescue mission. For a rescue mission it was. Jack could only hope they'd get to Sam in time.

"So you had no idea Sam would do something like this until you found the e-ticket this morning?" Daniel asked again.

"I should have known she couldn't let go of it. She tried to ask me about something she'd found in my legal papers and I blew her off. I was tired of it all and told her I was going to just forget about it."

"Knowing Sam, that didn't go over well." Daniel commented.

"Well, I didn't stick around long enough to see her reaction."

"Even worse, Jack."

"Samantha Carter does not let go of a question until she has found the answer."

"You're right, T. Now that sounds like something you found in a fortune cookie," Jack quipped as he drove.

"Actually, the last fortune cookie I ate told me I would soon take an unexpected journey."

"Oooh," Daniel hummed appreciatively.

A lull in the conversation allowed Daniel to become aware of Jack's depressed state of mind.

"You okay?"

"I just hope Sam's okay," Jack confessed heavily.

"She will be," Daniel tried to convince them all.

Sam had given out after running through the woods for over an hour. She was now crouched in some thick underbrush on the side of a rocky hill, gasping for air and hoping the sound didn't carry. She could hear nothing around her except the natural sounds of the wild, which served to soothe her nerves a bit as she caught her breath. She was pretty sure she'd lost the old man, who hadn't looked like he could run for more than a few feet at a time. But, unfortunately, she'd lost herself, too. She had no idea where she was, and there was no sign of civilization anywhere.

After a few more minutes, she got up again and looked around. At this point, one direction was as good, or as bad, as another. She chose to stick to the ridge and resumed walking. She figured she had about four more hours of daylight. That was how long she had to find water and shelter. Sam repressed a shudder.

Howard Bennett was furious, scared, and desperate. He hadn't expected to find anyone at the old O'Neill house, much less a stranger in the process of unearthing the very thing he'd been looking for all these years. He'd come to town to visit his daughter, Miriam, and had been shocked to discover she had given away the house and all its contents to the son of his nemesis, Jack O'Neill, and now this younger Jack had put the home up for sale. They had had a terrible shouting match and Howard had stormed out of her house, leaving her behind in a state of hysterics.

Wanting one last chance to look for the key to the lockbox where he believed the elder O'Neill's fortune to be hidden, Howard Bennett had snuck back into the old house and had been surprised to find he was too late. Now he had the box, but there was a woman out there somewhere who would ruin everything for him.

Unless she was stopped.

Bennett returned to Miriam's and walked in without knocking. He found her huddled miserably on a chair in her kitchen. He dropped the cigar box on the table in front of her.

"What's that?" She asked in a trembling voice.

"It's our reward for all we've been through, these last forty, stinkin' years."

"Where did you get it?"

"It was in the attic. Open it. Now maybe you'll understand why Mary O'Neill and I did what we did."

Miriam shoved the box away with vehemence. "There's no excuse for what you and she did! And the two of you lied to me! You told me I deserved to keep that house, that Jonathan O'Neill hated his mother and was no kind of son to her, and that he caused his father's hunting accident."

"That O'Neill boy did hate his mother."

"No, Daddy! You hated him! Only you! You hated him because he kept you from getting what you wanted. His mother! And her house!" Miriam sobbed.

"All I ever wanted is sitting in that box in front of you," Howard sneered evilly. "Open it."

"No!" Infuriated even further, Howard shoved the frail woman roughly onto the floor and threw open the lid. His eyes widened in anger and he screamed furiously.

"No!"

A lone fishing lure lay in the box.

"O'Neill has the key already! He's trying to play games with me. He thinks he's got the best of me, does he? I'm going to find her and kill that woman and show O'Neill he can't mess with me. That money was supposed to be mine!"

"What woman? Daddy, no!" Miriam tried to get up and run after the crazy old man but he was quickly gone. She followed after him as he ran outside but could not stop him.

"No, no," she sobbed, her breath coming in short, agonized gasps. She sank down into a heap on the porch of her home.

Pulling up to his house, O'Neill could tell something was wrong before they got out of the truck. The front door was wide open. Tracks in the dirt just beyond the porch indicated there'd been a scuffle. Teal'C, the master Jaffa tracker, was already following the footprints.

"Someone ran in that direction," Teal'C pointed up the hillside towards the wilderness.

"Sam? Sam?" Daniel and Jack were calling her, one on his way inside and the other running out towards the trees. There was no answer anywhere.

"Keep looking for her. I'm going to ask Miriam a few questions," Jack yelled, jumping into the truck and rushing off. He could hear them calling Sam's name as he drove away.

"Miriam!"

Pulling up to the Bennett house, Jack hit the ground running and was at the prone woman's side in an instant. He pulled her to a sitting position and gently patted her face. Her eyes opened, accompanied by a moan.

"Jonathan," she acknowledged his presence. "I'm okay," she pushed him away a little. "When did you and your friend come back to town?"

"My friend, Samantha, came back yesterday without my knowledge. Do you know where she is now?"

"No. But she's in terrible danger. My father is after her. He said he was going to find her and kill her. My father is not right, Jon, he's not right in his head."

"You have to tell me where he went."

"I don't know, I don't know," she cried.

Swallowing his frustration, Jack carefully helped the sickly woman to her feet and guided her inside, where he settled her on the couch and brought her some water.

"Where's Teddy, Miriam?"

"Gone to town. He'll be back any minute. Don't worry about me. Go find your friend."

"Thanks Miriam." Jack got up to leave. "When I get back, I'll have some questions for you."

"I'll tell you everything I know, I promise. I'm so sorry, Jack. I lied to you. I was wrong to do that." She began to cry again.

"There's been a lot of wrongs done here, Miriam. This whole big mess, it's not your doing. You and I were just kids, do you hear me? We'll sort it out, I promise."

Miriam looked straight at him for the first time since he'd come to North Inlet, and her eyes were filled with thankful tears.

"I hope you find her safe."

"I will."

Jack arrived back at his own house to find Teal'C and Daniel standing in the drive, waiting for him. He jumped out and ran to them.

"T thinks he can track whoever ran into the woods from here."

"Let's go. We've got find Sam before Miriam's father does. He's out here looking for her, too, and Miriam says he's dangerous."

Sam looked around carefully before approaching the lakeshore to drink. She was so thirsty from her headlong dash through the wild country, and now it was late, almost dark.. Stepping carefully from rock to rock so as to not leave tracks, she sank to her knees at the water's edge and drank greedily. The water was the best she'd ever tasted, and she closed her eyes, relishing its coolness coursing down her throat.

She suddenly remembered her situation and jerked her eyes back open, alert and searching around her again. The birds had stopped chirping. Sam knew that meant something had scared them into silence.

Sam turned and ran for the cover of the trees. Just as she got to the cover of the underbrush she heard the old man's loony sounding scream from further down the lakeshore.

"Oh no," she breathed desperately. She began to run again, as fast as she could through the tangled brush, up the hill, figuring that would be the hardest for him to keep up with.

But some inner something was driving him, for she could hear his crashing footsteps drawing closer and closer.

"That way!" Jack ordered, pointing in the direction they'd just heard a crazy scream echoing from. "Go!"

Sam was panting and gulping for air now. She was at the top of the ridge, and she could now actually see the man closing in on her. She couldn't believe his strength. Turning right, then left, she arbitrarily picked a direction along the ridge and continued to flee.

"Sam!"

That was Jack! Was she hearing things? Oh, please, let it be him!

"Jack! Over here!" Sam called out.

A shot rang out from behind her and she heard the bullet whistle past her ear. Petrified, she turned down the slope and began a headlong dash back down the hillside towards the sound of Jack's voice, crashing through bushes and tree trunks.

"Jack!"

Another bullet flew past her.

"Come this way, Sam! This way!"

That was Daniel's voice! Her team was here. Sam felt a rush of hope. She charged towards the safety of their voices.

"Daniel! Jack!"

This time her own voice betrayed her. A third bullet found its mark, and with a shout of pain Sam collapsed to the ground.

Jack was at her position in a matter of seconds, while Teal'C, who had finally spotted Bennett, circled around behind the old man and felled him with his zat. He quickly tied the man hand and foot and stood guard over him.

"Sam!" Jack was in a waking nightmare. Here he was on this same hill, among these same trees, and now a bullet had taken down someone else he dearly loved.

This couldn't be happening.

"Sam?" Jack gently lifted her up, his arm behind her neck and shoulders, relieved to find her conscious. Blood streamed from her left shoulder.

"Jack, I'm sorry, this was so stupid, I shouldn't have come here, alone and all, please don't be mad..."

"It's okay, Sam. Shh. It's okay." Jack wadded up his T-shirt and held it against the wound to slow the bleeding.

"Please be okay," he begged her, holding her anxiously against his chest, pressing his face into her hair.

"I will be, it's just my shoulder," Sam answered him faintly. "I've had worse."

Daniel came up to them and put his hand on Sam's knee.

"You had us scared to death," Daniel admonished her.

"Daniel, not now," Jack hushed him, causing Daniel to smirk knowingly at Jack's protectiveness.

"Let's get her back to the truck."

Jack and Daniel each took a side and half carried, half dragged Sam along the trail towards safety. Teal'C had the still unconscious gunman, tied hand and foot, easily slung over his shoulders behind them.

TBC