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Now on to the story:

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD.

By LetitiaRichards

Previously:

Sam smiled in relief from their confessions, and felt the weight of unrequited love release her heart. She resumed her silent vigil but inside she was floating on a cloud of euphoria. He was alive, and he was hers.

Chapter 3

Another week had flown by and Jack had bombarded Janet with his pleas to be released from her domain and allowed to re-coup at home. Eventually she had relented and had practically insisted he leave the infirmary, just as long as he took his meds and promised to take it easy for a while at least.

So here he was now, safely ensconced in his back yard, lounging on one of the recliners and soaking up the remaining rays of the sun. It was early evening and that meant Sam would behome soon. As soon as he'd thought about her, then he heard the noise of a car approaching. It turned onto his driveway and parked. Moments later Sam came round the corner of the house to greet him.

She leaned over the back of the chair and he tilted his head back to meet her lips in a deep kiss.

She slid round to the side to her knees, keeping their lips locked, winding her arms round his waist and nestling against his warm body.

Finally gasping for air she broke free from the lip lock and snuggled against him.

"This is the best part of the day as far as I'm concerned," she sighed, drinking in the feel and smell that was uniquely Jack.

"Bad day?" he asked.

"No...just...lonely! You weren't there," she replied honestly. "Daniel was tied up all day with some translation and Teal'c was off with SG-9 somewhere, though he should be back tonight. I didn't have anyone to distract me," she pouted, making Jack laugh. "Janet asked how you were by the way. I think she suspects something but I haven't told her a thing, which is bugging the hell out of her," she laughed. "Oh, and if he remembers, Daniel said he may call round later, if that's okay."

"Sure. Maybe we can order up a Pizza for when he gets here. That way we'll at least know he's had something to eat today."

They hugged and nuzzled each other for several minutes more before Sam reluctantly climbed to her feet.

"So how are you today?" she asked, moving his feet over to sit on the footstall.

"Bored. With a capital 'B'!" he grouched.

Sam sniggered.

"I should have known you'd say that," she giggled, "and that's not what I asked," she frowned, pretending to be annoyed.

Jack shrugged, forgetting the injury and winced in reaction.

"Don't bother covering up how you really are either," she commented. "I can see it's still a problem for you."

"Okay. So I'm still a little sore," he harrumphed.

He stood shakily with Sam's help, standing still for a while to look into her eyes, giving his head time to catch up with the rest of his fragile body.

"There's a game on in 10 minutes," he explained, and turned round to stare down the barrel of a 9mm pistol.

Sam gave a littlegasp when she saw it, and stepped backwards away from the immediate danger when Jack pushed her behind him, but she wasman-handled from behind.

Everything stood still for long seconds, though everything that happened next was lightning quick in reality. Jack weight the odds against putting up a struggle but knew he'd lose because he was in no condition to fight. Then someone grabbed his arms pulling them behind him which pulled on his stitches and made him gasp and go weak at the knees from the resultant sharp pain in his chest. He spun his head round when he heard Sam grunt, and saw that she too was held firmly between two guys that would have put Teal'c to shame.

"What the hell...?" Jack cursed, wondering what was going on.

A voice, vaguely familiar and muffled behind the mask told him to 'shut the hell up!'.

Jack tried to break free anyway but he was held too tightly and his efforts too feeble to fight them off.

Someone placed a scrunched up rag over Sam's mouth and she struggled to break away from it, her eyes wide with panic. Jack fought harder to escape, hating to see what was happening to woman he loved. The next thing he knew, he was on his knees, struggling for breath. Blossoming pain had replaced his lung function and he felt the sticky wet patch growing from the site of his recent injury. Whatever they had done to him had opened up the healing wound again; it was hurting like the devil and it was bleeding once more.

Lifting his head, he saw that Sam had now fallen unconscious. Whatever had happened, Jack surmised, had to be because something was on that rag and she was completely at their mercy. He felt more than useless now, incapacitated as he was. He vaguely wondered if he was to join Sam when they carried her off. He cared nothing of himself, all his focus was on her limp form as she was taken away.

Somehow he managed to get his feet under him again when he realised his arms were free. Intending to get to Sam, his world suddenly exploded into a myriad of multicoloured stars in the darkness then they faded into nothing as he slumped to the ground in oblivion.

OoOoOoOoO

Sam knew nothing of her capture, knew even less of her journey to a secret location. She only knew the moment she awoke from her enforced slumber that she had a headache the size of the pacific ocean. She had the full orchestra banging away in some mad rendition of the 1812 overture inside her head. It took some time and a lot of willpower to open up her eyes to see where she was. She pondered on whether Jack would be there with her or if she would find herself alone. Opening her heavy eyes she discovered she was very much on her own.

The room was in semi darkness, so perhaps opening them wasn't quite so bad as she had thought it would be. It was daylight outside the window, but the blinds were drawn, blocking most of the light out. It was either an overcast day or it was still very early in the morning, she wasn't sure which, her watch had been confiscated. Whatever time of the day it was, she knew she should not be here. She glimpsed around her and realised that she was on a small cot pushed up against one of the walls. The place smelt damp and musty, like it was old and not very clean; unlived in for many years she calculated.

As she lay there, the memory of the attack lingered in her mind, as vivid as if it was happening right now. She saw how Jack had been felled by a direct blow to his chest as he struggled to reach her, right where his tender wound was, and she had watched in horror as fresh blood stained the front of his shirt. She wasn't sure what happened after that; things were a little hazy. The chloroform or whatever it was they had used, had robbed her of her senses by then.

She only hoped that Jack was still alive and that if so, someone would have found him by now, if they had left him behind.

Daniel!

She recalled how he was supposed to call round that night. God...she hoped he'd kept to his word, and hadn't stayed buried in that translation, pulling an 'all nighter' like he was wont to. As to why she was here, she had no clear idea. The horrors of her last kidnapping were still fresh in her mind and she wondered if it was connected to that incident. Were they NID agents? She thought all that had been settled once and for all.

It hurt to think too much and she felt a lassitude sweep over her once more, she closed her eyes and fell headlong into unconsciousness again.

OoOoOoOoO

"Janet...how is he?"

Dr. Frasier looked up from her notes and grimaced.

"I'm not sure Daniel. I've cleaned and re-stitched his chest wound again, but the head wound is what's bothering me. Right now he's in a coma. There's some cranial swelling beneath the skull fracture, and until it reduces we won't know what, if any, damage has been done," she explained sadly. "Do we know what happened yet?"

"Nope," he sighed. "I called round last evening as I said I would, and found him lying on the deck covered in blood. There was no sign of Sam either...ah..." he stuttered to a halt, knowing he'd gone too far. He had knowledge of their recent fraternisation. He was Jack's best friend and a civilian, and Jack felt he could be trusted with their secret, but now he had just betrayed their trust and let the cat out of the bag to Janet. He knew she wouldn't say anything as Sam was her best friend too, but still, it was something he wished he could undo. "We were supposed to be having a pizza night together..." he trailed off looking guiltily up at Teal'c's raised eyebrow.

Janet obviously cottoned on to the hidden meaning and knew by Teal'c's surprise that this was news to him. Why would they exclude Teal'c from their get-together? Unless...

Fixing the Archaeologist with a steely brown eye she honed in for the kill.

"Daniel...what are you hiding? Why did you just lie to me?"

Daniel dropped his head forward to hide his flushed face, and his arms snaked round his torso in a self-hugging guilt. He never could keep anything from that determined look of hers. She knew him far too well.

He cast a look around the hallway, and seeing it was clear, he confessed that he knew they were breaking the frat Rules.

"Um...I...I didn't. Not exactly," he muttered hesitantly.

"I knew it," Janet hissed triumphantly. "So where was Sam? Have you rung her Daniel?"

"That's just it Janet...Sam's car was on Jack's driveway! But, she wasn't there!"

"Have you at least tried ringing her cell phone?"

"Yes, but I only got the answering service."

"She didn't take Jack's truck either, because that was still there too."

"Maybe she got a taxi. She was looking tired yesterday when she left, and maybe she'd had too much to drink," Janet said with a ray of hope.

"Maybe, but I doubt it very much. She said she was going to spend the evening with Jack and then...well... You know!"

"Colonel O'Neill wasn't up to...anything Daniel. He could barely move, let alone... And Sam damn well knew that! She wouldn't expect him to...perform," Janet spluttered indignantly. "Sam has too much respect for his battered body," she finished on a calmer note, knowing Daniel would be able to fill in all the details for himself. He was supposed to be a genius after all.

Well, he's certainly not up to anything at the moment, that's for sure!" Daniel sighed.

TBC