AN: In RL, the hits just keep on coming... I hope you guys are enjoying the story though. Please let me know!

Chapter Four

They drove in silence at first, but Daniel was never one to not ask questions. As the sleep wore off, he only grew more curious. "Jack, what the hell is going on?"

He didn't want to answer, but as he began to speak he decided he liked having his mind occupied with something other than visions of Carter lying broken and battered on the forest floor. "She asked for a transfer to the Alpha Site to replace Dr. Abrams. I said no."

"Are you serious? I had no idea." Daniel's voice gave away his surprise. He shook off the last remnants of sleep. "Permanently?"

"She claimed it was only until another replacement could be found, but we've already been looking for one for almost a year and she knew that."

Daniel's voice was soft as he asked his next questions, not meaning to pry as he tried to understand. "Was something going on with the two of you? Do you think she was trying to get away from something here? Have you guys been fighting?"

"No, Daniel, I didn't know a damn thing about it. She's barely spoken to me since we came back from the cabin and that was only about work stuff." He winced thinking about it; he should have seen it before she requested a transfer. He should have tried to talk to her. In retrospect, it was obvious that something had been bothering her. "Was she talking to you at all?"

Daniel shook his head. "I just kind of figured-" His voice trailed off while he tried to think of a delicate way to put it. "I guess I thought after Pete and Kerry and everything you guys were working things out so I didn't ask."

Jack's head snapped toward his friend, giving into his gut reaction whenever someone besides Carter alluded to their relationship. "And what, pray tell, would we be working out, Daniel?"

Daniel ignored the angry response. "Cut the crap, Jack. Would you have noticed I was missing in the middle of the night or would it have waited until I didn't show up for work?"

"I might have." He didn't want to get into the reason he was convinced Carter was lying at the bottom of a ravine somewhere.

Daniel folded his arms over his chest and contemplated the man who had slowed the truck to a crawl as he searched the dark road before them. "You always go out looking for various members of the staff in the middle of the night half dressed, right? Come on, Jack, how'd you know she was missing?"

Jack scowled more at the fact that the road was every bit as treacherous as he'd remembered than at the implication Daniel was making. "Will you just keep your eyes out for a sign of her?"

Daniel quietly turned to look out his side as they crept along the road. It was only two miles from one end of the park to the other, but at the rate Jack was driving it was going to take them an hour to cross it. He let the silence hang between them as he looked into the trees, adding his own fervent prayer to Jack's that Sam wasn't lying out there somewhere.

"Jack, maybe if you tell me what happened, I might be able to think of somewhere she could be." He was certain Jack wasn't telling him everything.

Jack stopped the truck in the middle of the road and slammed the gear shift into park. "What, Daniel? What do you think really happened? You think I'm sleeping with her? You think she skipped out on me in the middle of the night and now I'm pissed off? What the fuck do you think is really going on here?"

Daniel shrunk back against the inside of his door. He let the fury drain from Jack, knowing the older man lashed out as a defense mechanism. "If our positions were reversed, would you think something was going on?"

"I was at home, asleep. Alone. I woke up and tried to call her to apologize for being a jackass and she didn't answer the phone. So I went over there to see if she was all right. I assumed she was just mad at me and I was going to leave her alone if she was. But every light in the damn house was on and her car was there and her bike was gone."

Daniel nodded. "Maybe she was out riding and got caught in the storm. She could be in a motel somewhere. She's too smart to do something dangerous like riding along this road in a storm."

Jack shook his head. "Not when she's mad. She's just as human and stupid as the rest of us when she's mad. And she was mad, Daniel." He shifted the truck back into drive and began creeping along the road again. "She said earlier that she realized she was never going to be able to leave the SGC."

"Does she want to?" His voice was muffled because his face was once again turned toward the side, searching the blackness for Sam.

"That's what I said. But that's not the point, Daniel. The point is that she should be able to leave it she wants. She should be able to do anything in the world, but she thinks she's going to be tied to that damn mountain for the rest of her life."

"Oh." From the silence that followed, Jack knew Daniel had understood the issue faster than he had.

The storm had passed completely and the rain stopped. They rode for another few minutes in silence until Jack stopped the truck.

"Oh, God."

Daniel looked around, searching fruitlessly for whatever Jack had seen. He saw nothing, but he noticed the deathly pale color of Jack's skin. "Jack?"

He didn't hear Daniel's worried inquiry. He didn't notice the truck start to roll as his foot slipped off the brake. He only saw the small group of trees before him, nestled at the edge of a sharp turn.

They were exactly the same as he'd seen in the dream.

He turned back to Daniel with tears forming. "Call an ambulance."

"Jack, what are you talking about?"

But as the truck inched forward without the benefit of the gas or the brake, the skid marks slowly came into view. Too narrow to be a car; too twisted to be salvageable.

Jack turned to Daniel once again, stopping the truck and climbing out. "Get some help here now. She's down there somewhere."

Daniel leaned over and turned on the flashers, just in case someone else came down the lonely road. Then he jumped out of the truck and followed Jack to the edge. "How do you know, Jack? Those tire marks could be from years ago."

Jack got his phone from his pocket and threw it to Daniel. "I just know, Daniel. Please call for help." He didn't say another word as he hurried down the steep, wooded hill that lined the road.

The bare skin of his feet cried out in pain as he ran over the rough terrain, but he wasn't about to stop. He was going to find her. He had to find her. And he could only hope that she'd still be alive when he did.