--- --- Doubts --- ---

The smoldering remnants of the house were lit by a rather bright red moon, a soft breeze strengthening the fire every now and then. His arm pulled her closer as they watched the structure caving in. She shivered in the cold night, shock still coursing through her system.

The thought that he had done this deliberately to hurt her, froze her insides and turned her guts into one tight knot. He had known that she would come and he had wanted to kill her. Sickness started to twist her stomach and she tried to fight down the nausea that rose inside her.

"O'Neill?"

Thor's voice reached her from somewhere inside Other Jack's jacket and she watched as he fumbled with the zipper, pulling out the communication device.

"What's up, Thor buddy?"

"A cloaked Goa'uld vessel just left the planet. I have not been able to determine any life forms on board."

Her knees went weak under her as she realized what Thor had just said. Goa'uld. It was impossible. She had, herself, witnessed the fall of the Goa'uld, seen Anubis's end. The other Goa'uld hadn't been a problem. They had been weakened from their struggle with the Replicators and the fights between themselves. As a result, the rebel Jaffa had overthrown them relatively easily.

"I thought you'd kicked 'em outta here."

She shrugged in Other Jack's direction. How could she explain to him when she hadn't been able to make sense of it on her own?

"We thought we had."

The second part of Thor's message finally registered and it took her only a split second to put one and one together. They hadn't been able to detect Jack's DNA on the planet and Thor said that there were no life forms on the ship...

"Thor, beam us up. Are we able to follow the ship?"

"We are, Samantha Carter."

When they were finally on board, she felt the Asgard ship move. Hurrying towards the bridge, she knew Other Jack was waiting for her to explain but there were more important things to worry about right now. The doors slipped open when they approached, revealing Thor seated behind the control panel.

"Which course, Thor?"

"The momentary course of the vessel will bring us deep into the center of this galaxy."

She nodded breathless. Behind her, Other Jack shuffled nervously and she could directly see him pushing his hands into the pockets of his pants, like she had seen 'her' Jack doing so often - 'Her' Jack. Pain flashed through her at the thought of him. Although rationality tried to force her to see the truth, she couldn't break the feeling that he was trying to escape her, had tried to kill her, and she had no idea what to think about it, if anything at all.

She had spent the last umpteen months getting him back, while he was obviously once again pretty merry where he was, playing farmer like it was one of his favorite games and forgetting about anything else. Why did he always do that to her?

--- --- --- --- ---

"Take care."

He watched the holographic features fade, leaving nothing but bleak ESGC walls behind. Shock still coursed through him at what he had heard just seconds ago. Jack had tried to kill Sam, if it was Jack, and if the explosive was meant for Sam. The only evidence they were going on were the words of an old woman and gut feeling. And, now, Sam was a galaxy away, chasing a ship through space.

A Goa'uld ship. Just the word made his stomach twist painfully and long-forgotten feelings welled up inside of him. He'd witnessed the end of the Goa'uld and, somehow, again, they were rearing their ugly heads again. This time in a galaxy far away but, obviously, pretty much alive. Maybe it wasn't a Goa'uld. Maybe someone had just gotten his hands on a Goa'uld ship, he reasoned with himself. But, in his heart of hearts, he doubted it very much.

He should have known. These guys had a very nasty habit of returning from certain doom. How many times had they thought one of them dead only to find themselves eye to eye with said snakehead again? Damn it! He should have known. It had been too good to be true.

"Is there any news, Daniel Jackson?"

Turning around, he found Teal'c standing in the doorway. He liked having Teal'c around once again. They were a team again. Like they'd been in the old times. Since the end of the SGC, he had found himself missing their companionship, missing SG-1. Jack's 'death' had brought them together again and he hoped they would stay like that. He motioned for Teal'c to sit down on one of the chairs and sat down on the comfy leather chair that had, an eternity ago, belonged to Jack.

"They think they found him."

He explained what Sam had said only minutes ago, described what she had experienced on Sandrana and what she was about to do. Teal'c listened silently as Daniel spelled out the events, nodding from time to time. With a sigh, Daniel took his glasses off, his other hand pinching the bridge of his nose like he did when he had to think about something.

"I can't believe this is happening all over again, Teal'c. I thought we had defeated them. And I can't believe that Jack tried to kill Sam."

His voice faded as he thought about the situation. He wished there was something he could do.

"I do not believe O'Neill would hurt Samantha Carter deliberately. Maybe he did not know what he was doing. Maybe he has been taken over by a Goa'uld."

Daniel's head shot up. Why hadn't he thought about that possibility? If Teal'c was right... God, he wished he could contact Sam. If Jack really is a Goa'uld... at least that would explain his strange behavior. But what could the Goa'uld want from Jack that was worth crossing a whole galaxy for?

--- --- --- --- ---

Pain shot through him like lightning as darkness slowly subsided. He kept his eyes tightly shut until the pain faded, leaving only a throbbing ache in his head. Slowly, his memory returned: Karan's familiar eyes, glowing in a strange, white light, the Z-shaped snaky gun thing he had suddenly pulled out of his robes and pointed at Barol. He had been engulfed by blue lightening, pain shooting through him until he had passed out.

He opened one eye carefully and squeezed it immediately shut when he was greeted by a bright white light. Shielding his eyes with one hand, he pushed himself up and took a good look around. The walls of the rather small room were painted in a deep red. Bright white light fell through huge windows. Unfortunately, metal inlays covered the windows, letting the white fall through complicated patterns.

A moan escaped him as he rose to his feet and pain stabbed his knee where, memory told him, he had damaged it in the war, when a building had collapsed over him. But, at the same time, he clearly remembered jumping out of a flying object - a plane - his knee colliding heavily with the ground, the sheer power of the impact twisting it until a loud sound signaled the breaking of the weaker force, his knee.

The memories fought against each other, each seeking to overcome the other and his head spun with the colliding thoughts. He knew no longer which memory was reality and which was fantasy and the thought disturbed him greatly. He had finally lost it.

Forcing himself to concentrate on the heavy facts, he started counting points. He was Barol, citizen of Sandrana. His father had been a farmer, had shown him everything he knew about farming. With the age of seventeen circles, he had left home, seeking to find something he could identify with. Eight circles and a lot of trouble later, he had finally found it in the military and had stayed with that until this damn war had ended a few months ago.

The last remainder of dizziness left him and his thoughts started to clear. Those other memories were like the things he had dreamed of, just a figment of his too-vivid memory. Like her. It was time to face it. She was just fiction, nothing real, no flesh and blood. He found that it was easier to believe the truth without Tharyl's constant assurance that he wasn't nuts. She had been the one to tell him that those dreams were real. But to be away from her put things in a new light and made him see many more clearly.

His knee had been injured as some rocks of a collapsing building had fallen on him, trapping his leg under them and crushing it with their weight. And what was a plane anyway, he wondered.

His inner dialogue was interrupted as heavy metallic steps clanked in front of the massive wooden door. Seconds later, the door flew open and revealed big, really mean-looking guys, clad in metal armor with long stick-like things in their hands.

Soldier instinct kicked in and he knew immediately that these men weren't his welcoming committee. To be honest, they looked rather creepy. And those sticks didn't look too promising either. Somehow, he felt, he should stay away from those thingies.

"Our Queen requests your presence."

"Great. Tell her, she can stop by any time she feels like..."

Fast steps, belying the clumsy appearance of the guards, approached and, before he had even time to react, one of those sticks rammed itself into his right knee. He went to the ground, his lips pressed tightly together to suppress a scream. Two guards pulled him up again, his knee screaming at the movement as they dragged him out of the room and along long red corridors.

--- --- --- --- ---

Sleep refused to come to her that night. The soft background buzzing told her that the ship was still on course, following the Goa'uld ship into the heart of the galaxy. She couldn't even be sure that he was in there, though, somewhere deep within, a voice told her he was. But the main thing on her mind was the thought that he had wanted to kill her. She refused to believe that he had done that deliberately, only to hurt her. The last words of his letter still rang in her ears… 'God knows I always will…' and she couldn't believe that he'd written these words if he didn't mean them. Jack O'Neill never did anything he didn't believe in, even if it involved disobeying orders. At least, she was pretty sure she knew him that much. She berated herself for not trusting him. How egotistical of her to believe the act was aimed at her. He could have enemies, after all.

Another thought sprang to her mind and filled her with horror. What if he was a Goa'uld? She couldn't even begin to fathom what he would have to endure being caught in the worst nightmare possible. A silent tear ran down her cheek but she brushed it away quickly as she heard the man on the other bed across the room shift.

His steps approached her and she felt the mattress dip where he sat down. A hand settled on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze, his calming voice piercing the silence.

"It's gonna be ok, Carter. I promise."

"You can't promise that."

She was surprised at the sound of her voice, weak and husky. She leaned into his touch, her back resting against him as she instinctively pressed closer to the warmth he provided.

"I can and I will. We'll get him back and everything will be all right. Trust me."

When she nodded, he gave her shoulder one last squeeze and tried to pull away but her hand stopped him. Even if it wasn't her Jack, she needed someone to lean on right now. And he was the closest thing to her Jack available. He stopped and she could feel his hesitation before he held her hand closer.

"Move a bit, Carter. These Asgard beds are not exactly built for two."

He climbed in behind her, her back resting against his front. As if they had already done this a thousand times, his arms snaked around her, pulling her against him, hands resting on her stomach. But, then, this Jack had done it, a thousand times.

"Sleep now. You'll need the rest."

His breath tickled her ear as he spoke and she snuggled even closer to him. She listened to the beating of his heart for a while, the soft steady rhythm soothing her into sleep and, for the first time in too many years, she felt safe and content that everything would turn out right in the end.

--- --- TBC --- ---