"Tonight we'll stay here, but tomorrow, Sam, you're going home."

There was no answer from the blonde woman as he followed her back to the only place that she currently identified as home, the dusty Rahadian village.

True to their word, the people of the tiny hamlet turned the entire town into an all out party that evening. It was clear from the first beat of the irresistible rhythm of their drums that these folks knew how to celebrate. Jack got the feeling that they had just been looking for an excuse to haul out their punch and cookies and crank up the music.

The planet orbited a double star system, making their sunset an incredible, otherworldly event. Separated by about an hour, the two suns went down below the horizon in a blaze of pulsating colors the likes of which the Earthlings had never seen.

During the slow sunset, the village was transformed into what resembled an outdoor nightclub, complete with a clearing and bonfire in the middle to serve as a dance floor. Mouthwatering smells filled the air as a makeshift banquet table was laden with food and libations.

Sam, who had been helping with the preparations, came out of a large tent dressed in native costume, carrying a platter of fruit and cakes which she added to the repast already on the table. Jack came up and quickly nabbed a piece of cake.

"Is this safe?" He asked her, holding it before him.

Sam looked confused. "Of course. It's very good."

Jack blinked in surprise. He'd been expecting her to laugh at his thinly veiled referral to an earlier mission where eating the local cake had led to his being seduced and then married to the woman who had fed him the cake. He had momentarily forgotten that she didn't remember.

He made a show of popping the cake morsel into his mouth whole and chewing with gusto. "Mmmmmm," he approved. Now she did laugh.

"The Guyandohla will be out soon. Save room." Sam reproved him.

"The who?" Jack asked, intrigued.

"It is the main dish, soon to be served. A fierce, fat animal with big teeth lives in the forests here. A Guyandohla. One chased me all the way from the ruins back to the village two days ago. Two hunters killed it and tonight we feast."

Jack watched her thoughtfully as she explained. She sounded like a stranger just now and it caused a pang of sorrow to shoot through him.

"A Guyandohla, huh?" He echoed, forcing a weak smile onto his face.

"Yes. Delicious," Sam enthused. "I must go help some more," she added.

"No, Kestra, you stay and talk to your friend," a high, melodious voice directed behind them. Turning, Jack found himself face to face with a beautiful black haired, black eyed woman, about Sam's age, also dressed in the flowery local fashion.

"Greetings," she answered his questioning gaze. "Kestra must get to know her people. Stay." The woman left as quickly as she had come, leaving Sam and Jack alone.

"Kestra?" Jack asked Sam as the woman disappeared from view.

"It is what I am called. It is from the old language of Rahad. It means 'wanderer'."

"What do you want me to call you?" Jack asked.

"I like Sam. I remember being named Sam as soon as you called me that today. I just wish I could remember...being... Sam."

A loud group of men on the makeshift dance floor caught their attention, and the two friends walked to the edge of the clearing and sat down to see what was going on. Teal'C was in the center of the villagers with his staff weapon sporting an uncharacteristically gleeful smile on his lips. The men gave him some room as he demonstrated several graceful fighting maneuvers. A clamor arose when he paused. They all wanted a chance to imitate the new techniques.

Jack's eyebrows rose high when he heard Teal'C laughing loudly and then observed him take a long swig from a brown earthenware flask on the ground near him.

"What is Teal'C drinking?" Jack wondered out loud. Sam giggled, a sound that Jack realized he had missed greatly. He smiled at her.

"What?" he asked.

"I believe he is drinking the juice of a fruit called guevna. It is very enjoyable to drink."

"Why's that?" Jack pressed, amused.

"As you see. It causes those who drink it to behave wildly."

"Yes...actually, we have similar drinks on Earth," Jack remarked wryly.

Teal'C reclaimed his weapon and the crowd fell back. Now Teal'C was on one side of the clearing and a young man, very muscular and as tall as the Jaffa, stood at the other, holding a stout tree branch.

"Oh, here we go," Jack moaned. He moved forward to get a better view.

The two lost no time in initiating the mock battle by clashing staff to branch in the middle of the circle with a resounding crack. Soon they were hard at it, jumping and swerving out of each other's line of fire while doing their best to inflict damage of their own. It didn't take long for Teal'C to snap the tree branch in half and bring his challenger to his knees. The crowd roared appreciatively.

"Another challenger!" Teal'C roared, slightly inebriated. Daniel came up to Jack.

"I thought Jaffa couldn't get drunk," Daniel commented.

"Apparently they can, once they are on tretonin and no longer have symbiotes," Jack replied.

"Are you going to do something about this?" Daniel prodded.

"Why don't you?" Neither of them wanted to get on Teal'C's bad side right now.

"Because you're in charge, that's why," Daniel pushed back.

With a groan, Jack pushed his way into the circle to face his tipsy coworker.

"Okay, Teal'C, stand down. Let someone else have the floor," Jack suggested, using his best 'colonel' voice. Teal'C wavered for a long minute. Jack held his breath, not sure what to expect from a drunken Jaffa. Finally, Teal'C shakily dropped one end of the staff weapon to the ground while still holding the other end close to his side. The appreciative onlookers cheered the warrior as he meekly followed Jack out of the ring and sat down on the periphery of the clearing with his teammates.

"I have a headache," he announced in a surprised tone, putting his head in his hands and closing his eyes.

"Here, big guy," Daniel offered, throwing his backpack to Teal'C. The Jaffa slipped his head onto the pack and closed his eyes. The noise from the merrymaking was all around them.

"This will go on for most of the night," Sam predicted. "The villagers love a good party." She watched the activity calmly, enjoying the constant beat of the music and the wild dancing around the bonfire.

"Sam," Jack asked. "What do you remember about what happened to you? Before you came to Rahad? Anything at all."

"Nothing, not really," Sam answered thoughtfully. "Images, sounds, darkness... but nothing I can put into words. Just enough to make me realize that there was something else before this. But my first real memories are of this place right here, and of these people."

"How did you know my name?"

"When I saw you, your name just popped into my head. Same as when I saw Daniel and Teal'C. I know that I know you, or rather, knew you. But I can't remember anything about my life before. Tell me about it, please," she added eagerly.

"Don't you think it would be better to let it come back on its own?" Jack asked uncertainly. "Come home with us. Maybe seeing your real home, your friends, and other things you were familiar with will help bring back all those lost memories. And maybe that will help you remember what happened to you."

"I'll think about it."

"Think about it?" Jack hadn't even considered the possibility that she might not want to go back.

"This is all I know," Sam cried, beginning to get agitated. "What if I never remember? I don't know if I could handle that. This..." she gestured around her. "This is simple. This, I know something about. I'm happy here."

She stood with her arms clasped around herself protectively. "I'm tired," she said sadly. Sam walked away without a backwards glance. Jack squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. They'd found Sam. Would they now lose her again?

A woman with glowing eyes, dressed in a preposterously ornate outfit, approached Sam where she lay chained to a cold table. Sam knew this was bad, but couldn't remember why. She struggled madly to get away from the woman to no avail.

"Do not fight, female, or it will only go worse for you," the evil woman sneered at her. She raised a glowing hand over her forehead and a beam of white-hot pain poured into her mind. Sam screamed and struggled but could not escape the liquid fire that was slowly obliterating who she was.

The scene changed. Sam was in complete darkness, confined in all directions. A hissing sound filled her ears painfully. Light stabbed her eyes. The enclosed container she was lying in began to open and hope filled her. Jack would be there, she knew; he was supposed to have transported her and the others to safety.

Horror and fear flooded her when she saw who had opened her escape pod.

Again the images morphed, and now she was following behind the same evil woman with the glowing eyes. She was carrying something. Looking down, Sam screamed. She was carrying a container of writhing symbiotes.

Sam's own scream woke her, and she bolted from her bed, unable to sit still. Her head hurt badly. It took her a minute to figure out where she was, and then she ran from her tent. She jogged through the now silent village in the pre-dawn light, looking for the three visitors, trying to remember where they had been housed. Finding the correct tent, she cautiously opened the flap and slipped inside the entryway.

She sighed in relief when she saw her three teammates sleeping peacefully in the tent in various poses of collapse. Jack was on the right side of the tent, and it was to him she now went quietly. Sam sat down by his side and watched him sleep for a bit, drawing security from the sight. When she was ready, she reached out and laid a hand on his chest.

"Jack," Sam whispered.

Jack's eyes opened immediately and he took in Sam's disheveled appearance and red-rimmed eyes, still wet with tears.

"What? What is it? You okay?" Jack's eyes were dark with concern and he shimmied back so he could sit up and face her. His hands found their way to her shoulders.

"I had a dream," she whispered.

"Let's get out of here," Jack suggested, nodding towards the others who still slept.

They walked outside and headed down the path that led out of the village towards the Stargate.

"Tell me, Sam," Jack prompted as soon as they were out of the tent.

"I dreamed about a woman, with glowing eyes," Sam started, looking at Jack to see if he thought her crazy.

"That would be a Goa'uld," he confirmed. "Our enemies. We believe they captured you."

"Oh." After a minute, she went on.

"The.. Goa'uld... held her hand over me, and burned me with something she was holding until I fell. After that everything got dark. The dream was a memory, wasn't it?"

"Hand device," Jack commented. "And, yes, my guess is your memories of your captivity are beginning to surface." He glanced at her in sympathy as they slowly walked on.

"Then the dream changed. I was in a dark, enclosed space. And I was thinking about you. I could see your face in my mind. I was waiting for you to get me out of that dark place. But it wasn't you. It was the Goa'uld."

Jack stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "You're right, it was supposed to have been me. And Daniel, and Teal'C. I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" Sam asked.

"We should have stayed and rescued you, but instead we left you behind. And the Goa'uld picked up your pod instead."

Sam's eyes hardened in dismay. "Why did you do that?"

"I wasn't in charge of the ship, Sam. The leader of the ship ordered a retreat. I'm sorry. I tried to make him stay until we got the last pod, but he wouldn't put us in further danger. We'd already retrieved two of the three escape pods. I hoped I would find you in one of the two we had saved. But you weren't there." His face clouded at the memory.

"There's more of the dream, but I don't know what it means. I was following the woman around, carrying a bucket full of water with snakelike things swimming around in it. I screamed when I saw what I was carrying, and then I woke up."

A sudden pain flashed in her head. Sam turned to a flat rock on the side of the path and sat down, exhausted from the recounting of her dream. Jack stood in front of her, watching her with leery eyes. Sam suddenly felt fearfully cold inside and turned away from his piercing stare.

The next thing she felt was Jack's firm grip on one of her upper arms and the fingers of his other hand probing the back of her neck, looking for something.

"What?"

"Look, Sam, you seem normal to me, but I have no way of knowing if you've been compromised by a Goa'uld. There's no entry marks back here, but symbiotes can enter through the back of the throat, leaving no visible mark. I need to have Frasier check you out back at the SGC. We should get home as soon as possible."

Sam began to shiver.

Jack keyed his radio.

"Daniel, Teal'C," he called.

"Daniel here," came the sleepy response.

"Meet me at the Stargate as soon as you and Teal'C can get packed up. We're going home and we're taking Carter with us."

"Got it Jack."

Jack looked back at Sam as he ended the communication with Daniel.

"Trust me on this, Sam. If, after a few days or a week or so, you want to come back to Rahad, I'll bring you back myself. Promise. But I think you need to come home, at least for a while."

"I do trust you, Jack," she responded. There was a quality, a personal innuendo, in her voice that Jack had never heard directed at him before. Perhaps it was because she didn't remember what it meant to be in the military, under a chain of command.

This was going to be interesting.

Hammond ordered a security team to the Gateroom to prepare for the return of SG1 along with their newly rescued team member. Jack had reported in a few minutes before and told Hammond he wasn't sure if Carter was a security risk or not, and that she needed to be scanned for possible parasites. Hammond was ready in case she turned hostile.

But she didn't. Stepping through the Gate moments after Daniel and Teal'C, Sam walked down the ramp in front of O'Neill, looking around her with frightened eyes. She stopped and waited for Jack to draw up even with her when she saw the SFs with guns pointed in her direction. She grabbed his arm and tried to step behind him.

"It's okay, they won't shoot. It's just a precaution," Jack encouraged her. "Now let's go see Janet in the infirmary, okay?"

Sam nodded. Hammond cocked his head at the two as they were leaving the Gate room. As they walked, Sam's hand remained wrapped protectively around Jack's forearm.

"That's different," he murmured to himself.

"Sam!" Janet's joyous voice rang out across the infirmary when she caught sight of her friend. She ran up to hug her, but Jack stopped her with an upheld hand.

"Give her some time, Janet. She has amnesia or something."

Sam was staring at Janet anxiously. It seemed as if she was trying to remember her, but not coming up with anyting. The doctor stopped and breathed in deeply, then motioned to a gurney.

"Okay... sit down, Sam, and let me check you out. Make sure you're well after ... whatever happened."

Sam complied, still watching Janet suspiciously. Jack backed off to the door but didn't leave, knowing that right now he was the only familiar thing in the room as far as Sam was concerned.

Janet checked over all the familiar entry points that a symbiote could have used, peering down Sam's throat for an extra long period of time. Finally she straightened up.

"I think we should get a CAT scan, just to be sure," Janet reported. "There is a small scar on the back of the throat, although that could be residual scarring from Jolinar. I need to check."

Janet motioned for Sam to get off the gurney and walk across the room to the huge CAT scan machine located in an adjoining room. Just as they reached the door, Sam turned and tried to bolt from the infirmary. Jack caught her and grabbed her arms. She jerked her head back and her eyes fastened on his.

They flashed in the Goa'uld glow so familiar to the employees of the SGC.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Not-Sam screamed wildly in a chilling alien voice, but she couldn't free her hands from Jack's viselike grip.

"A mature snake would have thrown me across the room," Jack panted. "This one must not be fully mature. Janet! Get Teal'C and Hammond down here, now."

He wrestled Sam to the scanning bed, but by the time he was fastening the restraints on her, she had stopped fighting him and was sobbing in fear.

"What happened? What was that?" she cried. It was Sam again.

"I don't know, but we're going to get that thing out of you and find out what it's done to you, Sam. Okay?"

Jack felt like crying himself. Bad memories of watching Kawalsky die and then almost losing his second to Jolinar resurfaced.

"Okay," she shivered. "Trust you, trust you," he heard her chanting to herself quietly, her eyes squeezed tightly closed. Tears leaked out of the crinkled corners of her eyes. There was no danger in touching her now, he reasoned, with the restraints in place and her apparently in control again instead of the snake. He reached out to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

Janet came up behind him and injected a sedative into Sam's shoulder. The distraught woman stopped thrashing almost immediately and drifted off to sleep.

"That should hold her until we can get in touch with the Tok'Ra to help us kill that snake."

Jack looked down at Janet, not surprised to see she was crying a little, too.

And no wonder. Her best friend had reappeared after being missing in action for almost two months and been revealed to be infested with a Goa'uld, all in the space of a few minutes. Jack hugged her in an automatic attempt to supply some comfort and she hugged back, undone by the shocking events of the last few minutes. A few moments was all they needed to recover themselves. They stepped apart and looked back at their friend, now unconscious on the bed, buckled down hand and foot.

They had to get that thing out of her.

TBC