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Chapter 5

There was a brief, yet thick silence.

"Look- he even managed to get back one of our bags," Daniel said awkwardly, handing it over to Sam who shook off her dumbstuck look and crouched down beside the pack to begin an inventory..

"Daniel... he's a Jaffa," Jack whispered harshly out the corner of his mouth.

"Yes Jack... I had realized that. But Teal'c said he was willing to help us," the archaeologist huffed.

Jack looked to Sam, searchingly. She nodded, indicating the bag was clean... this probably wasn't a trick. Efficiently, she bagan tucking a few immediate supplies into her BDUs.

"Colonel O'Neill, SGC, thrilled to meet you," he said.

"I am Teal'c of Chulak, first prime to the false God Apophis," the baritone voice clarified, "You wish for freedom, as do those among you?"

"Well, yes… forgive my curiosity, but why exactly are you willing to help us?" Jack questioned.

" I am among the few rebel Jaffa within the forces of the Goa'uld. I will aid in your escape, thereby revealing my betrayal. It is the only way for you and these people to live."

"Okay… I have no idea what you're talking about, but I heard the word 'escape'. So when would we be expecting one of those?"

"The hour comes soon, you will know when to fight."

"Wait a second," Jack cut in before the Jaffa could turn to leave, "The other guy, big, bad breath, he said he wanted one of us for the choosing. So how soon are we talking here?"

"The strike will take place after the choosing. Only then will Apophis's private guard be removed from this chamber, allowing us the opportunity to overwhelm his forces. I will do all I can, but I cannot ensure your safety beyond these walls. You must not allow allow the woman to be taken before then."

"The name's Sam," she clarified, getting to her feet, "And thank you, we appreciate your help."

The Jaffa tilted his head to her, then turned to leave.

"Well, you know how to make friends Danny boy. At least nobody got shot this time," Jack smirked as his younger friend visibly puffed.

"No P90s, they obviously got rid of those. We've got seven grenades, one sidearm with three extra rounds and a M14 Bayonett. Very nice." Sam stated, studying the blade.

"Hey, careful with that, it's a classic," Jack said, taking the weapon from her and slipping it into his combat boots, concealing it sufficiently, "You should take the sidearm, Carter."

"You take it. I'm guessing you'll need it more."

"Fine. I'm probably a better shot than you anyway." Jack shrugged.

Sam's eyes narrowed as she holstered the gun around her leg, and tossed him a couple grenades instead.

Jack barely concealed a grin.

"Uh… Sha're is busy talking to the people, trying to calm them down. She and I will just…stay out of the way so you two can do your thing," Daniel interrupted, wide eyed at his two friends who looked like they were preparing themselves for war. Which may as well have been true.

"Daniel, if you're going to be a permanent member of SG1, we're going to need to give you a few combat training lessons sooner or later. Take this, it's a grenade. Contains a smiple chemical explosive, all you've got to do is pull the the pin and throw, while accounting for a four second delay for the ignited fuse," she said pushing the small round grenade into her friend's chest.

"Okay, I can do that. What's a pin? This thing?"

"For cryin' out loud Danial don't TUG on it!" Jack snapped, relieving him of the weapon, "Carter, you can give him all the toys he wants to play with when you start training your team. Not now."

"Shockingly, I may agree with you," she said, hiding a smile, "You boys have fun. I'm going to go blend in so when the queen's Jaffa returns he'll have some trouble finding me and dragging me off."

"Nobody's dragging anyone off!" Jack said, disgruntled, "Teal'c said he'd give us a hand, we just have to keep you out of the limelight until the choosing is over."

"Well obviously we have to cover her up," Daniel frowned, "Maybe we can find some sort of a veil or something?"

"A veil?" Sam snorted in disgust, "The last time I wore one of those… well, the story didn't have a happy ending."

"She's right. Something like that is only going draw attention to her. Let's work with what we've got," Jack stated, making a quick decision.

He took off his cap and pulled roughly over Sam golden wisps of hair, almost to the bridge of her nose. Anything to cover those ridiculously huge blue eyes, blinking at him indignantly.

" It's my lucky hat. Lose it and I'll shoot you, Carter."

She snorted, adjusting it slightly over her ears.

"Well? Is this good enough."

"You're not Clark Kent, this is going to take a little more than glasses and hair gel," he muttered, crossing his arms and studying her thoughtfully, "Why do you have to look so... female?"

"I'm too tired to think of a witty and condescending response to that."

"Do up the jacket all the way," he ordered.

"It's like a hundred degrees in here!"

"Do it..."

"Fine! There. Done."

If anything the jacket pronounced her curves even more, loosely hugging all the right places.

"Dammit Carter it's your... chest. Can't you just... hold it in or something?"

Sam's eyebrows shot up, "I don't know about the women you've been with O'Neill, but my breasts aren't retractable. Ah, there it is. Witty and condescending."

"Right, of course. Wait, one last thing," he said, crouching to the ground before coming back up again.

"What more could you possibly have to- aaargh!"

Cold.

Whatever else she was feeling at that moment was all at once drowned out by the slick cool wetness that was rudely slapped against her face. She froze, too shocked to do much else as two hands diligently worked the grainy muck into every crevice of her features.

"O'NEILL!" she barely refrained from screeching, not wanting to draw any more attention. Instead, her fingers locked onto his wrist, trying to wrench them away from her, but he only held tighter, backing her into one of the rough stone columns of the chamber.

"Ah! Doing this for your own good Colonel." Jack stated, as he maneuvered his knee between her legs to stop her from making any more moves that would have put them both in an uncomfortable position. He took the opportunity to round the mud down the soft curve of her neck, forcing her body into an involuntary shudder as the wetness glided down the back of her black t-shirt.

Her hands clenched his wrists tighter, digging her nails in, but she stopped struggling against him as he gently rounded the black muck around the shell of her ear and down her jaw line. Sam inherently knew he was enjoying this a little too much, but yielded to his plan, knowing a stupid idea was better than nothing at all.

"All done. Trust me, nobody's gonna pick you ouuta a crowd, unless it's by smell of course." he grinned, pushing away from her and not daring to speculate what was in that gunk he'd just smothered her in.

"Thanks. I guess," she sighed as she felt his body release hers. He grinned at her wiping off his own hands on on his own BDUs.

"KREE!"

"Oh for cryin' out loud, do they not know any other word?" Jack muttered as the prison doors slid open, "Carter, go," he ordered the woman beside him who was already moving in the opposite direction.

"What- Jack, where's she heading?" Daniel asked going after her, only to be stopped by a firm arm.

"We have to split up, less chance of that Jaffa recognizing her this way." Jack explained briefly.

There was an angered string of foreign words, uttered by the Goa'uld—by the look on Sha're's face, that had to be Apophis. With him was an entourage of Goa'uld and Jaffa, who had lined up the people for inspection.

Sam was on the other side of the passage. Jack had followed her with his eyes through the crowd of frightened people. She was really on her own in this one, but at least she had her sidearm if all things went to hell. Jack held his breath as he recognized the queen's Jaffa. There was no doubt that he was searching for her. True to his word, Teal'c managed to intercept him before he enclosed on Sam. Jack couldn't surmise the topic of the heated conversation, but drew a breath of relief as the Jaffa turned on heel and stalked out of the chamber, clearly pissed. Teal'c stood with a small smile.

Thankfully, one whiff of Carter was enough for any other Jaffa or Goa'uld to take the long way around just to avoid her. It was all Jack could do not to chuckle. His relief, however, was short lived when the Jaffa took another woman instead. Tall, blonde, and definitely scared out of her wits.

He saw Sam stiffen immediately, her hand slipping into her BDUs, and he knew she was grasping for her sidearm.

"Don't do it Carter…" Jack said under his breath, his eyes burning into the back of her head. She turned back to him. It was the first time he'd ever seen her look to him for help. He shook his head shortly, and she just barely nodded in reply. He almost flinched at the storm brewing in her eyes, but he knew it wasn't directed at him. They both realized an early strike would leave them all dead.

"The choosing is complete! There is no more potential here," Teal'c bowed low to Apophis once the other Goa'uld and their Jaffa escort had made their final rounds.

"Very well… Kill the rest." Apophis ordered impassively, his attendants and guards leaving along with him.

Jack's eyes widened as a general panic elevated around him.

"Keep your heads down!" He managed to tell Daniel and Sha're before getting shoved over to the side as people started scrambling around him.

He pulled himself up, and fought his way in the opposite direction of the crowd. Frenzied bodies were slamming into each other, desperately trying to get away from the advancing Jaffa. There was only one other person fighting to do the opposite, and within seconds he'd caught up to her.

"Uh... ideas Carter?" Jack panted slightly.

"Sure thing O'Neill. I'll take the one on the left, you take the eight on the right." She said, though her tone contained a slight tremor.

They held their breath in unison, waiting, hoping for some sort of a signal to attack. Timing would be imperitive in this case. Without warning, Teal'c turned on the other Jaffa just before a slaughter could begin.

"Good luck," Sam said, not waiting for an invitation to fight before throwing herself at the nearest serpent guard.

Clearly half the size of her antagonist, she was knocked back onto the hard ground, but she'd been ready for it. Rolling over the cobble stone, she absorbed the brunt of the impact and was on her feet a moment later.

Unaffected, the Jaffa raised his staff weapon; Sam barely lunged out of the way of the blast that had ripped open a small hole in the stone walls behind her. With practiced accuracy, she crouched low, drew her sidearm, and shot the Jaffa twice in the gut. She was on him again before he'd even touched the ground, and exchanged blows long enough to grab his staff; his metal clad foot shot out and struck her to the side as she did.. Slightly winded, she felt a searing pain in the back of her neck, defnitely having just wrenched it. She shook off the sensation, and got to her feet, knocking her opponent unconscious with his own weapon.

Sam glanced to the side of the chamber, thinking rapidly as she saw how the Jaffa's blast had damaged the wall. The staff weapon was long, and cumbersome in her hands, clearly impractical for her use in a fight, but maybe…

"Get out the way!" Jack yelled accross the chamber.

Sam turned to see him rip off the pin of the grenade and hurl it at the small hole in the wall. She was pleased to see that they were on the same wavelength. Carefully, she positioned the staff weapon as best she could, and followed the explosion with two more blasts. The hole in the wall was now an escape route.

"Come on, this way!" Daniel urged the panicking people through the opening.

"Nice work, O'Neill. Was that all of them?" she asked, jogging up to the other colonel and tossing the staff weapon to him.

"Yep. You got one. I got one. Teal'c got… seven. We owe you a beer T!" Jack hollered, barely.

"Hey, you okay?" Sam asked,

"Peachy. Teal'c, what kind of forces should we be expecting?" Jack asked.

"We have only detained the Goa'uld's personal guard momentarily. They will soon return with dozens more, perhaps even Death Gliders... combat vessels," the rebel Jaffa said somberly.

"I don't think I want to stick around for that. Let's get moving," Sam said, going to help Daniel usher people through the exit.

"Do you know the way to the Stargate from here?" Jack asked once Sam was out of earshot. He let the staff weapon slip from his fingers, clattering to the ground.

"I do."

"Think you can lead these people the rest of the way?"

"I can, and I am prepared to die if necessary."

"Well... try not to, or you'll never get that beer. Now go." Jack said, backing away and leaning against the wall heavily.

The Jaffa looked down at the man before him, who was clutching his side. Teal'c, who understood immediately, nodded his head, "I will not fail you in this," he stated before following the rest to safety.

"O'Neill! Move it!" Sam yelled from the opening, as the last stragglers came through.

"Right behind you Colonel. Go!" Jack called in reply.

Sam turned to run, then skidded abruptly to a halt when she heard a dull thud and a moan behind her.

"Right behind me, huh?" she smirked down at Jack who lay on the ground at her feet, clearly in pain.

"Dammit- I said GO!" he snapped as he felt small hands roaming over his body, pulling up his shirt.

"Please… tell me that isn't your precious bayonet sticking out of your rib cage?" Sam could barely contain her chuckle as she ripped off her jacket and pressed it to his side to slow the bleeding, "Should I even ask how this happened?"

"Well I didn't do it to myself! Right before I blew the Jaffa's head off, the idiot lunged at me and I fell onto my- argghh!"

Jack cried out at the excruciating fire that ripped through his chest as Sam slipped the blade from his body in one clean stroke.

"God- I'm sorry. They always hurt more coming out than going in. You wouldn't have been able to run with it still in you." She said, looking, to her credit, a little apologetic.

"Could you have at least warned me?" Jack growled.

"You know that only makes it worse. Can you stand?"

"Of course I CAN'T stand! I'm ORDERING you to get the hell out of—"

He barely suppressed a groan as Carter dragged him up, throwing one of his arms around her shoulders and clutching her arm around his waist.

"Carter, don't." He resisted, "I'm not going to make it to the gate like this, you're just going to get the both of us killed, and—"

"Shut up and run, will you!"

The determination in her eyes undid him; there was nothing else he could do except nod, and for once, follow her lead. Running may have been too extreme a word of course. Sam was drawing on adrenaline she didn't have, her head pounding, and Jack was focusing on not passing out. Their pace was unsteady, but they were at least making progress.

"Wait. Stop." she said as they reached the treeline. "Shit."

"What?" Jack asked, but was't given an explanation. Sam veered him off the trail, throwing them both into the underbrush, ending up sprawled at his side.

"AGH! Carter what the fucmff--"

Jack was cut off as Sam leaned over him, one hand covering his lips and smothering his words, the other splayed firmly over his chest and holding him down.

'Jaffa' she mouthed.

Jack almost laughed at how much the jolt had hurt, but he was pretty certain Carter would kick his ass if he made a sound. She was breathing harshly against his ear, holding them both still. Her body was so wired he thought she'd snap.

Then he heard what she'd anticipated. The mettalic thudding of Jaffa. Six or seven... no more than ten. It was hard to tell. Sam and Jack didn't move until well after the sounds had disappeared.

Simultaneously, they both realeased a tension-filled breath.

"Wow Carter... you smell fantastic."

To his utter satisfaction, she blushed hotly, rolling off him.

"You do realize that we're too late, we're never going to be able to catch up to the rest of them," she said in defeat.

"Carter, I know you know other paths back to the Gate. Leave me. You can double back then circumvent the Jaffa, and meet up with Daniel and Teal'c. Kawalsky won't have left without us, so he could... are you even listening to me! You know you've got to go!"

"Oh you'd love that wouldn't you?" Sam asked, mentally counting the remaining shots she had left as she loaded a new clip into her sidearm, "You really do want to die the tragic hero who sacrificed his life for the good of the team. Can you imagine the shit I'd be in if I went back to the SGC and told them I'd left their favourite flyboy to die? I bet you'd like that."

"Ah, you've foiled my evil plan. I stabbed myself with my own bayonet just to make you look bad."

"Quiet! I'm thinking!"

"Hey- need I remind you which one of us has the more experienced tactical mind here?"

"Yeah, well you've also lost more blood in the last half hour than I did in the 80s, so forgive me if I don't trust your judgment right now," She muttered, "If I helped you up again, do you think we could pick up the pace?"

"I'd like to Carter, but I think I left my liver back there."

" You don't need your liver to walk, and you've survived worse. I've read you file."

"My file's classified," he countered, hating how she had to drag him up onto his feet again.

"Yeah, so?"

"You read classified information? Colonel- you're full of surprises. Here I thought you were a stickler for the regs."

"Yeah, well I usually am. Can't say the same about you though- okay, first step, here we go, watch that rock."

"Never said I was a saint." Jack snapped, tripping over the rock anyway, causing Sam's knees to buckle.

Her slip sent them both back down hard.

Jack rolled onto his back, breathing in painful breaths, screwing his eyes shut.

Sam was beside him a moment later.

"Shit. Shouldn't have pushed you into moving."

"Ya think!"

"Look, it's a simple flesh wound, and you're not bleeding as freely now," Sam told him, holding the jacket to his side and hearing him hiss.

"Still hurts like hell," he said, blinking his eyes open to meet the huge blue ones staring down at him.

"I'm so sorry," she said in a tone he hadn't thought her capable of. Jack's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Oh yes… because this whole thing was all your fault."

She said nothing.

"Sarcasm, Carter! You know that thing we've been doing ever since we met each other…Carter… HEY! This isn't your fault, I'm the one who's immobile."

"And I'm the one who can't find a way to help you."

"Well if the situation was reversed, I couldn't have helped you either."

"Oh please… the legendary Jack O'Neill? I bet you'd have used your super powers to take out all the Jaffa from here to the Gate, then you'd have just carried me all the way back without breaking a sweat."

"Hey, the super powers are reserved for actual emergencies... and I would have totally broken a sweat if I'd had to haul you around."

Sam released a small laugh, much to Jack's relief.

"Fine, not feeling guilty any more. Besides, the reversal scenario is inherently flawed since I would never get myself stabbed by my own bayonet. Here, drink." She ordered, retirieving a small field bottle from her BDUs, mentally patting herself on the back for bringing it along.

Jack didn't need to be told twice, taking a quick drink before handing it back to her. She took it from him distractedly screwing the cap back on and tossing it to the ground.

"Kawalsky and SG2 would have helped 'em through the Gate by now. The Jaffa wouldn't have caught up that quickly." he said.

Sam looked up at him, annoyed that he'd known where her thoughts had been, but she said nothing. Patting down her BDU's, she found a gum wrapper, three paper clips, and half a pack of pain meds. Her head throbbed steadily, but she certainly wasn't going to waste the medication on a simple headache.

"As much as I hate to do this, keep talking to me O'Neill. The longer you stay awake, the better the indication that you'll live." she said, handing him some pills.

"Shouldn't we be conserving our energy," Jack swallowed them dry as Sam leaned him up against the boulder behind them. She settled at his side, shoulders not quite touching.

"For what? For lack of a better term, we're sitting ducks here. Can't fall back, can't go through the 'Gate. We're going to have to wait out the Jaffa... they'll get bored eventually, leave behind a small contingent to guard the Stargate. We might be able tp over power them then."

"That's the best you've got?"

"Do you have a better suggestion?"

Jack sighed. "Fine. What do you want to talk about?"

"Tell me about life after your capture in the Middle East."

"Whatever happened to small talk?"

"Okay... so what's the weather like on your side of the dirt pile?"

"Good. Temperate side of balmy. Which reminds me..." he reached over and grabbed his hat from her head, dusting it slightly before returning it to its rightful place.

"C'mon... considering how things are shaping up, we're probably dead anyway. I promise your deep dark secrets will die with me. Now start talking. You'd be surprised, I have this annoying ability to make people spill their guts to me."

"Oh. I've got the gut spilling covered, thank you. Okay, where to begin. Well, after that botched mission, I was about ready to give up. Slipped into awonderful little period of clinical depression."

"Understandable, being the only one on your team left alive. So what brought you out of it?"

"Sara told me she was pregnant." Jack admitted.

"Wow."

"Exactly what I said."

"That's when you got married?"

"Yep, shotgun in every sense of the word. Her parents didn't want an illegitimate grandson."

"Well at least you tried."

"Yeah, the marriage was really great while it lasted... an entire week, actually."

"A week?"

"Let's just say we had a few insurmountable obstacles. Well, one big one actually. Don't ask."

"Gotcha. So you've got a son, right?"

Jack glanced down at her, surprised and a little annoyed, "Why do I get the feeling you know a hell of a lot more about me than I do about you, Carter?"

"I do my homework O'Neill. So what happened to your family?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"C'mon, who'm I gonna tell?"

"I lost my son."

"Shit. I'm sorry."

"What? Oh! No, not that. I mean I actually lost him. In the mall."

"Well did you find him?"

"Yeah. Three hours later in a comic book store, right between Batman and the Avenger. Had security running around and everything, worst experience of my life. That's when it came apart for me and Sara. Before we'd both been taking care of him, but then she insisted on sole custody about the same time that the Air Force offered me a five year stint in Peru. So I left. Charlie deserved to grow up with a parent who wasn't on the special ops short list for suicude missions."

"Well please tell me you still see you see him?"

"First weekend of every month. Not that he enjoys it. He's a teenager now, we don't even speak the same language anymore. It's all about something called an Xbox."

"What's an Xbox?"

"I have no idea, but it sounds like some kind of a porn machine, doesn't it? Anyway, after a while we pretty much stopped talking at all. That worked for me at the beginning, I was still in the USAF, going on missions, I could use the 'sorry I missed your birthday, but Daddy was out defending his country' routine. After getting back from the first mission to Abydos, I realised I wanted to be a part of his life again, but I was little too late."

"My dad's a General in the Air Force. He also conveniently disappered for Christmases and birthdays."

"And you didn't resent him for it, right?"

"Are you kidding? I hated him for most of my teens."

"You're not helping."

"I'm your fellow USAF officer, not your shrink."

Sam leaned forewards, resting her forehead on her knees as the throbbing in her head increased slightly.

"What about you, Carter? Ever experienced the joys of marriage?" Jack asked.

"Three years. No kids, thank God."

"So what happened."

"Nothing. That was the problem."

"Male here, you'll have to translate."

"It's complicated..." she trailed off, "Sorry, my head's killing me."

"Oh now you're just trying to get outta talking about it!"

"No really... I wrenched something back there, and it's not doing any better," She said, reaching around the rear of her neck, only to feel something wet and sticky.

Jack leaned over, tugging down the back of her shirt.

"Ouch." he winced.

"What, is it bad?" she asked.

"How the hell are you not screaming in pain right now?" He asked, studying the dark horizontal slit just below her hairine.

"Doesn't really hurt."

"That's never a good sign. Make sure Fraiser checks it out when we get home," he said, briefly brushing his hand over her back in a comforting gesture.

She looked up at him with a small smile, turning away again quickly and curling her arms around her legs.

"You know, O'Neill... I know we haven't exactly gotten along... and I'll admit a small, very, very small part of that is because of me. I just wasn't expecting someone like you. I'd braced myself to deal with a self righteous asshole, which you obviously aren't. Well, not completely anyway. I still think you need to be knocked down a few notches, but you're a good guy. Look, what I'm trying to say is that this command is going to benefit by having you around, and I wouldn't exactly be against the idea. Hammond's going to make you a proposition when we get back; I just thought you should know that I'll be backing his request for you to become a permanent fixture at the SGC. Don't say anything right now... I know it's a pretty big decision. Just, sleep on it..."

Sam trailed off at the sound of slow, deep masculine breathing.

"Okay, I didn't mean that literally... O'Neill? Hello...?"

There was nothing for it. The man had slipped into a blissful unconsciousness.

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