Author's notes: Ya ya, long time in coming. *grumbles something incoherently about the Evil RL Curse* Thanks for being patient, and thanks as always to my readers, reviewers, and betas, Dimac99 and Sealrescuer. :D

Author's notes2: We're at the point in the story where we've gone through the loops, are at the top of the hill and staring down to what'll lead to another loop and one doozy of a cork screw…kinda like the Top Gun at Canada's Wonderland. :D What does this mean? I figure I'm about two thirds of the way through the story, with some of the most exciting parts yet to come. Whee!

Enjoy. :D

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Sam sat just outside of x-ray awaiting her turn. Teal'c kept her company while Daniel was having his leg examined. They'd already been there forty minutes before he went in, with two people ahead of them in line. One had a possible kidney stone, and therefore needed a set of timed x-rays. Sighing, Sam closed her eyes, trying to keep her frustration at bay. She had to constantly remind herself this wasn't the SGC, and it was normal to wait for medical treatment.

She could feel someone walking up to her. Then with a nudge from Teal'c, Sam reluctantly opened her eyes. She had expected to see the Colonel standing there looking down at her, but it was just Detective Riley. The concerned expression on his face caught her attention, and sitting up straight, Sam immediately asked him, "What happened?"

"There was an incident with the other ambulance while it was in transit," the Detective told her. "I don't know the details, but two people were reported seriously injured. One of ours, and someone else. But," and here he hesitated, "The Captain put out an APB on both O'Neill and MacGyver."

"What?!" Sam exploded. An All Points Bulletin could mean they took off on their own, or were kidnapped. All that was certain was that they were gone.

Riley raised his hands, defensively exclaiming, "Hey! I told you all I know. The Captain will be here in ten minutes, you can ask her yourself."

Sam immediately stood up. If two people were in critical condition, they'd all be coming in through the ER. Teal'c stood up beside her, but turning to him, Sam ordered, "T…Murray, stay here with Daniel."

"You still require medical assistance," Teal'c calmly reminded her.

Glancing down at her arm, Sam just shrugged. "It can wait. I'll be back as soon as I find out what happened, and have a chance to talk to the General." The jaffa inclined his head, but he remained standing till she actually left.

Following Riley down the hall, Sam tried to relax. Anything could have happened, they could simply have taken the opportunity to leave to try and avoid having their secret come out. If that was the case, then they would surely check in later, but the idea that they would just leave didn't hold strongly in Sam's mind. Neither of them would abandon anyone. Even given how paranoid they were about their past, Sam couldn't see them just leaving like that. And hurting people in the process? That left Akh as the most likely culprit.

Thoughts of the goa'uld ran shivers up her spine. Her mind still couldn't seem to wrap itself around the fact that she'd survived a thirty-eight story drop. Her free hand rubbed at her forehead, trying, if possible, to relieve some of the building pressure.

"So…"

Wearily, Sam looked over at the Detective.

"This whole military business…" He began, his face flickering between simple curiosity and open suspicion.

Letting her hand drop, Sam bluntly told him, "I can't say anything, so don't ask."

"Right." But he kept looking at her as they walked.

The ER was moderately busy. One nurse tried to get them into the waiting room, 'where they should be,' but Riley pulled out his badge and convinced the nurse otherwise. They finally managed to come to an agreement. Sam and Riley would wait near the waiting room, but still at a location where they could see the doors Captain Murphy was most likely to come through.

Standing out of the way as much as possible, they stood silently watching, till at last, the back door opened and a gurney was rolled in with several EMT's surrounding it. "Johnson," Riley grimly remarked, nodding at the man on the gurney as the EMTs met up with two doctors and the whole group rushed towards an operating room out of sight. From what little Sam overheard, the man's condition was precarious, at best.

Then the doors opened again, and another man, looking far worse than the first, was admitted into the ER. Captain Murphy followed right behind this group, and spotting them by the wall, angrily snapped, "Major Carter! You and I need to have a talk!"

"Yes, we do," Sam replied, hearing her voice grow hard in spite of herself.

The three of them quickly left the ER, finding a somewhat emptier hall where they could converse in private. "Major, I have one officer in critical and the doctors telling me he's lucky to even be alive. I need to know what's going on."

"I can't tell you, it's classified."

Murphy fumed, "I don't want to hear that!"

Sam had been in too many life and death situations since joining the SGC to be easily intimidated. They didn't have time for this. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened. That kid in the ER bowled his car into the ambulance, and while we were picking up the mess some jerks shot my officer, and kidnapped MacGyver and O'Neill. So I repeat, what is going on, Major?" Murphy demanded.

A group of people had taken them? Surprised, Sam asked, "What were they dressed in?"

"What?"

"The shooters. Did you see any of them? What were they dressed in?"

Murphy looked at her, incredulous. "Well they certainly weren't MIB, if that's what you're asking."

While Men in Black weren't exactly what she was thinking about, it suggested no rogue militia had gotten involved. No NID, which was a relief. Once again, that brought things back to Akh. How had he managed to convince Nathan's family to open fire on the police? "I need to find a phone."

Sam turned to look for one, but Murphy put a restraining hand on her arm. "Not until you tell me what this is all about."

"I'm not authorized to say anything, so until I can make a call and get that authorization, I'm not telling you anything!" Sam angrily retorted.

It was a minute before Murphy finally let go, but both she and Riley dogged Sam's steps all the way to the phone, and no amount of glaring on Sam's part was going to get them to back off.

She called the SGC anyway.

"Hammond."

"Sir, this is Carter."

"Major, where's Colonel O'Neill?"

"Ah," Sam glanced at the cops, and then stated firmly into the receiver, "First, sir, I should tell you that this isn't a secure line, and I'm not alone here."

"Where are you?" The General immediately asked.

"County Hospital in Portland. Sir, the Colonel's disappeared. Taken, I believe, by the same person he might have mentioned before?" Sam closed her eyes fervently hoping he had told the General about the goa'uld. She's seen the Colonel holding a cell phone before they'd left, but she wasn't sure if he'd actually gotten through to the SGC.

"I was out of the office at the time, but he left a message about a snake being loose?"

"Yes, sir." With relief, Sam sank into the chair beside the phone, grateful the cord actually reached that far.

"What's the situation there, Major?"

"It's a mess, sir," Sam stated with candidly, too sore and too tired to do anything else.

There was a pause before the General somberly asked, "How bad is it, Sam?"

"He's killed ten people so far, and there's more here in the hospital." She closed her eyes against Murphy and Riley's expressions of shock and anger. She had to push from her mind the horrible memory of the massacre just to stay focused. "Daniel's got a broken leg, but Murray and I are okay." Someone snorted, but Sam refused to look up to see who, and simply continued, "The…Nathan, already has the support of several people, number unknown."

"All right, Major. I'll be sending two teams to meet up with you-"

"With all due respect, sir," Carter interrupted him. "That won't be soon enough. This isn't like Seth, sir. Nathan is mobile, if we don't act now we might lose him."

"What do you suggest, Major?"

Opening her eyes, Sam looked directly at Murphy and stated, "The Portland police are already involved, sir. There's a Captain Kate Murphy here now. I could sure use her help."

Again there was a pause, and then Hammond decisively stated, "I'll make sure you get everything you need. Your first priority is to find and kill, Nathan. Understand?"

"Yes, sir."

Then Hammond murmured, "Hopefully you'll find the Colonel at the same time."

"Yes, sir. And sir? There's one last thing. Nathan got a message out." She paused, hoping the General would understand the implications. Then, because it was better to be safe than sorry, she told him, "I think we should prepare for the worst."

"Understood. I'll send those teams up to join you asap, Major. Till then, good luck."

"Thank you, sir." Sam barely had the energy to hang the phone back up. And she planned to lead an attack against Akh? What was she thinking?!

Murphy stepped in front of her. The woman was only just slightly taller than Janet, Sam realized, and just as full of authority and fire when needed. "Well?" Murphy demanded impatiently.

Sam didn't bother to answer the Captain. There was nothing she could say…yet. It took a few minutes, but soon enough Murphy's phone chimed from inside her pocket. The Captain scowled, moving off a pace before answering.

They could still hear Murphy's side of the conversation, and it went exactly as Sam imagined it would. This wouldn't be the first time they'd had to obtain help form the local authorities, but it was usually as back up only. Here they would be asking them to hand over command of the Portland PD to her, a Major in the US Air Force.

For a moment, Sam blanched at the mere idea. Get a hold of yourself! Sam internally snapped, reminding herself that it was just like any other mission on any other day, but she wasn't so convinced it was.

At last Murphy came back, the expression on her face not a happy one. The woman took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before saying, "The Chief didn't much like being woken up in the middle of the night. For that matter, I doubt neither did the President. But according to the Chief I'm to give you whatever you require, in the name of National Security."

Detective Riley had his eyebrows raised practically to his hairline. "The President? Jeez, I thought you were military, not NSA."

"We are," Sam stated, then pushed herself to her feet. She needed to check on Daniel.

"So now can you tell me what's going on?" Murphy asked, anger still flashing in the woman's eyes. She and Riley fell into step on either side of Sam.

Forcing her mind to sort out what could be said and what couldn't, Sam came up with what she felt was a reasonable explanation for needing to find the goa'uld, at least, something better than 'we're hunting a ten thousand year old alien.' "A man named Nathan Redfield stole a very important piece of technology from us."

"That strange doohickey O'Neill gave Murray," Riley guessed.

Sam's lips twitched at the Detective's choice of words, and nodding told them, "We were able to retrieve the item, but he still has some classified information that could hurt this country." She had to make them understand this wasn't a search and rescue operation, it was a search to kill. At the same time, Sam desperately hoped they'd find the Colonel and his brother along the way.

"You mentioned ten others dying?" Murphy questioned, giving Sam a dark look.

Internally, Sam groaned. Then steeling herself, she firmly told them, "I'll fill you in on that later. Right now we need to find Nathan." The Captain looked ready to argue the point, so Sam just plowed ahead. "He's the president of a company called Hert Flowers. They have a building downtown. That's the first place we need to check. Consider Nathan to be extremely dangerous. I don't want anyone shooting at him without my express permission." She had no intention of seeing another slaughter like the last one. "When we do find him, we need to take him down, but without the use of firearms."

"But-" Riley began, clearly confused.

"Trust me," Sam stated. "You'll live longer."

Then Murphy stopped her, forcing Sam to turn around. "Look, me and my men will do whatever you ask, but tell me right here and now that you know what you're doing."

Sam met the Captain's hard gaze with one of her own. No matter what her emotions were right at the moment, no matter how much she wanted to just curl up under a blanket with the morphine drip of bliss, the fact that a goa'uld was loose on her planet pushed her to keep it together. "Let me do my job." It wasn't a yes or a no, but it was the best answer she could give.

Murphy seemed to be thinking Sam's response through, and then softly said, "MacGyver's my friend."

"He's my friend, too," Sam reassured the woman.

It took a couple of tries, but they eventually found Daniel and Teal'c. Daniel was in a standard hospital gown, with his leg coated in a fresh cast and hanging above the bed in a sling. The cast reached almost all the way to his hip, and the glistening white against his still rough looking appearance made it look all that much more out of place.

"Daniel, how are you feeling?"

At the same time Daniel asked, "So what's going on?"

Sam took in a slow breath to steady herself. Murphy and Riley were in the doorway right behind her, so she couldn't say too much, but they needed to get going as fast as possible. "Our snake in the hole has taken the Colonel and MacGyver."

"What? Why?"

Teal'c offered, "Perhaps he believes MacGyver to still hold possession of the…device."

"Perhaps," Sam agreed. "General Hammond's sending back up, but that could be too late. Daniel, will you be okay here on your own?"

The anthropologist looked crestfallen, and Sam guessed he probably wanted to come along, but with a grim smile Daniel nodded. "Ya."

"We'll be back soon."

Teal'c joined her as she stepped back out into the hallway. Murphy and Riley had proceeded out ahead of her, and with arms crossed in irritation, the Captain asked, "So, Major, what do you have in mind?"

*****

Jack nudged MacGyver with his shoulder. "Hey!" he softly called, trying to wake the man up. They were still in the back of the delivery van, but it had blown a tire so most of their captors were outside putting the spare on. Only two men were in the back of the van with them now.

Again, he tried to wake Mac with his shoulder. Their hands had been tied behind their backs, and while the knots had slipped right off, Jack had no intention of giving his one advantage away just yet. He did however intend to make sure MacGyver was all right.

The third nudge finally woke the man, and after a moment, Jack quietly asked him, "How many fingers?"

"I don't know, your hand's behind your back," Mac murmured, blinking rapidly as he forced himself awake.

"Good. What's your name?"

"Jack," Mac protested.

"No, that's me, remember?" Jack remarked with a smirk.

MacGyver looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but then said, "I think the worst of the concussion is over now."

Jack frowned with worry. Mac certainly seemed far more coherent than he had, but it'd only been a couple of hours. "Are you sure?"

Grinning, Mac replied, "Fast healers, remember?"

The Colonel huffed out in grudging agreement. He looked up at their two guards. They couldn't be much older than twenty. "So what's he got over your heads?" Jack asked them.

The guards exchanged quick looks, shifting from foot to foot in nervous agitation. "Don't talk to us," one of them said, trying to sound harsh, but his voice trembled as he spoke.

Jack just gave them a friendly smile. By now Mac's ropes should have fallen off, too. It wouldn't be hard to take these boys without them getting a shot off. Catching Mac's gaze, Jack silently conveyed his intentions with a single look.

Mac blinked, then smiled, and Jack knew the man understood.

"You're kinda young to be kidnappers, aren't you?" Jack asked, looking back at their guards.

"I said-" But the young man didn't have a chance to finish his sentence.

Jack let the unconscious guard down slowly, as much because he didn't want to hurt the kid further, as because they needed to be as quiet as possible. Mac was doing much the same, taking the gun from the limp fingers and handing it to Jack.

Slipping it away into his jacket and grabbing the other one, Jack groused, "We're surrounded by bad guys, can't you even hang on to a gun, if just for show?"

"I'd rather not," Mac replied.

Jack made a face, but MacGyver was already moving to the edge of the back door window. "Oh!"

"What?" Jack looked out the window himself and wanted very much to echo Mac's reaction. He'd assumed they were in a back alley of some sort, but no, they were in the middle of a warehouse. Why then, were they trying to fix the van? Unless this wasn't their final destination.

Ducking back down, Jack quickly came up with a plan. "Doesn't look like anyone's watching the back door, we can probably just sneak right on out of here."

"Someone will probably see us," Mac observed.

"Or someone won't, what are you trying to do, make sure someone sees us?" Jack demanded.

Mac was taken back. "Jack, I'm only saying what's going to happen."

"But saying it increases the chance of it actually happening."

"You mean decreases," Mac corrected.

"Which means increases, for us." Jack sighed, looking back out the window. There was still no one in sight. They were all likely helping to change the front tire. It was the perfect opportunity to slip away. "So what great idea do you have?"

"If we leave the van someone will see us," Mac stated as if it were a fact. "What about hiding under the van? When they discover it empty, they'll think we took off."

"The van's just as likely to blow up with us under it," Jack wryly commented.

"Good point." Mac grinned. "I think I like being spotted much better." Jack agreed. "Let's go." They cracked open the door, and carefully stepped out of the van. A peek around the corner showed the other four florists wrestling with the tire. Right as they were putting it on the axle, the jack snapped, its lock giving out. The tire, not completely on, popped off and the corner of the van sank back to the ground. A stream of curses erupted from the small circle of florists. Apparently, this wasn't the first problem they'd had putting the new tire on.

Smirking, Jack turned back to Mac, whispering, "I don't see Akh anywhere."

They checked the other corner, scanning the edges of the warehouse, but the goa'uld wasn't in sight. Mac pointed to a stack of crates closer to the door. It looked like a good spot. "Let's go," Jack stated.

Much to the Colonel's surprise, they made it to the crates without incident. No one had seen them after all. Then one of the crates suddenly exploded, sending wood splinters and packing peanuts in every direction. "I thought too soon," Jack grumbled, ducking down as best he could.

The next crate exploded, as well as a third, and all of a sudden they had nothing to hide behind. Brushing bits of wood away, Jack glanced over at Mac to make sure he was okay, and then looked up at Akh in annoyance.

The goa'uld was approaching them, his hand raised, and glowing with a ribbon device that was wrapped around it. The pendent was glowing as well, which might have explained the added explosive power. While the Colonel had seen, and felt, the effects of the ribbon device many times before, it generally acted more like the shockwave of an explosion rather than the explosion itself.

"I am not finished with you," Akh angrily stated.

"What do you want?" MacGyver asked, regarding the goa'uld apprehensively. "We don't have the key."

"The keys are useless without the Hereta to open them," Akh told them, his eyes glowing with barely suppressed fury. "You know more than this host about what has transpired since I was forced to hide from my shol'va brother, Ra. Tell me, Tau'ri, do you know where the chaapa'ai is?"

"Nope, sorry," Jack replied, giving Akh a cocky grin.

The goa'uld's face darkened, and the pendant glowed stronger. "Do not presume you can lie to me without consequence."

Internally, Jack cringed. He closed his eyes a second before his body was picked up and thrown into the stack of crates behind him. It was like being hit by a train. The only good thing was that the kinetic energy was evenly spread, so while it hurt, a lot, he didn't think any of his bones were broken.

"He can't tell you anything if you kill him!"

Jack opened his eyes to see Mac on his feet and angrily yelling at the Goa'uld. Beyond them was the small group of florists. They were watching the events with nervous surprise, but none of them seemed particularly upset by the goa'uld's use of the ribbon device. Jack frowned. To him, it looked as if they didn't even realize what was happening.

Then the Colonel's attention was pulled back to the goa'uld. The pendent was still glowing purple, and Akh calmly told Mac, "If you will not tell me what I wish to know, then there is no sense in keeping you alive."

The snake head had a very good point. With a grunt of pain, Jack forced his muscles into motion, and unsteadily he got back to his feet. "We do know where the stargate, the chaapa'ai, is."

"Tell me," Akh ordered, the ribbon device glowing again in threat.

"It's in Colorado Springs."

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Post Story Author's Notes: To ILM, you really need to leave an email if you want any serious thoughts on what I think of that pic (or email me)…imho…tomorrow's the ep. Woot! :D