Sorry to keep you folks in suspense for so long. I do apologise. RL is busy at the moment and to quote a cliché – the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak – would sum up how I feel right now. We're decorating the lounge and it's taking longer than we thought – all of which means I will be off-line soon for a few days! Help! I get withdrawal symptoms after a few hours, let alone days! Bear with me though. I will finish this story, so I hope this chapter will keep you going for a while.

Thank you to my current reviewers for keeping me sane with their very welcome comments. Hope you enjoy this chapter too.

Danger Zone.

By Lingren.

Previously:-

She nodded okay and felt him fumbling to remove the blindfold. She stayed there wondering what he would do next, but all thoughts fled as she felt something hard hit her and her consciousness fled.

Chapter 8

Jack couldn't think straight; his head hurt and his stomach felt decidedly unsettled. He pushed himself onto his side and blinked away the cobwebs, trying to discover where he was and what he had done as to why he felt so bad.

He cursed himself for not recalling the reason for getting this drunk. He hadn't indulged in any heavy drinking for years, not since...Charlie. He'd tried to drown his sorrows several times but it hadn't made any difference at all back then, so he hadn't bothered , and then the SGC came along and he gave it up. He might have a few beers now and then, but nothing to account for his king sized hang-over now. He tried to think past the constant hammering inside his head but it was useless, his head was swimming so he gave in helplessly to the blackness once more.

A particular bad jolt brought him round again for a few moments; wondering why he was moving, yet not moving. Prising one eye open past the sludge in his brain, he noted that he was inside a van, which accounted for the movement. Another violent jolt sent him spiralling down into the blackness again when his head hit the hard metal floor hard.

He never felt the van stop; he never felt hands pulling him from his temporary prison; he never realised that he was free now.

The three men dumped him by the side of the road and sped off into the darkness, leaving their prey alone and exposed to the elements and still shrouded in oblivion.

OoOoOoOoO

Gail Fisher hated driving in the dark, especially when it was tipping it down with rain. It was very late and the steady hum of the wipers was lulling her to sleep. She leant forwards a little to turn on the radio, hoping it would keep her awake after a long hard day at work. She was on her way to pick up her two year old daughter from her mother's house a few miles down the road from where she worked long hours at a truck stop outside of town. Trying to concentrate on the road ahead and find a station that was playing something she liked, she failed to notice a dark shadow staggering along the side of the road until it was almost too late.

She slammed on the brakes, breathing heavily with shock when she felt something hit the side of the car. With shaking legs, she threw open her door and ran back to where a dark shape lay on the tarmac a few yards back.

She ran over to it, stopped just in front of the person she'd run into. They weren't moving and she couldn't pull enough of her courage together to see if they were dead or not.

A particularly bright flash of lightning lit up the area and she could see her victim was a woman, her skirt torn and was stuck to her form by the rain. The loud crack of thunder that followed jolted her from her thoughts and she reached for her cell phone, dialling 911 as quickly as her shaking fingers would allow her.

That done, she tentatively reached out to take a closer look, but was startled out of shock when the body moved a little, and released a soft painful groan.

"Hey, don't move. God, I am so sorry. I called the emergency services, they should be here soon." Gail couldn't really see much in the dark, but her rear lights cast an eerie red glow over the macabre scene, making the blood from the woman's head wound look even more spectacularly gruesome.

The victim, fell quiet, too sore to move as she wept softly.

Gail told her to stay there while she ran back to the car to get a blanket. Throwing it over the woman, Gail could only offer some small comfort while they waited.

"I'm Gail," she said, trying to sound normal. "I'm really sorry. I didn't see you. What's your name?" The words spilt from her lips in a rush, like the tears she realised she was now shedding too, as her nerves and shock got the better of her.

It seemed like an eternity before she could hear the sirens and even longer before she spotted the ambulance and the police car heading towards her at speed.

One of the officers helped Gail to the back seat of his patrol car while the paramedics tended to the young woman.

She watched helplessly as they examined and talked, then gently lifted her victim onto the stretcher and into the back of the ambulance. A quick talk to the other police officer and they hurried away in a blur of flashing lights.

It could have been mere minutes; it could have been hours, Gail wasn't sure of the passage of time, sitting there with a blanket draped over her shoulders. She remembered someone talking to her; giving her a brief exam; recalled someone draping something round her shoulders even, but her mind had practically shut down. The next thing she noticed she was being helped into the hospital where she was taken to a cubicle where a doctor examined her.

She started, becoming aware of what had happened and she wept frightened tears. She was comforted by a nurse, and asked questions by a policeman, so she retold the story of what had happened.

It wasn't her fault. She didn't see the woman until it was too late. She just suddenly appeared out of the dark, hitting the side of the car.

The officer left, apparently satisfied, and she really needed to phone her mom; she would be worried sick by now. She should have been there an hour ago.

Meanwhile the emergency staff worked on the young woman. Their examination revealed more than they expected.

As far as her injuries went, she had gotten off lightly, several bruises, a minor cut or two, a bump on the head resulting in a concussion. By far the most interesting factor was that she had recently been raped, brutally, and her wrists had been tied together too at some stage.

As she came round she wept tears of relief that she was safe now, and told the waiting woman police officer everything that had happened to her; citing painfully that Jack O'Neill had raped her twice.

An APB was set in motion and the Pentagon liaison officer alerted. Jack was now a wanted man.

OoOoOoOoO

Sam Carter was dreaming. The base was under attack, and they were fighting in the corridors. The alarms were ringing throughout the hallways. The ringing went on and on, despite the Colonel yelling for it to be turned off. It was then she realised it was her phone ringing. She reached out sleepily, automatically searching out the time on her watch.

"Carter," she answered with a yawn, wondering who was ringing her at 02.04 in the morning.

"Major Carter, it's Paul, Major Davis. I've just had a phone call from the police. The good news is, they found Sharon Lloyd."

He hesitated and Sam picked it up straight away, now that he had her full attention.

"But?" She knew there was something bad coming, by the sound of his voice.

"Apparently she was knocked down by a car on a minor road just south of..." he paused for a minute, reading the name from his note pad, "...em...Danville, Illinois. She'll be fine though. She escaped with minor injuries..."

Sam was relieved, but she could still detect that something was wrong, and pumped him for more.

"And...?" she pushed, needing to know it they'd found Jack too.

"She'd...um...she'd been raped."

The news was an unexpected blow. She wondered if Jack had gotten beaten as he'd tried to protect her, because knowing him as she did, she knew he would put her life before his own.

"Oh my god! The poor girl!" Sam cried. But, there was something else; what wasn't he telling her. Talk about getting blood out of a stone! "Paul!" she demanded, using his first name to get through to him. "Please, tell me what's wrong! Is Ja...Colonel O'Neill okay?"

Paul Davis chose to ignore her lapse of protocol in almost saying Jack, but he did understand her concerns. His news wasn't good by any means.

"That's just it Sam, she's accused the Colonel of raping her. Twice. The police have issued an APB on him. She said that she believed he was in collusion with the kidnappers. Not at fist, at least she didn't think so. Apparently he was stoned out of his mind, but not the second time, although he did still reek of alcohol. He apparently knocked her about a little too."

Sam sat up on the edge of her bed and gasped in disbelief. Jack would never do anything like that!

"I can't believe he would do that Paul. He's not like that!" she almost yelled, coming to Jack's defence. How dare they say that!

"I can't say I believe it either, but she swears that it was definitely him. Sam, we have to find him first."

"Where did you say that they found Sharon?"

"Near Danville, Illinois. Why?"

"I wonder?" she whispered, making Davis wonder if she was actually talking to him or just thinking.

"What?" he asked impatiently.

"Paul, meet us here at the hotel in say, 30 minutes. I have an idea where we might find him. Don't tell anyone where we're going. I want to get there first. I'll go wake the others."

"Right. See you in 30." Paul Davis knew when to keep quiet. Sam Carter had an idea and he knew he could trust her implicitly.

Sam snapped off the connection and dashed into the bathroom for a moment. Then hurried across the corridor to wake up Daniel and Teal'c.

Once they were all dressed, Sam hurried them out of the lobby to wait for the car, Daniel grumbling all the way that he hadn't had his coffee yet, and what was all the excitement about?

"I'll explain on the way Daniel. Just move!" she snapped when the car pulled up. They all piled in quickly and Sam told the driver to take the road north.

"Sam? Paul? What's going on?" Daniel demanded, needing answers, as the car pulled away from the hotel and joined the spartan flow of traffic. It was still early in the morning.

Sam looked to Paul to explain the details then she told them her theory. Silence fell among the friends at the implications and hope rose that they would find the missing Colonel, and that he would have a valid explanation for his actions, before the police could arrest him.

TBC