A big thank you to everyone who reviewed and I'm sorry to keep you all waiting for so long. Here's another chapter to keep you amused while I write the next one.

Danger Zone.

By Lingren.

Previously:-

"That was the police department. They arrested the Colonel in Jackson county, Wisconsin last night. They're shipping him back to Washington just as soon as the hospital releases him."

Chapter 10

"From the hospital?" Sam gasped, her heart dropping to her toes. "Why?"

"What? Why?" Daniel demanded too. Was Jack sick or what? He wanted to know; now!

Davis dithered a little, knowing that whatever he said would not be welcome. Instead he tried to deflect their questions.

"Let's get back into the car shall we? I'll explain on the way."

Sam, Teal'c and Daniel piled back into the car, and soon they were on their way again, heading for Jackson county.

"Well!" demanded Sam as soon as they were moving.

"Come on Paul, what happened? Why is Jack in the hospital?" Daniel pleaded.

"From the brief conversation I had, it seems he was arrested in the early hours of the morning for being drunk..."

"What?" Sam and Daniel gasped in horror. "Jack wouldn't get drunk..." Daniel continued but Davis waved him off.

"That's what the police doctor who examined him said," Davis explained apologetically; he was just the messenger here. "He was so drunk apparently he couldn't even recall his name, let alone how he got to Wisconsin. They discovered his identity through his dog tags and formally arrested him for Sharon Lloyd's kidnapping and rape, locking him in a cell. And as far as I can tell, the other inmates didn't take to kindly to a rapist in their cell and worked him over; putting him in the hospital..."

"Are you sure that was actually Jack? I can't see him letting anyone beat him up, drunk or not!"

"His fingerprints check out against the Air Force records," Davis assured them.

"There has to be something. This isn't right. I can't believe Jack would do this!" Daniel sighed with regret. Nothing was adding up properly.

"That's all I know, Dr. Jackson, but General Hammond wants us to go there and see if there was anything more to this than meets the eye."

"Will Jack still be at the hospital by the time we get there?" Daniel asked hopefully, looking at his watch to calculate the time it would take to reach the hospital.

"I don't know," the Major replied a little sadly. He hoped they would be in time to see him. He so desperately needed to talk with the Colonel. "Em...There's one other thing you should know…" He paused again thinking about the best way to break further bad news to them. "Early this morning they discovered something which sort of explains how he got as far as Wisconsin. They found a stolen car wrapped round a tree about a couple of hundred yards from where they found him. It had his fingerprints all over it...and traces of Sharon Lloyd's blood in the trunk." He felt sick. Whoever was doing this had stitched the Colonel up pretty tightly.

He could see the effect his words had on SG-1. Major Carter had paled considerably, her hands wringing together from anxiety, and she was actually chewing on her knuckles. Dr. Jackson's arms had wrapped round his torso and he was chewing on his bottom lip, having paled significantly too. Teal'c was by far the hardest to understand as regards his reaction, but even he looked shocked at the revelation. Actually he looked thunderous and Davis was glad that he wasn't the one who was going to be torn limb from limb when the real culprit was found.

OoOoOoOoO

"Yes Mr. President, I do!" George Hammond stated with certainty. "I stand by my earlier statement sir. Colonel O'Neill would do no such thing." … "I'll swear by his integrity and loyalty." ... "Sir, someone out there is out to disgrace him, but I'm sure with your help sir we can prove his innocence." ... "Yes sir, Mr. President, I will. Thank you."

Hammond dropped the red phone back into it's cradle and sighed heavily; his fingers were woven together and pressed against his lips, elbows propped on the desk. The phones had been going all morning since the media had broken the news of Jack's arrest. It was hot stuff. It wasn't every day that such a high ranking officer was accused of kidnapping, assault, rape, stealing a car, being drunk and disorderly, driving whilst drunk, resisting arrest... apparently the list seemed endless.

As soon as the Pentagon had informed him of Jack's arrest, he had dispatched his CMO to Wisconsin with a couple of SF's as escort, hoping to gain the President's backing. Well, he'd just won it, with some fancy talking. Deep down he was hoping that he knew is second in command well enough to trust this was more than meets the eye and that the man was wholly innocent, otherwise it would be his career too. The charges had to be explained somehow.

Eye witness accounts about the kidnapping didn't add up. Some said he had pushed the girl through the back of the hotel, some were saying he was actually being led away from the armed men. Whatever way it was those 'so called' cops hadn't been seen or heard of since, and no police force in the country was laying claim to them. It was shaky evidence at best but it was all they had to go on for now. In his eyes Jack was being ridden rough shod over and he personally wanted to see every one of those trumped up charges dropped. He trusted Jack with his life. The man was a damn hero; saving the world on several occasions, even going as far as disobeying orders to stop a Goa'uld's imminent attack. He was certainly a maverick officer, but one whose heart and loyalty lay on the right place. He'd stake his life on Jack's innocence from all the charges.

"I promise you Jack that I won't rest until this mystery is solved. You're not going to be drummed out of the service because of some damn vindictive individual who wants to be rid of you and take you down hard. It won't happen on my shift Jack." Hammond whispered to the empty room, determined to help his friend.

OoOoOoOoO

"How is he doing?"

"He won't be up to answering any of your questions yet Gruber," the doctor replied with a frown. This wasn't the first patient she'd had from his cells, any more people that get admitted like this and she was going to report his office to someone higher up the chain. The man was a bully and she knew that at least half of his officers were afraid of him. She wasn't.

She'd had a phone call to say the man's liaison officer and the investigation team from the Pentagon were on their way and she had to delay Gruber from taking him back to the cells at least until they had a chance to talk to her patient. The Air Force General on the end of the line had said it was on the President's orders so who was she to argue?

"The first signs of his recovery and I want that SOB back behind bars," Gruber snarled.

"Well, you're gonna have to wait for that. He's a sick man, and I'm not releasing him for some time yet. So go back to your desk and I'll call you when he's ready. He won't be going anywhere for some time."

"No he won't, and just to make sure he won't be going anywhere..." Gruber spat, fastening some handcuffs to Jack's wrist and then to the metal railing on the side of the bed. "There!" he smiled grimly. "He ain't going nowhere. I'm posting a guard outside the door too. No-one gets in to see him except my men, is that clear?"

"No-one gets to see him unless I say so," she retorted, folding her arms determinedly while ignoring the man's grammatical ignorance.

Gruber wasn't happy, but he grunted something rude and stalked away. Dr. Annie Schyberg breathed a sigh of relief and took one last check on her patient. He was handsome to say the least, certainly not the usual type of drunk they had in after a night in Gruber's cells. According to her phone conversation with a General Hammond, this man was a Colonel in the USAF and a hero, and she could just imagine how good he would look in his uniform.

She let her imagination wander and her eyes roam over his lithe body as she held his wrist taking his pulse. She came to rest on his face and broke out into a wide smile when she noticed his dark eyes were fixed on her face.

"Well, hi there," she said, laying his hand back onto the covers. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

Jack lay staring at her blankly.

"Where am I?" he asked, his voice weak and croaky.

She offered him a sip from the glass of cool water by his bed.

"You're in the hospital. You were beaten up pretty badly," she said, unable to resist brushing the silver strands of hair from his sweat beaded brow.

"Don't remember," he muttered, shaking his head.

"Can you remember your name?"

Jack wrinkled his forehead as he tried to puzzle out who he was but came up with nothing.

"No," he sighed unhappily.

"Never mind," she said, smiling reassuringly. "It'll come back later. You took a pretty hefty kick to your head, and there's a little swelling to the tissues, but that'll go down in a day or two and maybe you'll remember more then."

He gave a shrug and instantly regretted the movement with a hiss of pain.

Annie patted his shoulder in sympathy.

"You'll be sore for a while but apart from a couple of broken ribs and a lot of bruising, you'll be fine. Would you like something to eat?"

Jack shook his head, he wasn't hungry; he still felt nauseous and his stomach felt sore, obviously from a punch or two. If only he could recall what had happened to him.

"Okay then. Get some rest," she ordered, still smiling down at him. It was hard to think of him as a wanted man, he looked so lost and innocent lying there. She couldn't wait to see what this Pentagon liaison officer had to say aboutthe Colonel. There was bound to be a reasonable explanation for his condition. She decided there and then to take a closer look at his blood-work, she wasn't entirely convinced he had been drunk.

Jack closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep almost as soon as she'd closed the door behind her.

She found a young officer sitting on a chair outside the door, obviously the guard for the next few hours. She offered him a brief smile before she hurried away to the labs. She didn't know why she felt he was innocent of the crimes he was accused of, but it wouldn't hurt to see if there was anything strange going on inside him. She needed the results ready for when the USAF officers turned up, plus, she wanted to give them something that might help prove Gruber was wrong. She would do anything to take that arrogant bully down a peg or two.

OoOoOoOoO

Janet Fraiser, stepped out of the helicopter and, crouching low, she hurried away from the spinning blades. A young man in a white coat was waiting for her and her escort guards.

They waited for the helicopter to lift off again before she was greeted by him.

"Hi! I'm Dr. Peter Westcott. You must Dr. Fraiser?" He stuck his hand out and Janet shook it, but her mind was wholly on the Colonel's condition.

"Hi," she replied, "Yes I am, now what's the Colonel's condition?"

"He woke up a little while ago, but he's resting quietly now. He's pretty sore and he still can't recall who he is."

Janet nodded her understanding, and followed him to the private room. She was a little shocked at seeing the police officer outside but then she dismissed it, recalling that as far as they were concerned he was a criminal. The officer was about to stop her entering the room so she pulled herself up to do battle, but then one look at her two burly SF's escort who drew their side-arms and the officer backed down without a murmur, then hurried away to make a phone call.

TBC