Here's another chapter for you guys, and I'm sorry if you are all getting frustrated with me being so slow to update. RL is hectic right now and I'm doing the best I can.

Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter. Hope you enjoy this one too.

Danger Zone.

By Lingren.

Previously:-

Teal'c made friends with Jasper while Major Davis took a good look round. Not that he was nosy, but it was his habit to check out all these things. Annie might appear friendly but things that could look innocuous sometimes proved the opposite. He was responsible for SG-1 and wouldn't want anything to happen to them. They were Colonel O'Neill's only hope in proving his innocence.

Chapter 12

"This way Sir, Ma'am," the guard invited them after they'd entered the hallowed halls of the Pentagon. They then had their appointment checked and their ID validated. Now they were being led over to the elevator.

Sharon Lloyd and her lawyer followed the young Air Force Sergeant along the corridor, until they came to an office with the right name on the door. The Sergeant knocked, then opened the door for them to pass through. He saluted them and returned to his post, leaving them to approach the woman sitting behind the desk.

"We have an appointment!" the lawyer stated coolly. He wasn't keen on them being here but the USAF demanded that they be given a first hand account of what had happened during the kidnapping.

"Names?" the woman asked without looking up.

"Sharon Lloyd and Martin Andrews," he replied with as much civility as he could muster. He wasn't happy about this interview anyway, and this secretary's attitude was just like the icing on the top of the cake.

"Colonel Forrester will be with you in a moment. Please take a seat."

Andrews shot her a wild look, which seemed to have no effect on her whatsoever. He herded Sharon to a seat in the corner and sat down beside her, still glaring at the secretary who had resumed filing her nails.

He noticed that she wasn't in uniform so he could only assume that she was a civilian worker, although the name on her desk said otherwise, he now noted.

He made a mental note and consigned it to memory; thinking that perhaps he should complain.

It seemed like hours before the inner door opened and a voice from inside invited them in.

Andrews and Lloyd entered the room and came face to face with a short man in a military uniform. He leaned over the desk to shake their hands, gesturing that they should be seated.

"I'm Colonel Forrester, sorry to keep you waiting. I'm here to conduct an inquiry into Colonel O'Neill's case. Miss Lloyd if you'd like to tell me everything you can recall about how you knew the accused?"

Sharon glanced at her lawyer and he nodded his consent.

"I first met him when he arrived at the hotel..." she began softly. She was still finding it a traumatic experience. There she was just a short while ago, an ordinary and unremarkable hotel receptionist; now because of this whole mess she had been shoved into the limelight. Fame she could have dealt with but it had been plastered all over the national papers that she had been kidnapped and raped by a USAF Colonel. She was never going to live it down.

"...he seemed like a really nice guy. Old, but we got on well..."

"Did he ask you for any...em... shall we say...'favours'?" Forrester asked.

"No!" Sharon seemed even more embarrassed by this line of questioning, and kept glancing across to Andrews who encouraged her to tell the truth. "We just talked and then he walked me back to the hotel."

"Why back to the hotel? Didn't he offer to walk you home?"

"My car was still in the hotel parking lot. I needed it to get across town."

"Where you live?"

"Yes."

"Did O'Neill hint at another date?"

"No. He just thanked me for a nice evening and went up to his room."

"Did he kiss you?"

Sharon blushed, not wanting to admit that she had been charmed by his manners.

Forrester had observed the reddened cheeks and took it as a yes.

"Not exactly," she said at last, looking down at her hands clamped together in her lap.

"Not exactly? What does that mean?" Forrester asked, needing to be sure.

"He...he took my hand and kissed the back of it."

"I see. Did he invite you to meet up with him in his room?"

"No!" Sharon cried. She was getting upset, and Andrews was about to object to Forrester's methods of interrogation. After all, his client was the innocent party here, and this wasn't a court of law. This was supposed to be an interview not a cross examination.

Forrester held up a hand and apologised but said it was necessary to establish the truth as to why O'Neill suddenly 'forced' Miss Lloyd.

"Was he frustrated at all with you?"

"Frustrated? I don't know what you mean?"

"Did he behave like he wanted to... have sex?" Forrester waved a hand at her and it took a little while for the question to sink in.

"No!" Sharon denied there was any such notion at that time. "I told you already he didn't mention anything like that nor did he give me any indication that he...wanted it."

Her emotions were so conflicted. Jack had seemed like a really nice guy. She'd enjoyed his company, and didn't know what had gone wrong with him; unless it was the alcohol and the drugs or whatever. She'd liked him, but now she hated him, yet deep down she didn't want to. But then, she should never have been fooled into trusting him; her Momma warned her never to trust a man in uniform, no matter how handsome he looked in it.

"Did you ask him for sex? Did you proposition him?"

"No!" Sharon all but screamed in response. She burst into tears, and Andrews leapt out of his chair in anger.

"That's enough Colonel! My client is innocent. It's O'Neill you need to be asking that question. I will not allow my client to be bullied into admitting to something she isn't. She does not make a habit of dating strangers and is certainly no prostitute."

"Yet, she went out on a date with O'Neill?" Forrester argued.

"What are you trying to prove here?" Andrews demanded.

"Would she have been willing to have sex with O'Neill if he'd asked her beforehand? If he'd invited her up to his room? Would she have gone?" Forrester ranted, sensing that Sharon would have to agree.

"No!" she yelled, denying the allegations. "I'm not like that! I don't go sleeping around!" she wept quietly; sobbing her heart out. It was all still too raw and this was hard for her to talk about. She didn't like the way he was practically accusing her of being 'that' type of girl.

The door opened and the secretary entered and glared at her boss, having heard the conversation from the outer office. Without a word or his permission, she pulled Sharon from her chair and took her back to her office, shutting the two men out. She sat with her in the corner, her arms round the distraught young woman, comforting her.

Forrester slumped in his seat, not defeated, but reluctant to admit that Sharon was innocent. O'Neill had obviously taken leave of his senses. He still had a lot of questions to ask. They weren't nearly finished yet.

Andrews was relieved that his first assessment of the secretary had been hasty. She knew her boss well, if she could behave as she did towards him. He was glad that she was there for Sharon, and wished he'd thought about bringing someone along to, figuratively speaking, hold her hand.

It was several minutes later, after Forrester and Andrews had passed a few comments about the case, that Sharon and the secretary came back in. Sharon's face was still showing red blotches but she seemed more composed. This time, Jenny, the secretary, pulled up a chair and sat beside her, and held her hand; giving her boss a reproachful look, knowing how hard he could be when rooting out the facts. He acknowledged her presence with a rueful grin and apologised to Sharon for appearing to be harsh in his approach.

He then continued with his questioning.

OoOoOoOoO

"Jack?"

Daniel opened the door wider and smiled tentatively at the man in the bed.

Jack looked up but failed to recognise the stranger as he entered.

He didn't acknowledge his name, but kept his eyes fixed on him as he neared the bed.

"Hi. How're you doing?" Daniel asked.

Jack looked at him hard as if searching his memories.

"Should I know you?" he asked, deflecting the question about his health.

Daniel smiled and nodded. This was so typical of Jack to avoid any inquiries about how he was feeling.

"Yes. Yes you do. I'm Daniel and I'm a member of your team."

"Oh. Okay." Jack shrugged though it made him wince in pain again. He was actually feeling a bit better today but he wasn't going to admit to anyone that he still hurt. He'd refused the latest pain meds because they made him feel woozy and out of control. He'd had enough of feeling like that just lately and didn't want to ever feel like that again.

"So," Daniel faltered, not really knowing what to say because it was obvious Jack didn't know him from Adam. "Sam says to say 'Hi' and that..."

"Sam? Who's he?"

Daniel almost tripped over his tongue at Jack's question. He really didn't know Sam? And the fact that he'd referred to her as a guy? Oh boy! He sighed.

"Ah...Samantha actually. She said she'd pop in to see you later. She's also a member of your team."

"What team?" Jack demanded. "Everyone is keeping me in the dark," he whined. "No-one is telling me anything. How the hell am I s'posed to remember anything when nobody is reminding me of...anything?"

"I'm sorry Jack. Dr. Fraiser said that you would have to remember everything for yourself. That we can't tell you anything." Daniel hung his head down, feeling guilty while Jack struggled to recall even the slightest thing.

"Is she pretty?" Jack asked suddenly, startling Daniel from his thoughts.

"Wha...what? Who Dr. Fraiser?"

Jack scowled up at him.

"Who'd you think? Forget it. I obviously have!" he grouched in frustration. He'd never felt so useless... at least not that he remembered feeling this way; he felt like screaming.

"Ah...Sam is very pretty, I guess. You...em... ah... Never mind," Daniel was about to give Jack a clue but thought better of it. They weren't supposed to feel that way towards each other and he didn't want to influence Jack's thoughts to an extent where it could get him into trouble, especially if he couldn't recall the regulations about fraternisation. It wouldn't do him or Sam any favours.

"Do you 'like' her...a lot?" Jack asked, for some reason dreading the answer.

"Yeah, she's great," Daniel answered honestly, failing to note Jack's real question.

"Oh!" Jack sighed with regret. There was something deep down inside him that sparked just a little flash of memory, Something that said he and this Sam were something more than team-mates, and more than they should be. But, he must have been wrong, because she obviously meant more to this Daniel than she did to him.

TBC