Thanks to my faithful reviewers for their comments. Luv you guys, and I really would have been lost without you this last time.

I thrive on reviews so pretty please R & R? It's hard to write otherwise. I need all the encouragement I can at the moment; I got out of my sick bed to post this!

Danger Zone.

By Lingren.

Previously:-

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed, closing his eyes. He was tired; tired of life, and if he admitted it, afraid of who he was...or wasn't.

Chapter 15

The door swung open and Janet, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and Annie entered, wide smiles on their faces, well, maybe not so much on Teal'c's face, but he was looking happier than normal. Jack looked up at the intrusion and gulped a little, feeling slightly vulnerable in the crowded room. Then Major Davis entered behind them and shut the door. Jack felt like he was facing his firing squad.

"Well, Colonel. It's arrived. All I have to do is give you this and your memories will return," Janet said, beaming down at him, and gesturing towards the little trolley she had been pushing.

Jack eyed the syringe dubiously and swallowed painfully. Did he really want this? What he wanted was a way out of here; right now. What would this stuff reveal about him? That he really was a cold hearted bastard that raped a young woman who had trusted him? That he was high on drugs at the time? That he was stoned out of his mind and had lost it totally? Or was he always like that and was just unlucky this time and he got caught by mistake?

"No!" he yelled, backing away slightly. "I don't want it!" he panicked.

"Colonel? It's..." Janet started to protest, but he looked like a deer caught in the headlights and she stopped, putting the syringe back on the trolley.

"I don't want it," Jack reiterated. "I'm not sure I want to know that I did that."

"Janet," Sam said, keeping her eyes on Jack's face, but reaching across Jack to stop her friend from getting into Napoleonic mood and forcing him to accept it. She could see the doubts niggling away at him. Over the years of working closely with him she could pretty much read his facial expressions without him having to say anything. It was one of the reasons they worked so well together out in the field. Plus the fact that they had an unspoken and secret love for each other and with a few moments alone with him, she should be able to reassure him and talk him round to accepting the serum. "Let me talk to the Colonel alone. I think I might be able to reassure him."

Janet understood immediately, and Annie, looking at the pair of them thought she understood too, but wouldn't say anything, at least not in Major Davis' presence. She wasn't stupid, she knew military law, being a military brat.

Major Davis was dubious about it but at Janet's insistence, he left the room with the others too. Janet shutting the door firmly behind her and standing guard to stop anyone from entering or peering through the little glass window at the two occupants. She may have been small but nobody dared to cross her where the health of her patients took precedence.

Inside the room, Sam's blue eyes were locked onto Jack's dark brown hooded ones. She knew he didn't remember their illicit relationship, but she had to do this. She had to reveal it, hoping that it would make him see sense.

"Jack," she started, sitting on the edge of the bed and taking his free hand in hers. She felt his fingers stiffen against her palm and began rubbing gentle soothing circles through the soft hairs on back of his hand. "I know you don't remember...this, but believe me when I say I know you. We...ah...have this thing between us; an unspoken attachment if you like..."

"I thought you were with Daniel," he said unexpectedly, looking down at their hands, enjoying the feel of their connection.

Sam gaped at him in disbelief.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" she gasped.

"I asked him if he loved you, and he said yes," Jack replied bluntly.

Sam snorted with amusement, and shook her head.

"That's true I guess in his own way he does. And I guess I love him too, but not like that. Jack...'we'...have been together for a number of years now and we care for each other more than we should. We've even dated several times but in secret. The regulations forbid our relationship, but it's a risk we are both willing to take."

"Oh!" he said brightening a little. His lips curved into that lop-sided smile she loved so much and had missed like crazy. "Sweet!"

Sam giggled and brought his hand up to her lips to press a delicate kiss on his palm.

"It's you I love Jack."

"Why are you telling me this now. I thought Doc Fraiser said you weren't supposed to tell me anything about my past?"

"She did and she was right..."

"So why...?"

"Because I need you to trust me Jack. I know deep down you're afraid of what the antidote might reveal, but I need you to know that it really is for the best. Believe me Jack when I say I know what you are like, and that person wasn't like you at all," she said, pointing to the newspaper lying discarded on the table beside the bed. "That's not the Jack O'Neill I know. The Jack I know is the most loyal, honest, upstanding officer and a gentleman that I've ever had the privilege to meet. My Jack O'Neill is just not capable of doing that, and having this..." She broke off to wave a hand at the neglected syringe, "...will help clear your name..."

"Supposing it doesn't?" he argued.

"Doesn't what?" Sam asked, perplexed.

"Clear my name. Supposing it reveals that I am guilty, What then?"

"You're not guilty Jack. You forget, I know you! I've worked with you for the last six, nearly seven, years, and we've been together as a couple, albeit in secret, for quite a while now. You're not that man Jack. Please trust me on this! That's all I ask. It will be okay, I promise!"

"No. Don't promise me, because if it does reveal I did it, you'll only be disappointed, and so will I. But, I will trust you to know me."

"Why?"

"Because...despite the fact that I though you and Daniel were...together, there was always something deep inside that made me want to love you," he confessed with a small smirk.

Sam giggled, leaning forward to brush a kiss over his lips. He slipped his arms around her and hugged her. He was trembling slightly and Sam knew he was still deeply worried about taking the antidote, but that he trusted in her enough to do it.

"So," she said, pulling out of his embrace, "you'll do it?"

"Only for you, because you said you know who and what I am."

"Good." She reached out and touched his cheek, cupping it in her palm and smiled down at him, before she walked to the door, allowing everyone to come in again.

She and Janet exchanged looks, knowing what had passed between her and Jack. Janet nodded and turned back to her patient.

"Right sir, lie back and relax and in a few moments you'll start to remember." She swabbed the area and injected the serum into his arm.

A few moments later he rocked his head from side to side with a deep frown marring his forehead. He moaned and shook and then cried out in agony, but Janet held onto his hand on one side and Sam held his hand on the other, and between them, they helped him through the pain of recollection.

"Charlie!"

The agonised cry rang through the room and his team hung their heads fighting to remain calm. Sam shed a few tears, knowing how much the memory of his son dying would be exceptionally painful for him to bear.

By the time he'd calmed down, his closed eyes were red rimmed with tears, but dutifully nobody brought this to his attention.

Major Davis looked on in embarrassment; he hadn't known the agony of what happened that day, and was slightly puzzled by it, but knew it must have been a traumatic event for the Colonel, from the moisture gathered at the corner of the man's eyes, and Dr. Fraiser's, Major Carter's and Dr. Jackson's own leaking tears too.

Jack sniffed, and blinked away the salty liquid and pulled his hand away from Janet's to rub his eyes dry.

Sam squeezed his hand to let him know it was okay; that they understood.

"Colonel?" Janet began, wondering if it worked as well as they'd hoped.

"It's okay Doc. I remember everything from my past now," he sighed with a painful swallow.

Sam offered him a glass of water from which he took a long drink.

"What about the incident. Can you remember what happened?"

"Not everything, just bits."

Major Davis stepped forward, taking charge of the questions.

"Colonel, I'm authorised to take a statement of the events which led up to..." he hesitated not wanting to say the 'rape' because it sounded like he was guilty.

"Just spit it out Major. And just for the record, I wouldn't do anything like that," Jack spat angrily.

"So you didn't do it?" Sam asked with relief.

"I didn't say that!" he answered bitterly.

"What? Are you saying you did?" Daniel cried in disbelief. He thought he knew Jack O'Neill. Could he have been wrong? Jack could be a cold hearted bastard on occasions, but this?

"I'm not saying I did it. I'm saying I don't remember," Jack sighed in frustration. He looked up at Sam and shrugged. "Sorry!" he said, seeing the disappointment reflected in her eyes, feeling her hand loosen round his and he slipped his hand free from her lax grasp.

The room had fallen into an awkward silence at his revelation.

"Can you start at the beginning for me Colonel?" Davis said, placing the recorder on the roll-away table. He needed the Colonel's statement, regardless of his guilt or not.

"Well, it all started when I arrived at the hotel..." he said, not looking up at anyone. He didn't want to see condemnation in their eyes where once he saw trust.

TBC