Sorry it's been a long time since the last update, but I did warn you it would be. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Hope you like it. Not many to go now.

Thanks for all your reviews as always.

Danger Zone.

By Lingren.

Previously:-

He smiled back and didn't object when Sam took her place at his side, and gripped his hand as if she didn't want to let go. He lay back and allowed himself to relax, surrounded as he was by his friends.

Chapter 19

Jack listened to the voices around him, finding himself drifting off again.

FLASHBACK

"Is he out of it?"

It was a woman's voice that asked the question and one that Jack couldn't place. It was slightly distorted and drifted in and out of his hearing range, but he never let on he had heard them.

"Yeah for now. He wouldn't know his own mother!" a man replied.

"Are you ready for this?"

"More than ready. Where's that damn device?"

"Here!"

Jack could hear a slight rustling noise and a sigh.

"Wow! That's...holy cow, I'd think you were the real thing!" the woman yelped. "God, you look sooo like him."

"Taken that pill?" she asked.

"Phew...who needs a damn pill to do what I gotta do?"

"You sure? I could always help you a little!" the woman's voice was soft, sexy and full of innuendo and then Jack heard the sound of a zipper and then the man moaned deeply.

There was a sound of lecherous laughter accompanied by a sharp intake of breath and another groan of a sexual nature.

"Well, I think you're just about ready? Don't you? Wanna come?"

"Oh god, yeah!" he groaned in ecstasy. "No! Stop! Let me at her or I'm gonna blow right here."

"O'Neill?"

A familiar voice interrupted Jack's nightmare. He groaned slightly, tossing and turning a little, wondering where the hell he was.

"Whoa! Take it easy Jack!"

"Are you okay sir?"

Jack blinked awake under the onslaught of questions from those around him. It took a few minutes for him to realise it was his team asking them. So what had he been hearing before?

"Huh?" he mumbled incoherently, blinking still. It had been so real, it had come as a shock to find himself in the infirmary.

He'd heard a man and a woman, but it wasn't Daniel or Teal'c and it certainly wasn't Sam or the Doc. So, who were they?

He brought his hand up to his head and rubbed at his forehead trying to think.

"Colonel?"

'Great!' he sighed inwardly, now Doc had joined in as well.

"Do you have a headache sir?"

"Nope...it's nothing. Just...I remember hearing..." His voice trailed off. What had he heard? A couple...what having sex? That couldn't be right...could it? So what were they doing?

"Sir?"

Sam's gentle prompting urged him on.

"I dunno. Something...weird." He paused trying to make sense of it all. "A couple. A man and a woman talking. I recall being a little...out of it. That's what she asked. If I was out of it? Then he said, I wouldn't recognise my own mother."

"Who Jack? Who said that?"

"I don't know Daniel. I don't remember their faces, just their voices. I think I had my eyes closed."

"What else did they say sir?"

Jack screwed up his eyes in concentration, going over the conversation in his head once more.

"A device. She said something about a device, and he must have activated it because she... Wait a minute..."

"What?" Daniel asked.

Jack groaned and held his hands up to his face, covering it.

"O god!" he cried, dropping his hands in realisation. "He raped her! That bastard raped her wearing my face!"

"What?"

"She said, he looked like me!" Jack explained.

"The mimic device?" Daniel gasped, realisation dawning. "I thought they were all locked up?"

"They are. I checked them out after the Kinsey shooting, when the Trust were implicated."

"Well, I suggest you check them again Carter!" Jack sighed unhappily. "I didn't rape Sharon. It was this guy. He used the device to incriminate me. I sooo did not do it!" he cried triumphantly. All he had to do now was prove it.

Jack was sure now. Going over the words, he repeated what he could to the others, shocking them into action.

"You're sure about this?" Daniel asked one more time.

"Daniel!" Jack warned, pointing his finger at his friend before he slumped back into the pillows wearily. "I'm certain! Okay?"

"Then that's all we need Jack. I'll go let General Hammond know," the younger man said, as he turned to leave.

Teal'c nodded a farewell and followed Daniel, believing that the two of them could convince the General that O'Neill was telling the truth.

Sam took his hand and gave it a little squeeze, bring his attention back to her.

"I'll go and make some discreet inquiries. We'll find them sir."

"I know you will Carter," he sighed. She wouldn't let this get away from her; she would use everything within her power to prove his innocence, he knew that. It was reassuring and warming to know how much they all cared. She slipped her fingers from his hand and left the room, glancing back over her shoulder at him before she disappeared from sight.

He closed his eyes after she'd gone too, finding that he'd become more tired than he'd thought after that. He just wished he could recall their damn faces, then they'd have something more concrete to go on.

OoOoOoOoO

"Welcome back Major Carter. Did you find anything interesting?" General Hammond asked a couple of days later after her return from the Groom Lake facility, known otherwise as Area 51.

"Yes sir. I did," she replied taking her seat around the briefing room table, happy to see Jack sitting in his usual seat, though still looking peaky though the bruises on his face were fading now.

"So what exactly did you find Carter?" Jack asked, eager to discover her news.

"Well sirs," she addressed the General and the Colonel. "One of the mimic devices has gone missing, namely the one with Colonel O'Neill's imprint."

"And nobody noticed this? How?" Jack sighed with frustration. Things were always getting mislaid over there through one excuse or another.

"No sir, they didn't. The reason being that they had sent it to Washington DC."

"What? Why?" Daniel exclaimed before Jack or Hammond could formulate the words.

"Apparently Senator Kinsey requested to see that particular device in action," she said, expecting to see the shock on their faces. "Apparently it didn't arrive."

"Are they sure about that?" Jack asked sceptically. He was pretty sure it was in Washington alright!

"According to the courier sir, the package was in a van which was hijacked on route to Senator Kinsey's office. Therefore they could only assume it had been taken along with everything else."

"But, anyone steeling the package from outside wouldn't know what it was for, would they?" Daniel speculated, full of doubts.

"Well, somebody obviously did!" Jack snapped bitterly. Whomever it was, was out to tarnish his reputation, maybe even get him kicked out of the USAF?

"And if that was the case, then the theft must have been an inside job," Hammond stated with distaste.

The silence that fell after Hammond's words was palpable. Jack's insides were screaming; he wanted so much to lay his hands on those people that he clenched his fists and hit the top of the table making everyone jump.

"Damn!" he cried.

"Colonel...Jack. It won't do you any good to get worked up over this. Dr. Fraiser says you still need some time to get over this. Let us handle it son. Trust us!"

Jack sucked in a huge breath wincing slightly when his sore ribs protested. He released it with a whoosh and nodded. Of course he trusted them. Looking round the table at their determined faces he opened his hands in a gesture that said okay.

"Yes sir. My life is in your hands General, kids." He ran a hand through his hair somewhat nervously, but that was because there was no way Doc Fraiser was going to release him. Besides, he was officially under house arrest, albeit under Cheyenne mountain. He wasn't going anywhere.

There were smiles all round the table, and in each of his friends' eyes he saw confidence and reassurance. He sagged back against his chair and knew he would be okay.

TBC