Xander sat quietly in his seat. The large airplane they were in had been flying east for quite some time. Shortly after the plane had leveled off, Jack and the rest of SG-1 had gone towards the front of the plane. They had asked him to remain where he was. He looked at the guards placed a short distance away from him on either side. 'Yea, like there's a fat chance of me actually going anywhere.' He thought morosely to himself.

He had been sitting and partially watching The Simpson's on DVD that Colonel O'Neill had handed to him before they boarded the plane. He was wearing headphones with the volume turned down so that it was almost mute. As hard as he strained to hear the conversation taking place in the front of the plane, the background noise of the plane, and the distance between them made such a task impossible. Well, impossible for someone without enhanced hearing. He shook his head once again. 'And once again, being the normal one comes back to bite me in the ass.'

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"He knows The President?" It was Carter's shocked voice that asked what everyone there was thinking.

Jack simply shook his head. "I don't think so. The General said that The President wanted to meet with him. I'm fairly sure that they haven't met prior to this."

Daniel looked thoughtful. "You know, I actually voted for him."

Jack gave him an incredulous look. "And that means what exactly?" Daniel just shrugged, causing O'Neill to mumble something unintelligibly under his breath. Teal'c merely lifted an eyebrow at this. Daniel, on the other hand, looked faintly amused.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, can we please get back to the topic at hand?" He shot Daniel another exasperated look. "Carter, did your chat with Mr. Harris answer any of our questions?"

She shook her head negatively. "He prefers Xander, Sir." That got an amused look from her CO while he told her that he'd remember that. "All we really talked about were 'safe issues.' We were basically talking about some of his past experiences in High School, with his friends and similar experiences." She looked down at her hands. She looked into Jack's eyes as she leaned in to whisper, "Are we going to interrogate him further? Personally, I don't think we should."

Jack gave her one of his patented grins. "The guy has connections all the way to The President. Besides, President Ryan is at the SGC. That means that Hammond will most likely have the information we want to know. So, if we're given clearance to the information, Hammond will most likely be the one to tell us." He seemed to consider that for a moment. "Or he'll have someone brief us." Carter became visibly more relaxed. A fact not missed on any of SG-1. She caught Jack's amused stare.

She actually blushed slightly before responding. "He did save my life, Sir. I don't really want to betray his trust." With that they all adjourned from their meeting place and went back to their seats.

Jack wasn't sure how he felt about Carter's reaction. At first, there had been a slight pang of jealousy. That was something he had learned to suppress immediately. However strongly he felt about Carter, she was directly under him in the chain of command. So, as long as he was part of SG-1, nothing could happen between them. A small smile came to his face as he recalled handing in his resignation. The kiss between him and Carter was still a strong memory that he treasured to this day. It was a shame that it had taken place while he was stuck in a time loop, and it was an action that he took just moments before the loop began all over again. If Teal'c had not been stuck in the loop with him, he would have been tempted to do it more than once. She certainly didn't seem to mind it.

He sighed to himself as he closed his eyes. He had no real reason to be jealous. For crying out loud, they had only known the kid for a short while. He wasn't too worried about someone else 'stealing' Carter away from him. Not that he wanted her alone, but hey, you can't help how you feel. Besides that, in the very short time that had known Xander, he sensed a kindred spirits of sorts. He couldn't explain it, but he immediately liked the kid. There were many qualities, such as loyalty, that seemed to be infused within his very being. Then, of course, there were the attempts at humor, his apparent appreciation of The Simpson's, how could he not like the kid? And, the man had saved Carter's life from 'something' and for that, he would be eternally grateful. He hoped, if circumstances permitted, that they would keep in contact once this was over. If nothing else, he was fairly sure it would lead to interesting times ahead. With that last thought, he allowed himself to fall into the light stage of sleep that was the norm from him. It was the same one that he had been awoken from just hours ago.

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Carter sat in her seat, staring straight ahead. Her mind, as usual, was going a mile a minute. However, what was not the norm was that she wasn't trying to solve some unsolvable puzzle. She was simply trying to calm herself. She had been 'off her game' as Jack would most likely call it, since she had come under attack.

She had been in battle situations many times before. Hell, it was almost a weekly occurrence. It was the fact that she was truly not expecting it that had her slightly on edge. What was pushing her even farther down that edge was who, or what her attacker was. It was so damn strong, and had a stench of death. That particular smell was something she hoped to never become accustomed to. No matter how many battlefields she happened upon. But the stench was up close, emanating from the 'thing' that was choking the life out of her as she unsuccessfully tried to fight it off. It was physically far stronger than it had any right to be. And as terrifying as that was, it was its visage that still chilled her to the bone.

Its eyes were a mix of pure gold and spots of red, as though they were the eyes of death. Feral ridges protruded above the eyes on its forehead. And its fangs, 'oh god, its fangs,' were just inches in front of her vision, just prior to the blurring of her vision as breathing became a problem. Its hands that were choking the life out of her were of the same temperature as the environment around her, and felt downright cold. Not that she noticed this originally, there was so much going on, it was only after she had begun to reflect on what had transpired did she recollect that little bit of information. She was going to die. And as much as she struggled, as much as she fought that thing, she knew it was inevitable. But then, she hadn't. And that was all due to the man sitting in the back of the plane.

It may have been the fact that he had saved her life, but she felt a connection with him. She hadn't known him long, but she immediately felt some connection between the two of them. Then he had woken up and they had been able to meet him. From the beginning he had reminded her of Jack. And that was something that she definitely didn't want to think about at the moment, as she had no idea how she felt about that, and there was no way in hell she was going to spend time reflecting on it either.

She had spent a short while talking to him. And she had to say; she was impressed. He had a charming quality about him. In the short time she had been talking with him, she had felt far more relaxed than she had since this had all started. He was definitely someone that she could see becoming friends with, she just hoped that circumstances would permit it once everything was said and done. But at the moment, that wasn't the foremost issue on her mind. No, for her own sanity, she had to know what the hell had attacked her. She felt as though she would never be able to close her eyes and find a minute of peace until she could at least put a label on that damned 'thing' that attacked her.

She took a calming breath and closed her eyes, willing the frightening images to subside for only a short while. She needed to know what was happening, but she would control her emotions for as long as needed. Doing so was who she was, and she'd be damned if that 'thing' took anything away from her. It may have been a slight struggle, but she was able to will herself into a light sleep. It may not have been completely restful, but it was definitely a start.

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Xander watched as the group broke up from their little meeting in the front of the plane. Everyone there seemed to be in deep thought as they took their seats. He watched as they seemed to stared off into space for a short while, before closing their eyes and allowing themselves to get some sleep.

Xander looked down at the portable DVD player that was still playing. He hadn't been paying attention to it for some time now. He was thankful that Jack had allowed him to use it, but decided to turn it off and stow it into the carry-on bag that Jack had placed the unit in earlier.

With that done, Xander stared out the window on the plane and pondered what was to come. He wasn't sure where this was all taking him. He just hoped it ended well, and that by some miracle, he didn't screw everything up for his friends and family.

Staring out the window, he could see the monotonous scenery, as beautiful as it was, of the top of the clouds. Soon, he found himself growing tired. He slowly closed his eyes and rested his head against the soft headrest. Within moments he was in a peaceful state of rest.