Here's the next chapter to keep you from freaking too much. Thanks again for all your reviews. Maybe this will bring you some hope!

NOTHING IS EVER THAT SIMPLE

By LetitiaRichards

Previously:

"Ellie, go home. Give me your address and I'll get there as soon as I can. Just act like you have been doing and enjoying seeing your family again. We'll be as quick as we can. I promise."

Chapter 8 – A Covert Operation

He dropped the phone and ran from the room, collecting Sam and Teal'c on the way to General Hammond's office.

He didn't bother knocking, but practically fell through the door, followed by the others who were wondering what had gotten into the young man.

"Dr. Jackson?" Hammond said in surprise at his breathless entrance.

"General. I just had a call from Ellie..."

"Ellie?" Hammond and Sam asked together. Then it dawned on Sam who she was.

"The nurse!"

"yes!" cried Daniel. "She's got some information about Jack, but she says she's afraid. She was scared to death, poor kid. General, we have to get to her. I think something is wrong. She no longer works at the hospital for some reason. Maybe she can tell us whereabouts he is, but we have to protect her, because there is something fishy going on here. This smacks of something...em...sinister if you ask me." Daniel felt quite breathless after his speech. He left Sam and the General gaping in disbelief.

"You think that they took Jack away without his consent?" Hammond speculated.

"Something like that. I wouldn't put it past anything the NID would dream up sir."

"But what could they possibly hope to gain from holding him like he is? He's paralysed from the neck down."

"That's just it sir. Is he?" Daniel asked candidly.

"What?" Sam gasped.

Daniel was growing impatient.

"Look can we discuss this on the airplane or something? Time is running out. We need to get to Ellie before anyone else does. If someone is behind all this, then she is in danger just for contacting me."

"Where is she?"

"At her parents home in Cincinnati," Daniel replied impatiently. He was eager to get going. He didn't want to waste any more time; he wanted to find Jack.

Hammond was soon picking up the phone, and asking to be put through to Peterson AF base.

After a quick conversation with his friend, he replaced the phone.

"You have a go people. General Williams will have transport ready and waiting for you. Keep me apprised Major. God speed."

They tore out of the office and gathered a few belongings. Then they left for the base in an AF car.

OoOoOoOoO

Ellie watched from behind the lace curtain in her mother's lounge. The black SUV was still parked down the street a few doors. She knew they were watching her every move. She only hoped that Daniel and the others would turn up soon. It had been hours since she'd phoned him.

"What's wrong dear?" her mother asked, wondering why she was acting nervous and kept looking out of the window.

"I'm expecting some friends to call by," she said casually. It was true. She hadn't lied. "I'm just anxious for them to get here."

It grew dark and there was still no sign of Daniel or his friends, and Ellie grew more and more despondent.

Her parent's gave up waiting with her and went to bed late, leaving her on her own. She was growing more and more agitated with worry. Her thoughts and imagination was running away with her again. She was thinking up all sorts of scenarios of all the bad things that could have happened to the good looking young man.

She moved to the back of the house to the kitchen at one O'clock, and made herself a drink of coffee, not that she needed it to stay awake; she was too keyed up to sleep even if she'd tried. The kitchen was well lit and the blinds were drawn, so nobody could see inside as she sat at the table drinking, when suddenly there was a soft knocking on the back door.

After she had calmed her racing heart down she opened the door and stood back. Daniel and several others all trooped in quietly. They were all dressed in black, and had blackened faces too, with black woollen hats to hide their hair. Ellie felt as if she'd stepped into one of those movie scenes. A spy thriller or one of those behind enemy lines type of thing. If it wasn't so serious, she could have laughed.

Daniel pulled his hat off and handed her a black backpack.

"Here," he said whispering. The last thing they wanted to do was wake the whole house up. "Put these on, were going for a ride."

Ellie gaped in disbelief, but Daniel just told her to hurry. She opened the bag and pulled out a black outfit, complete with hat and face paint.

Daniel and Teal'c turned their backs while Sam helped her change, telling her not to worry, that they would be fine, and they were doing this to be safe, knowing the NID were keeping watch outside.

Ellie couldn't stop shaking. Her legs felt like cooked spaghetti.

When she was ready Teal'c opened the door and signalled the all clear. They all followed after him with Ellie sandwiched in between Daniel and Sam.

The little covert group climbed over several yard fences, and Ellie was thankful that her immediate neighbours didn't have any dogs to warn the men watching the house out front.

They reached the road keeping to the shadows, so they weren't challenged at all, and all too soon they were driving away slowly so as not to draw attention to themselves. They took the I75 towards Dayton then the I675 in order to reach the Wright-Patterson AF base so they could catch their flight back to Peterson.

All the way there, Ellie kept wondering if they were being followed at all, and what her parents must have thought when they found her gone that morning. It was getting near lunch time now and she was hungry. Nervous though she was, she could always eat like a horse when she was like this.

Sam handed her an energy bar from her own backpack and told her they would have plenty to eat when they reached Cheyenne mountain.

Ellie didn't relax until they were on their way to Colorado Springs. It was exciting. She'd never imagined herself in anything like this situation, she found she was enjoying herself immensely. Sam, Daniel and Murray were good company, though Murray didn't have much to say for himself. She did feel safe with them though, and she knew they would look after her.

"Okay, we're safe now Ellie. What is it you wanted to tell me?" Daniel asked as they flew over the Indiana countryside.

Ellie's thoughts were pulled from the view below back to Daniel and his friends.

"You said it was something to do with Jack?" he persisted.

"Yeah. I don't think he's as sick as the doctor made out."

Daniel looked across at Sam and nodded slightly in acknowledgement of his own thoughts from earlier.

"What makes you say that Ellie?" Sam prompted.

The morning before they moved him, I was giving him his usual wash down, and I was sure I felt his fingers twitch. He didn't seem to notice though. At first I thought it was my imagination and didn't think anything more of it. Later on when we were getting him ready for the transfer, he cried out as if he was in pain when they moved him."

"And..." Daniel hung on expectantly.

"Don't you see? He shouldn't have felt anything! I questioned Dr. Andrews about it and he said it was because Jack's neck would still be sore, but I'm certain it was because the ambulance technician jarred his legs."

"So what happened after that?"

"I don't know, Andrews sent me out of the way. He ordered me to fetch some equipment for him, and when I got back Jack was already gone."

"Do you know where they have taken him?"

"Well, I wasn't supposed to know, but a couple of days ago I did overhear Andrews talking to some guy dressed in a dark suit. He mentioned Colonel O'Neill by name and I'm sure they mentioned some place in Oregon, but I don't recall where exactly. Sorry, but, it just didn't seem right. It was odd and felt all wrong. Andrews wouldn't allow anyone in the room when he was treating Jack, and when I approached him again, he raged about me not being at all suitable for nursing and later I found out I had been fired."

"No that's fine Ellie, you did the right thing in coming to me. Now we're gonna take you somewhere where you will be safe for the time being. It's where we work. It's a top secret facility so you'll have to be confined for the time being, while we search for Jack."

"You've been a great help Ellie and we really appreciate you telling us your concerns. Jack is our friend as well as our leader," Sam said with a warm smile and a comforting hand on her arm. It was incredibly brave of the young woman to come forward in the face of danger with the information she had on Jack's real condition.

OoOoOoOoO

General Hammond welcomed them back and greeted Ellie with a warmth that surprised her considering he was a military General. These people, she realised, were just like family. She remembered Jack's tears and understood just how much it had hurt him not to have heard from them while he was lying there feeling miserable.

They all sat round a vast highly polished table in a long room. There was a large window in one wall, but it had some sort of a shield over it so she couldn't see out of it. General Hammond sat at the head of the table, with Sam and Ellie one side and Teal'c and Daniel opposite them.

Hammond had listened with patience as Ellie explained it all again for his benefit. He was angry at Jack's treatment and called for Dr. Fraiser to join them.

It took a few minutes for Janet to get there, but Ellie recognised her from her visit to the hospital.

Ellie was called upon to go through the details yet again, this time for Janet.

Janet was livid and was angry with herself for not checking Jack out thoroughly while she was there. She had seen the X-rays, the damage was extensive, there was no doubt about that, but Ellie's evidence was difficult to disprove too. She thought it over and came to the only explanation she could think of. That Andrews was hiding the truth; not only from her, but from Jack too.

"Doctor? Your thoughts?" Hammond asked.

"Sir, I'd say that for some reason Dr. Andrews was hiding the truth. Not just from us, but from the Colonel too by the sound of it. They must be using some sort of paralysing agent that numbs the body so that he can't feel anything, making everyone believe he was paralysed. Sir if that's the case then the Colonel might well be okay but we won't know that until we find him. Sir, I need to see what they have done to him. Judging by the way that Dr. Andrews kept turning Major Carter and Major Davis away, I'd say he was afraid..."

"He what?" Ellie interrupted. "You said that Andrews kept turning you away?" she gasped in surprise, turning to look at Sam.

"Yeah. We went there nearly every day to see the Colonel, but he kept making excuses that Colonel O'Neill was too sick, and then that the Colonel was refusing to see us."

"The bastard!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Whoa! What?" Daniel said trying to deflect Ellie's outburst. "Who? Why?"

"Dr. Andrews," Ellie said, her temper reaching boiling point. "Jack lay there all that time thinking you had all abandoned him."

"He what?" Sam cried in shock and her cry was echoed by Daniel and Janet.

"Jack was really upset that not one of his friends had been along to see him. Every day he would ask me if anyone had called, and every day I had to see the disappointment and heartbreak in his eyes because there were no messages and no visitors. I know for a fact that he felt he was all alone. That nobody cared."

Sam felt the tears well up behind her eyes and could see Janet wipe her eyes on the back of her hand. Daniel too, felt too choked up to make any comment. He was mentally kicking himself for leaving Jack there on his own. He should have insisted on staying and perhaps they wouldn't be in this mess now. They just had to find Jack. And soon.

Hammond leapt to his feet and hurried into his office. He shut the door behind him and they could hear him on the phone to someone. Sam guessed it was to the Pentagon and Major Davis.

TBC