They returned without warning. One minute, General George Hammond was sitting in his office, gently rocking Jacob O'Neill back to sleep after giving him a bottle, and the next minute there was a flash of light out in the briefing room, and SG-1, Shawn, the dogs, and two Asgard appeared out of nowhere – along with Ian Brooks, who was being supported between Teal'c and Jack.

Hammond stood up, only just remembering not to jump to his feet and jar the baby back awake. Without the dogs in the room, he hadn't had any notice at all that the Asgard were beaming in, and he briefly considered getting himself a dog so he'd know when they were going to come or go. Then he remembered all the items that Jaffer had chewed when he was a puppy, and all the trips to the vet, the pet store, and the many times O'Neill had stood around, waiting to reclaim something Jaffer had gobbled that absolutely had to be returned to its rightful owner, and decided that he could do without a dog at that point in his life. He had grandkids, and they were handful enough for him.

He carefully settled Jake in his car carrier, made sure it was in the center of his desk where it wouldn't fall, and then went out to the briefing room just as Sam was turning toward his office door, and Janet was going with Shawn out the other door, clearly heading for the infirmary with Ian between them, now.

"He's asleep," Hammond told Sam before she could ask how Jake was doing.

"Thank you, sir."

"You found him?" Now the question was for Jack, who was walking over as well, along with the others. Hammond recognized Thor immediately, but the other Asgard wasn't one he knew (although he had to admit that they looked a lot alike and he had trouble telling them apart). The other Asgard had what looked like blood smeared all over the side of his head, and was the only one who didn't move over towards Hammond – aside from Teal'c, who was looming over the Asgard, clearly keeping an eye on him.

"We found him," Jack answered, and it was clear to Hammond that he was furious.

"What happened?"

"Ask Thor."

Hammond frowned, and looked at Thor, expectantly. The Asgard sighed, but really, he had expected this.

"I am afraid that one of my people took Ian Brooks out of your infirmary-"

"One of your people?" Hammond repeated. "You abducted him?"

"I did no such thing," Thor replied. "It was Loki, here. He decided – without consulting the counsel – that Ian Brooks was essential to his research, and imprudently acted without thinking of the ramifications of such an action."

"Wait a minute…" Hammond looked over at Jack. "You're telling me he wanted to experiment on Ian?"

"Loki found out about the Ancients' memories that Ian carries," Sam said, speaking up before Jack could say something that might screw up relations with the Asgard for centuries to come. "And says that he wasn't going to experiment on Ian – he was just going to force him to help him with some research that he and the other Asgard have been working on."

"Which is much better," Jack said, angrily sarcastic.

Hammond scowled, and looked over at Thor.

"Is this true?"

"Unfortunately it is, General Hammond. Loki will be brought before the counsel for his deeds and punished, I assure you. We do not believe in coercing our-"

"Ian managed to take over the ship," Jack interrupted. There was a lot more that Hammond needed to know. "And tried to make Loki here bring him back."

"I would have brought him home when we were finished," Loki said, moving just a step or two away from Teal'c, who was intimidating.

"You shouldn't have taken him in the first place!" Jack snapped.

"Colonel…"

Hammond needed to know what had happened, without O'Neill's anger getting in the way.

"From what we understand, now," Sam said, continuing the story. "Ian managed to stop Loki's ship, but he couldn't figure out how to turn it around and bring it back – and Loki refused to help him. Then they ran into a Goa'uld ship, and escape wasn't possible, since Loki's ship isn't – wasn't – as powerful or large as Thor's. And while it has shields, it doesn't carry weapons."

"So Ian decided he had to make sure that the Goa'uld didn't take him captive," Jack said.

"Because of the knowledge of the Ancients he carries," Teal'c added.

"He basically goaded the Goa'uld into firing on them," Jack told Hammond.

"Ian's good at that kind of thing," Sam said, softly. She was still upset that they'd come so close to losing him – especially when they might not have ever known why.

Hammond nodded, realizing what they were talking about, and feeling his stomach clench at the thought of how desperate Ian must have been to decide that his only option was to make sure he got himself killed instead of captured.

"But we got there in time," Jack said.

"Thanks to Thor," Sam added, which caused Jack to scowl.

"We beamed them off the ship as the Goa'uld blew it apart, and ran them off. Then brought Ian home."

"How is he?" Hammond asked. "I saw blood…"

"He reopened that cut he got from the camping trip," Sam said. "Janet says he's in shock, but he should be all right."

"I did not harm him," Loki said.

"He was doing a lot better before you took him," Jack growled.

"How would Loki know about Ian?" Hammond asked, confused. "Did Shawn-"

"No," Sam said, interrupting the question before it could be asked. "Apparently Loki had someone – another Loki, from what we hear – come from another reality and tell him."

"What?"

"Myself from another reality advised me that Ian Brooks was the best solution to the problem my people are facing," Loki said, still standing rather close to the wall and away from the others, although he was still trying to justify what he'd done.

"You could have asked," Jack snapped.

"We did not know that any of your people held the knowledge of the Ancients," Thor said. "Why is it that Ian Brooks is not suffering in the same manner that you yourself did when you carried that knowledge?"

Jack shrugged.

"We don't know. Maybe he's smarter."

"We could do some tests on hi-" Loki started to say, but Jack stopped him immediately.

"Not on your life. You'll stay away from him, or you'll be missing your hands."

Jaffer growled deeply as if to support that threat, showing those formidable fangs once more, and Loki actually put his hands behind his back.

"Jack…" As much as Hammond agreed with how O'Neill was feeling just then, t was bad form to threaten allies.

Jack scowled, but before he could ay anything, the door opened and Shawn walked back into the room.

"How is he?" Hammond asked.

"He looks okay," Shawn answered. "Doctor Fraiser kicked me out of her infirmary, though, before I could find out."

Which wasn't unexpected, really. They could go check on him later when Fraiser had a chance to get him settled.

"If it is true that Ian Brooks holds the memories of the Ancients, it I very likely that he might be the solution to my peoples' problem," Thor said, knowing that he was pressing an issue that was a sensitive one, but desperate enough for help for his race that he would face anything - including Jack O'Neill. "It would-"

"Ian's not the answer to that problem," Shawn interrupted. "I am."