A/N: Thanks once more for the reviews. I can't believe my little story's up to 15 chapters and not finished yet.


Chapter 15 – Sorry Pete

Daniel walked up to Sam's house and knocked on the door. It was Sunday morning and he knew Cassie was still in town. After Janet had died, she moved in with Sam until she went off to college in Denver. Most of her stuff was still at Sam's house and she stayed there whenever she was in Colorado Springs. After a several minutes, he heard movement on the other side of the door, which was then opened to reveal the beautiful, young woman, sleep still in her eyes.

"Daniel! Have you heard from Sam or Jack yet?"

"Hi Cass, no, not yet. Can I come in?"

She stepped back to allow him to enter the house. He closed the door behind him and followed her to the kitchen where she started to make coffee for the two of them.

"Do you have any news? Are you going after them? Is Teal'c getting a ship?"

Daniel was amazed at the rapid fire questions from the girl who had obviously just gotten out of bed. He had at least had 2 cups of coffee already that morning and he still couldn't keep up with her.

"We still haven't gotten through to any of our allies to help us get there. I came over to let you know that Teal'c and I are going with one of the teams to find Bra'tac and see if we can borrow a ship from anyone he knows. I don't know how long we'll be gone, the planet's pretty far away from most occupied worlds in the galaxy and will take a while to get to in a ship, once we find one. But – we will find them Cassie. We'll bring them back."

"I know Daniel. I know you and Teal'c won't stop until you bring them home. I'm just... I miss them... both of them. And I haven't seen too much of Sam since things with Pete got serious. I shouldn't have been so distant. I should have talked to her more... came to visit more..."

Daniel's heart went out to the young woman. He needed to find his best friends for himself, but even more – he needed to bring them home for Cassie. He couldn't let her face losing the closest thing she had to parents in her life, yet again. He was always amazed at all that she had been through in her short life and yet was still such a well-adjusted person.

They talked over coffee for about an hour, discussing various Jackisms and good times they'd all had. They even discussed Janet at length and how much they both missed her.

At this point the front door flew open. "Sam! Sam are you home?" Pete came running down the hall glancing in the side rooms on his way to the kitchen, a hopeful expression on his face. "Is she home?"

"Pete, I'm sorry, no, Sam's still missing." Daniel quietly told the man facing him.

"Oh... I saw your car outside. I thought maybe she came back and you drove her home." His face fell as he realized his fiancé was still missing. "Daniel, please, tell me what's going on. I need to know what happened to her. No one will tell me anything."

"I'm sorry Pete, there's not much I can tell you."

"But even Cassie knows more than me. I'm Sam's fiancé and I have enough of a security clearance to know some of what you guys do. How is it you can tell a college student more than you can tell me?"

Daniel looked sheepishly at Cassie for a moment and she whispered to him, "He doesn't know."

Realization dawned on Daniel's face. Sam hadn't told Pete that Cassie was from a different planet and knew all about the SGC and the stargate from first hand experience.

"I don't know what?"

"Uh... oh..." Daniel stammered, the fewer people who knew Cassie's secret, the safer she was. "You don't know."

"Right, she just said that. What don't I know, Daniel?"

"Um... You don't know... why I'm here." Daniel Jackson, linguist who knew dozens of languages berated himself for stammering the way he was. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he figured the truth always worked, and he'd stay away from the classified bits. "I just came by to let Cassie know that I'll be going 'out of town' for a while to try to find Sam and bring her home."

"You are? Daniel, please, I'll do anything to get clearance, take me with you." Pete pleaded with Daniel. "I don't know where she is or what's happened, but I've got to do something to help her, even if I have to face 100 chicks with glowing eyes and laser beam rings to do it."

"Pete, I don't think that's possible, I'll be leaving as soon as I leave here and I don't think there'd be enough time for that." Daniel was kicking himself for saying anything to this man. Then the statement about the glowing eyes registered in his mind and a thought occurred to him. He could try to bribe Walter into dialing a goa'uld infested planet and send Pete there to 'look for Sam'. Nah, Hammond would never go for it and Sam probably wouldn't be happy with him when she got back, even if it was in her best interests.

"Anyway..." Daniel looked at his watch. "I've got to be going. Cass, General Hammond's in town watching over things while Jack's away. He said to call anytime if you need anything."

"I'll do that. Maybe I'll give him a call to see if he needs anything, I'm sure he's just as concerned as we are."

At this, Pete turned to Cassie, "You know this General Hammond guy?"

"Yeah, I've known him for years. He's like a grandfather to me. He's also a friend of Sam's dad and has known her since before she joined the Air Force. Don't worry Pete, he'll do everything he can to bring Sam back home to us."

Pete looked at Daniel. "Wait, Daniel, before you go here – this is my cell number. Please, call me the minute you have any news on Sam. I don't care what time of the day or night it is."

"OK, Pete, but I may be gone for a very long time before we know anything."

With that Daniel headed out the door as quickly as he could while Cassie went to her room to pack up and get back to school and avoid dealing with Pete any more than she needed to. She knew he'd probably start asking her for whatever information she had on what Daniel was doing.