A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. Heavenly-vixen: LOL!


Chapter 20 – Unexpected Guests

It took several minutes for Jack to shake himself out of the shock of what Sam had just done. When she said she'd been thinking of Pete, he hadn't expected her to tell him she was in love with Jack, not Pete. By the time he went over to where the sleeping bags were, Sam was already fast asleep, so he followed suit.

The next morning, Sam awoke and slowly opened her eyes. She was lying on her side, facing Jack. He was on his side facing her, not two feet away, head on his arm, watching her. He grinned at her and said, "Good morning."

She smiled back. "Hi."

"You know, I could really get used to the view here."

Her smile grew larger, "I think I know what you mean. For a cave, it's got a pretty good view to wake up to."

After a slightly awkward silence, they got up and went about the things they had planned, trying to do as much as possible as quickly as possible. There were dark clouds to the south and the wind had started picking up overnight. They weren't sure how much work they'd be able to get done in the afternoon if it started raining.


Sam was still examining the gate. With no equipment, it was pretty pointless to even try to figure out what happened, but it gave her something to do and if anything obvious caught her eye, she would make a note of it and maybe study it further once a rescue team arrived. The wind was starting to gust along with occasional rumbles of thunder and she was hoping that Jack hadn't wondered too far in his travels today. She was kneeling over the gate looking at it when another big gust of wind blew by with a louder roar of thunder as she saw a shadow cross the ground. She was now also hoping that Rover would be careful, too. Her mind wandered to that magnificent creature she was lucky enough to befriend and so was caught completely off-guard when the staff weapon blast hit her.

It hit her in the left shoulder, she immediately dropped down into the pit the stargate was in and grabbed her zat. Her heart racing she chanced a look at where the blast had come from. A goa'uld cargo ship had landed at the other end of the clearing and there were four jaffa milling about it, pointing their weapons at her. She glanced over to where she had left her P-90, radio and pack, they were 20 feet away and she'd be too exposed if she tried to run for them.

Well, a group of four jaffa wasn't that bad. She'd faced some pretty bad odds before. And they were in the open, while she had some cover. She started to creep her hand over the lip of the pit to fire at them and was met with a barrage of staff blasts so she couldn't aim a shot without getting hit. She tried again, only to be met with more fire. Yeah, it was a little easier when she wasn't the only target. She decided to try to just reach up and shoot blind, hopefully startling them enough so she could raise her head without getting shot. Her hand went up and a blast shot the zat from her hand, sending it flying behind her.

"Surrender or Die!"

'Well that's original.' Sam thought to herself as she tried to think of a way out of this, hoping Jack was nearby and heard the firefight. The end of a staff weapon peeked across the lip of the pit, so she raised her hands as well as she could with her shoulder injury and yelled out, "Yeah, OK." They didn't shoot her again, so she started to stand up.

There were two jaffa standing near her, weapons aimed at her. The other two were standing mid-way between her and the ship, observing the surrounding area. She was about to make a smart ass O'Neill-like comment to antagonize her captors, definitely hanging around him too long, when a gray flash swooped out of the air and barreled into the pair. They were knocked into the other side of the pit sprawled on top of each other and Rover was flying high again avoiding the weapons fire from the other two jaffa. Sam made a run for her P-90, not sure if she'd be able to shoot it straight with her shoulder and the burns she just realized she had on her right hand from when the zat was blasted from it. She grabbed the gun and her pack and ran behind a mound of dirt for cover.

Looking around to see where Rover had gone, she saw him flying down towards the pit where the two closest jaffa were. There was a bright flash of fire and her heart sank as she was afraid that they'd shot him. Then she realized it had actually come from him and went down into the pit, filling it with what momentarily looked like a small lake of fire until it dissipated. He soared upward again, dodging the weapons fire from the other jaffa. Sam managed to fire her gun at them. It hurt like hell, and she didn't hit them, but they at least stopped shooting at Rover in favor of shooting the back of the mound of dirt she was behind. She peeked around again to see Rover land on one of the remaining jaffa while the other started to run for the ship. She turned her head for a second while Rover dismembered his prey and then went after the next. A blast of fire caught the other jaffa, just as he was entering the ship. The door closed behind him, leaving the incensed animal to claw at the hardened metal surface.

Within a few minutes the ship slowly started to ascend. Sam watched as the ship flew slowly upwards and towards the south along a very wobbly path. The pilot must have been hurt pretty badly. Rover flew after the cargo ship screeching and diving at it. When he went around the front, he saw the jaffa through the window and sent a blast of fire at him. While it couldn't hurt him inside, it apparently startled the already injured occupant enough that the ship went into a nose dive. From where Sam was, she wasn't able to see much after the initial take off, but after a few minutes she heard what sounded like thunder in the distance and saw a ball of fire rising above the trees where the craft had crashed and exploded.

Sam relaxed back against the mound, trying to calm herself and even her breath, to help with the pain she was now overwhelmed by. As she lay there she saw Rover circle around above her a couple of times, seeming to look down at her, and then headed away from her. Several minutes later, as she gathered the strength to take a look at her wound and do something about it, she heard a very concerned sounding Jack on the radio. "Sam? Is everything ok?"