Author's note: This is kind of short, but I wanted to try something a little different. Please let me know if you love it, hate it, or don't even see what's so different about it.

Warnings: Language and some sexual imagery.

Previously: She was trapped, she was hurt, and this nightmare was never going to end. There was going to be no escape for her, or for Sam, or for her husband. Gripping the sides of her head in her hands, Ella's rage exploded in a long , throat-tearing scream.
Interlude I

Sam stared out the view screen as the blue glaze of hyperdrive distorted stars whipped past. With all her heart she hoped that Jack was seeing these same stars because that would mean that he was coming for her. Oh, Jack, she wondered silently, how did things get so screwed up?

It was not in Sam's nature to sit around and wait to be rescued. The damsel in distress act did not work for her. If it had just been her trapped on this ship, Sam would be handling things much differently.

He wants me to make Daniel's bomb, Jack. She rested her chin on top of her bound hands. He calls it his Laughter. And I can do it, too. It is genius and a nasty piece of work, but I can make Loki's Laughter rain down once more. And many, many people will die in a fiery holocaust. But if I don't do it…

Against her will, Sam's eyes slipped over to the red-haired woman slumped by Loki's chair. It was hard for Sam to witness Ella's defeat as Loki threaded his fingers through the woman's hair. He hurts her, Jack. He knows what she fears and he hurts her with no effort. I try to interfere and things just get worse. And what's really scary to me is that I don't think he has even started on the damage he could do. If I go along with his orders and if I make his weapon work, Ella and her baby will be safe a little while longer, but at what cost? I need you to get here, Jack. I need your help.

She shifted in her position on the floor against the back wall of the bridge. Two guards kept constant watch over her at all times and her hands were bound, but at least they were in front of her. It seemed that Loki did not trust her out of his sight for too long during the waking hours. She had already combed over every surface of the closet they were being "stored" in. She found nothing.

I don't know what to do. Would things be different now if I had just let you stay over that last night? Or would they have killed you, to? I just wasn't ready to tell people yet. I liked having this all to myself… I wanted you to come over. I wanted you that night.

Sam was unaware of the faint smile that flickered across her face as she thought of her lover's lean, hard body, his fingers gently entwining with hers as they moved together. Even now, with her life at it's most ridiculously bad, Sam found comfort in what her and Jack O'Neill had finally found in each other. She wasn't ready to let it go yet. And that meant that she had to survive until help came.

Her eyes flicked back over to Ella. Since yesterday's attack, the pregnant woman had slipped deeper and deeper into depression. When they had been locked up last night (night? day?Sam had totally lost track. It just seemed to happen when Loki grew tired of them.) Sam tried to talk to her, to comfort her, but Ella would have none of it. She pulled herself as far away as the cramped room would allow. The silence Ella shrouded herself in was too thick for Sam's attempts at conversation. Sam was not sure if Ella was more ashamed of the secrets that Loki revealed or the fact that there were witnesses to her degradation.

I just wanted her to know that she had no reason to be ashamed. It doesn't matter to me when or how her and Daniel first got together. It was years ago and I remember how alone Daniel was while he was looking for Sha're. It's a little nice to know that he some comfort in someone, at least once.

Watching Ella stare, dead-eyed, at the floor, Sam grew aware of the great weight on her shoulders. What do I do, Jack? Help a psychotic Goa'uld with a weapon to take over Earth or sacrifice a mother and her unborn child to a war they know nothing about? I can play along with him, but for how long? Please get here.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

If Ella had had any idea of how far gone she was, it would have scared her. She could have diagnosed her condition in one of her clients; "dissociative disorder as a result of mental trauma" maybe, or "severe depression with catatonia." But to analyze it, Ella would have had to be aware of it and she was not aware ofanything at the moment.Ella had always thought she was so strong and could survive anything. But the only way she was surviving right now was by giving up.

He knew too much. He knew how to cause her pain. And he was…

He had been touching her all day. Simple, innocuous touches, running his fingers through her hair, brushing a stray tear from her face, tracing her fingers with his own. It was a constant reminder that he had won. In the end, she stopped fighting. She could not be in her body when he had his hands on her. She would die. So she left, she escaped…she hid.

Ella hid in the quiet. Her mind slipped into memories…images…she hid in the dimples at the base of Alex's spine…she hid in the roughness of his cheek…the post-shower dampness of his neck. She buried herself in the glowing warmth that was their child and the night she told him…

Lying in bed, covered with her favorite comforter, she felt his weight push down his side of the bed. His hand slipped under her nightshirt and rested on her bare stomach. "It's here," he whispered in her ear. "Our baby is right here." He suggested names, both funny and beautiful…this for a girl, that for a boy…while his hand traced widening circles, his breath tickling her ear. His hands crept up, capturing her breasts, already exquisitely sensitive and aching. He continued to whisper his love and their future while his hands played, toying, teasing, delighting her and making her gasp…

A movement within brought Ella back into her body with a painful lurch. What was…it couldn't be…it was too soon to feel the baby, wasn't it?

Whatever it was, it brought Ella nothing but pain as the movement ceased and she was stranded, trapped in a body that she could not claim because his hands were still there. She felt weak. Her baby was in the body that she was running from. It needed protection, but Ella was falling apart. She did not deserve to have this baby if she couldn't keep it safe.

Alex, do something! She tried to reach him. Please, if you can hear me, make him stop. He's killing us…But even if Alex was able to hear his wife's silent pleas, there was nothing he could do.

But Sam is still here, Ella glanced slightly over her shoulder, stealing a look at the tall, blonde Air Force Colonel. I'm not alone. And she says that Jack and Daniel and the rest of her team are coming. Daniel will save us.

No he won't.

It was an old voice that Ella heard. An echo of nightmares that Ella no longer had. She tried to ignore it. Ignore it and it will go away, like an under-the-bed-monster.

Daniel can't save you. He couldn't before and he can't now. Just give it up.

The voice had always been persistent. It would be answered. That's not true.

He failed then and he's gonna fail now.

I am not going to do this. I do not need this right now. I am not listening. You are not real.

God, you are pathetic. Look at you, cringing and crying. Why should anyone even want to help you? Why would Alex even want to come back to someone as fucked up as you are?

Alex loves me.

Alex lies. Look at everything he hid from you.

I don't care about that. Alex loves me!

Maybe he used to but now he knows what a whore you are. He knows what you did. And if he could see what an ugly pathetic mess you are right now, he would despise you.

Shut up! You are not real!

Look around you bitch! You are hiding from everything that's real.

Shut up, shut up, shut up! I don't have to listen to you. You are lying and you are not real. So shut-

A ripping pain lanced across Ella's finger. Wrenched back to reality once more, Ella met Loki's eyes with her own.

"Uh uh uh. I don't think so, darling." He held her hand by the wrist. The pain and teeth marks told Ella that she had bitten herself without realizing it. But he caught her.

"Please don't tie my hands up. I won't do it again, I promise." A small part of her died as she heard the small, pleading tone in her voice.

He considered her request. "Okay. This time. But I believe that it is time for the two of you to get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow." He smiled toothily at Sam. "Ella, are you hungry? Do you want some food first?" She shook her head mutely. "Are you nauseous?"

"A little," she admitted.

"Well, my men will give you some water. After all, you have to take care of my son." He rubbed Ella's stomach and her nausea increased ten-fold.

It was a great relief when Ella was led out of the room toward the closet. The dark room had ceased to be fearful to her and had become a place that she had longed for all day. But she knew it would be dangerous to let anyone know, so she dragged her feet and refused to cross the doorway until one of the men was forced to shove her in. He tossed in a bottle of water as an afterthought. Sam stumbled in behind her.

Clutching the water to her forehead, Ella sank to the floor. She spent a few minutes trying to clear her head and settle her stomach with deep breaths. She had spent so much of the last twenty-four hours shut down, that it was almost painful to be fully present in her skin. But it was time to wake up.

"Sam," Ella whispered.

"Yes, Ella?" Sam was surprised. She did not know that Ella was still awake and it was the first time Ella had addressed her since yesterday.

"I'm breaking." It tore at Sam's heart to hear so much pain be revealed. "I don't think…that Daniel and them are going to get here soon enough."

"No. Don't think that. I've been in worse situations than this and have been rescued. We just have to hold on."

"But it's not just me I'm worried about." Ella turned her head. She could just make out Sam's profile in the glimmer of light that trickled in from the doorframe. "It's not even me he wants. You know that. I'm just for fun. He wants the baby. He wants to do… things to my baby…you won't even tell me what so it must be bad."

"I promise that whatever it takes, he will not get your child," Sam swore.

"Thank you, Sam. Okay, I need you to listen to me," Ella braced herself. What she was about to say went against everything she believed in, but she meant it from the bottom of her heart. "When we first ended up here, I really believed that we would be okay, that someone would get here in time, but – we are never going to get the upper hand on him. If it comes down to it, and the only way to keep him from my baby is to… kill myself…I will do it."

Sam was horrified. "Ella no! That is not - We are not there yet."

"Yes, I am."

"Ella," Sam continued her protest, "we are not there yet. You're not even that far along in your pregnancy. Even if everything else goes wrong, we still have seven months, right?"

"Right, but," Sam heard anger seep into Ella's voice, "that thing out there is a fucking genius, right? Do you know every trick he has? Can you promise me that he doesn't have some sort of alien technology that can take me baby from me and, I don't know, grow it without me?"

"Well, I don't - "

"Can you?"

Sam thought of all of the technology that she had seen over the past nine years. She thought of the sarcophagus, Asgard cloning abilities. Could she promise what Ella asked? Could she promise anything? "No I can't."

"So?"

All of the weight on Sam's shoulder's compounded. "Ella, please don't make me - "

"You don't have to do anything Sam. But if it comes down to it, don't get in my way."

Sam despaired. She heard Ella lying down on the floor. At long last, the right words came to her. "Ella, don't give up. I know you are scared and I know that this all new to you, but I need you to keep fighting. Your baby and Alex need you to fight for them. Alex isn't dead and you may be the only chance he has. I promise I will not interfere with what you need to do to protect your baby in the end, but we are not there yet."

She waited for a response. At long last, she felt Ella's hand slip into her own. Ella squeezed Sam's fingers in the darkness.

"Okay," Ella said softly. "Okay."

TBC