A/N:i am so sorry about how long it has been since i last updated. rl and being sick (something i still am) have kept me from typing this chapter up. the wonderful reviews have helped keep me going and so even though this chapter is not extremely long, it is an update. i was amazed though at how many of you seemed shocked at the idea of any member of sg-1 being referred to as a bad penny, it was a source of great amusement to me, which was a really good thing, since i think i've coughed up at least one lung in the last two weeks. anyway, have fun, enjoy chapter 23, and please remember to review. maybe reviews will help my health!

Chapter 23

Blinking against the bright light that was shining in his eyes, Jack sat up and groaned. But the groan became twofold when he realized where he was. Not back at the SGC putting up with a Napoleonic power monger and a hovering daughter, instead he was chained to a wall with a couple of angry looking Jaffa staring down at him. He glanced around the room taking advantage of his peripheral vision. He was alone in the room with the Jaffa.

Trying to remember what had happened, he couldn't. He didn't remember if the others had gotten out, but he hoped they had. Whatever Ba'al had been doing to Sam had been close to breaking her. And that was something Jack had never thought he's see, had never wanted to see. But he knew that if Sam and the guys had gotten out, and they had gotten out, then Janet and Katie would be taking care of her. And if anyone could heal Sam mentally and physically it was those two, they didn't even know the meaning of the words "give up."

Sitting back against the wall, Jack tried to find the most comfortable position. Once he was as settled as possible, he began walling off memories and rebuilding mental blocks to protect what he knew of Earth's defenses and the Tok'ra. He had to protect them, and he would protect them. No matter what Ba'al threw at him, and the snakehead would do his best to break the SGC officer. Jack had never broken before, and no way in hell would he do it now.

All he had to do was wait. The SGC would come for him, he knew they would and unlike other times in his life, he felt no fear about being left behind with the SGC. They would come, and he would be ready. Ready and unbroken.

SGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGCSGC

Kate sat beside Sam's bed, quietly watching the older woman's slow shallow breathing. All the medical help possible had been given to the Major and now they had entered the waiting game. Unlike her two teammates, who they had brought out of sedation earlier and were now sleeping peacefully on their own, the Major had slipped into a light coma.

The medical staff was exhausted; the three returning members of SG-1 had required constant care since returning two days ago. And the SG teams were still scouring the galaxy for the missing member. Kate sat, staring at this woman who was so important to her father and whom she knew relatively little about. She knew only what her father had told her over the years and what various people here had told her over the last six weeks. But aside from their initial meeting, ironically in this same room six weeks before, Kate had spent no time with her father's friend and second.

Normally Kate spent much time with her father's seconds, understanding their importance in his life and as a way for them to understand that Jack O'Neill had a life to come back to, so he had better come back.

But with this second, with this team, such interaction wasn't necessary. They were intensely devoted to each other, a family in so many ways. So many more ways than she and her father were these days. After Charlie's death she had needed to escape, had needed to runaway for a while and grief her precious baby brother. For she had always thought of him as her baby brother, even as he had gotten older.

Like her father, she grieved by walling herself off, by shutting down. In that state, she had not been able to help her father or her stepmother. But these people had helped him. When he had returned from what even she had assumed would be his final mission he was better. At least he was going through the motions of living again. These three people though, and especially this woman, had given him back a reason to live. And she was jealous of that. He was her father, her Daddy, and while he'd not been able to kill himself outright because of her, he'd also not seen her as a good enough reason to live.

But jealously and resentment would do her little good. It was her job to heal these three and that was what she was would do. And when she had done that, she would ask to return to Iraq, because despite what Janet thought, she was not needed here. And besides, she had her own life to live, one separate and distinct from Jack O'Neill's. If she wanted that life to include Hank Griff then she couldn't be here, couldn't be his doctor, after all she had sworn an oath and she did not intend to ever break it. After all, she had been taught to never break her word.