AN: Things are moving along now.

Hard Landing - Manitou Springs 1881

Jack could say one thing about his team. With the exception of Daniel, they were consistently on time. Jack had stayed on base to make sure that Daniel had at least slept last night plus it saved him an hour of sleep since he didn't have to spend that time driving to work and changing out of his civvies or shaking Daniel out of a sleep deprived stupor.

Sam was checking the fit of her strap on her P-90. Something she did when she didn't know what else to do with her eyes or fingers. He wasn't going to lie; his side arm was field cleaned far more than was strictly necessary while they chatted. It avoided having to look directly at her and have her realize how badly he wanted her sometimes. He respected their friendship far too much to ever articulate the tingle of need she evoked in him at the most inopportune times.

Jack stomped on that errant thought. Now is not the time to be sporting a pitched tent for your 2IC, O'Neill, he scolded himself.

"All right people, you have a go. God's speed." Hammond told them over the PA as the last chevron locked. As was their habit they entered the wormhole as a team and found on the other side... The Gate Room… and then nothing as the wind was knocked out of all of them including Teal'c.

"She's coming to." was the first thing she heard. Sam blinked but there didn't seem to be any light.

"Shh… easy, Carter, it's just me." Jack's familiar voice said as a large warm hand caressed her forehead reassuringly.

"What happened?" She asked him, still concerned that she couldn't see.

"We got pitched out of the gate pretty hard into some kind of... cave? Teal'c said he saw the gate room for a second and then it all dissolved just like the last time."

"Sir, if we're in a cave and not a missile silo, the military complex hasn't been installed yet."

"Yah, that thought occurred to me too." He admitted as he absently stroked her hair. It was soothing, reassuring. Sam just wasn't sure who he was trying to reassure. Her or himself. "How's the arm?"

She had been so preoccupied with the sensation of his fingers gently stroking her hair and cheek that she hadn't noticed the pain in her arm until he'd mentioned it. She lifted it in the dim light of Teal'c torch and examined Jack's first aid work. She'd bled through the bandage a little but it was holding. "Not too bad." She told him and patted his hand reassuringly.

She heard a familiar soft groan. "Daniel Jackson appears to finally be coming to, O'Neill." Teal'c told them.

"Good. As soon as everyone is awake and ready, we should try to find a way out of the cave." Jack said but he made no effort to move Sam's head and shoulders from his lap and pressed her back down when she moved to sit up. "You're fine." He muttered so low only Sam could hear him.

Sam looked up in his eyes, unable to read them in the dim light but two long fingers pressed lightly to her lips before she could question him.

"Who turned off the lights?" Daniel asked in general.

"Cave, Danny boy. Big one." Jack told him.

"How did we end up in a cave?" Daniel expected to be told they had been captured and was unprepared for Jack's response.

"Solar flare." He said simply.

Daniel cursed. "How far back?"

"No way of knowing yet, Daniel." Sam told him, finally sitting up in spite of Jack's fingers gently assuring that she didn't need to do so.

She squeezed his arm. He must have seen her take a hard fall to be this worried about her.

"Ok, if everyone is alright, let's see if we can find a chimney somewhere. If it's a caldera or even some other natural fissure, there should be at least one natural opening to the top somewhere even if we have to do a bit of rappelling to get out." Jack told them.

"Let's just hope we don't end up with nothing but terminals." Sam muttered.

"Carter, it's my job to be the optimist." He told her with an amused cant to his mouth. "Spread out, stay in torch distance to your buddy." He said this mostly for Daniel who had a bad habit of wandering off unless Teal'c babysat him.

"O'Neill."

"Found something, T?"

"Perhaps. It appears to be an upward inclined fissure; however, it has a sharp bend several feet away and I cannot see past unless I enter."

"Stay with him Daniel, but don't follow him in. I want line of sight relay until we're sure it goes more than a few feet. We'll have to go by audio confirmation until it gets a bit lighter so no chit chat."

"Yes sir." Sam told him as she shrugged the pack he'd pulled off her to get the medic pack from her kit.

Jack brought up the rear as they slowly worked their way forward and upward, some of the sections of the apparent lava vent had to be scaled vertically up narrow walls. They didn't have pulleys but Jack and Sam both carried Para cord with them and they made use of it when the climb was steep and lacked a tight enough structure to crab up the walls easily.

An hour in, Jack called a break in an oblong bubble shaped opening. "How is everyone doing?"

"Hands are a little barked up but I'm all right." Daniel admitted. He was used to rough work in his field.

"I am well, O'Neill." Teal'c told him.

"Carter?" Sam didn't answer. "Carrrterrr..." He sing songed.

"I'm fine." Sam told him in a distracted voice but she was clearly cleaning her hands with disinfectant and had a roll of gauze next to her.

Jack huffed, got up, and sat back down next to her, holding out his hand, a clear demand that he be shown how bad the damage was.

"I hit a rough spot on the one chimney that's all. I just need to wrap them."

"That's not going to hold while you climb." He told her absently as he checked her scrapes for debris in the dim light. His eyes lit up and he put a finger up as he declared 'Ah!" before grabbing his pack and digging around in the bottom pockets. He retrieved his old pair of leather tac gloves that had reached the point of, he thought (by his standards) no longer really mission ready anymore but still might come in handy as an expendable resource. "These should be just big enough for the bandages to fit inside and save your hands from much more damage. Hard to fiddle with your doohickeys if your hands are all cut up Carter."

She took the gloves and gave him a grateful look. They were warn and sweat stained and a weird stupid part of her heart did a tickly little jig in her chest as his fingers brushed over hers while he helped her slide them over the bandages he'd just applied after handing her the gloves. They looked at each other for a long moment in the dim light.

Jack's eyes dipped to her lips and back to her eyes before breaking the quiet spell between them by turning to look at Daniel and Teal'c. "Everyone rested up? Let's see if we can make some more progress campers." He patted her knee gently a couple times before standing and giving her a hand up.

"I don't have another pair of gloves, Daniel; you'll have to use your own if your hands get too scraped up." Jack told him.

"I'm good Jack. Sam, are you all right?"

"Yah, I'm fine." She said agreeably.

"Ok kids, same formation. Teal'c, you have the lead."

The four of them made slow grunting sweaty dusty progress upwards. It seemed they had lucked out other than having to pick between two branches and picking the one that had a terminal the first time because it sloped upward more quickly. It was a bit of a hike to get back down. Daniel marked everything with chalk as they went just in case. He'd had Sam mix him up a special batch that had phosphorus in it so it showed up for a few moments if the lights went back out too. It hadn't been one of his worst ideas and Jack was considering having it added to a standard field pack for the teams when they got back. If they ever got back.

Sam's nose twitched. "Sir."

"I smell it too Carter."

"Fresh air." Daniel said, himself familiar with the stale air of long enclosed spaces though in his case there was usually the scent of tomb as well. He really didn't want to find out this one was theirs.

As they drew close though, their hopes fell. The fresh air was a straight vertical chimney several feet higher than both their cords tied together and it appeared this was the end of the road.

Jack frowned. "Dammit." He swore and Sam looked at him surprised that he didn't have anything pithier to say about the situation. "We may as well take a break while we decide what to do."

"We only have two options Jack." Daniel told him.

"Yah. I know." Jack snarled.