Chapter Twelve

The water was cold, but not cold enough. Of course at this point even Arctic temperatures were not going to cool Jack's temper. He had wandered away from Sam because he didn't want her to see him completely lose it. After everything that had happened for some reason this particular insult had cut him right to the bone. He knew they had more than proven to Ser'in that they were not animals to be exploited and yet here they were: on display again.

Worse than just being put behind glass they had taken Sam and dressed her up specifically to be stared at. Diving to the bottom of the deep pool Jack released his breath so that he would stay on the gravel covered floor. With a good fifteen feet of water pressing down on him Jack tried to clear his thoughts. If he was going to get them out of here now he was going to have to come up with something far more clever than memorizing a few colour codes.

Opening his eyes Jack stared at the glass wall of the tank. His water blurred vision could still see the outlines of the aliens looking back at him. Turning away from them Jack took a moment to concentrate on the burning in his lungs as they slowly started to beg for oxygen. When the acidic burn spread from his chest into his arms Jack pushed himself off the bottom and broke the surface.

Swimming over to the edge of the pool Jack hauled himself out onto a large flat stone. Whatever this new material was it was extremely quick to dry. His clothing was dry long before even his short hair was. Sitting on the rock Jack stared into the shimmering turquoise pool that looked painfully similar to an Event Horizon. After half an hour of thoughtlessly staring into the water Jack took a deep breath and got to his feet.

Sam hadn't moved from where he'd left her. She had simply sat down and pulled her knees up to her chest to hide her exposed belly. Sam didn't seem to notice Jack's return, she was looking blankly at the creatures on the far side of the glass wall. Jack watched her and fought the sudden urge to kill her, just to set her free. Instead he pulled off his tank top and held it out to her. Sam looked at it with a confused expression.

"Take it."

"Thank you."

Sam reached out and took the shirt and pulled it on over the ribbon she was wearing. Jack could see some of the tension ease from her shoulders as felt a little less exposed. He hoped that Ser'in would take the hint and get them both something more modest to wear. Sitting down next to her Jack put his arm over Sam's shoulders.

"How's the water?"

"Fine." Jack sighed. "I'm sorry about that, I needed a little time to think this through."

"I understand."

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine."

Sam's words were not very convincing. Jack pulled Sam into a full embrace and held her close. It was as much for his comfort as for hers. He didn't want to give up on escape, but considering he couldn't even see the seam of the door he didn't have many bright ideas at the moment. Sam nuzzled against his chest and then sighed.

"Carter?"

"We're not getting out of here any time soon, are we?"

"No." Jack admitted.

"I don't understand, Ser'in seemed so excited and proud. Why would she think that we'd want this?"

"I don't know."

"I thought we were friends."

"And maybe we are."

"Perhaps, but we're clearly not equals in her eyes." Sam said in a wounded tone.

Jack brought his hand up into Sam's hair and lightly rested his chin on the top of her head. He was suddenly painfully aware of how small Sam had curled herself up. It was only then that he realized that he'd done the same thing. Subconsciously they were trying to make themselves as inconspicuous to prying eyes as they could. Tilting his head back Jack stared out of the skylight far above them. He noticed that the roof actually had a fifty foot circular opening to the elements in the middle of the glass.

"Come on, there has to be somewhere to hide around here."

"Hide?" Sam repeated.

"I don't feel like being watched right now."

Sam nodded in agreement. Jack got to his feet and help Sam do the same. Doing their best to ignore the crowd they started to make their way around their complex environment. On the far side of the hill was an area that had clearly been set up for them to sleep in. In the crook between the mossy stone and a forked leaning banyan tree had been constructed what looked at first glance to be a large bird's nest.

Upon closer inspection they found that the bowl shaped nest had been filled with blankets and large pillows. Jack walked out into the large mass of cloth and offered his hand to Sam to help her step into the unstable pile. They laid down and settled into the soft bed. Jack pulled one of the lighter blankets over them so that for the time being they could just shut out what was going on outside.

Hidden in the cocoon of the blankets Jack laid on his back. Sam laid on her side pressed against him with her head resting on his chest so that she could listen to his heart again. He cradled his arms around her and idly played with her short hair with one hand. Wrapping one arm over Jack's waist Sam just held on to him without moving.

"I went to a zoo once," Sam said quietly "they had just acquired two new Amur Leopards, one of the rarest cats in the world. They had a beautiful large natural enclosure, but both of them were curled up in the small concrete entranceway that lead to the back of the exhibit, pressed up against the bars. You could really only see their tails. Everyone was wondering why the cats had chosen to hide there rather than sleep somewhere more comfortable. Now I know."

"I once accused Daniel of torturing fish by keeping them in that little tank in his apartment rather than in the ocean where they belonged."

"Of course you were just trying to annoy him at the time." Sam smiled. "It had nothing to do with fish 'rights'."

"Yeah." Jack admitted. "I never really thought about what kind of life this must be."

"For a fish it probably isn't so bad, plenty of food, no predators. Even after a little time the leopards got used to it." Sam shrugged. "For us though...I hate to say this, but I don't think it will be more than a few years before I go completely insane."

"Make that the two of us. Even in the Iraqis prison I knew I was there because someone saw me as the enemy, for some reason that made it easier to take. Even though I knew that everyone Air Force thought I was dead and that there was a good chance that I'd die there."

"I hate to think that we are going to die here."

"We're not going to." Jack said confidently. "I just haven't figured out how we're going to get out of this yet."

"I appreciate you pretending to have hope."

"I'm not pretending."

"Yes you are."

"You're right...I am."

Sam sighed and nuzzled against his chest. Jack responded by holding her tighter for a moment. He stared up through the semi-transparent sheet that he'd pulled over them. He could hear birds chirping and wondered if they were real or if it was some kind of piped in sounds. Jack felt Sam suddenly shiver as if cold.

"Carter?"

"It's nothing."

"Doesn't feel like 'nothing'."

"I...uh...I've been having panic attacks."

"Understandable."

"I feel ridiculous." Sam said scornfully. "I've been through a lot worse and been just fine."

"Yeah, but after all those other times you got to go home."

Sam nodded, but he could feel that she was still angry at herself. When the shivering continued she started to grind her teeth together. Jack slipped one hand down to her lower back and rubbed at the tight muscles there. It had always worked to calm her in the past, but right now the panic attack was feeding off itself and spiraling out of control.

Jack rolled over onto his side to move fully envelope Sam in a comforting embrace. The slight shaking escalated into trembling despite her obvious efforts to control herself. She didn't cry and after a few deep breaths she even managed to bring the quaking to a stop. A sad smile touched Jack's lips and he nestled in to kiss her neck.

"Have I mentioned how amazed I am by your strength lately?"

"If I had been stronger sooner we wouldn't be in this mess."

"You were ready to leave a week ago, I was the one who wanted you to rest longer."

"I guess it doesn't matter now."

"No, not really." Jack agreed.

"Honestly, I don't even think this world has a Stargate. I think we came here by ship. I mean...how many fruit juice paintings of it did I do on the walls only to have them washed off like they didn't mean anything? Even if they don't understand English writing the Symbols on the Stargates are the same. Anyone who had seen a Stargate would recognize an Address when they saw one."

"So we should add 'steal a ship' to the plans?" Jack teased.

"Definitely." Sam chuckled.

"Okay so, step one: climb up out of the skylight..."

"It's probably only thirty feet up from the top of the 'mountain'."

"Exactly. Step two: steal a ship."

"What about getting down off the roof?" Sam asked.

"I figured that was a given."

"Ah, right."

"Okay, ship stolen, let's see..."

"Learn to fly it?" Sam suggested.

"Good, good. I like that." Jack nodded. "Once we get into space we just need to point that bird towards home and volia!"

"Which direction is home?"

"East." Jack answered confidently. "Home is East."

"There is no 'East' in space." Sam pointed out.

"Oh, well, in that case I guess we'll just have to pick a random direction and go from there."

"That plan sounds...improbably."

"But not impossible." Jack said matter-of-factly.

"Nothing's impossible, Sir, ...just statistically insignificant."

"Hmmm, that doesn't sound much better than impossible."

"It's not." Sam confirmed. "Seriously... What...what are the chances that the SGC is still looking for us?"

Jack's silence was her answer. They had guessed that they'd been gone for around four months, however, Sam had also come to the conclusion that the day/night cycle was much longer here than on Earth. So their concept of time could be way off. It wouldn't surprise her to find that they'd been missing for closer to six or seven months. She knew that there came a point in every search where it became so emotionally taxing on the rescuers to continuously fail and the chance of success became so small that it was only humane to call off the search.

"We're on our own." Jack admitted. "Daniel and Teal'c would have put up a fight to keep searching, but there is only so much they could do. I'm ninety-nine point nine percent certain that the SGC has given up on us by now. "

"I agree."

"However, I'm not ready to give up on us." Jack said seriously. "How about you?"

"Hell no."

"That's my girl."