2.
It had worked! Lord Yu had attacked the fortress and had destroyed the shields, the Colonel had escaped and for some reason travelled to the Tok'ra before being sent back to Earth by them.
When he arrived he was in quite a bad way, physically he wasn't TOO bad, but the holes in his clothes pointed at something really bad, and his hands were badly bruised as if he had fought hand to hand to escape. Janet wasn't sure if his condition was because he had not been placed in a sarcophagus or if it was the beginning of withdrawal from it.
He had been sent back with a written report from Shallan explaining what had happened to him after he arrived back, after Kanan had left him behind. General Hammond had, of course shared the report with the team, and Janet, and they were all shocked at the suffering he had gone through. Even Teal'c expressed the view that it was excessive in the extreme and not something that was normal. But then, Baal was not normal, he was especially cruel in his pleasures.
Every time someone mentioned it Sam felt the weight of her guilt. He had said NO, actually he had said "over my dead body" and she had still pressured him into accepting it! She kept returning to it over and over. She knew why it had been her that had asked him, Hammond knew that she had the best chance of getting him to agree, but the way she had done it! She had used the feelings she knew he had for her against him.
And because of those feelings he had been tortured to death, over and over. This overshadowed anything else he had ever gone through, his PoW days in Iraq were nothing compared as they always had to stop at a certain point or risk losing him, Baal had no such limitation.
The team gathered about the foot of his bed in the infirmary, waiting for him to wake up, they had been there for over 9 hours when he eventually stirred, and of course it was to complain that they were talking too loud.
Janet was stood at the back of the room, allowing his team to satisfy themselves first, and Sam was grateful for it, they could tell straight away that he was not too badly injured, and with his tone of voice, they hoped everything would be back to normal soon. He sounded so tired, Sam could have wept at the sound, as he thanked them for the idea that allowed him to escape, though she had no idea HOW he knew!
Sam almost cried with relief when he looked straight at her and asked for a drink, and she rushed to get him one. She had not seen any sign of blame, though it could be that it was because he could not remember, or he was hiding it. He had always been good at hiding things. She brought him the drink and noticed that Janet had left the room as well, she wanted to say something now they were alone… but she daren't.
She would wait, he would be released in a week or so and then she would catch him at home, where he could shout at her or slam the door in her face, without everything being recorded by the security cameras.
She needed to know how he REALLY felt about what she had done to him, and there was no chance of it on base.
She went to her quarters and settled down for the first real sleep in a week.
0o0o0o
Two days later Sam was in the Springs doing some shopping when she received a call on her phone. She picked it up, looked at the caller ID, she placed her basket on the floor and answered.
"Carter" She heard the General and voices in the background speaking loudly, but she could not actually make out what they were saying with the annoying background music being pumped around the store.
"Major Carter, we have a problem, Colonel O'Neill has gone missing from the infirmary"
"Missing? As in he is wandering around the base?"
"We are doing a full sweep of the base as we speak, but you are close to his house, could you go see if he is there?" There was no system in the world that would keep Jack O'Neill in, especially if he had had time to see the system specs.
He had already broken into the base more than once, and out several times, in tests on the system, she was sure that he had left at least one hole in and out that only he knew about, a man like him would NEVER allow someone else to block him in totally.
She had a feeling that they would not find him in the base, no matter how they looked. The thing was, if he was out, where was he? After all Janet had reported he was still in withdrawal from the sarcophagus and not in the best of health, especially emotionally.
She left the basket on the floor and hurried out of the shop, she was in her car and at the Colonels house in less than five minutes, hoping to God that the speed cameras she had passed were not working.
There was no sign of him anywhere, she checked the outsides of his house, the garage and then she went inside. She knew he had not been back, the door was locked, he never locked his door when he was home, not even if he went shopping. She picked the lock, remembering that everyone had planned to give each other keys back when she was taken by Conrad, Daniel and she had swapped, but not the Colonel. She knew it was no reflection on how he saw the team, he just never got around to it.
She found a spare set of keys in his bedroom, in the drawer in his bedside cabinet, and took them with her, she looked around and found a pad of paper and wrote a note saying what she had done and slipped it in the drawer. She looked around the floor, she knew it was there somewhere, slipping back the rug she found it, his gun safe, it looked intact, she pulled the rug back over it and straightened.
She left the house, locking up behind her and did one more quick scan around, she had a feeling that she was being watched, but she couldn't see anyone, she called the base and gave them what she knew, which was not a lot.
She got in her car and drove back to her own home. She was getting an itch in her neck the whole way, but she was not being followed that she could tell. She looked back in her mirror several times but could not spot anyone constantly behind her.
She got home and went into her kitchen, only then remembering the aborted shopping trip, she slammed her hands on the counter and picked her keys back up, she headed for the door, as she approached it she could see it was slightly open, she slowed, she knew she had shut the door when she came in. She was just about to turn to head for her living room, where she kept her personal weapon when she felt someone grab her, something pressed into her neck and she felt the swift action of drugs pulling her down, she was powerless to resist and blackness followed.