Part Seven.

"What?" Jack asked again, he was mad, yes. But he was also confused. Why would these losers plot to kill him? More importantly how the hell had they been able to almost pull it off? Most of these guys couldn't even make a decent pancake. At that thought he fixed the one from the commissary staff with his icy stare, the guy then paled.

"I believe these are the people who conspired to assassinate you, O'Neill." Teal'c confirmed for him to which Jack had to ask.

"What!?"

"We didn't!" The one called Dooley, and apparently the group head added quickly, and without permission from the General who was looking slightly red in the face, obviously furious. "I..it wasn't so much as a conspiracy, more of a...joke."

Jack looked up from his seat, mouth slightly agape as he digested what had just been said. "Funny." He added and he hoped he had been sarcastic enough about so they knew he didn't find it funny at all.

"Why?" Carter asked, her jaw set rigid, hands still in her lap. He couldn't ever remember seeing Carter loose her cool, he had a feeling he was about to now.

"Well..."

"Your superior officer just asked you a question." Hammond growled and Dooley visibly started to perspire.

"It was just, a way for us all to blow off steam when you, sir," a gulp, Jack could have swore he heard it. "Humiliated us."

"In what way?" Jack asked with a level of calm and control that certainly did not reflect the inner chaos of his mind as he, slowly imagined the worst kind of torture for each one of them. And then it hit him, he knew these guys! Slackers, lay-abouts and reckless fools one and all. "Wait-a-minute!" Jack stood and pointed at a guy at the back. "I caught you skate-boarding in the gate-room!" He pointed to another. "You thought running through the female locker room, naked was was a good idea, and you!" He pointed at Dooley. "I caught you sleeping at your post!" He snarled. "I'm guessing the humiliation I dished out, you think, was out of order?"

Silence.

"You're right, it was." He said calmly, and then, when they looked like they thought they were going to get off the hook, he erupted. "Because I should have had the lot of you shipped to that fucking ice hole where I broke my leg the first damned time!"

"There's still time for that, Colonel." Hammond confirmed fixing each member of this 'club' with a very disapproving glare. "General Adam's is always looking for more hands."

"But sirs."

"Shut the hell up, Dooley!" Jack bellowed once more. "Do you even realise what you've all done! You put my team through hell because you couldn't keep one of your members under control, I almost died and there's still a member of my team seriously ill!" Jack calmed down and pulled in a breath. "You can be the one to tell the Majors family of his death, since you were all so friendly."

Dooley, now a little red in the face. "I'm sorry, sir. Who?"

"Major Mitchel, your little club member." Silence and a lot of blank looks and blinking. "The arse-hole who tried to kill me!" He started looking for his crutches, he needed to hit someone.

"Sir, all members of my urh...'club' are present and accounted for."

"You mean," The General began. "Major Mitchel was not a part of this, conspiracy?"

"No sir. Our ideas, yes but we would never put them into motion." Dooley swallowed.

"How can we believe that?" Carter asked, her blue eyes fixed pointedly on each one of them stood on the other side of the conference table.

"Because, we want who-ever has done this caught, which is why we're here. We just wanted a laugh, it was all just a big joke, none of us would ever consider taking it as far as...as it's got." A pause. "The only thing we're guilty of is not being the best we can be and, finding it hard to accept the fact that you were just trying to encourage that."

"I'm not interested in the whole 'I understand now' story. This isn't high-school and I'm not your damn teacher!"

"I..we know. But...why would we come forward and own up to this if we were truly guilty of the crimes?"

"I hate riddles." Jack snapped and sat down rubbing his right leg, it was aching like crazy since he'd gotten himself worked up and he hated to admit it but, that was a very good point.

---

Daniel really hated places like this. It was bad enough when he was just visiting his one relative in hospital but actually being a patient, it was torment. It was probably the reason why he avoided that post mission examination, deep down he knew he was sick and he just wanted to avoid the place at all costs. Something he would never do again if it meant he got another lecture off Dr. Frasier. As soon as he was strong enough to listen and concentrate on what she said, she came right at him, nothing held back.

After that however she couldn't have been nicer and he guessed that was probably because she was blaming herself, which made him feel pretty bad since it was his decision to sneak away. Still, her lecture had hit a few home-truths. The checks were there for good reason, one of which being the safety of the rest of the base. What if Daniel had a damned Goa'uld in his head? The people to suffer would be the people he loved the most. No, he would be a good boy from now on.

It was quiet. To quiet. Usually Daniel fell asleep at the sound of Jack's Tetris game and Dr. Frasier pulling out her hair when Jack pushed her to the limits of her - so far - limitless patience. But tonight, it was so peaceful.

"Hey, Daniel." Dr. Frasier appeared from nowhere and he shot her a weary smile, one which she could see since the mask had been replaced with the less suffocating tube just under his nose. "How you doing tonight?"

"Fine." He replied, his voice clearly strained but thankfully speaking didn't trigger another coughing fit. "Q..quiet tonight." That did however bother him slightly and he struggled to swallow down the irritation.

"Yes, the Colonel was summoned to a meeting with General Hammond. It's been going on for hours, must be something important if it's held his attention for this long." Her smile was infectious. "So, just noticed on the menu there's a variety of soup I think you'll like."

"Oh?"

"Chicken."

"Urgh, no thanks."

"You have to start to eat, Daniel. There's only so much I can do." Her hand found is and she tapped it gently. "Just half a bowl?"

"Stop."

"What?"

"Looking at me cough like that.."

"Hey if it gets me the sale!"

"Will you leave me be if I do?"

"Promise, and I was in the Brownies so that means something."

How could she be so happy? He wondered as she walked away.

---

Okay so he had to admit, it wasn't so bad at all. In fact it left a warm bloated feeling inside which in turn made him sleepy. Well that and the pain killers. Apparently a side effect of the Pneumonia was aches in joints and muscles, but Daniel was pretty sure his aching was a direct result of the cross country hiking he had done back on that wretched planet. But then walking wasn't all he done. He had to drag Jack with him, to save him, to get him home.

"Daniel, you can't..."

"I can-" He snapped back as he struggled up the bank. The ground was soaking from the down-pour and came away under his feet. He reached out before he slipped completely and grabbed a hold of the first thing he could, which happened to be a dead tree. He gripped it hard, not caring for the amounts of splinters he could feel, tearing the skin of his hands.

He looked back, the stretcher as it trailed behind him, the body of his friend laid perfectly still, say for when the make-shift sled bumped its way past a mound or branch at which point Jack would moan slightly. He was doing his best to limit the rough way the stretcher moved past these obstacles by taking the smoothest route to the top of this hill. As such it made Daniel's trek longer, but if it meant Jack was relatively okay it was worth it.

With gritted teeth Daniel pulled himself and then Jack up the last of the really steep bank, using the fallen tree as an anchor. Finally with something to hold on to the pace picked up a little and some of the pressure was taken off his fatigued legs. He scrambled the last few yards, stomach first through the mud and sodden woodland debris, before rolling onto his back to grab the line that connected him to the stretcher, and pulled.

Jack, finally was on level ground and no longer at risk from slipping back down from where they had originally started and Daniel sagged down, gasping for air, feeling the freezing chill around him seep down into his chest as he done so.

"S..see! See!" He called between gasps, the proclamation directed at Jack, and Mitchel - where ever he was. "It's not...not impossible." But he got no reply, they were probably just pissed he had managed to prove them wrong. Yeah, that was it.

He stared up at the clouds, just visible through the canopy above. Just a minute or two rest and he would start again. Finally up the worst part of the climb, all they had to do was head north-west now across a level field, at which point they were to rendezvous with Sam, Teal'c and the search and rescue team.

Typically, they would have stayed put in the area Jack had fell, but with the torrential rain it was feared the surrounding area would become unstable and prone to mud-slides, and being buried alive just wasn't something Daniel wanted. The irony didn't escape him. Here he was, an archaeologist - a profession famed for digging stuff up - how ironic would it be for someone to have to dig him up! Ironic and damn unfair.

He coughed. And didn't stop. It hurt, a lot and he tried, hard to get control and swallow down the discomfort. As frustrating as that was and as annoying as the ache in his chest was becoming, it was a blessing really since Daniel realised he had fallen asleep, or passed out.

Rolling on to his side, he tried his best not to trigger another coughing fit and he took care not to exert himself to much as he again stood and started to pull Jack across the mud.

"Home stretch." He wheezed but again, no reply came from his friend or Mitchel - where ever he was.

---

"So," Jack began again rubbing his eyes. It had been a long afternoon and the pain meds he was on for the numerous minor injuries and obviously, his leg, where starting to wear off. Not to mention he hadn't had his nap. Not that he was a child or anything but, hell it had only been three days since falling off a cliff and it was only the last day or so he had been able to stay awake for any length of time. "You guys thought up this stuff, joked about it, never met Mitchel, who - bizarrely enough - carried out every nearly fatal attempt on my life that you all dreamt up and you have, no idea why?"

"That's pretty much it, sir." Dooley stated, hands threaded together on the table before him. Being the group head it was deemed he was the one who needed to be here and since he swore that each member of his 'club' were innocent, well the others had jobs to do and they weren't getting out of their duties lightly. Not that this guy was having any sort of picnic here.

"Well I'm just..." Jack began to which Carter sat forward.

"If I may, sir?"

"Go ahead, Carter."

She nodded and turned back to Dooley not really questioning him, but doing what Carter done best, thinking out-loud and managing to ask the right questions.

"So, just say we believe your story and you all are innocent. How would Mitchel get a hold of your ideas and put them into action."

"And why." Teal'c added.

"That's easy, Teal'c," The Jafa raised a brow at the blond Captain, inviting her to explain. "Misdirection. Mitchel takes each idea dreamt up by you guys, you have a crisis of conscience and come forward with the intention of helping. We don't believe you and you and your men are questioned and marched before a court-martial for them to decide your fate."

"But I saw Mitchel trying to kill me." Jack offered, now sat back and swinging slowly n the chair, trying to push the aches and pains to the back of his mind.

"That's right, sir. But think about it. If you hadn't survived, if he actually killed you and got away without being detected. He would have committed murder and we would be interviewing the wrong people."

"A cunning plan." Teal'c nodded and Jack had to agree.

"Sneaky-"

"So, for what it's worth, I believe you." Carter looked to Dooley who closed his eyes in relief.

"Don't think you're off the hook, Dooley. You or your misfits."

"Sir."

"This still leaves us with a question not yet answered." Hammond sat forward, having listened only for the past few minutes. "How did Mitchel come to know about you and your 'club' and its...ideas?"

"I really don't know, sir."

"Maybe a search of Mitchel's belongings, or his room." Carter offered.

"His things have already been packed away, and the room given to someone else, but you're welcome to check any of them out if you think it will provide you with answers, Captain."

"Wait..." Dooley interrupted, looking worried all over again. "His room was already given away?"

"That's correct, son."

"I think I might know which room that was then..." Again he closed his eyes in what looked to Jack like disbelief, but if Dooley thought he was having a bad day, he wanted to try sitting for so long in this damn cast!