The sound of gunfire made Janet go cold. If Fyodor was telling the truth, she knew that Daniel was out there, facing them alone. And if he did make it past Fyodor's men…

"Daniel!" she yelled. "Don't!"

Fyodor glared at her with deadly eyes, but said nothing. He raised the crossbow and stiffened. Janet struggled to worm her way out of her restraints while continuing to shout. She saw a shadow move across the hallway.

"No!" she yelled.

Too late.

Fyodor fired.

Daniel staggered back from the impact, the color draining from his face. He had little time to react. None of them did. Before Fyodor even lowered the bow, O'Neill burst into the room. One quick assessment and it was over. O'Neill fired, pumping an entire round into Fyodor.

Dead instantly, Fyodor fell to the ground in a heap.

He was promptly ignored. Sam shouldered her weapon and ran to Daniel, supporting him as his knees buckled. Teal'c wasted no time in untying Janet while O'Neill reluctantly guarded the door. After nodding her gratitude to Teal'c, she rushed to Daniel's side to inspect the dart's insertion.

Fyodor had impeccable aim. The dart was lodged in Daniel's upper left chest.

"Janet?" Sam asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Help me sit him down," Janet said.

While O'Neill reloaded and kept watch, Teal'c and Sam helped sit Daniel down into the chair that had once been her prison. He had overcome his initial shock, much to Janet's relief, and was moving. His hands went to dislodge the dart himself, but she quickly stopped him.

"Daniel, let me check it."

He nodded and let his hands drop. The first thing Janet needed was for Daniel to stop moving so she could determine just how deeply the dart had penetrated his tissue. Though, she knew in the end it wouldn't really matter.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asked her.

"I'm fine," she said. "Let me see."

Sam handed her a pair of gloves from her vest. Janet accepted, snapping them onto her hands. Slowly, Janet started to pull at the dart, surprised to find that there was so much resistance. What confused her even more was that as she pulled, the vest and jacket came with her, but Daniel didn't even flitch. Curious, she lifted the jacket.

Janet frowned.

"Doc?"

Janet didn't answer Colonel O'Neill. She kept working, now more quickly, sliding off his vest and jacket together. Then, she lifted his shirt and inspected the skin. All the while Daniel didn't say a word, but she could feel that he was tense. The others did not need to voice their fears.

Janet slid her hand over the area where the dart had made contact. After a few moments of silence, Janet sighed and brought down his shirt.

And then she laughed.

"Doctor Fraiser?" Teal'c asked.

"There was no penetration," she said with relief. "Something must have blocked the dart."

There was a collective sigh of relief added to her own, but it didn't break the full tension in the air. Janet knew nothing would. This place was filled with death, with horror, and with pain. And there was a population continuing to die.

She glanced at each one of her friends, noting their haunted expressions, their pale faces, their weighted stances. She knew that they wanted nothing more than to leave, as did she, but they still had so much more work to do. And they had to make sure they brought nothing back with them.

"You all right?" Colonel O'Neill asked her.

Janet nodded, watching as Sam started to investigate the dart stuck in Daniel's vest. "I'm fine, Colonel." When the displeasure didn't leave his face, she tried to ease his concern. "They weren't going to do anything until they secured a cure."

He nodded, but his attention was now on Sam. "Carter…"

"Don't worry, sir." She pulled at the dart, but as before it did not budge. Sam then turned her attention to the vest itself, opening the pocket that had become the dart's victim. She let out another sigh of relief. "The karcite," she said.

Daniel frowned.

Sam picked up on their silent questions and dug into her own vest. She withdrew a small rectangular piece of what Janet thought was a kind of metal.

"Karcite," Sam said again. "The samples that Taras gave us earlier."

Daniel let out a nervous laugh. "That's amazing."

"It is not," O'Neill said. "You got lucky."

Janet frowned, watching Daniel just shrug his shoulders. "Well, it all worked out in the end anyway, didn't it?"

O'Neill did not say anything. No one did.

After a moment of silence, Colonel O'Neill motioned for everyone to pack up and move. Janet helped Daniel to his feet. The two of them fell into step behind O'Neill and Sam while Teal'c brought up the rear. They made their way back to the door only to be stopped by a team of soldiers led by a woman.

Janet remembered her as Raya.

Colonel O'Neill lifted his weapon and pointed it at Raya. Sam and Teal'c quickly followed suit. They looked anything but impressed.

"No need, Colonel O'Neill," Raya said before O'Neill could quip. She glanced over at Fyodor and sighed. "You have ruined this opportunity for us."

"Friend of yours?" he managed to say.

Raya scowled. "We have been working for years to try and bring this terrorist group down. What you have done now will only infuriate them more."

"You knew," Janet said through clenched teeth. She thought of all the innocent people who had died. She thought of all the people she had seen as she came through the Gate, their faces open and hopeful that she and her fellow medical staff would be able to save them. "You knew," she repeated.

Raya held her head high, her expression bordering on smug. Janet resisted the urge to give her a mouthful.

"You used us," Sam said.

"We have done what is necessary to help our people."

"Help?" Daniel scoffed at her. "You just let them die. You let all of those people die and you didn't do anything to stop it."

"In times like these, one must sacrifice for the good of the people." Her cool gaze darted to O'Neill. "Colonel O'Neill understands, doesn't he?"

Again, O'Neill said nothing, his face like stone.

"You have no honor," Teal'c muttered.

"It is not your concern." She waved them to the door. "I am here to escort you back to the city."

"We'll show ourselves out, thanks," O'Neill said. He waved for the rest of them to follow him.

They said nothing more to Raya that night. Janet walked with Daniel out into the corridor, reading his quiet anger in the silence. There was something festering inside him, something more than the weight of this mission, something heavier than the two of them, SG-1, or the whole program put together. And Janet knew that someday soon that weight would crush him if he didn't take measures to stop it.

She stayed with him, walking with him out of the building and into the forest. The five of them remained quiet, giving Janet the opportunity to contemplate the welfare of SG-1, the Baich and the Rusayev while struggling to find a way – if there was one – to make everything right again.