"You requested my presence, O'Neill?"

"Teal'c, Bra'tac, take a seat."

As Daniel filled Bra'tac and Teal'c in on what had happened on their mission, Jack sorted through all the information he had just heard in the briefing. Daniel had been the only one not in a cell, and when they heard the ships fly over, Daniel had gone outside to investigate. Upon seeing the al'kesh's, he had begged several of the frantic villagers to release his teammates, to no avail. As the Jaffa were approaching the center of the village, a reluctant villager had opened the cells, and fled. They could all hear the sounds of staff weapons, and people screaming. Seeing an escape route, Cam had dashed for the cover of the trees, the Jaffa in pursuit. The gate was guarded, but after securing their weapons, the 6 men, and Vala, were able to get to the gate, and dial the Alpha site.

All the men at the briefing had been shaken up, even after having fought the Jaffa before. The village had been primarily a thriving farming community, with an approximated population of around 500. The Jaffa had not intended to come and conquer, only to kill. Each of the men had described what they had seen, and it gave Jack shivers to think of it. No one had been spared. If they could be killed, they were.

"Jack?"

"Sorry, thinking."

"O'Neill, we have not heard of any Jaffa activity surrounding Neith, Tanit, Athena, or Ba'al." Teal'c repeated his comment.

"Bra'tac?"

"The council has sent many groups of Jaffa to other worlds, but all have reported nothing. Gerek is most anxious to capture Ba'al and is attempting to acquire any and all information surrounding incidences like these."

"How long were you planning on staying?"

"I wish to assist you in your search, but I must return and report on these events."

"Let us know if you find anything." Bra'tac bowed his head, and swept out of the room, SG-3 and Cam following. Less than a minute later the remaining three could hear the gate dialing.

"Jack, now what?"

"I don't know Daniel. I'm going to have to report this tomorrow, when I return to D.C. I'll fill Landry in before I leave, and we'll take it from there."

"O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, if there is nothing further, I would like to retire."

"Yeah, go ahead Teal'c."

"G'night Teal'c."

"How long till Vala bounces back?"

"Not a clue. I've never seen her like that before. I had to drag her away from that village. She wanted to help them, have us engage the Jaffa. There were too many of them, and no one left to save." Daniel's eyes dropped and he focused on the table as he remembered.

"Daniel, none of this is anyone's fault. Well, the Jaffa's fault, but not yours, ours, or the villagers."

"I don't think Vala sees it that way."

"She's probably in Sam's lab now. We'll head down there and check on them."

"Jack, completely off topic here. Did you think about what I asked?"

"Yeah, and so did Sam."

"Sam?"

"We talked last night."

"What! I asked you not to say anything."

"She brought it up, not me."

"What did she say?"

"Friendship, nothing more."

"Jack, I'm sure that's not what she meant..."

"Daniel, don't worry about it. It's been discussed, and I don't want to talk about it again."

Jack's tone spoke louder than his words. Daniel knew things hadn't gone as Jack had wanted them to, but right now, there was nothing he could do about it.

Daniel and Jack arrived to find Sam hard at work, Vala watching. Daniel ushered Vala out of the room, and Jack sat down in the vacant chair.

"That bad huh?"

"Yeah."

"She kept saying it was her fault."

"Did she tell you what happened."

"Some of it. She just started talking, and I let her go on, without interrupting. She stopped when she described the scene in the village. How many Jaffa were there? She wasn't too sure."

"Cam reckons around 50."

"She said they didn't all have the same insignia."

"Daniel mentioned there were two different ones. Neith's and Tanit's."

"So, what are we looking at? Two goa'uld's joining forces, or one absorbing the others Jaffa?"

"Right now, we don't have a clue. Bra'tac went back to talk to the Jaffa council, see if he can jog their memories for any old alliances, or anything we can work with."

"Oh. Where could they be hiding? It's a big galaxy, but someone must've seen something. Why 412?"

"Daniel's going to talk to Vala, find out if there's any memory of a broken alliance, or something, with Neith or Tanit from when she was host to Qetesh."

"But it's been years since she was a host! Would they really go after her now? Not only that, how did they know she was going to be there?"

"Good question, Sam. Still no answers. How's the hunt for Ba'al coming?"

"Either he's not here, or better at hiding than we thought."

"How long can a goa'uld hide? Don't they like the power and attention?"

"From what we know of them in the past decade or so, yes, but there's nothing, not a peep. I'm only getting dead ends, no matter where I look."

"Landry's back tomorrow. He might assign you a different task. Changing the subject, you have plans tonight?"

"I was going to do some more research with the measurements I asked Scott to do for me."

"Speaking of Scott, where is he? I haven't seen Vikki around either. Is she ok?"

"Vikki's at home, sick. Scott, I haven't a clue."

"It was hours ago that I asked him to pass along a message to you, and you never got it."

"Maybe he got distracted."

"Doing what? He wasn't in the gateroom at the end of the briefing."

"He could've gotten lost."

"Sam, he's been here for months now. He can't be trying to use that excuse."

"Was there anything else?"

"Well, about last night."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was out of line. I was tired and had a short fuse, and took it out on you."

"Did you mean what you said?"

"Yes, but I didn't mean it to come out like that. I want us to be friends, but we have to be honest with each other."

"I can do that."

"You can? Ok, did you need to go see Siler last night?"

"Uh, not right then."

"So you were avoiding me."

"Not you, the conversation."

"Oh, ok. Look, what I was trying to say, was that, the night at Daniel's, it shouldn't have happened. I know that, you know that, but it happened. We've got to get past it, and move on."

"If that's what you want, Sam."

Sam merely shrugged her shoulders, and turned back to her computer. Jack watched as she reabsorbed herself into her work, fascinated. He could almost see her brilliant mind working behind her eyes, and didn't think he could ever tire of watching her.

"Real world to Jack?"

"Huh?"

"Did you have anything else to discuss?"

"Uh, no. Uh, I gotta go... check on Daniel."

In his haste to leave, he tripped over one of the legs on the chair, grabbed the door to prevent himself from falling, then took a deep breath as he tried to compose himself. Sam grinned at him, and he fled. She had caught him staring at her in a way that was more than just friendship, and didn't want to stick around to hear another tirade. He knew, that somewhere in his mind, he had crossed some imaginary barrier, but she hadn't. He hoped that one day, she would join him on the other side.

After informing Landry of all the goings on at the SGC in the past two weeks, Jack said his farewells to Teal'c and Sam. Sam had been on the phone, arguing passionately with someone, when he had stuck his head in her office. When she had been put on hold, he had told her he was leaving, but would probably be back soon. On his way out the door, he turned back and told her that if she needed help moving, he was only an Asgard beam away. She had smiled one of those smiles, the one he liked to think she reserved just for him, and turned back to the phone conversation, waving at him absentmindedly.
Jack's car had been taken to the rental place earlier that morning by one of the airmen, and Daniel had offered to drive him to the airport. On the way, Daniel started making small talk, and Jack knew exactly where he was heading with it.

"Daniel, just spit it out."

"What?"

"You're beating around the bush, just get to the point."

"What happened with you and Sam?"

"I told you already."

"Ok, so what do you think about her answer?"

"What do I think? What the hell do you think I'm thinking?"

"I don't know, Jack. That's why I'm asking."

"I respect her decision, and I'll stick by it. That's all."

"But how do you feel about all of this?"

"Daniel..."

"Jack, if you can't be honest with yourself, at least talk to someone who can be honest for you."

"Let me guess, that would be you."

"Yes, it would be. If you two can't see what's right in front of your faces, then I'm going to make sure you do."

"Look, Daniel. She said no, end of story."

"Did you think of why she said no?"

"Well, there's a very obvious answer to that. One I don't think I should have to tell you."

"It's not that. Did you stop and think that maybe she's scared?"

"Carter, scared? I didn't think she'd changed that much." Jack was being sarcastic as he couldn't imagine a scared Sam.

"Do you know what happened with her and Pete?"

"No, why do you?"

"She didn't tell me everything, and I don't expect her to."

"Are you suggesting he did something to her?"

"Is it not a possibility?"

"If he did, I'll kill him." Jack spoke fiercely, which didn't surprise Daniel the slightest.

"Well that'd be a fine way to screw up any kind of relationship. Kill the ex-husband, drag up old memories, and end up in jail. Great plan Jack."

"Shut up Daniel." Had they not been in the car, Daniel was certain that Jack would've either punched him, or banged his head on a desk.

"I'm not trying to stir up the pot.."

"And you're doing oh-so-fine a job there..."

"I only wanted to point out an aspect I didn't know if you'd thought about."

Jack opened his mouth to retort, and closed it. He hadn't considered any other reason as to Sam's behaviour, other than the obvious reason to him. She wasn't interested in him that way. Daniel had just opened his mind, that had been so closed on this matter, to a whole pile of possibilities. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, as Daniel parked the car at the airport.

"Jack, give her some time. She's been through some tough relationships, don't forget that."

"This is Samantha Carter we're talking about. Stubborn is her middle name."

"Reminds me of someone I just drove to the airport. When she first came back to the SGC, I told you things could change if it was worth it. Is she worth the effort?"

"Thanks for the ride, Daniel."

"Anytime. Sam's moving two Wednesday's from now. Why don't you come and help?"

"I don't know..."

"Think about it."

"I'll see."

"Bye Jack."

"See ya."

Jack walked away from Daniel, deep in thought. The entire flight back to D.C. his mind was filled with only one thing.

AN: Thanks for the great reviews! Motivating as always...