Disclaimer: I do not own stargate or any of its characters.

Chapter 13

They all left Kaleth's apartment and hurried out of the building. They decided it would be best to get away from the apartment before they tried to come up with a plan. They were just about to walk around the corner out of sight of the apartment when they heard several voices behind them. Jack turned around and saw a large group of men walk into the apartment building they had walked out of only seconds

ago. Jack recognised several of the men from the auction hall.

"I give us five minutes until they realise we've already left and come looking for us"

"Then let's put as much distance between us and them as possible" Sam said and they all turned and headed toward the shelter.

They reached the shelter in record time and Jack went inside with Melody to get Lissia. Calardon spotted them but Lissia just told him that they had found somewhere to go and thanked him for everything he had done.

"Mummy!" Lissia shouted as she spotted her mother and came running over.

Melody hugged her daughter and told her they had to leave. The three of them walked back out of the shelter to where the others were waiting for them.

"Let's get the hell out of here" Jack said as they all headed for the outskirts of the city.

They knew there were still some guard patrols in the forest but it would be riskier to stay in the city right now. From what Kaleth had told them, the auction hall guys would keep looking until they found them. They would also have no problem getting the rest of the inhabitants of this city to help them.

Jack looked over to where Daniel was still supporting Janet's weight as he helped her through the streets. He also noted that Teal'c was standing close to them. Janet was still staring blankly ahead and gripping onto Daniel's shirt. She still hadn't said a word and that was really beginning to concern Jack. He returned his gaze forward as they continued to make their way through the streets. They were approaching the forest at the edge of the city when a couple of men stepped in front of them blocking their way.

This was becoming far too familiar, people stepping in front of them as they were walking through the streets. It always brought them more trouble than they were already in. Jack took a step next to Sam and was aware of Teal'c moving in front of Daniel and Janet.

"You're the ones from the auction hall"

"What makes you say that?"

"We followed you from the apartment"

"Then why didn't you stop us before now?"

"We wanted to see where you were going, where you thought you could hide from us. We didn't expect you to try and leave the city though"

"Well maybe that's why we decided to do just that"

"Hand the two women back"

"In case you haven't noticed, we out number you" Jack said, he knew they were already aware that they were outnumbered and that they were trying to make this easy on themselves.

"Please" he spat out with a smile on his face "A woman who can't even support her own weight so that one of the men has to hold her up, another two women and a child. You are two, we are three"

Jack could feel the anger simmering in Sam at the man's comment, this woman was more than capable of kicking the guy's ass. Something in the mans little speech was bugging him 'you are two'. That was it; Jack looked around him but found that Kaleth had once again run away and hid at the first sign of trouble.

Jack shrugged his shoulders and gestured to both Sam and Teal'c to get the idiots out of their way. The last thing they needed was for the rest of them to catch up them whilst they all stood here chatting. They were unarmed so Jack didn't see the need to draw any more attention to themselves than necessary by shooting them.

Sam and Teal'c got the message loud and clear and they both grabbed the guy closest to them. Jack went for the guy in the middle so fast he hadn't seen it coming. He hit him and he was unconscious on the floor in a matter of seconds. It felt good to Jack to be the one attacking first, it made a change to all the times they had suddenly been forced to defend themselves since they had got here.

Once all three men were out cold and Jack had found Kaleth hiding around a corner they continued on their way. They left the city and stepped back into the woods that they had fled a few days ago. Jack glanced at Daniel, the terrain was rougher here and he knew it would be harder for him to get Janet through it. He decided it would be best to just keep and eye on them. He didn't want to risk upsetting Janet by having someone else help her and he knew Daniel would never allow it anyway.

- - -

They had been walking through the trees for fifteen minutes when Jack turned around to face the others.

"Alright this should be far enough for now. Let's take a break and figure out what we're going to do next"

Everyone sat down and Jack went to sit next to Sam, he looked up to make sure he was out of earshot of the others. He had been dreading this conversation for the past hour but it had to be done.

"Sam" he said and she looked at him with eyes that he knew he could happily lose himself in. "I have to ask you something and I want you to answer me honestly okay?"

"Okay" Sam replied, she had a feeling she new what he was about to ask.

"I know we stopped Andreas before he could do anything to you and Janet, though we probably couldn't have cut it any closer" he said with a quick glance to where Janet was still holding onto Daniel. "But before then, before the auction, did anyone…"

If the situation hadn't been so terrible Sam might have found Jack's awkwardness amusing but at the moment she just felt numb. She couldn't believe how close Andreas had come to hurting Janet and all she could do was scream and watch.

"No sir, neither of us were raped" she stated flatly, a little surprised at how easily she had used the very word Jack was struggling to say.

"Are you sure? You and Janet weren't separated at any time where you don't know what happened to her?"

"Janet woke up before me but she said she had only been awake a few seconds, after that we were together at all times"

"That's good; did they hurt you at all?" Jack asked he already knew the answer to that question. He had seen the way the women had been treated on stage, he had seen Sam get slapped across the face where everyone had been able to see them. He dreaded to think what had been done to them behind closed doors.

Sam could tell from the look on his face he already knew the answer so she figured she might as well tell him.

"They knocked us about a lot" she admitted "It was mostly in areas where it wouldn't show during the auction"

"How bad?" Jack asked feeling his anger beginning to boil again. Sam and Janet were two of the most incredible and loving people he had ever known. He couldn't understand how anyone could even think about hurting them let alone actually do it.

"It wasn't too bad, they wanted to be able to sell us at auction" Sam said hoping he would buy her excuse whilst trying to ignore the massive amounts of pain that were all over her body. "Janet had it worse though" Janet had had it worse; they had started using Janet as a way to get a reaction out of Sam. Once she had figured that out she had stopped the verbal outbursts she gave every time they got near Janet.

It hadn't worked at first; they had beaten her worse in an effort to make Sam respond. She had been close to doing it when they had reduced the amount of beatings the two had been given. She also knew that this little fact would get Janet the attention she needed but without drawing too much attention to herself.

Jack looked over to Janet again "Do you think we need to look at her wounds, I really don't want to risk upsetting her right now?"

Sam followed his gaze over to where Daniel and Janet were sitting. He was right, if they tried to check Janet over now there was no telling how she'd react. "No, I don't think any of her injuries were life threatening and if they were we would probably know it by now"

"So what do we do?" Daniel asked, he had seen Jack and Sam talking. They had been too far away for him to hear what they were saying but he was fairly certain, especially from the look on Jack's face as they had been talking, what they were talking about. Janet was still curled up next to him, she wasn't shaking anymore but she still had the blank, distant look on her face and her grip on his shirt hadn't loosened.

"We need to find the stargate"

"The stargate could be anywhere by now, we can't just stumble through the woods and hope one of trips over the stargate whilst another walks into the DHD" Daniel knew he was sounding sarcastic but he wasn't in the mood to be nice right now.

"You're spending too much time around Jack" Sam said. Daniel wasn't able to suppress the smile that the comment caused. Jack however just looked at her with a mock hurt expression.

"I'm funny sarcastic not mean sarcastic"

"Sorry" Daniel and Sam said in unison and Jack just smiled and nodded his head.

"We don't know where the stargate is but we do know where the people who do know where it is are" Sam said.

"Okay so let's just stroll into the council building and ask for directions" Jack said sarcastically and Daniel and Sam both had to suppress a laugh as Jack realised what he had done "Sorry, mean sarcastic right?"

"The council area is protected by the barrier and the council guard who patrol it night and day" Kaleth said.

"Yeah but when we first got here Teal'c and I found a small hole in the fence where there was a gap in the patrols"

"O'Neill we would have to go through the city again to get to it" Teal'c added.

"Yes we would. The council area is that way, we stay in the woods for as long as we can and then when we get as close as we can to the hole in the fence. Sam and I will go into the city and walk straight through to gap" Jack had considered taking Teal'c with them but he knew that if Daniel ran into trouble with Janet, Kaleth, Melody and Lissia with him, he wouldn't stand a chance. "Daniel, Teal'c, you, Melody, Lissia and Kaleth will stay in the woods with Janet until we come back for you"

"And if you don't come back?"

"We will"

TBC