Setting: Between Threads and Avalon, before SG-1 gets split up. Slightly AU because Janet. I refuse to write a fic in which the doctor is not Janet. Otherwise canon. Can follow Red Sky at Night but is not a sequel.

Pairings: Sam/Jack recently established. Possible hints of Daniel/Janet later.

Summary: A routine mission turns sinister for SG-1 while, back at the SGC, Jack awaits an important decision.

Disclaimer: If I owned anything would I be writing fanfic? Yeah, didn't think so.

A/N: Sorry if you have me on Author Alerts and it said I'd added Chapter 2 at the same time as Chapter 1. That was me reuploading it because of a bad homonym... and not noticing the massive mistake where I forgot to delete half a clause in the middle of a sentence. "Okay, this is a you've all had time to..." Fortunately, this was beta'd by Eisette, so it should be okay. Anyway, I got really stuck on this chapter, but I think it turned out okay. It'll get more action-y from here, I promise. Enjoy!


Chapter 2

Daniel slapped a mosquito that had landed on his forearm. He missed it, and swore irritably as it flew away, swooping lazily through the air towards Sam, who was walking up ahead a good distance from him. Teal'c was positioned in the middle, a few feet away but still in earshot. He saw Sam similarly slap the bug away, but guessed from the lack of expletives that her aim had been better than his.

They'd been walking this path for a few hours now, and so far the only signs they'd seen that it was getting nearer to the settlement had been more of those weirdly warped branches. He'd started counting interesting rocks at one point - occasionally they'd go along a section where football-seized chunks of what looked like a mix of granite and quartz littered the sides of the path at the bases of the ever-present trees – but he'd lost count. He spotted another one, and started again.

"One." he muttered. Teal'c must have heard, because he turned his head a little in Daniel's direction, but before he could raise an eyebrow Sam's voice filtered back along the path.

"Guys, I think we're getting to a clearing."

They both quickened their pace to meet Sam, who'd slowed, and together the three of them made their way carefully out of the trees...

And into another deserted clearing. This one was larger than the one in which they'd found the gate, and as they cleared the trees completely, Daniel noticed a patch of thinner grass. Not that any of the grass was all that long. Which was strange, actually, considering how overgrown the path was.

He pointed over at the patch when Carter looked his way, and she nodded. It seemed nobody wanted to break the heavy silence that was present here as well. The place he'd noticed seemed at first to just be a circle of slightly lighter, shorter grass, with more moss in than the rest and about 3 metres across, but as Teal'c strode from one side to the other, there was a thud where he had stepped in the centre. Nudging it with the tip of her boot, Sam dislodged some of the greenery to reveal a chunk of wood. She looked at Daniel inquiringly, who nodded and took out the trowel he carried with him everywhere in case of archaeology emergencies. By the time he'd dug the top inch of earth away, they could see a wooden disc – maybe a metre or so in diameter if Daniel judged right.

"Careful." said Sam as she made to move it with her boot, and both Daniel and Teal'c took a step back. When she flipped it to the side they could see it had been covering a deep hole, the rim of which was denoted by a ring of bronze-coloured metal. The ring had thin, wire-like structures coming from it that seemed to be embedded in the soil in every direction around and below it.

That, however, wasn't the strange part.

"Is that... is it glowing?" Daniel asked, perplexed, as he stared down to the bottom of the hole. There was an amber glow, which seemed to be reflected by more copperish fibres in the walls of the pit as well – or maybe they were glowing themselves, but to a lesser extent. As he stared, he thought he saw the light source, whatever it was, shimmer a little. Like liquid.

"Hey, guys, I'm gonna try something." he said, looking at the ground surrounding them. Teal'c raised an eyebrow, and Sam opened her mouth to object as he straightened up with a small stone in his hand, then dropped it in before anyone could say anything. Sam frowned as they all listened intently. It took a good thirty seconds before they heard a splash that was a slightly different sound than it would have been were it water in there, but the amber light remained. There was a pause, then a simultaneous sigh of relief from all three.

"Daniel!" Sam frowned slightly. "We didn't know what that might have done!"

He shrugged, smiling at her across the pit to put her at ease again. "Well, at least we know it's a liquid that's not water. That also glows." He leant over carefully. "I wonder what those wires are. Maybe they're connect- hey!" He yelled as what looked like a living plant appeared from the ground right behind Sam. He reached for his gun and took aim, but the alarm in her eyes as she looked in his direction made him turn.

He was looking at a mass of thick golden and green cords, no more than a few inches in front of him, which seemed to have sprouted from a main body of the same kind of vines. Realising it was vaguely humanoid – in shape at least, and this was its neck equivalent, he aimed both his gun and his gaze upwards. His gun was knocked out of his hand as soon as he moved it, and he vaguely noticed that the eyes of his attacker had wide oval pupils, like a frog's, but irises of a very familiar amber colour, before he saw, in the corner of his eye, a vine whip out from the central mass of the creature's body and scratch his face. It stung like a bitch, and his eyelids and limbs grew instantly heavy. As he fell to the ground the familiar sounds of Sam and Teal'c's struggling stopped, and his sight dizzily faded into blackness.

There was a sharp tapping on General O'Neill's office door, and he stood up to open it himself this time. That nervous guy was beginning to get on his nerves.

He was greeted by an ominous sight.

"George! I wasn't expecting you back so soon..." His eyes were drawn instantly to the envelope in General Hammond's hand as the other man sat down at the desk. Jack shut the door, nodding to the Airmen outside, and walked over to sit behind his desk, opposite Hammond, who sighed.

Jack smiled, and clasped his hands together on top of the desk. Both were to mask his nerves as he waited the results of the life-changing decision that had, presumably, now been made.

"I hate to sound impatient, sir, but... Well?" There was a serious edge to his tone that General Hammond had heard enough to recognise. The older General couldn't help but chuckle.

"Jack, after I left your office yesterday I called the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I told him your reasons for declining his offer." He took a deep breath, noting as he did so that Jack's hands were clasped a little tighter. "He flew me to the Pentagon to give my opinion in a meeting of the Joint Chiefs solely regarding your position as Head of Homeworld security and any obstacles you might have in accepting the offer." He smiled reassuringly at Jack, whose hand were now gripping so tightly the knuckles had gone white. "I assured them that none of your personal feelings for any member of your team had ever caused problems in your command, and that you have strictly adhered to all regulations except in circumstances beyond your control." He paused. Jack's grip had loosened.

"Ah, the old 'aliens made me do it' defence." He couldn't help himself. Joking was just one of his defence mechanisms. He felt numb - like he was in the eye of a storm - but, as Hammond smiled, he tensed.

"Precisely."

"And what did they say?" His tone was calm, as if he were only asking about the weather or something equally unimportant - rather than whether or not he could be with the woman he loved.

Yes, he loved her. He could finally admit it now he was on the brink of either retirement or whatever scheme the IOA had cooked up for him now. He'd never been able to fully let himself believe it. Damn regs. He refocused as Hammond slid the envelope over to him.

"See for yourself, Jack." There was a smile on his lips as Jack picked up the envelope, opened it, and-

"Unscheduled offworld activation. Unscheduled offworld activation."

- dropped it on the desk, practically launching himself out of his chair. Hammond followed suit.

"How many teams are offworld?" he asked as he instinctively made his way through the briefing room and down the stairs into the control room, followed closely by Jack. Old habits apparently died hard for General Hammond.

"Just SG-1 and SG-13. SG-13 are doing a routine check on Argos, SG-1 were supposed to be checking in in a couple of hours..." he trailed off, realising what that meant, "Crap!"

He strode past Hammond and over to the bank of computers.

"Any IDC yet?" he asked Walter tersely.

"Not yet sir." Jack almost hissed in frustration, until Walter continued. "No, wait, receiving IDC... It's SG-1, sir."

"Open the iris!"

"Yes sir." The iris grated open. Jack stared tensely at it for a few seconds, until a figure materialised. Teal'c. Teal'c who was in no hurry to move and make space on the ramp for his team-mates, Jack noticed. He rushed down to the Gate room, arrived as the wormhole destabilised. Teal'c turned at his approach.

"Stand down, airmen." Jack said, gesturing, as he stepped towards his friend. "T, what the hell happened? Where's Carter and Daniel?"

Teal'c looked grave - well, graver than usual.

"We were attacked by the species indigenous to that planet, O'Neill. Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson were captured."

In the control room, General Hammond sighed.

Just like old times.