A/N - Thank you all so much for the great reviews - they were feisty! I got the vague impression that you don't like it when I kill Jack. ;) I do try to respond to all my reviewers if I know how to PM you. But do know that I truly appreciate all of you taking the time to leave a review, however you do it (special thanks to Anna).

Now, on with the story. Enjoy!

Chapter 8

For Sam it was as though time had slowed to such an imperceptible pace that it had stopped completely. She was aware that her father was shaking her, telling her that they must hurry, and she could see that even Daniel, tears streaming down his face, was trying to rouse her from what she somehow recognized must be a state of shock. But it was as though she were watching the scene unfold from the wrong end of a long tunnel, as though she were merely an observer and not a participant. How could she be? It was inconceivable to her that she could exist in a world that didn't include him.

Just as Teal'c knelt down to pick her up, Sam finally looked up at her father. "No," she said simply.

The group stopped momentarily, waiting to see if she had regained her senses, but when she didn't say anything further, Jacob signaled Teal'c to continue. That was all it took to bring her back into the present.

"No!" she said more forcibly this time. She shot a pointed look at Daniel. "We need to find a sarcophagus."

Daniel jerked as if he'd been struck. "Of course! Osiris was the god of death and rebirth. There's bound to be a sarcophagus around here somewhere."

At that moment, the voice from the loudspeaker shouted at them in Goa'uld. Jacob whipped around to face Daniel. "Even if there is a sarcophagus here, we're out of time."

Sam grabbed her father's arm. "How much time is left?"

"Two minutes, and that's being generous."

"I can do it," she mumbled to herself, as she stood.

But now it was Jacob's turn to grab her. "There's not enough time, Sam. We have to leave now. I'm sorry."

She yanked her arm out of his grasp. "Go ahead if you like, but I am not leaving here without him!"

"Nor am I," said Teal'c, standing and crossing his arms.

"Me either," added Daniel.

Jacob swore under his breath, just as the recorded voice sounded again. This time, though, it didn't stop but continued to count backwards in Goa'uld. By that point, Sam had reached the control panel where Osiris had activated the self destruct earlier and was already studying the display.

"Daniel, I need your help," she said as calmly as possible, trying to keep the rising panic out of her voice.

The archeologist joined her and quickly swept the display with his eyes. "Here," he said, pointing.

Sam didn't need to speak Goa'uld to know that they were only seconds away from the end of the countdown. She hit the button that Daniel had indicated, and a small drawer holding several crystals popped out of the bottom of the console. As she took in the multi-colored display, she hesitated. She knew she needed to switch two of the crystals; she just wasn't certain which two.

"Now or never, Sam," Daniel sang nervously under his breath, as the voice reached the end of the countdown.

Quickly, Sam exchanged the blue and green crystals, and Daniel cringed, apparently in anticipation of the worst. The voice suddenly cut off, and Sam glanced at the ceiling waiting to see if anything else would happen. When nothing did, she let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding.

She looked over at Jacob and Teal'c, who also visibly relaxed. "See, I told you – " she began as she was interrupted by another recorded voice.

"Great," muttered Jacob. "It's just been reset. We've bought ourselves another ten minutes, max."

"No," said Sam, examining the crystals. "We should be able to reset it indefinitely. Someone just needs to stay here and swap these crystals every time we reach the end of the countdown."

"You're sure?" Jacob asked, somewhat skeptical.

"Yes," Sam replied definitively, then added quietly, "pretty sure." Daniel looked at her with a slightly startled expression, but Sam ignored it, getting down to business. She addressed the archeologist. "Where would we find a sarcophagus?"

He thought for a moment. "If I were to guess, I'd say Osiris' chambers, though I have no idea where that is."

"I believe I can locate Osiris' chambers, DanielJackson," Teal'c volunteered.

Grateful for the distraction, Sam fell back on her military training, assigning tasks to each member of the group in turn. She decided that she and Teal'c would take Jack to the sarcophagus, while Daniel stayed in the ring room to reset the timer. She purposefully ignored the look the others exchanged at this pronouncement. She knew it would make more sense for her to stay with the self destruct mechanism and send Daniel with Teal'c, but there was no way she was letting Jack out of her sight.

Her final decision was to have her father return to his ship to serve as back up in case they had any trouble transporting from the surface once they had revived Jack, a plan to which he objected mightily. "No." He shook his head. "There's no way I'm leaving you here."

"We'll need someone on the scout ship in case we can't activate the rings on the surface," she explained.

"Absolutely not, Sam. I'd have no way of knowing what's going on down here. You go to the ship. I'm staying."

Sam felt her blood begin to boil. Technically, she couldn't order her father to do anything; not only was he impossibly stubborn, but he also outranked her. She decided it was time to take a different tact, one she didn't use very often. "Please, Dad," she said softly. "I need you to do this for me."

She saw him begin to break and wondered whether Selmak wasn't working on him as well. "Fine," he said finally. "But if anything happens to you..." He turned away briefly, suddenly overcome with uncharacteristic emotion. Sam leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Their priorities sorted, Sam risked a look at Jack for the first time since her father had told her he was dead. He was so handsome, and she felt a pain lance her heart at the thought that he might be gone forever. There was still so much she had to tell him, and the thought that she would never feel his arms around her again was almost more than she could bear.

Shaking herself, she turned her attention back to the task at hand. She knew that she would be no use to anyone if she allowed herself to wallow in grief.

Halfway through the second countdown, Sam instructed Daniel how to reset the self-destruct, and to everyone's great relief, it worked perfectly. For the first time since she had arrived in Osiris' underground base, she felt something akin to hope. After saying goodbye to her father, Teal'c lifted Jack in a fireman's carry, and the two of them took off into the heart of the structure.

Her optimism was short lived, though, as they finally located Osiris' chambers, only to find no trace of a sarcophagus. The room was huge and covered in gold relief. Great murals in bright colors adorned the walls, and plush furnishings were scattered throughout, including a lavish bed that dominated the center of the space. But nowhere could Sam find anything that remotely resembled a sarcophagus.

Once again trying to repress a rising sense of despair, she radioed Daniel. "It's not here," she told him, her voice shaking a little. "I don't see a sarcophagus anywhere."

"It has to be there," he replied. "It may be hidden. Look for something that symbolizes rebirth."

She looked at Teal'c and shook her head. "I don't know what that would be. There are lots of pictures on the walls..."

"Tell me what they look like."

Sam turned in a circle as she described the paintings to Daniel. "Um, there are a bunch of people dressed Egyptian style, including some with animal heads, and a picture of a man on a throne and a woman with wings and a big painting of a ship filled with more people sailing between a moon and a sun—"

"That's it!" Daniel yelled excitedly. "Each day, Osiris took the souls of the dead from night to day, or death to life, on his barque." He paused for a moment. "Huh. I never thought about it before, but maybe the barque isn't a ship, but a sarcophagus..."

"Daniel!" snapped Sam. She was beginning to appreciate Jack's occasional frustration with the archeologist.

"Look for a button or lever or something like it on the mural."

Sam turned toward the painting, but Teal'c had situated Jack on a chaise and was already examining the wall. Reaching out his hand, he touched the slightly raised eye of Osiris, who was depicted standing at the front of the barque, then depressed it with his finger. Instantly, the wall split down the middle, revealing a large sarcophagus. Its lid slid open smoothly.

"Got it," she said, relieved.

Teal'c picked up Jack and gently laid him inside. Sam let her gaze linger on Jack's face for a moment before giving Teal'c a nod. He hit the button to close the sarcophagus and stood back, his hands clasped behind his back. "Now we wait."

Once again, time seemed to stand still for Sam, as she anxiously waited for the regeneration cycle to end. Teal'c took advantage of the lull to kel'noreem, but aside from occasionally checking in with Daniel, there was little to occupy Sam. She shifted her stance for the hundredth time and let out a long sigh.

"Are you worried, Major Carter?" Teal'c asked without opening his eyes.

She looked up at the Jaffa, startled by his sudden question. "Yes, of course," she answered.

"You care for O'Neill a great deal." This was more statement than question.

Sam looked down at her feet. "Yes," she confirmed quietly.

"As he does for you." Sam snapped her head up only to find that Teal'c's eyes were still closed. He slowly opened one and fixed her with it. "He was most distraught that you declined to accompany him to his cabin."

"Yes, well...I was confused. I didn't know what to do." She shuffled her feet. "Still don't."

Finally, Teal'c turned to look directly at her. "I do not understand."

She sighed again. "I'm scared, I guess." She shook her head. "I mean, I'd be staking everything on this relationship - my career, my...my...everything." She paused as her voice caught, and she did her best to hold onto the tears that threatened to fall. "What if it doesn't work out between us, Teal'c? I mean, I've never had any luck with this sort of thing before. I could be left with nothing..." She trailed off, lost in her thoughts.

Teal'c was quiet for several minutes before he spoke. "No great reward was ever obtained without significant risk, SamanthaCarter. And I have never known you to be a coward."

Sam's jaw fell open slightly, but before she could respond, Daniel's distressed voice came over her radio. "Uh, Sam, Teal'c, I think we have a problem here..."

"What is it, Daniel?" she asked, somewhat thankful for the interruption.

"I can't reset the timer."

Sam frowned. "Just switch the crystals."

"I tried that," Daniel replied, sounding increasingly nervous. "Nothing's happening. The self-destruct just keeps counting down."

"There must be some sort of fail safe," Sam muttered to herself. "How much time is left, Daniel?"

"Uh, about four minutes."

Sam felt her stomach drop. There was no way they'd be able to make it back to the transportation rings in time, even if the sarcophagus had completed its cycle, which it hadn't. She looked over at the contraption and was startled to see that Teal'c had begun to pry the lid open.

She moved quickly to his side and placed her hand on his bicep in a futile effort to stop him. "What are you doing?"

"We must leave."

"But it's not finished, Teal'c," she said, somewhat desperately. "What if he's not fully healed?"

"It is a risk we must take," he replied, and with a grunt, he forced the lid aside.

"Teal'c!" she gasped. Her heart in her throat, she peeked inside to see Jack lying with his eyes closed, in exactly the same position in which they'd left him. "Is he..."

The Jaffa reached inside and felt for a pulse, then lifted him out of the sarcophagus. "He is alive. We must go."

It was as though a huge weight had been lifted off of Sam's shoulders, and with a renewed purpose she followed Teal'c quickly out of the room. "Daniel, get the rings ready," she said into her radio. "We're on our way."

But the archeologist was no longer trying to hide his distress. "You only have two minutes!"

The recorded countdown echoed through the dark hallways as they bolted for the ring room. They were moving as fast as they could, but Sam had done the math. Between the awkwardness of Teal'c carrying Jack and the distance they needed to cover, they were never going to make it.

With less than a hundred yards to their destination, the voice suddenly stopped.

"Prepare yourself, Major Carter," said Teal'c.

In the next instant, they were thrown to the ground as a massive explosion rocked the structure. Scrambling to reach Jack, she helped Teal'c lift him, and with one on either side of the unconscious man, they made a final, mad dash to the ring platform.

More explosions echoed through the base. Debris fell from the ceiling, and the floor began to split apart, making it difficult to navigate the increasingly treacherous space. Somewhere behind them, Sam heard a rumbling sound, and when she glanced behind her, her worst fears were confirmed: a roiling fire was rapidly making its way down the hallway behind them. Just as the flames licked their heels, Sam and Teal'c rounded the entry to the ring room with Jack in tow.

Daniel looked at them wide eyed. "Cutting it a little close, aren't we?" he screamed over the din.

"Let's go!" Sam yelled, as they threw themselves onto the platform.

Daniel hit a button, and the rings rose out of the floor. At the same time, another explosion rocked the room, and large pieces of the ceiling began to fall. In the next instant, they were transported to the surface of the planet along with several smaller pieces of the ceiling that rained down around them and fell into the water at their feet.

No sooner had the rings dropped away than the ground began to tremble. Sam grabbed her radio again. "Dad, we're on the surface. You need to transport us - now!"

"Stand by," came the his terse reply.

The trembling was rapidly turning into shaking, and a rumbling sound was now emanating from somewhere below. They were having a hard time keeping their feet.

"Ah, anytime now, Jacob..." Daniel said nervously into the radio.

Suddenly, the ground fell away beneath them, and Daniel was certain they were dead. A flash surrounded him, and he shut his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. When he opened them again, he found himself standing in the hull of Jacob's ship, surrounded by Sam and Teal'c, who were still holding Jack between them. He looked out of the view screen just in time to see a fiery explosion on the planet's surface.

At that exact moment, Jack began to stir. Groggily, he raised his head and looked back and forth between Sam and Teal'c. "Whadda I miss?"

"Sir!" Sam exclaimed, as she threw her arms around his torso.

If Teal'c hadn't been holding him, he would have fallen over, and though her actions were incongruent with her military address, he really couldn't bring himself to care. He straightened a bit and slowly pulled her into his embrace. "Carter," he whispered into her hair, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"It's good to see you, Jack," Jacob said, and he was surprised to find that he meant it.

Daniel walked toward the view screen to get a closer look at the destruction on the surface. "Any sign of Anubis?"

Jacob shook his head. "It looks like he took Heru'ur's fleet and left the system."

"Should we not pursue him?" asked Teal'c.

Jacob glanced toward the back of the ship to find Jack and Sam still wrapped around each other. Though a large part of him wanted to give chase to the Goa'uld, he knew at least half of SG-1 was in no shape to do so. He placed his hands on the control orb.

"Let's go home."

TBC...