I am sorry from the very bottom of my heart for how long this chapter has taken. But I have good reasons. I've been very busy and I was sick for a week and I finally managed to finish my other stories, then I had to catch up on the school I missed while I was sick, and then my creativity decided to leave me for fives days. So, yesterday was the first time I got to really write in a while. Anyway, I sincerely hope that it will never take that long again for an update. I plan on updating once a week or so, but I know I won't be able to stick to that all the time since life happens. But I do not plan on ever taking this long for an update for any of my stories EVAH again. So, if you have stuck with it this long then you may go on to read. (:

Daniel woke up with a start. He knew that he'd been having some sort of drug-induced dream, but he couldn't remember what it was. He was still lying on the cold floor of the storage room he was in. His chest was aching profusely from the position he'd been in for so long, he was freezing, and his whole body twinged with pain. He now was positive that the torment from earlier was going to happen again. He could still feel the unnatural current settling in his muscles and bones.

He wasn't sure how long he had been sleeping for; he only knew that his body was better rested. He was still exhausted, but was no longer the dead-weight he had been after the attacking convulsions.

He rolled up into a sitting position and heaved a sigh. They were all probably wondering what had happened to him. He knew that he should make an appearance now that he looked remotely healthy again. But before he did that he was curious about something he hadn't had a chance to look at before now.

Slowly Daniel lifted up his shirt to the top of his chest and took stock of the damage. He was surprised at the extent of it. Deep black and blue bruises seemed to cover every inch of his chest and abdomen. Around his ribs they were particularly dark. A few red patches here and there marked where the skin had been broken.

If Daniel didn't know any better he'd say that he had several broken ribs. But he didn't; he'd felt that awful sensation before and this wasn't it. His breathing wasn't as affected as it should be if they were broken, and he didn't remember hearing any cracks or feeling any unbearable spikes of pain as those men beat the crap out of him.

He pulled his shirt down once more. No, he didn't have any broken ribs, but he didn't doubt that they were on the verge. He'd have to be careful not to fall on them wrongly or something.

Tiredly he looked up at the door. He knew he friends were probably really worried by now. Jack was most likely having a fit, unless, of course, he too was sleeping like Daniel had been. Slowly and quite painfully, though, nothing he couldn't handle, he stood up and stretched slightly. He was careful not to stretch too much and aggravate his heavily bruised middle.

He walked over to the door and before opening it he inhaled heavily in preparation.

As he walked out he saw Teal'C, who looked like he had just been relieved by that Tok'ra from flying the ship, noticing him and heading his way. Daniel kept walking to the ring-room were he knew almost everyone still was, but not necessarily away from the Jaffa.

When he was just at the doorway Teal'C caught up with him. "Daniel Jackson, are you well?" the big man asked.

"Yeah, Teal'C, I'm fine." He really wished people would stop asking him that.

Martouf seemed to have noticed him and left Jacob's side. Daniel was aware once more that practically everyone in the ship was now staring at him. Goody.

"Are you sure, Doctor Jackson, you have been gone for several hours?" Martouf said.

Daniel saw that Jack was staring at him with a concerned and angry look. He guessed the angry part was because he suspected that something was wrong with him. He walked to the middle of the room so that he could be sure that everyone could hear him. "Yeah, I just got really claustrophobic for a while. I went into a storage room to get some space. And then I fell asleep. I, ah, I guess I was really tired." Daniel gave one of those slightly sheepish smiles that would help everyone to believe that he was fine.

Jack seemed to relax a little bit as he believed the partial truth. And though Teal'C and Martouf seemed to believe, their body language said that they didn't. Both gave him a searching look as if trying to figure out something.

Eventually both seemed satisfied with what he had said and moved away, Teal'C to Jack and Martouf to Jacob. He went to sit with Jack as well.

"How is your knee, O'Neill?" Teal'C asked.

The colonel grimace as he was reminded of his pain. "Well, it feels like a Jaffa went all trigger-happy on it."

Daniel wanted to give Jack some Morphine but wasn't sure if it would have some nasty affects when combined with the drug that was still in his system. It was an alien drug; after all, it could very well kill him when mixed.

He looked down at his burnt knee and another vision swam through his mind. It was of him exiting the Stargate with a damaged shoulder. What had really happened was that he had touched the mirror and had gone back to his own world. But in the hallucination the Jaffa followed him and killed him. It was a distorted memory.

As he shook his head to get rid of it Jack noticed and asked, "What's wrong?"

He put his hand to his head. "You know that drug that they gave us? Are you still hallucinating? 'Cause I am."

"Yeah," Jack said, "Those damned dreams have kept me awake. I swear that sleeping would do me more harm than good at this point. Why do you think I'm still awake?"

"I don't know, I guessed that you were just being stubborn," Daniel replied.

"I wish," Jack said, "But I suppose…at least we gave that snake-head a hard time, didn't we? I mean, none of us gave up anything even with that drug." Jack smiled at that.

"To which drug are you referring, O'Neill?" Teal'C asked.

"It's called the Blood of Sokar, Teal'C, it's supposed to cause hallucinations," Daniel supplied since he knew that Jack would probably botch the name. Daniel stiffened slightly as he felt the familiar ache again. He wondered how long he had this time before the next attack.

"I have heard of it…and of its potency."

"Yeah," Jack snorted, "Potent is one word for it."

Teal'C seemed to give the other members of his team a searching glance. "Are you sure you did not divulge anything? It is said to be hard to resist. It plays on one's memories and uses them against him, creating a scenario that makes him wish to say everything he knows." The Jaffa seemed genuinely puzzled, like he couldn't believe that they had resisted.

"Well," Daniel said slowly and carefully, thinking it through, "I don't know about everyone else, but for me I knew it wasn't real because it didn't feel real. Jack was in it and was trying to get me to say where…Amaunet hid the Harsesis, and I knew it wasn't Jack because he acted nothing like him." Daniel looked at Jack. "I know you, when you want to know something you're far less subtle than the man in my hallucination was." Daniel smiled.

"That's it!" Sam said who obviously had been listening in. She sat down next Daniel and Teal'C. Gesturing a bunch with her hands as she normally did, she continued. "That must be why none of us said anything. We knew it wasn't real. Think about it; the drug dug up powerful memories to use against us, but because those memories were so powerful we noticed the discrepancies."

"What?" Jack asked in his usual way.

"Sir, I was forced to remember a scene in my life with my dad. It was a memory that easily could have been used against me, but because the memory hurt so much I immediately knew when something was wrong. The drug chose memories that were important enough in our lives that we knew every second of it. That's why none of us talked, because we all knew that it wasn't real. For Daniel, it probably obvious because he knows you so well, he knew what you would and wouldn't do."

Sam smiled the smile that she always had whenever she figured something out.

"Yes!" Martouf said, also coming over. "I knew that Jolinar was dead so I knew they couldn't be threatening her."

Sam turned to Jack. "What about you, sir? What was in your hallucination?" she asked.

He shifted slightly, wincing as the movement pulled on his hurt leg. "I…I don't really remember it." He looked away.

While Daniel had been interested, as always, in Sam's revelations, he knew he had to change the subject now. "Sam, how is your dad doing?" He looked over to where Jacob was asleep.

"Martouf says that he's going to be fine until we can stop off and get him to the rest of the Tok'ra. From there they can take care of him. I think that just getting out of that place alone has done wonders for him."

"For us all," Daniel murmured absent-mindedly. He turned his gaze to Teal'C, ignoring how the movement made his ribs howl in protest. His was use to hiding his pain both from the world and himself. "Teal'C, how long 'til we get there?"

"Around nineteen hours, Daniel Jackson."

Daniel grinned at Jack. "It looks like you may have to get some sleep after all."

"Don't count on it," the older man muttered.

Daniel felt a pang of sadness for him. He knew what it was that he had seen and he didn't envy him. In all honesty Daniel didn't think that he would want to sleep either if it weren't for the amount of pain he was in and the looming doom of another attack. Right now, sleep sounded really good, even though he had just woken up.

The four friends sat in silence for a while, one or two of them occasionally carrying on a short conversation with the other. Martouf had long since returned to Jacob's side and didn't seem willing to leave him again. Despite Jack's protests he fell asleep around the same time that Sam did. Daniel wasn't sure how it had happened, but at some silent signal everyone had gotten ready for bed. The lights had been turned low so that you could see where you were going should you need to get up, but not enough to interfere with a person's sleep. Sam and Jack had gotten out their blankets and had settled down, and even Martouf and Teal'C made themselves comfortable. All at once there was quiet and calm.

As Daniel looked over at his friends—the people who now mattered most to him—he hoped that they would all sleep well and would have good dreams. Especially Jack. He remembered how, a few hours ago, when he had gone with Sam to check on her dad she had asked him something.

"It's strange, isn't it, that the colonel avoided my question earlier. He's normally evasive about things, but not this much. Why do you think that is?"

Daniel was a bit surprised that her brilliant mind hadn't figured it out. "Sam," Daniel said slowly, trying to make sure that she understood, "we all saw our worst nightmares. Martouf saw the woman he loved nearly get killed, you saw something painful with your father, and the subject of Sha're is hardly an easy one for me. We saw things that reminded us of the worst moments in our lives, what do you think Jack saw?"

Daniel watched as Sam's face began to twist in horror as she came to the conclusion.

"His son?"

Daniel nodded. "Now I can't be sure, but when you asked him that I saw something I hadn't seen in a while. I've known Jack longer than you, Sam, and on that first mission to Abydos he…well, he wasn't the same man we know now. For a moment after you asked him that question I saw a glimpse of the old Colonel O'Neill. He lost both his son and his wife; we are all that he has left." Daniel hated that this was true.

"In a way," Samantha replied thoughtfully, "it's the same for all of us. We're all at the SGC because we have nowhere better to be. We've all lost people and the things we love. Perhaps we're all just trouble magnets. Have you ever thought of that, that maybe that when all of us come together our presence just attracts danger?"

Daniel didn't answer that. He knew what he believed. All his life he had attracted trouble and misfortune. He didn't believe in curses but maybe, just maybe he was cursed. But as usual he would just push those thoughts aside and focus on more positive things since being depressed never helped anybody. But lately, especially since being tortured and drugged, it had been a bit harder to keep a positive outlook on things. He wasn't sure if it was just the unnerving drug in his system, or the fact that he could feel another attack right around the corner, but he wasn't feeling particularly optimistic.

He turned his gaze towards Teal'C, who was in a state of deep Kel'no'reem. Everything around him was peaceful and quiet. His friends were going to be fine and all he had to do was wait out the electric torment in his system.

Eventually, due to the low thrum of the ship and the subtle calmness that washed over him at seeing his friends safe and so peaceful-looking, Daniel fell asleep a few hours after his teammates. But unfortunately his rest didn't last long. He woke up about a half-an-hour later and immediately knew that it was time. It was approximately six hours since the last attack.

Daniel stumbled to his feet, once again ignoring the screams of agony his greatly damaged torso was giving him, and rushed back over to the same room as last time. There he sat down in the dark and quiet and resolved yet again not to scream or make a sound. He waited. Once again he could feel it creeping up on him, the energy in his muscles making them contract and expand and overall twitch. From what Daniel could guess the cause for this unbearable pain was the shocking device he had been tortured with since it was the only thing that made sense. But knowing the cause of it this time didn't help in the least.

Daniel woke up a little before the others, lying in a fetal position again and still slightly damp from his own sweat. The attack had hurt even worse this time, but he hadn't screamed or even grunted. He had fallen asleep immediately afterwards just like last time. He went back to join with the others to pretend that he had been there all night.

As Daniel waited to either fall asleep again or for his friends to wake up he thought about the attacks and realized that he didn't know if he could even hold on to his sanity for much longer. The pain was so intense and after only two convulsing fits of agony he already felt like his body couldn't take anymore. And it's not like with all that jerking and spazzing his ribs were thanking him, either. Daniel hadn't known that such pain existed and was beginning to greatly fear the next attacks, which he knew would come. In the past he had always been able to control or deny his pain, but this wasn't something that you could ignore or shrug off. This was the kind of pain that drove people insane and left no room in his mind for anything but the torturing agony.

But as always with his pain, Daniel pushed back the fear and doubt and focused that soon they would be back home. Daniel feared this pain more than he had ever feared pain before, but he wouldn't let that stop him. Not until it killed him anyway.

Daniel saw Jack wake up and roll over on his mat to look at him with bleary and sleepy eyes. "Hey," the groggy man said, "how's it going?"

"Fine," Daniel replied, "Just fine."

So, I hope it was worth the VERY long wait. I hope you all enjoyed it. I must say thank you, though, because after one chapter I've already got 13 reviews, that's pretty good for a first chapter. You guys are already amazing. It is because of people like you that I write. I hope that none of you found this chapter boring or anything, I really tried to keep it in character. But even if you hated it please take time to tell me and review. If you think that there is something that I can do to improve this story so far then don't hesitate to tell me. Also, I have a lot more of this story planned out and there is going to be some definite torture, so if you don't like that then you really shouldn't be reading. I'll try not to make it too graphic, though.

P.S Originally I had it that Daniel was shot in the leg once with a staff weapon, but I went back and checked it and it turns out that in the episode I was thinking of Daniel was shot in the arm and not the leg. I have fixed this mistake.