Title: Shadow Play
Author: Cindy Ryan
Xover: Supernatural/SG-1/SGA
Notes and summary: See part one

Patience had never been one of Cameron Mitchell's strong suits.
Though now, as he sat waiting for Sam to work her magic, his restlessness was starting to appear.
His right foot began to tap.
Then his left hand began to absently twirl a pen around.
Consequently, the twirling pen found the armrest.

"Cam."

"Sorry."

"Well, looks like your instincts were right."

"Really?" Mitchell replied with a grin. "Maybe you guys are rubbing off on me."

Sam grinned as she turned to face her friend. "You're smarter than you give yourself credit for, Cam."

"Careful, don't want my head to get too big."

Sam laughed.

"Seriously... so this is a portable DHD?"

Sam nodded. "In essence. Closer to an emergency beacon locator on a boat. Doesn't have to be in direct proximity to a gate. Just activate it, and bam, you're back home. Amazing really, considering how much power something like this needs."

Cam stared at the beacon's 'keyboard'. "Wonder why we haven't run across more of these?"

Sam shrugged. "Who knows. So do you want to flip a coin? One of us tells Landry, the other tells Daniel and Elizabeth?"

Cameron stood, stretching his arms above his head. "I'll tell Landry and get him to set up a video link for you."

Sam grinned and nodded. "Thanks, Cam... you wanna do lunch later?"

"Sounds good," Mitchell replied as he left. "I'll let you know when the techs have the link set up."

Sam watched him leave, wondering what she'd do with a normal job if she had one.

The fire came close enough that time to singe Dean's left shirt sleeve. He flattened himself farther back against the wall
As he inched along, he felt, more than saw, the dragon follow.
Their father had always taught them to use what they had if they lost their weapons. As Dean looked around now there wasn't even a decent sized rock.
The demon wasn't making this one easy.

Dean's left hand suddenly connected with air instead of rock. He waved his hand trying to gauge the size of the opening.
A hiss of heated breath from the dragon caused him to move into the opening anyway. He was relieved to find he could fit through, only hitting his head once.

Dean's eyes finally adjusted to the dark and he frowned at the size of the cave.

"Out of the frying pan," he muttered aloud. "And into an even smaller frying pan."

The dragon roared, frustrated that it couldn't reach its prey.

Dean scanned the area desperately looking for anything to help him, desperately looking for anything that'd get him back to his brother.

Elizabeth had assigned a conference room close to the infirmary to Sam and Daniel so they could work. She knew Sam wouldn't want to be very far from his brother. After leaving them, Elizabeth returned to the infirmary, hovering at the foot of Dean's bed.
Deciding someone had to sit with him, Elizabeth moved to the chair Sam had been in earlier.

As she sat down, Elizabeth studied the young man. She could see worry and grief lines that had aged him beyond his twenty-seven years. Elizabeth could only imagine what their world was like… when they only had each other to fight off the things that go bump in the night.

Elizabeth settled into the chair and briefly covered Dean's left hand with hers. "We'll find a way, Dean... I promise."

Sam found he'd taken an instant liking to Daniel Jackson. The fact that Daniel's background was archeology intrigued him. When this was all over and Dean was safe there was a million questions Sam wanted to ask Daniel… about his journeys, about his work, about the adventures.

Sam looked up from his father's journal; it laid open just past midway. "Thank you for bringing this."

Daniel nodded, his gaze not breaking from the laptop screen. "Thought it might help... Elizabeth filled me in… your father led an amazing life."

Sam swallowed hard as his fingers lovingly caressed the leather cover of the journal. He'd give anything to have his father here now… to have his insight.

"Yes… he did," Sam replied as he rubbed his eyes tiredly with the back of his hand. "Though I don't think he'd be very proud of me at the moment."

"Why do you say that?" Daniel asked as he paged through another paragraph of text.

Sam sighed, "I haven't been able to find a way to get Dean out of his deal and now he's in the exact place I was trying to keep him from gong. Not exactly batting a hundred percent at protecting the family."

"We'll figure it out, Sam." Daniel replied as he looked up from the screen. "I think the fact that his body's hanging on this long is hope. Maybe he's in some kind of limbo… not quite to the other side yet."

"Maybe," Sam acknowledged as he began to flip pages of the journal. As he read his father's writing, an idea began to form.
He remembered a conversation with Yellow Eye when the demon told him about his visit to Sam's nursery.

Excitedly, Sam searched for the spell he needed, praying it was there. Once he found it, he stood and placed the journal next to Daniel's computer.

"I think I have an idea that might work… but nobody's going to like it."