They had all seen the explosion shortly after the two groups reunited. Upon witnessing the fireball, Pete had exclaimed with pride,

"That's Mac! I know his work when I see it!" As far as he was concerned, no one could make an explosion quite like Mac could.

After the initial shock had worn off, they had taken off in its direction, using the smoke as a beacon.

It hadn't taken them long to arrive at their destination, and they now were behind the sparse cover that the thinning tree line gave them, scanning the area for any unknown enemy they would have to neutralize. Upon seeing none, Carter motioned with her hand for Daniel and Teal's to spread out and take the flanks while she headed down the middle to peek through the door to see what was going on inside the building.

Kate and Pete looked at each other, amazed at the three's swift movements. It was obvious to them that they were used to working together under similar conditions. There was no way these three, make it four, were involved in Deep Space Radar Telemetry, as their cover stated.

At Carter's nod, they all drew their weapons. She sent Teal'c and Daniel ahead to check around the building, and when they came back, they signaled the 'all clear'.

Pete and Kate, not wanting to be left out, followed slightly behind, not wanting to get in their way if there was to be a shoot out.

Carter slightly opened the door just enough for her to see inside with being seen herself. She gasped at what she saw.

MacGyver and Colonel O'Neill were on their knees at the far end of the warehouse, with a man bending over them. He had a Goa'uld hand device! She watched helplessly as both he and Kinsey questioned the brothers. Apparently, they were both startled at the emergence of MacGyver.

"Who are you?" she heard the man say, his dual-toned voice giving him away as being a Goa'uld. They both refused to answer. The Goa'uld lifted his arm menacingly, the gold of the device glittering in a mockery of its capability of intense pain and death. He activated it on MacGyver, slowly beginning to scramble his brains.

She could hear him trying to contain his screams while his brother struggled against the bonds he had just recently been placed in again. He screamed out in rage, cursing the Goa'uld and the Senator, threatening them in futility of a slow and painful death.

She couldn't take much more of watching the scene playing out before her, herself being on the unfortunate receiving end of a hand device, and therefore knowing the pain he was suffering. She stood up and charged through the door, Daniel and Teal'c directly behind her.

Her appearance distracted the Goa'uld enough that the device deactivated as he brought it up to fend off the new attackers.

SG-1 had faced down plenty of Goa'uld before, and killed some as well, so they weren't fazed a bit. They opened fire, each emptying no less than half a clip into its body. The Goa'uld, not being a major system lord, but only a stray symbiote had not had access to the latest technology. His hand device didn't have the nifty personal shield, which made their job oh so much easier.

The main threat eliminated, Daniel ran over to Jack, cutting the plastic zip ties that had bound him to a thick pipe by the wall. Upon freedom, he crawled the few feet to where his brother lay, retching. He pushed Pete out of his way and hung on to him, murmuring quiet words of encouragement, trying to bring him out of the pain.

It had hurt him just as much as it had hurt Mac; He had to sit there and watch his brother being tortured, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Shh, it's okay Mac, it's okay, he's dead," Mac had stopped retching and was slowly recuperating. He looked up into his brother's eyes and tried to reassure him that he was okay, or if he wasn't he would soon be.

"Crap…that…really does…hurt," he said in between gasps. Jack smiled and drew his younger brother into a hug, relieved.

Pete who had also been worried was comforted at the attempt of humor and gratefully patted his friend on the back,

"MacGyver, don't you do that to me again, ya wanna give me a coronary?!"

Senator Kinsey's head whipped around at the mention of that name. He had not been forgotten in the prior confusion, much to his dismay. He had found himself warily staring down the wrong end of a gun. Teal'c had been careful to not let the malefactor out of his sight.

"MacGyver," Kinsey muttered in disbelief, he couldn't believe it. But MacGyver, the one who he had been tipped was going to catch him with his hand in the cookie jar, was human. He had read his file, there was no way he could be the product of a tryst with an alien. That meant that there had to be a logical reason why the two men he despised most at the moment were identical. Twins? A deep anger coursed through him at the thought,

"MACGYVER!" he bellowed in rage, "How the Hell!" it seemed to be his choice phrase for the day, "You're supposed to be dead! You are like the Colonel here, you never know quite when to give up and die!" The revulsion was dripping from his every word.

The twins' heads shot up toward the Senator; they had forgotten that he was still there.

Teal'c struck the man down at the insult to his friend. He was angered at the insult that was directed to someone he considered his own brother.

Kinsey went down in an undignified heap, and crawled away as he saw the big alien dauntingly approach him. He kept crawling until his back found a wall.

"I will not tolerate that language from such an inferior being about O'Neill and his kin. You shall not dare speak that way again," he snarled.

Jack tried to stand, and only made it up with the help of Mac and Daniel. He walked slowly to where Teal'c had cornered Kinsey, a cold glint to his eyes. Though Kinsey hadn't physically harmed either of them like the Goa'uld had, he hadn't forgotten that he did order the hit on his brother, which had started the whole mess.

The Senator tried to sit up, gathering all of his anger to use as a mask to hide all his fear.

The threat had to be eliminated, there was no way he could risk losing his brother again.

He took the gun from Daniel's hand before he had a chance to stop him, and leveled it at Kinsey, the motion pulling at the still unhealed wound in his side. The Senator shivered when he saw the cold hatred in O'Neill's eyes. He had no doubt that he would kill him, the consequences be damned.

"Jack!"

"Mac, shut up, let me do it!"

"NO! Jack don't,"

"He deserves it!" he stated with hard conviction.

"Yes he does, but you don't," the sincerity in his brother's voice finally reached him. He clenched his jaw to keep himself from loosing it. He knew Mac was right, and that made him angrier, he really wanted to kill the SOB. "Jack, don't do this to yourself. I...I need you, we just found each other again, if you do this, I'll lose you…I don't want to lose you," Mac slowly approached Jack and put his hand on his twin's shoulder and gently squeezed, "Jack...look at me," and he did. Mac could see the pain, hatred and anger in his eyes. He could also see how utterly tired and exhausted he was, "put the gun down, bro."

Jack lowered the gun and turned to look at Mac for a second before spinning around and squeezing off a round toward the senator. The shot echoed loudly throughout the warehouse, everyone frozen in astonishment. Mac's jaw dropped as he stared at Kinsey, who sat petrified like a deer caught in the headlights.

"If you harm my family again, go anywhere near them, if you so much as think about them, I promise you I will not miss again," Jack growled dangerously. He spun on his heels and limped through the door. Mac hurried after him, leaving Kinsey to do a close imitation of a guppy while staring at the hole in the wall, not three inches from his head.

As soon as Jack stepped through the door, all the ire and anger left and the exhaustion overwhelmed him as if the dam holding it back had broken, sending a raging torrent crashing down towards him. All his strength left him the moment he was out of sight of everyone else. Mac got there just in time to catch him from falling as his knees buckled, and slowly eased him down to the ground. The gun slipped out of his hand as the stress from the past week caught up with them both.

They both sat there supporting each other, feeling emotionally and physically drained. It was over; they were all safe.

"We gotta stop doing this, people will talk," Jack quipped exhaustedly.

"Yeah, well, it's all your fault,"

"My fault? Since when is it my fault?"

"Since the beginning," Mac countered. Jack had nothing to say to that so he pulled away and looked at his younger brother. He layed his hand on the back of his neck and slightly patted him before he stood up.

"Come on, let's go home."

"Sure thing Jack, I feel like I could sleep for a week," the colonel gave him a weird look and let him slip an arm around his shoulders to help him walk.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"I think I like that Doctor Frasier," Mac stated as he walked through the threshold and into Jack's home.

"That's because you weren't the one she had her attention on. She's an honest to god Napoleonic Power Monger…"

"You're just sore because she isn't afraid of you…"

"…Blood sucking vampire…" Jack continued as he limped into the kitchen and pulled out a beer.

"...In fact, it sorta looked to me like you're afraid of her. And those nurses…" Mac skipped past the kitchen and went down the couple steps into the den and took a seat on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table.

"…Sadistic demon in a white coat…" Jack came out of the kitchen and landed heavily next to his brother on the couch, letting out a muffled groan when his ribs protested the action.

"…know you too well Jack. They treat you just like you're supposed to be treated: like a little kid." As Jack popped the cap off the beer and brought to his lips, Mac intercepted it and smoothly placed the bottle out of reach, wagging his finger at him.

"Hey… little midget wolf in sheep's clothing…"

"Ya done yet?"

"Nope. Oppressive slave driver …"

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Well, that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed it. I sincerely thank all of you who have followed this story from the begining and patiently waited for me to update time and time again. Thanks be also to all of you who reviewed my story and gave me words of advice and encouragement. Until next time!