Although I do try and get back to my wonderful reviewers I know I probably sometimes miss some – so I wanted to give a wide and very sincere 'thank you' for all your wonderful comments, encouragement and suggestions! I'd also like to say a special 'thank you' to my fellow Canadians. I've had a wonderful time since moving to Boston and have been incredibly touched by the warmth and kindness I've received here – but at times I do miss my home country (Loonies, kilometers and Celsius and most importantly - Tim Horton's!) so thank you to my fellow Canucks-I really love hearing from you!

Oh, and a quick note to my fellow Americans (I'm actually a citizen of both countries) – please know that there's more to Canada than it 'being cold'! It's a beautiful country with vibrant cities, fantastic culture and gorgeous natural beauty - and a lot of it is warmer than many places in the States. So please, the next time you speak with a Canadian don't say 'oh, it's cold there!' I think I speak for a lot of Canadians when I say we'd really like to be known for more than our weather! Thanks and I love everybody from both my countries!

Okay – on with the story!

Thor knew, as soon as he rematerialized, that he was not on his ship. The sight of the Asgard standing in front of him only confirmed that fact.

"Angrboda. I should have known it was you." Thor spoke calmly.

"Yes Thor, you should have. Did you think it would end with Loki? There are many of us that agreed with him and that worked with him. We are continuing what he was trying to accomplish."

"And what is that Angrboda? What do you accomplish with your actions? You are only harming good people, allies of the Asgard."

"No! I am saving our people. I am saving the whole Asgard race."

"By killing and harming others? That is not the Asgard way. You know that our way has always been the way of peace. Our race is a protector of what is good. What you are doing defiles that history."

"NO!" she practically screamed. "You would sacrifice an entire race and all the good we can do over the lives of one or two humans? Is it worth it Thor? What matters one life compared to that of millions. What will happen to the rest of the galaxy if the Asgard are gone? How will we protect anyone? You have lost sight of what is important Thor. What we do is good for the many. I am not evil and nor are my colleagues. We do what is right."

Thor looked at the small Asgard in front of him and wondered how she deceived herself. "You say you do what you do for good? How is it ever good to kill, to lie, to destroy? Do you not think you could have gone to the humans – gone to O'Neill – and explained what you were looking for? He would have done anything in his power to help. You did not need to destroy everything he holds dear. He has always been a friend to us and you abused that friendship. It is not up to me to say whether or not you have become 'evil' Angrboda – but if I were you I would look very carefully at myself and what I had become."

"Enough! I do not need to listen to you. Things are in place and soon we will have what we need. One day everyone will thank me when our race is on the way back to health and life. The Asgard will honor your friend O'Neill as the savior of our people."

Thor just stood there, feeling despair over his failure. He now knew he could not help his friends. He just hoped that once again SG1 would be victorious.

"Do you plan to kill me?" he calmly asked.

"Kill you? You really do believe that I have lost all respect for our ways. No Thor, I will not kill you. I will hold you here until our task is done. When we have what we need I will release you."

"Do you believe the Council will let you proceed with your 'experiments'? They will stop you."

She laughed. "Oh, you are so naïve Thor. Many of the Council are all ready on my side. How do you think we were able to convince the humans to help with our little 'adventure'? Those who do not agree will be brought on side. They will quickly realize there is no other way." She turned and spoke to the Asgard standing beside her. "Holler, take Thor to a room and see that he is comfortable. He may be with us for awhile."

As Thor turned to walk out she spoke one last time. "We could use your help Thor. If we locate O'Neill quickly we can do this without harming anyone else."

Thor turned back around. "I will not be party to what you are doing Angrboda. What you do is wrong. History will not reward you – it will look on what you have done in shame." Nodding to Holler he continued out of the room. Angrboda looked angry but turned back to her consol, working at finding O'Neill.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"General Hammond, I cannot contact Thor. He is not responding." Hammond looked at the Jaffa with worry in his eyes. If they'd taken Thor out it meant that the bad guys were getting close.

"What do we know of Grayson?" With the President's help a tail had been put on the Senator. They'd brought in people from other agencies that had no connection to the Stargate Program in order to reduce the risk of anyone finding out.

"He has booked a flight to western Canada. He is flying into Vancouver and has arranged for a vehicle."

"Teal'c, I think it might be good for you to head out as well. I have a feeling things may be coming to a head."

"I will do that General. Should I to fly to Vancouver?"

"Do we know where Sam and Daniel are right now?"

"No, I have not heard from them either. I am concerned, as I know they are, about security. It is too easy to monitor calls and without Thor we are in the dark."

"Damn! They've got to know something has happened with Thor. Maybe they'll try and get in touch another way. In the meantime, I'll see if I can arrange a transport for you."

"I believe it would be better for me if you were to arrange a private flight. We do not know if anyone in the Air Force has been compromised."

"Damn, you're right. That leaves out any of our ships. I'll see if I can get you a small plane. It's going to be easier for you to fly into Idaho or Washington and cross the border by car. You might have some trouble going through airport security with your" Hammond pointed to his head and gut. Even though he no longer had a symbiote he had his pouch, which would cause no end of problems going through the machines at public airports.

"Thank you General. That will be good. Hopefully we will hear from Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter before I leave. Do you not wish to come?"

"Hell yes! I wish I could go but I think I'd better stay here and keep an eye out. I'm worried that someone other than Grayson may be involved. Maybe you should take someone from the SGC – someone you can trust."

For a moment Teal'c wished that Maybourne were still on earth. He would have been invaluable in this kind of a situation. He tried to think of anyone else who would be helpful.

"Is Major Davis still in Washington?"

"Paul Davis? Yes, although he's a Colonel now - but he'd be perfect. I'll see if I can get him without tipping anyone off. The best is to go through the President. I'll make the arrangements now Teal'c. Keep trying to contact Thor. We'll have you out of here as soon as possible.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Daniel reached out and took Sam's hand as they stood by Jack's door and gave it a squeeze. She looked at him and smiled, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. She was frightened, as was he. They knew this was going to be painful.

As Daniel stepped into the room, closely followed by Sam, he saw that Jack was awake although he had his head turned, looking out the window. His hands were fidgeting, continually folding and unfolding the sheets. It was such a typical 'Jack' thing to do that it brought a lump to Daniel's throat.

"Jack", he said softly. The man in the bed didn't move, didn't turn his head, but his fingers stilled. For a moment there was no sound in the room. It was as if time had frozen for a brief moment. Then Jack began to fold the sheets again, although he still didn't turn his head.

"Jack", Daniel repeated. He'd known this was going to be difficult but had expected anger. He hadn't expected to be ignored. "Jack, we've been looking for you for a long time."

He'd known they would. He'd known that they'd try and find him. Once they'd spoken with Hank or George they would figure out the truth and know he wasn't guilty. But he hadn't wanted to see them, had tried to prevent them from locating him. He should have known it was impossible. They were SG1 – they were pretty much invincible when they set their minds to something. Well, Daniel was here now so he'd have to deal with it. Hopefully he could get rid of him quickly and get on with his life. If he had any left – he kind of figured that whatever was wrong with him was fatal.

He refused to turn his head, refused to look at the archaeologist, the man who, at one time had been his best friend, but he knew he had to answer.

"Pull the short straw again, Daniel?" he replied softly. There was a small sound; one he recognized but refused to believe was real. Please don't tell him that she was here too.

"No. No straws this time Jack. This time all of us wanted to come. Teal'c couldn't make it but he made us promise to tell him as soon as you were found. He desperately wants to see you."

"Really? I'm surprised. I thought he hates traitors?"

"He does, but you see, that doesn't apply here. There are no traitors here – only a good, decent men who was betrayed by his closest friends." There was a pause but still Jack had not turned his head. His eyes were intent on the tree outside the window. He was carefully counting the number of leaves that had begun to turn yellow.

"We came to say how sorry we were Jack. We're not here to ask for your forgiveness, we just wanted you to know how terrible we feel for what we did. We were so wrong and there's no excuse for it. Please believe me that it didn't take long to realize we had it all wrong. None of us can even understand why we were so ready to believe you'd done something like that. We figured it out pretty quickly but by then you were gone. We've been searching for you for over six months."

"Did Landry tell you?"

"Landry? You mean tell us what really happened?" Jack nodded his head briefly, still staring out the window. "No, no one told us anything. No one was talking. We figured it out ourselves." Jack gave a soft, "hmph' of disbelief.

"Really Jack. You can even ask Landry himself or General Hammond. None of them said anything. Sam even went to the President to try and figure things out but he wouldn't tell us anything. Jack, they all thought we knew what really happened, but you see, Thor approached us and showed us something very different. He showed us a video of you actually murdering people and working with the Asgard to kidnap humans with the Ancient gene. It was only later that we discovered it wasn't Thor that came to us but a double. It was all a trick."

"And that's when you decided I wasn't guilty?"

"No, we knew before we had any proof. It was as if suddenly this fog lifted and we all could see clearly again. Like I said, I don't know why we were so ready to believe the worst. We'll never forgive ourselves and we don't expect you to forgive us, but we didn't want you to go on thinking that we still believed that of you."

"Okay", Jack spoke so softly Daniel could barely hear. "You've done your duty. Thank you for telling me. You can feel better now that you've apologized and set everything straight. Tell Teal'c not to bother to come. I'll take his apology as a given." The fingers had again stilled.

"Jack!"

"No Daniel, enough." Jack was again almost whispering. "You've done what you came to do. You've told me you were sorry, that's fine, I appreciate that. But you see, whether or not I forgive you isn't the issue. I can't ever trust you again. I would have sworn, before this happened, that there were no people in the world who I could trust more than you three. I was more sure of that than anything in this world. You destroyed that and it can never, ever be rebuilt." He stopped and took a deep and weary breath.

"You see, I can't do it anymore. I'm tired Daniel, so tired. I can't risk anymore – I've lost too much in my life. If I let you all back in I just risk losing you again the next time you don't believe me or have faith in me. I can't." his voice broke and he knew he was on the verge of losing it, something he didn't want to happen.

"So please, just go. I'll be fine. I have Molly and Chris – and I know George has my back. No, it's best if you just go and get on with your lives. Please, I want you to be happy – I really don't want you to suffer over this. Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine." The fingers began to pleat and repleat the blankets. He couldn't hold on much longer. Something deep inside of him wanted to turn to his friend and hold out his arms. He wanted nothing more than to feel the love and companionship of his friends – but the fear that was also deep in his soul held him back.

"How can we be happy without you Sir?" Oh God, it was her voice. She was here. He let out a small sob – he couldn't take this. The headache was coming back and he was feeling sick.

"No, no, no, no." He turned on his side and pulled himself into a ball, trying to protect himself.

Sam looked at Daniel, shocked and horrified. They had known how hurt he was but never would they have imagined the condition in which they found him. This was a man practically destroyed by their lack of faith.

Daniel walked up and gently put his hand on Jack's arm. The General tried to jerk away but Daniel held on.

"We're going to be here for you Jack. You can't get rid of us that easily. We'll leave you now but we're going to be around to watch your six." Jack was vaguely surprised to hear Daniel use the military lingo. "You told us to go and be happy – well without you in our lives that will never happen. I know you're frightened to let us in, to trust us, but I promise, we will never, ever leave you behind again. You're a stubborn SOB Jack, but you know what, we've all learned at your knee and the rest of us are every bit as stubborn."

Daniel turned and walked to the door. "When you're feeling better we'll talk some more. We need to tell you a few more things. I'm afraid you've got your team back Jack – SG1 is alive and well – and we're gonna kick butt together." He gave a small nod to Sam and left.

She stood there for a minute, not sure whether to say anything or not. As much as all of them had hurt this man she knew that what she had done to him was the worst. She had betrayed, not only their friendship, but their love. She finally gathered her strength enough to speak.

"Jack, I'm so very, very sorry. I destroyed something wonderful, something that meant the world to me, to us. I can never expect you to forgive me but I needed you to know that I do love you with all my heart – I always have, even when I believed you were guilty. I think that's why I was so angry – I couldn't stop loving you even when I thought I should. Jack, you are my heart and there will never be anyone else." For a moment she wondered if he'd actually fallen asleep, he was so still. However, when she went to lay her hand on his shoulder the small spasm told her he was awake.

"I found your gift Jack." She put her hand up and again held the small pendant, her one connection to Jack during these long months. "I wear it around my neck and it will never leave me. You told me to wear it with your love. Well, I can't expect you to still feel that love for me, not after what I did, but I want you to know I do wear it with love – with all of my love."

She pulled her hand away and walked to the door. "We're here for you always Jack, please believe that." And with that she turned and exited the room.

After a few moments, when he was sure they were gone, he rolled over and lay on his back, his arm covering his eyes. He felt a surge of despair filling his heart and his soul. With another sob he lowered his arm and allowed the tears to fall freely down his face. He wanted to feel their hands touching him again. He wanted to believe their words but he couldn't. No, he could never again allow himself to believe.