Please don't hate me ...!

Thor headed towards the control centre of the ship, closely followed by an extremely bemused old lady and a very excited little boy. Chris was a little worried about Jack but he was sure Sam would save him. In the meantime, he was on a real live alien spaceship. Wouldn't the kids at school be jealous! He began to ask non-stop questions the entire way.

"So what do you eat if you don't eat people?" he asked Thor.

"We have cubes of finely refined proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals that provide adequate nutrition for our needs."

"Sounds yucky!" Chris struck out his tongue and crossed his eyes.

"Yes, they are", The alien agreed.

"I like basgetti and meatballs and candy and Grandma's perogies. You'll have to try some – they're yummy."

"I would be pleased to try them young Christopher."

"What do you do for fun?" Chris reached out and took Thor by the hand, swinging their arms as they walked.

"Fun?" Thor looked down in confusion.

"Yeah – fun! Do you like TV?"

"No, we do not have TV on my world."

"Oh, too bad. I like watching cartoons. Grandma doesn't let me watch TV on school nights but I get to watch on Saturday mornings. So, do you like sports?"

"Sports?" Thor stopped, looking even more confused.

"Yeah, you know, baseball, hockey, soccer."

"I do not know those things."

"Really? So what do you do when you're not working?"

Thor thought for a moment. "I study."

"Study? Yuch. You need to come over to my house and we can play some games. I want Grandma to buy me a WII. We could play Mario Brothers or even try bowling. I bet you'd be good at sword fighting."

They arrived at the main control centre of the ship. Thor turned to Chris. "I would be very pleased to play WII with you. You will have to teach me."

"Okay. What's this place?" Chris walked away from Thor and went over to one of the panels with the oval shaped controllers. He reached out to touch it.

"Christopher! Don't touch anything." Molly hurried over and grabbed her grandson, not sure what those things did!

"You must not touch anything Christopher", Thor added. "You would not want to send us to the next galaxy."

"Cool! Could I really do that?" Molly glanced quickly at Thor wondering if he was telling the truth. She was sure she saw a twinkle in his eye.

"It is alright Molly", Thor added. "He could not really hurt anything." He reached down and checked out the controls. After a moment he moved to another panel and moved some of the oval stones around. The two humans had no idea what he was doing.

"I have made sure that we can return to my ship. I have also let earth know where we are and that O'Neill is here as well."

"We should go find Jack and Sam and make sure they're okay."

"Yes little one." Thor went to check the controls to find where Angrboda and the other humans were when a sound came through on the controls. Someone was trying to contact the ship.

Thor answered the call but did not turn the visual identification on – not wanting to let whoever was contacting him know he was now in control of the ship.

"Someone is requesting to be beamed up." He said to his two companions. He fiddled with a few more of the 'stones' and then let out an 'aha!'. Without any fuss Thor moved one more stone and suddenly, three bodies materialized on the bridge.

"Wow! That's so neat, isn't it Grandma."

"Yes", answered Molly. She was quickly becoming used to all sorts of strange things happening. She couldn't quite believe all that had happened over the last couple of days!

It took her a moment but Molly realized she knew one of the men. The other two she'd never seen before.

"Daniel, thank heavens you're here."

"Molly, Christopher – we're glad you're okay." Daniel was more than relieved but, looking around realized that the others were missing. "Where are Jack and Sam?"

Thor answered. "Colonel Carter has gone to look for O'Neill. Angrboda took him. I believe we must hurry to find them." It had taken longer than he'd thought to get to the control room and he was increasingly worried about what had happened.

"Daniel Jackson, why do you not stay here with Mrs. Simkiew and young Christopher. I will go with Thor to find O'Neill and Colonel Carter."

"Uh – you may need me too Teal'c."

"I will tell you where you are to go and I will stay here with Molly and Christopher", Thor offered.

"Yeah except there's this scum bag", Daniel pointed at Grayson. "He was in on this whole thing."

"I won't try and escape", he pleaded. "I didn't want anyone to get hurt." Teal'c and Daniel both looked disgusted.

"We'll take him with us. Just look after Molly and Chris, Thor." Daniel walked over to where the alien was standing. "Just tell us where we can find Jack and Sam."

Daniel, Teal'c and Grayson headed out to retrieve the remaining members of the former SG1.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The first thing she noticed was how peaceful everything was. She was lying down somewhere – she didn't really remember where she was or why – but for some reason it didn't matter. She simply felt relaxed and at peace. She could hear the gentle sounds of the wind rustling leaves on the trees and the sound of water lapping against the shore. As a small bee flew over her, near to her face, she blinked and took a deep breath. She finally decided she should sit up – although she decided it didn't really matter what she did.

She slowly pushed herself up until she was sitting, her legs straight out in front of her. She still didn't know where she was but it was beautiful. In front of her was a pristine lake, so still it looked like sparkling blue glass. It was surrounded by an emerald green forest, so thick the trees almost looked like velvet. Directly in front of her – in fact she was lying on it – was a beautiful sandy beach. There appeared to be no people anywhere.

She stared at the scene for a few minutes, relaxed and happy. She thought she heard a slight movement off to her right but when she peered over to the side there seemed to be nothing there. As she looked back, towards the lake, she happened to glance down. It was only then that she discovered she was wearing a very tiny, deep blue colored bikini. It was so tiny it barely covered the essentials.

She could feel herself blush, even though no one was around, and looked to see if there was a towel or cover handy. She saw nothing and then began to wonder why in the world she was wearing such a revealing outfit. She didn't even own a bikini. She remembered that year's ago, when Janet was still alive, the good doctor had tried to convince her to buy one, saying she had the perfect body for it. Sam had refused. Maybe it was growing up in an all male household (at least after her Mother's death) or maybe it was because she was part of a very male-oriented military – all she knew was she didn't feel comfortable displaying her body so openly in public.

It was as she sat pondering the unusual circumstances in which she found herself that she heard that sound again. Whipping her head around she saw someone come out of the trees and head her way. It didn't take long, (and there was very little surprise), to realize it was Jack.

He was dressed in his usual (and very sexy looking) casual clothes. He had on a pair of slightly too baggy pants and a loose black shirt, the sleeves rolled up. He was wearing sunglasses and was walking towards her with obvious intent.

"Hi", he smiled as he reached her, and looked down. She couldn't tell, because his eyes were hidden behind his glasses, but she was pretty sure he was checking her out in her teeny, tiny bikini. Resisting the urge to try and cover herself with her hands she simply answered.

"Hi yourself."

"Mind if I sit down?"

"Of course, be my guest." Jack sat down next to her on her little area of beach and stretched his long legs out in front of him. He leaned back, holding himself up with his hands.

"Nice!" he said, looking off into the distance.

"Yeah, it's beautiful. Do you know where we are?"

"Mmmm, not really but I gotta say it's great."

"Not too many trees?" she asked, a smile in her voice.

"Nah, I like trees."

"You do? What was all that complaining for all those years then?"

"Well, it made you guys laugh so ….."

She laughed again. Yeah, leave it to Jack!

"So, no idea huh?" she asked, looking around and sounding like the man beside her.

"Nope! Although I gotta say I really like the view." Since he was looking at her when he said that she could feel herself blush again. She was pretty sure he wasn't talking about the trees.

"I feel like this isn't real, you know." She said quietly, attempting to change the subject.

"No? I don't know – I think this may be totally real."

"But how did we get here? We weren't here a minute ago, I'm sure of it."

He sat for a few seconds, considering. He then turned to her with a grin. "I think you're right. I think we were somewhere else." He sounded like he'd just discovered a cure for the common cold!

"So, where were we?" she asked. She felt like they had to get to the bottom of this even though a part of her was just telling her to just lie back and enjoy it.

"I don't know. Let's think about it." They both sat for a while, trying – not very hard – to remember.

"Uh, I have a memory of …" She stopped. Goodness, what had she just been about to say?

"Memory of ….. what?"

"Never mind."

"No, you can't do that. You started it so you have to finish." He turned on his side, his head resting in one hand.

"It's silly."

"Doesn't matter. What were you going to say?"

"Oh, okay, since you insist! I have this memory of you …. naked."

"Wow! Is it a good one?"

"A good what?" she asked, confused and embarrassed.

"A good memory!"

"Jack!"

"What? I just want to know."

"No, I don't think it was a good one." She frowned and he looked a little hurt. "No, not the 'you being naked part' – I mean there's something else that I think was bad but I just can't remember. How about you?"

"No, I don't remember being naked – at least not recently. But I do kinda think there was something, unpleasant. I can't remember either. Let's forget about it and just enjoy the day." He grinned down at her again – really, really enjoying the bikini.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"What if it's important? What if we have to remember?"

"What could be that important? We're always worrying about everything and everybody else. Can't we just take some time for ourselves?" He sounded sad rather than angry. She knew how he felt. Sighing, she leaned back and looked up at the very blue sky.

"But what if someone is relying on us? What if someone needs us?"

"Okay, now you've gone and spoiled everything." This time he didn't sound sad or angry, just resigned. "Let's figure it out then."

"So we think something bad happened just before we got here, right?"

"I guess."

"And you were naked."

"I don't like where this is going Sam."

"No, just wait Jack. There's got to be something. By the way, why am I in a bikini? I don't own a bikini."

"No? Too bad. You should definitely buy one. I always thought you'd look great in one just that color. Brings out your – uh, eyes!"

"General O'Neill! You were not looking at my eyes!" He leaned back, a very mischievous expression on his face.

"Hey, I may be a General but I'm still a guy!"

"I know. I just saw you naked, remember?"

"You had some doubts before that?"

"Uh … no. Can't say as I ever had any doubts. I always knew you were a guy."

"Sweet!"

"We're getting sidetracked here. Let's try and figure this out. We know something bad was happening, but where were we? Were we off world? At the SGC? Do you remember anything?"

Jack squinted, trying hard – finally – to remember. There was something very hazy in the back of his mind but ….

"Thor! I remember Thor."

"Yeah, that sounds familiar. What were you doing with him?"

Jack frowned, another memory starting to intrude into his conscious mind. Suddenly he gasped and sat up. He frantically began to pull his shirt out of his pants and then ripped it right off. He looked down at his chest, desperately running his hands over his skin.

Sam noticed a number of scars there, but they were all old ones he's received in various battles over the years. She didn't see anything else wrong.

"What is it? What's the matter?" she asked, concerned. He continued to feel his skin as if he was looking for something but finally seemed to calm down. A second later his eyes grew big and he grabbed his head, feeling it as if searching for something there as well.

"Can you see anything?" he tilted his head forward. Sam looked carefully, even putting her fingers through his hair and checking his scalp.

"No, everything looks fine. Why? What did you remember?"

"I uh – " he stopped and looked at her, fear in his eyes. "I remember someone cutting me open. I could actually see all my organs. I remember them taking pieces from me."

"Oh God Jack, that's awful. What about your head?"

"They, they stuck something on me and it drilled into my head, right into my brain. God, tell me this was a nightmare?" He was breathing quickly, fear taking hold of him.

She looked at him for a minute and then a picture flashed into her mind. It wasn't just of him naked, he was also covered in blood, a vicious scar on his chest and stomach and some kind of helmet thing on his head.

"Crap!" she muttered.

"What? What is it?"

"I remember something too. I, I think it's a memory Jack. I don't think it's a dream."

"God – what happened? What did they do to me?"

"I don't know", she cried. "Do you have any idea who would have done this?"

"I just see Thor – but it couldn't have been him. He's my friend."

"Maybe it wasn't Thor. Maybe it was a different Asgard. They kind of, you know, look similar."

"Not to me. I can recognize Thor …." He stopped and looked down at Sam. Slowly, surely the memories were returning. There was something about a fake Thor and about his friends. What was it?

"You, you all thought I was a traitor!" he suddenly looked at her in shock. He felt like he couldn't breathe, like he had to get away. He edged away from her, still looking at her in alarm.

"No!" she cried again. "No Jack, it wasn't us. We would never think that. It was them, they did this."

"What? Who? What are you saying?"

"It was … Thor? No, not Thor – it was another Asgard. They wanted you. They wanted to experiment on you to save their race." But why, why this bit about betrayal? She knew it wasn't true but couldn't remember any details.

"You thought I'd betrayed the earth. You wouldn't have anything to do with me. I - I think I left." Slowly he was piecing it together and the pain of his friends' betrayal was hitting him again – although he didn't know this was the second time he'd experienced this.

"No Jack. We …", she stopped and closed her eyes. There was something on the edge of her memory. If she could only figure it out. Suddenly her eyes shot open and she immediately reached out for Jack. He pulled away but she followed. Kneeling in front of him she grasped both of his arms with her hands.

"No! It was a trick. The Asgard – not Thor, someone else – showed us a video, which proved you were a traitor. We didn't believe it – would never have believed it – but they gave us some kind of drug, a drug based on Nishta – that made us believe. It made us believe long enough for us to treat you like a traitor. By the time it wore off you were gone. We've spent…." she couldn't remember exactly how long. "We've spent a long time looking for you. We would never have believed those lies if it weren't for that drug."

He still couldn't remember exactly what had happened but the instant relief and – joy - he felt made him feel so weak he collapsed forward, he head resting on Sam's shoulder.

She gently let go of his arms and put hers around his back. Holding on tightly she sat with him for a long time, simply enjoying the peace and the closeness.

Finally, he pulled away from her slightly and looked down at her. "So, Danny and Teal'c – they don't believe I'm a traitor?"

"No, and they never did. We've all been looking for you."

"For a long time you say?" She nodded. "Aren't you going to get in trouble with…" who was it who would be mad? "Uh Hammond? … no not Hammond …uh?"

"Landry! General Landry!" she announced.

"That's right. Landry. Walter Landry?" he looked at Sam and she shrugged. Walter had a certain familiarity but she couldn't say for sure that that was Landry's first name.

"So, Landry wasn't mad at you?"

"Uh, I think he was but I don't think we cared."

"Are you in trouble? Did you go … AWOL? Hey, did I?" he looked very pleased that he could remember the term, not so concerned about the possibility of actually having done it.

"I don't think so." She stopped speaking and simply stared into space for a moment. "Jack."

"Yeah, what?"

"I don't think we're AWOL."

"No? That's good right?"

"No it's not. I think we're dead."

He didn't say anything for a long time either. He simply stared into the same distance as Sam.

"So, dead? That's kind of …." He wasn't quite sure what it was. It certainly wasn't unpleasant. In fact it was really kind of nice. Maybe this was heaven? Certainly that blue bikini was pretty heavenly.

"Jack!" she squeaked loudly.

"What?" he jerked in surprise. "What is it?"

"I think this is you." She swept her hand around the vista in front of them.

"Huh? What do you mean it's 'me'?"

"I think you've brought us here. I think we died and this is your … heaven or something."

So, she had the same thought about this being heaven as he did. Interesting.

"Why do you think it's 'me' – ur, my heaven?"

"Uh?" she looked down at the bikini she was wearing. "I really don't think I'd picture myself in this." He had the decency to look slightly ashamed, but then he grinned.

"Hey! You can't blame a guy! So what if it's been a long-standing fantasy of mine. If this is my version of heaven then I'd definitely want you to wear that!" He sat back, looking extremely pleased with himself.

Sam frowned again. When he started to apologize, worried that she really was upset over the little blue bikini (okay, so it had still been worth it!), she simply waved her hand in dismissal.

"No, it's not that Jack – although next time we go to heaven, and it's my version, you are so wearing an itsy, bitsy Speedo! No, I'm just wondering why we're both here. What happened and why are we remembering like this? Do you suppose this is it or is there something else we have to do or figure out?"

Jack sighed, knowing that his time to simply enjoy was officially over. Sam was in 'thinking' mode and wouldn't rest until they'd figured this out. Truth was, he was getting curious himself. Still, if this was it – he was pretty sure he could be happy here with Sam.

"Okay, so let's try and figure this out. The last thing both of us remember is me lying naked and being punched with holes and pieces being taken from me." Sam looked sick at this and Jack could honestly say it was grossing him out as well. "Do you remember anything after that?"

She looked blankly at him, trying to focus on her memories. "I think I remember taking whatever that thing was off your head. I remember lots of blood and I remember feeling like we had to hurry, to escape."

"Yeah. I remember you trying to help me up. I was in pain and so weak. I think…" he stopped. "I think you helped me get dressed." He stared back at her for a minute and got a slight smirk on his face. "You had trouble with my shorts!"

The memory came back in brilliant Technicolor – which is how her face looked as well. "Yeah, well be glad I didn't leave you hanging in the wind!"

"Hanging ..? Okay, not a nice thought." They sat for another few minutes, frustrated at their inability to remember.

"Thor! No, wait, it wasn't Thor it was ….."

"Angry!"

"You were angry?" she asked, confused.

"No – the Asgard – I called her 'Angry'. Her full name was something like … Angrbody – something."

"Angrboda! That's it. She came in to the room just as I was trying to help you escape. We stood there – I can't remember …"

"Oh God!", he gasped. His breathing began to speed up and he grabbed her and clutched her to him.

"Jack? What is it? What do you remember?"

"You died. Oh God no. You died. She was going to kill me and you threw yourself in front of me." He was crying in great, gulpling sobs. "You died Sam. I could see the blood rushing out of you. I could see the life leaving your body. Why did you do it Sam? Why did you do it? I didn't want you to die. Not for me, never for me. I'm not worth it. Why did you have to die Sam? Why?" He continued to sob, holding her tightly.

She remembered everything now. She remembered her dispair knowing she'd lost him because of her faithlessness. She remembered the desperate search to let him know they were sorry. She remembered wanting to warn him about the Asgard and the danger he was in. Finally, she remembered the moment she thought he was going to die and the realization that anything, even her own death, was preferable to that. Yes, she'd died for him but she couldn't be sorry. She'd given her own life for the man she loved.

Slowly his tears and his sobs diminished. He was still breathing erratically, consumed by emotion but he was no longer as frantic. It was only as she held him tightly that she had a sudden very startling thought – if she'd given her life for him, why was he here with her?

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Down this way, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c spoke softly. They were carefully moving through the corridors of the Asgard vessel – at the same time trying to go quickly. Grayson was cooperating although neither Teal'c nor Daniel trusted him.

They came to a large panel door at the end of a long corridor and knew instantly that this was the room they were looking for.

"It's here Teal'c" Daniel moved to the side, his gun held at the ready. Teal'c shoved Grayson to the side and opened the panel door.

"NO!" they heard a scream just as they entered. The little alien – Angrboda, the one behind everything that had happened, stood there, a weapon in her hand, staring ahead. Teal'c followed her eyes and gasped when he saw the two people on the floor.

"Daniel Jackson, it is O'Neill and Colonel Carter. They appear hurt."

"I see them Teal'c". Daniel sounded horrified. Angrboda, hearing the voices, turned and faced Teal'c.

"YOU!" she screamed again. "What are you doing here. O'Neill is mine – he is mine!" She began to rush towards the fallen man, pointing her weapon at him.

What happened next occurred so quickly that Daniel couldn't afterward remember the sequence of events. All he knew was that, in his shock at seeing Sam and Jack, clearly hurt if not dead, he'd taken his eyes off of the Senator. As the Asgard raced towards Jack he was shoved from behind and the gun was grabbed from his hand.

Terrified over what Grayson was going to do, he shouted a warning to Teal'c. The next events happened almost simultaneously. Grayson raised the gun and shot. At the same time Teal'c turned towards Grayson and shot his gun. As the Senator fell to the ground, mortally wounded, he looked at Daniel.

"Tell … my wife, kids … sorry. Love … them." The breath left his body for the last time and he sagged to the floor, dead.

Daniel swiftly looked towards Jack, sick with the certainty that Grayson had been effective with his one shot. What he saw shocked him.

Instead of Jack or Sam having been hit with Grayson's bullet, they saw the little alien, Angrboda lying wounded, blood seeping from the hole in her chest.

Daniel gathered his wits and ran over to Jack and Sam as Teal'c checked out the Asgard.

"He's mine! O'Neill is mine … and … I killed him. You … will … never … have him …!" Angrboda could barely speak. Her life was swiftly seeping on to the floor but she had a gleam of unholy joy in her large eyes.

"No, you have not killed him. O'Neill lives and will return to health. You have failed and you will be remembered as a traitor to your people!"

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" she sobbed. "NOOOOO!" Teal'c watched as the light faded from her eyes. This time there was no joy there – only the despair that she had failed.

As soon as the last bit of life had left her body Teal'c reached down and closed her eyes. Angrboda was no more.

"Teal'c." the big man stood up and quickly walked to Daniel Jackson.

"Teal'c" Daniel repeated, sounding anguished.

"What is it? How are O'Neill and Colonel Carter?"

"I don't know. I can't pull them apart." The two were grasped tightly in each other's arms. Daniel had tried to separate them but was unable to release Jack's arms from around Sam.

Both Daniel and Teal'c could see the tremendous amount of blood surrounding the fallen pair. They couldn't tell from whom it came – or if it was, in fact, from both of them. They could see the wounds on Jack's head but other than that they could not tell what had happened - the two were too closely entwined.

"Teal'c." Daniel said for a third time, deep sorrow in his voice. "I think they're dead."