Chapter 29

Jack falls backwards through the Stargate and is saved from crashing headfirst onto the metal ramp by Daniel, whom Jack falls on and takes down with him.

"Jack!" Daniel groans in annoyance under his friend. "Get off me," he says with a push.

"Jack! Get a med team in here!" Mitchell yells from the bottom of the ramp, and Daniel's heart skips several beats as he scrambles out from under Jack and stares in horror at the knife buried in Jack's chest.

"Xander . . . ," Jack murmurs, staring at the knife and struggling to catch his breath.

Daniel tries to figure out if he should touch the knife, or even Jack's chest. He knows better than to just pull it out, but how can he stop the bleeding by applying pressure with the knife in the way? In the end, he leaves it where it is – doesn't even touch it -- and crawls up to look into Jack's ashen face, his eyes twitching behind his eyelids like he's having a bad dream.

"Jack? Open your eyes," Daniel orders, grabbing Jack by both sides of his face and shaking him a bit. "Jack, come on!" he says, as the med team arrives and pushes him out of the way. "Come on, Jack!" Daniel yells again.

"Stop shouting," Jack finally whispers, cracking both eyes open, and Daniel's mouth twists in a smile of mingled affection and exasperation at the inappropriateness of joking when lying on the ground with a knife sticking out of your body, trust Jack to treat his own near death experience with irreverence.

"Give us room," Dr. Lamb demands, and Daniel reluctantly stands and steps away.

"What the hell happened?" Mitchell demands, grabbing Daniel's arm and spinning the man towards him.

"He was right behind me!" Daniel answers, unable to take his eyes off the knife sticking out of Jack's chest as his friend is swarmed over by medical personnel.

"We need to move him, now," Lamb instructs, and Jack grunts in pain as he is lifted onto a gurney.

"Xander . . . ," Jack whispers again, as Lamb jabs two fingers into her boss's neck to check his pulse.

"OK, pulse is weak and thready – we're going now." The medical team sweeps Jack from the room, and if it weren't for the sterile wrappings left behind it would be hard to tell that they'd ever been there.

"O'Neill is right," Teal'c murmurs, and Mitchell and Daniel turn to him. "Xander has not come through the stargate," Teal'c finishes.

"Was there anyone else around?" Sam asks Danny, who shakes his head.

"Xander was worried about stepping through. Jack said he'd come through with him. There wasn't anyone else there."

As Daniel speaks, there is a glimmer in the watery surface of the event horizon, and Xander steps through, smiling.

"That's completely peculiar," he states, running a hand over his body to ensure nothing has been forgotten in the wormhole.

There are four sets of eyes on him, and Xander simply smiles at them, too.

"You ever get used to that?" he asks, but isn't answered. "What's going on?"

"You tell me!" Mitchell demands.

"OK," Xander looks around the room and his eyes seek Jack but don't find him. Then his gaze lowers to take in the medical waste strewn across the ground. "Where's Jack?"

"You didn't see?" Mitchell says in disbelief.

"Where is Jack?" Xander repeats the question very carefully.

"He's being treated," Sam replies, and Xander turns his focus onto her.

"Why?"

Mitchell puts a hand on the butt of his 9mm. The action isn't unnoticed by Xander -- or the rest of the team, for that matter.

"Because," Mitchell says, drawing the weapon, "You just stabbed him through the chest."

"What?!"

"Put your hands up," Mitchell orders.

"This is insane, Mitchell. I didn't stab Jack!" Xander argues, raising his hands nonetheless, holding them carefully out in front of him.

"What deal did you make with Glory?" Daniel demands suddenly.

"You heard: I told her I'd be the Champion."

"There was more to it than that," Sam argues.

"There really wasn't. Is jack going to be OK?"

"He had a K-Bar buried in his chest, so I'm thinking his chances are not so good," Mitchell snaps, and Xander looks like he's been punched in the face.

"I had nothing to do with that. When he stepped through in front of me he was fine."

"He's not fine!" Daniel snaps back, his agitation showing.

"If I had stabbed him, don't you think I'd come up with a better story than that?" Xander demands in a shout. "I want to see him!"

"So you can finish the job?" Mitchell questions.

"So I can see if he's all right. He's my father," Xander argues.

"I'm afraid that's not going to be possible until we figure out what's going on," Sam says quietly.

"Look, I get it: you think that it could only be me, and trust me when I say that I get it. But this is the last time I'm going to say it. I did not stab Jack. I wouldn't do that; I couldn't do that!" Xander implores, and his manner and desperation are enough for the moment to make every team member doubt the fact that Xander was unequivocally guilty.

Mitchell's radio buzzes to life as his gun starts to lower.

"Colonel Mitchell, this is Dr. Lamb. I thought you should know that General O'Neill named the person who stabbed him. It was his son."

The guns are raised again, and Xander starts to smile.

"Oh, come on! I only stabbed him a little, and it was for a very good reason," he says by way of explanation.

"What?" Sam demands, unnerved by the smile.

"I needed a way back home," Xander explains casually, as he starts to walk forward.

"Stop," Mitchell commands, ten feet away and aching not to have to shoot the son of his superior officer.

"You already were coming home," Sam says in confusion.

"No,you were coming home. I was staying, because I wasn't allowed to return home," Xander explains, and he takes another step.

"Xander, I'm warning you, don't take another step," Mitchell barks.

Xander doesn't stop, doesn't even pause, and as Mitchell fires two completely ineffectual rounds through the boy's centre mass, he smiles.

"What the hell?" Mitchell says in shock, just before Xander takes advantage of the Colonel's surprise to sweep him aside with a powerful backhand.

"Fire!" a voice calls out, and before every automatic weapon in the place can tear him to shreds a light surrounds Xander, and he is gone.

"Holy crap!" Daniel mutters, staring in horror at the place where Xander was standing.

"Indeed," Teal'c confirms, glancing around as if Xander could still be in the room.

"What just happened?" Mitchell demands, pulling himself painfully off the floor.

" I don't know," Sam states, shaking her head.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that that wasn't really Xander," Daniel starts, and all eyes turn to him. "That's why he stabbed Jack, because Jack would have known."

"How would Jack have known? They've only known each other for two days," Mitchell argues.

"It's Jack; he would have known," Sam agrees.

"If that is not Xander Harris, then who is it?" Teal'c asks, and Daniel looks horrified as the realisation hits.

"I don't know. But we need to find out what the hell is going on."

"Yeah, that would be a given," Mitchell deadpans, as he clears his head and collects his weapon from the floor. "'Cause this . . . this can't be good."

TBC

R&R