IMPORTANT NOTE: Uh oh, I hope some of ya'll are still with me. I'm sorry for taking so long! School started and a whole lot of other stuff...ugh. but anyway, If you are, please review this chapter. This is pivotal to the story, and I'd really love to know what you all think. Just please red to the end of the chapter before you review, lol. You'll see what I mean. :) I can't wait to hear from you! Thanks!

Chapter 7

"Dad…Dad! DAD!"

Daniel's eyes opened to see a fuzzy image of Janet leaning close to him. He was sitting propped up against the wall…but his chest was burning from lack of air, he realized, and his vison was fading again.

Instinctively, he gulped in air, but of course it only brought more pain, cascading…and when it all finally toned down and he could open his eyes again, he felt Janet's arms around him, holding on tight, sobbing quietly.

"-'m fine…" he gasped softly, trying to ignore the pain.

"I-I woke up, and you weren't breathing," she cried.

So he'd been right that he shouldn't fall asleep. But he had anyway--or lost consciousness from the pain, one. As much as it hurt to breathe, he needed to be awake to make himself do it. Daniel swallowed and brought his arms up around his daughter, but not too tightly--still being careful of her ribs.

Janet cried softly for a few moments more, and he held onto her, stroked her hair until she calmed down and just sat next to him, both with their arms still around each other. Daniel closed his eyes.

"I love you," he whispered.

Her arms tightened their grips. "I love you too," she answered tearfully.

Concentrating on not breathing too deeply, Daniel glanced toward the door. They couldn't see outside, but the line of blackness under the door was not nearly as thick as it had been the last time he remembered looking. It was almost dawn, which meant that hopefully he wouldn't stay like this much longer. Whatever it was Osiris had given him would wear off in a few hours.

Now that he thought about it, the shallow breaths weren't as annoying as they had been. Maybe it was already beginning to.

The two of them sat where they were for a while. He didn't know long it was, but finally, finally breathing started to get easier. Neither of them moved, and he didn't think either of them wanted to. He didn't want her to go, and she didn't want to move probably because she wanted to make sure he kept breathing. He could understand that, after the scare she'd had, and he was sorry for it.

After what must have been a couple of hours, dim light was coming in from under the door, and Daniel could breathe normally again. His throat was sore and his chest ached, but it was because of before, and wasn't directly related to breathing anymore. Janet seemed just as relieved as he was; she finally relaxed her grip on him, but she still stayed right there.

And that was when Osiris decided to come back.

It wasn't just the guards this time. Osiris stepped into the hut, and he felt Janet tense up beside him as the guards came in. Before she could say or do anything, he kissed her cheek and stood on his own, stepping away from her. He didn't care what they thought of him; he just didn't want her to get hurt.

Janet looked up at him, silently pleading with him not to let them take him, but he sent back his own silent message. I love you. It'll be okay. Reluctantly, she sat where she was. He thought he might have seen tears in her eyes again, but she didn't move when they took him. Finally, she was beginning to trust him more. He only hoped it wasn't in vain.

Osiris led the way into his hut on the other end of the camp, and as usual the native men forced Daniel into the chair and tied his wrists as the Goa'uld circled around in front of him. But this time they also tied his ankle to the legs before they backed off behind him. That couldn't be good.

"Throat still hurt?"

"A little; thanks for asking," he rasped.

Osiris smirked. "I can do that again. A larger or more concentrated dose could leave you like that for forty-eight hours instead of ten. And I could give it to the girl too."

Daniel glared. "No."

"Then give me the GDO code, at least. Otherwise, I won't keep her out of this anymore. Actually, what I just threatened would be generous. I should kill you now. A pure dose of what I gave you last night kills almost instantly--and it's quite painful. I can get what I need from the girl."

His hand tightened on the arms of the chair. "You're not getting anything," he grated out angrily.

"Are you certain? I suppose I could continue doing what I did last night to you and your daughter for longer and longer periods of time until you eventually broke. But that could take a while, I'm seeing. It would happen, but it would take time. I'm not in the mood to take time. I need that code, Daniel, and I need it now."

It wasn't until then that Daniel noticed that the two native men had left after tying him to the chair. He looked back at Osiris in confusion.

"They'll be right back," he smirked.

He just blinked at the snake for a moment, soaking in the probable meaning of that statement. "No…"

"Tell me what I want to know, and nothing has to happen to either of you."

"No! Leave her out of this!" he shouted, ignoring the lingering pain that flared when he did.

Osiris ignored him, and he pulled on the ropes for a short moment, until he could hear the sounds of shouting and struggling from outside. He turned his head as far as he could, but couldn't quite see the door; the chair was facing away from it. Daniel heard someone kick it open, and he heard scuffling as the guards dragged in his energetic daughter.

"Let go of me you--" She stopped. "Dad!" The two natives brought her around where both he and Osiris could see her. Daniel whipped around in that direction.

"Janet…honey, it'll be okay," he told her as confidently as he could. He couldn't let anything happen to her…he couldn't! But what could he do if Osiris demanded information? The whole of Earth was more important…well, to those on Earth it was. Not to him, except for the rest of his family and friends there. But it was his duty to protect their planet if he had to. He felt like screaming.

Janet looked at him. He knew she was terrified by the way she stood, but only some of it was leaking out onto her face. Her eyes were wide, and she looked a little intimidated, but beyond that, he didn't think the Gould would be able to tell anything else. Maybe being too much like him could be helpful, sometimes. He couldn't help but feel proud of her, even though he was terrified himself.

Osiris smirked. "No, it won't be 'all right'. Not for you, anyway." He reached beside him and picked up a jar from his shelf that looked exactly like the one he'd grabbed the night before. This one, however, was sitting right next to that one, and was much smaller. He continued, "You see, Janet, if neither you or your father tell me the iris code for your GDOs--which I have and need to get through the stargate on your planet--in the next two minutes, then I am going to kill you."

Daniel half expected her to do something then, but instead, she only swallowed and straightened her face, hardening her expression. "You…you don't have to threaten like that. We're not telling you anything." Her voice wasn't loud, but it got the point across. She wasn't budging. She'd had parents that did this job every day. She'd been told. She'd seen. She knew that Earth was more important than their lives just as much as he did. She was probably the only teenager on Earth that understood.

He felt tears pricking at his eyes. He was not going to let him kill her. "No. You can't do that," he said angrily. "She's just a girl. Leave her alone, for crying out loud."

"In case you have not noticed, I can do anything that I want," Osiris sneered. "And I am telling you that if you do not tell me the information I require, she will die. You now have one minute."

"No! I told you to leave her out of this!"

"Give me the code, and I will."

"Dad, you can't tell him…" Janet said shakily.

"I'm not, Janet, and you're going to be fine," he growled fiercely.

Osiris seemed to find this amusing. "Thirty seconds."

"This isn't going to help you!" Daniel shouted. His sore throat was becoming even more so, and his chest didn't feel any better, either, but at the moment he didn't even notice. "There's no point!"

"Twenty seconds."

"I won't tell you!"

"I'm not either…" Janet said again, quietly but no less certainly.

"Ten seconds," Osiris intoned cooly.

He looked at Janet desperately, at a loss. She looked back at him, and shook her head slightly, even though her eyes were moist, and she was shaking. Daniel bit back a sob. Why did she have to be so damn much like him!

"Don't," he pleaded. Time was up.

Osiris ignored him, and strode over to Janet and the two guards, the small jar in hand. He popped the cork out of it as he walked, and dropped it on the ground. The native men held onto her that much tighter, pressing her between them as they kept her in place and one brought up an arm to keep her head still. She struggled, clamping her mouth closed because she saw what was coming, and Osiris started attempting to get her mouth open. Daniel jerked and pulled as hard as he good at the ropes keeping his arms and legs to the chair.

"NO!" The chair shifted and jerked around with him, but it wouldn't move enough. Not enough to help him anyway. He was helpless.

Osiris was focusing on Janet. "Come now, dear, once it's swallowed it's almost instantaneous. It won't hurt too much, but I will hurt you if you don't cooperate."

She clamped her jaw and shook her head back and forth to keep it out of the way. Finally the Gould called in another guard to hold her head still while the original two focused on keeping the rest of her from moving as Osiris could get her mouth open.

Daniel kept shouting. "You'll never get what you want if you do this! Leave her alone! Stop this! Osiris!!"

Osiris got her mouth open. Janet screamed in defiance around his hands, her chest heaving in fear. She didn't want to die. He didn't want her to either.

"DON'T!!"

He didn't bother to make her swallow it. He and the third guard made sure her head was tilted back, and he poured it right down her throat.

"Janet!!"

All of them let go of her. She stumbled to her knees, her throat choking and swallowing on impulse. Then she screamed in agony.

"NO! Janet, hold on, don't! Janet!!" he shouted.

She heard him; she looked up at him, tears spilling from her eyes. Daniel fell his own falling. He could almost see the life draining out of her. "Daddy--" she choked tearfully.

"Janet!" But if he'd been given a much diluted dose and speaking had hurt as much as it had, he couldn't imagine how much the word hurt her. Janet screamed again, the sound fading to nothing as she stopped and dropped face-down to the ground, unmoving.

"Janet! Janet!" he yelled desperately. Nothing. "NO! JANET!" Still nothing. "JANET!"

Daniel felt something brush his wrist, and realized that the natives were untying him. A fleeting part of him mind thought about striking out at one or all of them when he was free, even though he didn't know why they were untying him, but once his wrists and ankle were free he went immediately to Janet. He dropped to his knees, not even noticing the pain in the joints, and scrambled to her side.

"Janet!!"

Her eyes were closed when he turned her over, and he was hopeful for a moment. He checked for a pulse in more than one place, but there was nothing. Breathing hard, he lowered his face near to hers, but felt no breath hitting his cheek. There was nothing. Nothing. He sat up quickly, pulling her with him and hugging her to him.

"No," he sobbed. "Janet, no, nooo…." he moaned, his body wracked with sobs. He forgot about Osiris, forgot about the natives. They didn't matter. All he could do was hold her, some not-quite-sane part of him hoping he could will the life back into her. For a moment he was transported back to in icy ledge on a distant planet, in the same situation…and the insane hope grew for a moment.

But when nothing happened, the snow disappeared, and he realized that it was no use hoping.

Osiris said something he couldn't understand through his sobs. Then some grabbed him from behind, and he realized that the guards were trying to take him away from her.

"No!" he shouted. He struggle, kicked, tried throwing a few punches, all the while keeping a grip on his daughter. "LET ME GO!" But they jerked him away from her. He lost his grip, and she fell back to the ground like a useless sack of flour.

They dragged him out the door and back toward the prison hut, as he called it in his mind, and Osiris didn't follow, but stood in the doorway of his own hut watching them go.

"You can't do this!!" Daniel sobbed, still struggling as he was dragged away. "Bring her back! You have to have a sarcophagus somewhere! BRING HER BACK!"

The Goa'uld scowled. "Sadly, no, I do not. If I did, I already would have killed the both of you at least once or twice. I'm afraid she's gone. But if you decide to cooperate, perhaps I'll consider not killing you, as well." Then he shut the door.

"NO!" The natives pulled him across the rest of the village and dumped him into the prison hut, closing and locking the door quickly. Chest heaving, veins pumping with adrenaline, Daniel jumped back to his feet and pounded on the door. It shook, but didn't budge. He threw his body into it, and almost the whole hut shook, but nothing moved or broke. He tried the walls, but they were too well-made.

Sobbing, he dropped to his knees in the middle of the floor and pounded on the dirt, because he had nothing else to try. But he realized, slowly, that that would do nothing. And nothing would bring Janet back. She hadn't ascended, and there was no sarcophagus. She was gone.

And Daniel screamed at the sky.

Vala jerked awake, and she wasn't even sure why. Dawn was just breaking, and Cassie and Colonel Hailey, in the women's tent with her, were still asleep. It wouldn't be long before the camp got up and going, but even if she'd wanted to catch a few more moments of sleep, she knew she wouldn't have been able to.

Because that was when she heard it. A faint, echoing, chilling sound. It was hard to tell what it was. It stopped for just a second, then started again, or so she thought. She couldn't even be sure she'd heard it. She jumped up and went outside the tent, looking around. She could see the wall of foliage that was the rock face several yards away, and the faint sound seemed to be coming from the other side of it. Vala shivered and wrapped her arms around herself; it sounded like it might be a scream.

After another moment or so, it stopped, and she glanced back at the tents. Suddenly something told her that they need to get moving. NOW. She stuck her feet in her boots that sat just outside the tent, and on her knees went back inside and woke up the other two women. She didn't explain, just told them to get up. Then she pushed aside one of the flaps of one of the two tents the men were in, and was relieved to see that Mitchell's head was by the door. She didn't have to go in.

It wasn't hard to wake him up. "Mitchell!"

He jerked and looked up at her groggily. "What?"

"Come on, it's time to move."

Teal'c was stirring too, and the colonel looked at his watch. "Yeah…yeah, we're coming. Tell Skaara and the kid to get moving for me, will ya?"

"Gladly," Vala nodded. She tried to ignore the chill running up and down her spine.

Only when his throat was too raw to scream anymore, did he stop. It didn't take long. Daniel collapsed, curling up on the ground and crying softly.

"I'm sorry--" he choked. "I'm so sorry."

Jack's words from so many years ago were already running through his mind.

I'll never forgive myself, but sometimes I can forget…sometimes.

He would never forgive himself.

But he would never be able to forget, either.

Pain. It was all she could feel. Her wrists were bound behind her back, and her arms hurt. Her ankle were tied together, and she was on her side on a rough surface, probably dirt, not comfortable, and what must have been little rocks and pebbled were digging into her side and thighs, and that hurt. Her head was pounding, and there was a gag around her mouth, and another balled in her mouth behind it, and that didn't help the fact that her chest was burning, and she couldn't get enough air without it hurting anyway. It was dark; she couldn't see anything.

This was where she'd woken up, just a minute or two ago. The last thing she remembered was Osiris forcing some strange liquid down her throat, dad screaming, pain…then blackness. And it was still black. But now she knew she was awake. He'd said she would die. Was this hell? It was awful enough, maybe.

Sudden light cut into her yes, making her squint in pain. A wide strip of light opened over her, and she realized that it was some kind of horizontal door, like maybe she was in some kind of cellar, some shallow underground storage place.

And Osiris was smirking down at her.

"Wonderful performance, Janet. Your father is quite convinced that you're dead now, though that of course was mostly because of the ability of the substance I gave you to simulate death for several minutes, when given at that potency. I wasn't lying when I said a pure dose would kill instantly, but what I gave you wasn't quite one hundred percent."

Dad! He thought she was dead. But she wasn't! She was here! She started to struggle, tried to make noise, but she was tied too tightly, and the gag wasn't budging either. Almost no sound escaped, and it only left her chest aching more.

"It will hurt to breathe for a few days. Not as badly as it hurt your father when I gave him a different dose--most of the energy of what I gave you was used up at the beginning--but it will still be painful. That's the price I pay for wanting him to believe you're dead, but oh well. I can wait a few days to question you, if he doesn't crack. Eventually one of you will, or I'll kill the both of you for good. Oh, and don't bother screaming, even if you do gets the gag out. You're in a beta storage facility almost a mile from the village. For father won't hear you."

The Goa'uld smirked. "Have a nice day." Then he dropped the door again, and it slammed shut over her again, bringing back the darkness.

No!

Janet screamed and screamed, but finally stopped and cried silently. No-one would ever hear her.