Sorry for the delay, I have my hands full all the time now - my daughter is teething... Hopefully updates won't be delayed but please be patient with me - being a mother comes first, of course. Thank you.

„Still cold?"

„A bit…" Daniel answered Colonel Reynolds, sitting in the briefing room, warm blanket still placed around his shoulders. He didn't look blue anymore though which was a success.

Teal'c seemed to be a bit better but even he was holding cup of something steaming in his hands. It looked like despite their winter gear they had gotten quite cold out there in the snowstorm.

"How is the Gate room?" Daniel asked.

"It's gonna be fine." Reynolds said. In a moment he was grinning at him. "You know not even once I had to report that the Gate room got snowed in. I think nobody had to do that actually…"

Daniel looked at him and there was a smile playing at his lips as well. It was a surprise, for all of them. When the Gate activated hour ago, they were all happy that SG-1 was coming back right on time, they all were thinking that something would surely happen to them. It was usual. But not this time. The Gate activated and Walter confirmed the IDC. It was SG-1. He opened the Iris but before anyone had a chance to step in through onto the ramp, all the soldiers in the room had to take a step back. Lots of snow was coming through along with some pretty strong wind. It lasted only for about a minute but it had already created a mess in there. Sometimes the Gate didn't seem to be as smart as they would have liked it to be.

Nobody knew it could get like this. Cold. Messy.

When Daniel and Teal'c stepped through dressed in their special uniforms and signalled Walter to close the Iris, he did at once. When the Gate closed itself, it was suddenly very quiet in the room. And the first sound was one loud "atchoo" coming from one of the soldiers.

Daniel and Teal'c took off their backpacks and their protective glasses along with their warm hats and gloves. By then Colonel Reynolds was already entering the room, shocked expression on his face.

"Ehm… guys?!"

"Sorry, Colonel. The beginning of the storm came a bit earlier than we thought."

"I can see that."

Daniel handed his backpack to one of the people that would take care of it, along with his weapon, as well as Teal'c. Reynolds kept on looking at them, not saying anything for a few moments.

"Now excuse me if I am wrong but I think it was four of you leaving and now when I do the headcount I'm missing two people…"

"Oh, yeah, that…"

"Doctor Jackson?" Colonel was suddenly standing straight, obviously worried. Daniel looked at Teal'c and he nodded at him.

"He won't believe us."

"He shall." Teal'c answered him and then looked at Reynolds.

"They had to stay on the planet."

"What?! Why?!"

"Colonel Carter wished to take care of found infant and O'Neill would not leave her behind."

"Wait a minute… did you just say… infant?"

"See? I told you, he doesn't believe us." Daniel told Teal'c quietly. He looked at the Colonel and answered his question, "yes, actually it was a small baby."

"You're joking."

He really was hoping they were joking. But after few seconds he understood – it was not a joke at all!

"Baby?!"

"Indeed", came Teal'c's reply. Reynolds looked at him and then at Daniel. He was about to say something but Daniel was faster.

"But they should be hiding in one cozy cave, they should make it through the snowstorm. We think..." Daniel assured him and partially himself as well. He started shivering. Reynolds noticed and realized that this would have to wait.

"Okay okay… go get checked out, I'll stop by and we'll debrief then."

"Sure."

They both left him standing there looking at the Gate room with pools of water by then and with men in soaked uniforms. He could feel a headache coming in.

He gave orders, the personnel cleaned the room and his men changed, they all went to have a cup of hot coffee. And he really wasn't looking forward to this debriefing. But on the other hand – he knew it would be something extra.

Now they were sitting in the briefing room along with Janet Fraiser. Daniel with Teal'c's helped described the situation and all the events from the planet. Both Reynolds and Janet were silent through their telling, it was hell of an unusual situation but considering the bigger picture SG-1 had come with more bizarre mission reports before.

"And then Sam stopped us, she thought she had heard a baby crying."

"We did not believe her." Teal'c said and it was clear that he was sorry about that, there was just something about the tone of his voice giving that away to those that knew him well enough.

"She found a baby in the snow, not too far away from us. We didn't know what to do but we just couldn't leave the baby lying there. She tried to protect the child from the cold. But we knew we couldn't go back through the Gate."

"I don't get it, why didn't you all go back through? You would have made it. You two made it after all." Janet asked, interrupting him.

Daniel sighed, it took him a moment to respond. This was still sensitive topic to talk about. "Because we all know what happened with Cassie. We couldn't risk taking the baby back through. Look we knew nothing about it! There was nothing on the surface, absolutely nothing, not even footsteps and suddenly when we were coming back there was a baby?!"

"That sounds suspicious enough." Reynolds agreed. "And Jack wouldn't leave her there alone, would he, huh?" he asked them then. Teal'c just nodded.

"How the baby looked like?" Janet asked, both as a mother and doctor.

Daniel looked at Teal'c and just shrugged. "I don't know, like a baby, perhaps two maybe three months old, healthy, well nurtured, and unhurt. Hungry maybe… probably cold…"

"Doctor Jackson, how big are their chances?"

"Pretty big I think."

"I agree, Colonel Reynolds." Teal'c said. "They wanted to find shelter and protection in the cave. The entrance was small so it should provide safety from the storm."

"They will probably be a bit snowed in but we can find them once the storm is over."

"That's true, we can…" Reynolds agreed. They had the necessary equipment to find them and to dig them out.

"We wouldn't have much time though."

"Wait a minute. What about the baby?"

"Well, Janet, we were kind of hoping you would figure something out…"

"What?!"

"There has to be a way… I mean, you can detect naquadah in blood, right?" Daniel asked and let her think about it for a moment.

"Yes, I can do that... but if it is at least a bit like in Cassandra's case, the device or whatever we decide to think about would appear after being near the source of naquadah for some time. We wouldn't detect it right away... So now it can also take some time."

"And that we don't have..."

"No... but... Sir, there might be a way." Janet looked at the Colonel and continued. "With Sam we have been working on this… device. It doesn't even have a name yet. It works sort of like… like a pulse emitter. It should send a naquadah pulse and the possible threat should react to that."

"No need to wait few days?"

"It's a possibility."

"And what purpose does that thing have?" The Colonel asked.

"Half a year ago SG-5 got almost killed on a mission."

"Yeah, I remember that. If I am correct, the planet was in the middle of civil war. And somehow they could make their trees explode with naquadah."

"Exactly. SG-5 found something in the soil, we haven't been able to identify it yet though. They got their hands only on some samples before they had to run for their lives when the forest started to explode so we don't really know the details. Sam asked me for a help because that element was found also in one blood sample from one of the bodies SG-5 came across on their way."

"So you two are working on a pulse emitter that would set the bombs off before our people can get hurt by them."

"Yes."

"So if there is something inside the baby and you use the emitter, whatever could be inside the baby should appear." The Colonel said.

"And then we can use one of those naquadah detectors from the Tok'Ra to detect it, right?" Daniel asked.

"I think so… yes, but we tested it only on devices, those were just lab tests, we haven't tried using it on people, yet on babies and definitely not with the goal of creating such reaction."

"Can it hurt the child?" Reynolds asked.

"I don't know." She replied honestly.

"Sam won't allow us to leave the baby behind. And frankly I think I wouldn't be able to do it either…"

"No, guess not." Reynolds said and Janet nodded next to him, no arguments.

"Doc, can you come along? With what they had along they're probably going to suffer a lot from the cold. We might have to deal with that and with the baby…"

"Oh I wouldn't worry that much…" Daniel said and took off his glasses. Janet looked at him and noticed that he couldn't quite look into her eyes.

"Doctor Jackson?"

"I believe they will be warm enough to survive in the extreme conditions." Teal'c said.

"What is it that I don't know?" Reynolds asked - in his I'm-the-commanding-officer tone.

"They… well they have some extra equipment, Colonel." Daniel tried. He didn't know how to say this but he knew he had to. This wasn't easy to explain though!

"Care to elaborate, Doctor Jackson?"

"Look, ever since they've been trapped on Antarctica, Sam and Jack really don't like icy planets. They honestly hate the cold and the snow and all the ice."

"That makes sense."

"So they are always extra prepared."

"For what?"

"To survive there… Colonel, no matter where we go, when there's snow involved, it means troubles for those two." Daniel told him. It was something he wasn't that comfortable talking about.

"Wait a minute… the sleeping bags. It wasn't a rumour, was it?"

"What? What rumour?"

"I heard people talking about Jack taking two sleeping bags to a mission where he's not supposed to sleep at all. They were rumours that he had become paranoid while sitting behind his desk…"

Daniel just snorted and Reynolds looked at him. He decided to continue without saying anything.

"There's more as far as I know… For example Sam requesting three extra thermo blankets... Oh and they both asked for extra batteries and supplies…"

"That sounds about right. And besides we all had the standard equipment for survival in extremely cold conditions."

"Talk about precautions…"

"They - we take this kind of supplies and equipment every single time we go through somewhere where it's cold. So they asked for it this time as well. And they have everything from us as well of course."

"So they have pretty high chances to survive in the cave."

"Yeah, they do. And if we can't find them now, they even stand a chance to survive through another cycle of the storm."

"Colonel, what shall be your orders?" Teal'c asked. He couldn't even guess that it meant a lot for Reynolds to hear him say that. Sometimes he felt like poor supplement for Jack but then there were times when he knew that people could respect him being temporary CO there.

"Well you are going to get some shut-eye, gentlemen. And no arguments. I'm going to put together a rescue team and we will plan the rescue mission. We have few hours to get ready."

"All right."

"Don't worry, we will be ready with all the necessary equipment to find those three and dig them out once the storm passes."

"Sounds like a plan, yeah."

"Sir, I would still like to go through with you." Janet said and Reynolds smiled and nodded at her.

"I'm counting on that, doc."

They all left the briefing room. Teal'c went to the mess hall to eat something. And he desperately wanted to get some rest as well. Events of this day were tiring to him. He was most concerned about his friends but he knew that O'Neill would not allow anything to happen to Colonel Carter and the baby. He knew how to take care of those he loved.

Daniel walked Janet to the infirmary. She was silent the whole way. He folded the blanket and gave it back to her. Still she hadn't said a word. It was obvious she had been thinking pretty hard about something.

"Janet?"

"Yes?"

"What's the matter? I mean… besides the obvious."

"It's just… Sam knows the device as well as I do. Maybe better. She knows there is no way for us to be sure that it had worked."

"Meaning…?"

"We use it and we don't find any traces of naquadah in the baby's blood. It can mean that we are clear to come back home. And it also can mean that the device didn't work and that there still can be bomb inside the baby's body."

"Oh… That's not good."

"No, it's not. Besides once we tell General O'Neill, he won't let us take the baby through to Earth. And it will be the right decision. But Sam…"

"Sam won't leave the baby there to die… "

"Exactly. So she will want to go to some other planet first to see if there is a possible threat. She will want to go there and wait for a few days by the Gate just to be sure."

"And Jack won't let her go alone… Now I see why you are worried." He said and felt worried himself. This really didn't sound good, not at all. They've been in similar situations before and he had never liked them. One of his friends risking his life for somebody else and the second risking it for the first one. They always had to do that though! They were hopeless. He could understand it, of course he could, but he just didn't like it.

"Get some rest, Daniel. We will figure it out. But now we have few hours so use them to get some sleep, okay?"

He nodded, thanked her and left the infirmary. He went to his lab. He had both their backpacks there – better say the contents of them. He wanted to at least download the videos and pictures before going to sleep. And he also wanted to take proper care of all the samples they had taken – so he took the things and asked Siler to help him to take care of it. Usually it was Sam or one of her people that would do so – and for the first time he realized that he had no idea what to do with it without her there. Siler assured him he would take care of it, he called the right people and they managed.

Daniel had this strange feeling that they would need all the possible results and findings as soon as possible.

Janet was in her office, trying to figure out how to adjust the device so they could be sure of its results. She knew she had slim chances but she wasn't willing to take the risk. She didn't want to see General O'Neill and Sam take the baby through to some other planet only to get blown up there after few days, especially when they had no idea about the possible specifics of the device - if there was any. On the other hand she knew that in Sam shoes she would have done the same thing. But she still didn't like the idea.

There was a knock on her door and one of her nurses stuck her head in.

"Doctor Fraiser?"

"Yes, Melanie?" She looked up at her from her notes and smiled at her.

"I just… I just wanted to volunteer to go with you, Madam."

"Oh..."

"I mean only if it is possible. I heard the Marines talk about the rescue mission and that there's a baby involved…?"

"Yes, that's right. I wanted to think about whom to ask to come along. You surprised me."

"I'm sorry. It's just... when I heard there's a baby involved I decided to come here. Madam, you know I used to work in the GOSH when I was living in Britain few years ago."

"Then you are more qualified to help the baby than I am - well than most of us here." Janet had to admit.

"I just think I can really help you out there this time."

"It's gonna be tough, Melanie. It's gonna be freezing with lots and lots of snow."

"I know. But I grew up in Northern Canada with my grandpa." And she smiled at Janet. She smiled back and nodded. She wasn't about to scare one of her best nurses by trying to explain that Jack O'Neill would be grumpy at least - aside from the rest of all the negative sides of this rescue mission.

"Okay, okay then…" She agreed instead. Melanie was a good nurse.

"Thank you, Madam." And it sounded sincere.

"No, thank you – Melanie, for coming to me. I really appreciate it."

Melanie was about to leave but then she turned around and said: "You just need to say the word, Madam, and you have the people that would go with you. You won't have to order anyone to go, you'll have to order them to stay." And with that she left Janet sitting in her office, not quite believing what had just happened.

Janet really appreciated that Melanie didn't ask a single question about the baby's origin or the circumstances. She liked her "straight to the point" attitude. She was a very good nurse.

Reynolds had a similar issue at his hands. He knew how it worked but this time he needed the right people for this particular task. So he picked those with large experience with working in critical conditions, used to really cold temperatures… he had two teams ready to gear up in few hours, he had few technicians putting together equipment that would help them find Jack's signal even under several feet of snow and in a cave. And Janet just reported that she would have her team ready as well. They were ready to go. They had their plan and they were ready to go out there and bring their people back home.

Reynolds wasn't new to this business but still he had to think about it… who else would go into the middle of nowhere with this slight possibility of finding ancient technology only to stay behind in deadly snow-storm to take care of a baby that had miraculously appeared on the surface of the planet?

Before getting some sleep himself he had to pick THE phone and call Washington DC. News about Jack and this particular mission were required immediately. Oh he wasn't looking forward to it. He could understand now why George Hammond used to keep a bottle of Scotch in his table - for these situations!

Daniel fell asleep pretty fast. He was exhausted. At first he was worried but then he realized that this was Sam and Jack he was thinking about. They knew how to take care of themselves. The baby would just spice things up a bit. And maybe they would finally talk to each other. He used to think about locking them to a closet together and let them talk but well, cave could work too!