Heya, I'm back! Did ya miss me? I have to apologize for a few things, but everything will be explained at the end of the chapter. Thanks to my new and awesome beta, C. Nicole ( I might name a planet after you) as well as my cousin, Nooi, who helps by listening to me complaining when I can't get something figured out.

Don't own them, I just play around with them, don't worry I will fix the broken ones.

The group rushed down to the control room just as the iris closed and the gate established the wormhole.

"Who's knocking on the door, Sergeant?" General Hammond asked Walter.

"No signal yet, sir," the sergeant answered without looking up, his attention on the screen in front of him.

Tense seconds went by, but still nothing. Sam looked down at the screen, something catching her eye.

"Sir, the wormhole was established on Fleasia!" That made everyone look at her, but before anyone could comment, Walter spoke up,

"Radio signal coming through, sir." Everyone fell silent.

"People of the Tau'ri. My name is Daksio from Fleasia. I hope that this message reaches you. My people have again taken control of our planet and my government has asked me to extend our apologies to you and your people for the hurt that was caused. The man called Crosa has been arrested and punished. We would like to extend an invitation to your planet so that we can get to know each other as things should have been the first time." Silence followed as glances were exchanged in the room, finally General Hammond spoke up,

"This is General Hammond from Earth. We are receiving your message. Can you tell us why you are contacting us when you have gravely injured one of my people?" His tone was diplomatic with a hint of annoyance.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, General Hammond. My people are not all bad as you might think, contrary to evidence. We are a curious race and would like to be friends with another curious race. Crosa was a scientist that did experiments on visitors and has been investigated before. Our forces were strong enough to overthrow his hold on the people and so we can build a new reputation now."

"I need to discuss this first with my superiors. I will get back to you in a few days," he answered as diplomatically as possible.

"We understand, General. We will contact you again in two days time." Without waiting for a reply, the signal cut off and the wormhole disengaged.

"Master Bra'tac? Has this happened before?" General Hammond turned to face the old Jaffa, who shook his head,

"No, Hammond of Texas. It has not." He scratched his head, "But it is possible that they, indeed, have some good in them. It certainly requires some thought."

Hammond nodded and turned to Doctor Fraiser, "Let's go into the briefing room, then you can fill us in about the Colonel's injuries."

The group moved to the briefing room together and after getting themselves coffee, they sat down in their usual seats. Janet took a deep breath and quickly looked over the file in her hand. This was going to be a hard one.

"Well sir, he's holding his own at the moment, but it is going to be a while before he will be alright. Multiple broken bones, contusions- it looks like he's been whipped and then there were the internal injuries we had to go in to fix." She stopped, looked at the horrified faces of SG-1 and met General Hammond's eyes. He gave a slight nod and she continued, "I know that he is fighting this and he will be fine, just not now. Sir, the complete report will be on your desk by the end of the day." She finished and looked hopefully at the General, who nodded and softly dismissed her. She got up quickly and left going for the infirmary.

"Take a break SG-1. Go rest up, it seems like we are going to be very busy the next few days."

Without argument the SG-1 members left, heading straight for the infirmary- they had no intention of going to rest.

Hammond sighed; he knew they wouldn't go rest. He would wait for a few hours and then go order them to their courters.

"General, we need to go back to Chulac," Master Bra'tac said, getting up.

"Of course, I'll walk you out. Once again Gump'ta, thank you very much." He extended his hand and his forearm was grabbed by the Jaffa.

"It was my duty, First Prime Hammond," he said, straightening his back. Hammond looked at him and started laughing. Gump'ta was frowning as he looked at the bald headed human. He looked to Master Bra'tac for clarity, but found the Jaffa master laughing as well. Even the guards standing by the door were having a hard time containing their mirth.

"Gump'ta, the Tau'ri does not have First primes," Master Bra'tac said wiping the tears from his eyes, "he is called General Hammond and he is the Commander of this base." Gump'ta nodded, but refrained from saying anything.

"We need to go, General." Bra'tac said and Hammond led the way down to the control room.

"Sergeant, dial Chulac."

"Yes, sir."

They got into the gate room just as the Stargate started turning and the chevrons lit up.

"Thank you for your help, Master Bra'tac." The General grabbed the older man's forearm in a goodbye gesture.

"It is my pleasure to help the Tau'ri, just as you have helped the Jaffa."

The last chevron locked, the wormhole established with a whoosh and the two Jaffa walked up the ramp. Just before the event horizon they turned around and a final wave was exchanged between the human and aliens. Seconds later the wormhole disengaged, leaving General Hammond looking at the gate. He turned around and went to his office; he might as well get a head start on the mountain of paperwork before joining the rest of SG-1 in the infirmary.

SG-1

Sam walked into the infirmary. Daniel and Teal'c had gone to the commissary to get something to eat. They would rotate, each getting a chance to watch the Colonel until he woke up and then they would keep him company until he was released. The rotation would go on when he was sent home to rest and would only stop when he was cleared for duty. They do it when someone is hurt, and would go on doing it until the end of SG-1.

The sight of the Colonel lying on the bed, his pale face, with the tube between his lips- disappearing into his mouth, scared her back to reality. Even the bandages and casts were a dark reminder that they were the cause of this. They hurt the Colonel- not the Fleasians, not Crosa, no it was them- Daniel, Teal'c and herself. She flopped herself down on the chair next to the bed. Sam sat staring at the Colonel for a while not knowing what to do.

"I'm so sorry, sir. I should have figured it out before I taunted them." She tapped lightly on the cast bulge where the Colonel's leg was, "I was supposed to have this. I called him an idiot. And the marks on your back? A few have my name on them as well. The bruise on your arm here," she gently touched the dark blue outline of a hand on Jack's upper arm, "yup, you guessed it, sir, supposed to be right here." Sam touched her arm on the same spot, almost as if she could transfer it.

She took a deep breath and looked at the Colonel again, "I can't believe I caused you this much pain, sir. You couldn't even defend yourself." She stood up and leaned down, speaking softly in his ear, "Don't leave me, Jack. Don't leave us." With that she sat back down staring into Jack's face not seeing anything beyond the Colonel lying before her. Sam didn't notice the petite doctor who retreated from her hiding place behind the curtain, back to her office.

SG-1

Daniel relieved Sam on the hour mark. They had decided the rotation would be hourly, so that it would give all of them at least two hours rest before they were due back for their part of the shift. Daniel took the chair that Sam had used earlier. He stared down at the floor. When he looked up again there were shallow tears in his baby blue eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Jack. You know some of those broken ribs- if not all of them- are my fault. I should have known what they were doing long before we got trapped. I should have seen it in their body language; I mean that's why I'm on the team right?" He wrapped his arms around himself and started rocking back and forth, "It's my wrist that should be broken, my forehead that should have stitches. I joked about their accent, how stupid is that? I should have at least used better insults." He got up and started pacing, "You taught me how to become a soldier, how to be brave and I ended up hurting you. Those lashes were meant for me- I just laughed as they hurt you." His breath caught in his throat, "No, they didn't hurt you, I did."

He leaned down to whisper in Jack's ear, "you are my best friend Jack, my only friend. Please don't leave me." Ferretti turned around from where he was silently watching over the scene and left again. He knew that Doctor Jackson hadn't seen him, as he walked towards Doc Fraiser's office.

SG-1

Teal'c relieved DanielJackson of his duty, on time as usual. He was a warrior of few words and preferred to talk with his eyebrow, as O'Neill had said once. That and his staff weapon were the languages he used, according to O'Neill again. That was fine with Teal'c. He looked over to the still figure on the bed. He felt a stab of guilt in his gut. O'Neill was his friend, how could he do this to him? What kind of friend was he that he could not spare his friend hurt? He walked over to the side and saw the bruises and marks on the pale torso in front of him.

"I am sorry, O'Neill. I do not know if you can hear me , but MajorCarter said that talking to you might remind you that you are required to come back to us. I wish that this had not happened, Junior could heal these injuries in as little time as possible." He sighed, this was more emotion than the Jaffa was used to, but he needed to say what he felt while he was alone, "These injuries should be on my own body and if I could, I would take them from you. A brave warrior, a good man and an excellent brother- those are the words that describe you, O'Neill." Teal'c put his hand on the injured man's uninjured shoulder, "get well soon, my friend. The fight against the false gods will not be the same without you."

Teal'c turned around and walked back to his place at the end of the bed. He straightened his back and stood guard over his injured brother. General Hammond swallowed a couple of times where he stood outside the room, before he silently walked down the hall to Janet's office.

SG-1

Hammond closed the door and turned around to face Janet and Ferretti.

"I take it the other two already gave a declaration of their guilt?" he asked Janet.

"Yes, sir. Major Carter was first. She believes that, she should have prevented it." She shook her head sadly.

"Doctor Jackson as well sir," Ferretti, like the rest of the SGC, could only marvel at the bond between the flagship team. Hammond sighed, he was disturbed to hear Teal'c saying so much, but what he said scared him even more. He couldn't do anything about it though, not until Jack woke up and told them himself.

SG-1

On an undisclosed planet…..

"Selmac, I have news of the Tau'ri team called SG-1," the Tok'ra in front of the old man said. He looked up as he heard the designation of the team in which his host's daughter was a part.

"What happened, Tor'na?" the distorted voice asked.

"They were caught on Fleasia," Tor'na said quietly.

Selmac felt her host's despair, "What happened?"

"The leader was taken; last report was that O'Neill was badly injured. It was doubtful that he would survive."

"I have to go, Tor'na. Please tell the high council." Selmac was trying to get Jacob to calm down and not really succeeding.

Tor'na agreed.

They reached the gate in record time; as they dialled Earth's address, Jacob mentally checked that he had the healing device. As the wormhole established, he sent his signal, waited thirty seconds and walked through the gate.

SG-1

So, the explanation as promised. I had some serious writer's block with this story and I had to figure out where to go with it. I think my muse went on strike. Another thing I need to apologize for, some of my readers informed me that Teal'c used Jack's first name instead of his surname like he usually does. I will go and fix that, thanks for letting me know. My beta and I are busy editing and fixing the older chapters (of all my stories) so check back again. Thanks to all the people out there still reading, you are awesome. Please let me know if you think an alliance with the Fleasians are a good idea or should I just send a nuke through? Happy reading= CSIflea.