The iris opened and Bray'tac, Former First Prime to Apophis, stepped through the event horizon. The look in his eyes as he grasped Hammond's forearm in greeting was hard.

"We've received news. Teal'c is in the hand of Lord Yu," he said without preamble.

"Yu," Hammond responded in surprise, "How?"

"Apparently, he was found wondering alone on one of Yu's planets by forces loyal to the Goa'uld. I have heard no more. Even now I am preparing a rescue."

"And the rest of SG-1?"

"There has been no news," Bray'tac answered shortly.

"Is there anything we can do?"

"No, we will do what must be done. I thought it was best to inform you. Teal'c will not be safe among us. We will have to bring him here."

"Of course, we'll be grateful to have him back," Hammond assured the Jaffa.

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The more Traiyana worked alongside of Carter the worse she felt for the deception and the more certain she was of its necessity. The woman's mind was a sponge. If it hadn't been such a fearful thing, it would have been a joy to watch how easily, quickly, and eagerly Carter soaked up all she had to teach her. She was constantly thinking, constantly learning. But, Traiyana couldn't afford to revel in her student's abilities. Therein lay great danger.

Traiyana had begun to fear discovery was inevitable even before Jackson had parked himself on his former colleagues' doorstep every night. Carter was too quick, and she suspected the others were as well. One day, the truth would come out. She knew nothing of their lives before they had chanced upon her world. Was it too much to hope that in Kylanar there might be things worthy of their loyalty and their forgiveness?

Traiyana provided them all with as rich and varied a past as she could conjure up, but she knew it did not satisfy any of them. They felt their loss just as much today as they had in the beginning. Their work was no more satisfying to them. Carter was an able assistant, but her interest did not lie in the healing arts. Still it had been a wise choice to keep her close; if the art and lore of medicine wasn't enough to fill the emptiness in Carter's mind, it was certain the work in the village and fields would have fallen far shorter.

She hoped the woman's pregnancy would buy her more time, occupy her mind and keep her from looking too closely at things better left unobserved. Perhaps by the time the child was born a true Kylanarian, her work and the happiness in her home would tie Carter to this world. Talyn, it was clear, was too uncomfortable with living a lie to be able to bind Jackson to her like was needed. But, her children might succeed where their mother failed. That left O'Neill.

Of them all, he appeared to have adjusted the best. He seemed content with his wife and his work. Almost Traiyana believed it. Almost. But, she could not forget the intensity and sincerity she'd seen when he'd looked into her eyes and swore they'd never be content robbed of their past. For all she had needed to not believe him, he had convinced her of the truth of his words. She was afraid that beneath his deceptively calm and peaceful stillness there was a raging restlessness that would destroy the fine web of lies and pretensions she had carefully laid for them all.

She didn't believe there was anything on Kylanar strong enough to temper it. His work meant nothing to him. He and Carter had fallen into married life so easily, she almost believed such had been their bond before they'd arrived on her world. Regardless, he'd take it with him wherever he went. And Jackson's friendship as well. They wouldn't hold him to her world. She feared nothing would.

Talyn had thought she would never be able to love the man with whom she shared her life, her home, and her children. But, one day, she lifted her eyes from the sweet face of her nursing daughter and watched him walk through her door with her son perched on his shoulders laughing and drooling into his hair and found she did love him. Not with the breathtaking, all consuming love she'd loved her first husband. She didn't think she'd ever be able to love like that again. But with a sure, steady love built on his trustworthiness, kindness, gentleness, and understanding. He asked nothing of her and gave everything in return. She hadn't meant to love him, but she did. He had made it impossible for her to do anything else.

If deceiving him when she resented his presence in her life had been difficult, deceiving him when she loved him was a thousand times worse. How did you smile and laugh and make love to a man you were lying to with every breath you took? Each day it became harder and harder to carry out the charade of their life together, and every day if became harder and harder to think of endangering her happiness with the truth.

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When Bray'tac brought Teal'c home, General Hammond had been hopeful things were about to improve. But, they weren't. Teal'c seemed to remember less now than he had when he'd left the SGC months before. Hammond hoped and waited as long as he could for signs the Jaffa might improve, but it slowly became apparent that the man he had been was as lost to them as the rest of SG-1. There was nothing for it but to retrain him and reassign him to a new team. He had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do.

But, Hammond did. He trudged through six inches of cold, wet snow to get to work the day he signed off on the long-overdue paperwork. It felt appropriate. He signed his name in triplicate on the black lines running across the bottom of each of the pages. Missing in Action, Presumed Dead. He hated this job, hated this desk, this place, this war. He sealed the envelopes and placed them into his outbox where they lay as silent witnesses to his failure to bring his people home.

Somehow the base knew. They met him when he left his office: Ferreti, Dixon, and all the other SG teammembers not offworld; Frasier and the rest of the medical staff; Dr. Lee and the other geeks as O'Neill would have called them; Walter, Siler, and the other techs and support crews; and the kitchen staff, the cleaning crews, and all the rest of the base personnel. They lined the hallway and saluted when he walked past them. He blinked tears from his eyes and accepted their salutes not for himself but for those who weren't coming home.

He took it upon himself to close out their personal effects from the base. The colonel's office and desk were so empty he had to wonder if the man had even known he had an office. O'Neill had left his quarters inspection-ready as though he hadn't expected to return. The things that mattered were in his locker: pictures of his son, a copy of his marriage license, his wedding ring, the deed to his house, a copy of his will, a brightly-colored picture with Cassy's name scrawled across the bottom corner, a yo-yo with a broken string, and pictures of his team. Hammond shut the metal door on them all and left them there. They would keep for another day.

Daniel Jackson's quarters had long since been reassigned. They'd already yielded up their load of books, magazines, scraps of paper, crumpled clothes tossed in the bottom of the closet, and other miscellaneous debris of life. Others had slowly pushed his things to the side and encroached into his office/lab, so there was nothing the general needed to do there. The things which had made it uniquely Daniel's were packed and safely stored away already. The general solemnly considered boxing up the contents of his locker but, in the end, left the books, magazines, stray scraps of paper, clothes, and stash of snack food where they sat. He pushed the door shut with a hollow clang that echoed in the empty room.

He didn't bother to glance into Major Carter's locker. Whatever she had kept in there could stay until her father showed up. There had been surprising little of a personal nature in her quarters as though she too hadn't expected to be coming back. But, then she'd had no knowledge of whom and what she was the last few weeks she'd lived in those spare, closed rooms. The things Samantha Carter had treasured could easily have been tossed away without a thought during that time. Her lab was also devoid of anything he could recognize as hers. The work had had to go on without her. He turned away from it with a heavy heart and walked back to his office where directions left in their files asked that their homes not be cleared until they'd been missing a full year. They'd learned their lesson after Daniel had been 'dead' the first time.