Daniel heard a strange noise coming from Jack's room and hurried to the door. Just as he arrived he heard panicked swearing from the Colonel. He quickly pushed open the door to see the still sick man struggling with his sheets.

"What's wrong Jack?" he asked worriedly, hurrying over to the bed.

"Get – off!" Jack said frantically. He was sweating and had a wild eyed look in his eyes.

"Get what off?" Daniel looked around but couldn't see anything – only his friend frantically pushing at the bedcovers.

"Sheets! Get – them – off!"

Daniel frowned but quickly reached and pulled the sheets off from around the older man. They were damp and all tangled up so it took him a few moments, during which time the Colonel continued to struggle. "There – all off." He again regarded his friend, who had laid back and was breathing in short, painful gasps. "You okay?"

Jack grunted, but didn't say anything. His eyes were closed and heavy frown lines marred his forehead. It took Daniel a moment before realizing that the Colonel must have panicked at feeling restrained by the sheets.

He'd been back for three days and in that time had grown slowly stronger. Janet had fed him as much as she could, although his appetite hadn't returned fully. She'd contemplated supplementing his diet by inserting a naso-gastric tube, but the Colonel had nixed that pretty quickly by looking completely and absolutely terrified at the idea. In the end she'd enlisted Daniel and Teal'c in her efforts to feed the still traumatized Colonel.

Jack hadn't said much so far – he only answered simple questions and then would turn over, presenting his back to his teammates. He had initially been too weak to even move, but with his strength returning everyone knew it wouldn't be long before he tried to make a break out of the Infirmary.

The effects of his incarceration had brought on nightmares and moments of panic when he imagined he was being restrained. The episode of the sheets showed Daniel that his friend was still had a ways to go in his recuperation. He wished there was more he could do, but other than offering support by his presence, there wasn't much he could do.

"Hungry?" he finally asked. The snort from the Colonel told him the answer to that question, but he knew he couldn't leave it there. With a sigh he reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar. "I brought you chocolate", he tempted the man in the bed. "Really, really good chocolate."

When there was no reply he sighed again and pulled up a chair. "Okay, I'll eat it then." He proceeded to pull off the wrapper and take a bite. He noticed Jack's eyes on the candy and stopped himself from grinning. "You sure -?"

"Hell – give it to me", Jack reached out his hand and took what was left of the chocolate bar. He took a bite and glared at his friend at the same time. "I'm gonna get fat", he groused.

Daniel did grin at that. "I think you have a ways to go before that. According to Janet you're still underweight."

"Hah!" he said sharply. "She's just fattening me up for the slaughter."

Daniel's eyebrows went up. "The slaughter?"

"Yeah – she's wants me to go to see Mackenzie."

"And you call that slaughter?" Daniel laughed.

"Well, almost as bad. I don't need a shrink."

Again Daniel's eyebrows went up, although he didn't say anything. His expression must have spoken volumes though because Jack scowled and took another bite of chocolate. "I don't", he repeated. "I can deal with this just fine."

"Deal with what?" Daniel asked innocently.

"You know", the Colonel said, sounding as if the words were forced from him. When Daniel didn't answer, but continued to look at him speculatively, Jack began to get antsy. "This whole – thing."

"Thing? You mean the fact that you were held captive for almost three weeks, tied to a metal table and tortured? You mean that thing?"

"They didn't torture me", Jack said softly, refusing to look at the younger man.

"Really? Cause I'd say that keeping a man gagged and bound and injecting him with something was pretty close to torture. But maybe I'm wrong." Daniel was speaking softly now, worried that maybe he was going too far. Jack had refused to say anything to anybody about what had happened to him and they were all worried. Janet had agreed that maybe Daniel could try and get something out of him.

Well, it obviously wasn't working, he sighed. Jack was sitting up and had turned his legs to hang over the side of the bed. Daniel frowned. "What are you doing? Janet says you're not ready to get up."

"How does she know?" Jack asked sarcastically. "It's my body. I should know when I can", he slowly slid off the side of the bed, holding onto the mattress, "move – ooph!" He landed on his feet and would have fallen over if Daniel hadn't rushed to his side and grabbed him.

"I think Janet may have been right Jack. You're not strong enough for this. She said it would take time to get your muscles back in shape. You couldn't move for three weeks and you're -"

"I know!" Jack practically shouted. "I was there okay? I know what they did but I refuse to let the bastards keep me down. Don't you understand Daniel? I need to get the hell out of here. I need to move!"

It was only then that Daniel truly realized what kind of shape the Colonel was in. He was leaning up against the bed, Daniel's arms keeping him from collapsing, and he was looking both frightened and angry. He also looked like he wanted to crawl out of his skin.

He really didn't know what to do to help this time, but knew he had to say something. Just as he opened his mouth the door to Jack's room opened.

"Sir?" Sam took a step into the room, looking in concern at her Commander, dressed only in a skimpy hospital robe, hanging onto Daniel and his bed for dear life. "Uh – can I help?"

"Yeah – help me get him back to bed", Daniel panted. Even though Jack had lost weight he was still a big man and Daniel had been holding him up for minutes now.

"No! I'm fine. I don't need help. I can do this – myself."

"Really? Okay then." Daniel let go of the Colonel and stepped back. He winced as he watched Jack fall to the floor, his robe pulling up so that his bare backside was in plain view.

"What the hell did you do that for!" shouted the Colonel, desperately trying to pull the robe down. He glanced quickly at Carter, to see her looking at him in concern. Fortunately her eyes seemed to be on his face. "I'm fine Carter – you can go now."

This time she raised her eyebrow – what was it with the damned eyebrows today, thought Jack.

"You said you didn't need our help so I let you go", Daniel said calmly. "Or do you need my help after all?"

Since Jack was stuck – not having the strength in his arms to pull himself up – he scowled again at Daniel. "Yes", was all he said.

Daniel gave a small grin and bent over and helped the Colonel to his feet and then onto the bed. "Do you want the sheets?"

Jack closed his eyes briefly, feeling panicky. He hated the feeling of something on top of him, limiting his movement, but at the same time didn't like having his legs hanging out for Carter to see, especially since the robe was so short.

"Fine", he said shortly. He allowed Daniel to pull the sheet up to his waist, but he made sure it was lose and easy to move.

"Uh – how are you doing Sir?" Carter finally asked, once he was settled. He looked at her incredulously, marveling at her calm demeanor. For some reason – even though he was generally feeling like crap – he suddenly saw the funny side of what had just happened and began to laugh.

"I'm – I'm fine Carter", he choked out. "Just went for a little trip to the floor – nice view down there you know."

She slowly grinned, loving the fact that the Colonel seemed to be his old self. "Yes, I've got to say it was quite a view Sir."

Jack stopped laughing and looked at her suspiciously, his eyes narrowed. "You looked Carter!"

"At what Sir?" she said innocently.

"At –", he paused. "Nothing. Bring any cake?" For the next few moments he teased his teammates, not because he was actually feeling that much better, but he wanted them to stop worrying about him, which he knew they were. Although now that he thought about it, Daniel hadn't particularly shown concern. What was the space monkey up to, he wondered, staring at him briefly.

"What?" the archaeologist, genius and general pain in the butt asked innocently.

"Frasier put you up to this, didn't she?" he asked. Daniel simply grinned.

"Anything?" the good doctor asked later when talking to the three mobile members of Sg-1 over lunch.

"No", Daniel sighed. "He still isn't talking about anything that happened, but he did seem a bit better today. He actually laughed and talked to us."

"He laughed?" Janet said in surprise. "What brought that on?"

"Well", Sam looked slightly embarrassed. "He uh – tried to get out of bed and fell to the floor. His robe kind of – well – I saw – or pretended that I'd seen - and he thought it was funny."

Teal'c stared at her with his inscrutable Jaffa look while Frasier simply shook her head. "I'll never understand you guys. Did you say he tried to get up?" she asked as if she'd suddenly heard what Sam had said.

"Yes", Daniel admitted. "I tried to stop him but he insisted on trying."

"Good", Janet answered. "I've been waiting for that. It means he's on the mend."

"You've been waiting? I thought you said he wasn't ready to walk around", Daniel groused.

Janet grinned and waggled her eyebrows. "That's what I told him. It's the surest way to make him try it, which is what we want. He needs to regain strength in his muscles, and he needs to move around. He's still dealing with the shock of being restrained so long."

While his friends were talking about him Jack was lying there reliving some of the memories of the last few weeks. He'd ignored, as much as possible, what had been done to him, but knew he couldn't leave it for that much longer. Now that he was feeling better physically – although still with a long way to go – he could begin to deal intellectually with what had happened.

He knew he was going to have to tell Janet and Hammond what they'd done – the fact that they'd spent days collecting his sperm. He didn't know why, but he knew it couldn't be for any good reason – not if they were Goa'uld which is what Daniel had said. Even worse, he'd said that they'd found Nirti's sign – one of his least loved of the snakes. He'd protested that she was dead, but Daniel had pointed out that her servants may not know that – or that she had an underling Goa'uld who was continuing her work. Whatever it was, he knew he'd have to return and make sure that all the – samples – were destroyed.

He snorted when he thought of the terrible comments he'd get if any of the marines heard about this one – or if they were involved in the 'search and destroy' mission. Yeah right – like there was any way he was going to tell them they were on the hunt for Jack O'Neill sperm. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, feeling both slightly amused – and yet still feeling traumatized by the whole thing.

"Doc", he said softly when she walked into his room later that afternoon. "I need to tell you something."

"Okay Colonel", she looked at him in surprise. "What is it?"

"Uh – could you close the door? I don't want anyone else to hear this."

"Alright. Just give me a moment and I'll tell my nurses not to disturb us." She was gone for a couple of minutes and then returned, closing the door behind her. She walked up to his bed and gently touched his hand. "What is it?"

Jack took a deep breath and looked her right in the eye. "It was about what they did to me."

"Yes", she said gently.

"Well – you know they tied me up? They had me hooked up to some kind of IV and gave me regular doses of some kind of – stimulant."

"Stimulant?" she repeated, waiting for more information. "Do you have any idea what kind?"

"Not as far as what was in it but – what it did – yeah." He stopped and looked away. After a moment he leaned back and closed his eyes.

Janet wondered if he was actually going to tell her the rest or if that was it. "Colonel?" she asked gently.

He took another deep breath and his eyes popped open. "It was kind of – like – you know, Viagra." There – hopefully that was enough to make her understand.

She frowned for a moment and then her expression cleared. "You mean a sexual stimulant?"

"Yeah, that", he said, again looking down and beginning to play with the sheet. "It caused me to – uh – you know."

"Have an erection?"

He nodded. "Uh huh – it felt awful."

She was surprised at that but didn't say anything, simply waited for him to continue.

"It wasn't like – you know – a normal one. I felt like I was going to explode." He stopped, giving a half laugh when he realized how that sounded. "I mean – like blow apart – not a normal – explosion." He grimaced, feeling horribly uncomfortable with this whole discussion.

"I see – it was more intense than normal?"

He nodded. "Yes – and painful."

"So what happened?" She kept her voice as clinical and detached as possible, even though inside she was horrified. What the hell were they doing with him?

"You know – the usual - climax. They collected the uh -"

"Sperm?"

"Yeah. And they kept coming back every few hours for more, the whole time I was there." He suddenly sounded exhausted and hurt. She wanted to reach out and hug him, but knew now wasn't the right time. "At the end though, it stopped working. I couldn't – it didn't work." There was another pause and then he looked at her, pain and – something else in his eyes. "Do you think it's – permanent?"

Oh shit! She wanted to be able to tell him quickly and positively that no, it was just temporary because he'd been hurt and was recuperating – but she couldn't, because she didn't know. The drugs may have caused permanent harm, although at this point it was too early to say.

"Sir – you're still recuperating and I'm sure things will get back to normal eventually. Don't worry about it for now. If you're still worried in a week or so we'll check things out, okay?"

He nodded, although didn't look terribly relieved. Janet knew how terrifying this would be for a man.

"So – any idea why they were taking – samples?" she finally asked.

"No. But we have to go back and destroy them. I don't want the Goa'uld to have – bits of me."

Janet nodded, knowing the Colonel was right. "Did you want me to tell General Hammond what happened? He'll send an SG team to investigate, I'm sure."

"Please", he nodded. "I really don't want to tell him –" he shrugged and looked sheepish.

"Not the kind of conversation to have with your commanding officer?" she said with a gentle smile.

"No", he laughed. "Thanks Doc – I – it was hard enough to tell you."

She patted his arm affectionately. "I'm your doctor Jack – so don't worry about it. I feel badly that you had to go through that, but I'm sure you'll be fine. Just rest now and I'll speak to the General."

She watched as he settled back in and closed his eyes. Once she was sure he was sleeping she made her way out of the room and headed for the phone to arrange a meeting with General Hammond. He was not going to like what she had to say. At least now, she thought as she walked to her office, she knew what had caused the chaffing. God – the poor man.

General Hammond held a briefing the next day and Jack – after harassing Janet – was allowed to attend.

"Only if you agree to take a wheelchair Colonel", Janet laid down the law. "Teal'c or Daniel can push you."

He pouted but eventually agreed, although in the end it was Carter who pushed him. "You push better Major", he told her. "Daniel walks me into walls and Teal'c hits every bump."

Daniel protested vehemently that he'd never pushed anyone into a wall and Teal'c simply ignored his comment. Jack smirked as Carter wheeled him to the elevator, followed by his team and Janet.

Jack knew this was going to be an uncomfortable discussion although the General, to give him credit, had kept everyone out of the briefing except Sg-1, the doctor and Reynolds. The Colonel agreed that he'd keep everything confidential, although he looked curiously at Jack.

Jack himself was feeling nervous and fidgety and he wanted to get up and run out of the SGC and keep running until he reached his cabin. He knew he was still too weak, but he also knew he had to do something before he went crazy.

"Colonel – did you want me to tell everyone what happened to you on the planet or do you?"

Jack struggled with that for a moment, although he hoped he appeared calm. "Uh – you can tell them Sir", he finally said. He was going to be embarrassed, he knew, but it was better than trying to talk about the aliens giving him erections and collecting his sperm.

"We believe the reason the Colonel was held, was in order to collect his DNA", Hammond said clearly and concisely. "According to Dr. Frasier, he was given some kind of drug – it's still being analyzed– in order for them to collect sperm."

There – that wasn't so bad, was it O'Neill? He looked down at his hands as they fiddled with a pencil. He refused to look up although he could feel all eyes on him.

"Do we know what for?" Sam asked, sounding nothing but professional.

"No", he answered briefly. "But we have to return and destroy the samples."

"The room", Daniel said, looking at Teal'c and Reynolds.

"I believe you are correct", Teal'c agreed.

"The room? What are you referring to Dr. Jackson?", Hammond asked.

"When we were looking for Jack and Sam we came across a room – a storage room. Inside there were a number of metal cylinders and they were obviously keeping something cold, or frozen."

"Did you look inside?" the general wanted to know.

"We did not", Teal'c answered. "We believed that whatever was inside could be dangerous and our first responsibility was to locate Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter."

"Killer sperm", Jack muttered.

"Colonel?" Hammond looked at him inquiringly.

"Uh – nothing Sir. Teal'c just said it could be dangerous."

"Killer sperm?" Daniel whispered incredulously. Jack simply shrugged.

"So you think this is where the – samples – were kept?" Hammond ignored the comments from the two, although his lips twitched.

"Seems logical Sir", Reynolds chimed in. "The cylinders did look - medical."

"I see. So – I should send a team back and make sure they're all destroyed?"

"Sir", Sam's voice stopped everyone. Jack looked up, surprised by the tone of her voice. She sounded – tense, which wasn't like Carter.

"Carter?" he asked softly, looking at her in concern.

"Uh – I'm just wondering – if they did that to Colonel O'Neill, what about me?" She looked over at the Doctor.

"According to you and Dr. Frasier nothing was done to you", Hammond said, looking back and forth between the two.

Janet looked puzzled for a moment but then her expression changed. "Crap!"

"Doctor?" Hammond said, now sounding worried.

"Well, it's impossible to say for sure, but Major Carter did indicate that she woke up a couple of times from what she thought may have been a drug-induced sleep and that her stomach was tender."

"Meaning what?" O'Neill snapped.

"Well, as I said, I don't know for sure, but it could mean that they collected something from her as well."

"Something?" Jack said, although he was pretty sure he knew what she was going to say.

"Her eggs Colonel."

Everyone stared at the Doctor, most of them looking blank except for the Colonel, who looked furious, and Sam herself who had gone pale. It was O'Neill who finally spoke.

"We have to go back now Sir", he said softly. "We need to get those cylinders."

Hammond looked at his people and nodded. "We'll get them Colonel, Major Carter. We'll damn well get them!"