Just a short chapter tonight - sorry.

"Dad." Sam looked at her father in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Well hello to you too Sam", he said, taking a seat on the other side of the table from her. She noticed that Anise/Freya made sure to sit by the Colonel and stopped herself just in time from glaring at the inappropriately dressed Tokra woman. She wondered briefly what her dad thought of Anise. She wanted to snort – figuring her dad was a man like all the others and probably enjoyed watching her flaunt her big –

"Uh hi", she said, realizing that she'd been silent for too long and that everyone was looking at her strangely. "You still haven't answered my question."

Jacob sighed. "We got a message from George that you'd found one of good old Nirrti's hideouts and that you might need our help. I didn't have anything on my plate just then so I figured I'd come."

"Oh." Of course it would be her father, she thought. Of all the times she didn't want to see him it was now, when they needed to go find her – embryos. And then there was Anise/Freya. "What about -" she indicated the Tokra woman with a nod.

"Anise wanted to come. She's uh – interested in some of the things Nirrti was up to."

Jack turned and faced Anise, a scowl on his face. "You're interested in that sadistic bitch. Why?" he asked plainly. Clearly he didn't have fond memories of Nirrti. Sam felt a warmth tingle up her spine. She liked to think it was because of what Nirrti had done to her.

"She was a brilliant scientist", Anise said, not batting an eye. "Some of her experiments in genetics were highly useful in determining -"

"Useful!" O'Neill hissed. "She was a monster."

"Colonel", warned Hammond. He didn't like Anise any more than Jack did, but he did want to maintain good relations with the Tokra, even if most of them were a pain in the ass.

Anise closed her eyes and suddenly Jack knew he was talking to Freya. He didn't mind the host so much – she was rather nice – although he was a bit embarrassed when he remembered that she'd come on to him. He glanced at Sam and was surprised to see her glaring at him now. What had he done?

"I am sorry Colonel" Freya said in her gentle voice. "Anise agrees that Nirrti was evil although it is also true she was brilliant. But primarily we have come to see if there is some way we can help."

"Colonel, I think we had better get to the matter at hand", Hammond said then, giving a silent warning to his subordinate.

Jack nodded glumly, hating the whole situation but knowing he had little choice then to accept the Tokra's help – as much as that galled him.

"So Jack – what happened exactly?" Jacob asked. "George said that you were the one to explain in more detail. I understand that you happened onto one of Nirrti's labs?"

Jack shifted uncomfortably in his seat, really not wanting to have to explain again, especially with Anise sitting there flaunting her – Tokraness in his face. "Uh – well, Nirrti wasn't there."

"I know – she's dead. But her servants were, according to George."

"Oh yeah, they were there", the bastards, he said under his breath. He could tell by the way she moved that Anise had heard him. "We gated to the planet and C-" he looked up at that moment to see a panicked look on Carter's face and stopped himself. "And uh – I was kidnapped."

Jacob frowned. "You weren't hurt I hope?"

"No – well, not – no, I wasn't hurt. They just kept me tied up for a while."

"Jack!" Daniel said, giving him the eye. He turned to Jacob. "They had him for almost three weeks – tied to a table."

"Three weeks? What for?" Jacob looked at him sympathetically.

"They were collecting my – DNA", he said delicately. Jacob looked puzzled, but after a moment his eyes grew round.

"You mean they collected -"

"Your sperm?" Anise broke in, sounding her usual cold and objective self. "What did they want it for?"

Jack shifted again, wanting to get up and flee the room, but instead he glared at Jacob – who looked surprised by that when it was Anise who had spoken. "What do you think", growled Jack.

"I assume to test them for some reason, or to impregnate someone. Did they do that?"

"What? Test or impregnate?" he asked sarcastically. Hammond gave him a stern look.

"Either."

"No/yes", Jack and Daniel spoke at the same time.

"They did not impregnate anyone Daniel", Jack muttered.

"Okay – but they did fertilize human ova and create embryos which is about as close as you can get without actually having a woman – uh - ."

"What?" Jacob snapped, looking at Jack with a shocked expression. "You're telling me they created embryos?"

"Actually it was Daniel who told you", Jack answered smartly.

"But – why for god sakes?"

"We think it was to experiment on them and/or to create Hok'tar." Daniel jumped in again.

"Sons of bitches!" Jacob said. For some strange reason that made Jack feel a bit better.

"Yeah", Jack agreed, "they were."

"But – why do you need the Tokra? I'm assuming since you got away that everything is okay now. I mean, you look like hell, but you're walking around. You didn't suffer any – permanent damage?" Jacob asked uncomfortably.

"No – I'm okay", Jack muttered. "But the situation's not. One of the aliens escaped with the embryos – six of them to be exact."

"Escaped – oh God – and you think he plans to implant them in someone."

"Yeah, that's what we suspect." Jack looked directly at Jacob, a serious expression oh his face. "We have to stop him."

Jacob nodded, this time looking with sympathy at the man across the table. As much as he could act the fool, he knew that Jack was both smart and sensitive and this must be extremely painful for him. He suddenly had a thought. "Where did the ova come from?" He glanced at the members of Sg-1 and then at Hammond – and frowned as all of them stared blankly at him.

"Uh – does it really matter?" Jack asked. "It's my stuff that's the problem. I don't want any kid of mine becoming a host or a hok'tar." Jacob seemed to accept that but when Jack looked over at Anise he could see her eyes narrowed – and the speculative look she gave Carter. He coughed and when Anise glanced at him he glared at her and gave a tiny shake of his head. After a few seconds she nodded. She'd gotten his message and was willing to play along.

"So – you want us to go find this guy?" Jacob asked, missing the little interplay between his Tokra colleague and the Colonel.

"I want to find him", the Colonel said ominously. "But yeah, we need to know who he is and where he'd go."

"You saw these aliens?"

"Hell yeah – I was there for weeks. But better than that, we've got one of them."

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place! Let's go talk to him. The sooner we can get going and find the damn – uh, the embryos, the better. Sam, you coming?" Jacob spoke to his daughter as he stood up.

He hadn't seemed to notice how quiet she'd been, which had been a relief, although now he was looking at her in concern.

"Are you okay Sam? You look a little pale."

"I'm fine Dad – just a little tired. It's been a busy week."

"And knowing what you're like you were probably up day and night trying to find Jack."

"Hey Jacob", Jack said quickly, drawing Jacob's attention away from his daughter. "Come on, let's get going. I want to find this guy."

Jacob and the others followed Teal'c, who took them to the location where the alien was being held. Jacob frowned when he saw how much Jack was struggling to keep up. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah", Jack grimaced. "Just stiff."

"All that lying around getting samples taken", the older man teased.

Jack cracked a laugh. "Yeah right – a real holiday! Go ahead with Teal'c and Daniel. You don't have to wait for me. I'll be there in a few minutes. I want you to figure out who the guy is and where he would have gone."

"Alright", Jacob slapped him on the back. "and I'm sorry about what's happened Jack. I know this must be hard and I promise we'll find the guy."

"Thanks Jacob", his mouth twisted in a semblance of a smile.

"Sam – you coming?" her father said, again frowning when he saw how pale she was.

"I'll just wait on the Colonel Dad. I'll be right there."

He nodded and headed off with Teal'c. Anise had already gone, having hurried ahead with Daniel.

It was as Jack watched Anise disappear down the corridor with their resident archaeologist that Jack remembered that the symbiote had a thing for Daniel. He smirked – he definitely had the better deal with the host liking him.

"Sir?" Sam's voice broke him out of his naughty thoughts about the Tokra.

"Yeah Carter?" he stopped and regarded her, not liking how ill she looked. "Hey, you okay?"

"I'm fine Sir. Like I told my Dad, I'm just a bit tired. Uh – I wanted to thank you Colonel – for not saying anything to my father."

Jack gave a dramatic shudder. "Hey – self-preservation is all Carter. I was afraid your father would kill me if he found out."

She couldn't help the grin that removed the almost haunted look from her face. "Why would he kill you Sir? It's not like it was your fault."

"Carter, he's your father. Of course it would have been my fault. So you see – I kept it secret for me, because I'm a coward."

"Right!" she smiled and touched his arm. "Well, thank you for being a coward Sir. I really do appreciate it."

He grinned back at her and took a slow step forward. "Anytime Carter, although the next time you get to tell your father when aliens experiment on us!"

She giggled and continued on down the hall with him. How it was that he could make her laugh at times like this were beyond her.

By the time Jack arrived in the brig, Jacob was in the midst of a long conversation with the alien. Sam had made the decision to head back to her office. "Uh – just tell him to come and see me when he's done", she told the Colonel. "I'm afraid the alien might say something if I'm there."

"Now who's a coward Carter?" he smirked.

"Oh me Sir – I'm happy to admit it. My Dad can be scary."

"Great – now you tell me. Mind if I come with?"

"You'll be fine Sir. Just don't tell him that your – DNA – came anywhere near mine!" It was only as the words left her mouth that she realized how they'd sound. Before he had a chance to see her blush she'd turned around and headed back the way they'd come, Jack's laughter following her down the hallway.

"So – whadya find?" he asked the Tokra when he arrived.

"He is a Fraalite", Jacob answered. "They come from the planet Frabera which was – no surprise – under Nirrti's dominion. He says he was on the planet you gated to for close to twenty years – since he was a young man. He hasn't been back to his planet since then."

"And the other guy – the one who stole the embryos?"

"He used to be Nirrti's First Prime but I guess was demoted when he disobeyed her over something. Lucky she didn't kill him! Anyway, his name is Ra'mash and according to this guy he was hoping to regain her favor, which is why he stole the embryos."

Jack's brow crinkled into a frown. "He was taking them to her?"

"Traenda doesn't think so. He's pretty sure that Ra'mash wanted to take her an actual Hok'tar and so is in search of a – uh – surrogate, or maybe more than one."

"Crap! Does he think Ram-jet would go back to his home world?"

"No", Jacob shook his head. "He says not, and I tend to agree with him. The Fraalites are a small race – as you've seen – and their women are tiny. He would have to know that a – child – of yours could be pretty big, too big for one of their women. Unless of course the mother was small?"

Jack shrugged, making it look as if he didn't know. "So where does he think he may have gone?"

"Well, Nirrti had a number of planets under her control so he could have gone to any one of them."

"That doesn't do us much good", the Colonel said, sounding frustrated. "He must have some idea where he could be."

"If he does he's not saying. Look, Selmak and I are going to go back and check with some of the other Tokra and find out what other planets were held by Nirrti. We'll then do some research and see if we can narrow it down."

"How long is that going to take you?" Jack said fretfully. "We need to get going."

"Jack – you're not well enough to go anywhere right now. Rest up and we'll be back in a few days and then we can go. I'm sure it's going to take a while before he finds a suitable – surrogate. According to Traenda he wanted to find the perfect woman so he'll give it some time."

Jack nodded, knowing that there really wasn't anything else he could do or say.

Jake spoke a few more minutes to Traenda, at the end of which time he turned to Jack. "He said something else – something about having lost the perfect mother for the hok'tar. Any idea what he means?"

Jack shook his head. "No", was all he said.

Jacob nodded. "I'm just curious about who he meant", he said. "There weren't any women on the planet?"

"Jacob, all I saw was the ceiling of one room and two of the aliens."

"Yeah – okay. So, I'm gonna head back now Jack. I'll be in touch as soon as we discover anything."

"Kay. Thanks Jacob – oh, and you too Anise", he nodded at the Tokra woman who had been looking at something on some kind of computer tablet she'd brought with her.

"Colonel O'Neill", she bowed her head. "It was good to see you again."

"Yeah – uh – right. Nice – good luck", he finished lamely. He didn't like the woman and wasn't particularly good at dissembling.

"Where's Sam?" Jacob asked suddenly, realizing his daughter wasn't with them.

"She had to go to her lab to check on something", Jack improvised quickly. "Do you want to go and see her and say goodbye?"

"No – just tell her goodbye and I'll see her soon." Jacob frowned. "Is she still with that Pete?"

"Yeah", Jack nodded, not saying anything more. There really wasn't anything he could say.

Jacob gave him a strange look. "I wish she'd dump him", he muttered. With a sigh he collected Anise and headed out.

Jack watched as Jacob and Anise headed out the door towards the gate room. He certainly hoped the other man would be able to find something because Jack was feeling like he was about ready to tear his hair out.

Sam felt guilty for deceiving her father, but at the same time knew it was probably the smart thing to do. She loved him dearly– but he could also be a pain in the ass and she was very afraid he wouldn't have reacted well to the news.

"Hey Carter", the Colonel's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Sir?" She looked up to find him standing in her doorway. She glanced behind him but didn't see her father and wondered briefly where he could be. "Did my father find out anything?"

"A bit, although we still have no idea where the guy could have gone. He found out where he's from and Jacob and Selmak – oh, and Anise – have headed back to talk to some of the other Tokra and see if they can help figure out where he might have gone. Oh, he said to say goodbye and that he'd see you soon. He'll be back as soon as he has some information."

"But – we need to find this guy now. If we wait he could -"

"I know Carter", O'Neill answered, sounding as frustrated as she felt, "but there's really not much we can do now but wait. Jacob'll come through for us."

"He hasn't realized?" she asked softly.

"You mean about who the – uh – egg donor is?" Jack asked carefully. "No. I think he assumes they must have had them stored. I think Anise knows though."

Sam crinkled her nose in reply. "I hope she doesn't say anything", she sighed, although she didn't trust the Tokra woman.

"Carter – go home. You look exhausted. As soon as I hear anything, I'll let you know."

She nodded and watched as he left her office. She sighed again and stood up. It was time to head him and deal with Pete – something she wasn't looking forward to at all. She still didn't know if she was going to say anything to him but knew he at least deserved to have her spend time with him. She was going to marry him after all.

She hated he dread that suddenly washed over her.