REDEMPTION
by: PhoenixE
Feedback to: phoenix@prairie.ca

*****

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to
MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions.  This fan fiction was created solely
for entertainment purposes and no money was made from it.  Also, no copyright or trademark
infringement was intended.  Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and
not intended by the author.  Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the
property of the author.  Not to be archived without permission of the author(s).

*****

The seventh chevron locked, the dynamic, surging irresistible force that was the activated
wormhole roiled explosively toward him as if seeking to escape the confines of the looming
silver circle that contained it. That terrible beauty, so much power, just LOOK at it they were
MAD to think they could control this, never mind presume to understand it surely THIS time it
will break free of their arrogance and consume them all and just as it seems it MUST succeed….
It is - restrained.

Forced to heel, the seemingly unstoppable was snapped obediently back on the leash and
compelled to resolve itself into the placid, lightly shifting azure pool that was the
passageway between this world and – wonders untold. Daniel Jackson stood raptly before the
Stargate, looking with unabashed awe and a fair degree of reverence at a sight that few in this
world would ever be privileged to see. It had irrevocably changed his life – this Divine Circle
of Promethean Fire that they had dared to claim and had further presumed to profess to control.

Daniel Jackson knew that he held no such illusions about either ownership or mastery of the
cosmic magnificence before him. He also disavowed any claims to understanding as well.
Scientists such as Dr Samantha Carter might seek to chase the awe away with dry physics
dissertations that attempted to convert the magic into terms more acceptable to the scientific
mind, thereby disempowering all mysteries that challenged their limited view of the universe,
but words like 'superconductors' or 'matter streams' could not diminish the power of the arcane
portal for him. Nothing existed in this world that could not be explained within the confines
of the purview of science? That might be Sam's contention, but he knew differently. A year with
the people of Abydos had taught him that there was indeed such a thing as magic and that which
could not be explained.

Beyond this veil – here be wonders! Once again, he took a quiet but significant moment to allow
the awe to take him. Before him stood the potential to access marvels untold and the boundless
opportunity to experience them, but there was also a terrible responsibility implicit in the
same privilege. He renewed his vow to himself and to whatever power had caused him to be in
this place that he would never allow himself to become complacent about the gift he now enjoyed
or unmindful of the responsibility that accompanied it.

His 'pre-flight' ritual completed, Daniel began to ascend the ramp and was preparing to step
through the event horizon when his forward motion and reverie were both abruptly arrested by
the strident insertion of a sharp voice into his awareness.

*"Dr Jackson! Stand down!"*

The verbally identified unfortunate froze in his tracks, hung his head and let his shoulders
slump as he emitted a long and very weary sigh. He supposed it had been a bit too much too hope
for. That today was the day he was going to get away with not having to once again be the brunt
of Jack's frustration. All he wanted was one day free of the bulls-eye on his back. Just one
day. Twenty-four blessed hours all to himself without getting a verbal strip peeled off his
already-far-too-abused hide by Colonel O'Neill. Since he had formally become a part of SG-1
just over a month ago and therefore a member of the aforementioned Colonel O'Neill's team and
therefore by default fair game (or so it seemed) – again, for said Colonel – Daniel Jackson had
not known a single day's peace.

It wasn't a lot to ask for. At least, he didn't think so. Just a small respite from the
increasingly worsening verbal storm. That was all he wanted. Really. Except for maybe a pony.
*'Who am I kidding?' * Daniel thought to himself. '*Right now, if I thought there were any
takers I would sell my soul rather than turn around.' *

He hesitated, waiting in absurd expectation. Nothing happened. The heavens did not open to
pluck him to safety and deliver him from the coming storm, nor was there any action from the
other direction. Too late, you had your chance, offer withdrawn. Nothing for it but to turn
around and get pasted. Again.

"Just kidding about the pony," Daniel muttered to the universe as he took a fortifying breath
and forced himself to face his nemesis.

The expression on the Colonel's face definitely gave Daniel cause to believe he had much to
dread. Full military mode, his snapping eyes promising a world of hurt to some poor
unfortunate. Oh, that would be him.

*Someone please, just SHOOT me!*

O'Neill glowered menacingly at him for a few seconds more, then held up a hand to cock a
beckoning finger in his direction.

"Front and centre, Professor," O'Neil's clipped, military tones reverberated through the gate
room. He reversed the beckoning finger, pointing meaningfully at the spot of floor directly
beneath the field of his scathing vision.

As she stood beside Teal'c and watched the latest version of the oft-repeated tableau beginning
to unfold before them yet again, Capt. Samantha Carter could not help but feel no small measure
of compassion for SG-1's official Whipping Boy. At least, that is what they were starting to
call the unfortunate archaeologist 'below decks', along with a few other equally unflattering
epithets. Some of them were barely fit to repeat in mixed company.

To say that Daniel Jackson was having a bit of a problem 'fitting in' was like saying - oh,
just pick an appropriate simile for disaster and slot it in, it still wouldn't make it any less
than the understatement of the century. If you looked in the encyclopedia under the heading
'totally lacking in social/people skills' there would be a picture of Daniel Jackson. The man
was the absolute epitome of awkward in every sense of the word. He wandered about the complex
enveloped in an insulating cocoon of – whatever it was that was going through his head at the
moment. He made no effort to join in, to participate, to be 'one of the guys'. Thrown into the
midst of an organization that was built on teamwork and the interconnectedness and smooth
functioning of all of its constituent parts, Daniel was not only a fish out of water, he was a
fish out of water riding a bicycle. Badly. As a part of the ultimate team that absolutely
demanded that all its members be players, Daniel Jackson hadn't even managed to make waterboy.

And yet, if you stopped there, and judged the man solely on those criteria, you did him a grave
disservice. Sam had read his dossier. She had even tracked down some of his papers. His work
was obscure and not very popular but it was out there if you took the time to look. Which she
did. A little trick her father had taught her. Find out everything you can about the people you
serve with. Some day your life might be riding on one of them and it was a good thing to know
what sort of stuff they were really made of.

Given the rather esoteric nature of the subject matter, Sam had been quite surprised to find
that Dr Jackson's papers were both extremely readable and comprehensible. His passion for his
work was patently obvious, and that excitement about and obvious respect for his subject
infused his writings and quite successfully transmitted the enthusiasm of the author to the
reader. Completely, conspicuously absent from all his writing was the usual academic
grandstanding and intellectual posturing that all too frequently made wading through a 'serious
work' so incredibly tedious. Daniel did not give a fig if you thought he was brilliant – which
he manifestly was. He wanted you to know what he had discovered, what fired his creative spirit
and intellectual curiosity. He wanted to inform, impart, educate, enthrall, but most of all he
wanted to share.

Sam had had some experience of the hoary halls of academia herself, and after she had read his
work and then met the man himself she could only shake her head sadly and think to herself, 'Oh
my, you poor wee lamb in the midst of all those wolves. No wonder they ate you alive…'

And now it would seem that history was repeating itself. In coming to the SGC it appeared that
all Dr Jackson had accomplished was to merely jump from one frying pan to another. Wouldn't you
know it, it looks as if the Colonel is about to turn up the heat…

Daniel walked meekly down the ramp and stood before the Colonel on the spot he had indicated.
Sam continued to watch, completely unaware that she was holding her breath. There was something
different about this particular confrontation. Something a little more serious. She found
herself becoming unaccountably afraid for the suddenly extremely vulnerable looking young man.
Mentally hearkening back to her former 'lamb' among wolves analogy also made her extremely
uncomfortable.

She'd done her homework about Colonel O'Neill as well. His name had been inextricably linked
with the Stargate Program for as long as she had become aware of it and during her campaign to
become assigned to the project she had encountered at least three people who had lost a
sizeable amount of money when he had come back from the Abydos mission alive.

Given what she had heard about him she was not so sure which way she would have put her money.

She was even less sure the more she came to know about him through serving with him.

It was nothing she could put her finger on. The Colonel was a consummate soldier. No worries on
that score. As highly trained, competent and dedicated as they come. He had shown himself to be
an intelligent and capable leader, a clever and astute tactician and not above taking the
slightly calculated risk when the situation called for it. He seemed to be everything that
would inspire unshakable trust and confidence in his subordinates and yet, there was something…

Teal'c knew it as well. Not that they had ever talked about it. Not in so many words. Something
was not right with the Colonel. It was there. She knew it, but didn't know what it was,
couldn't prove it but one thing she did know for sure, whatever it was, something about Daniel
Jackson set it off.

Something else she had no doubt of. When the excrement finally hit the fan somebody in this
room would be very lucky if he wasn't buried alive. That was if she and Teal'c stood back and
did nothing. Just let it happen.

She cast a veiled look at the massive black man beside her who stood as resolutely still as if
he was carved out of stone, his arms crossed gravely across his chest. His face was impassive.
Unreadable. However, he did seem to be aware of her covert scrutiny, for he slowly swiveled his
head toward her and affixed her with a steady look that clearly conveyed its meaning to her.

*We must do something about this.*

Amen, Big Guy, she shot back at him.

However, further planning had to wait. Before them, the show was about to begin.

"Colonel O'Neill," Daniel said in a pleasant, open voice, blinking owlishly from behind his
glasses and beaming him one of his broad, ingenuous smiles. He couldn't have looked anymore
like the classic – nerd – if he had studied the part for weeks. All he lacked was the word
'victim' branded on his forehead.

Sam cringed. '*Oh GEEZ Daniel, at least make an EFFORT to play the game! You're being called
onto the carpet, not being asked to tea. Wipe off the grin and TRY to look – serious…'*

"Dr Jackson, if I may ask... *WHERE IS YOUR SIDEARM*?"

Daniel looked him straight in the eye. The man had guts even if he wasn't too people-smart.

Without warning Daniel suddenly snapped to attention as smartly as if he had been to the manner
born. He tilted his head back filled his lungs with a painfully audible intake of breath and
belted out "Begging the Colonel's pardon, SIR, but I expect it's still in the weapons locker,
SIR!"

Sam was seized by an almost irresistible desire to giggle, which she instantly, ruthlessly
killed. She also found herself wondering what kind of flowers Daniel would like for the
graveside…

*****

Teal'c thoughts appeared to be running in a similar direction. His comment was intentionally
pitched so low that it was audible only to her, but hear it she did.

"It would seem that I will soon be becoming acquainted with your world's burial rituals."

Sam did not trust herself to either look at him or reply.

The two men stood almost nose to nose, certainly eye to eye. For a moment neither moved nor
spoke. Daniel was not enjoying his front row seat to his own execution in the slightest. Part
of his brain could not fail but register the dangerous, almost murderous fire in the eyes of
the man before him. The other part was trying to figure out exactly what had possessed him to
do what he had just done. He was not the type generally given to waving red flags in front of
bulls, being a firm proponent of and practicer of the belief that avoidance was the better part
of valor. What you were not messing with could not reach around and bite you on the ass.

However, it could be argued that what you were running away from… could…

*Jack… why are we doing this? Why do you hate me so much? What have I done? Just – TELL me
what's wrong and I'll fix it…*

Just as suddenly as the words formed in his mind, he knew the reason. The heavens parted, the
divine light of inspiration streamed down from above, the freakin' light bulb went on and he
wanted to run around the gate room hitting himself over the head with something very hard while
yelling STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID.

A piece of information that had detached itself from a half-heard conversation in passing and
had decided to hitch a ride in the conveyance of his background thoughts had just picked its
moment to pull itself out of the mental filing system and dance around in front of his inner
eye screaming "lookatme, lookatme!"

He looked. More than that, he suddenly understood. The Rosetta stone was nothing compared to
the ultimate key to the puzzle that just made itself known to him.

*This changes things. I'm sorry, Jack. I've done you a disservice. I forgot… I'm not the only
one who's alone now…*

Daniel shook himself free from his mockery of the posture assumed with pride and meaning by
those who followed the code also fiercely upheld by the man before him. He felt ashamed for
making light of that which was so important to Jack. Admittedly he had paid little attention to
Jack's efforts to make him 'more military.' There was a very good reason for that; he did not
have the slightest interest in being military. What he wanted to be – was Jack's friend. He
felt himself in sore need of a friend now that everything was gone.

He still could not believe that Sha'uri and Skaara were… gone. Still could not take it in. It
was a bad dream and he would wake up from it soon. He would.

That shining year in Abydos had been the happiest year of his life. He had found a home,
acceptance, and a love that still made his heart ache to think of it. But most of all, he had
found himself. Sha'uri's love had enabled him to reclaim parts of himself he had thought gone
forever. He had never felt happier, more fulfilled or more at peace with who and what he was.

It had been the strangest thing, though. There had been something, now and again. A funny
feeling that would well up within him, whenever he would think of Jack O'Neill. He remembered
the circumstances of their parting quite vividly, standing there watching as Jack turned to
look at him, that one last time – the very last time Daniel thought he would ever see him, as
far as he knew then.

"Be seeing you around, Dr Jackson," Jack said to him, and then walked through the Stargate and
out of his life. Jack's passage left a curious void inside him that he did not understand but
could do nothing about, so he put it aside. Time passed, life with Sha'uri was sweet, it should
have been sufficient. Well, it was, except for a strange, unanswerable curiosity that began to
form within him. Curiosity about Jack. Wondering about his life, what had happened to him since
they had parted. It was a frustrating curiosity, for Daniel had no way of satisfying it, no way
of knowing how Jack was faring on the other side of the universe and the lack of that knowledge
began to bother him more and more as time went by.

He spent many hours thinking about Jack. Hoping that he had been able to build on the seeds of
new hope that his adventures in Abydos had planted within him. Hoping that Jack had gone home
and had managed to pick up the pieces of his life. Hoping that Jack and Sara were as happy as
he and Sha'uri.

It seemed that none of these hopes had come true for Jack. It seemed that neither one of them
would now know the bliss of lying in the circle of love formed by the arms of their beloved.
And it also seemed, to one who knew what to look for to know for, that having to live with this
loss hurt Jack as much as it hurt him.

Hurt? Hurt? Oh God, what a small word for such a bottomless well of suffering. At first he did
not know how he would survive without the help of the only arms that he thought could comfort
him, but he slowly became aware that for whatever reason – he didn't know why, but part of
Daniel's gift was knowing how to accept without questioning – being around Jack made him feel
better. Maybe it was because of the former bond forged in the confrontation with Ra, maybe it
was because of their mutual loss, he didn't know and he didn't waste a lot of time trying to
figure it out, he just – went with it.

Being around Jack helped it hurt less. Didn't matter what was happening between them, just
being in the same room was enough. He had tagged along, become of part of SG-1, Jack's team,
one of the group but not really a part of what was going on, hugging the background of Jack's
reality, content to be there without needing to draw attention to himself, using the gift of
peace that Jack's presence gave him and things were getting better.

However, it seemed he was having quite the opposite effect on Jack. While Jack brought him
peace, he seemed to be constantly inciting the Colonel to violence, just by existing.

So, what else was new?

He did not want to hurt Jack. Did not want to seem as if he was disrespectful of what was
important to him. He did not mean through selfish disinterest in the training Jack had tried to
impart to him to seem as if he was disdaining the gift or the giver. He just hadn't realized
how seriously Jack took all this stuff. Hell, if it really was that important to him, he'd
learn to juggle teacups if it meant that Jack would forgive him and let him be his friend
again.

Or *ever*, even….

Unfortunately, in failing to give Jack what he most wanted from him - respect for and
dedication to the goal of making a 'man' out of him, he had pretty much euchred whatever slim
chance he might have had of achieving that increasingly unlikely objective.

It was in that instant of comprehending that he and Jack O'Neill might very well never ever
find a way to get along that Daniel realized just how MUCH he wished this was not so. He could
remember few other things he had every wanted more.

*I've been a fool. A myopic, pea-brained, head in my ass up to my navel moron. Pull up your
socks, Daniel and get with the program, already. Maybe it isn't too late.*

"I'm sorry, Colonel, I know I was supposed to draw a weapon, but I just thought – we're going
to P7J-843 to go to a wedding, not to shoot bad guys. I didn't see why I *needed* one…

One look at the implacable anger in Jack's black eyes and the rest of the sentence died in his
throat. This is going to be bad. This is going to be really, really bad.

"You thought – did you? Did you? Did you 'think', Dr Jackson, for one instant? Did you use that
prodigious intellect you are supposed to possess, to THINK what would happen to the members of
your team if we found ourselves in a situation where we needed you to back us up and you
COULDN'T, because you didn't THINK that you needed a weapon?" Jack's voice was so low as to be
practically inaudible, but he was almost choking with rage. His jaw was clenched so tightly
that Daniel was sure it had to shatter at any second from the strain of the forces it was being
subjected to.

Suddenly Jack lunged forward, grabbed two handfuls of Daniel's shirtfront and almost hauled him
off his feet. Fists firmly balled in the material of Daniel's uniform, the enraged Colonel
shook the young man with all the fury and intensity of a wild dog savaging some hapless thing
it has decided to rend limb from limb. As he shook him, he also let fly a tirade of abuse in
his best parade square volume voice.

"You listen to me you useless, sniveling, four-eyed sorry excuse for a walking-around sack of
SHIT! You don't deserve to wear this uniform and believe you me, if I wasn't wearing mine I'd
make you EAT it! When you were ALLOWED to join this organization, this MILITARY organization,
you were informed that certain conditions would apply to you. Conditions that you AGREED to
abide by. Not the LEAST of which was your agreement to learn certain techniques and to adhere
to certain procedures which would allow you to act in a way, when you were deployed in an
action with this team under MY command, that would NOT cause you to be a danger to your fellow
team members, and to yourself."

Sam took an involuntary step forward when she saw the Colonel beginning to manhandle Daniel.
She glanced at Teal'c and then cast her eyes hurriedly up to the Control Room that overlooked
the gate room. She knew that General Hammond was up there and she desperately hoped that he was
not watching what was going on on the ramp in front of the Stargate.

The Colonel had crossed the line and if the General saw him roughing up Daniel like that his
ass was grass. At this moment Daniel was well within his rights to press charges. The Colonel
was inches from the hatless quick march into the CO's office for that lovely verbal reprimand.
Or a whole lot worse.

"Well, here we are, Doctor Jackson, the Colonel continued, lowering his voice a little but not
the man to whom he was speaking, " a month or so down the road and you have YET to do what you
SAID you would do. You have refused to learn these techniques, you have not BOTHERED to learn
or follow these procedures, you have not seen FIT to do ANYTHING by the book and as a
consequence you have been a constant liability to this team – a liability I do NOT intend to
put up with much longer. As of this moment I am putting you on notice, Doctor. You WILL get it
together and you WILL do it my way or so help me I'll pack your bags for you and shove them up
your ass as I throw you off the fraggin' mountain!"

Thank God! The General was no where in sight. Something that was happening on the other side of
the room seemed to be drawing the attention of the duty personnel. No one had seen. There was
still time to haul the Colonel off Daniel and get everybody calmed down. She looked imploringly
at Teal'c.

The aforementioned officer was on the point of dragging the unfortunate archaeologist across
the gate room, this time by the back of his collar, in order to refresh his memory as to the
location of the weapons locker and the proper procedure for procuring the sidearm he currently
was lacking.

"Colonel O'Neill,"

Teal'c's deep, powerful voice pierced the envelope of Jack's anger by the effectiveness of its
utter novelty in the situation. As the ebon warrior spoke, he trained the full force of his
steadying gaze upon the man he was seeking to reach, compelling him to listen to him and to
look at him.

"Colonel O'Neill, we should go.

That was all he said. That was all he needed to say.

Suddenly, his anger spent, Jack was back. Where that rage had come from, he did not know, but
seeing what he had done reflected back at him in the expressions on Sam and Teal'c's faces did
not make him feel especially proud to be who he was at the moment.

He could not even look at Daniel.

A wave of complete and utter self-loathing ripped through him. In an effort to escape it and to
put as much distance as he could as quickly as he could between himself and any reminder of
what he had just done Jack wheeled abruptly, dragging Daniel behind him so violently that he
almost caused him to stumble and fall. Ruthlessly he propelled the archaeologist up the ramp
and then without pausing placed his hands on the small of his back and shoved him through the
gate. Hard. The evidence disposed of; Jack then turned on the witnesses.

He jabbed a finger at them and opened his mouth to say – he didn't know what. Something in his
defense? There was nothing he could say to defend his behavior. Nothing at all.

He expelled a weary breath and waved them through.

"Just – go. See if he's okay. I'll be right behind you. In a minute."

Teal'c inclined his head and strode past him, into the blue. Carter was on his heels. As she
passed the Colonel she tried to catch his eye, to smile encouragingly at him, but he would
permit himself no such luxuries at the moment.

He wasn't quite ready to allow anyone to forgive him just yet.

*After giving Sam and Teal'c a few minute's head start, Jack finally turned and entered the
Stargate. Just before he was briefly no more he thought wryly. "Geez, I'm gonna be a BARREL of
laughs at this party…"*

*****

His first trip on this cosmic fun-house ride had not been his most favorite thing ever done,
but since then Daniel had seriously revised his opinion of the wormhole experience. Far from
being repelled by the idea of being disassembled and shot down a tube to be thrown back
together at the other end, Daniel found that the concept rather appealed to his deeply latent
daredevil sensibilities. Daniel knew full well that if he had been blessed with a little more
coordination he could have afforded to have vented those reckless impulses more overtly in this
lifetime. And would have. As it was, he had bowed to the wisdom of the maxim 'know thyself',
opting to value self preservation over self gratification and thereby deciding to leave such
activities as sky-diving, hang-gliding and driving fast cars to those individuals who would
doubtless have better odds at surviving them than he would. Still, he was quite sure that the
need to feel the breath of danger on the back of his neck, even subtly, was largely what had
been responsible for driving him to travel all over the world in search of what man had once
been, done and known. The draw to danger was at least as ultimately irrepressible to him as his
boundless curiosity and his driving thirst for knowledge and understanding.

Faced with the choice of being able to pick only one word from the lexicon of all the words he
had ever learned how to utter in every tongue he had ever learned to speak as the only word he
would ever be allowed to say – ever – there was only one word he would select, without
hesitation or regret.

*Why*.

The theorists had not been able to come up with a satisfactory explanation for the 'why' that
he was enjoying right now. If it was, as they said, one made the trip from one side of the
wormhole to the other in gazillions of little bitty pieces, how was it that one's awareness and
sense of self remained – intact?

In short, how could you be both a jigsaw puzzle and completely self-aware and conscious at the
same time?

He didn't know either, but he certainly enjoyed the experience. Almost as much as he enjoyed
watching them try to explain it and fail.

Right now, if he had been given the answer that everyone else sought, he could have cared less.

Daniel spread arms he should not have been aware of having so as to better fly upon the wings
of the universe and far away from what had just happened behind him. Though his head knew why
what had been said had in fact been said, his heart did not seem to have the comfort of that
knowledge. It knew only that another was in pain, terrible, terrible pain, and that something
had to happen to change that. Soon.

Daniel did not feel badly for himself. **What** had been said was not what moved him to action.
While there was no question that Jack was an unsurpassed master of verbal inventiveness and
expression, **what **had just been said to him back there really was not the worst he had ever
been called. The most original, perhaps, but certainly not the worst. No, it was not the what.
It was the **why **…

Another 'why'. Another one to add to the long list of the 'whys' that had happened to him and
as a consequence of having done so caused him to become what he was.

Many years ago, the biggest 'why' of all had happened. It was this one that he now remembered
as he thought about what had just passed between him and Jack, for even though both events were
separated by many years and many, many more 'whys', this big one was the one he now turned to,
for it was the one that defined what he was and directed what he needed to do.

On that day he had seen a thing that no one should ever have to see, whether they were eight,
or eight hundred. Seeing it had hurt him almost to the point of killing him, but much to his
surprise, he discovered that not only had he survived, but that as a consequence of not only
seeing but also surviving, he was no longer the same.

He saw the world very differently from the way it had appeared to him before the 'why' had
changed everything. What was more, as a result of this fundamental shift in his perceptions he
felt compelled to respond to what now happened to him in a way that never would have occurred
to him when he was unchanged.

What that 'why' had brought him was the wisdom that comes as a result of intense suffering. To
know pain is to be have your eyes opened, to be made aware of its existence all around you in
ways that will not permit you to continue to go through life oblivious to the suffering of
others as you once were able to do before you knew better. That insight also forms within you
an intense resolve never to knowingly or deliberately *cause* another to suffer. Or to stand by
and do nothing in the face of the suffering of another.

Well, at least it did to him. He had been young, the pain had been intense, the understanding
did not come all at once, but when it did he had made a vow to live his life according to the
dictates of that wisdom and awareness, a vow that he had adhered to and lived by every single
subsequent day of his life.

He had never broken it, never fallen away from what it demanded of him, never not done whatever
it had required of him. Keeping it had even gotten him killed once.

Oddly enough, that had happened saving the life of the same man who now needed him to keep it
again.

Well, keep it, he would. To the jaws of death and beyond, Jack. If that was what it took…

He'd ridden Wormhole Transit often enough now to be able to gauge when they were about to pull
into the station. Or maybe in his case the more accurate analogy would be, more often than not,
about to be hurled AT the station…

He was passing the remaining few seconds amusing himself wondering if there was anyway he could
talk the Quartermaster into making knee and elbow pads part of the standard equipment issue
(helmets were already covered) when he suddenly stiffened as a strange, rippling electric
current sang through him. Not unpleasantly, but definitely noticeably.

* Whoa! This is new! Not sure if I should be worried or simply enjoy it while it lasts…*

But it seemed as if there was no more time. He was about to come to the end of the line. Too
late he remembered that due to the 'introductory momentum' Jack's shove had provided his soon-
to-be-reintegrated-and-moving-faster-than-usual particles, there was very little chance that he
was going to come out the other side either on his feet or in any way – gracefully.

*So much for dignity. He fervently hoped that the reception party had not assembled at the gate
yet. Just once he would have liked if these people could have seen him make an 'entrance' that
did not present him upside down, sideways or ass over teakettle*

*Guess that day is not going to be today*

Resigned to his fate he arrived, sailed out the other side of the gate successfully reassembled
and frankly air-borne as expected, described a graceful arc through the air, rolled and hit the
ground in a tangle of limbs and then continued to tumble down a long flight of stairs that were
not supposed to be there to finally land flat on his back spread-eagled, staring up at the
ceiling of a room that very obviously was not the Stargate clearing on P7J-843.

* Aw, for cryin' out loud, Toto, what the hell did you do with Kansas?*

Braced as he was for the fair skies and equally fair damsels of P7J-843 Jack was completely
unprepared for the sight that greeted him upon his emergence from the event horizon of the
destination wormhole. Instead of fresh air, sunshine, lotsa trees and a band of happy people
about to take him somewhere where he could hopefully get roaring drunk and oblivious to
everything for a few hours, Jack found himself in a large metal box.

Okay, so it was a room, but there didn't seem to be any way in or out of it except the way they
had come in so that pretty much fit his definition of a box thank you very much.

He and the Stargate appeared to be standing on a wide stone platform that topped a long flight
of stone stairs that along with the DHD in the middle of the room pretty much seemed to be all
that was in here. Four walls all 'round. Floor below, ceiling above, all accounted for and
apparently all composed of some kind of dully gleaming silver metal This stuff was pretty
uniformly – blank, except for the section of the wall directly across from the gate. That wall
was floor to ceiling side to side covered in some kind of writing and inscriptions. He was too
far away to make out any real details, but that was Daniel's territory anyway, wasn't it…

* Daniel… I didn't mean…*

Looking down he saw the object of his shame. Somehow Daniel had ended up on the floor at the
bottom of the stairs. Jack realized with a kind of a sick rush he had a pretty good idea
exactly how THAT had come about. It was all right, though, Sam and Teal'c were at his side,
helping him to his feet, checking and verifying that there was no harm done.

* No physical harm…*

Jack stood there, still not moving, still not feeling as if he deserved to join the others as
he watched Daniel dust himself off, grin sheepishly at Sam and Teal'c, then tilt his head and
look up at him.

* Here it comes. Whatever he says, however much he despises me, it's still not nearly as much
as I deserve.*

Daniel looked at him up with eyes as clear and far bluer than those of the skies Jack had
expected to see upon arrival. Those eyes lit up when they alighted upon him, and he waved up at
Jack while flashing him an enormous and entirely honest smile that made his face literally
shine with enthusiasm.

"Hi Colonel! You're not going to believe this, but I don't think I got a single bruise!"

Just as suddenly, the burst of youthful enthusiasm was interrupted by a burst of youthful
confusion as where they were finally registered on Daniel.

"Oh wow – this isn't P7J-843 at all, is it does anybody know where we are wait a minute, what's
this…" His voice trailed off as his eyes came to alight on the inscribed wall behind him. All
other considerations immediately fell to the wayside as Daniel rushed toward the location of
the latest mystery that had grabbed his attention.

Braced for the rejection and condemnation he knew had to come, Jack was completely unprepared
for what Daniel had offered up to him in its stead. Daniel's friendly and affectionate greeting
slammed into Jack as viscerally as if someone had delivered an actual blow to his solar plexus.
Only years of self-discipline enabled him to restrain himself from clutching his middle and
doubling over in response to the perceived pain. Although it was not real, it might as well
have been.

* Again, springing unbidden, unwanted, white-hot from that place where all that was the worst
of him was hidden the rage. Unreasoning anger… not supposed to forgive… why won't you hate me –
what do I have to DO to you to get you to hateme…*.

With the resurgence of the rage came a sudden image. His fists in Daniel's shirt, as before,
slamming him up against one of those pristine metal walls again and again until the surface
behind his head was wet, slick and red…

With a shuddering gasp of horror Jack banished the image and struggled to push the anger back
down into the box. Okay, now he was getting scared. Daniel might be annoying but reacting THIS
way was going *waayyyy* over the top. Time to get a grip on himself and pretend to be a leader
of men.

* Stay away from him, don't even look at him, just do the job, don't think about any of it
andeverythingwillbefine…*

Jack pasted his very best 'forcryingoutloud' look on his face and started to stride down the
stairs while barking, "Carter! Do you have *any* idea why I am not standing on P7J whatever
with a drink in my hand?"

The woman addressed immediately left off of her sweep of the wall to the left and strode
smartly to join him when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Well, yes, sir, " she answered curtly. "It can only be for one of two reasons."

He emitted an impatient sigh and made a 'give me more' gesture with his right hand.

"Which would be…*what*? Exactly?

Carter flushed a little, suddenly feeling very insecure under the weight of the Colonel's
glare. This really was turning out to be a really bad day…

"Well sir," she began, the words tumbling out a little too quickly in her nervousness. The gate
appeared to be functioning normally on both ends and there also did not appear to be any
anomalous phenomena in the wormhole itself –"

Jack pulled a face. "*English*, Captain, if you would be so kind."

Carter took another deep breath and continued on, still not trusting herself to look directly
at the man she was addressing.

"Sir, if there has been no malfunction of the equipment and yet we still are not where we are
supposed to be then logically it can only be because either the destination was misdialed – "

"And we all know that is not what occurred," Teal'c supplied gravely, coming up to Carter's
side to give her some moral support.

"Okay Captain, so what's behind door number two?

Feeling much more confident with the imposing Jaffa at her side Sam at last was able to look
her Commanding Officer in the eye as the dissertation continued on much firmer ground.

"The only other possible explanation is that somehow something interfered with the matter
stream. Diverted it somehow. I don't know how, but that is what must have happened. It's the
only other thing that could have happened."

Jack pursed his lips in disgust and took a few steps away from the pair before turning back to
them and replying.

"Well, THAT gets us exactly… nowhere." He turned and began to walk away from them once more,
trying as he might not to get pulled toward Daniel as he began to pace the room assessingly.

"You guys been all over these walls? Any signs of any openings? Cracks? Doors? Windows?
Anything at all that looks like anything that opens or closes?"

"There is no detectable way to leave this place. I looked very carefully to see if there was. I
was unable to succeed."

"Good enough for me, Teal'c. There is absolutely no way to go get in or out of this – space.
Therefore what you are telling me is that we are in a really big empty sealed – box."

Teal'c eyes did not waver from his. His expression did not alter in the slightest, nor was
there any change in his voice.

"That is correct, Colonel O'Neill."

Jack frowned and took a few more steps towards Daniel's side of the room. As he turned back
once again to Carter and Teal'c he allowed himself to glance at the young linguist out of the
corner of his eye.

Daniel was staring raptly at the inscriptions on the wall before him, an expression of pure
bliss on his face. Whatever he was looking at, he was completely – gone. Like as not had
totally forgotten there was anyone else in the room.

Jack suddenly felt an urgent need to get the hell outta Dodge. He wasn't sure what it was.
Claustrophobia, some obscure premonition of doom, or just not liking the idea that someone had
yanked a chain and brought them here for some reason he probably didn't want to know about.
Whatever it was, he wasn't going to ignore it.

"Okay kids, can anybody think of any good reason why we shouldn't just blow this Popsicle stand
right here and now?"

No response. They were learning.

"Right answer! All right, Captain, what say you hit the ole Dial Home Device and figure out how
to get us to the party. " He started to stride toward the last member of their team as he said,
slightly louder than he intended,

"Daniel! Come on now, we're going!"

Daniel whirled at the sound of Jack's voice, a shocked expression on his face. He looked up,
saw Carter about to touch the key that would activate the first chevron, a look of alarm
registering clearly upon his features. The second he saw what she was doing he started to bolt
toward her, gesturing for her to listen to him, a shout ripping from him.

"No! Sam, DON'T! Don't TOUCH it!"

The three things happened almost simultaneously.

Daniel's trajectory brought him up even with Jack even as he stumbled and would have fallen if
Jack had not caught him.

Sam keyed in the first chevron on the Dial Home Device…

The floor directly beneath Jack and Daniel disappeared: locked together the two men dropped out
of sight with frightening and silent swiftness and then just as quickly as it had been taken
away, the patch of floor that had betrayed them reappeared to seal off the secret of where they
had gone.

*****

It was while Teal'c had been considering the problem of Colonel O'Neill and Daniel Jackson and
consequently surreptitiously observing them both during his reconnaissance of the room that he
noticed the strange, faint golden nimbus that appeared to surround them both.

The concern for their two teammates evidenced by Captain Carter was also shared by the looming
man from another world who had forsaken everything he loved and knew because of his faith in a
man who now seemed to be on the verge of betraying all the trust that had been placed in him.

In the brief time that SG-1 had been a reality and he had carried out the duties that his new
loyalties required of him, Teal'c had observed much that was highly commendable in all of his
new companions in arms. Simply because the ways of these passionate and brave Tau'ri were
different than his own it did not mean there was any less merit or purpose in their activities.

The Colonel was *not * unworthy of the place he had claimed as their leader, of the
responsibility he had assumed, of the promise he had made to serve his world and protect it.
However, for some reason he was choosing to believe that he was. He was further allowing that
mistaken belief to lead him into behaving in ways that agreed more with the lie the man
believed than the truth the man was.

No doubt that was one reason why the Colonel could not bear to look into the eyes of Daniel
Jackson. Teal'c had passed his entire life in service to Apophis largely in the company of
other warriors, and what he had come to know, believe and be as a result of this conditioning
definitely had not prepared him to encounter a soul as extraordinary as the one possessed by
Daniel Jackson.

Daniel Jackson was one of those rare ones the higher powers put in the midst of the far less
enlightened, as a proof to all who needed such instruction and such examples that there was a
better way. A living embodiment of the universal principles all should seek to live by and most
seldom do. Somehow, these souls were special. They were fashioned knowing, without a doubt,
that there were higher laws that had to be obeyed, nobler purposes to be aspired to, and a
right way that was always there if you took the time to look for it and sincerely desired to
find it. Their path was hard; they paid a high price to walk it and an even higher price for
their integrity, and they were seldom appreciated and even less seldom loved.

For when you look into the eyes of truth you will see something

What you make of what you learn will depend on what you are willing to accept.

And give up.

Colonel O'Neill had not yet reached the place where he was willing to give up what he needed to
surrender in order to be able to accept what Daniel Jackson offered him.

The more he considered the problem, the less certain Teal'c became that there was anything
either he or Captain Carter could do to intervene. As much as they might wish to help it was
becoming very clear to the Jaffa warrior that the situation between Colonel O'Neill and Daniel
Jackson was a fated one, and their further progress along this lifepath depended upon what
happened between them in the next little while, for good or bad. The life debt between them
dictated that the resolution of their conflict was in their hands alone.

Teal'c had given the matter much thought. He had great respect for the Colonel, even yet, but
he had reached a decision concerning his own course of action in all of this.

He would not allow Daniel Jackson to be harmed.

That particular soul was too much needed by this world and countless others to be taken from
any of them yet.

He would not allow Daniel Jackson to be harmed, no matter what protecting him required him to
do in the man's defense.

No matter who he had to be protected against.

He barely had time to notice the anomalous auras when any further speculation as to their
nature or origin was terminated by Daniel Jackson's shout of alarm. Only a heartbeat later the
two men vanished, clutching each other tightly as they plummeted from view, the light that
surrounded them seeming to blaze that much brighter now that they were one.

"Colonel! Daniel!" Sam shrieked as she bolted across the small expanse of the room to the place
where her teammates had formerly been standing. She threw herself to her knees on the sullen
silver surface, balled her fist and pounded desperately but completely ineffectually upon the
barrier.

As her fists hammered on the seamless substance that mocked her efforts to penetrate it she
called out "Colonel! Sir? Can you hear me? Daniel? Are you all right?"

Teal'c reached her side, bent down and put a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder.

"Captain Carter," he said lowly. "You should stop now. Your efforts will not meet with success
and there is a possibility you could injure yourself for no good cause."

Sam whirled and flashed stricken eyes upon him. They were wide with concern with the slightest
hint that there were tears waiting close by if only she would give them leave to report for
duty. However it was clear from the force of her breathing and the determined set of her jaw
that she would not allow that to happen.

Soldiers don't cry. How many times had her father told her that.

"Teal'c, we have to do SOMETHING! We have to find them - have to help them."

"I agree," the Jaffa intoned grimly as he extended a hand to her, inviting her to rise to her
feet with his assistance. "However, I am not sure if there is any way that we can do this.
Perhaps the radio -"

Radio! Sam cursed herself for being an emotional fool. Why hadn't she thought of that? That's
what she got for reacting instead of thinking.

She reached into the top pocket of her vest and keyed the transmitter as she withdrew the
instrument, breathing a supplication to whomever, just in case.

Please let me reach them.

Please let them be able to answer.

"Colonel? Colonel, can you hear me? Daniel, are you there? Are you all right? Does anyone read
me? Over"

Long, agonizing seconds and they were rewarded with only silence. Her eyes never leaving the
strong ones of the large man beside her, Sam held the radio in a slightly trembling hand, her
grip tightening on it convulsively as she willed it to make a sound. Just when she was about to
raise it to her mouth once again to make yet another urgent entreaty for some sort of answer
the device in her hand squawked and yielded up a slightly scratchy version of a shaky, but very
blessedly familiar voice.

"Wha...oh, ah. Sam? SAM?? Was that you? I can hear you! Can you hear me? Guess we must be close
enough to each other for these things to still work OH! Aaah, sorry about that, my hand slipped

"Daniel? Why are you - where are you? Is the Colonel with you? Is he all right?"

"Ah . yeah. Jack's here," the answer came back. " I don't know if he's all right. He's not
moving right now, but he could just be knocked out. He hit pretty hard."

Sam shook her head, not quite believing what she was hearing. "Not moving? What do you mean you
don't know - why don't you find out if he is all right?"

Daniel was speaking very quickly, in the lilting, semi-musical cadence that his voice tended to
assume when he became extremely excited, extremely nervous.

Or extremely afraid.

"I can't - I can't reach him right now. I'll have to find a way to get down first. Listen, Sam,
Teal'c, you have to listen to me. I have a feeling I don't have a lot of time to try and
explain this to you."

Sam looked up at Teal'c for reassurance as their young friend continued to tell them what he
had learned from reading the inscriptions on the wall behind them.

"Okay, apparently this place is a kind of initiation hall. It belongs to a very ancient race
that call themselves the Anpu actually it is quite fascinating how purely this tradition has
come into Egyptian mythology with Anpu/Anubis still the guardian and guide to the hall of Ma'at
- "



Carter cut him off. "Daniel, you're not making any sense! What has Ma'at got to do with this?"

"Sorrysorrysorry. I don't mean to babble but the air down here is so strange and I don't know
how much longer I can hold on. Just listen, okay, Sam?

The Hall of Ma'at. That's what this place is. Apparently the Egyptian myth of the afterlife
judgement when the soul is conducted by Anubis/Anpu to the Hall of Ma'at where the deceased's
heart is placed on the scales and weighted against the feather of Ma'at is derived from some
vague remembrance of the initiation rites conducted in this place."

"Bottom line, Daniel," Carter tried to keep her voice sounding calm. She did not want to let
Daniel know how frightened the more than slightly unfocussed and rambling sound of his voice
was making her.

* What is going on down there? What is happening to the Colonel? Ah Daniel, hold it together!
You might be the Colonel's only hope.*

"Wha? Huh?" She heard him harshly suck in a breath and release it in a tired laugh. "Sorry! You
sounded like Jack there, for a moment. Threw me. What was I saying. Oh yeahyeahyeah according
to what I was able to read in the chamber the Anpu are a very ancient race, even older than the
Goa'uld ask Teal'c, he can probably tell you more I haven't got time.

The Anpu created the Hall of Ma'at as a way to test - worthiness. For what - I don't know, but
apparently it isn't mandatory. Somehow they have tuned their gate to draw possible candidates
to the Hall in order to offer them the opportunity to take the test. To be judged. You can
refuse, leave the Hall without being tested. All you have to do is reopen the gate and leave,
without touching anything else."

Sam frowned at the radio. "I don't understand what you mean, Daniel. That's just what we did.
Dialed the DHD."

"Yeahyeah, I know that's what it looked like, but that was what I was trying to tell you stuff
in this place is not what it seems. That wasn't the DHD. Just looked like it. What that really
was was the console that started the test. The DHD is UNDER IT. Somebody go over to the device
and feel around the sides. You should find a switch that will flip the false top.

Wordlessly Teal'c strode over to the aforementioned device and after a moment's inspection
found what he was seeking.

"Daniel Jackson is correct" he called back to Sam. There is another panel beneath the one we
thought would active the Stargate."

"Good, Sam, that's really, really good." Daniel was starting to stumble over his words; his
speech was becoming slurred. Sam hoped he wasn't going into shock.

"All right, you and Teal'c have to get out of here now."

"What? Daniel, what are you saying? We can't leave you!"

"You can't help us, Sam," Daniel's voice sounded apologetic. "The rules are pretty specific. If
you agree to be judged you can't back out. It's supposed to be a solitary trial and once the
trial is set in motion, it can't be exited. The only way to get out is to finish. Kinda like a
cosmic video game, I guess. Get to the end and it resets. Anyway, as it is with the two of us
here, I don't know how that is going to effect what happens in here. The trial is supposed to
be specially calibrated to the person being examined so it is different for everyone. I don't
know what we have set in motion here, if it meant to test me, or if it meant to test Jack, and
couldn't get the one it wanted without taking the other as well because we were both standing
together the moment you touched the device.

You guys have to go now. You can't get to us and I don't want to take any chances of you guys
getting trapped in here as well just in case things..don't go well ahhh!"



There was a sudden fumbling sound; a sharp clatter and then the radio went silent.

Sam yelled at the taciturn instrument for several minutes until it became dreadfully apparent
that it was not going to make any more sounds.

"Oh god, Teal'c" she said softly. I hope they are going to be all right.





His head was killing him and the couple upstairs were going at it again.

Always fighting, always yelling making so much noise, can't a man die in peace.Open eyes, can't
focus what the hell had he been drinking must have been one hell of a party back felt broken
whoever the hell Sam was he wished they would answer so they would stop yelling upstairs don't
make me come up there wait a minute last thing he remembered - losing his grip on Daniel.

"Sam! Can you hear me? Dropped the radio! Sorry."

That was Daniel's voice. Overhead. What was he doing upstairs.

*.Plunging into darkness feeling Daniel's arms tightening around him have to hold on have to
protect don't fail this time like all the other times a jolt wrenching something tearing him
away and then still falling alone alone. *

Jack's eyes flew open. Ah, crap.It hadn't been a bad dream after all. He had been so hoping.

It looked as if he was lying at the bottom of a well. A really dank and smelly well. Something
felt cold and slimy under his hand, and the funny smell in the thick air made him feel nauseous
and dizzy.

Like he didn't already feel that way.

His eyes were open again but all he was seeing was some kind of a fuzzy blur. Moving his head
slightly to try and clear his vision turned out to be a really big mistake. A searing, lancing
pain sheared through his head, turning his thoughts to fire..

"Ahhh..God!"

The room was animated by the sound of his voice as it tore from him and caromed crazily about
his head, bounding from wall to wall. The echoes had not even begun to die before the sound of
another voice tried to replace it.

"Jack! Omigod - you're alive! Thank goodness! You were so still for so long. I was starting
to.."

* Daniel! His voice above him, around him, like some beacon of hope shining through the dark
places..*

Suddenly the pain was gone. His mind was clear. He opened his eyes and looked up.

Directly overhead, many, many feet above him, stretched a network of interlocking cables that
formed a wide grid that completely spanned the distance from wall to wall to wall. The analogy
of a spider web sprang to mind, made even more apt by the further discovery that this
particular 'web' seemed to have netted itself a live one.

Daniel was dangling up there on high, clinging awkwardly to one of the cables. He had his arms
and legs wrapped around it and was hanging upside down, craning his head back to try and see
the man beneath and behind him.

That pale, inverted, moon-shaped, bespectacled, slack-jawed, wide-eyed hair-standing-on-end
dope-on-a-rope was probably the most absurd looking sight he had ever seen.

In spite of himself, Jack started to giggle. It sounded wrong in his ears, somehow, distant and
slightly hysterical, but it kept coming out of him and unfortunately it seemed to have company.

"Hey Monkey-Boy! Howya doin'?"

That hadn't sounded too good. Not too good at all. Had he really said that aloud? God, he hoped
not!

"Well, Colonel, welcome back," the man above him commented warmly, without a touch of rancor or
irony in his voice. "Glad to hear you sounding like yourself again."

"Yeah, that's me all over," Jack growled. "Mr. Personality. From the way I feel if I had landed
any harder I'd be Mr. Smeared-All-Over. He favored the man dangling above him with an
incredulous, assessing stare. "Tell me, Jackson, how the HELL did you manage to stick up
there?"

Daniel tightened his arms and legs on the rope, pulling himself up from the inverted posture he
had formerly been assuming. The sheepish grin that he beamed back down at Jack made him look
about twelve.

"Gee Colonel, really couldn't tell you. Just - got lucky, I guess."

* Good thing for us one of us did. Oh god, my life is in the hands of a dangling dweeb *

Daniel laughed suddenly, and in so doing almost lost his grip on the cable he had been clinging
to. As it was, his feet slipped and he was left holding on by his hands.

"Hah! Monkey-boy. Dweeb, you're positively smokin', sir. Pretty sure the first one is new, but
have I ever heard you call me 'dweeb' before?"

* Ya know something, O'Neill, if that kid just up and walked away from you right now, left you
flat, there wouldn't be a soul in the universe who would blame him. You can be such a horse's
ASS."*

He was damned sure he hadn't said THAT aloud!

"Not to your face, Daniel, not to your face." Seeing how the kid was taking the high road he
felt free to brazen it out as best he could. Hell, if you're going to damn yourself, you might
as well do a good job.

One of Daniel's hands slipped off the cable. Now his entire weight was supported solely by the
strength of one hand."

"Daniel! For cryin' out loud - be CAREFUL"

His pale face was suddenly suffused by a flush of genuine pleasure. "Thanks, Jack. Didn't know
you cared."

That hadn't been a taunt, or an ironic comment. That had been a quiet, level statement of fact.
Its honesty cut into him, wounding him for some unaccountable reason, leaving him feeling
strangely bereft.

He pushed it away and looked up at the man who was precariously suspended above him. Daniel
still swung from the support of that single hand, but his eyes were suddenly distant, and there
was a strange, pensive look on his face. He looked as if he had just reached a decision.

"Daniel!" Jack bellowed. "Don't you dare let go!"

"Have to, Colonel," Daniel answered him, still from that distant place. "I don't see any other
way to get to you, and you need help. You can't see what I can see from up here. You're a bit
of a mess. I might be safe up here for the moment, but that doesn't do you any good."

"Daniel, don't be crazy!" Jack could hear the fear in his voice, and knew that Daniel could
hear it as well, but he didn't care. "You're up too high. You can't possibly land with
breaking something. Stay up there where it's safe."

Daniel's next words rang in Jack's mind. He knew he would never forget them as long as he drew
breath.

"What good would 'safety' be to me if the price was for it was your life? You don't know me
very well yet Jack, or you would know that I have no choice."

Without another thought, breath, word or second, Daniel locked his eyes with Jack's and
uncurled his fingers from the cable.

*****

It must have been a trick of the light. It must have been the bump on his head, or all over his
body even. Whatever it was, Jack O'Neill was fully prepared to swear on a whole stack of the
Holy Tome of your choice that he had not seen what he had in fact. just seen.

One instant Daniel was above him, about to become a serious victim of gravity, an experience he
probably would not have enjoyed in the slightest, and then he just.wasn't there.

Oh, he was there, just not there, up there. Daniel was kneeling by his side there and although
Jack was more relieved than words could say of that particular fact, he doubted that even
Carter could have explained exactly how it had come to pass.

If he could have moved he would have grabbed that shaggy headed Houdini and hugged him till his
ribs broke. Except he couldn't move and he furthermore had a feeling that engaging in that sort
of activity wouldn't do his own ribs very much good.

Suddenly the silence of the dank chamber was shattered by the sound of a deep, booming voice.
Daniel sprang to his feet, whirling around as if he could locate the source of the sound by
doing an imitation of a dervish.

Whatever deep, dark and sepulchral was saying, Jack couldn't make it out. To him it sounded
like a cross between gargling and spitting, but from the expression on Daniel's face, he was
making perfect sense out of the unintelligible sounds. The hollow, echoing torrent of
strangeness suddenly stopped. Daniel yelled a few phrases in the same language, his voice laced
with desperation and fury, what he was saying sounding for all the world to a bemused Jack like
some sort of a challenge. To underscore this impression Daniel suddenly darted back to his
side, gesticulating wildly at him while still addressing his attention and remarks to the air,
and then he thumped his fists against his own chest.

Daniel was plainly both really, really honked off about something and yet at the same time
scared, well - shitless. Why? What was he saying? What had the other guy been saying? What was
going on? Why couldn't he move? What was the air speed velocity of a swallow? * Christ,
O'Neill, can't you EVER be serious? * Well, he might be completely in the dark at the moment,
but given the nature of the man beside him, it was a pretty sure bet that Daniel would be
filling him in on all of this any second now.

Failing to get any sort of a reaction to his puzzling performance, Daniel allowed his shoulders
to slump in defeat and then turned his attention back to the man who was lying on the floor
waiting to be let in on what all the shouting was about. A deeply troubled expression on his
pale face, Daniel knelt at Jack's side. He paused a moment, a slightly trembling hand pressed
to his mouth, as his eyes raked over the prone body of the man before him. He didn't make a
sound or a movement, but the sound of his rapid breathing was unnaturally loud in Jack's ears.
A final huge intake of breath from behind that hand, the sound of which bordering on a sob,
Daniel moved closer to him, gently extended his hands and beginning a slow but thorough
physical assessment of Jack's injuries. Still, not so much as a sigh passed through the portal
of his tightly compressed lips.

Jack continued to lie there in quiet faith that all would soon be revealed to him, waiting for
the verbal onslaught that he was sure would come. Daniel should be talking his ear off by now.
Yup. Any time. He was just going to start talkin'. Had to happen. Flappin his lips like the
town gossip with a hot bit of news. Aw, hell.

Nuthin. Nada. Zippidee Doo Dah. Typical. If he was at home trying to watch the game instead of
lying on his back on some alien planet probably dying or something else equally guaranteed to
ruin his day then he wouldn't be able to get the kid to shut up.

Mind you, having to listen to Danny yakking his ear off would have been a small price to pay if
he really COULD be sitting at home right now.

Jack tried to turn his head toward his uncharacteristically taciturn friend to see what he was
doing, but found that the effort was more than he could manage. The attempt at movement causing
a resurgence of the nausea that had only just gone away, Jack closed his eyes and tried to hold
onto the contents of his stomach. He had to content himself with remaining completely still
with his eyes closed, feeling rather than seeing the gentle and strangely reassuring pressure
of Daniel's hands as he ran them slowly up the length of one leg, and then the other. Daniel's
motions were deft but excruciating tender. Jack felt that if he had been made of glass Daniel
could not have been more careful of him. As those comforting hands continued their painstaking
examination of his hips and his torso, so capable and yet so caring, Jack couldn't help
thinking that the kid had the missed his calling.

* Too bad all this care and concern is wasted on the likes of me.*

Daniel's questing fingers gently probed a spot over the ribs on his lower left side. A lancet
of pain jabbed into him. Daniel had barely touched it - he had been so careful not to hurt him
so he tried not to cry out but it just caught him by surprise -

"Ah GEEZ! That's a major owwie for sure!" Jack gasped. "Congratulations, Doc, I think you hit
paydirt." Jack found he could move his head again so he turned toward the man beside him, in
time to catch him flinch as he had been struck. His hands faltered, he took a deep breath and
said, "I'm so sorry. I don't mean to hurt you but I have to do this." Before he continued his
examination Daniel attempted a wan smile, intended, Jack was sure, to reassure. However, Daniel
couldn't get those eyes of his to lie.

The kid wasn't saying anything, but he was sure scared about something. Three guesses what that
was.

Jack grunted, heaved an impatient sigh, and then abruptly wished he hadn't. If it even hurt to
breathe now, that was a pretty fair sign that he was hip deep in trouble. Well, he hadn't
gotten where he was by running away from every unpleasant little thing.. As much as he was
enjoying Daniel's ministrations, he was starting to feel about as useful as. condoms to a nun.
Time to start getting some of the missing picture filled in.

"Daniel?" His voice sounded a little too shaky and a little too weird. "Daniel, as exciting as
all of this is, if you get any more familiar we're gonna have to get married, and I already
have all the dishes I need. What's goin' on?"

"Jack?"

Daniel had answered him back too quickly to give himself time to hide the panic. Crap. Maybe he
didn't want to know what was going on after all... "Ah, just giving you the once-over, Colonel,
to see if I can see how badly you're hurt. "

"Figured as much. Sooo, where did you have time to go to medical school?"

Good! He got Daniel to laugh. As long as he didn't return the favor, they'd get along fine.

"Oh, no formal training," Daniel smiled to himself. "Picked up one or two things in the field
though. And once the women at Abydos had gotten over the shock of the idea that a man would be
interested in learning their cures and remedies, they showed me a few things as well.

"Cool. I bet you did the boy-scout thing too."

Jack gritted his teeth against more pain as Daniel located another problem in the area of his
clavicle.

"Sorry to disappoint," Daniel flushed as he noted Jack's reaction, but continued. "Never had
the pleasure. Was a charter member of Tut's Rangers, though. Cairo Chapter. The Rootin' Tut'n
Squad."

Jack looked back at Daniel as if he had grown another head. Daniel continued what he was doing,
his gaze averted from Jack, watching him ever so covertly from the corner of his eye.

"Get outta town! You made that up!"

Daniel allowed himself the tiniest smile. "Yeah, I did. Not too shabby, huh?"

"I'll laugh later when it doesn't hurt so much. You about done there or what? What's the
verdict?"

Daniel was running his strong, soothing fingers along the back of Jack's neck, then moving them
up to cradle the back of his head with one hand while he probed Jack's scalp with the fingers
of the other. "Well, Colonel, the good news is that you don't seem to have any broken
extremities. Arms and legs seem to be okay. I'm not so sure about your left hip and a couple of
ribs on that side are broken. Ditto for your collarbone. You've got some abdominal swelling
that doesn't look good. Probably internal bleeding. From the way you've been drifting in and
out I would venture to guess that you probably have a concussion. Keeping my fingers crossed
about any other more serious skull injuries, but given how hard your head is."

"Har - de - har" Jack snorted. "Well, good for you. Guess I more than had THAT coming." He
wanted to laugh but knew it would probably hurt too much. "So don't sugar-coat it, Doc, give it
to me straight. How long do you think I've got?"

Daniel's eyes, formerly so open, suddenly veiled and he pulled up from Jack as if he had been
struck.

"Don't make jokes like that! You're going to be fine."

Jack was trying to look both brave and understanding. He couldn't tell if he was pulling it off
or not.

"Come on, Danny-boy, let's not kid a kidder. I'm all busted up inside. I can feel it. I can
feel everything else as well. Can't move any of it, but I can feel it. That can't be too good
either, now can it?"

Having apparently completed his examination, Daniel was sitting beside him, his chin resting on
knees he had drawn tightly up close to his chest, held in place by arms that were wrapped
tightly around them. He was looking past the man lying beside him, that distant, worried look
in his eyes again.

"No Jack, it isn't very good at all. It means that I really shouldn't move you, but I have to.
I've got no choice. If I have any hope of getting through this thing and getting you back home
I'm going to have to move you. But doing that means I am going to have to hurt you more - "

"Whoa! Stop the pony ride for just a second! What did you just say? Getting through WHICH
thing? What do you know that I don't know - besides almost everything I mean - what was all
that yakking about and how did you get from up there to down here without ending up in
basically the same condition that I am in?"

"I knew that I had to," Daniel replied softly. "I had no choice. There was no other way to get
down, and I had to get down. You needed me, and the only way to get to you was to let go and
take my chances. Trust in my faith that doing the right thing would keep me safe. I guess it
was the right thing to do because apparently I passed the test and the voice you heard was that
of the Guardian telling me that the conditions for passing the First Trial of Ma'at had been
satisfied. The Trial of Faith. Apparently there are three more. If we get through all of them
in one piece, we can go home.

Jack blinked at him as if he had just heard him recite the pledge of allegiance in Swahili.

"Say. WHAT?"

Sighing, Daniel unwound himself from the ball he had formerly been trying to imitate and moved
a little closer to Jack as he began to tell him what he had learned from reading the
inscriptions in the reception room. He told Jack about using the radio to talk to Carter and
Teal'c and about telling them to use the gate to get back home.

"I don't know if they left or not. I, uh, dropped my radio. It kinda broke."

Jack allowed himself a wry smile. "That would be it over there."

"Yup"

"Well, you could use mine. It's probably working fine. Lucky for it, I broke its fall."

"Oh wow - I never even thought of that, that's a really great idea."

Daniel fished Jack's radio out of his vest. It proved to be working perfectly, but it did not
take very long to ascertain that there appeared to be no one at the other end to respond.

"Good," Daniel said softly as he gently replaced the device in Jack's vest pocket. "That makes
two less people to worry about. Now all I have to do is figure out."

Daniel was sitting right beside him, but he was gone again. Back into his head, back into that
place where he went when he was trying to work something out. His eyes were staring intently at
what he was rolling over in that brain that could give the Starship Enterprise a run for its
money when it came to warp speed velocities. He also tended to talk to himself, so if you were
happened to be in the vicinity when Daniel was "cogitating", you got a free front row seat to
the show. Probably wouldn't understand much, but it could be entertaining, all the same.

This time, however, what Daniel was mumbling aloud was neither coherent nor amusing. "Have to
figure out what to do.etemylogically Anpu the source language. Goa'uld and Egyptian derivatives
of the older parent language seeming to indicate that the Anpu are the older race. evidence of
matter transmission, transmutation capabilities. if they are older, they could be more
advanced. perhaps it is possible they could have the technology to undo the damage but do I
dare take the risk. but even if they have the technology would they help him. can't be sure of
their motivations alien psychology no way to know why they are doing what they are doing and if
they even CARE if he lives or dies. God - just picking him up could kill him but he's dead if I
leave him here what am I saying they have to be able to help him its his only hope I have to
get him there and if they won't help him I'll MAKE them - "

"Daniel." He was right next to him and yet a million miles away. Jack tried to make his arm
lift up; to reach out to him, to bring him back, but the limb would not cooperate.

"Daniel" A little louder this time. Still no response. Daniel sat there rocking back and forth,
looking so solitary in his anguished contemplation words tumbling from him in a verbal cascade,
almost too fast for Jack to make out what he was saying. Jack reached out to him again, the
only way he now could.

"Danny - I need you."

That did the trick. That got through to him. As the words pouring from Daniel's throat halted
in mid syllable and he swung his worried and anguished eyes upon him, Jack was stunned by the
realization that there had been more to the words he thought he had just uttered simply to get
Daniel's attention. Though the phrase was formed in artifice, by the time the words were
actually spoken, they were the truth. He - him. The same guy the men in his former unit used to
call (behind his back, sure, but stuff like this always gets back to you), The Lone Wolf,
Colonel Cold and the Jack-inator (that last one had been his personal favorite), the original
ice man -  *  needed someone.*

Well what do you know about that, Jack?

Bottom of the ninth, and you've hit a home run.

You've finally found someone worth living for

Just as you're about to pop off.

Just about par for the course..

But he couldn't think about that now. Daniel was leaning over him, unashamed of the tears that
were coursing down his cheeks, making no effort to check them or wipe them away. He had laid
one hand against the side of Jack's face in a gesture of infinite tenderness, almost as if he
was afraid to touch him anywhere else lest even seeking to comfort he should cause him further
harm.

"I'm here, Jack." The words were barely audible. "Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of
this. I promise. You have my word, everything is going to be fine."

Jack's head began to swim again. He felt Daniel's breath on his neck, heard his voice close to
his ear telling him he was sorry but he was going to try to pick him up now he knew it was
going to hurt and he couldn't do anything about that but he was so sorry but he had to do this
it was the only way.

* Oh he knew that it was going tobe bad but there was suddenly nothing but fire someone
screaming someone sobbing oh god I'msosorryjack how the fire burns don't cry danny itsnotsobad
just a fleshwound suddenly this voice all around him and in his head heard it before but funny
it makes sense now..*

* . One has met the conditions of the Trial of the Heart. One enters the Trial of the Mind. *

*****

Somewhere far away, someone was singing. It was a good voice, but a small one. Almost like the
thin, piping tones of a small child. Nice song. He knew it. Somewhere, somehow, it was
familiar.

Wait. he had it.Amazing Grace. Someone was singing Amazing Grace. Someone who sounded very
young, very scared, and very, very alone.

Daniel! God, those sounds are coming from Daniel! What the hell - what's wrong with him, he
sounds like he is out of his mind with fear!

Jack forced his leaden eyelids open fully expecting to banish the darkness he had been formerly
lost in only to discover that the world outside his head was every bit as implacably black. He
blinked several times, hard, to verify for himself that he was indeed conscious and his eyes
were indeed open.

Open or closed, it didn't make the slightest bit of difference. Wherever they were, it was
blacker than an NID man's heart in here. He knew instantly that they were somewhere else from
where they had been before he had passed out. He had spent too many years living in a reality
where one's survival depended on the instant procurement and assessment of tactical and
situational information not to have all the "sensors" kick in as soon as he was even marginally
conscious. Not having the visuals functioning didn't hamper him in the slightest.

Every other sense that he possessed seemed to be doing more than double duty though. It was
bizarre; almost as if the "net" had gone into overdrive. It just took a moment's effort to
verify the fact that the only part of his body he still could move was his head. Arms and legs
would not respond to his mental commands. Oh well, at least the pain seemed to have gone away
for awhile. Small favors?

And yet, he could feel cold stone beneath his fingertips. Feel the same cold permeating the
material of his combat pants on the back of his calves and thighs. He could even feel his butt
falling asleep.

* Granted I'm no medic, but when you sever your spinal cord, doesn't that pretty much finish
sensation as well as movement? What's wrong with this picture? *

He was still on his back. Wait, the floor was too cold - not enough insulating layers - where
was his vest - nothing around his waist either no web belt, couldn't feel his knife or his
holster that should be strapped to his thigh and whaddaya bet they took the damned flashlights
too, well that would make sense wouldn't it. Couldn't move his arms to check and see if there
was a wall within arm's reach, so he had to make a guess from the way things sounded that he
was close to one. He desperately wished that he could move in order to be able to find out for
sure. For some strange reason he deeply wanted to feel something behind his back other than the
floor.

This room was dryer than the other one. No moisture on the stone surface that supported him. It
was stone. Hewn, like the other one. Through the material of his combat jacket he could feel
that his shoulders rested astride a seam where several blocks came together. The air was very
dry as well, and a little stale. That meant that they were in another sealed room. Airtight
too, he would wager. Yikes. Not good. He expended another precious second listening to the
sound of Daniel's thin, faltering song and from the way the sound moved through the space and
interacted with the barriers of wall, floor and ceiling he was able to gauge the approximate
size of the room.

More bad news. He took a swipe at figuring that the room was square and couldn't be any bigger
than ten by ten by ten. That didn't make for a whole lotta cubic feet of oxygen. He had
probably been out for a bit. He had no way of knowing how long. So there was also no way of
knowing how long they had been here, or how much longer they had.

Jack suddenly realized that his mind was clear. No disorientation, no nausea, no confusion.
Best of all, no pain. He could think again. He knew that probably shouldn't be so, but it was,
and he wasn't going to waste any of their precious time trying to figure it out. So far, Danny
had been doing all the work. Trying to go it alone, trying to figure out how to pull both their
butts out of the fire.

Well, it sounded as if his friend Danny needed a little bit of help now. Maybe his body still
wasn't working, but Jack knew he still had his brain and it was time to start using it for
something other than to fill the space between his ears.

Just before he had passed out he had heard something. A voice in his head, like the one out of
nowhere that Daniel had tried unsuccessfully to argue with, only he had heard it speaking to
him in English this time. The voice had said that they had passed another test, and were to
prepare for another one. Quick Jack, a little exercise in logical deduction. Let's see what we
have learned and see what that tells us.

Hey, hyperactive, longhaired archeologists weren't the only ones who could put two and two
together and get four!

The fact that they were in a completely different location (granted still another one, like the
last two that seemed to have no * apparent * exits) would lend one to conclude that each test
took place in a different venue. You got out of jail free by passing the test. Therefore, all
was not lost. There was a way out of this deathtrap. He just had to figure out what it was that
Daniel had to do so they could pass 'Go' and to hell with the two hundred dollars.

But before he could do THAT, he had to find a way to help Daniel pull himself together, and he
had to do it fast. For when the air ran out, so did any chance they would have of getting out
of here.

Huh! Maybe the kid was ahead of him. Though the ravening terror that was gripping him was still
much in evidence in his voice, the song was trailing away to be replaced by what almost sounded
like a mantra.

"ComebackDannycomebackDannyJackneedsyouJackneedsyouJackneedsyouJackneedsyou."

Dumbfounded, Jack listened to the sound of Daniel's voice as it droned on in the complete,
utter blackness. He continued his focussed chant, the words getting louder and stronger, more
confident and less scared with each passing second.

* Geez Louise, he's going to do it. All by himself, the kid is actually gonna DO it! Damn.
Danny, what the HELL are you made of?"*

**he will do it faster if he knows that you are with him**

Whaaa? What the hell was THAT? Forget it, doesn't matter. Whatever it was, it was right. Time
for him to help Daniel.

"Danny? You okay? Where are you, buddy? Can hear you over there, but can't see you."

Instantly the droning mantra ceased. There was a gasp, a few faint shuffling sounds, and then a
voice came out of the blackness, so small and rampant with such naked terror that it frightened
him.

"J-ack. I can't see.either. Sorry. not doing so good.."

"I can hear that Danny," Jack tried to keep his voice low and soothing. "I'm a little scared of
the dark, Danny. Don't like being alone. Why don't you come over here and keep me company?"

There was a long silence; more scuffling, heavy breathing and then what sounded like someone
trying to muffle sobs in his jacket.

"Danny? Please come over here."

"Idon'tthinkso."

"I can't come over there, Danny. You have to come to me. Please Danny. I really need you to
help me."

Out of the darkness came an eerie wailing sound. He'd heard something like it before, when he
was a kid out on his uncle's farm. Messing around in the woods, he had watched his dog chase
down a young rabbit. Just before the dog killed it, it had screamed, making a sound not unlike
the one he was hearing now. Coming out of Daniel. That sound had chilled him to the bone then.
It was scaring him to death now.

Jack opened his mouth to beg him to come to his side once more, and then closed it again, the
words unuttered. Recognizing he was in way over his head, he faltered.

* Geez, he's just this shy of completely losing it. Want to help him, but don't want to push
him over the edge. What the hell do I do? What if I say the wrong thing? Christ, Danny, what do
I do? *

**you know what to do. don't think, just speak the truth**

* There it was again what the hell IS it cram it I haven't got time for this have to help
daniel.*

"Danny? You've got to come over here, now."

The terrible wailing had died down, but the sound of Daniel's terrified breathing was still
awful in the void that contained and separated them.

"You don't understand!" His voice sounded both angry and apologetic and as if it was issuing
from the throat of a child. A very small, very frightened child...

" I want to come! I do! I reallyreallydobutI can't! I can't move! If I move, the rocks will
start falling down again."

Well, that was a clue, but he knew he didn't have time to follow it up now. Somehow he knew he
just had minutes to get to Daniel. It was literally now - or never.

Suddenly he knew what to say. Didn't know how he was going to say it, but he knew what he had
to do.

* This is probably the scummiest thing I have ever done. Daniel I am so, so sorry*

"Danny!" Cringing, Jack made his voice sound as scolding as possible.

"Danny! You PROMISED!"

His word flew across the room, impacting upon the unseen man on the other side, drawing blood
in the form of an anguished sob. Hardly daring to breathe, Jack strained every sense, listening
intently, trying through force of will to divine what the darkness denied him direct knowledge
of.

One sob, and then there was silence. Complete, utter silence, even more terrifying than the
darkness and all the terrible sounds that formerly had issued forth from it. Jack could hear
nothing but the sound of his own heart pounding, his blood surging though his veins.

* Oh god, Danny, whatever it is that you have that gets you through hell and back all by
yourself please have enough of it left to get through this..*

"You're right," Daniel's voice sounded so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that it was all that Jack
could do to suppress the resulting urge to emit a startled yell.

"A promise is a promise. Don't move. I'm coming over."

For once in his life Jack completely annihilated the inevitable flip comment that sprang
immediately to his lips as a rebuttal to Daniel's instruction.

Daniel's progress across the small floor was by no means swift, but it was steady. Still, it
seemed to Jack to be an eternity before Daniel bumped up against him in the darkness and then
grabbed a convulsive handful of the first bit of Jack that his hand came into contact with.
Which turned out to be the left shoulder of his jacket. His hand still tightly clenched around
the fabric of his jacket, Daniel tumbled over to lie in an inert pile at Jack's side.

No sound, no movement, just breathing. Jack strained, desperately, ordering his recalcitrant
limbs to obey his will.

Nothing happened. Nothing moved.

* Damn! Lot of good I am lying here like so much dead meat. Can't even reach over, pat the kid
on the head and tell him he did a damned good job. *

Suddenly Daniel started laughing. Not a frightening, hysterical laugh but a genuine, warm
ironic Daniel-laugh. It was only a very short burst, but compared to the sort of sounds that he
had been formerly making, it sounded so damned normal, so damned - DANIEL, that Jack wanted to
weep from sheer relief.

Daniel's hand tightened on his handful of Jack's jacket, and then he released his grip, opened
his hand and laid the open palm gently on Jack's shoulder. He did not move or speak for several
moments, simply described a small circle on Jack's shoulder with his hand.

At last, he began to speak. As he did so he began to steal slowly, imperatively closer, until
he was lying full beside him on the cold stone, as close as he could come without actually
touching him except for that one hand that was now beginning to move ever so slightly, stroking
his arm with the lightest of touches.

"I was four again, Jack," Daniel's quiet, now eerily calm, almost dreamy voice came from a
place very close to Jack's left ear. "I was back in the pit again. Was playing on a site my
parents brought me to in Peru. Ran away from my mother and went into the caves where they had
told me not to go. Fell down a hole and then pulled half of the cave on top of me trying to
climb out again. It was really, really dark, just like this. They told me I was down there, in
the dark, for almost three days before they found me. You'd think that after something like
that I'd have trouble with small places, but it wasn't that at all. It was the dark. I really
don't like the dark, Jack. Don't like it at all."

"It's okay, Daniel," Jack tried to talk around the lump in his throat and found it sounded
easier than it actually was. "Not too crazy about it myself. Really glad you're here."

"Really?" There was such naked hope in the sound of that single word that Jack felt something
in his own atrophied cardiac area shudder in sympathy and recognition. The hand that had been
stroking his arm suddenly tightened ever so slightly upon him then released its grip. But he
didn't take it away. Jack was glad of that. He didn't know why, but as a result of Daniel's
touch, something was happening inside him.

"Daniel, you ought to know this about me by now. I never say ANYTHING I don't mean."

Neither man spoke for many long minutes. Daniel's words kept running through his head, Daniel's
hand upon his arm started to tingle, a strange warmth began to spring from it, entering into
him, seeping through the fabric of Jack's jacket, through his combat shirt, through skin, bone,
muscle sinew, deep within his chest.

* I really don't like the dark. That is what he said. Well, he was not the only one. The dark
that most terrified Daniel was external, but there was another kind of dark, a dark that lurked
within. A dark that hid things too terrible to look at, too terrible to be faced, owned or
acknowledged.*

* Daniel wasn't the only one who was afraid of the dark..*

* No! I can't do this won't do this it's too dark, too terrible won't look can't make me.
Daniel if you are my friend then don't make me go there.STOP! *

Abruptly Daniel withdrew his hand from his arm and jerked away from his side. Startled by the
sudden unexpected movement of the man beside him, Jack jolted back to full awareness, surprised
to discover that he had actually been falling asleep. There was something else, something he
seemed to be running away from, but the faint memories vanished as quickly as he tried to
retrieve them.

Unseen in the dark beside him, Daniel vigorously shook his head as if by so doing he could
completely clear it of everything that he did not need in order to get back to the task at
hand.

"Really good, Daniel," Jack heard him mutter to himself. "I can't believe I've been such a
idiot. I'm sorry, Jack, I don't even know how long we've been here. Don't have a clue what we
are supposed to be doing here. This can't be a very big room judging from the short time it
takes the echoes to travel and from the way the air smells and feels it's got to be airtight as
well."

Well, he was an archaeologist, Jack thought to himself wryly. The man has probably spent half
his life in some hole in the ground you shouldn't be so surprised that he can work it out for
himself as well.

"So you have figured out we're in trouble too, " Jack replied. "Good, that's a relief. Spares
me having to figure out a way of telling you."

"Really, good, Daniel," the archaeologist berated himself. "Really mature. Here we are stuck in
a death trap and what do I do - waste our precious time whining about being scared of the dark.
Sorry I let you down Jack."

"Whoa Danny," Jack hurried replied, alarmed by the self-loathing in the other man's voice.
"Hold the phone just a minute. You just did something really amazing back there. Don't sell
yourself short. That was the bravest thing that I have ever seen. You did good. You did fine.
Don't think that I think you haven't been doin' your job, because I know you have. Now, belay
that crap, get back over here and let's figure out what we should do next before the clock runs
out. Okay?"

"'Kay!" Jack heaved a sigh of relief (that only twanged a bit) as he heard Daniel scuttle back
over the stones toward him and then felt him settle at his side. Even though it was still
completely, utterly dark all around them for just a second Jack could have sworn he saw Daniel
sitting cross-legged beside him, one knee gently abutting the side of his left arm.

He had barely found his place there when Jack felt one of his Daniel's hands drop to his
shoulder. It was just - there, as if it had been drawn into contact with him via some
mysterious force that was compelling it to be there. Daniel seemed unaware of what had happened
and Jack said nothing, feeling strangely - better - for the slight contact.

"Okay Daniel," Jack made his voice sound as strong and optimistic as possible. "I know that
things don't look pretty good at the moment, but between the two of us we ought to be able to
come up with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together. What did that guy say - One
enters the Trial of the Mind? Maybe we have to *think * our way out of this place."

"What? " Daniel's voice was a stunned rush of sound. "What? What? How - how did you know that?
I didn't tell you that!"

Jack couldn't resist the impulse to play with his friend's head, just a little. "I'm a Colonel
in the United State Air Force, Daniel. Don't you know that makes me pretty damned near
omniscient? Part of the job description,"

"Oh yeah? Well, we'll just see about that."

Kid wasn't going for it. He could see that he was going to have a hell of a time staying one
step ahead of this little puppy. Ah well, let the games begin.

"Oh Jack..."

Then he went and spat/gargled one of those sentences at him.

"What did I just say?"

"Uh, Attention K-Mart Shoppers?"

Daniel burst out into gales of pure laughter, a sound that went straight into Jack's chest and
swirled around inside him, getting bigger and bigger, making him feel suddenly happy, giddy,
warm and strangely invincible. He didn't care how bad it looked, what did it matter what
happened now? How could anything that ever happened to him from now on be better than this
moment?

Daniel was still laughing, the hand that had been on his shoulder now stroking his head in an
absent, but deeply tender fashion.

"Ah Jack, Jack, Jack," he gasped, barely able to draw a breath he was laughing so hard. "You
are - amazing. I can't believe - Oh DAMN! What the HELL am I doing? Oh Jack, I'm really sorry -
"

Jack was never to know what a happy Daniel had been about to say because he abruptly started
viciously cursing himself and then snatched his hand away from Jack's head as if he had
suddenly discovered that the offending appendage was on fire. Jack had no idea what had just
happened, but Daniel was not long bringing him up to speed.

"Oh God! I can't believe I was doing that! I must be losing my mind. I'm sorry Jack; I don't
know what came over me. I know how much you dislike being touched. I didn't mean."

That's right. He had almost forgotten. Though he wasn't sure how he could have. Sara used to
ride his ass about it often enough. Saying he had "intimacy issues". 'Issues.' Hah! He hated
the sound of that word. It was such a 'chick' word. All that 'touchy-feely' crap.

He didn't have any 'Issues'. Women had 'Issues'. He was - fine. He just didn't like anyone
getting to close.

It was just - smarter to maintain that five-foot circle of personal space people-free. Safer
too.

* Yeah, but not much fun, huh Jack? Answer me a question, smart guy. Is the reason why you have
so much dark inside because there is nothing else in there with it to fill up the empty space?

And if that is true, well whose fault is that?*

But there was someone else there, in the dark that was outside. He wasn't alone. There was
someone else here with him in the dark who had just confronted, contended with and conquered
the biggest, honkin' bad thing anyone should ever have to face, and he had done it for his
sake. Someone was here with him who was trying harder to help him, heal him and save him than
anyone had ever tried in their life, no matter what the doing of any of it demanded of him.

Someone else was here.

Someone who needed him to do the same thing for him.

Jack suddenly knew what he had to do. What had to happen in order for them to pass the test.

It was the hardest thing that had ever been asked of him.

But for Danny's sake, it was nothing to ask of him at all.

*****

Jack had always been good at "reading" people. Just another one of those little things you
learn how to do if you want to stay alive in his line of work. Still, a part of him could not
help but marvel at how quickly he come to know exactly what he needed to do and say to get
through to Daniel, no matter what was happening. The term 'rapport' attempted to present itself
as an explanation, but that was another one of those 'touchy-feely' words that set his teeth on
edge.

Okay, maybe when it came to 'relationship dynamics' * Sara talking again why was he thinking
about her so much oh, give me a minute I'm not ready to do this yet * he was admittedly a
little close minded but sometimes something was just what it was. Took all the fun out of it if
you had to sit around and analyze the crap out of it all the time.

Jack didn't always want to know *why *. He just wanted it to be there, and he wanted it to be
good. The Daniels of the world were more than welcome to the 'whys'. Here ya go, take my order
of whys. Do you want ketchup with that?

* Yer stalling, Jack. Chickenshit. Daniel's done his bit. It's your turn. Do what you have to
do and get the boy over here again.*

* Don't beat yourself up my friend, we are just about to throw this "personal space" problem
right out the window."*

But first I have to get his attention again.

"Daniel! I'm cold.

Jack cringed inwardly at the sound of his own voice. There was a little more of a "wheedle" in
it than he had intended, but it certainly did the trick. He heard Daniel utter a little gasp
and scramble toward him. He also plainly heard the sound of his coat coming off.

* Not bad, Jack. Maybe you should consider remustering to the Thespian Corps. Naah, your head
is big enough already.*

Daniel had completely forgotten all about beating himself up, which was the first object of the
exercise. He flew to Jack's side, the usual apology on his lips, and began to gently drape his
coat over the prone Colonel.

* Ahh, sorry Danny, not quite good enough. I need you to do more. God help me, I can't believe
I'm saying this.*

Daniel finished placing the coat over him. Jack could feel him hovering over him through the
black curtain that hid him from sight. He was right there at his side, so anxious to be of
assistance that the concern practically dripped from him. He was right there, and yet he was
carefully, conspicuously distant.

Daniel now thought of himself as having been weak, and of having betrayed the trust of a friend
because of that weakness. There would be no more accidental contact. No more small gestures.
Daniel would be very, very careful now, would not allow himself even the smallest indulgent
slip as long as he believed expressing himself to Jack that way would hurt or offend him.

Realizing that forced Jack also to face how - bereft - knowing this made him feel. How terrible
to have lost something so precious before he had even had a change to appreciate what he had.

He wanted it back. The years of little by little closing himself off, shutting everyone out,
not allowing himself to be touched, inside or out suddenly welled up within him. The stark
loneliness of his self-imposed physical isolation from the rest of humanity cut like a knife
inside him, revealing to him a wide gaping wound that had always been there, but that he had
never, ever allowed himself to look at or acknowledge.

**behold the crucible of the darkness you have carried and nourished within you. You can let it
consume you or you can take the other path. Chose now**

He knew what he wanted. He also knew that he it would not be handed to him. He would have to
ask for it.

* It's time to shine a light, Danny. For both of us.*

This was the first part of what he had to do. He thought it would be the hardest, but he was
surprised how easy it was to want to say the words. To actually say them. Funny, it seemed like
the most natural thing in the world.

"Danny, it's the floor. I've been lying on it for so long, and it's so cold. Please get me up,
will you?"

Instantly Daniel's hands were on his shoulders. "Jack, are you sure? I don't want to hurt you."

"I don't think you will," Jack said softly. "Things have been pretty quiet inside this sack of
broken bones since we've been here. But even if you do, I don't care. I really, really need to
get up off this floor."

An EOD expert trying to make a bomb with old, sweaty TNT sticks couldn't have been more careful
than Daniel was with him. With what bordered on excruciating caution Daniel gently removed his
jacket from Jack's body, eased an arm under his shoulders and levered him up until he was
finally sitting, Daniel's jacket once again draped around him.

Jack flashed a grin at him that too late he realized Daniel could not see. "Oh, that's good,"
he said sincerely. " That's very, very good. Too bad I can't see my feet though. Kinda miss
'em"

"What do you want me to do, now, Jack?" Daniel's voice was both eager and worried at the same
time. Jack could never quite figure out how he managed to do the stuff he did with his voice,
that unique vocal sonata he created out of the simple act of uttering a few syllables that was
Daniel verbally expressing. The kid could make "euwauheyeaaahhh" sound like the Gettysburg
Address. And convey about as much information. As long as they didn't make him spell it.

"Find yourself a piece of wall and plant yourself good and comfortable. You're going to be
holding me up as long as we are stuck in here. Can't sit up by myself and god help me I can't
do the 'floor' thing anymore. My impression of an area rug is getting just a little old."

It took a little while, but Daniel finally got them settled. In pretty much the position Jack
wanted them to end up in. Daniel didn't know what was coming but he had a fair idea, and he
wanted to make sure the kid had a good hold on him when he needed him to.

The last thing he wanted to do was fall on his face in the middle of. well, he just didn't want
to, that was all. Not that there was any doubt in his mind that Daniel would ever let that
happen.

Daniel had found the wall, and had braced himself against it. Following Jack's suggestions he
had gathered Jack to him, forming a protective ring around his limp and useless body using
slightly raised legs and supporting arms, Jack's back pressed to his chest, his head resting
against Daniel's right shoulder. Daniel's posture was still very stiff and uncomfortable; as
absurd as it sounded, as close as they were sitting now he was still trying not too offend him
by touching him.

Jack experienced a transient pang of something so pure it hurt to even look at it, never mind
let it come and visit him for awhile. Who the hell was this man anyway? How had he managed to
come into this world so - good - live here for the amount of time he had and still be so -
good.

He suddenly felt so old, so weary, so soiled by everything he had seen and done. He certainly
did not feel in any way worthy of the grace that had been so unexpectedly bestowed upon him in
this spot in this strange, dark place.

There was an odd thought. Grace. A blessed state, a gift that was given not because of merit or
accomplishment, but bestowed for its own sake without warning, without explanation, without any
requirement for recompense for having been fortunate enough to be the recipient. It could not
be begged, bought, borrowed or sold, but it could be refused.

Jack was astonished to discover that he felt blessed. As absurd as that seemed, given the
circumstances. In all likelihood he was minutes from death and even if they made it out of here
he was probably going to be a quadriplegic for life and yet none of that mattered. He was -
blessed.

He was also suddenly really tired. Things were starting to hurt a little bit again. Getting
Daniel to move him had not been without consequences, but it had been a small price to pay. He
felt his head getting heavier as Daniel's warmth and proximity began to do what it was supposed
to do. It became too much of an effort to hold it up any longer, so he gave up trying. Deprived
of the only thing that been preventing it from doing so, Jack's head lolled lazily, turning his
face toward the hollow of Daniel's neck, where he just let it remain. Nestled in that soft,
warm haven, Jack closed his eyes and floated.waiting.

It wasn't long. Daniel couldn't help being Daniel. Jack needed him to be Daniel, and he didn't
let him down.

Slowly, Daniel's arms encircled him, pulling him closer to him. His head turned slightly, until
his cheek was lightly pressed against the skin of Jack's forehead. Gently, rhymthically,
soothingly, Daniel began to rock back and forth, stroking Jack's cheek in time to his movement
with the back of his hand.

* Oh good boy, this is everything I needed you to do, just please don't let go when it all
starts hitting the fan.*

Jack had thought he was ready for it, but he had had no idea. Had no idea what it felt like to
be.cherished. It was good. It was better than good, it was.bliss. Too long too starving he
wallowed in the warm, sensations that infused him, basked in the comfort of the honest,
enveloping contact. Oh, what a wondrous thing this, the magic of a simple touch. How long had
he so foolishly denied himself the knowledge of this blessed state of being, and the healing
power of the touch of the caring hand upon his skin.

That was easy. How long had he been a horse's ass?

Love was a four letter word that people threw around as carelessly as they tossed around a few
other less delicate four letter words, but there was a lot more too it than the baby-oh-baby-
let's get naked, yeah I love you until something better comes along and all that other sort of
"Im scared to be alone so I'll make your life miserable for as long as you let me" stuff that
people mistook for it. It was a word that he had used as casually as everyone else, bandying it
about like "how ya doin" when it suited his purposes to get what he wanted for an evening, or
an hour, even. Just like everybody else.

Well, just about everyone else. Everyone but the man who now held him who was giving him
powerful instruction in what it really meant to truly care for another human being more than
you cared for yourself without that being a bad thing for either one of you. This was not the
first such lesson he had ever had from this man along those lines. Daniel had first shown him
how truly selfless he was that day in Ra's throneroom, when he had died trying to protect him
from harm. They had barely even met then, and there he was, throwing himself in front of that
blast to save a less-than-perfect-stranger, with the full knowledge of exactly what he was
doing and that dead was dead, long before he knew that there was any such thing as a
sarcophagus or any hope of a Goa'uld resurrection.

Daniel had truly died for him that day. Jack knew without a shadow of a doubt that his friend
would not hesitate to do it again.

Hell, he'd just PROVED it back there yet again, hadn't he?

If someone like Daniel saw something in him worth dying for then maybe it behooved him to start
living up to that optimism.

* Hah! Ya think? *

Still, Jack was content to lie still, safe and protected in Daniel's arms. There was nothing
strange or unnatural in the embrace. Nothing that made him feel ashamed or uneasy. On the
contrary, he had never felt more right, more understood, more as if he was exactly where he
needed to be. He could have stayed in that state of grace forever, a part of him (no go figure
THIS one out Jack) actually GLAD that the fall had snapped his spine. If he had been able to
walk away from this, that is exactly what he would have done. And he would have never known.

Daniel was shifting him slightly in his embrace. Pulling him closer, cupping his cheek with his
hand as he tucked his head closer under his chin. * He knows. Somehow he knows what he has to
do. It's almost time, isn't it.*

Daniel's voice was so close to his ear that it almost felt as if it was inside his head.

"I'm sorry about your wife, Jack,"

* Ah, that's the ticket, that's what had to be said. That's what's going to start it. Hold on
Danny, I don't know if I am going to be able to ride this wave all the way home.*

"With everything that has happened since we got here I never got a chance to tell you. I know
why you said and did what you did in the gate room. People find things out, they talk - not to
me, mind you, but I hear things any way and I know what happened today and I don't blame you
for being upset. Heck, if taking a few verbal rounds out of me helped any, I want you to know
that I don't mind a bit. Happy to help, in fact."

Jack felt the first sob loosen, a solid chunk of hurt dislodge itself from the cold, inert core
of nothingness that lived in his chest. It was hanging by a thread, but it wasn't free yet.
Danny hugged him closer, rocked him ever so slightly and the warmth that beat shining from him
in soothing waves surrounded Jack, going deep, looking, leaving no sullied thing unexamined,
unrevealed.

"I got the papers today. " Decree Absolute. Null and void. Game over. Score 0 to 0, nobody
wins." Jack heard himself saying in a strange, uncertain voice. "I knew the divorce was final,
but seeing the papers, holding them in my hand. It wasn't - real.. Until then. She's really
gone. But then, it's as much as I deserve."

"No - Jack. Why do you say that? Why would you think something like that of yourself? It's just
not true."

He was standing on the lip of the abyss. Down there - was the horror. The secret, the terrible
shame that he had been carrying and hiding for so long. The thing he could not say - could not
face. The thin ledge was crumbling; he scrambled back, looking for some purchase to use to stop
himself from falling.

"A man is supposed to protect. A husband - a father. That's his job. That's what he's supposed
to do. I promised her that I would do that. Look after them. That's all I had to do. Do my
duty. I'm a solider. I've done my duty all my life. Except to him. Except to her. I failed her.
Didn't keep her baby from harm... Didn't keep my promise." * Oh Jack, you're still holding
back. It's a good start, but it's not all of it. You have to go deeper, look harder. *

* Abyss rushing up at him waiting for him, still holding back, still can't quite face.*

"Let go, Jack," Daniel's voice was the faintest of whispers, close to his ear. "Look into the
face of your fear. If you don't look it in the eye it wins. I know you. You can do it. It will
be all right. Trust me. Trust me."

* Trust me. *

Daniel said it would be all right. Trust him? More than life itself. His fear completely
banished by those two simple words; Jack leapt joyfully into the embrace of the yawning dark.

*****

It was night. The profound, cold night of the desert. Three moons hung in the star-laden sky.
He was ankle deep in sand, and he was cold. Also not more than a bit confused.

* Abydos. He was on Abydos! He didn't know how he knew that, he just knew. *

Behind him, he heard a woman's low sensual chuckle. A vocalization definitely of the 'come
hither' variety. It had been a long time since he had heard a woman make a sound like that.
Meaning it for him, that is. He didn't want to, but he knew he had to turn around. Suddenly
didn't want to see - the way it was supposed to be. But, he was not here to indulge himself.
Let's get to it, Jack.

Grabbing the ends of the mantle of his suddenly unfurled loneliness, Jack wrapped the shabby
garment around him and made himself turn around.

Several feet away, a huge bonfire blazed the solitary point of light in the velvet completeness
of the desert night. There was a pile of blankets spread before it, upon them reclined a man
dressed in long robes. Standard desert garb. He did not seem to know he was being watched. His
attention was elsewhere, full upon the woman who stood before him. * No small wonder. * Jack
thought, momentarily dazzled by the beauty of the slight dark woman who held her companion's
rapt attention with her every incredible movement.

She was an exquisite, exotic beauty, dusky limbed, and slender with that incredible curling
mane of hair and that dark-eyed sensual earthiness that only eastern women have. Her slim,
undulating form was clad in a flowing, diaphanous white veil that, backlit by the fire, did not
leave a lot to the imagination. She was dancing slowly before the fire, before the devouring
eyes of the man who watched her breathless, moving languidly, sensually, her dark skin like
burnished gold in the flickering light, her long, raven hair cascading in sparkling waves. She
laughed low and husky in her throat as she flaunted her lushness in deliberate, joyful abandon,
her dark eyes flashing with that power that women have when they know they have their men in
that place where they can deny them nothing. But there was something else in those eyes as
well, and when Jack saw it, something in him began to hurt as he had never hurt before.

She was looking at the man lying at her feet, completely under her spell, and she was just as
much his as he was hers. Those beautiful, bottomless black eyes would see no one else. They
were eyes that spoke of a love and a loyalty that Jack could not even begin to fathom. They
were eyes a man would die for. And they were all only for the lucky man she was looking at.

Her every movement a clearly revealed invitation, the woman danced closer to her man,
beckoning, inciting, willing .him to come into that sweet embrace.

"My Dan-i-el." he heard her say. "Come to me."

Slowly, like a walker in a waking dream, the man got to his feet. He allowed himself to be
drawn to her, willing moth to that sweet flame. Jack shouldn't have been able to, but suddenly
he could see his face.

It was Daniel. A Daniel he had never seen before. Daniel, his face flushed with wonder, his
eyes wild with love and desire, his heart so open that he glowed. He reached Sha'uri in a
single bound. Jack suddenly knew it was Sha'uri, he wasn't sure how he hadn't recognized her
before. Daniel took her face in his hands, tenderly, and with a gesture that spoke more love
than a dozen tomes of poetry cupped her cheek with one hand, while brushing away a lock of hair
that draped her forehead. He held her like that, looking down at her as if to forever brand the
image of her face into his mind and heart. She closed her eyes and turned her face into his
hand, brushing her lips against one of his palms.

Jack suddenly felt sick, almost dirty, as if he was intruding on something deeply sacred that
he did not deserve to see. And yet, he could not look away.

Daniel trembled as he leaned down and began to kiss her. Gently at first, almost reverently. He
covered her upturned face with a cascade of small, gentle kisses, and then paused to look at
her one more time, before he applied his lips to her mouth and began to drink much more deeply
of what she offered him. She moaned with pleasure, wrapping her arms around his neck and
leaning into him as his kisses began to become more passionate, more insistent, more demanding.
She emitted a wild shriek of delight as Daniel, suddenly, without warning reached down, scooped
her up from her feet and began to carry her back toward the blanket.

* Whoa! Way to go, Daniel! The kid was a caveman? Who knew? *



Oh my, the "getting to know you phase" was definitely over now. We were heading into Round Two,
the "take me, take me now" stuff. This really was more than he needed to know about Daniel.
Time to go now.

But whatever it was that had brought him here wasn't done with him yet. Not that he thought it
wanted him to get a cheap thrill or anything like that, although there was quite a bit to see
now. The kids had made short work of shucking their clothes and were pretty much making like
bunnies. Really, really happy bunnies. Lucky Daniel. Lucky Sha'uri.

That was it, wasn't it. That was what he was supposed to see. Love. Plain and simple. How much
a real man could allow himself to love a woman, and what letting himself do that made him
become.

Suddenly, the scene changed. A swift tableau of various images flashed before his eyes. Daniel.
Always Daniel. Daniel chasing Sha'uri, feigning anger as he pursued her as she ran fleet as a
deer, shrieking with laughter, his glasses held triumphantly in hand. Daniel telling a story to
a group of children around the fire, Sha'uri at his knee, looking up at him with rapt and
loving eyes. Daniel carrying home an injured child he had risked his life and three days alone
in the desert to find and to save, Sha'uri running to embrace him, her eyes streaked with
tears, wild with worry and relief. Daniel holding her as she burned with fever, wiping her brow
with a cold cloth and his own hot tears as he begged her not to leave him. Daniel happy. Daniel
sad. Daniel angry. Daniel respected. Daniel accepted. Daniel loving. And being loved.

On and on the images poured though him, revealing to him the exquisite weaving of the tapestry
of a life Jack had never, ever stopped to realize had once been Daniel's. All the time he had
been with them since leaving, it had never occurred to Jack how HAPPY Daniel had been in
Abydos. He had to admit that when he had walked away from him over a year ago, he had thought
the archaeologist had been slightly nuts to have stayed behind, even for something as tasty as
Sha'uri. (No doubt about it, she was sweet.) What could a man from the twentieth century find
to do in a place like that?

Plenty, it would seem. Daniel had not only found 'something to do', he had found himself. He
had found where he belonged, where he was respected, cherished, VALUED. He had more than fit
in. He had thrived. And he had lost all of it, when Apophis had come to call.

Daniel had not just lost a wife when Sha'uri had been taken from him, he had lost a life, a
home, a family, his very joy. Everything that had finally given his life purpose, meaning and
definition. All things Daniel desperately needed to have. The enormity of Daniel's loss,
finally revealed to him, took his breath away. Things were starting to make a lot more sense
now. No * wonder * the kid had kept to himself, lurking around like a ghost ever since he had
come back to Earth. Guess in his place he wouldn't have felt much like trying to become one of
the gang either. Hard to care about your social standing when your entire world is gone. * Oh
Danny, what you've been through, what you're dealing with and look at the way we've treated you
The way I've treated you. * The man who thought he had understood Daniel now realized that he
had known absolutely nothing. Mind you, he had learned something that made him want to hang his
head in shame.

One man. One overwhelming loss. A hurt beyond understanding. How had he dealt with it? By
feeling sorry for himself? By running away? By lashing out? By blaming himself? By trying to
hurt everyone around him? By shutting himself away from the world? What had Daniel done to try
and deal with what had happened to him? What sort of a man had Daniel Jackson allowed himself
to become?

Before he could answer his own question, Jack suddenly saw images of another man. Day after
day, night after night, a man alone in a room with a gun and a deep, cold place inside him
while locked out and shut out outside a woman who needed him pounded on the door, begging him
to let her in.

* Don't you DARE look away Jack. Not THIS time. Look at it! Look at what you have done. Look at
the handiwork of a much lesser man and see what you learn from this. *

It was all there. It was all too plain. It was all too sad. That didn't make it any less real.

Sara would have helped him. Would have loved him, even after all of that. It was worse than
that - letting her help him would have also helped her. As it would have helped him. If he had
given her the chance. If he had given either one of them the chance.

It would have worked, too. It would have taken time, but they could have gotten through it.
Together. But it never was. Because he wouldn't let it. Wouldn't let her in. Wouldn't accept
her love, her forgiveness, or give of himself to her of what she needed from him. Would not
comfort, would not allow himself to accept, would not believe, turned his back.

Turned his back on grace. More than that, deliberately, willfully, closed the door on any hope
of help, absolution, comfort or redemption. Slammed the door on Sara, heaven and any notion of
the idea that he could be deserving of any sort of consideration after what he had done.

* Oh God! There it is! Just a few steps away. The shame. The secret. It's right there but I
can't - *

Suddenly he felt a pair of familiar hands on the back of his shoulders. Daniel drew up behind
him, silent but there.

"Daniel!"' Jack gasped. "You're here! How?"

"I don't know," his friend said quietly. "But all that matters is that I am here. I'm right
here. I won't leave you. It's just a little farther now. You can do it."

"How long have you been here?"

"That doesn't matter, Jack. You have something to do."

"I - I can't."

"Yes, you can. It's not so bad. Not as bad as you think."

"Don't leave me."

"I won't. I promise."

That was all Jack needed to hear. Suddenly rendered fearless by the knowledge that Daniel was
watching his back, Jack went onward to confront the part of himself he had hidden from long
enough.

There it was. His secret shame. What he had done to himself and a good woman who had deserved
better from him. Why he had done it.

Funny thing. Daniel had been right. It wasn't so bad after all.

It was so simple he almost burst into hysterical laughter. It was also so - him.

Promise made to Sara to love and protect.

Promise that was his sacred duty to uphold.

Promise that was broken when Charlie died.

Only one consequence possible.

Only one fate for an oathbreaker.

Punishment.

The sentence - he was no longer allowed to HAVE a wife he had betrayed and no longer deserved.

No longer entitled to enjoy her love

No longer entitled to receive her forgiveness

No longer entitled to or worthy of giving her love or comfort

No longer entitled to call himself her husband, lover and protector.

He had deliberately driven Sara away in order to satisfy the terms of his own self-imposed
punishment. He had driven everyone ELSE away just on general principle - if he did not deserve
to have a wife he CERTAINLY did not deserve to have friends.

Had he broken his promise?

Had he - really?

It was necessary to believe that in order to justify the guilt, but the plain truth was..

He wasn't God.

He wasn't to have known.

Sometimes, things happen, no matter how hard you try.

And it's what you let it make you

That tells you what you're really made of

Well, so far he had

Had taken the easy path of blame and avoidance

Rather than the higher road trodden by a braver, better man

The man who had made him begin to see the truth of the lie by coming back into his life.

And that was why he had been moved to an almost murderous fury by Daniel. Somehow he had known
that Daniel was a threat to his carefully constructed and cherished inner lie. Somehow he had
known that Daniel would not let him get away such ridiculous, absurd, neatly rationalized self-
pity and moral cowardice.

That's what it was.

That's all it was.

Nothing but foolish pride masquerading as some sort of twisted 'morality'.

That was the big secret that had been making mincemeat out of him all this time.

It wasn't horrible.

It wasn't shameful.

It wasn't even smart.

It was actually kinda - pathetic.

Jack looked in the mirror of himself, saw he was an idiot and started to laugh.

 *Omigod all that fuss, all that fear all that angst about something so - stupid..*

Somehow Daniel was at his side again. Daniel was touching him lightly on the arm, bringing him
back to realizing that there was still something else left to deal with.

Now he knew * why , * he had to face * what * he had done.

"See Jack," his friend said softly. "It wasn't so bad. You're not so bad."

"No Daniel," it wasn't. "It was just. I've been such a fool. Wasted so much time, been so
blind. So selfish."

Daniel turned him around to face him. "You've been * human, * Jack. You're not perfect. But
than neither is anyone else. We all make mistakes. But if we are very lucky, we learn from
them, just a little bit. You can't change what you have already done. The finger having writ
moves on. It's done. But it can stop here. You can leave this place with what you have learned
and use it to be a little better from now on. That's all any of us can do."

"What do I do now, Danny?"

Daniel smiled at him, and squeezed his arm slightly. Holding his eyes, he slowly, deliberate
drew Jack into an embrace that he did not resist.

"You wash it clean and start again. Let it go, Jack. It's time."

Feeling Daniel's arms around him, inside and out, Jack finally let the tears go that would wash
the dark away.

*****

It was hard to fathom that a person could have so many tears inside them.

Jack honestly couldn't remember the last time he had cried. Maybe when he was ten? It certainly
had not been any time within recent memory.

He hadn't shed a tear for Charlie. Not one.

No tiny salt offerings were sprinkled on the shattered altar of his marriage.

He had come to believe that he no longer knew how.

He was wrong.

What was more, he was more than making up for lost time.

The tears poured from him as it seemed as if he was going to weep for every thing in his life
that had ever hurt him. Every droplet that he had kept locked up inside, imprisoned, unable to
expiate his sorrow through their release lined patiently up in the queue for their turn to go
out down the pipe. Jack felt himself crying a literal river, his sob-racked, heaving body held
fast and supported in an iron grip that he knew would not let him get swept away in what was
shaping up to be almost a force of nature. Jack cried his way steadily through a very, very
long list of woe.

However, when he found himself crying over the new bike that Tommy Nelson had taken for a
joyride without his permission and rode into the river when he was 11, Jack figured he had gone
back far enough. It was time to start trying to get a hold of himself already.

It wasn't all that hard. He felt good. Clearer and lighter than he had felt in years. What had
Danny said to him - wash it all clean? Oh, he had done that, all right. Maybe things weren't
completely all better, but they certainly were much better. Much, much better.

Danny?

All through his stormy release, he had been aware of Daniel's faithful, unflagging embrace.
Now, as he came back to himself literally a new man, he was aware that he was not the only one
who had shed tears in this place, in the dark. Daniel had been with him, within. Had seen
everything he had seen, felt everything he had gone through. Being who he was, why should he be
surprised that Daniel Jackson would be moved to tears himself in the face of a friend's pain.

Daniel was hunched forward, his face buried in Jack's shoulder, his own body shaking with the
sobs that were barely audible through the muffling of the material of Jack's jacket. Poor kid.
He had been through just about enough. Time to give back a little of the comfort he had already
been given an abundance of.

"Danny, " Jack said gently. "It's okay, my friend."

No response. No cessation of the sobs. If at first you don't succeed...

"Danny!" He tried again. "Have a heart, you're soaking the material!"

A little bit of an acknowledging squeeze, but still not enough.

Jack sighed. He knew that he had this serious mental problem. It was this little demon inside
him, it just up and out and said the damndest things at the most inappropriate times. He had
tried working on it, but he could just never get it to heel. He could feel the little bugger
getting ready to cut loose yet again and knew there wasn't a damned thing he could do to stop
it.

Very likely he was going to hate himself in the morning, presuming he lived to see it, but
sometimes ya just gotta. gotta.

He leaned back until his lips were very close to Daniel's ear and with a wicked grin the
darkness concealed breathed throatily

"Kiss me!"

Daniel froze in mid-blub.

"Gowan!" Jack continued to tease, "You know you want to!"

Daniel made a sound that was hard to identify due to the its muffled quality, but Jack could
have sworn it was more a giggle than a sob.

There was a further moment of silence, and then Daniel made another sound that was most
definitely an exhaled burst of laughter.

"Jack! I am shocked you would even suggest such a thing!" Daniel responded in a tone that
carried as much indignation as one could pull off talking into a jacket. " You KNOW I'm a
married man!" Then he started to laugh into Jack's shoulder almost as helplessly as he had been
weeping into it.

"I really, really hate you, Jack O'Neill"; Daniel gasped between the gusts of convulsive
laughter.

"No ya don't, no ya don't," Jack soothed

"No, I don't"

"That's my boy," Jack said fondly as he reached back a hand to pat Daniel affectionately on the
side of his head.

Almost the same instant as Jack realized what he had just done Daniel grabbed his hand,
squeezing it, his head shooting up with the shock of his similar realization.

"Jack!" Daniel bellowed into his ear, overcome with joy and excitement. "Jack! Omigod, Jack!"

His heart pounding, Jack found himself similarly impressed with his accomplishment, but he
opted to try and remain a little more cool about it.

"Hey, look what I can do!"

Something that felt like a snap inside, a nauseating swirling of vertigo, his arms wrapped
around the one that Daniel held him with for some sort of anchor as the world spun around in
circles several times and then dazzling, completely blinding light all around.

Behind him, he heard Daniel cry out in similar ocular distress as their eyes, too long deprived
of any sort of light were brutally assaulted by the unexpected change from really, really dark,
to really, really bright.

Jack screwed his eyes shut in an effort to protect them. "Daniel!" He hollered, not quite
knowing why he was yelling; Daniel was right behind him. "You okay?"

Daniel made an unintelligible noise before replying. "Ah, aside from being blinded, I'm
actually quite fine, Jack, thanks for asking." His head dropped back down onto Jack's shoulder
and he mumbled something further, but Jack couldn't make it out. Even so, he had a sneaking
suspicion it sounded something like. "Oh good, what next?"

*I hear ya, Danny. *

Jack was pretty sure they weren't actually blind; the unexpected switch from dark to light had
just temporarily scrambled the equipment. If they just stayed cool and gave it a moment their
eyes would adjust.

He hoped.

However, there really wasn't a lot for it but to wait and see. If you pardoned the expression.
Either way, they would know for sure, fairly soon.

"Can't see, Jack." Daniel wasn't panicking, exactly, but he wasn't happy either.

Well, that settled it. Once they got out of here he was going to take the kid out on the
biggest bender of his young life. If Jack had his way there wouldn't be enough coffee in Brazil
to sober Daniel up for the next week. Hell, he'd more than earned a little oblivion. Whether he
knew that fact or not.

"Sit tight, Daniel, it'll come back in a minute."

"There you go again, always telling me what to do."

"Well, it's a dirty job but someone has to do it. Long as we are waiting, I think I should see
if any other part of me has decided to report back for duty. Hey, it'll pass the time."

It didn't take Jack long to discover that he could move his arms and turn his upper body a
little, but that was it. Never mind, he would take whatever he could get. It didn't make any
more sense than being paralyzed with sensation, but then not a lot of what had gone in here had
been logical or explainable by the reality laws that he was used to conforming to.

What had just happened to them had also not been lost on Jack. The return of the light was one
indication, but the smell of the room they were now in was another one. They were no longer
where they had been. That must mean they had passed the test. But he hadn't heard the voice
telling them they had done so. And they still had one test left to go. Jack did not take the
absence of the announcer as a good sign. There was something different about this last trial.
The break in the pattern and every instinct in his body screamed confirmation of his suspicion.

God, he hated surprises.

Experimentally, Jack gingerly cracked an eyelid open.

Better. Still all fuzzy, but at least he was seeing * something.*

>From the sounds that Daniel was making it sounded as if he was making a similar happy
discovery.

"Ah, that's better," he murmured. "Now my vision is only normal-blurry. Now, what did I do with
my glasses."

Obviously Daniel was recovering faster than he was. Show-off. Also obviously, from the strange
awed sound that was now coming out of his throat, he was seeing something a lot more
interesting that he was.

Which could have been pretty much anything.

Almost the second the sound left him Daniel was scrambling to his feet, still supporting Jack
in his efforts to rise. Before Jack could protest or complain Daniel had gently laid him on his
side. Jack cursed his still obscured vision. All he could see was a blur as Daniel moved
quickly from behind him and then took up a position directly in front of him.

Suddenly, his vision was clear. They were back, back in the room where this whole party had
started. Just beyond where Daniel was standing was the stone stairway, and the Stargate.

*The Gate! For crying out loud Danny, do something smart for once in your young life, take to
your heels and get the hell out of here while you can. Don't look back- just go!*

Something was wrong. Oh shit, Ohshitshitshit.

Pain, blinding pain in his chest, bands of steel crushing the life and breath out of him arms
on fire everything going black oh shit danny I think I've just run out of time..sorry.i won't
be able to take you on that tear.

Startled by the strangled sound of pain that tore from Jack, Daniel whirled to see his friend
lying on the floor, his body convulsing in agony, arms clutched tight to his body, his face
grey, contorted and streaming with sweat.

* No! Not this! Not now! We're so close, Jack! We're almost there! *

He had seen this before. He knew what this was. Also knew there was absolutely nothing he could
do. Not here.

The gate was right behind him. Maybe if he could get Jack back home in time than Dr Frasier
could save him.

* Jack, that heart you claim you don't have sure picked a fine time to quit on you. Well, not
if I can help it! *

Daniel knew he didn't have a moment to waste. Jack was in massive cardiac arrest, and from the
look of him Daniel knew he had to get him to medical aid in less than five minute. He ran to
Jack and started to try to pick him up.

* Whoa. that's better. Chest was hurting like a bitch there, but it's all gone now. *

Jack O'Neill was one confused camper. One second he had been lying on the floor wondering when
the wiggler was going to explode out of his chest and the next he was..

- on the ceiling, apparently. How  - interesting.  Imagine finding out he could fly this late
in life. Well, he was always into trying new things.

* Where was Danny? Oh, there he was, down there! Hey Danny! Lookit! I'm a balloon! Danny!
Danny, I can see your house from here! Danny! You deaf or something! I'm talking to you! *

Oh, hold the phone just a minute. Something was here was really wacked. Daniel wasn't alone. He
was with someone, bending over them, trying to pick them up, that look on his face that meant
that something was very wrong.

What's wrong, Danny?

Full of concern for his friend, Jack willed himself to go down closer to him. Still not
understanding what he was seeing, he watched Daniel trying to pick up a man who was jerking,
and convulsing.

Didn't look good for the poor sap, whoever he was. Jack had seen a lot of death in his time,
and that guy's face had the Grim Reaper's stamp all over it. * You've got a good heart, Danny,
but you're wasting your time. This guy's ticket is punched and he is checking out. *

Jack found himself unaccountably fascinated by the man's face. It looked so.familiar some how.
Like someone he should know if he could only remember.

Jack, you knob! That's you!

* So it is. Well what do you know about that?*

* Damn, I'm good looking..*

* Waitaminute.If that's me down there, then who's up here? *

It was getting harder and harder to think, almost as if there was something fogging up his
brain. Like a film or a curtain gradually being drawn between him and what he was seeing. He
tried to stay close to Daniel, looking first at his anguished face and then at the clay-
coloured one of the man lying limp and lifeless in Daniel's arms, the same face that he used to
see looking back at him in the mirror every morning. Knew he shouldn't be able to see himself
like this, knew there was a reason, but the more he tried to reach for it, the more it just.
floated away.

Daniel pulled himself to his feet, the man with Jack's face in his arms; he turned and began to
sprint toward the DHD. As he moved farther away from Jack, the feeling of 'falling asleep'
distressingly increased. Suddenly thrown into a state of panic by feeling as if he was losing
himself the farther Daniel moved away from him, Jack hastened to make himself follow on
Daniel's heels.

He hovered there, huddling in next to Daniel's shoulder. Daniel didn't seem to know that he was
there, but that was okay, he was rather busy at the moment. He was feeling much better, now
that he had stuck himself to the kid. Looks as if he is going to try and get us home. * Ewwww.
Wonder what going through the gate is going to feel like..*

Didn't matter. Wherever Daniel was going, he was going too.

Daniel had stopped. He was right beside the DHD, but he wasn't looking at it. Wasn't dialing,
wasn't doing anything but holding sack 'o jack and staring..

There was * something * standing on the first step of the stone stairwell.

Jack felt himself swallowing convulsively even though he knew he didn't have a throat anymore.
Old habits die hard. What in the name of everything that was holy and the three stooges in
particular was THAT thing?

It was as if an ancient Egyptian statue had suddenly come to life and was hulking over top of
his best friend looking really tall, really black, and really, really scary.

It must have been ten feet tall if it was an inch and twice as broad-shouldered as Teal'c. If
such a thing was possible. There was something slightly "wrong" about the way its limbs were
shaped. He couldn't quite get his mind around it. The weren't quite human and yet they looked
like arms and hands. And the head.

Neck was way too long, skull too big, long sharp pointy dog ears, deep, deep eyes set in black,
beetling brows and what could only be called a snout, all black like the darkest night, even
the long, high-necked robe it was wearing with some silver piping on the collar and what looked
like some kind of emblem that looked like a set of scales on his chest.

Creepy.

"We are the Anpu." Jack jumped at the sound of the profound, unearthly voice he had heard on
two previous occasions. Only this time, the voice seemed to be coming from Dog-Face.

Daniel wasn't letting this guy push him around.

"Let me pass," he demanded in a very low, very dangerous voice.

* Atta boy, Daniel! You show this guy who's boss! We've got tracks to make. *

The towering alien presence looked down on Daniel with unreadable eyes, saying nothing.

"I said, let me pass," Daniel reasserted with more vehemence. "I have to get my friend home and
I am in no mood for any more of your games."

"Your desire for haste is illogical. Your friend is dead."

* That was it! That was what he had been trying to remember! Why it wasn't possible to be in
two places at the same time and what it meant if you were.*

* He was.dead. *

* Well, for crying out loud if that wasn't just the last thing he needed!*

* Perfect! *

The instant his consciousness acknowledged the truth about his current condition, the shock
snapped the tenuous hold he was maintaining to Daniel. A second's uncertainty was all it took

Something that he could neither see nor resist seemed to seize him and slowly, relentless,
began to pull him back and away from Daniel. It was like being sucked down in the jaws of a
merciless whirlpool, being swirled around and around and away and there was nothing he could do
to stop himself or prevent himself from being pulled away from Daniel.

* Daniel..*

*****

"Your friend is dead."

The burden of those terrible words threatened to press the very life and soul out of Daniel.
After everything he and Jack had been through, after all the trials they had endured together..

It couldn't be so. It wasn't so. There had to be something he could do to make it not so

He dropped down to one knee, tenderly laying the unmoving body of his friend on the floor.
After cradling Jack's head in the crook of the arm that was resting on his supporting thigh, he
used his now free hand to check Jack's throat for a pulse. Breathing a prayer in several
languages simultaneously he pressed his fingers to the spot just below the jaw, desperately
needing to feel that small flutter that would tell him that his friend was still with him.

Nothing.

Nothing..

He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to kick open the very gates of heaven and make
somebody give him some answers, but he pushed it all away. There wasn't time for any of that
now. Calm, calm, icy control. Don't give in. Keep it together. Think, Daniel, there had to be a
way. If Jack ever needed you to use what the powers have seen fit to give you, this is the
time.

Daniel put his hand on Jack's forehead, his mind clear and racing with urgency as he quickly
mentally ran his options.

No pulse. How long had it been since Jack's heart had stopped? He was still warm, but that was
no help. Five minutes. He had no more than five minutes before there was irreparable brain
damage. Think, Daniel! Work it out.

*Won't be time to get him back through the gate now probably too late for conventional medical
intervention only hope here Goa'uld have sarcophagus, they have also had contact with Anpu
using them as model for Anubis/Jaffa helmet Anpu older race, probably have comparable or
superior resurrection technology, may have given it to the Goa'uld might mean they are allies
therefore potentially hostile no indication that they are friendly or sympathetic motives
impossible to ascertain based on experiences to date still there have been rules of a sort have
to use them, play the game, hope that I can convince them to bring Jack back no matter the cost
*

His course of action decided in a matter of scant but precious seconds, Daniel cradled Jack's
body protectively to his chest, and then looked up into the dark eyes of the alien being before
him, preparing to fight to the death if need be, to save his friend.

He was still swirling in the mocking maelstrom, feeling himself being pulled farther and
farther away from Daniel. Jack had no idea where he was being swept away to, only that it was
not where he wanted to be. Despair nipped at him, whispering in his ear that there was no point
in struggling. He should just accept that it was all over, and everything and everyone that he
loved was lost to him forever.

* Balls! There's a time to fight and a time to hand over your weapons and he had not made it
this far without knowing the difference. *

* The clip's not empty yet. You still have rounds in the chamber. As long as there is still an
ounce of will left in you, Jack, you're packin'! Let's party! *

He simply - decided. Not to go. That was all it took

Abruptly the winds released him and he floated downward to what looked like a verdant grove of
trees ringing a small, glassine pool of water. Jack touched down lightly, looking around his
new surroundings, more than a little confused.

Okay, this was better than before, but it still wasn't quite what he had had in mind. Still,
half a loaf was better than none. The place was done up in a nice shade of green, though.

"The Ka'elish-na impedes the Resolution of this evaluation."

Cripes - there was that VOICE again! Right behind him.

Jack whirled and found himself face to face - that is as face to face as someone considerably
shorter could be with someone who was ten feet tall - with the alien he had seen with Daniel.

No, this was a different one. Or he had changed his suit. The emblem on this guy's chest looked
like a white feather. So what, Jack, the rest of him looks pretty much the same. Just as big
and just as scary. Well, you know what they say, the bigger they are yadda yadda.

"Excuse me?" Jack responded.

"You have passed over. You refuse to continue. This is illogical, defies the order. Please
explain."

Jack could gauge little from the sonorous monotone that carried the words, and the exotic face
was impossible to read. Geez, can't a guy ever catch a break?

"I'm not going anywhere until I know that my friend is safe."

"You have passed over. You have no more concerns in the corporeal realm."

"That's what you think, Bucko. I'm betting that you can't make me 'continue' , or you would
have already done so. Now, I don't really give a rat's ass if I am messing up your plans, I am
not going anywhere until you let Daniel go home safe and well. Besides, what are ya gonna do -
kill me?"

"Not the function of this tribunal to compel. One seeks to remain. One resists continuing. One
does not wish to accept Resolution. Powerless to change this. "

"Say what?"

The jackal-headed being made a sweeping gesture with its left arm, seeming to intend to convey
the idea that he should look into the pool behind him.

"Observe."

Well, why the hell not, it wasn't as if he had anything else pressing to do.

Jack sat down on the grassy lip of the pool and leaned forward, peering into the clear, calm
water. Almost instantly an image began to form, upon its surface, one of Daniel and the other
Anpu back in the gate room of this weird place. They seemed to be in the process of having a
similar cryptic discussion.

"Your friend is dead. Even now, his spirit departs. Logical to accept Resolution."

"Wait a minute," Daniel replied quickly. "Resolution? What do you mean? Is the Trial over?"

"One impedes Resolution. One may not remain. One must continue."

* Think, Daniel - what is he telling you? Play the game.*

"My actions have been in harmony with the goal of achieving Resolution?" Daniel began
carefully, trying to think how to word his replies as precisely as possible in a compatible
idiom.

"Acceptable progress has been recorded. One requires Resolution." The Anpu intoned.

Has progress been acceptable enough to warrant the granting of a request?"

"One has earned consideration. Acceptance of Resolution is contingent?

"It is," Daniel said evenly, looking straight into the eyes of the immense being before him. He
held his breath and tightened his grip on Jack.

"Specifics." The dark being continued.

"Define Resolution," Daniel said quickly.

A faint light flared in the cavernous, shaded eyesockets of the being before him.

* Ah, that got his attention. On to something here. Hold on Jack, I won't let you down.*

"One must continue. One may not remain."

"Define continue."

"Path must be accepted in order to expedite evaluation."

"Which path?"

"One may not remain. One must continue. Paths must be accepted."

* Paths! It said paths - plural, not path singular. Was that a slip of the tongue? No, there's
a clue there.*

Daniel decided to take the direct approach.

"I'm not leaving my friend."

"One may not remain. One must continue."

Daniel began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"My friend - must continue. I may not remain."

Again the light flared in the alien eyes.

"Understanding. Impressive."

"Very well, then, this is what I wish. I wish to - continue, in my friend's place. He will take
mine. He will not remain. One will not remain, One will continue."

"You wish your friend to be as you are. You will be as he is."

"I will agree to nothing else. This will constitute acceptance of Resolution?" Daniel replied.

"Such conditions will be condusive to achievement."

"This is within your means?

"What you have requested can be accomplished. I will seek a ruling."

Daniel found himself alone in the room still tightly clutching all that remained to him of Jack

"It will be all right, Jack," he whispered, feeling himself starting to tremble from the effort
of holding back the violent emotions that he did not yet dare give vent to. "I think I've done
it. You're going home. I promise."

Jack turned away from the image of Daniel, jabbing an angry finger back in the direction of the
pool as he rounded on his hulking companion.

"Excuse me, but do I have anything to say about any of this?"

"One has earned consideration." Came the infuriating reply.

Jack stomped around in disgust. He had to do something and there was nothing within reach to
punch.

"Isn't that what your friend said to him?

"One must accept -"

"Resolution," Jack cut him off. Yeah, yeah, I got that bit already." Well, if I heard right -
Daniel has just offered to trade places with me, and your friend told him he could."

"The request is being considered."

"Well, I don't CARE if you are considering it or not - it's not an option! I do not agree to
this exchange - Period! End of story!

"Then we are where we were before. The Ka'elish-na impedes Resolution."

Jack could feel his toes starting to curl with frustration. 'WHAT does that MEAN?" He howled.

"Your friend will remain unless you allow him to continue for you. You will not. You will not
continue if he remains. Nothing is achieved. One will not accept Resolution."

"My 'continuing' will not be enough, will it?" Jack said softly. He was starting to get it.

"Friend will not alter. Will remain unless he can continue for you."

Daniel wouldn't leave him. Bottom line. Wonderful, brave, loyal, stubborn, frustrating
thickheaded Daniel. Jack didn't know what he wanted to do more. Hug him or kick his butt
halfway across the universe.

All the way back home safe and alive where he deserved to be..

He strode over to the being that watched him with unreadable eyes. "Listen to me," he began
slowly. "I'm not as smart as Daniel. I can't talk to you the way he did. But I need you to help
me. I am willing to do ANYTHING - whatever it takes, to keep Daniel alive, and to get him to go
home. He's probably the best person I have ever known. He's young. He has his whole life ahead
of him. He has a wife who needs him to bring her back to her home and her family. He has so
much to offer the world. He's worth three of me - on my best day. Nothing I have ever been or
done in my entire life makes my life worth more than his. If you take him in my place - you
will be making a pretty sorry bargain. He HAS to live. Do you understand?"

The gleaming ebon being was silent for many long minutes. Dark orbs that glittered like cold
obsidian looked down at him, boring a hole through him.

"Can you help me?" Jack further entreated. "Please?"

"There is a way," the Anpu finally said.

"Anything!" Jack replied quickly.

"Friend would not remain if in mind no reason to."

With a sudden chill Jack knew exactly what the creature was suggesting to him.

Daniel would leave him if he no longer remembered that Jack O'Neill existed. It was the ONLY
way Daniel would ever abandon him.

If for Daniel, everything they had ever known and shared together - had never even been.

"Would you have to take it all from him - all of his memories of everything that has ever
happened between us?"

'Yes, or he would remember and remain. It must be all, or not at all."

"You can do this?"

"There would be no point in suggesting it if no possibility of realization existed."

Stupid question, Jack.

"He'll be all right - he won't be hurt in any way."

"Causing deliberate harm is not the function of this tribunal."

He turned back to look at the image of Daniel that still hung suspended upon the surface of the
silent pool. Daniel looked so small and vulnerable, so alone, hunched over and tightly clasping
his late, not so great self.

* Ah Daniel, I'm not even breathing anymore and you still won't let me down. Seems all I've
brought you has been sorrow. Maybe this is better - and kinder after all.*

He turned once more to the Anpu. "Will he be happy?"

"That is not to be known. He will have the opportunity to acquire this condition. In his hands
success or failure"

Jack nodded. "He'll be alive. That's all that matters."

Jack went back to the edge of the pool. He lay down on the grass one last time, and put out his
hand until the fingertips hovered just inches above Daniel's image.

"Good-bye, Danny," he said softly. I'm sorry that we have to do this to you, but I guess you'll
never know the difference when it's over. I don't know where I'm going, but I promise you - one
of us won't forget. Sam, Teal'c - look out for him, will you? The next time he falls in a hole
- and he will - falling in holes is one of the things he does best. God. Danny. I - I ..
Anyway, I won't be there to pull him out. You'll have to take over for me now. Just - keep him
safe."

It seemed that there were a few more tears left in the old reservoir. A couple of them slid
down his face and into the water, distorting the image of Daniel with the ripples that resulted
from the slight impacts.

Shit.

There was so much more he had wanted to say, so much more he wanted. All the things now never
to be done, never to be known, all the might-have-beens that now never would be born. There
wouldn't even be a soul left in the world that would know what was, and what should have been.

He would know. Whatever was going to happen to him, nothing would change what he knew.

He would know.

"I'll remember, Daniel."

He'd better get going. If he put it off any longer he knew he wouldn't be able to see it
through. Tearing his eyes away from his last sight of Daniel he pushed himself to his feet and
strode back to stand in front of the Anpu.

"Okay, do it!"

"You are sure?"

"Do it!"

The jackal-headed being nodded gravely, put a hand on top of Jack's head and said, very softly.

"The Trial of the Soul is concluded. Ka'elish-na suspected is revealed as true. The Anpu salute
and respect. One may be as they were. Return to your friend."

*****

It felt so good to breathe again. To feel lungs draw and fill, to feel blood rushing through
him. Sensation was rendered all the more sweet in realizing how 'flat' everything about his
former condition had been without it.

Jack felt as if he had been the equivalent of a two dimensional man. (And weren't there a few
people who would have had a field day with THAT particular observation.). Flat as a blank piece
of paper and about as interesting. Full awareness of surroundings and the ability to function
and interact within the scenario but without sensory adjuncts to round out the picture. Too
weird.

Even though he had just come back from there he didn't feel that he was qualified to offer an
opinion as to which was the superior or more desired state of being, but there was one
observation he could offer about being dead.

It certainly was..consistent..

Nice place to visit, but he had no desire to live there.

Not quite yet, anyway.

The viewing pool he had left behind had informed him where he would be when he woke up. As if
there ever was any doubt of that. Still, as his connection to life became stronger and the
sensory impressions supplied to his mind by the body he had been returned to began to make more
sense to him, there was no mistaking the fact that his body lay yet in the fortress of Daniel's
unflagging embrace. Jack took a deep breath, smiling in spite of himself at the thought of
Daniel.

He had opened his eyes to an awful lot of different faces in the course of his less-than-
sainted life. At this moment, he could not think of any other face he would rather see than on
the other side of this particular awakening than Daniel's.

At last he pushed his eyelids open. It took a bit more of an effort than he was used to; as if
the temporarily vacated body had been sitting idle too long and had started too seize up, just
a little.

Daniel's face was there, looking down at him as he looked back into eyes that were more than
haunted and tightly ringed with fear. There was a glimmer of sincere relief, but it was being
swallowed up by something vastly darker.

Daniel's ashen visage wore the unmistakable mark of the desire to believe mingled with the
utter annihilation of all hope. Fear rolled out from him in waves.

Jack took a mental step back and shook his head. This was definitely NOT the welcome-home he
had been expecting. Not that the kid wasn't glad to see him - that was certainly there, but
this OTHER stuff.

Daniel hadn't moved. He wasn't even breathing. He continued to hold Jack, the fingers of the
hand that was cupped around his shoulder digging into the flesh so hard that it was actually
starting to hurt. A veritable death grip.

Ah, maybe best to stay away from that sort of analogy for a bit.

Daniel continued to stare at him without seeing him, still holding his breath.

Okay, he was getting severely creeped out here.

Jack pushed himself up from the reclining position his body had formerly been assuming; not an
easy task given that he had to first make Daniel loosen his grip. He turned quickly to his
friend, who had sunk limply into a sitting position on the floor once he no longer needed to
support Jack. Even though Daniel was still looking at him Jack grabbed his face between both
his hands so that there was no possible way Daniel could look away from him.

"Daniel!" Jack said gently, but firmly. "What's going on? Thought you would be glad to see me."

Daniel's blue eyes flickered, ever so slightly. Somebody was home, but they hadn't turned all
the lights back on yet.

"Danny, you're scaring me, now. Talk to me."

This time he blinked, and Jack could feel Daniel's head make a ghost of a nod.

"That's the way," Jack soothed. "Let it out. Breathing would be good, too."

One of Daniel's hands clamped upon one of Jack's wrists, pressing his hand closer to his face.
He expelled the portion of air he had been restraining in his lungs for what Jack considered to
be an impressive period of time and then he was back. The eyes that met his had lost that
vacant look. Daniel looked at him again, and actually saw him.

He quickly averted his eyes and tried to duck his head down in a painfully apologetic motion.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean. It was happening again, I just went - "

"Tell me," Jack said earnestly, tightening his fingers around Daniel's face for emphasis.

* "I lose the people I love, Jack." *

It would seem that Daniel had his own fair chunk of the dark to deal with. But this was neither
the place, nor the time. He had just remembered he had left the water running..

Jack smiled into Daniel's eyes, then put a hand on the back of his neck and used it to draw
Daniel's head into his shoulder for a brief, but fervent embrace of reassurance.

"I know, Danny, I know. We'll talk about it, later, if you want. Promise. But we have to go
now."

Daniel nodded against him, and then they pulled apart. Both men helped each other to their
feet, neither overly surprised that Jack seemed to be not only alive, but completely restored,
whole and well.

Just stood to reason after all. It would be - stupid - to bring him back to life and then stick
him in a body that was just going to quit on him again. These guys were a lot of things, but
stupid they weren't.

They turned to face the two Anpu that were standing on the stairs, on the step that divided the
graduated stone ramp exactly in half. Daniel clung to his side, his right hand locked around
Jack's left bicep.

Jack figured the kid was probably going to be a little clingy for a bit, but he'd calm down
once they got home.

There was a familiar pile of gear on the floor at the foot of the stairs. Their missing vests
et cetera.

"Hey look, we get our stuff back," Jack chimed, a little too enthusiastically. Trying to cheer
the kid up. "Cool!"

Daniel let go of him long enough for them both to re-don the garments, but as soon as that was
accomplished he grabbed hold of him again.

While they were reclaiming their equipment the Anpu descended the small distance from where
they had been standing to the floor level, until they reached the two men.

They stood beside them, no longer impeding the path to the Stargate.

"Depart now." Scales addressed them first.

"Live well," Feather continued.

"Honoured are we," they finished together.

Jack looked from dark face to dark face and shook his head.

"That's - IT? After all we've been through - that's all we GET? No explanations, no apologies,
not even a T-shirt for crying out loud?"

"There will be another time. If promise is fulfilled. Clearer then."

Jack looked at Daniel and made a rather dramatic facial demonstration of the depths of his
impressedness with the clarity of the response.

"Well. thanks. Same to you. Going now. Okay with you?"

The eyes of the twin beings blazed simultaneously and the formerly inert Stargate roared into
life.

"Portal is prepared."

Jack had turned and was about to pull Daniel up the stairs when his formerly silent friend
suddenly began to move back toward the Anpu.

"Wait.. There's just one thing I don't understand. When I was reading. over there, the
instructions, the challenge. it clearly stated that the trials were strictly solitary. Each
person who dared to face the justice of Ma'at did so alone and unarmed.."

"One was tested," Scales replied. "Conditions observed correctly."

Daniel blinked in confusion. "I don't understand."

Jack sighed, dug out his signal device, rounded on Daniel, swept him up off his feet and into
his arms and commenced up the stairs bearing his reluctant burden who was trying to squirm out
of the hold in order to go back down the stairs to ask just one more question..

"Going now. Wave Bye-Bye to the nice doggies, Daniel"

"I wasn't DONE yet, Jack,"

"You're NEVER done, Daniel. I want to get back home before I'm old enough to retire."

Jack continued to mount the stairs.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Got a little busy back there for awhile. You've got a GREAT singing
voice. I'm TOTALLY impressed. Really."

"Jack."

"Yeah, you ever feel like blowing off the exploring the universe gig you've got a great future
in Vegas. No foolin'. I know people. Seriously. I could pull some strings."

"Don't START with me, Jack."

"How do you feel about being called Choirboy?"

Daniel's next comment was lost in the enveloping mystery of the Stargate.

The control room of Stargate Command had been haunted for the past 48 hours. They were spectres
deeply familiar to all who served there, for they were the two remaining members of SG-1.

Sam and Teal'c had maintained a constant vigil for their team mates since returning; one or
both of them had been there every ensuing moment. Watching, waiting. Hoping that the next
moment would be the one when the klaxon would sound announcing that their missing comrades were
on their way home.

Some unspoken protocol of respect restrained the duty personnel who worked noticeably AROUND
them while they waited. Something compelled every one else who watched and waited for the
missing men not to intrude upon the pale-faced, tightly restrained Captain and her Jaffa
attendant. There was nothing to be said or done. Nothing at all but the waiting. It seemed
somehow wrong to violate the sanctity of their vigil or attempt to interfere with their focus
and dedication in any way during their mutual and intensely private ordeal.

Teal'c had been unflaggingly attentive to Sam's every need. He brought her food that she barely
touched, endless cups of coffee that mostly sat by her unheeded. He said nothing, but was
simply, undeniably there, a virtual bastion of quite reserve and constant, comforting strength.

Sam accepted his service gracefully and without question, recognizing that Teal'c was
expressing his worry and concern in the only way he knew how. His whole life, all his training,
his entire reason for being had been dedicated solely to service. Unable to do anything else,
he did the only thing he could.

Sam was more than willing to let him.

Together they had waited. Together they had been united in their confidence that somehow,
Daniel and Jack would be coming through the gate, any time now. However, as the vigil began to
enter the third day they looked at each other less and less, neither one wanting the other to
see what was beginning to be born in both their eyes.

The growing realization that it was by now more likely that the ones they awaited were not ever
coming home than they were.

Teal'c reached her side and extended to her the umpteenth cup of coffee he had brought for her
that morning which she mechanically accepted and then turned to put down on the table beside
her. The sudden, unexpected blaring of the warning klaxon startled her so badly she dropped the
cup, narrowly missing bathing her leg with the hot liquid.

All eyes turned to the Sargeant on station. He was bent over the control console, waiting for
the information that hopefully would be what they had been waiting to hear for so long.

"Incoming travelers," he announced excitedly.

General Hammond came running into the control room in response to the siren.

The Sargeant pounded his fists on the console in triumph, then whirled to face the entire room,
beaming from ear to ear.

"SG-1 signal, Sir!" He crowed. "It's THEM! They're coming back, General!"

Sam and Teal'c had already bolted from the control room and were flying down to the gate room
to welcome home the errant travelers.

They had to push through quite a crowd of people to reach the bottom of the ramp. It seemed
that every single person on the base was trying to squeeze into the gateroom. There were a
great many people who wished to welcome Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson home.

The Colonel literally erupted out of the event horizon, bounding into their midst with Daniel
in his arms. At first, this sight elicited a stab of alarm from both Sam and Teal'c, as they
automatically assumed that Daniel had been hurt. However, the huge grin on the Colonel's face
and his ensuing comment soon put that fear to rest.

"Hey Guys!" He boomed. "Look what followed me home! Can I keep him?"

His sparkling eyes alighted on the infinitely relieved and extremely puzzled faces of Sam and
Teal'c, and if such a thing was possible, his enormous grin got even wider.

"Kids!" He bellowed, starting down the ramp toward them double-time. "Hope you've been good
while I was gone. I brought you back a present."

Daniel's expression was unreadable as Jack dropped him into Teal'c's arms. "Here you go." The
Colonel affected a stern expression. He waggled an admonishing finger at the stone-faced man
before him. "You have to look after him, though. Don't feed him too much and walk him at least
once a day. Sam! You're a sight for sore eyes! C'mere and give us a hug!"

The woman addressed barely had time to emit a whoop of surprise as her Commanding Officer
grabbed her around the waist, flung her in the air and then caught her and spun her.

Teal'c looked down at the bemused young man that he still held in his arms. For those who knew
what to look for, there was the faintest of gleams in his dark eyes.

"Do you require either, DanielJackson?"

"Whaaaa?"

"Feeding or walking?"

Daniel emitted a series of sounds that when added together successfully conveyed both
embarrassment and exasperation.

"Awwrrrgh! Teal'c! Put me DOWN!"

Jack paused in his confusing of Carter long enough to look back and deliver a parting shot.
"Isn't he ARTICULATE! One of his best qualities! Hey, Sir, long time no see, howyadoin?"

This to the advancing General Hammond as Jack raced by him and headed for the crowd.

By this time Teal'c had had his fun and had set Daniel back down on his feet. The young
linguist barely and time to attempt to gather together the tattered shreds of his dignity when
General Hammond bore down on him.

"Dr Jackson!" Hammond addressed him in a tone that was an odd mixture of relief, happiness, and
reprimand. "Would you mind explaining to me what the Sam hill is going on here? Where have you
been and has Colonel O'Neill completely taken leave of his senses?"

"The term is 'cracked,' Sir!" Jack tossed back at him. By now Jack was working the crowd in the
gate room like a slimy southern politician on the last week of the campaign. He was shaking
hands, thumping backs, busting ribs with bear hugs. If there had been any babies in the room he
would not have been above kissing them. "Hi, howyadoin' I'm Jack, pleased to meet ya."

In spite of himself, Daniel was starting to smile at Jack's antics. Something heavy seemed to
lift from his heart, and it appeared to Sam, who was watching him in that moment, that he was
suddenly a little better than he had been when he had first arrived.

Now, where had THAT come from..

But now, the General was waiting for an answer.

Daniel expelled an enormous sigh, pulled a hand through the wings of his hair and shrugged a
little sheepishly.

"Ahhyeaaahweelllll. "It's. It's REALLY a long story, General. I'm not sure where to begin."

"He's not under some sort of.alien influence. is he?' The General advanced, quite seriously.

A barely controlled bleat of laughter burst from Daniel. "Ahhh, no, General, he isn't. It might
look that way, but he's quite himself. Maybe more so than he has been in a long time."

"I think the two of you had best get yourself straight down to medical and get yourself checked
out. If you get the all clear I expect to be fully briefed immediately following your release
by Dr Frasier."

Jack was back from his tour of the room. He pushed past Hammond to rejoin Daniel, throwing a
companionable arm around his shoulders and beginning to pull him along with him back down the
ramp.

He waved a dismissing hand at the general as he walked Daniel past him. "All in good time,
General. All in good time. We'll go and see the good doctor in a minute. I have some business
with my friend, first."

He halted in his tracks, turned to Daniel and announced. "Come, Tonto, our job here is done."

"Whatever you say, Kemasabe."

Daniel grinned at the man beside him as the crowd parted before them, allowing them a clear
passage from the room together. Daniel threw his arm over Jack's shoulders in a gesture that
mirrored the Colonel's. As they left the room, Jack leaned toward Daniel and said very lowly,
"Daniel, tell me about Sha'uri."

If anybody had had a pin to drop it would have made a sound like thunder in the absolute quiet
of the gateroom. There was a further beat of interminable silence and then Teal'c crossed his
arms gravely and intoned,

"Who was that Masked Man?"

More silence as he became the focus of a multitude of astonished eyes.

His imperious gaze panned the room.

"Is this not the correct ritual response?"

Sam felt herself starting to go. "It is," she returned, barely able to suppress the laughter.
"But how did you KNOW that?"

"The Lone Ranger," Teal'c supplied in deadly earnest. A valiant and honorable warrior. I have
seen the images. On something called a VCR. Colonel O'Neill showed them to me. He called them
'tapes.'

Anything else the Jaffa might have had to say to enlighten them further was quite lost in the
laughter.

*****

Epilogue

Ah, another day, another computer-generated designation.

Jack stepped out of the Stargate and into the huge mountain cavern that contained it. A
vaulting rocky ceiling studded with massive hanging stalactites (or was that stalagmites, he
could never keep those two straight) spanned the impressive expanse before him. Jack barely had
time to contemplate the aesthetics of their new location when Daniel came bounding out of the
gate beside him, an arrow winging from the bow, intent on reaching the cave markings in the
shortest possible period of time.

Daniel was pretty excited about this one. From the telemetry they had received from the UAV
there wasn't much here that would have been of interest to the R&D types. No evidence of
unusual minerals or emissions or salvageable technology. No strategic advances to be gained
here, nothing to use against the Goa'uld. Just a big cave with writing on the walls.

Therefore an automatic write-off, move down the list.

However, when Daniel had seen the images the MALP had sent back, he had almost had several
small kittens in quick succession. He immediately had started babbling excitedly about the
Anasazi, saying that the markings were identical to those found here on earth and then he
proceeded to give forth with one of his involved lectures about the subject of vanished
cultures and mysteriously disappearing tribes and this was very possibly an opportunity to
discover the answer to a mystery that had puzzled anthropologists for - oh well, a long time.

Jack didn't know anything about any of that, but he was very happy to see Daniel excited about
something again. So, he'd backed the kid, added his two cents to Daniel's request to have P2R -
ah, whatever the heck the rest of it was - put on the slate as SG-1's next mission.

Least he could do for him, all things considered.

Two weeks had gone by since they had returned from the hall of Ma'at. It had been a very
strange two weeks for the both of them. Jack put the doctor's mind at ease about his antics in
the gateroom, (method to his "madness", he'd finally made Daniel smile), had bluffed his way
through the de-briefing, supplying as many details as he could without sounding as if he really
WAS crazy and kinda skipping over the part where he was dead. He had put as much down in his
"official" report as he dared, but even the more "mundane " details of the mission seemed
increasingly unreal to him. Not so much that he couldn't believe it had happened; it had so
MUCH happened that he had a hard time remembering who he had been before it had happened.

The Jack O'Neill who had been so screwed up inside that he had actually contemplated hurting -
practically the best person in the whole world - was dead and gone. Whereever he had been left
when the Anpu had returned him to the land of the living, it was definitely good riddance to
bad rubbish. Jack found he didn't miss that man one little bit.

He was different now. He didn't care who knew it. His 'grandstanding in the gateroom' had not
simply been for Daniel's benefit; it was his way of making a statement to all and assembled,
all at once.

This is what it is from now on, so you'd better get used to it.

They were. At first he would get a lot of covert, long hard looks, feel eyes upon him as he
passed, but privately he was of the opinion that people were starting to like him better this
way. Even Sam and Teal'c seemed to getting used to the new, improved, 'born-again' Colonel Jack
O'Neill. Mind you, he wasn't quite sure why Carter would have to look away from him and find
something to do whenever Teal'c would turn to her and say the word "Kemasabe."

Yup, he had done a pretty thorough job of cleaning his own house since getting back. Not that
he had stopped there, however. His former behavior toward a certain outcast archaeologist had
not cast Daniel in a very good light with the "community" of the SCG.

* Don't mince words, Jack, you blackballed the kid. Painted a big, fat bullseye in the middle
of his back and all but set him up on the target line of the firing range and said, "go for it!
*

Well, he hadn't wasted much time setting that particular injustice to rights. It wasn't very
long that an entirely new message about Daniel Jackson went out on the wire.

Daniel was under his personal protection, and anybody messed with him, talked about him, made
fun of him or generally did not treat him with dignity and respect would have to answer to him
about it.

It was gratifying to see how much 'pull' he really DID have around this place. Daniel was
initially quite overwhelmed by the sudden reversal of his fortunes. It was plain to see that he
really did not know how to cope with all his new "friends". But Jack had every confidence that
he'd learn.

And Daniel? He'd been pretty quiet, for the most part. There was still some slight shadow
living in his eyes, something he still would not talk about, even after being subjected to some
of Jack's best diversionary tactics. That's why Jack had talked the General into letting the
team take Daniel out for a drive. As soon as he had seen that old, familiar spark in his
friend's eyes, he had known it was the right thing to do.

Jack found himself thinking about that other thing. That term the Anpu had used to refer to
them. The question Daniel had asked them upon leaving.

Jack had no head for languages. He knew the word for 'beer' in about three of them - what else
did you need to know? That was why he had been so surprised to discover that that strange word
was stuck in his head.

Ka'elish-na. Weird. Wasn't like him to remember something like that. But there it was. And it
kept bugging him so much he finally asked Daniel what it meant.

Daniel had looked at him really funny, mumbled something unintelligible and - booked. Jack
ordinarily would have pressed the point, but he chalked up the strange look in his eyes to
Daniel not wanting to be reminded of what had happened so soon, so Jack had just chewed himself
out for being a bit insensitive for bringing it up in the first place and on a long shot had
gone to find Teal'c.

Teal'c response to Jack's request for illumination had given him some serious food for thought.
Teal'c had been unsure if he was correct, but he said that the term appeared to be related to
the Goa'uld word for soul. Kalesh. He went into a further dissertation about suffixes and
diminutives and modifiers to the point that Jack had wanted to say to him if he had wanted a
lecture he would have asked Daniel.

But then he remembered he had asked Daniel.

Anyway, the bottom line was near as he could tell, Teal'c * thought *that the word *might *
mean 'Twin Soul'. Or 'one soul twinned'. Or split. Or divided. He had a couple other
interpretations to offer, but Jack pretty much had the gist of it by then.

Jack didn't know if he should put any stock in it or not, but it sure cleared up a little
something about the response Daniel had gotten to his question.

If that is what the Anpu really thought he and Daniel were it would also have explained why
even though two of them had gone in, as far as the Anpu were concerned, only one was tested.

* For crying out loud O'Neill, it's a little late in life to be going metaphysical. Carter
would have a fit if she got wind of this.*

First one to make a 'better half' joke gets it RIGHT between the eyes..

Well, be that as it may, even though there were some days when he didn't know up from down,
since that day in the dark there were more than a couple of things that he knew beyond a shadow
of a doubt.

Something had happened to him that day. He had gone in twisted, angry, bitter and sick inside,
and he had come out clean. None of that would have happened if it had not been for Daniel...

Daniel?

Crap! Where the hell was Daniel anyway? Take a 30-second break to contemplate the meaning of
life and 'poof"'he's gone again.

"Leg irons.," Jack thought grimly as he began to sprint toward the side chamber where he last
saw Daniel headed, "maybe leg irons would slow him down a little bit."

Sam and Teal'c fell in behind him as the Jackson rescue brigade swung into action yet again.

"O'Neill, have you considered the possibility of affixing some sort of restraining device to
DanielJackson?"

"Or possibly a bell?" Sam added. "It would make him easier to find."

They trotted around another bend. There he was, backing down the tunnel looking up, peering
through the viewfinder of the camcorder as he used the zoom lens to bring in the markings close
to the ceiling. He continued to back away from them, completely engrossed in what he was seeing
in the viewer.

So much so that he failed to see that the cave floor was about to run out behind him.

Sam cried out his name as Jack, who was in the lead, put on a burst of speed.

Daniel started, looked up at them, took a step back and found him self precariously balanced on
the edge of the ledge. He teetered there, perfectly balanced, for what seemed like an agonizing
eternity as Jack swiftly closed the distance between them.

He's going to make it, he's going to make it - he's not going to make it.

Just when it seemed Jack's outstretched hand was going to connect with Daniel's web belt the
archaeologist tumbled over backwards and plummeted out of sight. Jack's hand closed on empty
air.

Sam and Teal'c slammed to a halt, looked at each other and started to count.

1. 2.3.4..5.

Just before they got to '6' the sound of a muffled thump wafted up from the depths into which
Daniel had disappeared. Immediately followed by a small, sheepish "Whups."

Jack was lying prone on cave floor, hanging over the edge, yelling down at the man below.

"Dammit, Daniel, that DOES it! I'm getting you a LEASH!"

"I fell down, Jack,"

"Well, at least he can talk," Sam said to Teal'c.

"That is a good sign," The Jaffa agreed.

"No shit!" Jack bellowed back down at him. "Okay, how bad is it this time?"

"Ah, actually, I think I'm okay. The pack broke my fall. "You think they'll be angry with me in
Supply if I tell them that I've broken another cam corder?"

"Only it it's true, Daniel."

Sam and Teal'c exchanged glances yet again.

"Well, it sounds as if we can stand down on the medical alert," Sam observed wryly.

"We are going to need some rope." Teal'c stated.

She sighed. "Well, do you want to dial, or shall I?"

Just another typical day in the life of SG-1. Sam smiled to herself as she and Teal'c walked
back towards the Stargate, the echoing sounds of distant squabbling music to her ears.

"Well Jack, I understand you're a little mad with me, but yelling isn't going to help. It's not
like I do this stuff on purpose.."

Le End..