Two o'clock in the morning and, for once, Sam is tired. It's the kind of tired that comes after a day of panicking quietly while still trying to remain optimistic and logical – the kind that sleep has no time to fix. Her hands are starting to tremble with the amount of caffeine in her system, but her mind refuses to be fed by the chemical.

"I can't sleep now," she tells herself aloud, turning back to the graphs on her screen. But it takes almost all her effort to keep her eyes there, let alone process what they're telling her in any useful way. Besides, even through her haze of sleepiness, she's moderately certain they're just telling her what she doesn't have and thus are completely futile.

"I don't know if I can find a way to fix this in time," she says to herself, leaning forward onto her arms, resigned.

Suddenly, there's a hand on her shoulder. "You'll think of something," says Jack. "We'll be okay."

"Will we?" she asks, defeated.

"We will," he tells her firmly, squeezing her shoulder. "We will."

Chapter Nine

Teal'c and I meet Daniel holding Jack with the older man's arm slung over his shoulder, and still unconscious, in a discreet corner of a corridor.

"Sam!" Daniel greets me, relief spreading like spilt joy over his features. "We heard an explosion. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, fine," I say with a smile. "The device has been destroyed." It's then that I realise the sudden levity of my heart: the battle for everyone else is done, and we're on our way home.

"Okay," says Daniel in sudden resolved determination, breaking through my moment of silent, wonderful realisation. He's panting a little with the effort of carrying Jack. "We need to find our gear and get to the 'gate." I rush to his side and retake half of Jack's weight. Here, underneath this weight, I realise if just for the time being, I really do have a purpose: to protect Jack and Daniel and Teal'c and help them all home safely. Even though Jack's leaning on my shoulder, I feel lighter still.

Although, in a few metre's walk down the hall, I find myself breathing with much the same lack-of-ease as Daniel and I make a point not to think about how we'll cope with the journey to the Stargate.

"We have no need of our gear, Daniel Jackson," says Teal'c, peering around the corner ahead of us and indicating that it's clear. "We need only to escape."

"What about our GDO's?"

Teal'c goes to reply, but stops himself. He clearly had forgotten about that.

I frown, patting my skirt. Luck had been unkind enough to us today, surely. Could it be that maybe...? Did they… "Aha!" I breathe, not wanting to be too loud in my triumph. I pull the device Jack gave me from within the layers of my skirt. "Still got it!"

Daniel huffs a sigh of relief. "The GDO!" he exclaims softly. "Way to go, Sam!"

"Indeed," chips in Teal'c with a smile.

"And I thought this dress wasn't good for anything!" I say, the feeling of falling through the air as a result of tripping on my skirt now enshrouded in a somewhat humorous light. "Now let's go!"

Teal'c checks around the corner once more and then deactivates his weapon. "I fear we have little time," he says. Then, he takes Jack from between Daniel and I and puts him over his shoulders. "We will be able to move faster this way," he says, sounding as though he was exerting no extra effort at all. He reactivates his weapon. "You must go ahead and clear the way."

My weapon squeals into activation and, with Daniel close behind, we move down the corridor.

Two guards stand outside the transportation ring room, oblivious to our presence. Daniel and I co-ordinate our efforts; soon, they are lying unconscious on the ground. We drag them out of sight.

Something sticks in my brain and my brow furrows. "Hang on a minute," I say, thinking, as Daniel heads toward the control panel. "I have an idea." Both Daniel and Teal'c look a little worried, but they help me to drag the guards to the middle of the ring. With the push of a button, I send them to our destination.

"What did you do that for?" Daniel asks. I push him back behind the door frame, finger poised on the trigger.

"Just wait a minute…" I say, frowning.

Wait for it…

The rings activate again, bringing five, no six, troops up, guns at the ready. Before they've blinked half of them are rippling with the blue charge that rips through them and are falling to the ground; the other half are taken out a second later by Daniel and Teal'c who follow my lead.

"That should reduce our resistance on the ground a bit," I say as I start to drag the bodies out of the circle. Teal'c and I stand in the centre; Daniel hits the combination before joining us and we're disappearing in a beam of light in a second.

It's dark outside. The stars are hidden behind clouds and the moon is at its thinnest, just penetrating the billowing sky. My eyes take but a moment to adjust to the low light conditions; my finger fires independently twice more, and the rest of the guards in the area fall to the ground.

We're plunged into silence. "That was a bit… easy," I say.

There's a howl in the distance – long and loud. I hear the bite of twigs snapping under steps and the barks of gruff voices.

I've spoken to soon.

All discretion forgotten, I yell, "Run!"

My breath comes in gasps. One foot over another, that's all that goes through my mind. That, and I hope that I don't trip over this stupid dress. Again. The GDO is clutched in my hand; I can feel sweat accumulating there, but it strengthens my determination and I hold on even tighter. Balls of orange light are flying around all of us, some coming so close that I can feel the trail of hot wind on my skin, and smell the slight singeing of clothes. I spare a glance behind to Daniel and Teal'c, who is still carrying Jack, every couple of seconds, hoping that they'll still be there when I next look around.

I'm confronted by a guard that steps out of the shadows of the bushes, his weapon aimed at me. I panic, my other hand hastily raising my own weapon; my eyes are wide, but my legs keep on running; I try to fire but I think I've missed the trigger; I almost crumple to the ground in relief as he collapses in a blue hum.

"That was close," I murmur to myself. "Way too close."

I can hear Daniel and Teal'c running alongside me now. I spare as little effort as I can to marvel at Teal'c's incredible strength: he's carrying the weight of two people and yet he still manages to keep up. Despite this, I cannot help but worry for both of them. Despite his best efforts, Teal'c is beginning to tire – as are we all – and Jack is in such a vulnerable position on the larger man's shoulders.

The weapon fire that's inches from hitting us is becoming more and more frequent. If we don't stay at our current speed, that'll be the end of our escape. We'll be stuck in this dreadful place with that horrible man.

The mere thought of Ba'al puts extra energy into my steps and determination in my senses.

The Stargate is beginning to come into view – it's like a ray of sun fighting to be seen in an ocean of storm clouds. My heart flutters. We're going to make it! I'll be home! I'll be able to remember again with that device that the Tok'ra has!

Those moments of hope make me forget about the fire that's raining upon us. Forget too much.

There's a groan behind me, and my hope plummets. "Daniel?" I call, coming to a stop immediately and searching beside me. "Daniel?"

"Sam! Back here!" I rush back, looking at the people firing at us in the face and returning fire with all that I'm worth. I drop to my knees beside Daniel and stare in horror at Teal'c. There's a glistening circle in his side that's only just visible in the limited light, but I know its blood.

"Oh my God," I say, watching helpless as Daniel removes his jacket and presses it to Teal'c's side.

"We must continue," groan's Teal'c, trying to get to his feet.

His efforts are in vain – he is simply no longer capable of carrying both himself and Jack. My mind races: there must be something I can do!

I shove the GDO into Daniel's hand. "Take this and activate the Stargate," I order, wasting no time and wrapping one of Jack's unconscious arms around my neck. "We'll be right behind you."

Daniel seems to know better than to argue. We don't have many other options anyway, what with me not remembering what symbols to press or codes to use, and Jack and Teal'c in no state to do it instead. I turn to Teal'c as I haul myself and Jack up. He's already beaten me to his feet. "Can you walk?" I yell over the noise of guards shouting and shots firing.

"I can," he replies, but I can hear the lack of resolve in his voice. We begin to move again, but it's so much slower than last time. Although I try to at least jog, the extra weight I'm carrying has slowed me to a little faster than a brisk walk; Teal'c has been reduced to a speed slightly slower than my own, and that scares me. He must be in a lot of pain, and yet he hardly complains.

We arrive at the dialling device just as the Stargate whooshes to life. I nearly stumble back in awe: I've not seen it active before. It's beautiful…

Well of course it's beautiful. Aside from the azure ripples that dance within its boundaries, it's the thing that's going to save all our lives and all of my sanity.

Daniel's typing on the little device that transmits the code to tell Stargate Command that we're us and not the bad guys. I manage to manoeuvre around and shoot oncoming enemy forces. But even as I do that, I know our luck is running out. I'm itching all over; Daniel can't type that code in fast enough; I can never run towards that wall of shining water quick enough.

The troops are getting harder and harder to keep at bay, and I'm finding it more and more difficult to stay standing. "Don't worry, Jack," I tell him, perhaps just to hear my own words of comfort. "We'll be home soon." It's a good thing he can't hear me. He would have spotted the lie immediately. Without turning, I call to Daniel, "We ready to go Daniel?"

"Code's through!" he yells back.

"Go, go, go!" I call, shuffling back as Daniel bolts for the Stargate's blue surface. "Teal'c, go!" The big man can hardly breathe as he half stumbles, half limps across the threshold and out of sight. "We'll be okay," I whisper to Jack as we push towards the Stargate. "It's our turn."

More orange. More singeing. More scalding breezes. The arm holding Jack to my side is aching like crazy, but I hold on tighter as we move closer and closer to home.

The blue wall is but metres away. Home! My memories! They're there!

My gasping breaths at some stage had turned to sobs, and they're getting worse with each step I take. I have to get there! It's so close…I have to get there!

Step, step. Closer, closer.

I'm there!

And then a cry tears from my throat. My side is stabbed with a blade of fire but the pain is short lived. Mist enshrouds my brain. Blackness steals conscious thought. Numbness steals my energy. I feel my grip on Jack loosening; we're falling, both of us.

I've failed him, I think from afar, and that hurts far more than my side. We're still falling.

"Not him," I plead to no one for Jack. "Not again," I plead for myself.

Then, there's a slurp, and I am claimed by unconsciousness.

:: Author's notes ::

Okay. Chapter Nine's finally up. Sorry it took so long~ I hope you enjoy it ^^

Next up's the epilogue, although with the apocalypse of NaNoWriMo approaching fast (check it out. It's fun nanowrimo dot org) and work, I'm gonna have trouble finding time to write it. Possibly even longer than this one. T_T

Thanks for reading this installment. Have a really nice day ^^