(This is the second chapter in a co-authored story. To read the first chapter please visit stanbrooksarah 's page!)

The list of reasons for which Jack would ask for Harry Maybourne for help was short. Extremely short. Quite possibly there were only two; getting General Hammond reinstated, and saving Carter. And it looked like he would soon be using all of them.

"Daniel," he said walking into the archaeologist's lab, "I need to get a hold of Maybourne."

"What?" said Daniel looking up from his computer.

"Maybourne" Jack repeated irritation creeping in, "I need to talk to him. There's a chance he may know what happened to Carter."

"Harry Maybourne? The convicted traitor Maybourne who is on the run, probably not in the country, but will be arrested and executed if he comes back here Maybourne?"
"Daniel!" Jack snapped.

"Okay, okay, just checking," said Daniel, "um, how do I do that exactly?"

Jack sighed and told Daniel about the message boards that the NID operatives used to communicate with each other. As Daniel searched for a board Jack tried to resist looking at the clock on the bottom on his screen. Every second that ticked by was another second longer that she had been gone. Every minute, every hour was another that she had been missing and more time that she could be in danger, or hurt or… he tried not to let himself finish that sentence. He tried not to let himself count the seconds and be consumed by utter desperation.

The most infuriating thing was that they had nothing to go on. Absolutely nothing. There had been no clues, no signs or witnesses. If there was one thing Jack O'Neill was not good at it was inaction and this part was killing him. He needed to be out there turning over every stone and kicking in every door till he found her.

"Done," Daniel said, interrupting his thoughts. "Now what?"

"Now we wait," said Jack darkly.

Teal'c had suggested boxing and while Jack wasn't really in the mood, he thought maybe it would help clear his mind so he agreed. He slid his gloves on, tightening them at the wrist and rolled his neck while thinking maybe it hadn't been the best idea to contact Maybourne. He had shown up alright, but hadn't exactly been a wealth of information. He said he didn't know where Carter was or who had taken her. All he had really done was point the finger at Frank Simmons. They'd hadn't had any luck getting hold of Simmons on the phone, so Jack was planning on going to D.C. tomorrow to confront him in person. He raised his hands and faced Teal'c. Teal'c threw the first jab and Jack barely blocked it in time.

What was really bothering him was Maybourne's parting words which had echoed in his head ever since. "You know how this game is played and the kind of people who play it. You gotta prepare yourself for the possibility that she may not be coming back." He had wanted nothing more in that moment than to beat the crap out of Maybourne for giving voice to his fears. It made the fact that he had no leads even more maddening.

Teal'c was circling him now looking for an opening. His unforgiving right hook caught Jack in the head and for a second he saw stars. He threw a wild punch that missed and caught him off balance sending him spinning off the mat and onto the floor.

"Are you alright O'Neill?" He heard Teal'c ask concernedly behind him. Jack slammed a fist into the ground and even through the glove he felt the force jar his fingers. He threw it off and shook his hand.

"Dammit Teal'c, no I'm not alright!" he said standing up. He rubbed his face with his free hand and took a ragged breath. "Sorry T, it's not your fault."

"You are worried about Major Carter," Teal'c stated simply, unruffled as always.

"Yeah," Jack answered simply. When Teal'c didn't say anything, Jack continued on. "I just keep thinking she's counting on us to come find her and we're letting her down. I just wish…" he trailed off.

Teal'c was silent for a long moment. "I believe that Major Carter knows how you feel about her," he said in his usual manner of understanding the unsaid.

Jack looked up sharply. He and Teal'c had never discussed what had been communicated between him and Carter over Anise's Zatarc detecting device. But Teal'c was there though, he knew. Probably even more than Jack knew for crying out loud. His feelings were confusing at best. "I just have to find her," he said heavily.

Teal'c laid a gloved hand on Jack's shoulder. "We will find her O'Neill," he said, his confidence giving Jack back a sliver of hope.

Sam was starting to feel helpless, a feeling which she did not enjoy in the least. Her escape had frustratingly failed and she was right back where she started, handcuffed to the hospital bed. She didn't harbor any hope that they were just going to let her walk out of here. Not when they went to all the effort to kidnap her in the first place as well as the fact that Adrian Conrad seemed so desperate. So that left being rescued. She was sure that the rest of her team was looking for her, but she was also sure they probably didn't have any idea where to start looking for her either. And with the drugs she'd been given which left her drifting in and out of consciousness it was hard to know how long it had been since they grabbed her.

All of this for something Sam had no control over. Not that she had a choice, but hosting Jolinar had turned into nothing but trouble for her and the rest of SG-1. Not completely true, she reminded herself. If she hadn't carried Jolinar she wouldn't have known where to find the Tok'ra and they wouldn't have been able to save her dad. Dad...she thought plaintively. It had been a while since she'd seen him and she wished she could have said goodbye to him. And to Teal'c Daniel and the Colonel.

She shifted on the bed to try and get comfortable and let her thoughts drift. It was easier to always think of him that way, to always call him by his title, even when they were off duty. It hadn't escaped her notice that he never called her Sam anymore. It was a small reminder for both of them of how things had to be. That no matter how she felt about him, it didn't change anything.

Finally, finally, Jack had something. Unsurprisingly, Mayburne had been less than entirely truthful. Surprisingly however, he had come through with a lead and they had a possible location where Carter might be, a hospital outside Seattle. He, Daniel and Teal'c were on their way there now with a full SWAT team. The ride seemed to be taking forever. Hurry! He urged the van with his mind. He just prayed that they weren't too late.

Turns out he got there just in the nick of time. Sam had thought it was for sure over for her, and there he was bursting through the door and yelling at the doctors. She had never been so glad to hear his voice. Her body was buzzing with the adrenaline of coming so close to dying and realizing that she would never get the chance to tell him how she felt. In retrospect it may have been good she was handcuffed to the bed or she may have done something that she would have regretted later. She wasn't sure what she had expected from him beyond his asking if she was alright, but he was all business. That was fine, she could be all business too. They still had to get out, still had a job to do and a Goa'uld to find. Later there would be time to talk.

"Sam!" She heard Daniel's voice and looked up to see him pushing through a group of SWAT and medical personnel who had descended on the building.

"Whoops!" he said as he almost knocked a harried looking EMT over. Once he finally reached her he wrapped her up in a huge hug. "It's so good to see you Sam. I'm so glad you're okay," he said, still holding her tight.

Sam squeezed him back. "It's good to see you too." Teal'c was right behind Daniel carving a much wider path through the crowd.

"I am also pleased to see that you are well Major Carter," Teal'c said.

"Thanks Teal'c," Sam said as Daniel finally let her go. "Did you guys see Colonel O'Neill?"

Sam had felt her heart stop when she found the Colonel lying face down on the floor of the boiler room. After being so relieved to see him just minutes earlier she was terrified that she was going to lose him. When she knelt down next to him and realized that his vest had stopped one bullet and the other had missed anything vital she was floored with relief. He was even coherent enough to make a joke.

"Yeah," Daniel was saying, dragging her away from the memory, "they brought him up just a few minutes ago. They said he's going to be just fine, but they're going to airlift him back to the SGC, let Janet deal with him. Man was he pissed though, going off about Maybourne shooting him. Kinda glad we're on a different plane back to Colorado."

"I still can't believe that he brought Maybourne here with him in the first place," Sam said.

"Well, Jack went to him for help finding you," Daniel said.

"He did what?" Sam asked incredulously.

"I believe that Colonel O'Neill would have done anything in an effort to find you, Major Carter," Teal'c said stoically.

"Well," Daniel said into the slightly awkward silence that followed Teal'c pronouncement, "shall we go home?" He threw his arm around Sam's shoulder and together the three of them headed out of the hospital.

Sam couldn't move. She was lying on her back in a dark room lit only by a one blinding light over her eyes. She tried to raise her hand to block out the light but she was completely immobilized. A figure stepped into her field of vision, masked and wearing gloves. He held some sort of drill which he placed in the middle of her forehead.

"Since you won't tell us how it left you," the man said in a cold voice, "we shall have to dig it out of you."

"No!" Sam yelled trying to shake him off, to get away, to do anything but it was no use. He activated the drill and it began a high pitched whirring. It was boring through her skin, her skull, the pain burning through her mind. She screamed and screamed…

Sam sat bolt upright in bed heart hammering so hard it felt as though it would escape her chest. The clock on her nightstand said 1:37 am. She was covered in a cold sweat and she started to panic again when she couldn't move her legs only to realize they were twisted up in her sheet. She kicked her feet in an effort to free them and tried to force herself to take deep breaths to calm down her racing pulse.

It had been a week since the rest of her team had rescued her, and this was the fifth night she had woken up from nightmares. She couldn't figure out what was wrong. This wasn't her first brush with death. Hell, she couldn't even count how many close calls she'd had since joining SG-1. Regardless, she had to get this under control. She was set to go back on off-world missions in three days and she needed to be able to focus. She rubbed her face, her eyes were burning and her throat was raw, she hadn't been able to get more than a couple hours of sleep all week. Even when she was awake she was jittery and nervous. Every sound made her jumpy and she kept rechecking that her doors were locked. She hated feeling this way, couldn't stand the constant dread. The thought of anyone finding out how helpless she felt was almost worse than the nightmares, but she had to do something.

Sam reached for the phone next to her bed thinking she'd call Janet. She was halfway through dialing her number when she abruptly set the phone back down. Best friend or not, Janet was still the Chief Medical Officer at the SGC and would consider it her duty to pull her from active duty and stick her in front of a shrink if she thought Sam was really losing it. She could call Daniel or Teal'c. Either one of them would listen and empathize. But they weren't who she really wanted to talk to.

She dialed the number four times, each time hanging up before she finished it. She almost gave up, almost decided this was crazy and she should just try and get some sleep. Shaking her head she took a deep breath, picked up the phone and finished dialing.

"Hello?"

"Hi Sir, it's me," she said.