"What the HELL do you think you're doing?"

Daniel jumped at the sound of the Colonel's voice, and quickly got off the hospital bed. "Jack, this isn't…"

Alexa shot Daniel an angry look. "It is exactly what it looks like. I was crying. He gave me a hug. So court marshal him! Oh wait, you can't! He's a civilian!" As the petite lieutenant finished her tirade, she clutched her side as intense pain shot through it.

Dr. Fraser rushed over. "Colonel O'Neill. Dr. Jackson. I will not have you agitate my patients." She took Daniel and Jack by the arm and escorted them from the room, before returning to up her patient's pain medication.

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"I swear, Jack. She was crying. I… don't like crying… women. They scare me. A lot." Daniel tried to explain what had happened back in the infirmary to his colleague and friend.

Jack shot him a skeptical look. "Yeah, I believe ya."

"Really. I swear."

Jack clapped the linguist on the shoulder. "I'm just messing with ya, Danny-boy…"

"Colonel O'Neill! Dr. Jackson!" An out of breath marine ran up to the two. "General Hammond wants you in the briefing room now. The Tok'ra have contacted us, sir."

"Right away. Carry on, soldier."

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Lieutenant Dumas was awakened from her drug induced slumber by a medical team rushing in with a stretcher. She looked around groggily, attempting to find out what was going on.

"Dr. Fraser? Doc?" The pain meds in her system made it hard for her to concentrate. She couldn't understand what was going around her and that was frightening. "Doc?"

Random words and bits of hurried conversation penetrated the haze that enshrouded her mind.

"Apophis…"

"He's dying…"

"Not Tok'ra… no IDC…"

"Bad off…"

"… EKG… hook up… monitor…"

"The host…"

"… looking for him?"

"Why… contact us?"

"… Jaffa?"

"Apophis…"

Alexa blinked her eyes trying to see what was going on, her heart rate and respirations increasing rapidly. The confusion was continued, but Dr. Frasier was at her side, reassuring her. "Calm down, Lieutenant. There's nothing to worry about here. We just have a surprise visitor. He'll be here in the infirmary with you."

"Who? What's going on? Not Jack… the Colonel, is it?"

"It's Apophis. But don't worry, he's being restrained and guarded." Janet laid a reassuring hand on the young woman's arm.

Apparently the young woman didn't quite understand what the doctor was telling her. "Not as bad as Jack." Or maybe she did, knowing Colonel O'Neill's attitude about being in the infirmary.

"I'm going to give you so more medicine now. You over-stressed yourself with the crying and yelling this morning. You need more rest."

"The goa'uld's not going to get me while I sleep, is he Doc?" Alexa mumbled as she started to slip under once again.

Janet half smiled. "He's worse off than you. You could easily take him. Nothing's going to happen to you."

"Night, Doc."

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Alexa woke to the sound of her father and a deep voice she, even in her stupor, recognized as a goa'uld.

"O'Neill. I am dying." Apophis. Doc mentioned something about him, she remembered as the cobwebs cleared from her mind.

"My heart bleeds for you." That was Jack O'Neill alright.

"You lie poorly. It is you who have done this and you rejoice."

"Not really. What do you want?"

"To live."

"Can't help you there. That's between you and your god. No, wait a minute. You are your god. That's a problem." Alexa smiled; he couldn't stop antagonizing anyone, could he?

"I am worth far more to you than you will admit."

"Tell me. What are you worth?"

"Your people are still primitive. You will be destroyed."

"You don't look like you're up to it." She turned her head slightly to see the snakehead strapped to a cot a few beds over.

"Not me. There is another."

"Yeah. Who?"

"There is much you would learn from me, Tauri." He paused breathing raspily. "But for that knowledge, there is a price. A new host."

"A host?"

"So that I may live. In exchange for all the knowledge of the goa'uld. The secrets of star travel, our weapons, our power."

"All that…"

Apophis cut the Colonel off before he could finish his last sarcastic sentence. "In time, more!"

Jack leaned down, getting into the dying man… snake… goa'uld's face and spoke. "Go to hell."

"A single human life is worth so much you would risk a world?"

"That's right. That's why they call us the good guys. Doc, let me know when he dies." Jack turned and started to leave the room.

"Sokar!"

"What?" Colonel O'Neill tuned to face him.

"An ancient and powerful goa'uld. You have helped him to become strong. The last of my loyal Jaffa died stealing me from his grasp. He will not rest until I am found. That is why I chose to come here. So that in death, I could be assured you will die with me."

This time the Colonel left without throwing any parting words to the stupid snake. As the Colonel passed Alexa's bed, she lifted her good arm in a half salute. He simply nodded at her, a slight grin in his eyes at her attempt to make him smile. The Doc, noticing she was awake, came over and checked her vitals.

"You're doing well, Lieutenant. You should be out of here within a day or two."

"Sooner the better, Doc Frasier." She returned with a glance at the goa'uld sharing the infirmary.

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Lieutenant Dumas was allowed to do some of her paperwork later that day at the request of several of the nurses. She had been pestering them all day for something to do or a way to get out of the med center and away from the snake. She looked up when Dr. Jackson came into the room and was about to call out a greeting when she saw the look on his face.

"Is he conscious?"

Apophis' eyes opened instantly. "Come Daniel."

"You know my name?"

"Because of what we hold in common. Amaunet, my Queen."

"Her name is Sha're. She was my wife."

"They are one and the same."

"Amaunet possesses her. Sha're is a prisoner. But she is somewhere. I want you to tell me where."

"Amaunet… I loved her… You do not believe me?"

"No, I don't believe that is possible."

"How could you? Our minds, our thoughts, our very beings are so much greater than yours… Amaunet… I knew from the beginning she was the vessel for my Queen."

"If you don't tell me where she is, I will kill you right here." Alexa, who had been listening in while keeping up the pretense of working, paused to take in this new side of the quiet, intense archaeologist who had listened to her just this morning.

"She is dead. Murdered by Sokar." The snakehead convulsed, giving out a moan of pain. Daniel turned and left, not acknowledging anyone on his way out.

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Between the Tok'ra and Sokar, the base was kept busy and on alert as Lieutenant Dumas recovered in the infirmary, watching Apophis slowly die.

The snakehead and the soldier didn't have any contact whatsoever baring glances on the part of the recovering patient. She watched as the Tok'ra, Martouf, came to talk to the goa'uld. But all Apophis would say was his Queen's name before screaming in agony.

Then something no one would ever expect to happen did. At the end of Apophis' painful howl, a voice cried out in Ancient Egyptian.

She watched as Teal'c faced Apophis while he thought no one could hear him. She listened to the Jaffa tear the snakehead apart with his words, telling how the Jaffa will use the goa'uld the same way they have been used for generations.

She watched as Apophis antagonized the last of SG1 by telling Captain Carter that he felt the presence of a symbiote and she would make a Sokar a lovely new queen.

She watched Apophis' life slowly leech away as all medical intervention was denied to him.

And when the host awoke after as Apophis slipped into a sort of goa'uld coma, she sat by his side, trying to comfort the poor man until someone who spoke the language more fluently could get there. But before she was helped back to her bed, she leaned down to the dying man and whispered in Ancient Egyptian, "May you see your wife and children in the afterlife and rejoice with them for eternity. Go in peace."

The scribe squeezed her hand as Dr. Jackson came into the room followed by Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Frasier.

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When Daniel walked into the commissary a two days later and saw the brunette Lieutenant Dumas sitting by herself at a table, he chose a few dishes at random and sat down across from her before anyone else could. "Hey, you're looking better."

"Doc released me earlier today. Said in a couple more days I'll be ready to go off world… at least physically." She made a face.

"What's that mean?"

"I have to meet with the shrink to make sure I'm mentally able to continue off world missions. Something about the trauma of losing team members." She pushed aside the crusts of the sandwich she just finished and scooped up a spoonful of red jello. "Thomas is really bad off. He'll probably never go off world again. So either I'll be assigned to a new team or get a new team assigned to me if… when I pass my mental check-up."

"That's good." He paused for a second. "I heard what you said to the host. It was very…"

"He deserved it after all he's been through. Having to live that kind of… nightmare for at least five thousand years. At least we could make his death a little more comfortable. I just wish we could have made sure Apophis stayed dead. More for that scribe's sake than any other reason."

Daniel wanted to lighten the subject from the goa'uld who had darkened the last few days for many at the base. "I've been meaning to ask you, if Jack's your dad, then why don't you…"

"Have his last name?" She smiled at Daniel.

"I'm sorry if…"

"No, I understand. You find out a friend has a kid you never knew about, you want to know stuff." That wasn't the only reason that Daniel wanted to know more about her, but he shrugged in agreement. "My mom and dad were engaged. She thought she could get him to quit black ops and settle down, maybe even retire. She couldn't, so she broke off their engagement and left. He got a card when we were born that said something to the effect of 'You're a father! Stay away!' Mom didn't want us…"

"Us?" The archeologist was fascinated with this woman.

"My twin and I, Cody. I didn't meet Jack until my mother's funeral, when I was six-years-old. In honor of our mom, we kept her name. Never took his."

"And Alexa Dumas?"

She laughed. "My mom taught literature. Cody's lucky she thought he was a girl or he would have been Alexander."

"Interesting." Daniel had been trying to work up the courage to ask this question for several days. "Do you eat dinner?" Well, maybe not that question.

"On occasion I have been known to eat dinner." She bit back a smile, attempting to look as serious as possible.

"Would you like to eat dinner with me sometime?" Daniel fidgeted in his chair looking anywhere but at her face.

"Are you asking me out on a date, Dr. Jackson?" She couldn't hold the smile back anymore.

He sucked in a breath and looked strait at her. "It's Daniel… and yes."

"Sorry, Daniel. I don't date guys with longer hair than me." She flicked a hand over his hair before picking up her tray and leaving the table.

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A/N: Oooooo… Jack hasn't found out about Alexa and Charlie. Will he? When? Where? Who will tell him::laughs evilly: Sorry, he's not going to find out anytime soon. Alexa doesn't want to tell him and Daniel won't betray her confidence.

Thank you to all my reviewers. You're encouraging me to keep up with this fic. Thanks to ­­Tere for mentioning I didn't say why Alexa doesn't have her father's name. Just so you know, midterms are this week and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to work on this, but once Spring Break hits… I'll have a little more time.

And I know, I know that in the episode Apophis is in an isolation room, but I'm taking literary license and making it more interesting. And I know I messed with Daniel and Apophis' conversation, but it would be really weird for him to ask out Alexa just a few days after a conversation like that. And I know it is cruel for Apophis to say she is dead when we all know she isn't, but Daniel was already getting over her and this was the final hurdle he had to leap. Now he's free to pursue other angles. :waggles eyebrows: