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Ab Ovo         
by Kikkimax

Tuesday, daybreak, CX7-298

An intense smell of sex and sweat mixed with the heady sweetness of wine and perfume, along with the distinct tang of blood. The odd combination finally infiltrated Daniel’s drugged brain enough to slowly bring him out of his shallow, restless sleep. He released a groan as he rolled his face into the silky pillow under his cheek to center himself before he opened his eyes.

Everything hurt; every muscle felt strained, every breath burned in his chest. His left lower back felt like it was on fire, but a chill breeze caressed his exposed buttocks sending a shiver up his spine. The rest of him, however, was warmed by the press of unclothed flesh on either side.

Somewhere nearby a series of grunts and moans sounded suspiciously like the soundtrack of a porno flick minus the bad music and Daniel tried hard to tune it out. When at last he was able to lift his head, he had to fight off a rising sense of panic as he looked around at the sea of naked and mostly passed-out bodies strewn about on pallets and pillows all around him. He struggled to remember but had no clue as to how he’d come to be in the middle of what had apparently been a wicked orgy.

On his immediate left a nude woman snuggled up to him, her arms wrapped around his neck as she lay wedged under his side. Next to her a large, hairy man trapped the two of them under a heavy arm and leg. Both slept soundly. Daniel levered himself up onto an elbow and patted the woman’s face tentatively.

“Um, excuse me,” he whispered hoarsely, astounded he could make any noise at all through his parched throat. The woman’s head rolled back and her arms relaxed enough that Daniel could escape her embrace so he tried to push away from her, hindered by the sharp pang of new pain and the mass of the man practically on top of them.

“Excuse me,” he uttered a little louder to the man, wincing at his own voice echoing in his ears. Able to untangle one of his arms he pushed as hard as his injuries would allow until the man mumbled something unintelligible and rolled away.

“Sorry,” he said as he accidentally bumped the somehow familiar looking woman on the other side of him as he tried to rise, stopping to gape at the crimson stains smeared across her alabaster skin. Cautiously, he looked for the source of the dried blood, but she appeared uninjured so he gingerly backed away. Much to his relief, none of his new acquaintances woke.

Staring down at his own body, Daniel felt somewhat nauseated by the gory handprints and smears that covered him. A trail of love bites and teeth marks showed through the bloody body paint on his belly and thighs. “Great,” he swore, covering himself with his hands as he scoured the area for his clothes, trying to ignore his growing sense of lightheadedness.

The pain in his back worsened as he bent to pick up a black tee shirt that protruded from under a nearby couch. When he raised his arms to put it on, a hot, wet stream snaked its way down his back and leg to drip into the floor. After pulling on the shirt and tugging it as low as it would go, he stood there dazed and bleeding, staring at the growing pool of red around his foot.

A voice next to his elbow startled him and he swung around to face the young man who spoke again urgently as he showed Daniel a roll of gauze. Though he didn’t understand all of the words Daniel didn’t miss the offer to bandage his back. He nodded and turned away modestly. Uneasily he lifted his shirt to let the boy wrap his torso tightly with the woven material, flinching each time he passed his hands over the wound.

As he squinted and scanned the bodies for any sign of the rest of his team he noticed a handful of servants maneuvering through the crowd to treat the wounded even as they slept. Most of the people were out cold but a few still moved and thrust together or groped about looking for a willing partner.

Out of the corner of his eye Daniel caught a glimpse of olive-drab which stood out in dull contrast to the colorful native clothing as another servant gathered the ripped and torn fabric from the floor.

“Wait!” Daniel called as he nodded his thanks to the bandage boy and moved as quickly as he could toward woman. “These are mine,” he said and anxiously tugged the pants free of her grasp.

She dropped her head subserviently and bowed before moving away. Daniel took the opportunity to step into the fatigues and found them just the tiniest bit too big. “Jack,” he muttered with dread as he mentally confirmed to himself that he wasn’t alone in his predicament.

“Oh, God, Sam!” he gasped, hoping she had somehow not been a part of the festivities.

With a new sense of urgency he disregarded the angry pull of his muscles and the increasing wooziness as he waded through the perverse mass of arms, legs and various other body parts. Fervently he called out for his friends, “Sam? Jack?”

In the far corner of the room he spotted a shock of short, blonde hair in the sea of long dark tresses and nearly tripped over the human obstacles in his haste to get there. “Sam!” he exclaimed as he knelt beside the bare back, careful not to touch her unexpectedly.

She whimpered faintly as she clutched a large pillow to her chest, rocking back and forth absently. “Sam,” Daniel pleaded with a catch in his voice. “Please look at me. Are you all right?”

Glancing about the floor he realized the servants had already cleared the area of loose clothing and there was nothing to cover her with. He struggled briefly to pull the tee shirt over his head and gently lay a hand on her shoulder. “Sam?”

Carter screamed and jerked away before turning shocked, red-rimmed eyes to him. “Daniel?” she finally managed in a broken whisper.

“Yes,” he soothed. “It’s just me. Here, put this on.”

Sam nodded minutely and awkwardly covered her breasts as she sat up and allowed him to slip the large hole over her head. She numbly adjusted the shirt and located the arm openings for herself.

“Are you hurt?” Daniel asked softly, checking for injuries. She shook her head in denial but began to cry again quietly, burying her head in his chest.

“It’s okay, it’s gonna be okay,” Daniel promised as he wrapped his arms around her. “We have to find Jack,” he muttered. Sam didn’t respond, except to hang on to him frantically when he tried to pull back.

Realizing he wasn’t going anywhere without her, he gritted his teeth and staggered to his feet with the traumatized major in his arms. The added weight accelerated his fatigue as he once again began to comb the room looking for Jack. Other people began to wake and wander around dazedly, which made their search more difficult. When Daniel physically couldn’t go on, he stopped in one place and called out for help in Latin, which his foggy brain somehow remembered was similar to the native language.

The passing crowd largely ignored them, limping along, each lost soul with their own bewildered reality. Trying to make someone understand his urgent queries proved futile and the more people Daniel approached the harder Sam cried. Finally he decided it would be better to get her back to the SGC before mounting another search. For all he knew Jack had gone back for help himself.

No one tried to stop them as they left the palace and he knew Teal’c would be waiting for them just outside the grounds. The short walk seemed insurmountable as he stumbled along, chanting a steady stream of inanities to himself and to his now nearly catatonic charge. Step by step he forced one foot in front of the other, losing all sense of time as each jarring footfall sent a wave of pain through his abused body.

“Almost there, almost there,” Daniel murmured as he became progressively more woozy and his sight began to fail. Just as he closed his eyes, a large hand caught him by the arm stopping his forward momentum. He resisted the urge to fall to his knees and instead leaned into the strong grip to take some of the pressure off of his injured back.

“Daniel Jackson!” Teal’c’s welcome voice boomed. “What has transpired? Where is O’Neill?”

“Teal’c,” Daniel breathed in relief, squeezing his eyes tight to prevent the well of tears pricking behind his lids from spilling down his face. “I don’t… I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t find Jack and Sam’s been…” He paused as he was unable to keep the desperation from his voice. “Please, Teal’c, help me. Help me get Sam through the gate and then we can come back and find Jack.”

He felt Teal’c’s arms slip gently around Sam’s body, but she tightened her grip and released a high-pitched, heartbreaking cry. “It’s okay, it’s okay, Sam, it’s just Teal’c. He’s going to help us,” Daniel assured, not certain how much farther he could actually carry her.

When the keening rose to screams, Teal’c let go and pulled away. Daniel opened his eyes and met the concerned brown ones across from him. “It’s okay, I’ve got her. I can do this,” he swore breathlessly, praying it was the truth.

Teal’c nodded doubtfully as he peeled off his jacket and secured it around Sam’s waist to cover her bare bottom. He then moved behind them to ease his arms under Daniel’s to help support her and keep Daniel on his feet at the same time. Sam, seeming to accept the compromise as long as she wasn’t separated from Daniel, quieted but hid her face in the crook of his neck. Her tears mixed with the sweat and dried blood on his skin and formed indistinct brownish streaks on his shoulder and her face. Slowly, by equal measures of sheer willpower and Jaffa strength, they made their way the few remaining meters to the DHD.

With a weary sigh Daniel leaned a hip against the device while Teal’c disentangle one of his arms long enough to dial Earth and punch in their IDC. After the wormhole blossomed and retreated they moved almost mechanically towards it, Teal’c taking more and more of their combined weight until they all but fell into the event horizon.

Jack woke with a grunt and rolled over to spit out the mouthful of blood that threatened to choke him. He cursed softly as he took a second to poke at his front teeth with a grubby forefinger to see if any of them were missing or loose. Satisfied that he hadn’t lost any he agonizingly sat up, automatically doing a threat assessment in spite of his throbbing head.

He had a hazy memory of being captured by a group of burly men and tossed into the lockup, but it wasn’t exactly a cell. In fact, it more than slightly resembled a barn, complete with a horse and accompanying smells. The straw on the floor was thick, but well used and in the early morning light he could just make out the shape of a body nearly covered by it.

Taking his own nakedness in stride he crawled cautiously toward the lump in the hay and quickly determined it wasn’t one of his team. As he checked for a pulse he had the vague impression that he was the one responsible for the bloody, unconscious mess. The dried blood on his hands seemed to verify the assumption. Satisfied that the man was breathing Jack left him where he lay and staggered to his feet. Feeling like he’d been on a three day binge, he tried to remember a worse hangover but came up empty.

“Oh boy,” he muttered as he made his way to the window to part the sheer, pinkish covering and peek out. The early morning sun was harsh against his bleary eyes and he had to squint to see. There were no guards and the door wasn’t bolted so he yanked down the window shade, wrapped it around his waist and made his escape.

Further up the small hill he could see groups of nearly naked people leaving the palace and heading towards the village. Although a few of them were being helped to walk or even carried on stretchers, the ones moving under their own power didn’t appear to be in great shape either. The scene had wild party written all over it.

Not knowing the whereabouts or condition of his team, Jack wanted to charge the hill and find Daniel and Carter at once. But he had learned to trust his gut instincts a long time back and at the moment, his guts screamed for caution. Instead of heading into the village, he opted for the opposite direction, toward the stargate and Teal’c. After regrouping, they would go together to find them.

“It’s SG-1’s code, sir,” Sergeant Davis announced as the general entered the control room.

“Open the iris,” Hammond ordered calmly, watching as the metal shield rolled away and the gateroom was washed in the usual blue light.

Within several seconds three-fourths of SG-1 spilled through the gate. Teal’c caught a bloody, shirtless, shoeless Daniel Jackson before he could drop a half naked Major Carter, and managed to lower them both to the ramp relatively gently. Sam ended up sitting on Daniel, who in turn fell back to rest against Teal’c’s massive chest and instantly passed out. Even as Carter seemed to revive, she increased her hold on Daniel exponentially to Teal’c’s patient entreaties for her to release him.

“Medical team to the gateroom,” Davis requested quickly without prompt as the general darted toward the stairs.

“What in God’s name?” Hammond asked urgently, reaching the base of the ramp as Teal’c endeavored to cover the upper part of Carter’s legs with the slipping jacket. “Where is Colonel O’Neill?”

“There was a banquet last evening. I was not in attendance. I do not know what has occurred since that time,” Teal’c stated evenly, glaring at the SFs who gathered around for a better look.

“Clear the area,” Hammond ordered briskly as he turned his back to grab the phone off the wall, giving at least the semblance of privacy to the battered and exposed team.

“What happened?” Doctor Fraiser asked breathlessly several seconds later as she burst into the room and rushed up the ramp to examine the group of some of her more frequent flyers. A small band of medics followed in her wake, clattering into the gateroom with three stretchers and several large tackle boxes of medical supplies and equipment.

Dropping down, Janet placed a hand on the back of Sam’s head. Sam reared back and screamed into Daniel’s ear as soon as the doctor touched her, eliciting a pained expression from him but resulting in his eyes opening.

“Home?” Daniel asked, looking up hopefully at Teal’c.

“Indeed,” Teal’c assured him, squeezing his shoulders imperceptibly.

“Sam, we’re home,” Daniel whispered weakly into her hair before dropping out again, his head lolling back against Teal’c’s shoulder.

“Sam, Daniel’s hurt,” Janet offered softly. “You’ve got to let him go so we can take care of him.”

“No!” Sam cried, tightening her hold even further.

“She’s in shock,” Janet murmured. “Give me 10 milligrams of Ativan. Teal’c, help me straighten her arm.”

Gently but firmly Teal’c pried one of Sam’s arms away from the death grip she held on Daniel’s neck. Janet repositioned herself and at a nearly impossible angle swabbed the antecubital space and injected the medication directly into a vein.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Janet crooned as she administered the drug. “Everything’s gonna be fine. I’m giving you a sedative and it should kick in soon.” Someone produced a blanket and after passing off the needle, the doctor covered both of her patients with it. “Stay back for a minute,” she warned an overly anxious orderly that began to crowd them, causing Sam to weep again. “Easy, hon, nobody’s gonna hurt you. I’m going to have a look, just me,” the doctor assured with soothing tones.

Sam snuggled closer to Daniel, still whimpering slightly, but didn’t otherwise protest as Janet lifted a corner of the blanket and began a quick first assessment of her. Finding no obvious injuries, she moved on to Daniel. She clicked on her pen light and leaned over Sam to peel back first one of his eyelids and then the other.

“He’s been drugged,” Janet announced as she examined the pinpoint pupils. “Where’s all the blood coming from?” she asked a little more urgently as she noted Teal’c’s sodden tee-shirt.

“There is a bandage. It is soaked through in the back,” Teal’c supplied.

“Stretcher,” Janet shouted, countermanding her last order. “Come on, Sam. Daniel doesn’t have time for this right now. You can see him later.”

Kicking and sobbing, Sam fought the attempts to dislodge her, but her stamina quickly waned. With Teal’c’s help, the medics finally managed to pull her away from Daniel so Janet could get a look at the wound.

“Let’s go people!” the diminutive doctor roared, catapulting her team into action.

Turning her desperation to Teal’c, Sam clutched at him and stared in horror as the medics fell upon Daniel and loaded him onto a gurney, whisking him away. Janet’s voice calling out orders and drops of blood on the concrete floor marked their passing.

“Daniel,” Sam called tearfully as Teal’c wrapped the blanket tightly around her.

“We must go to the infirmary,” Teal’c intoned as he helped her to her feet. “We will find Daniel Jackson there.”

“No,” Sam objected as the remaining orderly tried to get her to lie down on one of the leftover stretchers.

Teal’c allowed her to walk and supported her as she stumbled along. “We must organize a search party immediately to find O’Neill,” he said, turning to the general as they passed him at the foot of the ramp.

“I’m already on it, Teal’c,” Hammond replied. “You can leave with SG-2 in fifteen minutes. Provided you’re not needed here,” he added with a nod of his head towards the uncharacteristically clingy Carter.

“I believe the medication will be sufficient,” Teal’c responded as he smoothly hefted the falling major into his arms as she succumbed to the drug. The orderly helped him settle her onto the gurney before quickly disappearing with her out the door.

Jack made it almost all the way to the stargate before he had to stop and rest. Whatever he’d been up to the night before was starting to take its toll. Unfortunately, he had no idea what that might have been. A quick once over revealed bruises and small abrasions leaving the definite impression he’d been in a fight. While his head did throb, it felt a lot more like the-morning-after-the-night-before rather than a concussion. But if he’d gotten good and plastered, he damned well didn’t remember it.

The last thing he remembered clearly was lying back on a pillow after the feast, listening to Daniel tell him more than he ever wanted to know about ancient Roman ingestion habits. Anything that happened after that was stored in his brain as fuzzy images that didn’t make any sense. He did have one strong impression of peeing in the bushes and another vaguer memory of a cry of pain followed by the rush of warm fluid on his hand.

Squatting in the bushes on the cusp of the clearing where the stargate stood, he searched for any sign of Teal’c. His breath caught in his chest as the first chevron lit. Moving a little farther back into the shrubs, he waited for the next six to blink on. Much to his relief and ultimate embarrassment, Teal’c stormed out of the blue pool of light and toward the palace, SG-2 in tow.

“Teal’c!” Jack called out, moving forward and acting as casual as he could in his stolen curtain. He braced himself for the catcalls he knew would be coming compliments of SG-2.

“O’Neill,” Teal’c boomed, turning at once toward his voice.

“Are you okay, sir?” Ferretti asked worriedly without a trace of humor or the expected jokes at his expense.

“That bad?” Jack asked seriously. “Carter? Daniel?”

“They have been returned to the SGC,” Teal’c informed him solemnly.

“They have been returned, not they’ve already returned?” Jack questioned urgently, immediately picking up on the phrasing. “What happened? Are they all right?”

“Major Carter has been sedated. As we left Daniel Jackson was being taken into surgery.”

“For what?” Jack asked, his dry mouth suddenly gone even drier.

“A stab wound to the back, sir. Apparently he lost a lot of blood, but Doctor Fraiser thinks he’s gonna be okay,” Ferretti answered, unaware how his voice quivered. “Daniel’s tough,” he added assertively.

“And Carter?”

“I do not know the extent of her injuries. Only that she was distressed,” Teal’c informed him, prudently leaving out the details.

“Dial it up,” Jack ordered, gritting his teeth as the necessary processes of dialing and entering their code seemed to drag on forever.

As he accepted the jacket Teal’c handed him, he paused to examine the dried blood under his fingernails. A horrific memory hung out of reach of his conscious mind, but his gut roiled anyway. He glanced back at the elegant palace with a sense of paranoia before nearly bolting through the stargate back to earth.

Tuesday afternoon, Earth

Jack had gotten the full Technicolor version of how his team had come back through the gate, but still found it difficult to believe. Not particularly their state of undress, because he hadn’t exactly made a dignified entrance himself, and not even the fact that at least one of them had been covered in blood. Unfortunately that was a reality he’d seen much too often with his own eyes. At least Daniel had been coherent, by all accounts, until he dropped off into his current exhausted, anemic sleep. But the thought of a sobbing, hysterical Sam Carter didn’t sit right. Carter and hysterical just didn’t go together.

Now as he sat on the infirmary bed, which he’d complained long and loud he didn’t need, he alternately watched them sleep. Daniel was across the aisle from him and still out like a light while Carter was one bed away, facing the wall. Teal’c sat in a chair almost exactly halfway between them, monitoring them closely as well.

While he couldn’t see Carter’s face, Jack watched the rise and fall of her shoulder as she breathed. That in itself was something of a comfort, even though he knew it was more or less a drug induced sleep. She had woken once, enquired about Daniel, apologized profusely for some imagined shortcoming, and then just seemed to shut down emotionally. Whatever had happened, she swore she didn’t remember.

A garbled mutter drew his attention to Daniel, who shifted slightly before settling back down. Because he’d been full of some unknown alien drug, they had stitched him up under local anesthetic, but Fraiser swore he never twitched once through the whole ordeal. The stab wound had been small but deep. Miraculously, that old Jackson luck had held and whatever he’d been stuck with had missed all his vital organs, never-the-less nicking an artery that had most likely bled for hours.

Now two IVs, one clear and one crimson, dripped steadily into Daniel’s arm. An earlier, unauthorized peek at Daniel’s chart revealed that this was his third unit of blood which told Jack this was more than just a paper cut. Even if he hadn’t had that intel, Daniel’s pale face and Janet’s unsmiling one every time she fussed over his sleeping form spoke volumes. Occasionally Daniel would moan or groan or mumble in one of several different languages, none of which were English, but he had yet to actually try to wake up. Although Jack was sure she would never admit it, even the good doc was starting to fret because he hadn’t snapped out of it.

Somewhat less worrisome, in the short term anyway, were the scratches, bites, bruises, and other various marks on his body. Although Sam’s skin carried a few mars as well, they were nowhere near the scale of Daniel’s. Apparently, a good time was had by all, and two of Jack’s worst fears rolled into one. No one ventured to say the ‘R’ word, but it hung heavy in the air and at this point, only the doctor knew for sure and she wasn’t saying. Of course Jack realized it would all come out in the eventual debrief, but he would really rather know going in.

There was another low moan across the aisle, followed by a flutter of eyelashes and suddenly Teal’c was next to Daniel’s bed. Jack cursed the cold floor as he went but arrived in plenty of time to see the first flash of blue as Daniel glanced around in confusion.

“Hey,” Jack breathed anxiously.

Daniel’s brow furrowed and he gestured for a drink. Teal’c provided a spoonful of ice chips and Daniel closed his eyes for a second in apparent bliss as they melted and slid down his throat. “Jack? You okay? ” he managed hoarsely when he opened his eyes again and appraised Jack’s white infirmary scrubs. “What happened?”

“Well, that’s certainly the question, Doctor Jackson,” Fraiser replied as she quickly joined them. “What do you remember?”

“Sam,” he exclaimed, trying to sit up. “I found Sam…”

“Easy,” Janet cautioned as she caught one shoulder and Jack and Teal’c vied for the other. “She’s asleep.”

Daniel grimaced at the hold on his arms and lay back down slowly. “Is she okay?”

“Physically, yes,” the doctor said gently, “but she was pretty upset. She didn’t want to let go of you.”

“Daniel, what happened after the banquet?” Jack cut in apprehensively, asking the question everyone dreaded.

“Um… everything after dinner is hazy. ‘m not sure what’s real.” Daniel answered uncertainly. “After we ate, we were talking about the language and the culture…”

Jack nodded. “Okay, I remember that too.”

“And the servers brought out these big baskets of berries for dessert…”

“Berries?” Janet interrupted.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “Bitter, nasty things they kept trying to feed us. I stuck most of mine in my pocket.”

“But you all ate some? And your memories before that point are clear?”

Jack and Daniel studied each other for a second and both ended up nodding their heads in agreement. “Yes,” Daniel finally confirmed out loud. “I remember everything clearly up until then.”

“That’s how they drugged you. All of you,” Janet explained. “That also explains the pulp and juice residue we found in the pocket of your pants, Colonel.”

“My pants?” Jack asked. “I wasn’t wearing any pants when I woke up,” he pointed out. “And I’m almost sure you’re not talking about that sweet little pink number I wore home.”

“No, Colonel, according to the laundry tag, Daniel was wearing your fatigue pants when he came through the gate.”

“You were?” Jack turned to Daniel with a raised eyebrow.

“At least they weren’t pink,” Daniel muttered dryly and rubbed his throat as he looked around for more ice.

“What was the residue, Doctor Fraiser?” Teal’c asked quietly as he handed Daniel the whole cup of ice chips.

“It was definitely organic, and fermented…”

“I told you those berries were bad,” Jack exclaimed triumphantly.

“We’re still running tests, but the pulp does have similar properties to ETOH, only much more potent.”

“Booze?” Jack asked. “You’re saying we got smashed off a couple of bites of rotten fruit?”

“Well, actually I suspect the potency does correlate to the level of ripeness...”

“Let me rephrase that, you’re saying we were got fallin’ down drunk from those freakin’ berries?”

“Yes sir, it appears that the symptoms you experienced were very similar to an acute alcohol overdose; memory loss and blackouts, loss of inhibitions, impaired judgment,” Janet confirmed, waving her hand to emphasize Daniel’s colorful neck.

“That explains my hangover,” Daniel complained through a mouthful of ice.

“How do you feel otherwise?” Janet asked cautiously, turning his head from side to side to get a better look at the row of hickeys.

“Like I was hit by a freight train,” Daniel said despairingly. “I’m really sore, especially my…” he paused and looked down self-consciously then cleared his throat, “um, let’s just say everything hurts and you didn’t even stick a catheter in me this time. Thank you for that, by the way.”

Janet looked up and pressed her lips together tightly for a second. “Why don’t you two let me speak to Daniel alone for a minute?” she said, addressing Jack and Teal’c.

“Why?” Daniel asked with a concerned blink of his eyes, still munching his way steadily through the cup of ice.

“Yeah, why?” Jack echoed.

“Colonel, you keep saying you don’t need to be here, so I’m letting you go. Don’t leave the mountain though, because you still have test results pending. Just vacate the infirmary for a little while. General Hammond wants to talk to you anyway,” Fraiser advised. “You too, Teal’c.”

Jack shot Daniel a quick look of empathy. “Okay, we’ll be back in a little while. Take it easy. You look kinda… green.”

Daniel glanced at Teal’c who nodded his agreement as he accepted the now empty cup and returned it to the nightstand. “Indeed.”

“Yeah, I feel kinda… green,” Daniel agreed as they moved back across the room.

Janet produced her pen light and pulled the curtains around Daniel’s bed. “Leave now, please,” she said in a somewhat impatient voice as Jack and Teal’c continued to linger nearby.

“Just looking for my clothes,” Jack called back sweetly.

“Try your locker,” Janet suggested. “You weren’t wearing clothes when you got here.”

“Am I gonna live?” Daniel asked jokingly after the superficial exam was over and his teammates were finally out of earshot.

Janet pulled a chair close to the bed and sat down somberly.

“What? I’m gonna die?” Daniel asked with concern, still a little groggy and confused.

“No, oh course not,” Janet said with a weak smile. “Seems to me you’re pretty hard to kill.”

“Thank you. I think,” Daniel said, narrowing his eyes and trying to decide if it was, in fact, a compliment.

“Daniel, you were raped,” Janet stated matter-of-factly, determinedly making eye contact.

“What? No I wasn’t,” Daniel argued, remaining calm, but dropping his gaze guiltily.

“Yes, I think that you were.”

“How can you tell?”

Janet sighed in exasperation. “Well, there’s no indication of penetration if that’s what you mean, but the rest of the evidence on your body certainly points to a wild night.”

“No, I mean…” Daniel amended quietly, gesturing absently with one hand, “I realize that there was clearly some, uh, sexual activity, but why do you think it was… you know, that?”

“Because you were drugged without your knowledge and then pushed into sexual acts. That’s rape, Daniel.”

“I don’t think I was pushed, exactly. I’m pretty sure that any, um, intimate contact was… uh, consensual.”

“How do you know that if you don’t remember anything?” Janet pressed.

“I just do. I have a few hazy impressions of having a really, uh, really good time,” he admitted culpably. “I realize how that makes me sound, but I just know that I enjoyed myself.”

“Of course you enjoyed yourself, you were given a mood altering substance.”

“Besides that, I clearly remember having a terribly painful… um, erection before... you know, before,” Daniel persisted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’m not surprised. We found a substance in your blood that wasn’t in either the colonel’s or Sam’s.”

“An aphrodisiac?” Daniel asked in astonishment.

“Yes. Combined that substance with the strong amnesiac properties of the fruit and in short you have the perfect date rape drug.”

“But, I’m really sure I was all for it at the time,” Daniel insisted. “How could that be rape?”

“Daniel, you were drugged!” Janet all but growled. “In your normal, unintoxicated state, you would never engage in an alien free for all, now would you?”

“But…”

The doctor held up a hand and sighed. “So you got a little tipsy and ended up having unprotected sex. No big deal, you were probably asking for it… Apply that standard to Sam,” she uttered bluntly.

Daniel shot a worried look through the crack in the curtain to the huddle figure on the bed across the infirmary and swallowed compulsively. Slowly he nodded his understanding. “Point taken,” he conceded unhappily.

“I’ll schedule some therapy…”

“Hardly seems necessary since I don’t actually remember any of the details,” Daniel pointed out obstinately.

“Never the less,” Janet insisted, just as stubbornly. “Physically, I think you’ll be fine. I’m going to order some broad spectrum antibiotics, mostly because of the wound, but also just in case you picked something up and then we’ll monitor you closely for a couple of months. I’d caution against any sexual relations for the time being…”

“Janet,” Daniel interrupted with an embarrassed smirk. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. The only time I ever seem to have sex anymore is with psychotic aliens.”

Janet managed to leer teasingly. “And that, Doctor Jackson,” she muttered as she made her retreat, “is a damned shame.”

“Come on in, Colonel, Teal’c. Have a seat,” Hammond offered as he hung up the phone and folded his hands in front of him on his desk. Teal’c closed the door and sat next to Jack across from the general.

“I understand Doctor Jackson is awake and doing well?” Hammond inquired sympathetically.

“Yes, sir,” Jack reported. “But he doesn’t really remember too much about what happened either.”

“I see. Quite a little mess we’ve got here.”

“I blame myself, General. I should have never split up my team,” Jack confessed.

“There’ll be time for that later, Jack. Right now let’s just try to figure out what the hell happened,” Hammond urged gently. “What do you remember?”

“To be honest, sir, everything after a certain point is kind of jumbled; it just seems like one long, weird dream.”

“I understand, Colonel. Just start from the beginning.”

“Yes sir. Ab ovo… our standard meet and greet on CX7-…”

Monday, late afternoon, CX7-298

“Wow. This is… wow,” Daniel exclaimed, dropping his pack and rummaging through it before even starting down the marble steps of the platform where the stargate stood.

“I suppose it’s nice,” Jack agreed as he cautiously scanned the well-tended grounds. Bushes and flowered shrubs circled the closely cropped grassy plaza and Greco-Roman statues decorated the lawn. A stone walkway surrounded the stargate dais and led past the DHD to bisect the shrubs and wind up a slowly rising incline.

“This path is well traveled, O’Neill,” Teal’c announced as he studied the ground. “It appears the stargate is visited often.”

“Look at that,” Sam said, jutting her chin towards the gleaming marble palace on the hill just beyond a small village.

“Yeah, that’s a very Greek structure,” Daniel lectured as he pulled out his camcorder and began to film. “At least the palace proper is. The village itself isn’t so cut and dried. Maybe a little alien influence there, or maybe just a natural architectural evolution, assuming of course that their ancestors did come from earth…”

“And he’s off...” Jack murmured under his breath. “Don’t get too far ahead of us, Daniel,” he added a little louder for the archeologist’s benefit as he continued to film, following the path absently.

“I’ll keep an eye on him, sir,” Sam offered and after a nod from her commander gathered Daniel’s discarded pack and dashed off to catch him.

Jack exchanged a longsuffering glance with Teal’c and they followed as well. Sam had already caught up with Daniel and helped him clip his pack to the back of his vest. Halfway up the hill they spotted a throng of people spilling out of the village and approaching them excitedly.

“Daniel, Carter,” Jack called out and trotted to close the few remaining yards between them, Teal’c hot on his heels.

“They don’t look hostile,” Daniel offered, switching off the camera and letting Sam help him put it away as the crowd grew closer.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow, but remained alert as the children who had raced ahead of the main group reached them and circled them excitedly, chattering and sparring for SG-1’s individual attentions.

“Their togas are beautiful,” Sam commented as she smiled at the two boys pulling at her arms and jabbering energetically at her. “What are they saying?”

“Is that Latin?” Jack asked, turning to Daniel who wrinkled his brow in concentration as he tried to sort out the avalanche of words around him.

“No… it’s, um… close. Very familiar, I just can’t…” Daniel held up a finger and attempted a few words to the young girl eyeing him shyly. She shook her head and moved away.

As the adults reached SG-1, they surrounded them, embracing them and patting their backs. The older women kissed their cheeks, and as a whole they joined in the ever increasing verbal onslaught.

“Okay, they’re friendly,” Jack exclaimed, smiling as pleasantly as he could while being pounded on the back by an overzealous Caesar wannabe. “Maybe a little too friendly. Why are they so happy to see us?”

“I’m working on it,” Daniel muttered. “Please, one at a time…” He placed a finger on his lips and ‘shushed’ the crowd and then pointed to the nearest man and tried a few more words as the animation around them died down a little.

The man smiled and nodded enthusiastically and began to speak rapidly, joined in by several people who crowded closer around Daniel, all speaking at once.

“Wait…” Daniel said loudly and held up his hands, quieting the crowd again. He spoke again slowly in Latin and the people leaned forward as they listened to him intently then whispered among themselves. The closest man began again, much slower and his cohorts only jumped in to add their own comments one or two at a time.

“Daniel?”

“Something about a… feast, I think, or possibly a… a celebration…” he answered as he continued to listen carefully. “Whether it has to do with our arrival, I really don’t know.”

“Do they think we’re gods?” Sam asked, smoothing the hair of the young child that hugged her leg adoringly.

“I’m not sure. I’ll ask.” Daniel spoke again briefly, trying several different words before finding one they understood. The crowd looked at each other in surprise and then burst into laughter. “That would be no,” Daniel replied sardonically.

One of the older men pointed to Teal’c’s forehead and spoke hastily, sending a charge through the crowd and inciting a new round of chatter. Several of the people closest to Teal’c moved to touch his golden emblem but shied away before making contact. They finally gave him some room, but remained friendly, speaking to him spiritedly even though he had yet to answer them.

“Goa’uld?” Jack ventured, pointing at Teal’c’s abdomen.

A man near him snarled and spat on the ground.

“Jack,” Daniel warned, his eyes widening in alarm. He spoke calmly to the man for several minutes before the man nodded and seemed to be appeased. Two different men began speaking to Daniel at once and he struggled to listen to both, looking from one to the other. Daniel held up his hands and tried to get them to slow down, but a woman and another man jumped in as well.

“Hey, everybody,” Jack interjected, stepping in between the closing crowd and his flustered linguist. “Give the guy a break, huh?” He slipped an arm around Daniel’s shoulder and nonchalantly pulled him away from the mob. Sam and Teal’c joined them. “So? What do you think?” he asked.

“Well, they know what a Jaffa is,” Daniel ventured with a glance at his big friend. “And they don’t seem to like the Goa’uld very much.”

“Yet they do not appear to be afraid of me,” Teal’c agreed.

Daniel nodded. “More like warily respectful, I’d say.”

“They certainly aren’t hostile,” Carter put in. “And they did invite us to a feast, right?”

“I think so,” Daniel answered uncertainly.

“What if we’re the main course?” Jack questioned.

Daniel’s eyebrows shot up. “It’s not like they’re wearing human bones or anything that gives any indication of cannibalism…”

“I was kidding, Daniel.”

“Oh. Well, I still understand very little of what they’re saying. I’ll keep working on it, but what are we going to do in the mean time?”

“We feast,” Jack answered and turned back to the crowd.

The man Daniel had already managed to communicate with, albeit rudimentarily, moved forward and draped an arm chummily around Daniel’s shoulders in a blatant imitation of Jack’s earlier action and drew him away from the group. Daniel glanced back at Jack and shrugged. When they stopped walking they began a slow, private conversation, each struggling for words the other understood. The rest of SG-1 smiled and nodded periodically to the cheerful citizens around them, but kept one watchful eye on Daniel all the same.

At last Daniel smiled uneasily and nodded. The man nodded vigorously in return and ushered Daniel back to his team.

“Well?” Jack asked.

“Yes, well,” Daniel muttered uncomfortably. “We are definitely invited to a party. They want us to come to tour the village now and then tonight, we’ll go to the palace.”

“Okay.”

“Wait. There’s a catch,” Daniel stated, raising a finger. “Teal’c can come to the village, in fact, they’re very curious about him, but he’s not allowed in the palace.”

“What? Why not?” Jack growled.

“It’s not you, Teal’c. It’s your symbiote. The palace is on sacred ground and the Goa’uld are, well, taboo there.”

“Oh for cryin’ out loud.”

“I told them I would have to talk to you first. But even if we don’t go to the banquet, we can at least visit the town, right?” Daniel asked hopefully.

“That okay with you, big guy?” Jack asked, thumbing toward the hill. “Say the word and we’re outta here.”

“I understand,” Teal’c stated with complete dignity. “I see no reason to leave.”

Jack sighed. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Daniel turned back to his new friend and nodded their acceptance. The man grabbed his face and kissed him enthusiastically on one cheek and then the other then raised his arms above his head. The crowd roared gleefully and started back toward the village, happily pulling SG-1 along with them. Daniel fell into step beside Jack, surreptitiously wiping at his cheek with a sleeve.

“That was an awful long conversation for just a dinner invitation,” Jack mused.

“Um, yeah. He was also concerned about our health. He kept asking if we were all ‘clean’.”

“Clean?”

“Yes, but from the content, I think he meant free of disease. I mean, it is a valid concern with someone from another world. I mean we check out all our visitors for stuff,” Daniel pointed out.

“You’re right, we do,” Jack accepted grudgingly. “What else?”

“No, that’s pretty much it.”

“Daniel, you were over there a long time. What, are ya new?”

Daniel sighed heavily. “Jack, it’s a dead language, at least to us it is. I’m pretty sure it’s a derivative of Italic, which is actually a precursor to Latin, and I’m only catching about one word in every ten. If I had some references…”

“Ack,” Jack interrupted. “So what you’re telling me is you still don’t know if we’re the main course. Maybe they just don’t like barbecued Jaffa…”

Tuesday evening, Earth

“…of course, I didn’t really think they were gonna eat us,” Jack offered with a grin.

“Indeed,” Teal’c intoned, clearly not amused. “At that point we toured the village, home by home.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “I think they took us into every house in town. It was nice in a Martha Stewart does the Dark Ages kind of way.”

“As darkness fell, I was offered food and abode, but I chose to wait for my friends outside of the palace grounds.”

“Colonel?”

“Well, me, Carter, and Daniel went on to the feast. But you really didn’t miss much, T. I mean the food wasn’t all that great, although the meat was so juicy and tender it sorta fell apart in your fingers. And the bread, the bread was incredible, so crusty and… What?”

“What happened after the meal, Jack?” Hammond cut in, his patience starting to fray.

“Okay, see, that’s where everything starts to get really fuzzy,” Jack explained. “We ate, Daniel rattled on about stuff, I went outside to take a… to relieve myself and the next thing I know, I’m waking up naked with a horse.”

“Now there’s a pleasant mental image,” the general uttered, keeping a straight face.

“I got to the stargate, Teal’c and SG-2 popped out of the wormhole, and here I am. Like I said, fuzzy,” Jack sighed, tapping his temple with a fingertip.

“Teal’c, do you have anything to add?”

“No, General Hammond. I waited until first light before venturing onto the palace grounds to search out my team. I hadn’t gone far when I spotted Daniel Jackson and Major Carter.”

Hammond nodded gravely. “Very well. Write it up and I’ll talk to Doctor Jackson while he’s awake and see if he can add anything. Dismissed.”

“Yes, sir,” Jack said, turning to Teal’c as they left. “How about some grub?” he asked. “Did I tell you about the roast beast?”

“Doctor Jackson, are you supposed to be up?”

The gentle question took Daniel by surprise and he stifled a groan as he twisted a little to see who had inadvertently snuck up on him. “Um, technically, probably not, sir. I just wanted to see for myself how she was doing,” he explained sheepishly, tugging the blanket a little snugger over Sam’s shoulder as she slept.

“Uh huh. Come on then, let’s get you back to bed before Doctor Fraiser finds out,” Hammond drawled. “She’ll have your hide and mine too if she catches us.”

“Yes sir,” Daniel acquiesced, surprised again when the general took his arm with one hand and carefully gathered the trailing tubing with the other. Daniel obediently shuffled along, pushing the IV pole in front of him. “Could you, um, do you mind plugging it in?” he asked when they reached his abandoned bunk, indicating the power cord to the IV pump.

“Here?” Hammond asked, holding the plug over the top outlet.

“Lower,” Daniel replied, glancing around stealthily as he climbed back into bed, wincing at the pull of the stitches in his lower back and other various aches.

Hammond suppressed a grin as he watched Daniel turn the machine next to the bed back on and slip his finger into the plastic clip. “You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you son?” he asked dotingly. A nurse smiled at them as she passed on her way to check on Sam.

“I’m just glad they already took off the cardiac monitor,” Daniel admitted under his breath, looking only slightly abashed as he straightened his covers. “Did you want to see me?” he asked when the general adjusted the nearest chair and settled down next to the bed.

“Well, if you’re not too worn out from your little field trip, I’d like to hear your version of what happened on CX7-298.”

“Of course,” Daniel agreed somberly. “Where do you want me to start?”

“Colonel O’Neill and Teal’c have already told me what happened when you arrived on the planet, maybe you should start with the banquet.”

Daniel pursed his lips and leaned back into his pillow. “After touring the village, which reminds me I really need to make some notes, I’m still puzzled about the architecture, given the Greco-Roman flavor of everything else… sorry,” he interrupted himself meekly at the general’s almost silent sigh as he veered off topic. “The banquet… um, Jack, Sam, and I were taken to the palace and seated along these lovely flat couches in this incredibly ornate hall where we were served dinner. The food was very good…”

Monday evening, CX7-298

Pleasantly full, Jack leaned back on his elbows into the big pillow behind him. He covered his mouth with a fist and let out a loud burp before stretching out his legs and running his bare feet across the soft fur under his seat. “So what’s with all the hoopla?” he asked as he took a big bite out of the enormous berry a young girl had slipped into his hand from the basket she carried.

“Ew. This is sour,” he grumbled, leaning forward to toss the uneaten fruit onto the edge of his plate. He smacked his lips as he opened his canteen to wash away the bitter taste.

“I’m still not sure what they’re celebrating,” Daniel said with a slight frown as he heeded Jack’s warning and waved away the same girl who tried to get him to take some fruit as well. “They speak so fast and all at the same time. I’m sure if I could pin down one person I could make some progress.”

“Daniel,” Jack cut in with a resigned look to an amused Carter. “We’ve been here for hours. Haven’t you learned anything?”

“Uh, well, one of our hosts did say something about ab ovo so I’m assuming the feast had something to do with the beginning of their civilization perhaps?” he questioned himself as the girl became more insistent that he should partake of the fruit. “Sour as in tart or sour as in spoiled?” he asked as he glanced into the basket.

“It’s not bad, it just has kind of tart aftertaste,” Sam offered after she took a small bite of the strawberry-like produce she had reached into the basket to get for herself. “I think Teal’c would enjoy it.”

“Yeah. And that’s another thing I don’t like. I gotta be suspicious that they wouldn’t even allow Teal’c on the palace grounds,” Jack observed as another passing servant picked up his once bitten berry-thing and returned it to his hand. “Thanks,” he grumbled disdainfully, but dutifully took another bite before making a face at her back as she moved on. Looking around subtly, he snuck the rest into the cargo pocket on his pants.

“It’s not like they were mean about it or anything,” Daniel pointed out. “Besides, I don’t really think Teal’c minded. He hates these fancy banquets. I think it reminds him too much of his time with Apophis.”

Jack shrugged. “Still. What kind of people serve spoiled fruit for desert? It’s uncivilized.”

Sam wiped her chin with the back of her hand. “The taste actually grows on you,” she declared. “Daniel, you should try one.”

The servant girl all but crawled into Daniel’s lap as she cut open one of the large berries and rubbed the juice seductively along his lip. Startled, he tried to pull back, but she only laughed and persistently followed his mouth with the offering. Daniel blushed and it was obvious to everyone that the actions of the half-dressed, extremely young, woman made him very uncomfortable.

“Looks like I don’t have a choice,” he joked as he finally gave in and took the fruit from her hand. “It’s not bad,” he agreed after the first tentative taste. He faked a smile and nodded as he finished it in a couple of bites to speed the girl on her way. He sighed when she got up and moved on, self-consciously taking a good look around as he wiped the remaining juice from his fingers. “Everyone else seems to like it.”

“No kidding,” Sam mused as she glanced up and down the table where people were feeding the fruit to each other almost wantonly.

“Ab ovo…” Jack muttered thoughtfully. “I remember that one: from the beginning.”

“Very good, Jack,” Daniel praised, “Or more precisely ‘from the egg’ as in ‘Ab ovo usque ad mala’.”

“Huh?”

“’From the egg to the apples’ as penned by the poet Horace alluding to the Roman tradition of starting a meal with eggs and finishing it with apples.”

“Or funky looking berries?”

“Maybe,” Daniel answered consideringly, unresisting this time as the servant returned and handed him the other half of the cut fruit. “It really does grow on you doesn’t it?” he asked Sam. He took a bite then licked the red juice off of his lips, accidentally making eye contact with a woman across the table as he did. She responded by licking her own lips and fluttering her eyelashes at him, causing Daniel to immediately drop his gaze and turn away.

“I gotta hit the head,” Jack announced suddenly. “I assume that’s where all those people have been going all night behind that big curtain over there?”

“No…” Daniel answered hesitantly. “You probably don’t want to go in there. That’s the uh… vomitorium.”

“Vomi… what? As in vomit?”

“Yeah. Another ancient Roman tradition; eat until you’re physically sick, hurl, and then eat some more.”

“Ugh,” Sam declared disgustedly as she dropped what was left of her desert onto her plate and pushed it away.

“Judging by the layout of the palace, I’d say the bathroom is probably outside somewhere,” Daniel decided, pointing to a side entrance of the great hall.

Jack climbed to his feet and seemed to sway for a second.

“Are you alright, sir?” Sam asked with concern.

“Fine, fine. Why do they have to make the furniture so damned short anyway? It’s hell on bad knees,” he complained.

“Do you want me to help you find the restroom?” Daniel asked supportively.

“No,” Jack snapped as he wandered towards the door. “I’m a big boy. I’ve been doin’ this by myself for a long time, ya know.”

“Fine,” Daniel called after him, “But if you go into the ladies room by mistake, don’t blame me.”

Jack appeared to waver momentarily as he considered that possibility before he came to a decision and make a beeline for the exit by himself. Suddenly, he stopped. “Where’d they put our boots?” he turned to ask.

Daniel looked at Sam and they both shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine,” Daniel finally said, leaning back into the overly-cushioned bench and wiggling his own bare toes.

“There’s only one restroom, isn’t there?” Sam asked with a wry smile when the colonel disappeared out the door.

“Bet you ten bucks he pees behind a tree somewhere,” Daniel answered with the ghost of a grin.

Sam smiled back, but it faded slowly as the citizens around them began to move around. The oldest and youngest people waved fondly at them as they began to leave the banquet room and servants cleared the tables of everything except the large baskets of fruit. Everyone else began to pair off…

Tuesday evening, Earth

“…and that’s all I remember clearly. Shortly after that the, uh, aphrodisiac effects began because I seem to recall that things got embarrassing and um, somewhat painful there for awhile,” Daniel confessed awkwardly. “Everything else is just blurry impressions and sense memory.”

“I see.”

“Sir,” Daniel began with a weary sigh. “I’d like to apologize…”

“Don’t worry about it, son. Sometimes I feel like we’re walking through a mine field out there. I think we’re lucky we don’t run into these kinds of things more often.”

Daniel mutely nodded his agreement, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Is there anything else you’d like to add for the debriefing in the morning? I’m certain Doctor Fraiser will not be letting you attend.”

“Just that I don’t think these people intended to harm us.”

“How so?” Hammond asked, aware that the linguist was fading fast.

“I believe that they were sincere with the invitation for us to join them in their ritual, whatever it was. I think I just got the message wrong,” Daniel slurred as he slipped off to sleep.

“No one blames you, Doctor Jackson,” Hammond assured quietly, liberating Daniel’s glasses from his hand and placing them on the bedside table.

Wednesday afternoon, Earth

Sam rolled over and glanced around. Teal’c and the colonel had finally bought into her feigned exhausted sleep routine and at Janet’s urging had gone on to find something else to do. The fact that Daniel really was still out of it gave her act some weight, but also made her worry. Everyone assumed that she had been traumatized and that was the reason she had latched onto Daniel when he rescued her; sort of a ‘my hero’ kind of thing. It was hard to say for sure because honestly she hardly remembered a damned thing, but deep inside, she knew it was something else entirely. She felt guilty, like she was somehow to blame for his injuries, and incredibly protective of him.

She pushed away the covers and crossed the room to sit in the chair by Daniel’s bed, smiling when she realized it was still warm from one of her other teammate’s recently departed rear-ends. Studying Daniel’s pale face only reinforced her feelings of culpability. As she stroked his hair she closed her eyes and tried to force an elusive memory to the surface.

Skin... hot breath... low throaty voice in angry tones.

“Please, just stay there.”

“I don’t need you to protect me, dammit.”

“Sam?”

Jerking her hand back, Sam opened her eyes and turned. “Hey,” she managed, fighting the sensation that she had been caught doing something unseemly.

“I think he’s going to be okay,” Janet assured quietly as she straightened Daniel’s blanket in an almost motherly fashion.

“Why won’t he wake up?”

“Don’t worry, hon, he was up for a while early on. But he’s been through a lot and he had massive amounts of those alien chemicals in his diminished bloodstream, much more than either you or Colonel O’Neill. Sleep is probably the best thing for him right now.”

Sam nodded wordlessly and let her gaze drift back to his face.

“How are you feeling?” came the tentative but expected query.

“Better,” Sam answered honestly.

“Oh? So why the avoidance tactics?”

Letting out a sigh of exasperation, Sam shook her head fondly. “I just can’t fool you, can I?”

“Nope,” Janet agreed amicably. “I don’t think you fooled the colonel, either. But he was gracious enough to give you some space… with a little prodding.”

“I know,” Sam allowed with a quirk of her mouth. “Thanks. I just don’t know what to say to him right now. I let him down.”

Janet’s face darkened. “How can you say that, Sam?”

“I let myself be compromised. I let them hurt Daniel. I…”

“You had no way of knowing,” Janet cut in. “And you are not responsible for Daniel’s condition.”

“I’m second in command, Janet. That makes Daniel and Teal’c my responsibility when the colonel’s not around.”

“That’s funny. According to General Hammond, Daniel blames himself.”

Sam allowed herself a self-indulgent smile. “Of course he does. That’s just Daniel.”

Janet didn’t argue the point. “Come on back to your bed. I want to get a look at you and if you’re convincing, I’ll sign you out.”

“Really? What’s the catch?”

“You start your sessions with Doctor Mackenzie tomorrow morning,” Janet stated without pause.

He knew his breathing hitched up a notch as he felt his shirt being untucked, but he couldn’t spare the attention at the moment. “Sam,” he groaned, not disguising his agitation.

Hands moved greedily across his chest and abdomen from behind, lifting his shirt and hastily attempting to pull it off over his head. When he didn’t raise his arms the material was summarily ripped away and discarded. Fingers found his bare back, raking nails all the way from his shoulders to the waistband of his pants. He felt the welts grow hot in their wake and he grimaced, not from the pain, but from desire.

“I can’t,” he swore gutturally, trying at the same time to keep Sam from slipping past him. “No,” he cautioned.

“Just stop it!” Sam shot back angrily, pushing away his restraining arm.

He grappled with her momentarily, recapturing her wrist in one hand and keeping her pinned in the little alcove by leaning into her with his hip. The ache in his groin surged with the contact and he ducked his head and clenched his teeth to fight back the growing impulse as the hands once again wandered over his back…

Daniel jumped at the hand on his arm and instinctively grabbed it as he woke. He blinked and the indistinct image bending over him solidified into a worried face below auburn hair. The wrist he clenched tightly was slender and soft.

“Doctor Jackson?”

“I’m sorry,” Daniel blurted out as he released the nurse’s arm. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, I’m fine. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked, glancing towards Sam’s empty bed.

“There’s nothing wrong,” the woman soothed. “I just need to discontinue this IV since you’re finished with your transfusions, and then I’ll hang your next dose of antibiotic on the other line.”

“Okay,” Daniel agreed quietly, his mind floating back to the disturbing dream. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

The nurse laughed lightly as she gently slid the small plastic catheter free of the vein and clamped a folded two-by-two gauze pad over the bead of blood that formed on his skin. “I know. You wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose, least of all a girl. I’m alright, I swear.” She held pressure for a minute then removed the pad and applied a Band-Aid.

Daniel absently licked at his lip as he pondered her words. They struck and odd note with him and made him uneasy. “Where’s Major Carter?” he asked, his eyes drifting back to the empty bed across the way.

“She went to take a shower. Doctor Fraiser’s going to discharge her,” the nurse replied as she disposed of the blood tubing and prepared the antibiotic. “The Major’s been waiting for you to wake up for quite a while.”

“Yeah,” Daniel granted offhandedly, rubbing a hand across his rumbling stomach. “I guess I just needed to sleep it off.”

“You must be starved. I’ll see about getting you a tray.” When she finished hanging the meds, the nurse patted Daniel’s hand and eyed him compassionately. “I just want to say that I’m sorry about what happened to you. If you ever need to talk…”

“Um… no. I’m fine,” Daniel mumbled uncomfortably. “If Doctor Fraiser has her way it looks like I’ll be putting in some quality time with Mackenzie anyway.”

“Now that’s traumatic,” the nurse teased.

Daniel’s lip twitched with an almost smile and he nodded resignedly. The nurse winked at him and moved away.

“Daniel,” Sam breathed guardedly as she stepped around the half-pulled curtain. She wore a bathrobe and had a damp towel wrapped around her neck. Her wet hair gathered in little spikes around her head but otherwise, she looked normal.

“Sam,” Daniel uttered back with quiet urgency.

“They said you’d been stabbed,” Sam rushed on, taking Daniel’s hand timidly as she sat on the edge of the bed. “I was worried.”

“It’s not bad,” Daniel informed her. “I just bled a little.”

“Right,” Sam answered dubiously, glancing at Daniel’s neck and then dropping her gaze awkwardly.

“Does it look that bad?”

“No,” Sam lied. “It’s just… I hate to think what happened to you.”

Daniel blew out a breath and glanced around for his glasses, spotting them next to the bed but not letting go of Sam’s hand to reach for them. “That seems to be the general consensus,” he muttered. “The truth is, I don’t remember much and what I do remember was… you know, not exactly unpleasant. What about you?” he added carefully.

Sam blushed deeply and squeezed his hand. “I don’t even remember getting home but what I’ve been told makes me want to crawl under a rock. I haven’t even had time to consider the other part yet.”

“The other part?” Daniel asked with a lump in his throat.

“The rape.”

“Sam, I’m so sorry,” Daniel blurted out, his worst fears confirmed. “This is all my fault.”

“No! How can you think that?” Sam asked in a shocked voice, pulling him in for a crushing hug.

Daniel huffed into her hair, closing his eyes and holding on tight. “I misunderstood the invitation. If I’d have only known what they wanted I could have told them no and we could have left. That would have been the end of it.”

“It’s not your fault, I would never blame you,” Sam insisted. “I know sometimes we act like we expect too much, but we know you don’t speak every language and you told us you weren’t sure,” she soothed, rocking him a little when he didn’t answer. “I’m really okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sam assured, pushing back to look at his face taking both of his hands in hers. “I mean, it’s not like I was gang banged or anything…”

“Sam!”

“Honestly, I can deal with this. I wasn’t physically harmed and I don’t remember any of it. In fact, I have the strangest feeling that I wanted it at the time.”

“Don’t let Janet hear you say that,” Daniel cautioned.

“I know. I probably had the same talk with her that you did,” she said with a tiny smile.

“Sam,” Daniel began earnestly. “What if…” he stopped and stared down at their entwined hands.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said with a shake of his head as he heard the sound of boots coming through the door.

“Hey, Carter, I hear you’re gettin’ sprung,” Jack greeted as he grabbed the edge of the curtain and yanked it all the way back. Hooking a chair with his foot, he dragged it over and sat in it backwards, folding his arms across the back. “Quite an amazing come back from comatose this morning,” he teased.

“Sir,” Sam greeted, releasing one of Daniel’s hands and combing her fingers hurriedly through her wet hair.

“You are looking well Major Carter,” Teal’c greeted as he followed, stopping to stand behind Jack.

“Hey, what about me?” Daniel asked to draw the attention away from the suddenly tense Sam.

Jack studied him intently for a minute. “Well, not so green any more… but you look like you had a fight with a Hoover. And lost.”

“I need a mirror,” Daniel complained good-naturedly, cupping his free hand to the side of his neck.

“It’s not that bad,” Sam assured, shooting an irritated glance at her C.O.

“So, Carter. Doc’s letting you go, just like that?” Jack asked, changing the subject.

“Yes, sir. But I have some… appointments later,” Sam replied reluctantly.

“Oh,” Jack said quietly.

Daniel let go of her hand and reached over for his glasses, avoiding meeting anyone’s eyes as he slipped them on.

“The gangs all here,” Janet called cheerfully as she approached. “You’re all set, Sam. I’ve got your walking papers.”

“Great,” Sam said, perking up considerably. “What about Daniel?”

“Doctor Jackson is going to be our guest for a few more days for a course of antibiotic therapy,” Janet replied seriously. “We won’t even talk about the blood loss.”

“I thought you filled him back up?” Jack protested. “Where’s your dipstick, Danny? Let’s check your oil.”

“Stay away from my dipstick,” Daniel warned, settling back on the bed with a grimace as his back hit the sheet.

“You want something for pain?” Janet asked, eyeing her patient solicitously.

“Uh, well, actually…”

“Crap, he didn’t say no,” Jack observed with an undertone of worry. “Check a pulse.”

“It’s really not bad,” Daniel objected. “It’ll be okay. Just forget I mentioned it.”

“No, absolutely not,” Jack insisted. “If Daniel admits he’s in pain at all then it must be awful. Bring the good stuff.”

“I was thinking along the lines of Tylenol,” Daniel called out as the doctor walked away. “Thanks, Jack. Looks like I’ll be having another nap,” he muttered disgustedly.

“How did the debriefing go?” Sam asked, sparing a sympathetic smile as she patted Daniel’s knee.

“Oh, it went,” Jack replied. “Fraiser explained how the fruit had a punch and that Daniel got a little something extra…”

“What?” Sam asked in surprise.

“Don’t ask,” Daniel groaned.

“Viagra on speed,” Teal’c supplied succinctly causing both Daniel and Sam to shoot irritated glares in Jack’s direction.

“Teal’c,” Jack grumbled, ducking the matching sets of blue eyes piercing him. “Can I help it if he picks up everything he hears?”

“We can always count on you to take the high road,” Daniel complained.

“The sugar,” Sam declared.

“Sugar? As in…” Jack prompted, rolling his hand in the air.

“…as in white, crystalline, and sweet?” Daniel finished.

“Yes, sugar,” Sam confirmed with a bob of her head. “Do you remember the woman sitting across from us at dinner?”

“Dark hair, smoldering eyes, body that could stop a freight train?” Jack reminisced. “The one who kept trying to make eye contact with a certain clueless archeologist? That woman?”

“Yeah, her,” Sam answered with a shudder. “Don’t you remember, Daniel?”

“Kinda,” Daniel allowed worriedly.

“Well I’m sure she remembers you…”

Monday evening, CX7-298

“What’s happening now?” Sam asked cautiously as the remaining people drifted into groups of twos and threes.

“I’m not sure…Uh… hello,” Daniel mumbled as the dark-eyed beauty who had sat across the table during dinner dropped down to kneel in front of him, wedging herself between his knees. “Oh, no… I think I… I must have given her the wrong idea when I… oops,” he replied as he tried to sit up, only to be gently, but firmly returned to a semi-reclining position by the determined woman.

“You want me to get rid of her? Of course you do,” Sam replied at the panic strickened look that crossed Daniel’s face. She cleared her throat and tapped the woman on the shoulder. “Excuse me… um… he’s with me.”

The woman smiled warmly at Sam, turning slightly to run a hand along her cheek before turning her full attention back to Daniel. She held a small flat bowl of crushed white crystals in her hand and extracted another berry from the basket the server had left. Slowly, seductively, she dipped the berry into the bowl until it was coated with a fine dusting of the tiny granules.

“I guess we were eating it wrong,” Daniel murmured distractedly as he watched the woman slowly sink her teeth into the red flesh.

“Mmm,” the woman purred.

“Okay, that I understood,” Daniel breathed as the woman dipped the bitten piece back into the bowl and then offered it to him.

“Ew. Double-dipped, not very hygienic,” Sam commented wryly, her eyes growing wide.

“Uh huh,” Daniel agreed as he accepted a bite without hesitation. “Oh, wow. It’s so much better with sugar.” He moaned as he continued to let the woman feed him, taking off his glasses and dropping them to the couch.

“Daniel?” Sam asked, her alarm growing as her usually restrained teammate appeared mesmerized by the siren.

The woman rose to her feet, leaning in to kiss Daniel on the tip of his nose, then whisper something in his ear. She smiled charmingly at Sam before dropping one shoulder of her toga to expose a voluptuous breast. Taking another berry from the table, she offered it to Sam, minus the sugar-coating.

“No thanks,” Sam declined, glaring at the hussy and moving closer to her apparently smitten friend. Daniel stared dazedly after the shameless women who continued to disrobe even as she walked away.

“Daniel?” Sam asked again, reaching over to shake him firmly on the shoulder.

“Whoa. It’s hot in here,” Daniel declared and stripped off his outer jacket. His face flushed again and he seemed to sway.

“What did she say to you?” Sam questioned, curiosity getting the better of her.

“I’m not… sure. I think she said to tell her when I’m ready,” Daniel explained, reaching for his canteen and fumbling with the lid.

“Ready for what?” Sam queried, noting worriedly that other people were steadily losing bits and pieces of clothing as well. A group of men began to carry away the short tables while the serving girls replace them with thick pallets and even more pillows.

Supported by his elbows, Daniel took a deep drink before dropping his head back and closing his eyes. Suddenly his canteen slid out of his hand and his eyes popped back open. “Uh oh,” he said, sitting up quickly and pulling one of the smaller pillows next to him into his lap.

“What?”

“I… I, uh, think I’m almost ready,” he stammered, his cheeks flaming red.

“What do you mean? What exactly are you feeling?” Sam asked naively, but retracted the question at Daniel’s incredulous glare. “Never mind, I think I know.”

“You don’t feel… anything?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I mean, it is kind of warm in here,” Sam admitted as she too slipped out of her fatigue top. “Maybe that’s all it is?”

Daniel glanced down at the pillow in his lap, but didn’t comment. “I think we should find Jack and get the hell out of here,” he offered at last.

“Okay,” Sam agreed quickly and got to her feet, taking almost a minute to find her balance. Daniel followed much slower and hunched over a little as he shuffled along. They headed directly for the side door Jack had exited through a few minutes earlier.

Sam looked back when Daniel let out a pain-filled groan. “Are you alright?”

“Just keep going,” Daniel urged, his breath coming a little too fast.

When they reached the door, a large man stepped in front of it. Daniel spoke to him heatedly but the guard shook his head and crossed his massive arms over his chest.

“He’s not going to let us out this way,” Daniel noted needlessly.

“Ya think?” Sam muttered in Jack’s stead.

Wednesday mid-afternoon, Earth

“Okay, see that information would have been good at the debriefing,” Jack declared.

“Why? I already told both General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser about my… problem,” Daniel pointed out huffily.

“What happened then Major Carter?”

“Well, we tried to find another exit but they were all guarded. By that time the locals were going at it pretty good. Besides, Daniel wasn’t in any shape to fight our way out and we didn’t have any weapons.”

“And?” Jack prompted.

“And that’s all I remember. Truthfully, I don’t think I was in much better shape than Daniel at that point, except I didn’t have the… Viagra effect. I mean I’m sure I must have been feeling the effects of the fruit by then, because even that much is awfully muddled.”

“I know you’ve got a lot to talk about,” Janet interrupted, arriving with a syringe in hand. “But Daniel still needs to rest.”

When Daniel didn’t immediately protest, Jack motioned toward the door with his head. Sam leaned in and kissed Daniel’s forehead and led the way out, tightening the belt of her robe. “I’ll see you later,” she called over her shoulder. Teal’c bowed gravely and followed, stopping in the doorway to wait for O’Neill.

“You okay?” Jack asked worriedly.

Daniel nodded and tried to force a smile.

“I’ll be back later,” Jack advised and turned to go.

“What is a Hoover?” Teal’c asked as they disappeared out the door.

As Janet reached for his IV Daniel intercepted her hand. “I need to talk to you,” he said grimly. “About Sam.”

“Daniel…” Janet warned.

“I know. I know all about patient confidentiality and all that,” Daniel assured edgily. “But Sam came right out and told me she was raped. In fact I’m sure it’s common knowledge all over the base by now.”

“Probably,” Janet allowed with an edge of anger because it was more than likely the truth. The classified nature of the base did nothing to slow down the internal grapevine.

“I assume you took samples or gathered evidence or whatever it is you do for this kind of thing?” Daniel questioned relentlessly.

“Yes.”

“And that DNA can be run through, what? A… a database? I’m not sure how that works.”

“The DNA can be compared to known samples, but Daniel, it won’t identify some nameless, faceless stranger from another planet…” Janet began but stopped as Daniel frowned and lowered his head in shame. “Or does it have to?”

Daniel swallowed and met her eyes with his own suspiciously watery ones. “I’m not sure.”

“But you remembered something.”

“Maybe,” Daniel muttered in frustration. “Or maybe it was just a dream, I don’t know. But what if I did do it? We were both there, neither of us remembers, both of us had unprotected sex with God knows how many people…”

“No, Sam had semen from only one… donor so to speak.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, Daniel, I’m sure.”

“And she wasn’t brutally forced or… or…”

“She didn’t have any vaginal abrasions or tears. In fact the only real bruising she has is to her knuckles.”

Daniel felt of his face for places he might have been punched, but oddly enough, it was the one body part that didn’t hurt.

“Everyone who goes through the gate has a DNA sample on file,” Janet noted absently, her thoughts obviously somewhere else.

“Can you find out for me?” Daniel pleaded.

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?”

“Because, like it or not Daniel, if I directly compare that semen sample with your DNA it’ll be all over base in no time that you’re some kind of rapist,” Janet whispered harshly, trying to keep her voice down as her temper flared.

“What if I am?”

“You’re not,” Janet insisted angrily. “This goes back to the little discussion we had earlier. You were drugged.”

“I don’t care what anyone thinks.”

“I do!”

They glared at each other for a minute as a nurse peeked into the room. “Is everything alright in here? Oh, sorry Doctor Fraiser, I heard voices.”

“It’s okay, Sharon, everything’s fine,” Fraiser uttered with a false calm she didn’t feel.

The nurse nodded and left promptly.

“Please, Janet,” Daniel begged, tugging at her arm. “I have to know.”

Janet bit her lip and gave in. “I’ll set it up as a blind study and run it against all of the DNA on file,” she decided. “It’s weak, I know, but at least it won’t be a neon sign with your name on it. If it was you, it’ll pop up as a match.”

“Good enough,” Daniel sighed gratefully.

“It’ll take time.”

“That’s alright.”

“I’ll have to clear it with General Hammond first, but I don’t think he’ll have a problem with it. Now, do you want this or not?” Janet asked, hefting the loaded syringe.

“Yeah, give it to me,” Daniel replied apathetically.

“What about Sam?” Janet questioned thoughtfully as she injected the medicine into the IV. “She deserves to know what we’re up to.”

“I’ll tell her,” Daniel promised, closing his eyes and waiting for the drug to carry him away from his aches, pains, and troubled thoughts to sweet oblivion. At least for a while.

Monday evening, CX7-298

Suddenly Jack felt lightheaded, almost drunk as he leaned heavily against a tree to tuck himself in and button up his pants. A growing sense of unreality threatened to waylay him as he backtracked through the woods to the palace, stopping to gather his bearings as he stumbled back onto the trail.

Certain he was headed in the right direction he paused once more to try to shake off the encroaching cobwebs. At last he reached his destination and confidently climbed the two steps to the building. Pushing against the door he had exited less than ten minutes before proved useless and he wondered if he was at the right place after all. He followed around the edge of the edifice until he came to another door, this one being guarded by a large and apparently unhappy behemoth, smoking the equivalent of a hand-rolled cigarette.

“Excuse me,” Jack muttered. “I need to get back in. Sorry, forgot to get my hand stamped,” he joked.

The man glared back at him, flicking away the remnants of his smoke. He shook his head and pointed toward the village.

“No, you don’t understand, my friends are in there,” Jack persisted, noting a growing slur in his own voice as he tried to push past the guard. Instantly, he found himself on his ass staring up at the big bruiser. Jack only paused a second before he changed tactics and charged.

Reaching for the stiletto on his belt, the sentry advanced, surprised by the agility and strength of the inebriated human. Doubling the bigger man over with a swift elbow to the gut as he blocked the knife strike, Jack followed with a vicious, double-handed blow to the back of the guard’s head as he fell. Jack checked a pulse and then gathered the slender knife as he staggered to the door.

Entering a storage chamber he wandered among stacks of small tables until he had completely crossed the room and reached another exit. He struggled to remember what he was looking for as he cracked the door and peeked out. Screams and moans and guttural growls assaulted his ears and he squinted to make sense of the mass of writhing bodies in front of him. As he opened the door further to get a better look, a hand latched onto his wrist and pulled him into the room.

Jack raised the knife quickly, but let it tumbled from his hand as a naked female pushed his jacket off of his shoulders, effectively trapping his arms and plastered her lips to his. He drunkenly returned the kisses, forgetting for a moment what he had come for.

Thursday, early morning, Earth

“Sir? What are you doing up so early?” Carter asked as she took the seat across from her C.O., unable to avoid him in the nearly empty commissary.

Jack frowned into his coffee. “Couldn’t sleep. You?”

Sam shrugged, focusing all of her attention on opening her tiny box of Frosted Flakes.

“Dreams?” Jack asked cautiously.

“No, it’s just… I have to see Doctor Mackenzie first thing this morning. I got up early because I wanted to be wide awake for that.”

Jack winced involuntarily. “So… no bad dreams?”

Sam paused in the middle of pouring her milk. “Did you have bad dreams, sir?” she asked.

“What? Me? No,” Jack lied unconvincingly. “I’m just saying that if you did, you know, dream about… things, I could certainly understand.”

“Uh, huh,” Sam responded suspiciously. “So, um, Janet hasn’t requested that you visit Doctor Mackenzie, too?”

“No, why would she? All I did was get into a fight. It’s not like I went nuts like you and Dan… iel,” he paused guiltily at the look of anguish that crossed Sam’s face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. But the sooner we put this behind us the better as far as I’m concerned.”

“Don’t you even want to know what happened?” Sam asked with an edge of annoyance as she finished preparing her cereal and dug in with a spoon.

“Not really,” Jack hedged. “Don’t tell me you want to remember.”

Sam nodded tentatively. “Yeah. I think I do. I think I need to. I’m going to ask Doctor Mackenzie to hypnotize me again.”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Sam entered the infirmary to find Daniel pushing runny eggs around his plate with a fork. “Ugh,” she grimaced, pulling the tray away, table and all.

“Coffee,” Daniel grunted urgently, grabbing the ceramic cup before it got too far out of reach.

“Sorry,” Sam grinned as she settled on the side of the bed. “How’d you manage coffee anyway?”

“I have my sources,” Daniel informed her with a devious smile before he took a deep, apparently satisfying drink from the cup.

“Let me guess. You bat those big blue eyes at the closest female…”

“Sam!”

“Come on, Daniel. You use what you’ve got.”

“Oh? And what is that?”

Sam laughed and leaned in conspiratorially. “Do you know what I thought the first time I saw you on Abydos?”

“What a geek?” Daniel guessed, cocking an eyebrow.

“What a babe,” Sam corrected.

“Right,” Daniel barked back a laugh. “I’m sure the tape holding my glasses together helped to cement that impression.”

“Please,” Sam scoffed. “The fact that you are unaware of your allure just makes you more… alluring.”

Daniel sighed and took another healthy swig of coffee as if to fortify himself. “We need to talk,” he said seriously.

“Okay,” Sam replied, sobering considerably. “Are you alright?”

“Me? I’m fine,” Daniel assured. “I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be. I just made it through my first fifty minute hour with flying colors.”

“Mmm. How is Mac?” Daniel queried distastefully.

“Same old, same old. If I hear ‘how does that make you feel?’ one more time I just might mutiny.”

“No you won’t,” Daniel muttered, staring into his cup before draining it.

“I asked him to hypnotize me.”

“What? Why?” Daniel asked, jerking his head up to meet her eyes.

“Don’t worry, he said no,” Sam pouted. “He thinks it would be too traumatic. He says it would be better if I try to remember it on my own.”

“That’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about. I think I might have remembered something. I dreamed something anyway.” Daniel glanced away awkwardly and searched for a place to set his empty cup as he stalled.

“Here,” Sam said, taking it and placing back on the disgusting breakfast tray. “Tell me,” she encouraged.

“What if it was me?” he asked, capturing her eyes with an intense gaze.

“What do you mean?” Sam breathed, suddenly uncertain if she wanted to hear the answer.

“I dreamed something. It was uh, disturbing… it was you and me, and you were angry. You were pushing me away.”

“Daniel, that doesn’t mean…”

“What if it does? We were both there, we… we were both drugged. Who’s to say we didn’t… uh, that I didn’t… do something? I don’t know for sure what happened. Do you?” Daniel asked passionately.

“Shhh,” Sam soothed, running a hand up and down his arm. “It’s okay. I do remember some of it. I remember feeling warm and loved. I remember enjoying it, Daniel. In the long run it might even be better if it was you rather than some stranger.”

“Really?” Daniel questioned doubtfully, “Because there is a way to find out.”

“DNA,” Sam gathered quickly.

“Yes. Janet has already started the ball rolling. I just wanted you to be aware of it.”

Sam nodded. “However it turns out, it doesn’t change anything between us.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’re friends. That’ll never change. You know I’ll always love you, don’t you?”

“Ditto,” Daniel agreed, grasping Sam’s hand tightly.

“You know, for a linguist, you’re pretty stingy with words sometimes.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. “I just wish I remembered it the way you do. Cause what I remember wasn’t exactly warm and loving.”

“No?”

“No. More like down and dirty.”

“And you dreamed this,” Sam reflected quietly.

“Yes.”

“That’s funny. The colonel was just asking me about my dreams.”

Friday afternoon, Earth

“Hey,” Jack greeted as he poked his head into Daniel’s office. “Are you clear to be out and about?”

“Yeah,” Daniel answered distractedly as he dug through the scattered files on his desk. “Doctor Fraiser said I could go to this last debrief as long as I don’t over do it.”

“That’s odd, I thought the debrief was gonna be in the briefing room,” Jack pointed out sarcastically.

“I know, I just wanted to sort out some things before I headed up there.”

“Oh. Well if you need to talk…”

“I meant files, Jack. You know, papers, notes,” Daniel groused grumpily.

“Right. A little sensitive there, aren’t ya?”

“Sorry. I’m just tired of being treated like I’m made out of porcelain. This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion if you ask me. I just know Mackenzie is sharpening his claws as we speak, probably drooling over the chance to dissect my psyche again.”

“He’s not that bad.”

“He never threw you in a rubber room.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Jack mumbled with a guilty scowl.

“Do you mind?” Daniel asked, pointing to the soft-sided briefcase he’d just finished filling. “Janet said not to pick up anything heavier than a coffee cup for at least another week.”

“And we all know how well you follow orders. Jesus, Daniel,” Jack grunted as he hefted the bag. “What have you got in here?”

“Stuff I need,” Daniel answered coyly as he led the way out into the hall.

Jack followed dutifully to the elevator, stopping to assess his friend as they waited for the car to arrive. “You look better,” he announced at last.

“You look like hell,” Daniel rejoined seriously. “Not sleeping?”

Jack grunted noncommittally. “I’ve had some things on my mind.”

Daniel nodded his understanding and entered the elevator as soon as the doors opened.

Jack followed and punched the door button, but didn’t select a floor, ensuring a private conversation. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you. Without an audience.”

“Go ahead,” Daniel muttered, apprehensively watching the doors slide shut.

“We look out for one another, as a team.”

“Yeah. We try to,” Daniel agreed, trying to hide the sick feeling rising in his chest.

“I just… I gotta ask. Where were you, Danny?” Jack questioned gently.

Daniel blinked. “You mean while Sam was being…”

“Yeah,” Jack cut in, not wanting to hear the words.

Crossing his arms defensively over his chest, Daniel studied the floor and bit his bottom lip, obviously at a loss for words.

“I’m not trying to place blame…” Jack started but stopped at the unwavering glare Daniel gave him as he abruptly raised his head.

“Do you think I don’t blame myself? Do you think I haven’t agonized over this?” he asked bitterly. “I promise you, Jack, there’s not a damn thing you can say to me that I haven’t already said to myself. You can’t make me feel any worse about this than I already do.”

“Look, I’m sorry.”

“No,” Daniel swore as he punched the floor button savagely.

“No?” Jack ventured carefully, placing a hand on the wall as the elevator lumbered into action.

“Don’t be sorry. I deserve whatever it is that you think about me. After all I was probably getting my rocks off while Sam was left to fend for herself. That is what you think, isn’t it?”

“Daniel…”

“I just have one question.”

Jack swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “What?”

Daniel’s face twisted with emotion as he turned away and waited for the doors to part before answering. “Where the hell were you?” he spat hoarsely without looking back as he headed full steam ahead for the briefing room.

Jack clenched his jaw and counted to ten before following, still carrying Daniel’s overburdened case. Where indeed.

As Daniel rounded a corner he had to stop abruptly to keep from plowing over the diminutive form standing in the hall.

“Daniel,” Fraiser admonished. “I thought I told you to take it easy.”

“Sorry,” he swore, looking everywhere but at his doctor as he backed up until the wall behind him prevented further escape.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Daniel lied. “I’m fine.”

“I have news,” Janet said softly as she placed a hand on his arm. “I’ve been waiting to talk to General Hammond…”

“Daniel, hold up,” Jack called gruffly as he stomped through the corridor, coming to a halt directly in front of them before noticing Janet. “Doc,” he greeted self-consciously.

Daniel ignored him and clenched Janet’s shoulder, preparing himself for the worst. Janet shook her head and smiled reassuringly. Letting out a breath, Daniel sagged against the wall.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked urgently, catching him by the arm.

“I think he just needs to sit down,” Janet noted sagely. “Why don’t you help him find a chair,” she added.

“Don’t you wanna check him out?” Jack queried suspiciously.

“He’ll be fine. I need to talk to Sam before the briefing,” Janet assured, squeezing Daniel’s arm quickly before releasing him to Jack’s care.

“Easy,” Jack cautioned as he tucked the brief case tighter under his arm and captured Daniel by the elbow to steer him into the briefing room.

“I’m fine,” Daniel mumbled, pulling away and moving into the room under his own power.

“Listen,” Jack muttered contritely as he followed. “I was way outta line.”

“No, no… I was. I’m sorry. I’ve been kind of stressed out lately, obviously,” Daniel replied as he took a seat at the conference table. “Let’s just forget it, okay?”

“Sure,” Jack agreed, taking the next seat over. “I’ll just be glad to get this last meeting out of the way so we can get on with things.”

“As will I,” Teal’c agreed as he entered from the stairwell and joined them at the table.

Daniel took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Me, too,” he mumbled.

General Hammond entered from his office. “As you were,” he ordered swiftly as Jack started to rise and Daniel glanced up as if he might try to get up, too. “Where are Major Carter and Doctor Fraiser?”

“Here, sir,” Janet answered as she quickly entered the room, a pale and obviously shaky Sam in her wake. “I need to speak to you privately before we start,” she added, watching worriedly as Sam took a seat.

“Very well,” Hammond granted indicating for the doctor to precede him to his office.

“Um, sir? If I may?” Jack interrupted respectfully.

“Go ahead, Jack,” the general urged.

“It’s just… well, we all know what happened. And we’re all going to find out what you’re going to talk about anyway…”

“Colonel,” Janet argued, shooting a concerned glance in Sam’s direction.

“Why prolong the suspense?” Jack asked wearily.

“It’s okay,” Sam broke in. “He’s right. Everyone will know soon enough anyway.”

“You’re sure?”

Sam nodded tightly, but kept her gaze on the table top.

“Doctor?” Hammond asked gently.

Janet nodded and sat down next to Sam. “Fine, sir,” she muttered feebly. “I suppose I should start then.” She cleared her throat and opened a manila folder in front of her. “At Doctor Jackson’s urging, I ran the DNA from the semen collected from Major Carter after her attack through our own known DNA database. It came up with a match.”

“What? B…but, you said…” Daniel stammered in shock.

“It wasn’t yours, Daniel,” Janet soothed quietly.

All eyes at the table turned to Jack, who looked from Daniel to Teal’c in disbelief, not fully comprehending the implication. “What?” he asked when he realized everyone was staring at him. “Now wait just a minute!” he roared. “It couldn’t have been me. I wasn’t even there!”

“Jack,” Daniel said softly. “It couldn’t have been Teal’c. He would remember. And… and besides, I was wearing your pants.”

“Yeah? So?”

“So you had to have been there at some point. Unless they stripped you down somewhere else and just brought your pants back for some unknown reason,” Daniel explained.

“That’s not likely,” Janet put in.

“Carter?” Jack asked, turning a mortified expression to his 2IC.

“I don’t remember, sir,” Sam mumbled without making eye contact.

Hammond rubbed a hand slowly down his face. “Doctor Fraiser, is it possible that there was some kind of mistake?”

“No sir. The results are a match. I re-ran it myself.”

“And there’s no reasonable way to find out exactly what happened?”

“Not that I’m aware of, sir,” the doctor replied softly.

Sam closed her eyes for a second before turning a determined gaze on the general. “Sir, I’d like to under go hypnosis…”

“No way, Carter,” Jack cut in. “Mackenzie said no. He said that would be bad for you.”

“Sir…” Sam argued.

“I’ll do it,” Daniel volunteered immediately.

Jack sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, I’ll do it. Maybe if we don’t find out everything we need to know Mac the Hack can do you next. General?”

“I suppose it’s worth a try,” Hammond agreed reluctantly.

“You sure about this?” Daniel asked sympathetically as Jack settled on the stool in front of everyone’s least favorite psychiatrist. “I mean, if nothing else we could all leave.”

Jack sighed and glanced around at the audience; Hammond, Fraiser, Daniel, Teal’c and Sam. Everyone in the room was already fully aware of the situation. “Nah,” he replied resolutely. “It’s better to get it all out at once, don’t cha think?”

“Sam?”

“I’m fine,” Sam assured, crossing her arms over her chest in a very Daniel-like pose and settling out of the way. “How much worse could it get?”

“Let’s begin,” Mackenzie urged gently, turning on his slow strobe light.

Jack took a deep breath and nodded, focusing his attention