Completed just a week before Americans vote in one of the closest races for President ever - we thought some of you would like a something else to occupy yourselves with!

Be warned!

You are going to need refreshments for this, Biltong's longest and greatest story so far..       .-CiGik The BetaTester

JJ, Joe and the rescue of Jack

The sun had finally become visible for the first time that day.

Appearing as a pale yellow orb on the far horizon, it hovered there as if trying to figure out how to burn off the mist that blanketed everything in this desolate part of the Rocky Mountains.

There wasn’t much chance of the sun succeeding in the hours it had left before night arrived, but it was doing its best, and the two climbers stuck to the side of one of the desolate crags were grateful for whatever light and warmth it could give.

The mist was common for this time of year, one in which the hardy locals hardly ever ventured, at least not willingly, for it was in such mists that even the most skilled of people could lose their balance.

In that particular part of the Rockies where the mountains loomed like old age sentinels to Nature, losing one’s balance could easily result in a gory death – when one finally hit the ground far below...

Jonathan Jack Junior O’Neill was one of those people - someone who saw challenges everywhere, as did the older version he was tethered to, high up in the mountains.

In their case, they were seven thousand feet up and both were having the time of their lives.

JJ knew this for a fact, because he was, and as he was an exact copy of Jack that meant Jack was enjoying himself too.

Right?

Maybe..

Events recently had shown that just because two people started out the same, they didn’t necessarily stay the same.

In fact, Doctor Mackenzie, who really wasn’t that bad once you got to know him, was writing a paper on both on them and he said he was amazed at just how dissimilar the copy was becoming.

Why that was happening, JJ didn’t know, but he welcomed every little difference.

"JJ?"

JJ realized with a start that he had been in a daze.

"You okay?"

The feet above him disappeared over a ledge and a strong hand was reached back down, a hand JJ took unhesitatingly.

Jack was everything to him now, and one thing JJ knew for sure was the fact that Jack would never let him go.

"Up you come kid," Jack grunted, and JJ was smoothly deposited on the small ledge.

"Wow." JJ took a deep icy breath, staring around him in awe. "This is…"

Words failed him.

High above his head there was clear sky, bruising now into yellow streaked violet as dusk approached.

Below was nothing, just a blanket of grey white cloud as far as the eye could see.

It felt like…

"We’re all alone in the world," Jack said softly. "Ya think?"

"I wish," JJ said softly.

"So do I," Jack said with a sigh, and then turned back to coiling ropes. "Unfortunately we are not."

His words were precise, like stones clattering onto a hard surface.

JJ’s heart went out to him.

Jack had aged since becoming a General, the weight of life and death decisions taking its toll.

JJ had been surprised when - out of the blue it seemed - Jack had called and asked if he would like to go climbing with him.

In an ‘O’Neill world’ climbing never meant something small, and JJ had accepted on the spot.

"We can always stay here," he said, dropping his pack.

Jack gave him a quick look, dark haunted eyes under a black woolen cap pulled down hard against the elements.

"Sure," he said. "I was going to suggest pitching camp soon anyway." He pointed up at another ledge far above their heads.

"Although I suggest we head for that one. It looks bigger."

"I mean stay here for good," JJ said with a smile.

Jack gave him an answering smile. "You know we can’t," he said. "No matter how tempting it may seem."

"No more schoolwork," JJ whined.

"You ace it anyway," Jack grunted. He threw a neatly coiled rope at JJ.

"No base to run," JJ goaded.

He adjusted his climbing harness and squatted down to help Jack. Climbing was always a dangerous sport and one careless lapse could cause a snarled rope which in turn could lead to their doom.

"Where would we build the house?" Jack asked, giving JJ an exasperated look. He swept his arm around the ledge. "Here?"

JJ pretended to give it some thought, staring around studiously and feeling the happiest he had been in ages.

Man! He so loved the outdoors and having Jack by his side was an added bonus, one he was sure Jack also felt. This was a Class 5 climb, one of the most dangerous assisted climbs one could do, and he had been pleased when, after some small climbs to test what he remembered of his former skills, Jack had pronounced him ready to tackle something ‘bigger’.

Of course something ‘bigger’ in O’Neill talk had meant something a lot bigger.

Cougar head was a 14000 ft monster mountain, but JJ had expected nothing less.

"Well, we would have to remove about a ton’s worth of bird shit, but it has potential," he said, grinning as Jack grimaced and rolled his eyes.

"Okay", he conceded. "Granted, it’s a bit cold and windy, but think of the potential."

Jack did some goading of his own. "No cable and….aargh," he held a hand to his heart. "No phone reception. You would die."

JJ tried to ignore him. It was tough being seventeen again, but the advent of the cellular phone had at least made it bearable.

"I could survive," he muttered, looking away.

"Not a chance," Jack said, his eyes alight with mirth. "I have never seen anybody as attached to his phone as you are."

"I am you," JJ said loftily. "Had cell phones been invented in the late sixties you would have been just the same as I am now."

"Never," Jack said distractedly, checking their equipment with an eagle eye, looking for any flaws and finding none.

"Joe and I, we would have found better things to do than slouch in chairs all day, yakking."

"Like what?" JJ asked, his heart clenching at the mention of Jack’s brother. It had been almost a year since he had been…created and he still had confused images of Joe – images that were left over from Jack. He really wished that jack would introduce him to his brother just so that he could form his own images, but he knew for a fact that Jack had still not mentioned him.

This hurt in a way, even as he understood. How did you explain to a priest that you have a living breathing copy of yourself running around? Especially to a priest who you know is vehemently against cloning?

"We would visit each other for one thing," Jack said, his eyes softening at JJ’s expression.

"We still do. In fact, Joe is due to visit in three days time."

"He is?" JJ asked, trying not to be shocked. His eyes narrowed. "You tell him about me?"

Jack looked guilty. "I tried."

His eyes met JJ’s. "There is only so much I can tell him over an unsecured line. I merely said that there was someone he had to meet, someone who had been born the same way that Thor had been."

JJ carefully schooled his expression. "How did he react?"

"Cautious," Jack said after a while. He grimaced. "You know Joe. He may be anti-cloning but he isn’t anti-Asgard, and as we know, they have no other way to procreate."

JJ transferred his gaze to the last of the sinking sun, about to be swallowed up by the mist far below them. "I would have thought that, having those juicy cryptic clues thrown at him, Jot would have been on the next available plane."

Jack sighed and stood next to him, also staring out into the evening mists. "He was going to, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised it he isn’t already in residence, driving Carter, Teal’c and Danny crazy." His face darkened, "I have had enough of people driving me crazy – especially those in Washington."

"Hence the trip," JJ said, understanding.

Jack nodded. "Yes, I figured that we both needed a break."

"Really?" JJ wasn’t fooled.

"I didn’t need a break. In fact we have the finals coming up soon and I could have done with the study time."

He had the pleasure of seeing Jack look at his boots.

‘Serves him right for trying to fool himself!’ he thought.

"Well, that, and the fact that Mackenzie threatened me with some Mental Health regulation. The prick!"

Jack looked so irritated at the mere thought of the psychiatric Colonel, that JJ burst out laughing.

Then a thought occurred. The medical personnel at the SGC only intervened in exceptional cases. "He canned you?"

"Yeah," Jack muttered, still looking at his boots. "You wouldn’t have thought that there was a regulation against staying on the base for a month, but apparently Mackenzie says there is."

JJ’s smile died. "A month? You stayed on base an entire month? I thought you were offworld."

Jack shook his head regretfully. "I can’t do that since they promoted me."

"So what kept you?"

Jack’s eyes hardened. "A severe ‘snake’ problem. I was trying some pest control."

"You succeeded?" JJ asked.

Jack shrugged. "Some. Unfortunately we still have Baal around, making a nuisance of himself."

He waved his hands around. "We almost had him, then…" his voice trailed off and he swallowed

"Then?" JJ asked gently.

They should really climb that last section of the climb before dark and things got treacherous, but Jack so rarely opened up to anyone. He ignored the traitorous thought that he was guilty of the same thing.

"Then SG 17 and 19 met him on PF4 447," Jack said bitterly. "And none came home."

"Oh Crap," JJ breathed.

Jack nodded, his face shadowed.

"I spent the nest two weeks hunting that bastard down, until Mackenzie noticed and kicked me out."

"Now Joe is coming," JJ said.

Jack nodded again, giving him another flash of dark haunted eyes. "Losing people, having to write those awful letters made me realize just how short life really is. Retrieving those bodies made me realize just how vulnerable we all are."

"So in a typical O’Neill reaction you called Joe," JJ said.

Jack’s grin was swift, the angst seemingly to slough from his shoulders, although JJ was not fooled.

"Prezzactly."

"Then you took me mountain climbing, the one place Joe is guaranteed not to follow, hiding out until you are ready to talk?"

Jack’s grin dropped. "I hate it when you do that," he complained.

JJ ignored him. "You are confirming family. How very Freudian of you."

Jack gave him an odd look. "Are you sure that Loki didn’t get some of Daniel’s DNA mixed up with mine when he made you?"

JJ shrugged. "Hey, blame it on the library of the Ancients I carry around in this head of mine," he said.

"It makes me super-intelligent as you very well know."

Jack sighed loudly. "Tell me about it. People have been giving me weird looks ever since you won the State Olympiad. And that invitation from MENSA you received? That was a wayyy over the top."

"It’s not all Ancient you know," JJ said, watching the older man tense. Very people knew that Jack had three doctorates, although they would be stupid if they didn’t suspect something like that. One did not make it to the exalted rank of General without some smarts.

JJ felt Jack’s eyes on him. "How well do you remember them?" he asked.

JJ gave a wry smile. "Well enough to know that I am gonna have to study for them all over again," he said.

"Be glad," Jack said, actually surprising him. "It may be immensely irritating to relearn everything all over again, but as your Jack memories fade so your own unique individuality is slowly coming to the fore." Jack’s face darkened. "And I’ll tell you this, you are already a far different personality that I was at age seventeen."

JJ knew that, and was pleased that Jack had noticed. Not that he would ever have told the older man that.

"Perhaps our personalities aren’t just all meshed into the first four years of our lives," Jack mused. "Perhaps everything we do, from birth to age twenty and maybe even beyond play a role in how we turn out later in life."

"Perhaps," JJ said cautiously.

Jack turned and looked at him, his face unreadable, even to his clone.

"I was a product of a dysfunctional home," he said, pulling no punches. "The Air Force saved me to a degree, but used me as much as I used them. They fed me, clothed me and gave me a home. In return I killed for them."

"I know this," JJ whispered, wondering what Jack was trying to tell him.

"That is a route I will make certain you will never take," Jack said. He reached out and grabbed JJ’s arm, his grip almost painful.

"One of us emotionally withered inside by the horrors we have seen is one O’Neill too much. Do you understand me?"

JJ did.

"Yes sir," he said his mouth dry. This was not the Jack he knew. This was Jack the General, someone he had never been, and the intensity blazing out from behind those eyes actually frightened him.

Jack’s grip didn’t slacken. "You are family now," he said, his voice low and harsh, eyes boring into JJ’s. "You are part of my life now, no matter how you were created and whose soul you have, and you are loved for who you are, not for what you were. Do you understand that?"

"I do," JJ said, feeling himself shaking. "I do, believe me."

Jack backed off slightly, running a hand through his shorn hair, allowing the wind to whip what was left of it into an untidy mess.

"The idea of family has been driven home to me in these past few weeks," he said softly.

"I just needed you to know how important you were to me. I hope you understand."

"I understand," JJ said, taking a deep breath, glad that that, whatever it was, was over. He had thought that he knew all the hidden facets that made up the person called Jack O’Neill, but apparently he had been wrong, and encountering the unknown had shaken him considerably.

"Sorry," Jack said, looking rueful.

"’tis okay," said JJ, and truly meant it.

Actually, seeing as he spoke almost as many Earth based languages as Daniel did, as well as speaking Goa’uld, Asgard, and Ancient fluently, JJ had long ago realized that he would never be able to follow in Jack’s footsteps.

No, his life was already on a different path, and the thought that he had no idea where the path would lead was exhilarating, made more so now that he knew Jack would be with him every step of the way.

"You know, with your brains and my help there actually might be some chance of one O’Neill finding happiness," Jack said sadly.

All of a sudden JJ wanted out of this line of conversation, and fast.

"You pick halfway up Colorado’s answer to Mount Everest to go all philosophical on me?" he asked, striving for levity.

"Hey," Jack said, trying to look offended. He looked belligerent. "You got a problem with that, kid?"

"Well it is a bit weird." JJ gave him a cheeky grin. "But then again, you have been a bit stressed recently."

"You can’t run away from me up here kid," Jack said abruptly, the deep wisdom now shining from his eyes making a mockery of his own light words, and for the first time in what he suspected would be many repeats JJ realized just how astute Jack really was.

Had he really been that smart when he had… before, when he had still been…?

No way. No friggin way!

JJ shook his head, feeling the chasm widen between what he had been before and who he was now.

He had never been stupid, no matter what people had thought, but wise?

When had Jack gotten wise?

JJ thought long and hard, staring at the stranger that had used to be him.

Jack frowned. "You okay kid?"

JJ didn’t answer, staring closely at Jack, seeing him with new eyes. What was different about this tall grey haired man? There was something. What?

And then it hit him. Of course, it was a cliché, but it made perfect sense.

"Wisdom comes with age," he said half to himself.

Jack gave him an odd look. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Huh?" Jack asked, instantly reverting to type.

"I’m spitting clichés, aren’t I?" JJ said, watching the older man smile.

"That can be a dangerous thing to do," Jack said, catching his eyes and for one infinitesimal moment JJ stared into infinity. Jack was gone and he was staring into the eyes of something so old, so wise, that it defied description.

"’Spitting cliché’s’ can be hazardous to your health," the old, wise creature said with a smile, and JJ realized with a sense of deep shock that the creature had been Jack all along.

How could that be?

"Unless they happen to be true cliché’s," JJ said huskily, watching as Jack smoothly slid the mask back into place.

Holy crap! No wonder Thor considered Jack so precious.

"They still make a hell of a mess, those spat cliché’s," Jack said. "Don’t forget to pick em all up."

"Yes M’arse’ter," JJ said, mentally shaking himself, deliberately stressing what needed to be stressed.

Okay, so perhaps Jack had become wise as he had gotten older. So what? It wasn’t as if he needed the wisdom Jack now displayed.

He was a kid.

In fact he was actually beginning to like being a young punk again – not that he would ever admit this to anyone of course.

"They are idiots," Jack said, leaning out and looking up, searching for handholds.

"We have to reach that ledge before it gets too dark," he cautioned.

"Who?" JJ asked blankly.

"The brains."

"The MENSA people?" JJ said, brain scrabbling to catch up.

"Who else?" Jack asked grumpily, as if reverting to an hours old conversation was the norm.

"All their talk about inventions that will save the world when in fact they haven’t a single clue as to what needs to be done."

"You know, if SG1 ever find out what happened you will be toast." JJ smirked.

Jack speared him with a look. "If they ever find out it’s you that gonna be toast, trust me."

"Hey," JJ said defensively. "I’m not the one who got bored. Don’t blame me."

"Oh I will kid," Jack said grumpily. "To my dying day."

JJ had been invited to attend a special MENSA aptitude test, one in which the brainiest of the brains could really assess his intelligence for once and for all and give him an official IQ rating.

JJ, who had no qualms in showing off his intelligence, had been delighted at the invite. Jack less so, but nevertheless agreed to fly him to New York where the test was being held. Of course, JJ had aced the advanced test. So to a lesser degree, and definitely without his knowledge, had Jack.

"That was a really mean trick they pulled," Jack grumbled, carefully tapping a piton into the rock above his head and clipping a rope to it. "I mean, what was I meant to do whilst waiting for you? Read?"

An affirmative was on the tip of JJ’s tongue but thankfully he held it in. "You didn’t have to wait, you know," he said. "Nobody asked you to."

"You are too valuable to be left alone," Jack said matter of factly. "Besides, they assured me that you would take a reasonable amount of time. Instead you took hours. So I got bored."

"Really bored."

"So you said," JJ sighed, watching as Jack tested the piton’s strength and then began to climb, fingers searching for holds in the rock face. "Vociferously."

He was answered by an unintelligible grunt.

It had been a brilliant thing to do, seen in hindsight. In fact, had one applied any thought to it at all, what else would a super intelligent select club of certified geniuses stock their waiting room with apart from their own IQ tests? Of course Jack being Jack, bored and alone, had had all his defenses down. According to what JJ had gleaned between the bouts of growling, Jack had found a convenient pencil and had spent the next couple of hours happily filling in whatever tests he could find, much to the delight of the researcher who finally came to collect him.

What JJ did remember rather vividly was the language used when not only did they give JJ his IQ rating, they gave Jack his too.

"It should be an honor," he yelled up at Jack’s boots. "Not everyone gets into MENSA you know."

"If Carter and Danny ever find out I will personally kill you," a hissed whisper floated back down.

"I like my dumb image."

"So do they," JJ yelled back, adjudging Jack to be far enough ahead of him to start his own climb. He attached himself to the rope, found himself another secure anchor to belay Jack just in case he fell and started climbing.

"Not that they are fooled any," he muttered, certain that Jack’s much older hearing would miss his words.

"What?"

"Nothing, you MENSA certified lug-head," he yelled, getting a shower of dirt in his eyes for his impudence.

…

Half an hour later night was rapidly closing in.

Thankfully JJ could see the arête - a sharp ridge of rock just before the summit - above Jack’s head now.

Naturally, Jack being Jack was beginning to complain already, something he seemed to do a lot recently, JJ thought.

"I’m too old for this shit," he said.

"If you insist," JJ said agreeably.

"I should be at home with a small traveling blanket over my knees, long since retired and reminiscing about the Goa’uld with anyone who didn’t think me insane."

"I tried that," JJ’s voice floated up, before obviously rethinking his reply. "Without the small traveling blanket I mean. It doesn’t work. I told anyone who would listen that I had been created by Roswell aliens."

"All I got for my troubles was detention…."

Jack chuckled, deftly spearing another anchor into a crevasse, threading the rope through and knotting it tightly. This was a most difficult climb that needed all his skill and the use of plenty of suitably placed anchors was essential.

"You didn’t?" he said, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that JJ had.

"Did too," JJ said, sounding miffed.

"You were in Washington at the time so the school called Daniel to complain. Daniel told them that I had an overactive imagination and that I should be forced to study the history of the Roman Empire as punishment. He even offered to bring some study material to the school for me to look at, an offer Miss Markle readily accepted."

"Poor thing," Jack said, resuming his climb. He had been informed of the incident, but it was more amusing to hear it from JJ’s perspective.

"Of course, I knew that Daniel was swamped with work, and that SG3 had just returned from B66 Y72, otherwise known as New Roma with a hell of a lot of tablets. He had been asking me to help for ages, but I had managed to successfully duck and dive until then."

"But now he had you by the short and curlies?" Jack asked.

"Oh yeah," JJ said miserably. "To make matters worse, what materials he delivered to the school all happened to be written in Latin."

"So?" Jack grunted, looking up. Not far to go now. He was making steady progress and the arête could be clearly seen now.

They would camp until first light.

"Daniel couldn’t very well have given you anything in English, you know," he said. "Think of the security breach that would have caused."

"I was trying to be a ‘jock’," JJ said in an aggrieved voice.

"Can you imagine how badly that dweeb work tarnished my image?"

"You survived," Jack said caustically.

"Barely," JJ huffed. "It took a lot of damage control."

Jack shook his head. "You know," he said, "I can’t understand why you would ever want to be a ‘jock’ again."

"I seem to recall that it only resulted in trouble."

"I have the benefit of hindsight," JJ said loftily.

"Say NO! to drugs…."

"Good," Jack grunted, fingers blindly searching for cracks. He tried not to shudder as he recalled all the reasons why he had needed drugs way back then. Coming from an abusive household had been a contributing factor, and once hooked he had been too weak-willed back then to search for a way out.

"Make sure you mean that," he said huskily, recalling the needles, the pain, the ecstasy and waking up in rehab so many times they had considered him a completely hopeless case.

If it hadn’t been for Joe…

"I have no choice," JJ said, sounding somber. "Thor has threatened me with re-education if I even try something as dumb as that." He snorted. "I have no idea what the Asgard version of re-education is, but he assures me it isn’t fun."

"Does he still visit then?" Jack asked, astonished. He had known that JJ had had visits before from the grey alien but he had thought that they had stopped a while ago.

JJ sighed. "On occasion, and only very late at night when I should be asleep. I think he sees himself as an uncle or something."

"As long as the Goa’uld don’t find out about you," Jack warned.

JJ snorted derisively. "I really don’t think there’s a chance of that," he said. "Not with the Air Force and you hiding my identity away. Why, even Joe doesn’t know that I exist…"

As JJ said the words he knew that he had made a bad mistake.

"Watch your footholds," he said sharply when Jack hesitated. He nodded upwards to where the rock ended. "We are almost there."

"So we are," Jack said, his voice pensive. "Yet in some ways we’re only beginning."

"No more deep thoughts before you pitch the tent," JJ said lightly, watching as the older man clambered over the top onto the arête. Damn, he could almost taste the coffee Jack was gonna brew as soon as he was able. Fun as mountaineering was, it was always better after the climb when one was relaxed and sitting down.

Jack’s head reappeared. "It’s your turn to pitch the tent," he called down. "I did it last time."

JJ pulled a face, knowing that would make Jack smile.

"Okay," he said, pretending reluctance. "But only ‘cos strenuous exercise might be bad for your aged back."

"Never insult the person whom you are relying on to pull you up," Jack said lightly, reaching down for JJ’s hand.

"Up you come kid."

"Thanks," JJ said, reaching for Jack’s hand only to freeze in shock. Something was wrong.

"Gagh!"

Jack reared back with a choking cry and it was only then that JJ could see why.

There was - Oh God – a chain mailed arm wrapped firmly around his neck!

"Jack!"

His cry was whipped away into the evening light.

Distantly, far above his head, JJ could hear scuffling noises.

God, this was so not happening.

"Hang on, I’m coming!" he yelled, hands and feet frantically pulling him towards the ledge.

It was close, a mere arms length above his head but JJ had this sickening feeling that despite his best efforts he would be too late to help Jack.

Shaking off his near psychic feeling, he redoubled his efforts.

He could hear voices now, harsh and guttural.

"Hold him!"

"Like hell." Jack’s voice was a low snarl.

A quick word in Goa’uld, then "Get the child."

"Bastard!" There was another scuffle, louder now, and then there was a large shadow right above him and JJ cringed against the rock face expecting the worst.

"Bh’halga!"

"Same to you," JJ whispered, clinging weakly to his perch, listening to the descending Jaffa’s screams fade into the abyss.

"Same to…"

And then he froze. The ledge above him was ominously silent.

"Jack?" His words were a soft sigh, heard by no one but himself. "I’m coming," he whispered, his questing fingers feeling for and finding Jack’s last shiny piton. He would use this as a weapon, rolling onto the ledge and pulling it free from the ground in one smooth motion.

The brief thought that Jack may have embedded it deep, that his teenager’s strength might not move it was ignored.

Jack was in trouble and failure was not an option.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered.

Then, just as he drew in a deep breath and tensed his muscles, Jack was back, leaning over the edge like a bloodied apparition from hell itself.

"Go," he snarled.

"Jack?"

"It’s Yu’s Jaffa," Jack gabbled, trying to give JJ as much information as he could in the limited time he had.

"Don’t come up here," he warned, suddenly noting JJ’s posture. "Get help. Inform the SGC and go and get…"

He suddenly cried out, teeth bared, and JJ actually saw his skin rippling as the energy from a zat coursed through his system and then he slumped forwards lifelessly, arm hanging limply over the edge inches from JJ’s face.

"Jack?"

Jack didn’t answer.

JJ knew he should move, that there were harsh people yelling even harsher things in Goa’uld on the ledge above his head but he was frozen in place. Jack meant everything to him and JJ knew that he had been shot. Jack had been shot in the back by a zatnikatel – a zat - and even now the blood dripping from his fingers might be the last bit of life Jack had.

Then, as if from far away JJ recalled Jack’s last words.

Get help.

"God forgive me!" he moaned, reaching out and squeezing Jack’s hand for the briefest of seconds.

Then he was whizzing back down the mountain, frantically retracing their laborious route of earlier in a glorious display of master rappelling even as the first of the staff weapon blasts struck the rocks to his right, peppering his body with needle sharp shards.

Sobbing aloud as only a teenager could do, JJ O’Neill followed his orders.

There were Jaffa on Earth!

Perhaps even a Goa’uld and if he too was taken captive no one would ever be the wiser!

The Rockies were a dangerous place at the best of times and people had disappeared before now, sometimes for good.

No, Jack’s orders were sound and had to be obeyed, yet JJ couldn’t stop the tears from flowing as he heard the distinctive sound of a ring transport echo out far above his head.

…

The man sat in the arm chair was definitely an O’Neill.

In fact, if anyone who knew Jack casually had called that day they would have assumed that they were indeed talking to the General himself. It was only his close friends who would notice that there was something not quite right about him. He had lighter eyes for a start. Couple that with a serene unlined face and anyone who knew Jack well would know that it was in fact his brother that was comfortably sat in his favorite chair.

Only his team would know for sure that Joe wasn’t Jack, and seeing as one of them was sat opposite him talking rapidly and earnestly to him, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought anyway.

_

"A clone?"

Joe O’Neill felt his scalp tighten.

Things had gotten quite bizarre and science-fictionish in the last couple of years since he had been officially informed of the stargate, but this! This took the cake…

"Jack would never do that, allow himself to be cloned. He knows how I feel about something like that." He sat forward in his chair, suddenly glad of the crackling fire Daniel had the foresight to make. Night had long since fallen and besides, the mere thought of cloning made him feel cold. "Jack would never consent to being cloned," he repeated. "He knows it’s against my beliefs."

"At the time Jack had no idea what was happening," Daniel said in a carefully controlled voice. "Besides, he was cloned by an Asgard."

He stared earnestly at Joe, unaware that the fires reflection mirrored in his glasses made seeing his face impossible.

Joe lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh, that makes things better then," he said sarcastically.

"Their whole race is cloned," Daniel said calmly, well used to O’Neill sarcasm.

Joe refused to be mollified. "Dammit," he snapped. "Don’t you dare try and justify….They are?" Belatedly his brain comprehended what Daniel of all people was telling him. "Really?"

"Really," Daniel said, his posture as serene as that giant Buddha Joe had seen many years ago when there had only been one planet to care about and Satan hadn’t spoken with a Goa’uld accent. "They can’t uh…" Daniel made some crude hand movements, flushing when Joe snorted with laughter.

"I get it," he said, his grin exploding the uneasy bubble that had surrounded the two firm friends ever since Daniel, instead of Jack, had met him at the door.

"They have to clone themselves now," Daniel said. "It was one of their own scientists that cloned Jack, wanting to study him. Unfortunately the experiment went awry. It was also illegal and when Supreme Commander Thor found out he…he…"

Daniel was gamely trying to explain what had to be far above his level of expertise, perhaps even clearance, Joe thought fondly.

"Danny?" He held up his hand, trying to stop the linguist before he tied his tongue into a knot. "Breathe Daniel," he said, smiling when Daniel took the idea literally. Sometimes it helped that he and Jack had the same mannerisms. It meant that four times out of five his team obeyed Joe without question.

The fifth time usually meant penance, but that was to be expected.

"Suffice it to say, a copy was made," Daniel said in a relieved rush.

"Jack mark 2?" Joe asked. He was still stunned at the idea of Jack as a clone but now he could see that there were extenuating circumstances. It wasn’t as if some faceless scientist in some third world country had done some gene splitting or something.

Wondering vaguely what the Pope would think of the Asgard, Joe sat back in his chair and regarded Daniel with a critical eye.

"Well, no, not precisely Jack Mark 2," Daniel was saying and Joe felt his stomach drop.

"They made a retard?" he asked.

"Not unless an IQ of a zillion makes you a retard," Daniel said, settling further back into his chair. Joe could see his eyes behind his glasses now and they were clear and level. "This young man is the most…"

He paused as Joe raised a lazy hand, held up just so, like Jack did in order to stop a member of his team from going off in a tangent. It worked and Joe felt a flash of guilt for using it but dammit…

"Young man?"

Daniel looked lost, his eyes huge. "Didn’t I tell you?" he asked faintly.

"You most assuredly did not," Joe said, feeling his anger grow. Just how young was this clone? Charlie’s age?

Joe felt his scalp contract at the mere thought.

He should have known that there was something wrong when Daniel had opened Jack’s front door just as he was fumbling with his keys, frightening the life out of him. Daniel had looked furtive, as if he shouldn’t have been there in the first place and when Joe, expecting Jack, had jokingly asked where he had buried the body, Daniel had actually tensed for a moment before deliberately relaxing.

His actions then had worried him. Now Joe understood why.

"He’s sixteen, no seventeen now," Daniel said. "Jack calls him ‘Mini Me’."

Joe felt his anger dissipate. Things weren’t so bad after all, even if Jack at sixteen had been a nightmare. A sudden thought occurred, making Joe narrow his eyes again and stare closely at Daniel.

"Jack doesn’t know that you are here, does he?" he asked.

As he expected his quick question had the desired effect.

"Well, no." Daniel said. He looked like a small boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Does this ‘Mini Jack’ know?"

Daniel shook his head and puffed out a breath of air.

"He’s called JJ, and no, he doesn’t know either. They are both climbing a mountain somewhere."

"Figures," Joe muttered, making Daniel smile. They both knew Jack well – he would confront the Devil himself if need be, but when it came to issues relating to his own family he would rather run a mile than deal with them.

"When’s he due back?"

"Tomorrow," Daniel said. "He and JJ both."

"A teenager," Joe said, the full import of what Daniel had told him finally sinking in.

"Merciful Lord." At that exact moment rain started to drum on the roof, as if the Good Lord Himself couldn’t agree more.

"Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad," Daniel said, getting to his feet and heading for the kitchen. "Think of Jack at seventeen."

Father Joseph O’Neill rose to his feet, his face had Daniel seen it, tormented.

"That’s what I’m so worried about," he said, squeezing his crucifix.

…

The mist was cold and treacherous and JJ really wanted to be anywhere else than blind and in its clammy grip. Hell’s teeth, he’d give anything just to be warm and dry. Was that too much to ask?

Okay, so he also wanted to be off this mountain.

Descending in the dark was rapidly becoming one of his most hated things to do in life.

Muttering aloud he savagely sunk another piton into the rock and threaded the rope through it - just in case. Hell, what did he mean, just in case? Make that when he fell. The rocks were slippery, the mist thick and he couldn’t see squat. Dammit, he was plain all round miserable.

Then his thoughts turned to Jack and what might be happening to him and JJ’s self pity vanished.

"This is hell," JJ shouted aloud, hearing his voice echo before being swallowed by the mist. Every fiber of his body shouted for him to go faster, to alert the SGC as soon as possible, but his brain advised caution. If he became careless, if he slipped…well the steel pitons were held only by soggy rock which may or may not be porous. Perhaps they would hold, but if they didn’t he could easily fall to his death on the rocks far below.

Or were the rocks far below?

JJ had lost all sense of time and direction but if he listened closely he could swear he could hear voices. Was that his imagination?

Okay, he could yell. Perhaps someone would hear his desperate cries and come and investigate but what would he tell them?

Jack was missing? That would cause one hell of a search, for no reason. Jack was no longer on Earth.

"The man I was cloned from has been kidnapped by aliens," JJ said aloud, snorting at how absurd that sounded. "Ah hell," he yelled, knowing that Jack was going to have to hold on, at least until he could dig out his phone and alert the SGC.

He paused for a moment as his heart clenched, recalling the whine of the zat and Jack’s agonized cry.

Dammit! Lord Yu was meant to have been an ally of sorts, insofar as one could trust anyone with a snake in his head. Why the hell had he kidnapped Jack? What the hell did he want with him? His body?

"Holy Christ," JJ whispered, the full enormity of that thought literally freezing him in place. If Yu took Jack as a host then the SGC would be in dead trouble. Not that Jack would be taken easily, but he would be taken eventually.

"God no," he whispered, jumbled memories of Hathor’s snake and Kanaan’s strength whirring through his brain.

If Jack was made a host…

Suddenly, without warning, he heard a loud crack.

"Dammit!"

His desperate cry was lost in the night as the one thing he had most feared came to pass and the shiny piton, Jack’s piton, lost its hold in the waterlogged rock.

Suddenly JJ had no anchor, and consequently no hope as gravity took hold and he was sent spinning away from the rockface in a tangle of flailing hands and nylon rope.

Then he was tumbling down, far down into the darkness until he knew no more.

…

Daniel’s surprisingly tasty meal consumed, both Joe and Daniel were once more ensconced in Jack’s armchairs, listening to the rain.

The fire had been refreshed and both men were nursing drinks, Joe a beer and Daniel a snifter of Jack Daniels. Daniel wasn’t usually a whiskey man but the night was cold and he needed the drinks artificial warmth.

"Not going home tonight?" Joe asked, staring into the flames.

"Only if you want me to," Daniel said, aware that Joe had a lot of thinking to do.

Joe shook his head. "Nah, stay here," he said. He turned and gave Daniel a narrow eyed look. "Besides, I still demand revenge for the last trouncing you gave me." He nodded at the marble chessboard Jack kept in the corner of the lounge.

"If you insist," Daniel said dubiously. Unlike Jack, the master tactician, Joe was a lousy chess player.

Joe’s eyes twinkled. "I do," he murmured, as if aware of Daniel’s thoughts. "Besides, it’s going to be wild out there tonight."

A peal of thunder echoed his words, making Daniel look at him in astonishment.

"Good boss," Joe said, staring at the ceiling with a meaningful air.

Daniel suddenly had gooseflesh. "Make sure he looks after Jack and JJ," he said. "The weatherman said that this bad weather is state wide."

"Jack can look after himself," Joe said placidly. "I guess that goes for this young JJ too." He smiled at Daniel’s dismayed look.

"But just on the off chance, I’ll put in a good word or two."

Daniel smiled faintly. "Thanks," he said. He shook his head. "I know this sounds crazy, but all through the meal I have had this weird feeling that something is wrong somewhere."

Joe smiled. "Perhaps it was the fish."

"Perhaps," Daniel conceded. "Or the whiskey." He placed his drink on the table. "I don’t usually drink alcohol you see."

Just about then his cellular phone rang.

…

JJ was cold and wet. His body was numb and Daniel was taking his time in answering.

"C’mon." His teeth felt funny too. He spat out a tooth.

"Hello?"

"Daniel?"

"JJ?"

"Yeah," JJ said, trying to sit upright. At least he was back on Terra Firma.

"You okay?" Daniel sounded concerned.

Typical Daniel, perceptive as hell unless he was studying some plaque or the other, then you could steal anything you liked from right under his nose, JJ knew this because he had tried.

"JJ?"

"What?" He realized that his mind had been wandering. Perhaps it was the cold, or the fact that he was lying in a puddle in the middle of what seemed to be a large field. If he was lying on a cow pat he was gonna…

"Where are you?" Daniel’s voice took on a sense of urgency. "Are you hurt?"

JJ found himself nodding and collected himself. "Uh, yeah, but that doesn’t matter cos Jack is gone."

Daniel’s voice had taken on a patient air. Glacially calm.

Glacier. That was kind of funny, seeing as he was so cold. He really should move.

"Where has he gone JJ?"

"Yu took him."

"Me?"

JJ shook his head, irritated at Daniel’s denseness.

"Snake."

"Lord Yu?" Daniel’s voice had gone all squeaky.

"Ess."

"Where are you?" Daniel sounded glacially calm again which was funny cos…

"Bottom," he murmured, trying to ignore the sparkles dimming his vision. "I fell."

"Down the mountain?"

Daniel really should stop getting all upset and stuff. It surely wasn’t good for his health.

"JJ?"

"Only the last part," JJ said defensively. "I was doing great until then." He knew he sounded whining and young but dammit, he was young, and he was hurt and cold and…dammit. Jack would have toughed it out, dragged his sorry carcass to the nearest bar and tossed back a whiskey or something before phoning the base and getting things organized but that was Jack.

Besides, he was underage.

He wasn’t Jack. Well, not anymore he wasn’t, and there was one thing he had learned well about being a teenager this time around. When you were in trouble you yelled for help. With four interfering adults always in close vicinity someone was sure to respond.

"Hang on JJ." Daniel sounded distracted. "Joe’s dialing 911."

Joe? What was Daniel doing in Chicago?

"Tell me what you see." Daniel wasn’t making sense.

"Huh?"

"Are there any landmarks nearby? What do you see?"

"Oh." He wasn’t that hurt. He had just fallen a little way for crying out loud. "The Hotel’s not far," he muttered. He now felt a fool for worrying Daniel. Geez the poor guy must think he’s at death’s door.

"Left or right?" Daniel asked patiently.

"Left," JJ muttered. "But it’s okay. I can walk."

"You sure?" Daniel sounded dubious.

"Sure." Sure he could.

Right?

He struggled to get to his feet and subsided with a groan.

"JJ?" Someone was squawking at him. Daniel. Oh, right.

"Scratch the walking bit," he muttered, admitting defeat. "Busted something somewhere."

"It’s okay JJ," Daniel said soothingly.

"Hm," JJ muttered, watching through slitted lids as flashing lights bumped across the field towards him.

"The problem is this," he said to the distant Daniel. "Who’s busting something in Jack?"

"What?"

JJ ignored him.

"And more importantly, where in the universe are they busting it?"

…

Lights, pain.

Dizziness too.

What the heck had happened?

Jack O’Neill raised his head from where he was being dragged face downwards between two beefy Jaffa, desperately trying to get his bearings.

He had been…something.

"Ow! Watch the merchandise," he slurred as they dragged him across what had to be a row of rivets…or something.

Where the hell was he?

He had…had…

Jack gave it up as a sickening wave of nausea forced vomit from his lips, drenching his front making the Jaffa carrying him mutter unhappily.

"Tau’ri scum," one said, the oft repeated words making Jack chuckle despite his predicament.

"Ah to be loved," he said, trying for bravado even as his insides slowly turned to ice. He had been rock climbing with JJ. Shit. Where was JJ?

Finally they reached their destination and Jack was unceremoniously dropped the floor, the color of it making him chuckle again.

"Ah, to be a Goa’uld," he said. "All that red and gold. They never change."

He reached out a shaky hand, intending to lever himself upright, only to have it stomped on by a large boot.

"The prisoner, my lord."

Make that a large Jaffa boot.

"The prisoner?" The voice was a satisfied purr.

Oh yeah, a snakehead all right

There was a slap of chainmail on leather.

"O’Neill, my lord.

Hand pinned to the floor, Jack merely raised his head and scowled, finding no difficulty in figuring out who the head honcho was.

"Hi Yu," he said cheerfully. "Or is that Yu-hoo?"

A small oriental man looked amused. The big beefy Jaffa with the bad teeth pinning his hand down just looked furious.

"Silence dog!"

"Geez, don’t fall off Yu," Jack said, ignoring him. "That’s a hell of a high throne for a little guy like you."

So it was. The room in which he found himself was a splendid riot of gold and red drapes. Against the far wall someone had erected a high ornate throne, a throne upon which the birdlike Lord Yu perched.

"I have no intentions of falling off O’Neill," the wizened Goa’uld said, his voice shaking with age.

"Pity," Jack muttered, wondering again why Yu had never taken a younger host. Not that he had any intentions of asking him, just in case today was the day when snakykins went house-hunting.

"Have you any idea as to why you are here?" Yu asked.

"To make up a fourth in Bridge?" Jack asked. He thought about climbing to his knees, but was worried that rotten teeth might decide to keep him there, and unlike JJ, his knees were shot.

JJ. Jack prayed that the kid had escaped.

"Hardly," Yu said smiling as if he really knew what Jack had meant. Then again, perhaps he did. Just how old was the game of Bridge anyway?

"You like my company?" Jack asked. He pulled ineffectively at his hand until Yu noticed and waved the Jaffa off.

"Hardly," he said again, stroking a long white beard. "You are my leverage."

"Against?" Jack asked.

He finally made it to his knees, albeit with the dubious help of rotten teeth’s hand being buried in his hair

"Why against Baal of course," Yu said with a flourish, and suddenly Jack had something far greater than JJ to worry about.

"He is attacking my outer worlds," Yu said, leaping from his high throne with an athleticism that made a mockery of his earlier signs of infirmness.

"You, my dear O’Neill, will ensure that he desists."

"What?" Jack asked.

"You will be his reward," Yu said, his tone icy. "Not that I like that much."

"That makes two of us," Jack said with feeling.

Yu acted as if he hadn’t heard. "I dislike giving in to that pathetic, vile creature, but my outer worlds are precious to me."

His eyes flashed. "Killeq is from such an outer world, and it he who ensures that the Naquadah mined from his planet never stops."

"I bet," Jack muttered, glaring at the other man in the room, his gold tattoo clearly denoting him as Yu’s prime.

"Slave labor is all the rage nowadays."

"It will be far worse under Baal," the Jaffa said in a smooth urbane voice, the mere fact that Yu was allowing him to speak at all making Jack blink in surprise. "At least under lord Yu, my countrymen have a chance of dying with dignity," he said.

"If Baal should take over they will just die."

"I’d prefer freedom myself," Jack muttered, but he was ignored.

This Jaffa was very different from the usual Prime that Jack had encountered over the years. Tall and slim, he was dressed nattily in brightly colored leathers. He looked like a fop. Appearances could be deceiving though, for the more he looked the more Jack noticed the wide shoulders, tell tale signs of an expert swordsman.

"Once you are a guest of Baal he will leave the outer worlds alone," the Prime said, aware of Jack’s eyes on him.

"I’m damned if I will willingly allow myself from being turned over to that bastard," Jack snapped, giving the Prime a glare.

Yu moved into view, looking highly amused.

"Thinking of escape, hmm?"

Jack didn’t answer, staring grimly over Yu’s shoulder.

A leather like claw gripped his chin. "You will never be in a position to escape, Tau’ri," Yu said.

"That I can guarantee."

"Then I will kill myself," Jack said, staring into flat black eyes.

He felt a frisson of fear when he realized that he actually meant that, but compared to Baal resurrecting him again and again a quick death seemed like a good alternative. Yu must have seen something in his eyes because he dropped his hand and stepped back.

"You will never get that opportunity," he said. He smiled thinly. "In fact, Baal warned me that you would prefer death rather than captivity so I have come up with a foolproof plan to ensure your full cooperation."

Jack glared at his captor defiantly.

"There is no such thing," he snapped.

"Oh yes there is." Yu blazed.

"Only a fool would state that," Jack snapped back, totally unbowed. He settled back on his haunches, ignoring his aching knees and his guard’s firm grip in his hair and gave Yu a defiant stare.

"I am a Tau’ri," he said. "Escape is what we do. It’s an art form."

"Not this time," Yu said. He turned to his Prime. "Jaffa!"

Killeq gave Yu a brief nod. "My Lord," he said before exiting the room. He was back within moments with another man, this one dressed in a white coat.

Christ NO!

Jack tried not to allow his shock to show.

"Typical," he snarled. "Gold and white coats, some things never change." He glared at the small man, taking no small measure of satisfaction when he stumbled, looking terrified.

"Hold him," Yu ordered, and suddenly the Prime’s arm was encircling his throat, cutting off his air. His hands instantly flew to his throat desperate to breathe, but rotten teeth had other ideas, effortlessly pinioning his arms against his body and tearing his hands away.

"Do this quickly," Killeq snapped at the doctor, finding it hard to hold the straining Tau’ri.

The doctor didn’t need telling twice. He instantly stabbed the struggling man and depressed the plunger.

Seconds later Killeq felt the Tau’ri go limp and withdrew his arm allowing the man to sag to the floor, the fight finally gone from his body.

"Why?" Jack asked grimacing as the drug burned around his system. "Why this?"

"Baal wants you intact," Yu said, looking chillingly regretful. "So I came up with this idea."

Jack moved his lips, wanting to ask another question but the darkness beat him, slowing smothering all hope of escape.

…

"JJ?"

JJ opened sticky eyes, feeling totally disorientated.

He was lying on something soft but all he saw above him was white on white.

"Wha?"

A pair of round glasses attached to a worried face eclipsed the brightness. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Never ask that question in the first few seconds of consciousness," JJ whispered, making Daniel smile, lightening the lines of stress etched on his face.

"Hi kid."

Jack had taken to calling him that and the name had stuck. Now everybody called him kid, even Teal’c on occasion.

"Hi yourself," JJ said. He tried to lever himself up by his elbows but Daniel pushed him back onto the bed.

"Stay put."

"Where am I?" JJ snapped, trying to bat off Daniel’s hands.

"The SGC," he said, effortlessly holding JJ in place.

"Shit," JJ abruptly stilled, staring at Daniel with wide eyes. "Jack?" he asked, hoping against hope. Perhaps it all had been a bizarre nightmare and the old man was in his office, safe and sound.

"O’Neill is not here," Teal’c said from near the doorway.

"They took him?" JJ asked.

"That is for you to say," Teal’c said, moving closer.

"They took him," JJ said, staring up into the serene face and haunted eyes of one of Jack’s closest friends.

"Daniel Jackson informs us that it was Lord Yu that ‘took him’," Teal’c said.

"Yes." JJ sat upright only to double over in pain, ending up flat on his back again breathing through gritted teeth with tears in his eyes.

"Hey, steady on!"

A graceful brunette was bearing down on him. She wasn’t Doc Fraiser – no one could be even remotely like her ever again, but she had the same attitude.

100% Pure Medical.

JJ hated her on sight.

"What’s wrong with me?" he snapped.

Her lips compressed. "You have a broken arm, concussion and three fractured ribs," she snapped back.

She unwound slightly when he said nothing.
"That and the shock of falling thirty feet off the side of a mountain…"

"Thirty feet? Is that all?" JJ exclaimed. It had felt further than that.

She lifted an eyebrow. "You wanted more perhaps?" she asked.

JJ had had enough of her. "What I want is for Jack to be here," he growled, gingerly pushing back the starched sheets.

"Seeing as this isn’t gonna happen any time soon I may as well go home."

In reality he had no intention of going home and merely twiddling his thumbs, but neither had he any intention of staying in the infirmary.

Memories of Cassie’s mom were still too fresh.

"We’ll find your dad," she said, mistaking his desperation for helplessness.

"There is no reason why you can’t stay here and recuperate whilst we do so."

"There are plenty of reasons," JJ said grimly, gratefully accepting the clothes Teal’c held out.

They were Jack’s and rather large but they would do. "Reason number one being the fact that I hate the infirmary."

He took a deep breath swaying slightly as the room seemed to shimmy around him for a moment.

"Reason number two being that you are not…"

"Joe,"

- Daniel hastily interjected. He gave the new doctor his best puppy dog look, glad that she didn’t know him well enough to see through it yet.

"His uncle is visiting from out of town and JJ is just anxious to go home and say hello."

"He goes straight to bed as soon as he does," she relented.

"He will," a feminine voice said and JJ looked away to see Carter smiling at him from the doorway.

"Oh lookee, the babysitting clubs all here," he said nastily.

"Yes we are," she said serenely, taking no offense. JJ at seventeen was twice as difficult as Jack at fifty when it came to his temper but she had gotten used to him over the past year, actually understanding him to a degree. He was like her when she was younger, a child with a super intelligent mind that got bored easily and lashed out whenever he could. Staring at him now she wondered just how much he still echoed Jack.

"Your antennae are dinged," she said, accepting the small bag of medicine with a smile whilst he digested her comment. As expected he deflated with a rueful laugh. "Yeah this is one alien that’s been through hell," he said ignoring the doctor’s curious look.

"Coming?" she asked.

"Right behind you Colonel," he said, grateful to have Daniel and Teal’c standing close. Back straight and head held high JJ marched into the hallway only to sag with a moan as soon as the doctor was out of sight.

"Christ I hate this," he whispered, making no objection when Teal’c gently lifted him into his arms.

"The doctor or Jack’s abduction?" Sam asked, looking sympathetic.

"Both," JJ mumbled.

"No, more than that," he amended. He snuggled in close to Teal’c breathing in the clean cologne scent of him, He wasn’t going to admit it anytime soon but he was feeling light headed and cold and Teal’c body temperature was always slightly higher than his. Teal’c held him close as if he was aware of this… or perhaps it was merely the fact that he was shivering….

"The SGC?" Daniel asked. "You hate the SGC?"

"It’s Jack’s turf now," JJ said. "I don’t belong here anymore, that’s if I ever did to begin with."

Carter swiped her access card through the scanner, opening the elevator doors and Teal’c carried him inside, the rest of SG1 clustered around him protectively.

"The child is ice cold," Teal’c suddenly announced. "He is also completely exhausted and needs Kel-no-reem."

"I don’t need no Kel-no-reem," Jack slurred. Somebody, from the smell of it Carter, had tucked her jacket over him, protecting him from the icy rain that suddenly pounded his body.

"Nor do I," Teal’c rumbled. "Not any longer, however I find its continued use to be of a great benefit to me."

JJ felt himself being deposited into the back of a truck and then Teal’c’s warm body was back, making him moan sleepily.

"I will teach its benefits to you," he said softly, "so that you can be both a great scholar and warrior, as O’Neill so dearly wishes for you to become."

"K," JJ murmured, aware of the great honor bestowed on him but too sleepy to care much. He felt Teal’c’s fingers briefly touch his head, a light caring touch much like a father to a son and wondered briefly how much Teal’c missed Ryac.

A hell of a lot, he guessed, snuggling up close. From Teal’c’s contented sigh JJ knew that he had done precisely the right thing.

…

Father Joe had been beside himself for a while now and finally, when he had almost hurled his favorite bible against the wall, he found the wisdom of pacing.

It was exercise and penance all rolled up in one, especially if one paced the same length of room sixty times. He was up to twenty two lengths when he heard the distinctive sound of Jack’s truck and met them at the door.

"Jack?" The bundle looked too small to be his brother but still, he had to ask.

"Still missing," Daniel said grimly. He pushed against Joe. "Mind if we bring JJ in?"

Joe suddenly realized that it was raining and he was blocking the door.

"Sure," he exclaimed stumbling backwards. Teal’c immediately swept into the lounge, depositing the sleeping child in the armchair closest to the fire.

"He sleeps," he said in a hushed voice as if that fact wasn’t obvious.

Joe stared at the boy, rabid with curiosity. Sure, Jack’s whereabouts were of paramount importance to him, but this young child sleeping in the chair was Jack too.

The mere thought was mind-blowing.

"You sure he’s seventeen?" he asked softly.

"Thereabouts," Sam said equally as softly. She crouched next to the child, replacing her wet jacket with a blanket from Jack’s bed. It was interesting, she had never figured the hard-bitten now-General for a powder-blue-blanket type.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked her, his hazel eyes almost as dark as Jack’s in the reflected firelight.

Just thinking of him made Sam’s heart flop, but there was nothing anyone could do until the Tok’ra got back to them.

"As JJ was cloned we have only an approximate age based on bone structure," she said.

"He doesn’t look like Jack at seventeen," Joe said. "That’s why I asked."

"He doesn’t?" Daniel asked from in front of the fire, plainly startled.

"Well, the ears are right," Joe said, peering intently at the boy and wishing he had his glasses handy. "And he has the beginnings of the typical O’Neill worry line, but apart from that…"

His voice trailed off as the boy opened his eyes sleepily.

"Mind taking the genealogy lesson elsewhere?" he mumbled. "I’m trying to sleep here."

Joe backed off, leading Sam and Daniel into the bright kitchen where Teal’c, bless him, had the coffee brewing.

"Still think he’s a changeling?" Sam asked a faint grin on her face.

"No longer," Joe said, keeping his own faint grin firmly in place. Lord alone knew what the future entailed, but that was definitely an O’Neill out there.

…

The voice was smooth and arrogant.

"Selar, the Tau’ri awakens."

Jack gazed blearily around the room, blinking at the dazzling white upon white walls, searching for the source of the voice. It wasn’t hard to find, Yu’s prime was now fastidiously dressed in a richly brocaded bright green tunic, cloak and jodhpurs. He couldn’t look less like a first Prime if he tried.

"Ki..Killeq?" Jack rasped trying vainly to remember what had happened. "What?" He moved slightly, feeling smooth sheets under his body. He was dressed differently in loose fitting clothes and his feet were bare. Strangely enough it was that news that disturbed him the most.

"Selar!" the Prime roared, aware that Jack’s eyes had found him. "Get in here."

"Oh crap," Jack moaned as the same scrawny doctor as before came trotting into the room. Immense effort sent him sliding onto the floor where he lay helpless in a pile of ivory satin bedclothes.

"Not a chance," he said to the steel lined boot right in front of his nose.

"Without a shadow of a doubt," Killeq snarled and suddenly the boot lifted violently, kicking him full in the face.

"Fool," Killeq snapped, watching as the Tau’ri flipped onto his back and landed in a bloody heap. His eyes were shut now; eyelashes like dark crescents against his chalky white face, and Killeq felt a spurt of shame. It was dishonorable to kick an opponent when he was down.

"I came as quickly as I could," the scruffy doctor said disapprovingly, staring down at the unconscious Tau’ri. "You didn’t need to do that."

"He was trying to escape," Killeq said, the lie tasting sour on his tongue. He glared at the doctor, taking his shame out on him. "Now do your job Selar."

"He could die," Selar said, his rat like face suddenly looking frightened. "I fear he will, and Lord Yu will be most displeased."

"Die? From a broken nose?" Killeq scoffed. "Hardly."

"No, from this." Selar held up the syringe. "This drug is far too strong for the Tau’ri constitution."

Killeq whirled on him, making Selar take a rapid step backwards. "Lord Yu’s orders were specific," he said, his patience gone. "Disobey and I will run this sword right through you." He flipped his cloak back, exposing a long silver sword.

Selar’s Adams apple bobbed. "Yet he could still die Prime," he whined.

"Not our concern," Killeq snapped. He shoved the doctor closer. "Now do your job."

Selar bowed. "Yes Prime."

Killeq crouched, watching closely as Selar reached for one slack arm. Just like the last time there was no finesse, the grubby doctor merely plunging the needle into his arm and depressing the plunger. He noticed Killeq’s look and shrugged. "He’s going to die anyway," he muttered. "Why should I bother to inject him properly?"

"Because he’s not a dog?" Killeq said, feeling unaccountably angry. He listened as the Tau’ri’s breathing slowly deteriorated as the drug mingled with his blood and his anger turned to shame. From all accounts this man was a fine warrior, one of the best the Tau’ri had, and deserved a better death than the one his God had mapped out for him.

"I merely obey our lord," Selar shrugged.

"As do I," Killeq sighed. He rose to his feet. "Lord Yu commands and we obey. Get him back on the bed."

…

JJ awoke to a brilliant blue sky.

Someone, his guess would be Teal’c, had moved him into the spare bedroom, an unused room that had soon become his home away from his apartment pad. Seeing that he…Jack had deliberately bought a house with four rooms just in case of overnight visitors, JJ had felt no shame in claiming it as his own. It now sported a huge picture of Bart Simpson digitally enhanced to look like Einstein and felt like home.

Straining his ears JJ gingerly swung his legs to the side of the bed, only to stop as the door swung open.

"Morning." A plate piled high with bacon and eggs bobbed into the room, safely secured to the hand of Joe – a Joe that couldn’t have looked more apprehensive.

"Morning," JJ muttered, trying and failing to tear his eyes away from the plate. Healthy living be damned, he was a teenager and he was starved!

"That for me?"

Joe gave him a humorous grimace. "You know, I honestly think you’ll attack me if I say no."

JJ lifted his eyes to Joe’s seeing the humor warring with the apprehension. "Not necessarily," he said. "I’m too hurt to do that. I’d just wail pathetically until you finally relented."

"You sure you’re Jack’s clone?" Joe asked, motioning JJ back to bed, "He’d never wail."

"Jack’s clone yes," JJ said awkwardly taking the plate from Joe. "Jack, no."

"His memories?" Joie asked perching in the sunshine at the foot of the bed.

"At first," JJ reluctantly placed the plate on the bed, finding it exceptionally difficult to balance it on the plaster of his broken arm and eat at the same time. "After a while they began to fade as I made memories of my own." He eyed the food speculatively, his lightening quick brain planning and rejecting ways to engineer the food into his mouth.

"Damn," he said softly.

Joe was no fool. He could also see a frustrated hungry child and he was a priest.

"How long did the memories last?" he asked, scooting closer and cutting the bacon up into manageable squares.

"Almost a year," JJ said, gobbling up the bacon almost as fast as Joe could cut it up. "Damn, I’m starved," he said happily, taking time out to lick his fingers clean.

This is Jack’s favorite meal," Joe said.

"I know," JJ said, five fingers somehow managing to get the egg, yolk and all, into his mouth without making too much of a mess.

"He’s always complaining about the cholesterol, even as he’s shoveling everything down his…"

He stopped talking as Joe looked at him. No, stared at him.

Stared really, really closely.

"Jack at seventeen was a bit of work," Joe said after a while.

JJ knew that wasn’t a compliment.

"I am not Jack," JJ stressed.

"You’re that age," Joe said, hazel eyes unreadable.

"I’m also not dependant on drugs," JJ said. "Nor do I have an abusive parent," he continued, seeing Joe flinch.

"What you do have is Jack," Joe said, seeing the truth of that in JJ’s eyes.

"General Jack," Joe said softly. "Strict but fair, loving but with reservations, me yet not me."

"A father figure yet not," Joe said understanding.

"He misses Charlie," JJ said softly.

"Does he see you as him?" Joe asked.

JJ shook his head. "At first I was worried that he would, but surprisingly enough he didn’t." He shrugged. "I guess it was that first argument."

"Oh?"

"School," JJ clarified. "It was boring and I wanted to quit. Jack wasn’t having it."

Joe gave the youth a glass of water, taking away the empty plate. "Quite right too," he said sternly.

JJ raised an eyebrow, just like Jack did when he was perplexed. "Even when I know more than every teacher combined?" he asked. He tapped the side of his head with his cast wincing as he did so. "I have all the knowledge of the ancients stuffed into my brain and slowly, bit by bit, I’m beginning to comprehend it all."

Joe rose to his feet and headed for the bathroom. "You still have to learn English, history, political studies amongst others," he yelled. He returned with a damp washcloth and a smug expression. "Shall I go on?" he asked, attacking JJ’s face before the youngster could reply.

"Jack told me that too," JJ said, watching as Joe cleaned his sticky fingers. "But I already knew what his reaction would be. Talk about kinda schizophrenic."

"And now?" Joe asked.

"Now I miss him and want him back," JJ said, staring at his feet. "And if you ever tell anyone that, especially Jack, I will kill you myself and bury your body under the rosebushes."

Joe laughed and got to his feet. "SG-1 are searching for him as we speak." He headed for the door, crockery in hand. "I noticed that there are some clothes your size in the closet. What say you get dressed and we can worry together?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me," JJ said. "Not that we really need to worry. Knowing him, and boy do I know him, Jack is probably planning his escape as we speak."

…

"My lord?" Prime Killeq knelt before his god. "You have summoned me?"

Yu nodded regally, all misleading signs of age gone from his wiry frame. "The Tau’ri?"

"He is chained and drugged my lord."

"Chained?" Yu raised an eyebrow and slowly walked to stand behind his Prime, smiling as his Killeq trembled. "Why is he chained if he is drugged?" he asked.

"He tried to escape my lord," Killeq said, staring ahead, all emotion now leeched from his face. He had seen Yu kill people in this manner- walk behind them and slit their throats - and prayed it would not happen to him.

"So you chained him?" Yu asked, his tone low. "Are the chains eating into his flesh? Is he bleeding?"

"Yes my lord," Killeq whispered, knowing that this was the correct answer. He knew that tone, and now he trembled for another reason, aware of what his master now required of him. At least it was better than death, he consoled himself.

Long spindly hands undid his hair knot, allowing his unruly hair to fall loose.

"He is flat on his back, helpless my lord," Killeq whispered staring at the carpet as surprisingly strong hands reached around his waist and began to unbuckle his belt.

"As you are right now Prime Killeq," Yu growled. "Helpless."

"Yes my lord." Killeq sighed, feeling the cool air on his exposed flesh. "Totally helpless."

…

"He’s being held on the planet Trerucallam," Jacob Carter yelled the instant he exited the wormhole. He threw his heavy coat at the nearest SF guard and headed for the control room at a rapid pace. "It’s Yu’s main planet of operations," he said, finally skidding to a halt.

Daniel looked up from a computer where he had been punching in the name. "Never heard of it," he said, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

‘The name’s right," Jacob said, smiling at Sammie. "We may have a problem though."

"Like?" she asked cautiously.

"No free Jaffa."

"None?" she asked in astonishment.

"Well, one or two perhaps," Jacob amended, trading a glance with a silent Teal’c, leaning against the far wall. "Not nearly enough to assist us in an assault."

Teal’c straightened and nodded gravely, backing him up. "Once a Jaffa is based on Trerucallam he never leaves there alive."

"The world is an inhospitable place of thin air, cold landscape and even colder weather," Jacob said.

"I got as far as the gate, which is unguarded by the way, but was reluctant to continue on my own."

"If there are no free Jaffa there how in the hell are we going to free Jack?" Daniel asked, despairing. "You say it is a fortress?"

"Stretching over twenty square miles," Jacob said, spinning a chair around and sitting on it. "Almost impregnable."

"Almost?"

"We have an agent of sorts inside."

"Of sorts?" Daniel’s voice was low and dangerous, unusual for him.

Jacob nodded and Selmac took over, her distinctive Goa’uld tone making them all flinch even after all the years that they had known her.

"He is not a nice man, and was banished to Trerucallam many years ago, minus his symbiote. He was, however, waiting at the pre-arranged time and has agreed to help."

In exchange for what?" Daniel asked, his dark tone earning an approving eyebrow from Teal’c, high praise indeed.

Selmac shrugged. "Freedom." Her eyes flashed with white hot fury.

"Just beware of where he finally ends up. This human creature and his experiments would put your Nazi doctors to shame."

"A Goa’uld’s Goa’uld kinda guy?" Daniel asked dryly, getting a nod from Selmac.

Sam straightened tiredly from her slouched position behind her keyboard.

"Does he know what has happened to the General?"

Her eyes were deep hollows of exhaustion. It had been two days since O’Neill had been taken and she wasn’t taking it too well.

"He insists that Jack is drugged and has been since he was first abducted," Jacob said, gripping her shoulder for support.

"Shit," Daniel said staring into the face of the bases 2IC Colonel Reynolds who had just joined them. "If that’s the case he’ll be in no position to aid in any escape attempt."

"I didn’t figure he would be," Reynolds said quietly, always a practical man. He sighed.

"I’ll get SG5 on it." He paused thoughtfully. "And SG 3 and 12 for added muscle."

"Why SG12?" Daniel asked. They were all new and virtually untested.

Reynolds gave him a look. "I don’t know if they will be needed, but SG12 are a combined Chinese and Japanese American unit."

"Oh," Daniel said, dumbfounded.

"That is a very intelligent decision Colonel Reynolds," Teal’c rumbled, rescuing his friend.

"Good idea," Daniel said with a rueful smile. "My Chinese is okay but my Japanese is pretty rusty."

"That’s why you aren’t going," Reynolds said. "None of SG1 are," he said firmly when Daniel turned to look at him accusingly.

"Sir?" Now it was Carter’s turn and boy, did she look pissed.

"I need sharp people out there," Reynolds said, feeling the weight of command lie heavily on his shoulders.

"SG1 have been on their feet for over twenty hours now. You need sleep." His voice softened. "We’ll get the boss back, okay?"

They had no choice in the matter. Even Teal’c, hidden in the shadows nodded, the warrior aware that with Tretonian in his system he needed sleep just as badly as did the rest of SG1.

"Have all the SG teams meet me in the gateroom in half an hour," Jacob Carter said, looking at Reynolds.

"Half an hour?" Reynolds asked, confused. He had been hoping for a earlier turnaround than that.

"Yes," Jacob said, the General he had once been adding steel to his voice.

He allowed Selmac to take over again.

"Colonel Reynolds," she said firmly. Unlike SG1, my host is not in need of rest, but he too has been on his feet for over twenty of your hours and he, like they, requires sustenance."

"I see," Reynolds said.

"I am also quite partial to some Tau’ri delicacy O’Neill calls ‘Mystery Chick,’ " - the true reason for the delay was reluctantly given.

She raised Jacobs eyebrows.

"I believe this is served on Tuesdays?"

Samantha Carter rose with a laugh. "It is indeed", she said with a smile that included Daniel and Teal’c.

"Allow me to lead the way."

…

"Where is he?"

Lord Baal swept down the corridor cloak flapping and forcing the older Goa’uld to almost run to keep up with him. He had no illusions that there would be hell to pay for this slight humiliation, but he didn’t care. Not if this freak actually had the famous O’Neill in his clutches.

"If you have O’Neill here, alive and intact, I will never again attack your outposts," he said.

"I have him," Yu said, gesturing imperiously towards a nondescript door.

"He is in there."

"Jaffa!" Baal ordered. He knew better than to ever enter a room alone containing a Tau’ri.

Yu gave a slight snort of disgust and swept ahead of him, his brocaded robe brushing Baal’s feet.

"The Tau’ri presents no harm to you or your Jaffa," he said in a chiding voice the insult there plain for anyone to hear.

"Allow me."

Gritting his teeth and death showing in his eyes Baal followed Yu into the brightly lit room.

"See," Yu said gesturing to a bed.

Baal did see, and what he saw gave him immense pleasure.

"O’Neill. " The name was a sigh of satisfaction.

He was lying on his back. Hands and feet tightly shackled to the bed railings, although the restraints seemed to be unnecessary. As Yu had said, the Tau’ri was deeply unconscious and seemed to present no harm.

Walking closer Baal could see why. Both of his arms were deeply bruised, his face to a lesser degree.

"Caused you some trouble, I see," he hissed, pleased that O’Neill had at least made the attempt at freedom.

"Not at all," Yu’s high voice said. "He has been injected with Kn’tak, regularly given. He will not awake for hours yet."

"Perhaps not at all," Baal said, frowning. "Kn’tak usually always fatal to Tau’ri."

He placed a hand on O’Neill’s chest, feeling his shallow breaths. "Continued use will bring death. Already I feel him struggle to survive."

"You have a sarcophagus," Yu said, his voice a bored study of insolence. "I offered you O’Neill. I never said that he was going to be in perfect condition."

Baal’s eyes flashed before he could reign in his temper.

"Remember his countenance well," he warned, caressing the Tau’ri’s lax face. "When I return it will be in this host."

"He will never submit," Yu said, his own eyes flashing.

He too loved a challenge, but one such as this?

"I will violate his body and mind repeatedly. He will soon break," Baal said. He gripped O’Neill’s chin. "I was so close to owning him before…"

"Ridiculous." Yu snapped. "The rest of the Tau’ri will always be after you. They would never rest."

"Once he is my host he will be lost to them forever," Baal purred.

He leaned in close to the drugged human, smiling at O’Neill’s glazed half open eyes.

"Soon, my pet," he whispered, anticipating the time when those eyes would widen in terror, as they had done so many times before.

"Why don’t you take him now?" Yu asked. His hands gently pushed the unresisting head to one side, exposing Hathor’s scar.

"He is restrained and unconscious. By the time he awakens it will be too late to resist."

"Hmm." Baal leaned in close, like he was kissing the Tau’ri and Yu felt his loins clench in reaction.

"No," he said eventually, backing away.

"The Tau’ri is damaged and besides I anticipate a great amount of enjoyment ahead as I break him."

His smile turned pure evil.

"No, soon enough O’Neill will belong to me – both body and soul."

…

"This is fun."

Colonel Zack Van Ryn, SG5’s commander and leader of the planetside SG teams glared at Lt.Colonel Ferretti.

"It is?" he snapped back. "All I can see is a cold desolate wasteland with nothing to redeem it but a thousand shades of mud, starting with the color black."

"I was being facetious sir," Ferretti said, sounding hurt.

Van Ryn huddled deeper in his fleece lined jacket and stared around morosely. He hadn’t been kidding about the planet being a mud filled desolate wasteland. It was dark and gloomy too, with a biting wind that seemed to freeze his very bones, which just added to his general sense of despair. He knew it was this place, or perhaps the sight of the tall wall seen in the far distance that seemed to stretch away into forever, that gave him serious doubts about ever finding O’Neill alive.

"In that case I couldn’t agree more," he said, unbending slightly. They were both very good friends of Jack and it didn’t help his cause any if they sniped at each other.

"Sorry Lou," he said sotto voice.

"Back atcha," Ferretti said, his brief smile illuminating his swarthy features. Taking a deep breath of the thin unhealthy air, Ferretti looked at the thirteen people surrounding them and prayed that no one was superstitious.

"Major Kyle?" Van Ryn snapped.

A khaki clad figure peeled away from a knot of obviously unhappy people.

"Sir?"

Van Ryn peered at the distant structure, looking like nothing so much as a maximum security jail.

Pointing he said, "SG’s 3 and 12 are going there. SG5 are going to set up a bivouac right here."

His second in command stared around the shallow depression with a critical air. "If it rains again the wounded are gonna be floating sir," he said, his tone making Ferretti flinch. The young doctor would never be known for his sweet bedside manner.

Surprisingly enough, Van Ryn didn’t take offence, or perhaps he agreed with his second, Ferretti thought, rounding on the Major.

"Dig in deeper, Kyle," he snapped, "or it won’t be a rain of water that will kill you but rather a rain of bullets."

"Bivouac," Kyle said.

"On it sirs."

The tone was one degree above insubordination, but then again, it always was and both Colonel’s ignored it.

"Move out," Ferretti said, leaving the unhappy SG5 behind.

Moving on with SG’s 3 and 12, Van Ryn finally found himself crouching in the mud with the massive structure close by and looking just as impenetrable.

"Still having fun?" he asked Ferretti, making Major Nakajima, SG12’s commanding officer snort in amusement.

"I’ll have more fun when that Tok’ra operative does his job," Ferretti replied, all the humor leeched from his voice. His eyes slowly quartered the walls, looking for an opening. There was none. He turned to a small bundled figure hidden in the midst of SG 12.

"Carter?"

Jacob Carter straightened cautiously, content to this point to allow the SG commanders to do their job.

He was an un-retired General. They all knew it and would probably appreciate his expertise.

None of them were wet behind the ears however.

"Look to the left. See that light?" he asked.

All three SG commanders strained their eyes, without success, reminding Jacob again that none had a sight enhancing friendly Goa’uld in their brains.

"It’s there, take my word for it," he insisted when three pairs of accusing eyes zeroed in on him. "It’s there, and it’s our way in."

"And out again I trust," Van Ryn muttered. He took a deep steadying teeth aching breath in the chill air.

"Ferretti you are now in charge," Van Ryn’s reluctance to relinquish command swirled around him and was almost as visible as the white condensation from his long drawn out sigh. "Keep everyone safe."

The two old friends looked at each other, Ferretti understanding just how Van Ryn felt. If he had a chance he would be the first in the forbidding fortress and after Jack, but he had no choice. Not only was Van Ryn a superb commander of SG5, he was also a doctor and as such he was bound by a law of iron, called the Hippocratic Oath.

First do no harm, it said, and Ferretti intended to do worse than that.

"We’ll get him Zack," he said sotto voice, and was rewarded with a grim smile.

"Take Carter to where he saw the light," he said by way of reply. "Once there proceed with caution."

The threat was there in the open but Jacob refused to be rankled. "Ready?" he asked.

Ferretti nodded. "Right behind you," he said.

SG’s 3 and 12 were soon swallowed up by the gloom, leaving behind SG5 and one really unhappy ‘full bird’ Colonel, all hoping like hell that their particular skills would not be needed.

…

Jack’s place was a mess, Joe thought, cringing slightly at the sight.

Fortunately for Jack and his housekeeper no doubt, the mess was for a good cause. That’s if you forgave messes that included schoolbooks and good friends.

"Kids?" Joe asked, crunching over discarded popcorn and trying not to look. "Lunch?"

Three faces immediately looked up with wolfish expressions. One face he knew, Cassandra Fraiser, Janet Fraiser’s daughter. The other he didn’t, belonging to a dark skinned afro haired teenager he was reliably informed was called Leo.

JJ dropped his physics book with a sigh. Jack had gotten him special dispensation to get him out of school so that they could go mountain climbing and now he was officially booked off sick with his broken ribs and arm but somehow schoolwork always seemed to find him.

"Love some," he said.

"Any word on Jack?" Cassie asked once they were all sat around the table.

"None so far," JJ answered, his eyes signaling a warning. Whilst they knew about the stargate program, Leo did not.

"Why, where is he?" Leo asked innocently, biting into a chicken roll.

"Out of the country." JJ said truthfully. "That’s why Uncle Joe is here – to keep an eye on me."

"Ooh, a full time job," Leo exclaimed, getting an apple thrown at him for his cheek.

"He’ll be okay," Joe said to Joe amongst the hilarity that followed.

JJ nodded, but still looked worried. "Sure he will," he said, trying to believe it. "He’ll be just fine."

---

The man who waited for Ferretti and his SG teams was small, nervous and wore a grubby white coat. Had Ferretti known that the man called Selar was directly responsible for Jack’s current predicament he would have torn him apart.

Luckily for Selar, he didn’t and the ex-Tok’ra wasn’t planning on telling him any time soon.

"O’Neill is being held at the end of this corridor," he said after leading them deeper and deeper into what was proving to be a labyrinth of tunnels, all decorated in familiar gold motif.

"God, a person could get lost in here!"

Major Nakajima said to himself quietly, getting a response from the tiny doctor anyway.

"They do, frequently." He gave Nakajima a wide smile, the sight of his slimy black teeth making the Major recoil in revulsion.

"Some starve to death."

"Luckily every SG pack is armed with chalk then isn’t it?" Ferretti said comfortably, reconnoitering the silent hallway. He turned to Jacob.

"Anything look familiar?"

"The basic structure is the same as with all Goa’uld fortresses," Selmac said, answering for Jacob. She shrugged. "You won’t need that chalk after all."

"Mercy master!" Selar squealed and they all turned to look on with amusement as their guide tried to melt into the floor.

"Don’t kill me my Lord," he wailed. "I’ll give it all back, I swear."

"Who’d he cross?" Ferretti asked dryly, hefting his P-90 over his shoulder. "Goa’uld or Tok’ra?"

"Dunno," Carter said. He shrugged. "Either, both?"

"Don’t kill me," Selar was blubbering. "You asked me to take you to O’Neill. This I have done. Please don’t kill me."

"Where is he?" Ferretti asked, pulling the terrified man to his feet. "Speak, and we’ll let you live."

"Thank you," Selar said, relief emanating from him in waves.

"O’Neill?" Ferretti said after a long silence.

"Oh." Selar pointed down another brightly lit corridor.

"There, third door on the left. He’s inside there with Baal and Lord Yu."

"What?" Having nine soldiers all simultaneously point assorted weapons at him was enough to send Selar diving for the floor again. Seeing as he hadn’t been that far off it to begin with the distance he fell was negligible.

"Please don’t kill me," he reiterated, butt in the air and trembling like a leaf.

"We won’t kill you," Ferretti said disgustedly.

"We would, however, have appreciated the warning sooner."

"Like back at the SGC, where we keep the explosives," Nakajima muttered, garnering himself a couple of agreeing nods.

"You can always open up the door and throw in what you have," Selar said helpfully. "That would work."

"This maybe killing off two snakeheads and definitely killing off one General", Ferretti said with a snarl.

He grabbed Selar by the scruff of his neck.

"Get real!"

"Or you could use a stun grenade from the armory," Selar said. He pointed a long bony finger down an intersecting corridor. "Second door on your left."

"Oh I just love this last minute Intel," Ferretti moaned. "It makes life so much simpler."

---

Moving a body was not a simple thing to do as Baal had found out more than a century before.

Especially if that body was a tall unconscious male Tau’ri.

They were also heavy and Baal was wary of damaging O’Neill further – or killing him.

Actually, killing him was planned, but only for later when he was awake, aware and far from Lord Yu’s accursed fortress in the swamps.

Baal stared thoughtfully at the older Goa’uld, noticing how close he stood to his Prime. Rumor had it that Yu preferred firm male flesh and he fervently hoped that Yu had left O’Neill alone. The mere fact that he was out of his uniform was ominous but then again he had been snatched during some form of Tau’ri recreation and perhaps that was the way all Tau’ri dressed when they weren’t on duty.

"I require a sled," he said in a haughty voice, sending one of his Jaffa scurrying for the door. I intend moving O’Neill with as little fuss as possible." He reached down and pulled at one of the shackles. "These will be removed as well."

Yu’s eyes narrowed. "The Tau’ri will remain shackled until he is through the Stargate," he ordered.

He nodded to his effeminate Prime who quickly shackled O’Neill’s arms together, doing the same to his feet.

"Do you fear him?" Baal asked silkily.

"No," Yu said. His eyes flashed dangerously.

"I am, however, wary. This wariness has kept me in this host for centuries, unlike yourself, who has needed two new hosts in the past year alone."

"I like to hear them scream in helpless impotence as I rape their wives and sisters," Baal said. "The knowledge that they are being violated by a face they know usually sends the strongest of their women mad. It is most delicious."

He gave Yu a long look. "Tell me, when was the last time you did that? Or is it that your host is a mere husk now?"

"When was the last time I did what?" Yu asked irritably. "Rape an entire family or communicate with my host? The answer is a long time to both questions and that is how I like things – quiet."

"Boring," Baal sniffed. He looked up as the door opened.

"Ah, the sled."

"Don’t count on it cocksucker, a feminine voice snarled just as a silver sphere came skittering into the room, filling every inch of it with a blinding intense white light.

---

Lou Ferretti was a protégé of the O’Neill school of military tactics, and General Jack O’Neill was a Grand Master.

Very few people knew that if Jack wanted to - say he retired again and decided to take up teaching – that those military kiddies up at the Academy would instantly call him Professor.

Professor. The mere thought was ludicrous, but oh so true.

Jack had laughed at that. No one but his closest of friends even knew that he had even graduated high school, let alone obtained his doctorates at the tender age of twenty three and if they had, no one would have ever have believed it.

Yet, after perfecting his dumb act at work and whittling his kids into shape at the Academy when no one was looking, he had been offered a full professorship.

Professor General Jack O’Neill. Jack had laughed at that just after he had been promoted. It had been a night of drunken hilarity that had started off well and ended up with them all sobbing on each other’s shoulders – he, Jack and Zakka Van Ryn – all sobbing for decisions made badly and people long gone but never forgotten.

Jack had sworn to retire and teach those kiddies how to fight properly. Zack had sworn to retire and become the best damn surgeon the world had ever seen and he?

Well, he had just sworn to retire.

That declaration had sent them into another paroxysm of giggling that had lasted until Teal’c had found them all and had marched them all off to their respective beds. They should have known better than to argue with a tired Jaffa, especially whilst inebriated.

"Lu, can you get close?" He looked at young Mai Lu Stafford enquiringly. She nodded seriously, another product of the Jack O’Neill school of Operational Procedure 101. One day his team was going to connect all the dots and turn up at the Academy. Ferretti hoped like hell he was nearby when they did, if for no other reason than to cart Jack off to hospital. Of course, in order for that to happen at all they had to rescue him first.

"They are speaking a bastardized version of Japanese," she murmured softly, almost to herself. "We need the element of surprise."

"Ain’t gonna happen," Ferretti said regretfully. "You’re pegged the minute they see the uniform."

Her almond eyes met his. "So we lose the uniform," she said pragmatically, "thus simultaneously regaining the element of surprise."

"Pardon?" Jacob Carter said from his place against the wall behind Ferretti but she declined to answer, with good reason he thought.

"Go for it," he snapped.

Mai Lu Stafford nodded and rapidly removed her top, shucking off her military issue brassiere even as Carter gasped. "What…"

"Watch and wait," Ferretti snapped, feeling nothing but pride for the plucky soldier. A graduate with honors, Lu had instinctively grasped what needed to be done and done it without hesitation.

"Here," he said, and tossed her a stolen sphere. "Take em out."

She tossed him a return grin. "Count on it."

…

"Killeq!"

The room was lurching around sickeningly and to make matters worse he was blind.

A clawed hand gripped his arm and he was half jerked off his feet. "What has she done?" A voice hissed. "Who was she?"

Killeq hung his head, blinking rapidly. His sight would return , but slowly. He dreaded what he would see when it finally did.

"I know not who she was my lord," he said miserably. "I only know what she did."

He winced as Baal roared, a primal sound of a Goa’uld furious beyond reason.

"Why did you hesitate Prime?" he screamed amidst the sound of breaking furniture.

"Sholva!"

"She was unclothed my lord," Killeq whispered, tasting ashes in his mouth at his lame excuse. Was he not a Prime, trained to withstand the unexpected? He had failed. Even worse, he had hesitated when hesitation meant certain death. Especially now. Gods, he had hesitated but what red blooded male wouldn’t have when confronted with a half naked female screaming like a banshee?

"I cannot see," his lord whined.

"The effects will wear off soon," he said soothingly, hearing Yu’s frantic breathing.

"Sholva."

The sound of breaking wood abruptly ceased.

"Where is O’Neill?" The voice was a deadly hiss and Killeq felt his blood turn to ice.

"My lord?" he whispered. His sight was returning now but he could not look. He dare not look.

A callused hand grabbed his throat, cruelly cutting off his air supply. "Kneel." He had no choice but to obey.

Prime Killeq knelt in front of the bed, his eyes downcast. He heard his Jaffa heading for the door in hot pursuit, or more than likely escaping the inevitable. Killeq was a dead man and they knew it.

"Lord Baal," he whispered through his pain. "Mercy." To his relief the hand was removed, allowing him to draw in an agonized breath of oxygen. His relief was short lived. There was a whisper of movement and then his head was yanked back, Baal’s hand buried deeply in his hair.

"You fail your master," Baal hissed again. "Look."

Again Killeq had no choice but to obey.

"He is gone."

As expected the bed was empty, the ivory sheets strewn carelessly on the floor. Of O’Neill there was no sign.

"I can find him my lord," Killeq begged, eyes frantically searching for Yu. "Please, I beg of you, show mercy."

"Show him none." Yu said.

"What was that?" Baal asked, eyes like stone.

"Show him no mercy," Yu snapped, watching in detachment as his Prime seemed to crumple in on himself. Then he turned and swept towards the door, praying that his remaining Jaffa would have some luck in apprehending the woman and her cohorts but he had no illusions that they would.

No, O’Neill had been reclaimed by his Tau’ri brethren, stolen back from right under their noses and all without a shot being fired.

The loss of face was astronomical.

"My lord, please." Killeq, his Prime and reluctant lover for more years than he could count was sobbing now, imploring him for leniency but Yu was unmoved. There was plenty of other more willing Jaffa he could sate his lust with, and as for his planet? Why, he would give Killeq’s planet to Baal, as a token of his regret. When Killeq’s people revolted, as they would surely do at the news of his death, it would be a problem for Baal, not him.

Hiding his self satisfied smile as best he could, Yu reached the hallway even as Killeq’s screams abruptly ceased.

…

"There is nothing as lonely as a lonely vigil," Van Ryn muttered, staring down at his muddy hands. "It is soul wearing and strength sapping," he continued, unaware of the rest of his team nodding in agreement.

"And yet, as doctors we have to be seen as the strongest of them all," Kyle said, sloshing his way through the mud to eventually slide to a halt by his side.

"God, we have injuries in this shit and we’re all screwed," he said quietly.

"That’s why they invented antibiotics," Van Ryn said firmly, but he looked as apprehensive as his second. He gave Kyle a small smile. "Think of this as being like the Crimea."

"Same foxholes, same God-awful smelling mud but no Florence Nightingale," Kyle said mournfully, staring back at the rest of SG5. He raised a dirty eyebrow.

"Unless…" He allowed his voice to trail off suggestively.

"I have tampons in my pack, but I use them to light fires with," Lieutenant Leonardo Gomez said. He looked across to the other person crouched in the small depression they were currently calling home. "As do I," Sergeant Paul Collier said hurriedly.

"Nobody will be lighting anything today," Van Ryn said, instantly dampening their amusement. He rested his hands on an unidentifiable piece of medical equipment wrapped in thick white plastic and watched as the rain washed his hands clean, transferring the dirt onto the SGC logo stamped onto its side. "Fucking weather," he muttered, hearing the others grunt in agreement.

His reverie was broken by Kyle suddenly stiffening.

"Something’s happening sir," he whispered.

"Where ?" Van Ryn asked, instantly all business. He shifted to allow Collier and his P90 to squeeze between them.

"Two o’ clock low," Kyle hissed.

"Seen em," the paramedic muttered, his eye firmly affixed to the sight. "It’s an SG team," he said, relief coloring his voice.

Van Ryn instantly raised his radio to his lips. "SG three-niner?"

Ferretti’s reply was instant. "We have the objective but have considerable bogies on our tail sir." He sounded exhausted.

Van Ryn made an instant decision. "Make straight for the gate," he snapped, now aware that they carried a stretcher between them, a highly alert SG 12 holding up the rear.

"O’Neill?" Van Ryn snapped once they got close enough, shoving his radio back into his vest pocket.

"Drugged, I think," Ferretti gasped.

Van Ryn risked his torch, illuminating O’Neill’s face for a fraction of a second, immediately taking in the grey pallor and half open eyes. That was not good. Muttering to himself he reached out and closed Jack’s eyes, hoping that they were still lubricated enough. Things were bad enough without eye problems as well. He jogged next to Ferretti, content to allow SG3 to carry their burden and listened intently to Jack’s breathing.

"He’s bad," Ferretti huffed, aware of what Van Ryn was doing. "We heard him struggling to breathe even before we got through the door. To make things worse, both Baal and Yu were leaning over him, haggling on a price."

That wasn’t entirely true, but Ferretti wasn’t above embellishing a story.

"Hmm," Van Ryn muttered, trying to attend to his bobbing patient. Most things were out until he finally reached the SGC but he did have a portable oxygen unit ready and from the sounds of it Jack needed it badly. He turned and searched for Major Kyle, nodding his thanks as his intuitive second pushed the unit into his hands.

"Get me twenty milligrams of…" he started to say only to be shoved hard in the small of his back as the sky above his head suddenly howled with weapons fire.

"Hustle!" Nakajima was yelling.

Someone obviously feminine stumbled against him, obviously heading for the DHD and he gasped in relief to see the gate looming over them.

‘Not long now’, he thought.

"Later Doc," Ferretti snapped when he reached for Jack, him still in commander mode. "Give us ten minutes and he’s all yours."

"I actually think that in ten minutes he will be dead," Van Ryn snapped back, making Ferretti stare at him in horror. Van Ryn used that moment of indecision to quickly strap the oxygen mask onto his patient, noting the immediate difference it made.

"There, that’s better," he muttered.

"Be ready to move in five," Ferretti said, still looking apprehensive. He backed off and rose to his feet, unaware that from Van Ryn’s angle he was completely silhouetted by the now open wormhole, looking so much like a plastic action figure that Van Ryn ached for a camera. What a shot that would make.

…

"I hate being here."

‘Here’ was the office-come-chapel the Air Force had found for him up on the fifteenth floor.

It was NORAD turf, but Joe had a feeling that JJ wasn’t referring to them.

"So you said earlier," he said placidly. Dropping a personnel file onto his desk he regarded the pacing teenager critically.

"Are we still too close to the SGC for your liking?"

Joe O’Neill had been asked to fill in as a spiritual advisor to both large base’s Catholic population years ago. At first it had been on a temporary basis – just until the Air Force found someone better qualified and based closer than Chicago, but somehow they never had. Figuring that it was a case of security clearance and a case of "what the heck it works," Joe had finally resigned himself to the bi-monthly visits. Not that he really minded. What Jack and the others did was really cool, if he could steal the expression from the anxious young man in front of him and the money was good.

JJ?" he asked again, causing the teenager to stumble mid pace. "You okay?"

"No," JJ said. "I can’t stand it." He flopped into a chair and blinked at Joe, as if weighing up what he would say. Joe knew that look. He knew it well from a certain brother and he sighed.

"What you say goes no further than this room," he said firmly.

"I can’t stand the idea the idea that SG3 and God knows who else are out there going after Jack, whilst I, who could be a real asset am left here like a child," JJ snapped.

Joe knew better than to answer that comment, although he wanted to, and quite desperately.

"Don’t you have faith in SG3?" he asked after a while.

"Of course I do," JJ said, looking thunderous. "It’s just that Jack and I…" he broke off and hung his head. "He’s all I have," he said, "I don’t want to lose him."

Joe wondered if Jack knew how much of an impact he was making on this young and impressionable child. Not that it was too surprising, he mused. Jack had been just as impressionable at this age too, and in his case had fallen in with the wrong crowd.

Now history was repeating itself and it was up to them, the responsible adults, to guide JJ. His mouth dried at the limitless possibilities that lay ahead for this young man given the right direction.

But first he had to reaffirm a sense of family.

"What am I?" he asked lightly. "Your Uncle Joe or chopped liver?"

"Ugh, liver," JJ said, surprising Joe.

"Don’t you like liver?" he asked.

JJ grimaced, wondering where Joe was going with this. "No," he said firmly.

"Jack does," Joe said softly.

‘Don’t bet on it," JJ said, thinking hard. Come to think of it, perhaps Joe was right.

"He does," Joe insisted.

"Does not," JJ said stubbornly.

Joe’s nostrils flared. "Does," he snapped. "I clearly remember him frying up a pan of liver and onions the last time he was in Chicago. It was delicious."

"Doesn’t mean he ate any," JJ muttered, thinking hard. Jack’s early life was almost a closed book to him now, with only the faintest wisps of memory remaining. The liver incident he didn’t recall at all.

"He did," Joe insisted.

"Couldn’t have," JJ said, warming to the battle. "I would like liver and I don’t."

"You sure?" Joe asked.

The last time I ate it I hurled all over Mrs. Tomlinson’s shoes," JJ said. "I was so sick that Jack had to take me to Emergency."

"Then perhaps it wasn’t the liver," Joe said.

"Oh it was the liver all right," JJ said. "I got into serious shit for neglecting to tell the canteen that I was allergic to it, but hey, I didn’t know." JJ grimaced. "I was just a newly cloned kiddy, I mean, how was I meant to know?"

"You’re allergic to it?" Joe asked.

JJ nodded, long fingers idly playing with a paperclip. "That’s why Jack couldn’t possibly have eaten that liver and onions, cos he would have the same reaction."

"But he didn’t," Joe said. "Not even when he was your age."

JJ’s eyes met his, surprise in their depths. "But I’m cloned," he whispered.

Joe gave the young man a long look, trying desperately to think of something to wise to say. "God works in mysterious ways," he finally murmured.

"Who are we to even try to understand? Just try to live out your life the best you can and leave the intricate details to Him, okay?"

As expected, JJ’s eyes narrowed, as Jack’s would have done when faced with a similar situation where religion was involved.

"I prefer to handle the intricate details as well if you don’t mind," he said stiffly, sounding so like Jack that Joe just had to smile.

"If you insist," he murmured. "I’m sure God won’t mind."

JJ gave a thin smile. "I doubt that…"

Just about then the door slammed open, interrupting whatever JJ was going to say. It was Teal’c, accompanied by two breathless SF types.

"T-man?" JJ was off his chair and heading towards Teal’c within seconds. "What’s wrong?"

"SG’s 3, 5 and 12 are due to return shortly," Teal’c said in his deep voice. "Would you care to accompany me to the briefing room to wait in the interim?"

"We would love to," Joe said warmly, glancing towards JJ, expecting a fight. He was surprised when there was none. Instead of defiance JJ looked grey.

"Three SG teams?" he whispered. "Three?"

Teal’s eyes met his, sadness in their depths.

"O’Neill is believed to be injured," he said.

…

"Oh boy," Daniel muttered again, his tired voice echoing off the thick hallway walls.

Colonel Reynolds had ordered that that he, Sam and Teal’c rest. The problem with that was that Jack, his team leader and best friend, was in trouble somewhere offworld, Daniel thought sourly.

This made sleeping utterly impossible.

So, sleep far from his mind despite feeling like ‘death warmed up’, he’d snuck into the briefing room and made a bee-line for the coffee.

"Daniel? The raspy voice almost gave him a heart attack until he realized it was Sam.

"Yup," he whispered back, joining her with his mug.

"It’s an interesting fact that navy officers add salt to this" he said, sitting next to her and staring into his dark brew.

"Too many years on too many ships," she replied. "Finally they accepted the salt as normal."

"Or maybe they’re just as insane, like our Marines," Daniel commented, getting a small smile in return.

She looked really wrecked. Her skin was mottled and her hair hung limply and Daniel swore that if Reynolds saw her at that moment he would clap her in irons and then sedate her, just to force her to sleep.

"You look exhausted," she murmured, making him smile.

"You should talk," he replied, noticing the far door slowly opening. He really should warn her that someone was coming but he was just too tired.

"God, it’s the night of the living dead," a young but familiar voice said. JJ bounded into the room making Daniel groan.

"Got a zat handy?" he asked, looking at Sam.

"My Beretta’s in the armory," she said, glaring at the freshly scrubbed JJ.

"Perhaps if you asked Teal’c nicely for his staff weapon…"

"He would say no," Joe said, deliberately sitting in Jack’s chair. He had been in the briefing room plenty of times but this was the first time that Jack had been absent. It was weird, as if the very walls had soaked in his personality and they too were missing him.

He nodded his thanks as Teal’c silently placed a cup of coffee in front of him.

"Now what?" he asked, staring down at the silent gate.

"We wait and pray that Colonel Reynolds doesn’t spot us up here," Carter said.

"That him?" Joe asked, pointing down the stairwell at a tall sandy haired man with a sharp nose. He was glaring up at them and looked annoyed.

"Oh damn," Carter said, straightening in her chair. As the only Air Force officer in the room it would be her that he yelled at.

"I’m toast," she moaned, hearing his footsteps ascend the metal staircase.

"Not necessarily," Joe said gently. He looked around at Jack’s beloved SG1, Sam, Daniel, Teal’c and now the new addition to Jack’s family, JJ.

They all looked as stressed as hell and were praying for a miracle. Well, perhaps he could help speed that miracle along.

Colonel Reynolds’s voice was a low silky hiss. "Didn’t I order you to get some sleep Colonel?"

Carter stumbled to her feet, almost falling. Yes sir, you did," she said miserably. Her eyes slid to the gate. "It’s just…"

"I am conducting a prayer session," Joe said calmly, aware of everyone looking at him in surprise. "This I have graciously volunteered to do, not only to help Colonel Carter spiritually, but also her team as well as young JJ O’Neill, all of whom are suffering at present."

He straightened in his chair and nodded at the silent gate. "My brother is lost Colonel, and I as a Catholic priest can only do what I am able, and that is to pray for his safe return." He gave Reynolds a thin smile. "You are more than welcome to join us if you wish."

Reynolds turned a beet red and Joe was hard pressed not to laugh. JJ unfortunately lost the fight, necessitating Teal’c rap him smartly over the knuckles.

"Err, no thank you Father," he said, hastily backing away towards the staircase. He waved a weak hand at Carter. "Carry on Colonel."

With that he was gone and Carter sat back down with a grin. "Brilliant Joe," she breathed. "What a fantastic excuse."

Joe fished out his bible, looking at her meaningfully.

He so loved a trapped audience.

"Who said it was an excuse?" he asked.

Just then, as she was trying to wriggle out of being force fed spiritual guidance, the klaxons blared.

Jack was coming home.

…

"Incoming traveler, Incoming traveler!" Walters yelled. "ID is confirmed. It’s SG12 sirs and they are coming in hot!"

That was all JJ needed to hear. Ignoring the yells for him to wait he was off like a shot. The metal staircase stairs were taken two at a time and he had almost made it through the control room before Teal’c caught up to him, trapping him against the floor in strong arms.

"He may have succumbed, young O’Neill," he said, ignoring JJ’s hoarse yells.

He waited patiently for JJ to stop struggling before speaking again. "If he has indeed succumbed, or is in danger of doing so, I believe he would not be pleased for you to see him in such a condition."

"But!" JJ said desperately.

""But’ nothing," Teal’c said calmly. He swiftly rolled to his feet, leaving JJ where he lay.

"But," JJ said again, desperately searching for words and finding none.

"’But’ nothing JJ!," Joe said.

He squatted next to JJ, his usual benign expression grave. "This is Jack we are talking about," he said. "Put yourself in his shoes."

JJ nodded, all the fight going out of him. Jack would hate for anybody to see him hurt, especially those people close to him. How could he have been so stupid?

"Go Joe," he whispered, feeling treacherous teenage tears at the back of his throat. No SG team had yet made an appearance but Joe might still be needed.

As a priest he was able to administer last rites.

"He will be okay son," Reynolds said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

JJ angrily shook it off, accepting Teal’c’s hand and being effortlessly pulled to his feet.

"For an old guy you sure can run fast," he muttered, seeing the amusement flare in Teal’c’s eyes. He was suddenly pulled into a deep bear hug.

"For a clone you sure can be dense," Teal’c muttered before releasing him.

"Hey, neat syntax T-man," JJ said, the tears now closer than before. He stared down at the gateroom floor, trying not to blink.

"If you had actually reached the gateroom floor your own life could have been in severe jeopardy," Teal’c lectured gently standing shoulder to shoulder with his young charge. "Are not the SG teams returning from Yu’s heavily guarded planet?"

JJ nodded, feeling like he was getting a parental dressing down.

Perhaps in Teal’c’s eyes he was.

"Then is it not logical to assume that these returning SG teams will have considerable staff weapons fire following them through when they finally do exit the wormhole?"

"Lord, I hope not," Daniel said from somewhere nearby.

"If my synopsis is correct and you had indeed succeeded in your foolish and childlike quest to reach your destination you could have been severely wounded," Teal’c said, ignoring Daniel’s comment.

"I didn’t, okay?" JJ said through gritted teeth.

The wormhole had finally snapped to life and everything was now bathed in its silvery blue light.

He staggered away, aware of the frantic commotion behind him but unable to leave.

Thankfully everyone seemed to realize this and he was left alone.

Sam had disappeared behind some computer bank and Joe had finally made it to the floor, squatting behind a heavily shielded soldier, bible in hand. That left just himself, Daniel and Teal’c to stare into the fathomless wormhole and wonder just what the heck was happening on the other side.

…

It had been a long five minutes, Van Ryn thought bitterly, hearing O’Neill slowly losing the fight to live. Each breath was shallower than the last. He looked waxen and still now, as if death had already taken him.

Finally Ferretti was back, now completely covered from head to toe in black mud.

"Sixty seconds Zack," he warned.

His words were drowned out as SG 3 and 12 opened up with everything they had, the very ground vibrating and sending tiny sods of mud dancing into the air only to be sucked into the open wormhole. Ferretti rose and held up his hand. He was aware that he made quite a silhouette against the open wormhole, but really, just how accurate were those staff weapons in the hands of running Jaffa anyway?

"Ten seconds," he yelled, watching as the soldiers tasked with O’Neill’s care tensed up.

"Five," he snapped, clicking his P90 to full auto and firing wildly into the darkness. The rest of SG3 followed his lead and did the same, followed by SG 12. They would, after all, have to account for bullets used anyway, so they might as well make it everything they had.

The Jaffa hadn’t been expecting such a violent reaction, and Ferretti had the satisfaction of seeing them spinning into the ground like marionettes with their strings cut.

"Go," he yelled, aware that they had created a rare window of opportunity to leave this accursed place unscathed.

He grabbed the nearest soldier and shoved him into the flux. "Go, GO. GO!"

…

As so often happened, the gateroom turned from controlled chaos to hysterical action in the blink of an eye.

People came flying through the wormhole, clattering down the metal ramp with shoulders hunched and weapons held away from their bodies, signifying to the waiting Special Forces soldiers that their colleagues had their fingers off of the triggers.

The last thing anyone wanted was to be killed by friendly fire and such actions were appreciated and absolutely necessary.

They dived to the concrete to each side of the gate, clearing the way for their most important charge, the General.

Then with a sharp sucking sound he was through and a muddy figure looking vaguely like Lou Ferretti was yelling up at the control room.

"The iris," he yelped as a staff weapons blast seared a parting through his hair, actually setting it on fire for a moment. "Close the damned…"

His sentence died as the iris slid closed with a welcome grating sound.

Like someone clicking a switch it was all over, and this time there was no stopping a determined seventeen year old.

…

Jack!

Okay, this was weird. He seemed to be surrounded by a lot of people, all yelling their heads off. Frowning mightily, Jack strained to open his eyes, trying to see what was happening but they refused to budge.

Ah well, at least he could breathe easier and he wasn’t so cold anymore.

"Out of my way. MOVE people!"

Ah that was the new doctor, the one JJ hated so much. Unsurprising really, seeing as he was going steady with Cassie.

Cassie. The little girl he once knew had blossomed under JJ’s attentive care and despite his initial reservations; he couldn’t wait to see them married one day.

Man, just when had things gotten so bizarre?

"Why is he smiling like that?"

"I don’t know." That sounded just like Zakka. "I also feel that it isn’t good." His voice took on an urgent, almost desperate air. "We need to get him into the infirmary like yesterday."

"The elevator is going as fast as it is able, doctor," someone commented.

"I know," Zack said. "But it still isn’t fast enough."

…

"He’ll be fine son."

JJ scowled ferociously, dropping his spoon into his congealed soup.

They had been totally banned from the infirmary until Jack’s condition was assessed so he and the rest of SG1 had retreated to the next best place, the canteen.

In hindsight it had been a mistake because it was way to public a place.

"The next person who ruffles my hair and then proceeds to tell me that is gonna have his hand torn off and handed to them," he growled.

"Feelin’ pissed?"

JJ glared at a freshly scrubbed Lou Ferretti. "Hell no," he said sarcastically. "I mean, why should I take the fact that I had the infirmary door slammed in my face as a personal insult?"

He shoved the mess he had been trying to eat away from him, watching as Teal’c silently rose and returned it to the counter.

"There is death in that room as well as Jack," Ferretti said after a moment’s hesitation. He traded glances with Sam, Daniel and the returning Teal’c, obviously weighing up his words.

"I’m not a child," JJ snapped.

"But you are," Teal’c said. "Despite your circumstances of life, you are a child." He placed a full glass of milk in front of JJ, a glass he automatically took.

"Perhaps physically yes," JJ reluctantly conceded. "Mentally I am not so innocent." He looked at Ferretti imploringly.

"Please, just tell me what you can, okay?"

He sighed with relief when the dark haired man nodded. "Last seen, Jack was still alive."

JJ nodded, taking a slow even breath.

"But it is touch and go."

"That’s why Joe is there and not here," JJ whispered. He looked at the tablecloth, feeling numb.

"That, and the fact that we didn’t get out unscathed ourselves," Ferretti said.

JJ looked up, shocked. "What happened?" He noted the others around the table also looked shocked. This was news to them too.

"My father?" Carter asked.

Ferretti gave her a smile. "He’s fine, albeit a bit muddy. I got scraped off first cos of the head wound." For the first time they noticed the acrid burnt hair smell that seemed to hang round Ferretti like a cloud.

"Bad?" Daniel asked. It was hard to tell with Ferretti’s tightly curled locks.

"Blistered only," he shrugged. "A couple of inches lower and I would have gone the same way as Paul Collier."

Daniel gave a hiss. "Dead?"

Ferretti gave a twisted grin. "Yeah."

"SG5’s paramedic?" Carter asked.

"Yeah," Ferretti said again. "That informant weasel tried to run for it and Collier tried to stop him. They both collected it."

"Damn," Carter said.

"Collier yeah," Ferretti said.

"The weasel no."

"When can we see Jack?" JJ said abruptly.

Ferretti gave him a long look. "When the dead are taken to the morgue and the blood is mopped up. When the wounded are cared for and everyone is checked over, then you can check on Jack."

"But he may be dying," JJ whined. He stared critically at an overhead vent. "Perhaps I could…"

"You even try and I swear I will have an SF slap you in chains," Ferretti snapped, annoyed. He glared at Carter. "God, this kid is annoying."

"He’s Jack, aged seventeen," she shrugged, daintily sipping at her coffee.

"The way he’s going he’ll never make legal age," Ferretti growled and for the first time in his young life JJ actually felt frightened. Not only did Ferretti look as if he could kill him where he stood, he also looked exhausted. In fact they all did, and here he was, bright eyed and bushy tailed and acting like an obnoxious kid. They were Jack’s friends too and although they should all be in bed, they too were awaiting any word from the doctors just like he was. Feeling properly chagrined, JJ rose to his feet and fetched Ferretti a cup of strong black coffee.

"Sorry," he said quietly.

"That’s okay," Ferretti said, taking the peace offering for what it was. He ran an exhausted hand over his face and moaned aloud.

"I’m too old for this shit," he said.

"Ancient," JJ said, a small grin on his face.

""Nah," Ferretti said seeing the joke. "You’re the Ancient. I’m just too old."

Daniel stiffened as he spotted Reynolds heading for their table. Ferretti was the only one of their inner circle who knew JJ for what he was and that’s they way they preferred it to remain. "Heads up," he said quietly.

"How is he?" JJ asked, having spotted Reynolds as soon as he entered the canteen.

"Still unconscious son," the Colonel said. He stole a breadstick from the middle of the table, eating it hungrily as if that was the only thing he had had to eat that day, seeing as running the SGC at that time was a full time occupation - perhaps it was.

JJ widened his eyes, laying on the harmless teenager act.

"Can I see him?"

Reynolds scowled. "No."

"Please?"

Reynolds looked at the others for help, they were all studiously looking elsewhere apart from Teal’c and he was no help.

"No."

JJ tried to look pathetic. "But he’s all I have. I just want to see if he’s okay. Is that too much to ask?"

Reynolds tried a different tack. "I’m sure he’s okay son," he said, ruffling his hair.

"You don’t know?" JJ said, contriving to look outraged. He stood, sending his plastic chair flying.

"How can you not know? Jack could be dying in there!"

All of a sudden the enormity of what he just said registered and he had to swallow a lump in his throat. Heaven forbid, he thought, trading glances with the others.

Heaven forbid!.

All of a sudden he needed Joe as much as he needed Jack.

"Go," Reynolds said, finally caving. "Any problems, just tell them I authorized it."

"Yes sir," JJ yelled, off like a shot.

…

"Jack?"

‘Nobody home’, Jack thought, hearing the voice echo around the inside of his skull.

"I know you’re in there," the annoying and somehow familiar voice said.

Someone shook his arm, the force of it rocking his entire body.

"Mister O’Neill," an unfamiliar voice snapped. "If you don’t sit down right now I will ban you from the infirmary, Colonel or no Colonel."

"Yes ma’am," the voice said sounding surly, the tone making Jack smile inwardly.

JJ.

It was JJ and he was okay.

Thank God.

"You die on me and the truck’s mine," JJ said softly, his voice a harsh hiss.

Had he ever been that bad at seventeen?

Worse, he recalled, feeling cold.

Far, far worse.

The hiss was back. "I’m telling you, you die on me and I’ll personally…" the voice caught in a sob.

"Oh come on Jack." JJ was shaking his shoulder again but as hard as he tried Jack could not open his eyes.

"Mister O’Neill." The voice was back. "What did I tell you?"

"But he looks dead." JJ was reduced to whining, which was highly amusing.

"And he’s smiling," JJ said, "which is really weird."

"He’s fighting off a drug that’s been introduced into his system," the voice said, unbending slightly.

"Such strange things are common."

"Addictive?" JJ sounded alarmed, and with good reason.

The woman’s voice softened. "I know your dad’s history, and no, it’s not addictive."

JJ still wasn’t mollified. "Then why’s he breathing so hard?"

The voice was patient. "He also has a broken nose and a viral infection, an infection which unfortunately we cannot treat until we find out the properties of the drug he’s been given."

Oh fun, Jack thought drowsily. He tried again to open his eyes, feeling more alert with each passing minute but there was nothing doing.

"So now what?" JJ asked, sounding exactly like a teenager should sound.

"Now we wait," the unknown female said patiently. "And watch closely."

"I can do that," JJ said hopefully.

"I know you can," the unknown voice said warmly. The new doctor?

A nurse?

"Can I stay then?"

"As long as you’re quiet."

Oh crap, Jack thought gloomily. Now I’m in trouble.

…

"Joe?"

It had been a very long day, and Joe O’Neill was tired beyond belief. Sitting slumped in his office chair with the lights off he tried to pray. It was difficult. No matter how many times he saw it, and he had seen it plenty of times since he had agreed to take this damn job, he could never get used to the sheer carnage a staff weapon could do to a human being. That poor kid. His mother had been contacted and informed of the news and to make matters worse, if that was remotely possible, they couldn’t even show her the body.

Holy Mother Mary, it had been a bad day all round. At least Jack was still alive. At least he had that.

"Father Joseph?"

"Yes my son?" Joe muttered, his response automatic, and then scowling when Daniel grinned.

"Food?"

Uncharitable thoughts of violence towards Danny Boy were shelved when his stomach growled. What was the time anyway?

"Does that answer your question?" he said, groaning when Daniel pulled him to his feet. "What’s on the menu?"

"Mystery chicken," Daniel said.

"Still?"

"Perhaps not," Daniel said, looking at his watch.

…

"The eighth dynasty, 2200-2160BC was called the first intermediate period."

JJ peered over his book at Jack’s still form. It had been hours now and so far there was no change, but he was betting on something soon. For some mysterious reason Jack hated Egyptology, which was really weird because JJ loved it.

Surreptitiously stretching on the small plastic chair he had been given, JJ tried not to yawn despite it being the early hours of the morning. If he did that, he would be kicked out and JJ had no intentions of moving any time soon.

"The kings were based at Memphis - not in Tennessee but in Egypt - and ruled the surrounding area. The delta was occupied by invaders, described as Asiatics by the Egyptians, who had come across the Sinai."

Nurse Hami, a willowy raven-haired nurse edged closer, her hands busy with Jack’s IV but her eyes on him.

"Egyptology?" she asked.

He nodded, appreciating her long legs.

"My granddaddy was from Jordan," she volunteered, sending him a smoldering glance that curled his toenails.

"Sweet," he said as she walked off.

"Nice legs," a hoarse voice said. "Pity you’re spoken for."

JJ turned back to the bed, not bothering to hide his relief. "You’re awake," he breathed.

Jack frowned. "No," he said sarcastically.

"What makes you think that?"

The bloodshot eyes," JJ fired back.

"The tiny weeny eency weency pupils." He demonstrated using his thumb and first finger, making Jack snort.

Jack contrived to look offended.

"Hey, I would still be asleep if it wasn’t for some idiot talking about the Sinai desert or somewhere. It was most distressing."

"T’was I," JJ said, thumping Daniel’s borrowed book to his chest.

"Are you sure you’re part of me?" Jack murmured, smiling at the returning nurse.

Nurse Rashieda Hami he thought her name was.

"Last time I checked, yes," JJ grinned.

"Glad you’re still around," Jack mumbled. He was fading fast but had something important to say first.

"I thought those Jaffa on the mountain had…"

"I came down a bit too fast and broke my wrist," JJ said. "That’s all."

Jack’s eyes were glazed slits now, his lips barely moving. "Glad. Precious …"

"You’re precious to me too," JJ whispered to the sleeping man, moving one arm and snuggling in close.

"Very precious indeed."

***

"I cannot believe you passed up the chance of taking out two Goa’uld just to rescue me." Jack stared deep into the flames, ignoring the blackening steaks.

"I made a combat assessment," Lou Ferretti said, deftly flipping the meat onto a convenient platter. "I felt that you alive was more valuable than them dead."

"Well, it was the wrong assessment," Jack snarled, totally ignoring Ferretti's bad syntax - always a warning sign.

"No, it was the correct assessment." JJ said quietly, flinching as Jack literally whirled around to glare at him.

He had seen Jack annoyed before but this was worse than he had ever seen him.

The barbeque had been Daniel’s idea, a kind of surprise welcome home party from all who knew him and considered him a friend, which seeing the incredible nature of the job they did, consisted solely of base personnel with the exception of JJ - Cassie too, of course.

Luckily for all it was a pleasant evening which was rather nice seeing as Jack had insisted upon staying on base until well after dark. Thankfully he had finally arrived home, the surprise had been sprung, and now the food was almost ready.

More than ready if one preferred medium rare steak.

"Lou is right," JJ said, refusing to back down. "Deep down in your soul you know that his assessment was spot on."

"No it wasn’t," Jack snapped. "He made a serious error in judgment."

Zack had joined them, silent as a ghost. "No he didn’t," he said firmly. "The SGC would have been vulnerable without you at the helm, and if Baal had taken you…" He stopped when Jack drew in a harsh breath and then continued, bludgeoning his friend with words. "He would have cracked you." His light blue eyes turned to ice "Like an egg."

He jerked his hand up when Jack made to speak, looking almost as annoyed as Jack. "Or he would have snaked you, which would have been infinitely worse."

"But you had a clear shot," Jack said, his eyes like flints in the darkness. "He should have taken them out. If that had included killing me too, so be it."

Ferretti looked at him in horror. "No way," he finally burst out. "Get it in your thick head Jack. We need you."

Jack gave Ferretti a long hard look, finally making the other man gulp audibly. "Sir," he said belatedly, backing down.

Van Ryn wasn’t so accommodating. "What would your death have accomplished?" he grated. "Besides having two dead snakes?"

"It would have made the galaxy a safer place to be," Jack snapped, lowering his voice when people turned to look at them.

"Until the next time," Van Ryn snapped right back. He held up his hand, almost as if he was going to slap Jack but gently gripped his collar instead. "You are not thinking straight," he said, hand shaking as he swallowed his anger.

"If Lou had taken both Baal and Yu out, what would he really have done?" His other hand joined the first and he roughly shook Jack, a bone rattling shake that made it plain that the anger was still there, bubbling just under the surface.

"So, tell me, Professor, what would their deaths really have accomplished?"

Jack took a deep breath, unaware of the attention they were getting. "He…it would have created a power vacuum," he said reluctantly.

"What has history taught us about that?" Van Ryn asked.

"Professor?"

He made it sound like an insult.

"That an imbalance isn’t necessarily a good thing," Jack said softly. "Military tactics 101."

"As a good friend of mine who lectures over at the Air Force Academy could have told you," Van Ryn said with a small sigh.

"I hear he’s good," Carter said softly from the shadows, trying desperately to change the subject.

"He only lectures there part time though."

"You still should have taken them out," Jack said, ignoring her. "I was willing to die. For that, I was willing to die." His words fell into stunned silence.

"You are needed…here," JJ said in a small voice. This was a Jack he had never seen before. A Jack he prayed he would never become. "The SGC needs you. Hell, this planet needs you."

Two identical brown pairs of eyes met and locked, one pair confused, the other completely leeched of any emotion.

"Lord Yu can still be of considerable help to the Tau’ri." Teal’c said carefully from his deep chair next to the fire where he had been all along, watching and waiting patiently for common sense to prevail.

So far there was no evidence of that happening.

He took a measured sip of his mineral water before carefully replacing it back on its wet ring.

"I believe he is to a certain degree sympathetic to the Tau’ri."

"Still?" Jack asked sarcastically. "Get real."

"If nothing else he is very anti Lord Baal right now," Jacob Carter said tiredly. He had been on his own mission for the past week and looked exhausted.

"Intel - sketchy I know but it’s all we have - suggests that Baal killed Yu’s Prime and some say his lover."

"Killeq?" Jack asked, remembering echoes of brightly colored clothes mixed up with pain.

Jacob shrugged. "You’d know better than I would. With our informant dead we have no eyes in his camp anymore."

Jack shrugged, his face unreadable. Even Mackenzie hadn’t been successful in getting him to speak about what had happened during his captivity and privately everyone figured no one ever would.

Jack was like that.

"If you have no informants left on the planet - how do you know that Yu's anti Baal?" Joe asked naively.

"The fact that Baal has annexed his outer worlds might be a big clue," Jacob said dryly. "There’s one hell of a war escalating out there."

"Interesting," Jack drawled, the master tactician suddenly hard at work, anger forgotten.

"I wonder what Yu would say if I gave him some help in his battle."

"Like some heavily armed SG units?" Ferretti asked.

"You just say the word."

"Nah," Jack said thoughtfully. "Pentagon would never go for it. A truckload of C4 on the other hand…"

His face took on a wolfish expression; an expression Ferretti mirrored exactly - two old friends once more on the same wavelength.

JJ saw this and sighed, remembering faint echoes of days long gone.

Sometimes old memories could be so confusing.

Van Ryn heard the sigh, and rare for him, completely misinterpreted it.

"I know how you feel kid," he moaned. "All they need from me is my sewing ability."

His levity had the desired effect, making the assembled people on the patio chuckle.

"Foods ready," Daniel yelled from the lounge - then dived for the nearest couch as what looked like an entire football team rushed him.

"That will learn ya," Sam said, smiling at his predicament. "Never stand in the way of hungry SGC people."

She was still smiling when she happened to notice that two people hadn’t joined the food crush. JJ and Jack. They were still sat on the patio, apparently deep in conversation.

"They still have a lot to discuss," Sam said quietly.

"Least of all his dying crack," Daniel said equally as softly.

"When will Jack finally get it through that thick head of his that he is needed?" He thumped his chest, almost dislodging his glasses.

"By all of us."

"The day he dies for sure, I guess," Sam said with a small laugh, "and he gets a state funeral."

"Indeed," Teal’c said from the shadows.

"Even then, after he has crossed over to the afterlife, he still would not understand why he is so revered."

He walked towards them, carrying a tray of empties.

"The fire has died and I was getting cold," he said, the lame excuse accepted without comment.

"Jack needed JJ so badly," she said, lifting a red plastic basin full of dirty glasses.

"Now that he’s here it’s like a gift from the gods."

"God, not gods," Joe said, appearing by her side and gently taking the basin from her, waving off her half hearted protests. He sighed softly, almost a breath of air as he watched the two heads, one light brown the other one silvered grey just like his own.

"Jack needed someone and he was provided."

"A clone?" Daniel said half sarcastically. "What would the Catholic Church say about that?"

Joe turned to him, suddenly as serious as he had ever been. "What would they say?" he asked. "I’ll tell you what they would say. They would consider all the facts, what Jack has done and what JJ can still do, and they would say Bravo!"

"I wonder what they are talking about." Sam asked after a while.

"Hockey scores? The fate of the world? Who knows?" Daniel said, turning away from the window.

"All I know is this. The future of the SGC is sitting out there, and just this once I am not going to disturb them."

"Amen to that," Joe said, giving each of his friends a hug and steering them towards the food.

"Amen to that."

EINDE

..

Beta Tested at 3am on Wednesday 27^th October 2004 by CiGiK

RE-BetaTested  and corrected by CiGiK and Biltong - Wednesday 3rd November 2004