"Daniel...please...I..." The pleading tone tore at Daniel's heart almost as deeply as the earlier words. He wanted to take the older man in his arms, offering the comfort he knew Jack desperately needed. Wanted to assure Jack it was all right, he didn't have to talk, didn't have to think about it. That it was all right to once again shut away the memories causing so much pain but for the sake of his friend Daniel had to remain strong against his own desires, had to push harder.

"It was Nam...not long before we evacuated." Jack was thankful the moon had completed its journey, settling the last blanket of darkness over the land before the sun rose. It was easier if he couldn't see Daniel clearly. He sat with his back to his friend, staring out over the water, his fists clenched against his thighs. As if the entire world was waiting with bated breath, his soft words were the only sounds filling the night air.

"I was flying a chopper, co-pilot for Jimmy Adams, transporting troops and supplies inland and out. For months intell had been coming in about this psycho Major Hai. We'd heard rumors about his torturing and killing captured Americans. He wiped out villages, forcing the men into the army and killing the women and children. Sometimes he dumped them in a mass grave but most of the time he just left them where they fell...He'd have made a great Goa'uld!" Sarcasm had always been O'Neill's best defense against stress.

"We'd just dropped some troops and were on our way back when the damn chopper went down...right in the middle of VC infested jungle. They say any landing you walk away from is a good one...well I walked away with a busted wrist and minor concussion. Jimmy limped away with a broken ankle. We walked the rest of the day, avoiding troops, watching for traps. The pain had to be excruciating but he just kept going. Refusing to give up." 'Just like you. Stubborn to the core.' Funny but he'd never really thought how much Daniel reminded him of Jimmy.

Daniel remained silent as his friend, who couldn't have been more than nineteen, maybe twenty at the time, told of how they were eventually captured by Major Hai. How the man had marched them through the jungle, their arms manacled tightly behind their backs. Jack's haunted eyes traveled to his wrists as if seeing the ropes still cutting into the tender flesh. He refused to feed them or let them sleep, offering only enough water to keep them alive, forcing them to watch the autrocities he committed in the name of war.

"We came to a small village...if that's what you could call it....maybe fifteeen or so families. Just old men, women and a-a-a bunch of kids. He spent most of the afternoon killing them one by one...The...the...babies he put into one of the huts..." His voice was flat, emotionless and Daniel knew his friend was back in that faraway jungle, reliving an experience he'd been helpless to prevent the first time. "He tossed in a grenade and just....walked away. There was nothing we could do but beg him to stop but he just laughed...He laughed....like it was the funniest joke he'd ever heard...Said it just proved how weak we were."

Daniel listened as Jack told how the major had targeted Jimmy first, forcing the man to walk faster than the broken ankle would allow refusing to let Jack help and kicking Jimmy each time he fell. He talked of how they would stop several times a day just for the deranged madman to satisfy his bloodlust if not by killing some hapless civilian than by beating his friend. "It took three days," Jack's voice broke, "three days...to beat Jimmy to death...I-I couldn't help him...I tr-tried but...Less then twenty four hours after Jimmy died, we stumbled across an infantry troop. Most of the VC's were killed but that bastard escaped."

Daniel wiped at the tears streaming down his own cheeks with the back of his hand as Jack lost the struggle to compose himself, giving in to the sobs of despair at his helplessness, his anger and Daniel suspected...at his fear. Still saying nothing, knowing in his heart there was nothing he could say to bring the older man comfort, Daniel simply wrapped his arms around O'Neill's shoulders holding him until his sobs slowly subsided.