Daniel's face fell. His blue eyes widened, his mouth moved but no words came forth. "They're not here?" He finally managed to choke out.

"Would I be asking if they were?" The general pointed out bluntly.

"I-I thought they made it back. I thought..."

"Obviously you thought wrong Doctor." He waved the younger man off the ramp and toward the door. "I'm not sure what happened, but I want a full report on your actions. Meanwhile I suggest you see Dr. Frasier."

Daniel nodded numbly as his legs automatically carried him out into the corridor and down the hallway to the infirmary. People milled by him but he didn't notice. His thoughts were on his teammates. He had thought surely they had escaped in death gliders, or used the transporter rings,...something....anything. It had never even crossed his mind they would not make it back alive. Surely Sam would have known to use the ship's gate to transport home, or somewhere, and then back to the base.

"Dr. Jackson?"

The soft voice and touch on his arm drew his attention to the petite woman beside him. Daniel stared at her for several long moments before uttering, "They're....gone."

"Who Dr. Jackson? Who's gone?" Dr. Janet Fraiser asked gently. She had been so busy in the infirmary running tests on and preparing the people headed to the Alpha site, she hadn't even taken a break to eat.

"Jack,...Sam,....Teal'c....th-they're...gone..." His voice quavered and his lower lip trembled.

Fraiser's breath caught and her face paled. "Sam? Mr. Teal'c Jack...What are you talking about?" Her voice broke with more than emotion on the last name. There was an unspoken feeling for O'Neill which she kept hidden. It had escaped her military facade only once and that was when the colonel had been under the influence of the Touched virus. A shiver coursed through her slight frame. To think that man was gone...and Sam, who had become one of her closest friends. Not to mention the somber Mr. Teal'c.

Janet pushed her own feelings of loss aside and looked up into the young linguist's face. Daniel was in shock, his eyes dull and liveless. Why was he here and they weren't? She had to ask. "What happened, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel stared at her blankly, licking dry lips, his mouth moving for several seconds before any actual words emerged, his voice barely audible in the noisy rush around them. Taking his arm, Janet steered him into the relative quiet of her office and closed the door. With a deep breath, he began again. "We went through the gate to the coordinates I'd brought back from the alternate reality. It was a ship...Klorel's ship. He and Apophis were headed here to destroy Earth and-and Skaara was with him." He gasped aloud. "Oh God! Skaara's dead too." Daniel sagged into her chair and covered his face with his hands, struggling to draw air into lungs constricted in grief.

Janet stepped closer and lay comforting hand on his bowed head, understanding only two of the words he choked out. "...my fault..." Her expression softened as she knelt beside the chair and gently pulled his hands from his tear stained face. "What happened Daniel?" She pressed gently.

The archaeologist rubbed his eyes with the back of his knuckles in a child like gesture which nearly broke her heart. "I...they kidnapped Skaara and transported to the other ship. We'd set C-4 to blow the first one. They figured to crash the ships together and hopefully destroy them both."

"Where were you Daniel?"

"In the corridor. I-I was watching their b-backs. One of the Jaffa shot me....J-Jack came back but-but I-I told him to leave. I told him to leave me...I thought I-I could protect them from a rear attack."

Janet's breath caught once again. Jack's geeky civilian scientist had finally turned into a soldier when it was too late for the colonel to acknowledge it. "And...."

"I managed to make it to the sarcophagus. It-it saved my life. I got out in time to gate to the Alpha site...and then here." Daniel brought tear filled eyes up to stare into hers. "I really, really thought they made it back here okay." He swallowed hard as his voice broke down into a mere whisper. "I really did...I wouldn't have come back....alone." Daniel's blue eyes begged for forgiveness.

"It's all right Daniel."

He jerked from the chair causing it to violently slam back against the cabinets as she tried to sooth him. "NO! It's not all right!...It's NOT!...I let them down!....I lost my team!.....I lost....my...my f-friends!" The last was an anguished cry of grief and heartache. Janet hesitated before quickly moving to one of the cabinets, withdrawing a hypo. Daniel straightened, swiping at his eyes and glaring at her suspiciously as she turned to face him. "What's that for?"

"Just something to help you calm down. It'll let you rest."

"I don't wanna calm down! I don't wanna rest!" He flung his hands in the air expressively. "I gotta find Jack and Sam and Teal'c! I gotta help them...Don't you understand?!" he pleaded, on the ragged edge of losing it completely.

"Yes Daniel, I understand." She moved closer, keeping a soothing tone to her voice. Without warning, her hand darted out and hypo emptied its contents into his arm.

Daniel glared at her, betrayal mixing with tears, shaking his head in a useless attempt to fight the drug now coursing through his system. Staggering, his muscles refusing to obey his command, Daniel tried to pull away as Janet slipped her arms around his waist easing him to the floor. He heard her call for assistance just before blackness completely surrounded him.

Fraiser was called away as the medics carried Daniel to an empty bunk in the far corner. She'd have to mourn her losses later.

Even with her workload, Janet's mind was constantly on the young scientist, glancing at him for any signs of awakening, knowing she would have to face him with the sedative wore off.